Listening to Quang Dũng’s newest record makes me want to smack the sense out of him. What is the purpose? Sure, he wants to give over-sentimental standards (Nhạc Trữ Tình) a try. I get it, but he brings nothing fresh to these bolero ballads. His stiffed delivery, particular in “Tiếng Còi Trong Sương Đêm” (Lê Trực), combined with his lack of emotion and versatility make him sound incredibly stodgy. The trite productions are not helping him either. Released just a week before the holidays, Bài Thơ Không Đoạn Kết has managed to make the list of one of most pointless albums of 2014.

A good overview of implementing responsive design into WordPress templates. Joe Casabona has done an excellent job of balancing the concepts and the codes. He also managed to keep the book brief to help you get started. An essential read for designers who are new to WordPress.

Robert Irwin is the Los Angeles artist whose work has been stripped down to its pure essence: lines, dots, discs, and light. The concept of progressive reduction is fascinating, but I find the reading to be hard to grasp. For one, I don’t know anything about the artist and his art before reading the book. For two, the author, Lawrence Weschler, keeps the narration very conversational. Readers get to hear the story from Irwin’s own voice, but the flow isn’t so smooth.

As for the book design, Sandy Drooker has done an excellent job of combining Adobe Garamond text with Univers display. These two classic typefaces make the reading experience pleasurable. I’ll definitely revisit the book in the future when I learn a bit more about Irwin’s work.

For the final project in Experiential History of Graphic Design, we had to do a post binding with all the class workshops (calligraphy, relief printing, photogram, letterpress, paste-up, screen printing) we had done and our research paper.

Even though the professor had gone through the demo in class and we watched a very useful instructional video, I was extremely nervous. We only had one shot and I am still terrible with handcrafting design. I had to take three days off work before Thanksgiving to focus on this project. The entire process went better than what I had expected. The book was not as perfect as I wanted to be, but it met my satisfaction. I am proud of the final result.

Colophon

The body text in this book is set in Sabon designed by Jan Tschichold. The headings are set in Clarendon designed by Robert Besley. The captions are set in Univers designed by Adrian Frutiger. The book is made by Donny Truong under the guidance of professor Don Starr. The publication is produced in the fall of 2014 as a final project for a course titled Experiential of Graphic Design at The George Mason University’s School of Art.

To keep with the tradition, I want to post the best of Vietnamese albums each year. This year, however, I didn’t get a chance to listen to many albums like I had in the previous years. With my limited selection, I can only list my 10 favorites of 2014.

1. Đức Tuấn – Requiem: From concept to production, this album was crafted with high standard. Đức Tuấn gave his best performance in years.
2. Danh Việt – Chẳng Có Tình Ca: With Danh Việt’s debut, composer-producer Quốc Bảo gives the Vietnamese pop scene the middle finger. It strands away from the current pop trends. All tunes are new and original.
3. Nguyên Hà – Địa Đàng 2: Although Nguyên Hà has a limited vocal range and a few minor issues of enunciation, she is a compelling storyteller. Quốc Bảo recognizes her strength; therefore, he crafts minimal arrangements with generous space for her to tell his tales.
4. Bạch Yến –Hát Tình Ca Lam Phương: The man who has contributed priceless treasures to Vietnamese music deserves an album like this.
5. Phương Vy – Khi Ta 20: This is the album I listened to the most in 2014. It gives a grown-ass man like me nostalgia. Phương Vy and her tasteful, talented musicians reinvigorated the old pop collection by returning to the basics.
6. Thanh Lam & Tùng Dương – Yêu: The best part of Thanh Lam and Tùng Dương’s collaboration is the spellbinding orchestral work. Lê Phi Phi’s elegant, captivating arrangements, which lift the vocalists to a higher level, stand out by themselves.
7. Võ Thiện Thanh – Trung Nguyên Lounge Music: A double set to chill out with. Whether in shopping malls or coffee shops, these two albums will calm your nerves and melt your soul.
8. Nguyên Khang – Tình Hờ: A beautiful ballad album that showcases Nguyên Khang’s mature vocal delivery.
9. Asia Icons – Mai Lệ Huyền: Mad kudos to Brian Morales for his brilliant work of reinterpreting her popular hits in the 60s to 70s and giving them a fresh, new makeover.
10. Bằng Kiều, Thiên Tôn & Đình Bảo – Đời Đá Vàng: Bằng Kiều with a soaring falsetto, Thiên Tôn with a charming tenor, and Đình Bảo with a delightful baritone. Using their various tones and individual strengths, they have found a way to harmonize themselves as a group.

I am proud to launch the new version of I Love Ngoc Lan a few weeks before the holidays and her birthday (December 28). The new design returns to large, beautiful photography. One of the feedbacks from fans is that they alway liked to see their idol every time they pay her a visit. Her photos are now paired up with big, bold, sans-serif typefaces to strengthen the design.

Speaking of typeface, another major change is the body text, which was previously set in Open Sans designed by Steve Matteson. The new layout is set in Adobe Arno Pro designed by Robert Slimbach. The choice was chosen for readability, but also to complement the sans serif faces on the images.

I must admit. I have not spent as much as I should on the site. Doing a redesign once a year is the least I could do to keep Ngoc Lan’s legacy alive. Still miss her dearly after all these years.

I received an offering letter today from the College of Visual and Performing Arts for the position of adjunct faculty. According to the letter I will be teaching Advanced Web Design in the spring of 2015. I took the opportunity to not only updating my online resume, but also recoded the whole page. I scrapped the entire microformats for a much simpler, semantic markup. The whole focus is on typography and hierarchy. I also use Adobe Text Pro and Futura PT Condensed to be consistent with this site. Check it out.

If Việt pop is politic, Minh Tuyết would be the queen of the Republican Party. She only needs to reach her base and no one else. No crime in that. Like many of her previous releases, the title alone lets you know what the album is all about. No crime in that either; however, my main concern is the one group of audience that she is targeting: teenage girls.

Although I don’t have a daughter, the name of the album, Anh Muốn Em Sống Sao, which translated to “How Do You Want Me to Live,” is still alarming to me. Penned by Chi Dân, the tune, which had been performed on Paris By Night 111 by Minh Tuyết and chosen for this album title, shouldn’t be a model for young girls. Telling them “how do you want me to live” is the same as giving up control of their own lives. I have listened to this tune at least a dozen times and Minh Tuyết has made it really damn convincing that she lived every word she sang—whether she truly meant it or through her gift of lyricizing this type of romantic hopelessness.

For me, it’s a guilty pleasure at first, but then I realize it may send a wrong message to innocent teenage girls. Let’s me try to break down the lyrics. The song starts out: “Từ sâu trong đôi mắt này, anh hờ hững không như bao ngày / Phải chăng nơi chốn đây, để anh vội đến và rồi vội đi?” The second line gives the guy the free pass. He could come to her whenever he wanted to and he could go whenever he felt like it. It goes on: “Phải chi anh thấu hiểu, rằng em đã yêu anh rất nhiều? / Nói đi anh người ơi giờ anh muốn em phải sống sao.” Translation: “Please understand that I love you very much / Please tell me how do you want me to live now?” Her own life and future are now depending on this son of a bitch. The next two bars go: “Hạnh phúc đâu dễ kiếm tìm, em vẫn đứng đây chờ anh đi tìm / Lúc anh không còn ai hết, hãy ở yên em sẽ đi kiếm.” Happiness is hard to find and she’s waiting for him to find his. When he can’t find anyone else, she is still there for him. So now we’re telling our girls it’s perfectly fine to be the last choice. The last two bars before the chorus: “Bởi em yêu người vô cớ, vì đã lỡ nhận hết đau buồn / Nói đi anh người ơi giờ anh muốn em phải sống sao?” Interpretation: “Because I love you unconditionally and have received all the distressing / Please tell me how do you want me to live?” The hook gets more depressing:

Anh chỉ đến bên em lúc buồn, vậy những ngày vui anh về nơi đâu?
Anh chỉ đến bên em lúc say, vì hết say anh đâu ở đây.
Anh là ai đi qua chốn này? Còn em là ai trong cuộc đời anh đây?
Nói đi anh người ơi vì sao anh nỡ yêu em như vậy.

He only comes to her when he’s sad and she wonders where he could be when he’s happy. He only comes to her when his ass is drunk. When he’s sober he’s not around. Who is he coming and go and who is she in his life? Now tell me if this song is not disturbing, especially for young girls who are not yet mature enough mentally to see something is really wrong with this relationship.

Why am I being so harsh on Minh Tuyết and not the songwriter? The song is rubbish, but she has the power to bring it to their ears and she chose to do so. This is just the opening song of the album. I have no fortitude to go through the 10 remaining tracks. Whether or not she picked these tunes unconsciously, she will continue to make this type of record as long as her fans continue to buy them.

My wife is usually responsible for walking Đạo to school and picking him up; therefore, I only get to do it when I have a chance at home. When time to go home, he would look to see if one of his family members would come to pick him up. Every time he saw me, his face lid up. He raised his hand proudly to let the teachers know that his daddy had come to pick him up.

Several days before Thanksgiving, I joined him for lunch at school. He was so joyful to see me meeting him up for lunch. As We sat at the round table enjoying the turkey meal with other kids and their parent, one kid sat by himself and cried. He didn’t eat anything. Dao asked, “What was wrong with [the boy’s name]?” His other friend replied, “He’s sad because his…” His mom quickly covered his mouth. I didn’t notice it at first, but was the boy at the table without his parent.

Witnessing that made me realized how important our presence is to our children. We should be with them as much as we can.

Đán loves chicken as much as his daddy; therefore, he always eats the chicken and shares the bones with his daddy.

Yesterday when picking him up from daycare, I gave him a bag of gummy fruit snack and asked him if he could give me one. He replied, “No daddy, you have to drive.” No eat and drive makes perfect sense.

The other night when we were cleaning up some the toys, Đán sang, “Clean up, clean up. Everybody do your share.” It was so beautiful.

One morning we came into class, Lincoln, his best buddy, gave him a hug. Then Sean, another buddy, gave them both a hug. Then the whole class joined in. The teachers and I stood in awe. What a joyful hug fest.

A conversation in Vietnamese between daddy and Đán:
Daddy: Train tiếng Việt là gì?
Đán: Xe lửa.
Daddy: Xe lửa có mấy bánh?
Đán: Xe lửa has no cake.