“Johnny’s in the basement mixing up the medicine / I’m on the pavement thinking about the government,” Dylan kicks off his fifth release with a rock-up energy and makes a remarkable transition into electric territory in the first half of the album. In the second half, however, he returns to the acoustic for the subliminal “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” and the tearful closing “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”

For two decades, Eric Meyer shared his CSS knowledge to the world. His clear technical writing taught us the skills we needed to make web site. Last year, Eric shared his daughter’s battle with cancer to the world. His thoughtful, courageous writing moved us to tears.

Rebecca lost her life to cancer when she just turned six. Being a father myself, I can’t even begin to imagine what Eric is going through, and yet he gives us a piece of his mind through his blog and his tweets. I could feel his love, grief and pain in every word he has written.

Today Rebecca will be buried. To celebrate Rebecca, I turned my site to purple, her favorite color. Rest in peace, sweet little girl.

I’ve been hooked on Thanh Thao’s non-stop remix jams. Her voice is not that great but she knows how to market herself. She selected songs that suit her style. My favorite ‘Lien Khuc’ is the upbeat track contains songs such as: Ngong Trong, Mat Bo Cau, Trai Tim Dau, and Oi Tinh Yeu. I also love the slow track that includes: Co Quen Duoc Dau, Em Van Cho, and Tam Biet Tinh Yeu. The whole album is hot as hell, though. Saw her at concert in Vietnam two years ago where she first performed ‘Oi Tinh Yeu.’ At that time she wasn’t well-known but I knew right away she would be popular. It didn’t take long for her to blow up.

Released in the same year of the dark, protest-heavy The Times They Are A-Changin’, this album shows the light-hearted, whimsical side of Dylan. Although his singing is bordering irritation at times, you can’t help but laugh your ass off to “Motorpsycho Nightmare.”
Another Side reveals Dylan at his most personal, vulnerable youth.

“Come gather ’round friends / And I’ll tell you a tale,” Dylan starts off “North Country Blues” as if he’s two inches away from you with a guitar on his hands. The raw intimacy, in which Dylan seemed to be more interested in telling stories than singing, captured in this album brings out the bleakness images in disturbing lyricism including “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” “Ballad of Hollis Brown,” “With God on Our Side” and “Only a Pawn in Their Game.” Fifty years after its release, The Times They Are A-Changin’ remains one of the most provocative musical statements on social injustice, class and race.

For the 1963 release of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which goes down in history as a “global phenomenon,” Dylan channels his personal perspective on love, war and racism through an acoustic guitar and a harmonica. In “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” Dylan stripped the accompaniment down to just simple ostinato and focused on his startling lyricism: “I met a white man who walked a black dog / I met a young woman whose body was burning.”

As far back as I can remember, the first time I listen to a Bob Dylan record was in my freshman year in college. One of my roommates had a sizable collection of Dylan’s CDs. I borrowed one, can’t recall which album, for a spin and was unimpressed with his voice. At the time I was not into lyricism and I was not a rock fan. The only rock music I have listened to all these years is Jimi Hendrix’s.

Last week I read the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and learned that Jobs was not only a big fan of Dylan, but he was also using Dylan’s music in his works and quoting Dylan’s lyrics in his presentations. Jobs piqued my interest in Dylan once again. As I searched through my music collection, the only full album I have of Dylan is Highway 61 Revisited. Tim Brown, a former colleague at Vassar College, gave me the album years ago. We shared similar taste in jazz, blues and hip-hop, but I was not into rock.

Upon revisiting Highway 61 in the past couple of days, I still not am impressed with Dylan’s voice—though it is growing on me. The lack of interest in his singing forces me to pay attention to his lyrics. Right off the opening, “Like a Rolling Stone,” Dylan demonstrates his master of storytelling through four concise verses of from-riches-to-rags tales. The chorus of “Tombstone Blues” is already stuck in my head:

Mama’s in the factory
She ain’t got no shoes
Daddy’s in the alley
He’s lookin’ for the fuse
I’m in the streets
With the tombstone blues

Yet the track that epitomizes Dylan’s genius of lyricism is “Desolation Row.” Clocking in over eleven minutes without a chorus, Dylan drops ten verses filled poetic allusion, powerful imagery and countercultural references. By stripping the instrumentation down to just picking acoustic guitar, Dylan gave the song a raw, authentic feel and free of distraction from the lyrics. I am now a fan of Dylan and about to embark on a journey to rediscover his music. I now have two favorite rock musicians: Hendrix and Dylan.

In the introduction of Typefaces for Books, James Sutton and Alan Bartram argue:

While display faces can be extrovert, colourful and rich in character, book faces must be transparent, allowing the reader to hear the author’s voice without distortion or interference.

It is in answering this little question of the author’s voice that the book typographer’s task lies. He must invent an action, a tone, and decide on the volume: should he whisper or shout or sing? whatever he decides he must keep in mind that he is making a window through which the reader can see the view as clearly as possible and be quite unconscious of the proportions of the glazing bars.

A typographic resource, part showcase, part specimen. The book examples are complemented with the authors’s concise criticism. The specimen demonstrations come with various text sizes and line heights. Not all types in the specimen are appropriate for reading text. The book itself is set in Ellington, which is not a friendly for reading typeface either. Nevertheless, the brief historical background of printing and bookmaking is informative.

As we were heading to daycare, Dao greeted his friend Sam. Sam introduced his mother to Dao, “This is my mom.” Dao replied, “But she looks like your grandma.” Luckily she was busy dealing with her access card, which was not working, and didn’t hear what he said. I said to Dao, “Please don’t say that.” But I didn’t explain to him why he shouldn’t. Even though it was not the nice thing to say, he was speaking his mind.

When I was kid, I probably said a lot of things similar, but when my mom was being harsh on me, I lost the confidence of speaking my mind. Years ago, my cousin loved to put together some sort of a talent show whenever we had a family gathering. Each member of the family was encouraged to do something such as singing, dancing or telling jokes. Now that I think about it he had a very good intention. He taped all the video, but I am not sure what he had done with them.

One time, I stood up and told a joke I heard when I was a kid. The joke was that Vietnamese people loved to eat corns without chewing because they could save money by shitting them out, washing them and eating them again. It was a very stupid joke, but most people laughed. The next day I asked my mom what did she think of the joke and she responded in a very snarky way, “You insulted the entire people of Vietnam and I couldn’t find a rock to hide under.” It hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt the goosebumps all over me. From that day on, I refused to participate in anything at family gathering. Her words continued to haunt me even when I went to college and every time I had to do public speaking.

Now I realize that I was stupid and that I made a dumb joke, but it was not the end of the world. I don’t want that to happen to my kids. They should be able to speak their mind and learn from their mistakes, but they shouldn’t be afraid to speak out. Most of the things that they do say are quite adorable. Last week, I was holding lil Han in my arms. Dan ran up to me and demanded, “Daddy, hold me. I want you to take care of me.” It was just so sweet. When grandma sat lil Dan on her lap, Dan wanted to sit on her lap as well and he said, “Grandma, I am a baby too.”

Being a parent, I find it challenging to balance between discipline and freedom and I am horrible at it. I really admire parents who discipline their kids well. I am more on the opposite end; therefore, whenever the child discipline topic comes up, I just listen. I have no advice to give. Some parents believe that you have to be tough with them. Some parents believe you don’t.

I used to spank my kids, particularly Dao, but it was not working so I don’t do it anymore. I improvise in most situation and I am still struggling to set aside my emotion when dealing with them. When I get emotional, I tend to get really mad and I can’t think straight. I just end up shutting myself down. Public humiliation is no longer a big deal to me. If my wife and kids want to humiliate me in public; there is nothing I can do. I know that my wife doesn’t mean it to when she raised her voice at me in public, but after many times of reminding her don’t seem to work, I just let her have it. I just do my part not to embarrass her in front of our family and friends. The kids don’t know any better so I just let them act out whatever they want. Everyone is responsible for his own behavior and I can’t control anyone else’s but my own.

I sympathize with parents whose kids has no kind of respect whatsoever to them. I don’t know their situation so I don’t judge. I highly admire parents whose kids follow their orders. Wow, this is a long rant.