Trần Thái Hoà is apparently very boring. Like many Vietnamese singers, particularly the oversea ones, Trần Thái Hoà has locked himself into a one-dimensional style. He hardly pushes his delivery out of his comfort range, which is quite limit.

What makes his latest release, Quên Đi Tình Yêu Cũ, incredibly dull is that he had chosen a handful of bland ballad including the title track by Trịnh Nam Sơn, “Mùa Đông Sắp Đến” by Đức Huy and “Tình Đã Vụt Bay” by Vũ Tuấn Đức. On top of his song choices, his productions aren’t so exciting either. Even the bluesy vibe on “Một Lần Nào Cho Tôi Gặp Lại Em” (Vũ Thành An) and the Latin flavor on “Tình Đã Vụt Bay” are just yawn-worthy.

The album closer, “Buồn Ơi, Chào Mi” (Nguyễn Ánh 9), is the only track that isn’t so monotonous. Then again, Quên Đi Tình Yêu Cũ is Trần Thái Hoà’s tenth solo release of this same old shit. He must be doing something right.

My goal is to make some changes to Visualgui every year. Despite my crazy schedule, Visualgui for 2014 comes a bit earlier this year since I have a bit of time on my hand while staying in the hospital with my mom. Whenever she fell asleep, I worked on it to pass time.

The focus for this year is the work section. I want to combine everything into one page. My colleauges and professors say that I have way too much crap in my porfolio. Potential employers don’t have time to look at everything. They just want to see my best work. While I completely understand thier perspective, I have no intention of making this site for employers. The work section is not a portfolio. It’s an archive of all my works. Now with just one click, you can see everything in an hierachy. The top hero showcases the most recent projects. The featured section displays the sites I want to highlight. If you want to see more, the three-column are list of works that still exist on the Internet. It could be overwhelming, but I do want to have everything.

In previous designs, I restricted myself to the screenshot of the works. Every time I want to do a redesign, I have to keep the width the same so that I don’t have to recrop each and every screenshots every time. The new work section is do away with all that. Now if I want to do a redesign, I only have to deal with three images.

The new logo is also a huge departure. I am going for a very minimal initial of the V simply because I am getting tired of seeing the word Visualgui. Another reason is that I now have a better understand of branding after taking the two graduate courses this semester on brand and identity. They both were very valueble courses even though they took up so much of my time.

As for typography, I chose Roboto sans for body copy and Roboto Slab for headers. Since they both come from the same designer, big up to Christian Robertson, they complement each other well. In addition, both typefaces support Vietnamese characters.

The new layout isn’t drastically different. I still like the one-column blog for readability. I also do away with comment entirely. I no longer have to include the comment functionality as well as the CSS styling for them. I do thank and appreciate all 17, 047 comments left on this blog. Even though they are no longer available to the public, I still have them for my own muse.

If you still reading and visiting this blog, I hope you enjoy the renovation. I also gave the Strength page a new look. My mom and I need some strength right now.

Mom is still not discharged from the hospital. Her pneumonia is under control, but she is still very weak. Her heartbeat has been irregular; therefore, they still want to monitor her to prevent her from getting a stroke. She’s still coughing quite a bit.

In term of mobility, she could move around a bit with my help or the nurse’s assistance. They are planning on transferring her to a physical rehab facility to work on her strength once she’s discharged from the hospital. The nurses here have been very nice. Some go the extra miles than others.

The technicians come around the clock to draw her blood, take her temperature and pressure and give her respiratory. It’s a bit calmer today. She is just mostly resting. To pass time, I am redesigning this site for 2014. It’s not a complete redesign, but I have been itching to give it some changes.

I am missing my girl and boys quite a bit. Can’t wait to see them soon. Poor Dana having to take care both of them all by herself. Dan is getting quite wild. Last Monday, he broke Eric’s treasures. He destroyed some of the legos Eric had spent so much time to build. When Eric saw what happened, he broke down and cried. I know how much he loves and guards his works and I felt so horrible. As promised to get him to calm down, I took him out last night to buy new set and he picked out one that cost $105. Ouch!

Everyone turns “sến” these days. No crime in that. We all need a bit of over-sentimentalism once in a while. Thiên Kim’s latest release, Xa Vắng, is not a bad record of “sến.” Her simple delivery turns out to be quite effective. She goes for the core emotion rather than the superficial drama.

“Chiều Tây Đô” is a great example. She covers the song in a straightforward manner. No pitch correction nor tonal embellishment was needed. In fact, her voice even cracked at several spots as if she came down with a cold and that is the raw beauty of her delivery. Unfortunately the production is counterintuitive to her voice. The programmed strings and steady percussion work against rather complemented her vocals. The outcome would have been much more compelling if only the picking guitar accompanied her voice. We don’t need to count the beat to figure out it’s a fucking bolero rhythm.

Again, the vocal delivery on both “Phút Cuối” and “Duyên Kiếp” is superb, but the arrangements are so typical of Asia productions. “Tình Lỡ” would have been a better solo piece. Quốc Khanh just doesn’t have the chops for “sến.” The “Lâu Đài Tình Ái” duet is also a mismatch. It feels such a letdown after “Chiều Tây Đô.”

Though her version of “Hận Đồ Bàn” is quite good, it doesn’t stand a chance against Bảo Tuấn rendition. He fucking owns that song like Tuấn Ngọc owns “Riêng Một Góc Trời.”

I am in the hospital with my mom. She’s diagnosed with pneumonia. It’s around 12:25am and she’s talking in her sleep mostly things about my nephew like telling him to wash his hands. She also seems to be talking on the phone with her friend. I asked the nurse if she’s hallucinating, but he doesn’t know for sure since they didn’t give her any morphine. Very strange. I hope she’s ok.

Cuối tuần cả nhà kéo nhau đi thưởng thức hương vị quê hương. Đang hớp tô Phở nóng bổng nhiên thằng Đán la lên, “Đụ mẹ.” Mình ngạc nhiên hỏi lại, “Con nói gì vậy?” Nó lập lại, “Đụ mẹ” rồi đẩy chiếc xe đồ chơi đến mẹ nó. Thì ra là nó muốn nói “Đụng mẹ.” Tôi nhìn má nói cười thầm. Mai mốt muốn chưởi ai tôi sẽ dùng, “Đụng mẹ.” Rồi một lúc sau, nó chỉ tôi và nói “Daddy,” chỉ má nó và nói “Mommy,” còn chỉ anh nó thì nói, “Anh Đéo.” Tôi và mẹ nói cũng bó tay luôn. Thằng này nói tiếng Việt nguy hiểm quá. Người lớn mà nghe được chắc nghỉ rằng ba má nó ở nhà chưởi tục cả ngày.

Đắt Tiền

Hôm nọ sau khi đón hai đứa sau giờ học gặp một anh Việt Nam thu dọn ở trường. Lúc chờ thang máy anh hỏi, “Em gởi hai đứa ở đây hả?” Tôi trả lời, “Dạ anh.” Ảnh nói tiếp, “Chắc em làm nhiều tiền lắm nên mới gởi hai đứa vô đây. Ở đây tiền gởi đắt lắm. Tôi mỉm cười và trả lời, “Không gởi tụi nó vô đây thì quăng tụi nó đi đâu?” Ảnh nói, “Sao không để cho bà nội hay mà ngoại trông.” Tôi trả lời tiếp, “Được thì đả làm rồi.”

There’s a missing voice in 5 Dòng Kẻ’s new record. I had to google it to make sure I didn’t hear it incorrectly. It turns out that Hồng Ngọc had left the group four years ago. When Giáng Son moved on to focus on her writing and teaching, the group didn’t suffer much because Giáng Son was more of a composer than a singer. In fact, its 2007 release Cánh Mặt Trời was a huge leap forward without Giáng Son. The group experimented with new sound and storytelling experience. Their vocals had different range, but they were still harmonious.

With the departure of Hồng Ngọc, the group is losing the rough edges. Hồng Ngọc has a smoky contralto that not only complemented the group’s alto and mezzo-soprano, but also added textures to the entire ensemble. In the new album, Yêu, there’s no evil to contrast the angelic voices of Bảo Lan, Thùy Linh and Lan Hương. Unlike Tự Tình Ca and Cánh Mặt Trời, Yêu lacks the focus of an album concept. The record opens with “Đò Ngang,” which sets in an electronic backdrop that the group had previously explored in Cánh Mặt Trời. “Yêu Trọn Giấc Mơ” is orchestrated in a minimal setting using a string-picking instrument and piano as the main accompaniment. The problem is that the melody isn’t distinctive and dynamic enough to pull through six minutes. “Chạm” is also having the same melodic mundane that leaning toward the powerful-pop-ballad-accompanied-by-a-piano trend.

With the title track, which kicks off the second half of the album, the group switches up to a big beat groove mixed with traditional zither. The fusion is intriguing, but Bảo Lan seems to have a hard time deciding whether the tune should be instrumental or with words. The end result is in between, which is a huge disappointment. She should either ditch the words and incorporate more zither improvisation or make it into a song with lyrics. I kept waiting for the singing to join in, but never did.

“Rơi” is a standout and the group should have taken the dance approach to the entire album. The production is engaging even with the unnecessary rock riff. The clattering percussion starts off for a minute and a half before the singing kicks in. Then the vocals meshed beautifully even without Hồng Ngọc. As the title suggested, “Rơi” is like the group has letting go of everything and just let themselves fall into the music. The chorus is made up of not a catchy hook, but a serious of action words: “nghiêng (tilting), trôi (floating), lao đao (dizzying), mệt nhoài (exhausting), ngã gục (tumbling), rơi (falling), lao đi (fleeing), chạy (running), tìm kiếm (searching), chắp váp (patching) and hoang mang (puzzling).

Bảo Lan once again proves that she can write. The ten tracks on the album comes from her own pen as well as her own musical direction. She is obviously the anchor of the group. Without her, there’s no 5 Dòng Kẻ. Bảo Lan could easily break up the group and do her own things, sort of like what Justine Timberlake had done with ‘N Sync, but she decides to stay with the group is wonderful thing. Even though Yêu is not as successful and coherent as the group’s previous works, it is still an impressive record that’s filled with original compositions. I sincerely wish that the group sticks together and move forward in its own path.

By turning topics that only type nerds appreciate into accessible storytelling, Simon Garfield has written one of the most engaging books about fonts I have read. From “We Don’t Serve Your Type” (the first chapter on Comic Sans) to “The Worse Fonts in the World,” Just My Type is quite entertaining even for folks outside of the typographic geeks.

M.I.A.’s forth release, Matangi, is all over the map. In the first verse of the title track, she literally name-drops countries around the world (from Somalia Bosnia to China Canada). Even the productions are all over the place ranging from Bollywood synthesizing to percussion clattering to bass blasting to Indian chanting to Arabic clubbing. As chaotic as the beats are, they make the album so damn hypnotic to experience.

If you can ignore the lyrics, you can just groove to every track, but that wouldn’t be an M.I.A.’s record. What makes M.I.A. brilliant is that she not only could get your feet stomping, but she could also get your ear to pay “aTENTion.” As an artist, M.I.A is not easy to pin down. In one track, she’s a bad girl who lives fast and dies young. In another, she’s a lady of rage with an afro puff who is “more Jiggy than Will.” Elsewhere she’s a Mathangi who is a “Goddess of word” and who sings “like a whore.”

Sure, Matangi is a hot mess. It’s incoherent, contradicting and frustrating, and yet it is also so compelling, fascinating and engaging at the same time. And that’s what make M.I.A. unique.

With The Marshall Mathers LP 2 Eminem revisits his 2000’s classic that was filled with controversial lyrics ranging from homophobic to misogynistic to straight antagonistic. So now, 13 years later, what has changed?

For once, his attitude toward his mama is more positive. In “Headlights” he even apologizes, “But I’m sorry mama for ‘Cleaning Out My Closet,’ at the time I was angry… That song I no longer play at shows and I cringe every time it’s on the radio.” While he’s still being criticized for his use of “faggots,” he’s not using it in a derogative way toward homosexuals. In “Rap God,” he’s placing the word in the context of a rap contest. In hip-hop battle, which Em was a master at it, your mission is to belittle your opponent.

In retrospect, Em’s narrative hasn’t changed much, particularly in the misogyny territory. In “So Much Better,” he plays off Jay Z’s: “I got 99 problems and the bitch ain’t one / She’s all 99 of ’em I need a machine gun.” In fact, in the past 13 years, he has struggled again and again with fresh contents. From 2004’s Encore to 2009’s Relapse to 2010’s Recovery, he hardly moved beyond his usual targets.

Going into The Marshall Mathers LP 2, I was not expecting Em to change his narrative, even though I hope he would. What makes him still one of the best MCs in the game, however, is his jaw-dropping delivery. He always pushes his craft to the next level. In “God Rap,” he spits rhymes like Usain Bolt for six damn minutes packing in so many syllables per second without slipping a word or missing a beat. Based on his rhyme skills, he earns the title of the “God Rap.”