I had my annual checkup yesterday even though I despise getting a physical exam. The previous one I had was two years ago and the one before that was five or six years apart.

The truth is I really don’t want to know about my health. I don’t want to find out if I have hepatitis, STDs, tuberculosis or any deadly shit. I hate seeing my blood draining into the tubes. One time I almost passed out because I didn’t have anything to eat or drink 12 hours before getting my blood drawn.

Yet the main reason I don’t like getting a check up is when the physician examined my private parts. I never felt comfortable. For the previous two exams, I chose male doctors so that I would not feel embarrassed. When they examined my dick and balls I kept saying to myself, “please, please don’t get hard.” I think I kind of did, which made me think there is some gayness in me.

The last one I chose a female doctor who is in her early 50s to see if I could be less uncomfortable. The moment came when she told me to drop my trousers. She looked away as she rubbed around my private area, but then she still had to peeped at my penis and testicles to see if I am getting any disease. It was extremely awkward, but I didn’t get hard.

Thank goodness, I only have to do this only once a year. I have nothing but respect and sympathy for doctors who have to do this everyday.

Jessica Lee wrote the following line in her high school yearbook:

Fluorine uranium carbon potassium bismuth technetium helium sulfur germanium thulium oxygen neon yttrium.

The quote appears to be a list of chemical elements, but putting the symbols together and they spell out: “Fuck bitches get money.” The line came from “Get Money” by Biggie Smalls and Jr. M.A.F.I.A. I am impressed that a young girl like her knows that joint from Biggie. Read more

“A monster about to come alive again,” Kanye West declares in “On Sight,” an opening track on his sixth studio release Yeezus. Over the heavily distorted synthesizer produced by Daft Punk, Kanye charges on, “Black dick all in your spouse again / And I know she like chocolate men / She got more niggas off than Cochran.” The monster is back and he’s darker, angrier, fouler and hornier than a motherfucker.

The lasciviousness is understandable as Kanye is about to become a father for the first time. To cope with his meltdown during Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy, he lets out all the sexual fantasies in “I’m In It”: “Eating Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce” and “Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign.” He pushes further, “I’m a rap-lick priest / getting head by the nuns.”

If you could get past the ill rhymes, Yeezus is quite striking in term of musical direction. “Black Skinhead” reduces to a hard-hitting bass and powerful marching drums. In fact, the entire album takes on a minimalist approach. Gone are the complex palettes of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the lush orchestration of Late Registration. The stripped-down beats allow more attention to the lyrics and that could be a curse as well, especially with lazy, Cam’ron-like punchlines: “Hey, you remember where we first met? / Okay, I don’t remember where we first met.”

Unlike his previous records, Yeezus is pared down to just ten tracks. In the hand of Rick Rubin, the album is coherently crafted to be experienced as a whole. With the less-is-more productions backing up in-your-fucking-face lyricisms, Kanye once again proves to be one of the most compelling artists who is not afraid to push his music to the next level.

For Father’s Day, my wife treated me to Ngọc Hạ Liveshow’s 10 Năm Sân Khấu, which was held in a small auditorium at Northern Virginia Community College. The show is part of a tour that Ngọc Hạ puts together herself to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her professional career. We left the kids with grandma on a Sunday afternoon to attend the show. I thought it would last about two hours the most and didn’t expect much from it, yet the ran almost four hours and surpassed my expectation.

Under the musical direction of pianist Nguyễn Quang and with the support from her good friends Nguyên Khang and Trần Thái Hòa, Ngọc Hạ gave fans around the Metro Area an unforgettable evening. She brought back so much memories from her successful performances including “Tình Hoài Hương” (Phạm Duy), “Đưa Em Tìm Động Hoa Vàng” (Phạm Duy), “Không Thể Và Có Thể” (Phó Đức Phương) and “Mái Đình Làng Biển” (Nguyễn Cường).

Trần Thái Hòa and Nguyên Khang gave their all as well. The duets between Ngọc Hạ and Trần Thái Hòa on “Kiếp Nào Còn Yêu Nhau” (Phạm Duy) and “Tóc Mai Sợi Vắng Sợi Dài” (Phạm Duy) were exceptional. Likewise the duets between Ngọc Hạ and Nguyên Khang on “Chân Trời Tím” (Trần Thiện Thanh) and “Trở Về Mái Nhà Xưa” (Phạm Duy) were outstanding. The surprise, unexpected duet was “Áo Anh Sứt Chỉ Đường Tà” from Trần Thái Hòa and Nguyên Khang.

Although the show was promoted as “nhạc thính phòng” (intimate music), the only performance that was closest to intimacy was Nguyên Khang’s rendition of “Cô Đơn” (Nguyễn Ánh 9), which accompanied only by piano. The rest of the tunes were backed up by the band, which consist of Nhật Huấn (synth), Nhật Hùng (bass), Nhật Hải (guitar) and Doanh Huỳnh (drums).

What made 10 Năm Sân Khấu a memorable show was that the three established singers are at the top of their game. Pianist Nguyễn Quang also had done an excellent job of holding down the keyboard as well as keeping the band in tuned. I am so glad to see Ngọc Hạ made the necessary investment on the show and it well paid off. If the show comes to a city near you, definitely worth checking out.

For a while now, my RSS reader gets only a few updates a day. Most of the “friends” and personal blogs I had subscribed to either shut down or don’t update anymore. Even the tech and design news, in which I followed to stay up to date, have moved to Twitter.

Blog shows its age even though WordPress is still popular. At the core, WordPress is still a blogging platform, but it is also being used more as a content management system more than a blog. It’s a nostalgia for me to see blogging going away. It has become a part of my digital life. Blogging was never meant to be a popularity thing for me. Proof is that this blog has peaked years ago even before I closed the comment section. I hardly check who visited the site or who read the blog. It doesn’t matter as long as I still have my own space to write, design and learn. It’s the place where I don’t have to please anybody or follow anyone’s instructions.

I disconnected my blog from my Twitter and Facebook. You’ll have to visit this site to see the updates unless you have subscribed to my RSS feed. The blog is not even prominent on the homepage. You have to get past the large banner to get to the blog. The reason is that I don’t want the blog to be the main focus on the homepage and only those who want to read would scroll.

I am not sure how long my blog will last, but it is still alive and kicking for now.

What do you get when a hot pianist and vocalist pays tribute to a cool jazz trumpeter? Tha shiznit. That’s right. Sexy Brazilian Eliane Elias swings hard, drops some mean blues notes and adds some bossa-nova flavors to Chet Baker’s classics on her latest I Thought About You.

The album kicks off with a savory, mid-tempo swing on the title track and Elias’s bluesy licks are just stunning. “There Will Never Be Another You” continues with a striking balance between bossa-nova and up-tempo swing, in which Randy Brecker recreates some of that intoxicating trumpet lines from Baker. The rhythm continues to drive on “This Can’t Be Love” with Marc Johnson holding down the hypnotic bass lines.

Even though Elias is quite a sensational vocalist, her singing takes a backseat to her piano chops. On the slow “Embraceable You,” which set in an elegant Latin rhythm, her keyboard drives her voice more than complementing it. She’s all about the groove, which makes I Thought About You quite an exciting listening experience. Would love to see her live one day.

After all these years Jamie Cullum still sounds like an energetic whippersnapper. His new release Momentum is like the Energizer Bunny on crack: it keeps on going. Once the speedy, snappy “The Same Thing” started, it just doesn’t stop. With his piercing vocals combined with endless poppy loops, Momentum gets annoying rather quick. “Love for $ale” is a $ad-a$$ remake of Cole Porter’s classic. The hip-hop beat, the tacky singing and the elementary rapping make the tune highly irritating. As the album title suggested, Momentum signifies speed but without substance.

If Trịnh Công Sơn is the Vietnamese equivalent of Bob Dylan and Tuấn Ngọc is the Vietnamese equivalent of Frank Sinatra than Hoài Phương is the Vietnamese equivalent of Kenny G. His latest release The Sounds of Love is a testament. He played smooth-ass sax sounds on top of preprogramed arrangements throughout the entire album.

Put on his rendition of “Ước Gì” in a lazy afternoon and you’ll guarantee to get knock the fuck out before the track is over. He plays the melody note for note and falls perfectly on every beat that has been complied. The soprano sax he blows, particularly in “Tiếng Mưa Đêm,” is snore-worthy.

Then again The Sounds of Love is not meant for listeners like me. The album is geared more toward American patrons in Vietnamese restaurants. The silky sound of Vietnamese pop ballads would go well with the westernized Vietnamese dishes.

Cu Đán hể nó thân thiện với ai là nó đứng đối diện với người ấy và nhìn chứ không đụng đậy gì cả. Hôm nọ nó thấy thằng Mỹ con lớn hơn cu Đán vài tháng đang ngồi chơi với ba nó thì cu Đán chạy đến trước mặt thằng nhỏ. Thằng nhỏ cũng hơi ngạc nhiên nên quây sang ba nó. Tôi liền bảo, “Đán, say hi to friend.” Đán vẫy tay thì ông ba cũng bảo thằng con chào lại. Thế là hai đứa chơi với nhau được vài phút.

Hôm kia cu Đán thấy một em Mỹ nhỏ hơn nó một tí đang ngồi trong xe đẩy nó cũng đến gần nhìn. Tôi cũng bảo, “Đán, say hi to friend.” Nó cũng vẫy tay và con bé vẫy tay lại. Nó nhắm con bé đã rồi thì lại bỏ chạy đi chỗ khác.

Cuối tuần vừa qua, cả gia đình đi ăn sinh nhật con của thằng bạn chơi với nhau ở trung học. Đến lúc cả đám con nít đứng vào để chụp hình. Thàng Đạo thì không chịu. Còn thằng Đán thì tôi cũng đưa nó vô đứng chung. Nó liền chạy đến thằng nhỏ bận áo cam và đứng trước mặt. Thằng đó thì lớn hơn nó vài tháng thì phải. Thằng đó nhanh chóng lấy tay đẩy Cu Đán. Cu Đán vẫn đứng yên. Tôi định bảo Cu Đán chào bạn nhưng chưa kịp thì thằng đó đẩy mạnh làm cu Đán bị mất thăng bằng và ngã xuống.

Tất cả cha mẹ điều đứng xung quanh. Tôi liền chạy đến đỡ thằng con mình lên. Còn cha mẹ của thằng đó không lên một tiếng để nhắc nhở thằng con của mình.

Lúc hai cha con trong tiệm bước ra, Đạo nói, “Daddy, I see smoke. Why is there smoke?” Tôi nhắc nó, “Con nói tiếng Việt đi.” Nó hỏi, “Tại sao có khói?” Tôi trả lời rằng, “Thì người ta hút thuốc nên ra khói.” Nó hỏi tiếp, “Daddy, tại sao người ta hút thuốc?” Tôi ngập ngừng chưa biết phải trả lời như thế nào thì nó tự trả lời lấy, “Because người ta bị bệnh.” Tôi mỉm cười trả lời, “Ừ thì chắc là như vậy.”

Nó cũng có lý. Hút thuốc cũng là bệnh mà là bệnh nghiện. Một hồi tôi mới nghỉ ra tại sao nó nói thế. Thì ra là mỗi khi nó bệnh, tôi điều nói với nó là phải uống thuốc nên nó nhớ thuốc là liên quan đến bệnh.