On the evening of May 26, 2011, I took the Metro home from work just like any ordinary day, except the heat rised above 90 degrees. My final destination was Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Station. I usually waited by the the bus stop on the northside for my wife and son to pick me up, but on that day I waited inside the terminal to hear two young buskers (a male on violin and female on cello) sawing away some classical pieces. While observing their playing, I could hear faithly a trumpet sound from the southside of the terminal.

Fifteen minutes went by and still didn’t see my wife’s car so I walked over to the other side to check out the other busker. The man who was soaking sweat under the sun was in the middle of playing a mid-tempo solo accompanied by a pre-programmed rhythm section coming out of a speaker that was connected to an iPod.

He had a big tone with clean chops that are reminscent of Miles Davis. At the end of the tune, I complimented him, “You have the Miles sound.” He replied, “Thanks. Today is Miles’ birthday.” I was like, “Really?” He nodded his head while dialing his iPod. He went on, “I got some Miles’ tunes for you.” Then he began to play his own interpretion of “Milestones” and “Four.” He also covered a beautiful ballad, “It Never Entered My Mind,” on both muted and open trumpet.

After hearing the three tunes, I wanted to get his CD, but he only had one left. He warned me that the CD is a smooth jazz and he didn’t think a Miles freak like me would enjoy it. I copped it away.

The trumpeter’s name was Freddie Dunn and Longing for the Moon featured most of his original compositions except for Thelonious Monk’s “Monk’s Mood” and Eden Ahbez’s “Nature Boy.” The album opens with “Looking at the Moon.” The soothing, late-night groove indeed suggests a smooth flavor, but Dunn was able to squeeze out some melodic phrases against the pre-arranged beat.

On “VinBev.com,” “Nature Boy” and “Toonin’ In,” Dunn uses the muted tone to create a startling sound that reminded me of what Miles had done on Tutu, one of my personal favorites of Electric Miles. “Toonin’ In,” in particular, is so hauntingly wicked as if his pointed playing was cutting through the urban beat. “Fre-chan” is a sensational collaboration with altoman Eugene Chapman. After the two horn players take turn chopping up the funkified beat, Dunn returns to the slow, relaxing “Monk’s Mood” to showcase his ballad playing.

Dunn was being modest when he told me that Longing for the Moon is a smooth jazz album. Sure the records are lay back and mellow, yet his solos are anything but sleepy or boring. I am so glad that I spotted him.

Dao loves to be wrapped inside Dana. He holds on to her arm any chance he gets. Yesterday he wanted to hold her with both of his hands. Last night he kept crawling onto her body and wanting to be held. Dana was grouchy because he kept waking her up. After three or four times, I kicked her out of the room so she could have an uninterrupted sleep.

When he turned and couldn’t find his mom, he got up and looked for her. I put him back down and stroked his back a bit. He liked it and went back to sleep. He didn’t get up again until the next morning. I guess, we’ll just have to kick mommy out of bed.

Three days ago, we took him to school, he pointed to a Hyundai Tucson and said, “Football xe (car).” I thought that because the Tucson has a rounded shape; therefore, he associated it with a football. Two days ago, I told my sister-in-law what Dao said and she told me that he was referring to the logo that looks like a football. My sister-in-law has a Sonata and he already pointed out to her the “football xe.”

I like the way Dao associates things based on what he knows. I think he’ll be very imaginative when he grows up. We were looking at a children book that has an illustration of a train. When I asked him about the smoke coming out of the train, he said, “popcorn.” Looking at it again, it does look like a popcorn.

We were watching American Idol Finale and Dao wanted to play his Alphabet Train puzzle. He has yet to learn ABC, but I can tell him what animal is next to fit into the puzzle. So if I say “con voi (elephant),” he would look for the elephant piece and put the puzzle together. Because I was distracted by American Idol, I called out the wrong animal. He picked it, but couldn’t fit it into the puzzle. He went back to me and said, “lon roi,” (wrong one).

By the way, our second child is eleven weeks. The doctor said the kid got a big head. I couldn’t tell from looking at the first photo yesterday, but this is getting exciting all over again. Our family will take a week off to enjoy the beach. So hope you all have a nice Memorial weekend.

Today marks our third anniversary. Three years aren’t that long, but the changes have been tremendous. Our relationship has turned from romantic to realistic. Maybe that’s the way marriage works over time. We share the same goals, but not necessarily the same views. We argue at times, but we enjoys each other’s presence. We have our own issues, but we help each other to get by. We go through tough times, but we manage to stay strong. We work hard to build our family.

For the past two years, we devoted our attention on our boy. He has been our challenge, but also our joy. He sometimes makes us upset, but also makes us laugh. He wears us out, but also provides us strength. He gives us the true meaning of responsibility and spontaneity. Our lives never seem to stand still when he’s awake, yet we enjoy every moment of it, and so to make our family even livelier, we will be welcoming a new member by the end of this year. Yes, Dao will have a brother or sister to play with. We are thrilled!

So three years are just the beginning of our journey. The road ahead will not be smooth and we will be facing more tough time, but I am positive that we can get through as long as we stay together and support each other. At this point in my life, nothing is more important than a strong, loving family. Happy anniversary!

With two country-leaning contestants, American Idol Finale should have named Country Idol. So Scotty and Lauren battled it out tonight for 2011 Country Idol. As I had expected, the two went the opposite direction. After watching the show, I find it really hard to cast my vote. From the beginning, I have always rooted for the country boy for his hypnotic cello-like baritone, but tonight, Lauren convinced me on both Carrie Underwood’s and Jimmy Lovine’s pick. Her final performance won my heart. So sorry Scotty, my last vote for the season has to go to Lauren, but then again one vote for American Idol doesn’t really make a different. Now if Haley was up against Lauren, it would have been a very exciting competition.

Poor thang. My future ex-mistress Hoang Thuy Linh has fallen into a sophomore slump. Luu Thien Huong has made an erroneous move by replicating the success of Hoang Thuy Linh’s debut. Dung Voi Vang ended up sounding like leftover junks from the first album.

Dance-pop formula once again applied, but way less effective on Dung Voi Vang. The productions are still high quality, but static even the club joints. The lyrics are banal with no punchlines. The heavy use of Auto-Tune makes Hoang Thuy Linh sounds more like machine than human. It also exposes her weakness: limited range.

Whereas the previous album has three solid, addictive slow jams (“Cam On Vi Da Yeu Em,” “Anh Co Nho Gi” and “Cho Nhau Loi Di Rieng”), this one has none. “Lai Lan Nua” is just slow and boring. On “Em Se La Giac Mo,” she sounds as if she was rather sleeping than singing. The English hook, “I wanna run,” on “Chay Tron” can get really irritating. The closing “Giau” is the only tune that she’s actually feeling the beat.

While we were on the road and a truck passed by, Dao said, “Xe truck chay nhanh” (The truck runs too fast).

As he was crawling down the steps, he stopped and realized that he left his Thomas train upstairs, he said, “Dao quen Thomas roi” (Dao forgot Thomas).

I carried him out to the car and didn’t put his shoes on, Dao said, “Dao mat giay roi” (Dao lost shoes).

Dao sure loves my iPod, but he loves my sister-in-law’s iPad even more. He refers to iPad as “iPod bu” (big)

We were in DSW looking for shoes. He kept wanting to be carried. I took his hands and danced to distract him, but he demanded, “No nhac, no nhay, no dance.”

My sister-in-law, her husband and I took Dao to our friend’s party in Maryland. Dana didn’t feel well so she stayed home. I didn’t really wanted to go without her, but I figure, we should give her a bit of time to herself. During the ride he asked, “Mommy dau roi?” (Where is mommy?) two times before we leave the house and before we leave the party.

Those are what I could recall for this weekend. We also mowed the lawn together. I used to despite cutting the grass, but now doing it with my little boy is actually fun. He apparently loves to mow the lawn with his lawn-mover toy. Dana bought it for him when he started to walk and it is still one of his favorite toys. It’s the best $5 she spent at K-Mart.

Emil Ruder:

Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty. A printed work which cannot be read becomes a product without purpose.

Ruedi Rüegg:

Typography must be regarded as the sum total of various aspects. These concern the content, intention, sender, receiver, language, design, technique and the economic point of view.

Typography is not a free, independent art like painting, sculpture or music but, like architecture and graphic design, it is connected with a definite order. Its aim is the impartial transmission of thoughts, ideas and facts.

With Haley voted off last night, the American Idol Finale won’t be as exciting. Haley has a much wider range than Scotty and Lauren, but most importantly, she is an interpreter of songs. She made the tunes her own with such a sexy, raspy voice. She has sung jazz, pop, neo-soul, country and even rock on the show. Her rendition of “I Who Have Nothing” was phenomenal thanks to Lady Gaga’s psychotic advice. Her version of “House of the Rising Sun” were just hauntingly beautiful, especially the accapella beginning (a great tip from Sheryl Crow). She did a fine job of covering Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” She also rocked out Led Zeppelin’s “What Is And What Should Never Be.” My personal favorite is her take on LeAnn Rimes’s “Blue.”

With the result last night, I won’t be looking forward much to the finale. Both Scotty and Lauren are from two different spectrum. Scotty dominates the low notes while Lauren commands the high register, but they both come down to country music. So the winner depends on which side you prefer. My pick between the two would still be Scotty, but my prediction is still going to be Lauren.

When we got home in the evening yesterday, Dao noticed an army of ants marching in the house. He showed me the spot and said, “Daddy kien (ants).” I took out the vacuum and sucked them up. As I turned off the vacuum, he spotted more ants and said, “More kien.” Once he didn’t see anymore ants, he said, “diet kien roi (got rid of the ants).” After I was done vacuuming, he told me “cat lai (put it away)” and pointed to the closet where I usually keep the vacuum.

He pooped after dinner so I changed his diaper. I opened the diaper and said, “Oh Lord!” Then he kept on repeating “Oh Lord! Oh Lord! Oh Lord!” Ms. Tam as school told us that Dao is like a recorder. He would repeat anything the teachers say so they have to be careful what they say around of him.

Around 9:30 p.m. we tried to get him to sleep, but I wanted to sneak out to watch American Idol (Go, Haley!). Every time I stepped out of the bedroom door, Dao would ask him mom, “Ba dau roi? (Where’s dad?)” It’s very intriguing to hear him say new words almost everyday.