I don’t know about the old Thao Trang, but the new Thao Trang comes straight out of Rihanna, noticeably the style and the boy haircut. The New Me is also heading toward pop-r&b direction. The album switches from English to Vietnamese and from dance to slow ballad. The changes of language and tempo from track to track is quite a distraction. Why not just stick to one, preferably English?

Thao Trang’s English is very impressive for a girl living in Viet Nam. Unlike 99% of singers in Viet Nam who sings with heavy Vietlish accent, Thao Trang doesn’t have that issue. In fact, her English is even stronger than her Vietnamese. The lyrics on the title track are mediocre, but you could understand what she’s singing about and the beat is incredibly bouncy. “Superstar Girl” is another cut exclusively for the dance floor. The attitude here is definitely a Rihanna’s influence minus the curses. Yet the strongest connection is on Bollywood-inflected “I am Not Easy,” which sounds like a collaboration between Rihanna and Lil Wayne. Antoneus is unknown to me, but the singing style is coming from Weezy.

Strangely enough, Thao Trang’s Vietnamese tracks fall flat on both production and vocal delivery. She sounds less confidence “Trai Ngang” than “I am Free.” When she combines both languages into one song and the result is a disaster. “Sick of This Love” is a proof: “I am sick of this love / sick of this life / Sau bao cay dang bong nhu nghe long nhu da phai.”

I felt in love with Bitches Brew even before I started getting into Miles Davis’s electric music. Something about the double album that pulls me in every time I listen to it. I still struggle to define what that is despite the countless number of time I had spent with it. When it comes to experiencing the music, all I can do is letting the “Bitches Brew” me and Miles mind-fucks me. Miles knows damn well how to fuck with your mind because he doesn’t just give it straight to your ears. On Bitches Brew in particular, you have to wait patiently to hear Miles. He only plays when he has something to say and when he does he blows your fucking mind. There is no escape route when “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down.”

In celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release, I would like to share my favorite passage from Greg Tate’s “The Electric Miles Part 1” discussing Bitches Brew. Tate writes:

On musical terms though, Bitches Brew is an orchestral marvel because it fuses James Brown’s antiphonal riffing against a metaphoric bass drone with Sly’s minimalist polyrhythmic melodies and electronic sounds. Bitches Brew can also be heard as a devilishly Milesish takeoff on John Coltrane’s spiritual energy music and that music’s saxaphone, percussion, and bass batteries, modal improvs, tone clusters, and yearnings, thus making the double-set rank as an act of comic blasphemy with Richard Pryor’s Preacher routines or with certain African genesis myths in playing prankster with God’s tongue by dragging the heavens back into the province of the vernacular—namely the streets—and the language of the streets, the dozens, sermons made scatologies which find their musical parallel in what funk did to gospel. The streets though aren’t just a funky run of avenues where mom-and-pop stores front for numbers runners and storefront churches pimp for jackleg preachers. They’re also a place of mystery and romance, and given that Miles knows them and their music inside out, it’s not surprising that the melodies on Bitches Brew croon, sway, and reveal themselves like those of such balladeers as Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder—all of those gorgeous melodies and harmonies have yet to overcome the precious corn of Tin Pan Alley in the ears of other improvising composers—excepting Zawinul, Cecil Taylor, and Bennie Maupin, whose overlooked The Jewel in the Lotus ranks beside Miles’s Great Expectations, Weather Report’s Mysterious Traveller, and Cecil’s Solo in channeling the charm of exotic musics into forms which are as tightly knit, free-flowing, and fetchsome as Stevie’s, Smokey’s, Curtis’s, and Marvin’s vocal arrangements.

Although we only knew each other for a short period of time, you left a deep impression in me the very first time we met. You mesmerized me not only with your fantastic designs, but also your deep thoughts behind them. You drawn me in with your soft-spoken words, knowledge of the web and intelligent views on design.

Your purpose to become a designer is something I will never forget: “Life is depressing so I try to make things beautiful.” Your work speaks for itself. For me personally, what inspires me the most was your ability to strike the balance between simplicity and attention to details. I always refer back to your work when I need some design solutions.

Work aside, you were a very private, humble individual. I had learned a great deal from you: only talk when you have something to contribute. Thank you for your wonderful recommendation on LinkedIn. Come to think about it, I have a feeling it was your way of saying goodbye without letting me know what you were going through. I thank you whole-heartedly and may your soul rest in peace. You’re in a better place now and I am sure you’ll make things even more beautiful up there.

After college, I had a temporary job at a local web shop in Lancaster. My main responsibility was taking a Photoshop file from the designer and turned it into HTML using Dreamweaver. I remember slicing up the design and dropped it into the table. The text inside Photoshop looked funny to me, yet I didn’t even realize it was dummy text. I spent time carefully copied and pasted the text into HTML. I read every line, bolded and italicized a certain words just like the original design. After I did all of that, the designer told me it was just fill-up text.

Fooled me once and I hated Lorem Ipsum ever since. Whenever I look at a design with Lorem Ipsum I cringe. The text annoys me and gets very distracting. Since then I never used dummy text on my design. My policy is that I won’t start until I get some content from my clients. I need something to work with because I don’t want to waste my time with texts that don’t make any sense.

When I was asked to redesign something, I would take the contents from the current site to do my design. Without the contents, I can’t do anything. It’s a waste of time to create a blind design. I always ended up reworking the design simply because I have no idea what I was doing from the beginning.

Every time I start a new project, I always stress the important of contents before I start. If you hire me to do the job, you have to care enough about the project to do your part. When I was a still a student, I worked for a guy who had a dream of starting up an underground entertainment site. He didn’t have any content, but hired me to do the job. He sounded passionate about the project so I designed the layout for him. All that he needed to do was providing me the contents. He never did and the site never went live even though he paid for my work.

Six months or so ago, I also landed a contract, but I haven’t started on the project yet because the client never give me any contents. He did paid me the deposit, but I haven’t worked on the site. The guy sounds really nice when he writes me telling me he hasn’t forgotten about the site. He will provide me the contents soon. If this is going on for a long period of time, I’ll just give him the refund and call the whole thing off. We’ll see.

In any rate, this post was inspired by “Lorem Ipsum is Killing Your Designs.” It is so true.

I dropped you off at daycare this morning. Not only you weren’t crying, but you were also smiling. It must be the new haircut I gave you last Friday and the teachers complimented you on it. I didn’t cut your hair really short this time, but gave you a spike on top. Your mom thought it makes you look kind of a badass and she wants to go back to the cute cut. I am still debating about it.

Last Friday, you made me proud. You almost stopped crying when I dropped you off at daycare. When I handed you over to Ms. Meaghan, you scream out twice. She teased you saying that you cried simply because that’s the thing you do in your daily routine. I hope you enjoy your time there.

Ms. Meaghan also told me that you were dancing, clapping and enjoying yourself at the pep rally during school. I could just see in my mind the delightful spirit of yours. I hope you will keep that wonderful joy for the rest of your live. Keep up your lively spirit and be yourself.

You might be small (according to a stranger who complimented that you’re the smallest walking person she had ever seen), but you’re doing really well. I love the way you just wondering around the mall and trying to touch everything you’re curious about. When you grow older, you’ll probably will run into those comments. So be yourself and don’t let anything get into your head.

I don’t have too much experience with kids since you’re my first; therefore, I just go along with what my instinct tells me. I am so happy that you’re actually making my life easier by being curious and willing to try anything. I try to give you any food that you might enjoy and you response by tasting it. Most of the time, you’ll like it. It’s food to try different flavors, my son. You’ll appreciate the richness of food when you get older so continue to to be adventurous.

I apology if I make you listen too much of Miles Davis. I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I do since you don’t seem to complain. Sometimes you uttered the words mimicking the trumpet lines as if you could pick up Miles’s playing. At time you hold the bottle of milk in your hands like you’re holding a horn. How cool is that?

Well son, it’s one in the morning so I better catch some sleep. I will write more for you next time. Love you more and more each day.

On her new release, Tim Lai Giac Mo, Ho Ngoc Ha sounds pretty damn relax for a pop star whose personal life has been caught into the media whirlwind. She delivers each track with such effortless as if she pays no mind to the media circus.

Being a mother could be the reason for the calmness in her. She is more focused and she doesn’t allow the noise breaks her concentration. Even on the heart-aching title track, she just eases back and lets the saxophone does the soaring. Unfortunately, the screeching sax tries to break your eardrum rather than your heart. On the pop-jazz “Tinh Yeu Cua Em,” the sax once again overpowers her raspy voice. Other than the crying sax sounds, the album stays consistent throughout.

Tim Lai Giac Mo is an easy-listening pop album. The opening track, penned herself, is light but catchy. The closing English track should have been dropped. In a live rendition of “Unchain Melody,” she told the audiences to pretend that they all drunk when she sings the tune. I took two shots of Jack Daniel’s and still couldn’t get past her stilted phrasing and mispronunciation.

If Y Phuong’s new release were about global warming, she would have outsold Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. After listening to ten tracks on Mua (rain), I still feel dry and humid. Accompanied by Asia’s draggy productions, Y Phuong puts no effort in making these tunes her own. She sings like a weather reporter: In track one, “Thang 6 Troi Mua,” it’s going to be rain all day, but never did; in track two, “Chieu Mua,” it’s going to be a heavy rain in the evening, but never did; and on we go. Even with the support of Don Ho, Quoc Khanh and Le Nguyen, still no rain.

Dressed up as a woman, Ly Tong approached Dam Vinh Hung to give him some flowers as well as some pepper spray. A clip has been captured and posted on YouTube. As much as I dislike Dam Vinh Hung’s music and wouldn’t paid to see him perform, I sympathize him. He’s standing a very thin line between the two political parties. He is more than just an entertainer. He’s a controversial figure. Still that’s not the reason to be attacked in public. Ly Tong, please stop your stupidity.

Need to catch up on on HTML5 quick? Look no further than Jeremy Keith’s concise HTML5 for Web Designers. Keith also does an excellent job of clarifying the confusions of the new markup.

With clear explanations and demonstrations, Keith walks readers through some of the major developments in HTML5: the simplified approach to markup, the native support of rich media, the handling of form without JavaScript and the addition of new elements.

HTML5 is not the future but the present of the web. Even Steve Jobs has jumped on the bandwagon. If you’re a web designer, you should too and HTML5 for Web Designers, published by A Book Apart (the new Visual QuickStart Guide), will help you get started. Keep an eye on Keith’s blog on HTML5 as well.