“Open up your legs, girl / I wanna kiss you in your private part,” Mr. sexpert R. Kelly seduces with his authoritative baritone on “Whole Lotta Kisses.” When it comes to sex, Kelly doesn’t afraid to “Go Low” and say how he feels: “For instance, you look like food, I wanna put you on my plate / Suck you up with some biscuits and go on and eat you baby / Up until you make it rain, grab my ears and pull my face / Tonight I’ll be giving you brain.” As he claims on “Like I Do,” there’s only two things that he is best at in this world: music and rock your body. From the club to the bedrooms, Kelly sure lives up to his words. Untitled is another one of Kelly’s “sex sessions.”

In Historicity, jazz-piano virtuoso Vijay Iyer along with bassist Stephan Crump and drummer Marcus Gilmore rework, reconstruct and re-imagine a wide range of repertoire as well as the leader’s original compositions. The trio’s cover of M.I.A.’s “Galang” is an ingenious work of reinterpretation. Iyer flows his jagged melodic lines like Rakim rhyming over hip-hop hard-hitting beat. “Somewhere” is another masterpiece, in which the group completely revived Leonard Bernstein’s classic track from West Side Story with its own reharmonization and unconventional approach. When it comes to Iyer’s original pieces, such as the title track and “Helix,” the band is no less inventive in rhythmic and hormonic structures. Historicity is an artistic statement that sneaks listeners into an uncharted yet accessible territory. A must experience.

Mexican food-chain Chipotle has been our preferred alternative to McDonald’s and Burger King. We dig the taste as well as the quality of the food. My favorite is the Steak Fajita Burrito with all the fresh ingredients including guacamole and fresh tomato salsa. Of course, a glass of margarita is essential in complementing the meal. What I really like about Chipotle is how it takes simple materials and turn them into creative, delicious dishes catering toward each customer’s own preferences. From the architectural design to the menu layout, clean and simplicity reflect the concept behind its food.

The Clipse flips the scripts on the new release, Til The Casket Drops. On the opening track, “Freedom,” Pusha T warns, “Cocaine aside / All of the bloggers behoove / My critics finally have a verse of mine to jerk off to.” Gone are the coke rhymes and startling paranoia that made its critical-success Hell Hath No Fury such mesmerizing guilty pleasures. Back by “Popular Demand,” Malice and Pusha T trade in dark-tale lyricism for lighter, accessible wordplays. Like “Counseling,” which contains an interpolation of Laura Branigan’s “Self Control,” Clipse tries to take its cameo to the club with comical lines such as: “I used be to all about that fat ass / Then I found a cutie with a flat ass / Good hair, nice smile but a flat ass / Two out of three, sure, I couldn’t let that pass.” While Casket shows the less-serious side of the group, its lyrical verses worth listening to, not jerking off to.

What better way to start a New Year than with a new work? The good old folks at Triple Strength just launched Brand3, a blog that focuses on three components integral to creating brands: aesthetics, storytelling and functionality.

My role was lending a hand in turning their gorgeous design into a web blog. Powered by WordPress, I customized the layout according to the client’s mockup and functionalities to suit its needs. The site developed with HTML5 structure and CSS3 for some progressive enhancements. If you don’t see rounded corners, switch to the latest Firefox or Safari. The contents of the blog look promising so make sure to subscribe to its RSS feed.

Working on Brand3 gave me a chance to learn more about PHP and the flexibility of WordPress. Furthermore, it was a opportunity to rework with an agency that I had a great pleasure of working with briefly for before moving to Vassar. Though my time at Triple Strength was only three months, it was a very rewarding experience.

My last week of 2009 was spent entirely with Duke. It was a joyful experience learning how to feed him, how to lull him into sleep, and how to make him laugh. I love feeding him because Cu Dao loves to eat. From brown rice cereal, banana, avocado, apple, butter squash to chicken noodle, it was a great pleasure and accomplishment to see him opened up his mouth and took in every spoonful of nutrition. To my astonishment, Duke cleaned up every dish I cut out for him. I treasured every moment we walked together around the house listening to jazz as well as the quiet time we both fell asleep. Yet, nothing excited more than hearing him said “Ba ba ba…” all day long.

I also got to spend some time with my mom, which I don’t do much these days. The weather had been mostly cold and crappy so we only stayed in the house. I was glad that she played with Cu Dao and away from the kitchen. Every time we went to my sister’s house, we never saw her out of the kitchen. These days my mom and I have lots of differences, but I understand. She hasn’t changed for the last 60 plus years, so she’s not going to change any time soon. She is the hardest person to get a gift for. She would turn anything down cold. This year, I thought I had came up with the best Christmas present for her. I printed out a 30×20 poster with a close-up of her smiling face. I framed it up and everything. The day we got ready to get back to Virginia, she handed me the poster and told me to return it. I was in shock even though I knew she did it unintentionally. I accepted it and will hang it on my wall.

On the bright side, 2009 was quite a year for me. Dana and I owned a house in January. Duke came out in April and continues to rule our world. Despite the recession, I had done quite well in 2009. In addition to my full-time gig at The George Washington School of Business, I took on some contract works, notably the design for Thirsty. More sites will be launched early 2010 as well since I have done my part. It’s up the owner to get them up. I don’t want to set too much expectations for 2010 because I want to improvise as we go along; however, I hope to pick up more web design on the side, spend more time with Duke and maybe a little sibling for him.

I am taking a much-needed break from now until next year. I need to rejuvenate myself and spend time with my family, especially with little Duke. I feel that I have not spent enough time with him. On Christmas day, he will be eight months. Time is flying and Duke is growing up way too fast. I want to enjoy the time while he’s still young.

We will be traveling to New Jersey tonight to be with the in-law side until Friday night then head to Pennsylvania to be with my family. Somehow the schedule has been working out so perfectly that we always Christmas dinner at my in-law on Thursday night and another one at my big family gathering on Saturday night. When my big family (aunts, uncles cousins, nieces and nephews) gets together, the party never ends before 2am. We just eat and talk and eat some more and talk a lot more.

We’ll drive back to Virginia on Sunday because my wife has to go to work. I’ll get to spend more time with Duke then. My mom will also come to stay with us for a week. It’ll be nice to be with her as well.

In any rate, I wish you all a holiday season filled with joy, love, and food. See you all next year for lots of new, exciting stuffs.

Upon listening to Dumbfoundead’s “Bullets of Truth” prompted to cop his debut Fun With Dumb. The track shows this Asian rapper has some serious swag and he could push 100 bars without a pause. His lyricism is also top-notch. Unfortunately, Fun With Dumb is a dumb-down joke. Tracks like “Rapper-O’s,” “Cockblockers,” and “She Don’t Care” are cute, especially with coined terms like “choppy chaser” and “broke digger,” but you just can’t take them earnestly. I was expecting some sort of Eminem’s or Talib Kweli’s quality, but I was getting Ludacris’ comical rhymes instead. Maybe I would have a different expectation if I didn’t come across “Bullets of Truth” first.

After many repeats of watching Dumbfoundead Jet Li-ed his freestyle opponent right on the head during a battle, I went and check out his YouTube channel. Came across a video called “Bullets of Truth” and impressed with his lyrical skills and breathless delivery. The flow is flawless. Also worth checking out his battle with another Asian dude Tantrum (1, 2).

Apparently our home association doesn’t include snow removal. The streets in our complex are filled with 17″ of snow. Dana and I spent about two hours last night shoving our driveway. Our neighbor, an old Chinese couple, were also cleaning their driveway. Actually, it was the first time that I saw the husband came out.

The wife does most of the things around the house including mowing the lawn, taking the trash out twice a week, and obviously shoving the snow. They only had one shovel so she was using a dusk pan plow. She was on her knees. My brother-in-law and I envied him. He sure has it made. His only task outside of the house is going to work and taking their thirteen-year-old girl to school. We hardly see her outside of the house. The wife is very friendly although she doesn’t speak much English.

As for this side of the house, we’re still stuck in, which gives us a chance to get some work done inside the house and get to spend time with Duke. On snow days like these, all that I really want to do is listening to some jazz and drink some cocktails. I just pull out a mixed drink book and start making anything that I have all the right ingredients. It sort of gives me an idea of what goes with what. Gin is favorite spirit right now. I just love the taste of her whether just mixing with tonic water or with Cointreau for some fruity flavor. I also made a Texas Tea last night and it was wonderful. I was suppose to put Duke to sleep, but I ended up snoring before him. I got up and screamed. Luckily he was with grandma in his playroom.