Ao Dai chicks with attitude (via CapriR)

Thanh Lam’s beyond-maudlin singing is inescapable. Her newest acoustic jazz release has only eight tracks, yet it is so damn painful to get through. On Vu Quang Trung’s “Anh Yeu Em,” her moaning and groaning are just unbearable. The way she drags and stresses every word on Duc Huy’s “Mua Dong Sap Den” is hair-raising. Let’s be clear that making some horny noises is not scatting. As much as I like to hear Thanh Lam experimenting jazz, she just doesn’t have the chops for it. The more she tries; the more dreadful she sounds. It might be true that jazz is not in our blood.

The Finance Department gets a new look.

It’s a cool title. I am flattered.

“I was born with a dick in my brain / Fucked in the head / My stepfather said that I sucked in the bed / ‘Til one night he snuck in and said / We’re going out back, I want my dick sucked in the shed,” Eminem rhymes on “Insane.” The dark, disturbing track about child raping off his new release, Relapse, attests that the lyrical monster is back after five years on hiatus.

What had he been doing during those time? After his disappointed Encore, Em spent four years between overdosing and going in and out of rehab. Drug is in his blood and he blames his mom for it: “Valium was in everything food that I ate / The water that I drank fucking peas on my plate / She sprinkled just enough of it the seas in my steak / So everyday I have at least three stomach aches.” Only last year that he returned to rap instead of drug to get high.

Although Em has been away for quite a bit, he proves to be at the top of his game. He never delivers the same way twice and Dr. Dre’s minimal grooves allow him to push his flows and concentrate on his lyrical wit. Still, he wastes way too much rhymes going after celebrities: Mariah Carey on “Bagpipes From Baghdad,” Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears on “Same Song & Dance” and a whole bunch of others on “We Made You.” But then again, a wicked cut like “Underground” testifies that Mr. Mathers still matters. Em is at his best when he spits his anguish and personal experience.

Kim Ki-Duk’s The Isle is sick yet sensual, gross yet gorgeous and eccentric yet erotic. I should have read this before watching the film:

[The Isle] became notorious for being difficult to watch, with stories of viewers vomiting or passing out during the more gruesome scenes when the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Dr. Anh Reiss, an OGBYN in Houston, was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome. Her only chance is through stem cell transplant. She needs a donor who has the same ethnic background, specifically Vietnamese. For more information, visit her Facebook page and watch a short clip about her here. Please help spread the words.

Follow GW Business Twitter or become a fan on Facebook or join both before May 25 and you will be eligible to win a bag of GW School of Business goodies. Current Twitter followers and Facebook fans are automatically entered in the contest.

Trịnh Công Sơn:

Khi người tình cho bạn một tình yêu, thì trong trái ngọt đã có thêm mùi vị của đắng cay. Tình yêu của mẹ là không hề lợi vị. Ở trái tim của mẹ chỉ có sự tràn đầy, không bớt đi hoặc thêm vào gì nửa. Một người tình có thể ác độc với bạn nhưng trong lòng người mẹ chỉ có từ tâm. Sự ác độc mang đến giá băng trong lòng bạn, và chỉ có huỷ diệt chứ không thể làm sinh nở một điều gì tốt lành. Chỉ có ở người mẹ bạn mới có thể tìm được lòng chung thuỷ tuyệt đối. Hãy tin chắc rằng không thể nơi nào có một lòng chung thuỷ như vậy nữa. Bởi vì đối với mẹ, bạn luôn là mục đich đầu tiên và sau cùng.

“Mother’s Day” by Jae Millz

Vuong Dung’s debut, Trai Cam Mat Troi, was awesome, but her new follow-up Dzung is just awful. Whereas the first was a clever concept, the second is all over the place. She ditched her contemporary folks signature for soft, electric pop. Throughout the album she either sounds like Thanh Lam or Ngoc Khue. The album-closer “Son” (an upbeat folk tune written by Duc Nghia) is the only track that she actually sounds like Vuong Dung. It’s a damn shame to see a stallion going down in the pop race.