Meagan Fisher’s new, simpler, cleaner, brighter, friendlier personal site.

The Turtle Island, a contemporary string quartet, reworks John Coltrane’s masterpiece A Love Supreme. The live performance is available to listen at NPR.

An awesome clip of Eminem freestyling over cha cha cha beat and followed by an uncensored interview. Yes, you could actually cuss on German TV.

Inspired by the critical praises on her recording of Trinh Cong Son’s “Con Tuoi Nao Cho Em,” a simple rendition accompanied by an acoustic picking guitar, Hien Thuc releases Portrait 17, an entire Trinh songbook. Although she is wise enough to pick his less well-known repertoire, she is not smartening up enough to stick with simplicity.

The glossy productions take away the essence of Trinh’s lyricism. The new age vibe on “Chieu Tren Que Huong Toi” is a proof. The electric groove replaces the image of homeland (que huong) with some fantasy planet. Along with the slick r & b beat and Kenny G-style saxophone, her emotionless vocals put “Ve Trong Suoi Nguon” into a lazy afternoon. On the mid-tempo “Niu Tay Nghin Trung,” Tung Duong damn near pushes her off the track.

The turning point of the album is “Cuoi Cung Cho Mot Tinh Yeu” where she returns to acoustic arrangement. The classical-orchestrated “Muon Trung Bien Khoi” would have been exceptional if she could control her breath and eliminated the snoozing sax. The original version of “Con Tuoi Nao Cho Em” is also included as a bonus track. It’s an honest effort, but it is also apparent that Hien Thuc lacks the experience to take Trinh’s music to its fullest. Portrait 17 proves that point.

They look quite creepy.

Expressive nude paintings by Nguyen Kim Dinh

Asia’s latest DVD, Nhat Truong, Tran Thien Thanh 2, depresses the living hell out of me. I can’t get my mind off the image of Bang Tam with her forehead busted open lying in the hospital bed dying while bombs exploding in the background. The entire scene was so disturbing that I wish I didn’t get to it. In fact, I wish I didn’t watch the entire video at all. Now I can’t help feeling deeply sorry for our Vietnamese music.

She is like a cow being trapped in the box allowing Asia and other productions to milk every last drop out of her and preventing her from growing. When was the last time a new, original Vietnamese song was introduced in these videos? Tran Thien Thanh had quite a number of popular tunes and most of them were written in Borolo. Asia didn’t even bother to give them a new arrangement. Sitting through an entire Borolo rhythm with occasional upbeat is quite torturing.

Then again, we can’t really point the figure at these productions. As long as they could sell out their concerts and videos, why not repeating the concept? We need to step up our game before the productions could do their part. It’s all about supplies and demands. Save our music and give her a chance to grow.

What a gorgeous design for Washtenaw Community College.

Eminem and Dr. Dre are back for some “Old Time’s Sake.”

Photographic of Vietnam by Tom Abraham.