Truong Cong Dao aka Duke was born on Saturday, April 25th at 1:46 am. He’s 7lbs 1oz and 20″. Both Dana and Duke are doing great.

The laboring was quite an experience and I am so thankful to witness the joy and the pain of birth. Dana started contraction right after I picked her up from work, which was around 5:30pm. We drove home anyway because the contractions were minor. As I finished vacuum my car and got everything ready, Dana’s contractions increased. We called the doctor and he told us to come to the hospital right away.

Dana was already in tremendous pain by the time we checked in, which was around 8:00pm. I felt horrible that she had to bear all these pains and she was only 6cm dilated. The doctor recommended epidural to ease the pain. Dana looked at me and I couldn’t tell her what she should do. I felt her pain, but I was not the one in pain. So the only thing I could do was giving her my support. She agreed to it. After epidural, we waited for four more hours. Thankfully, Dana’s mother, sister and brother-in-law arrived around 9:30 to keep us companied. Around midnight, Dana was 9cm dilated. The doctor started to deliver, but his head hadn’t dropped yet. We waited for another forty-five minutes and if his head still not dropped, the doctor had to go with c-section. Fortunately, his head started to drop. It took a number of times, but Dana had done a great job of pushing him out.

The image of him coming out of her and those first loud cries were the moments that I will never forget. It’s like a personal video that plays over and over again in my head.

With a deep, rich tenor voice and a classy taste, Thuy Vu recorded some of the most romantic ballads on his debut Thang Sau Troi Mua. In fact, my wife and I used his sensational rendition of Ngo Thuy Mien’s “Niem Khuc Cuoi” as a theme song for our wedding. Thang Sau Troi Mua is one of the albums that never grow out of me. I can just come back to it from time to time and still enjoy it.

In his long-waited, second follow-up, Tinh Khuc Thang Sau, Thuy Vu continues into the romantic path, but with a subtle touch of jazz. Dinh Hung and Pham Dinh Chuong’s “Mong Duoi Hoa” gets a bossa nova cover and his lust, cello-like baritone gets me every time. I am not ashamed to confess that I am totally gay for his bluesy take on Tran Thien Thanh’s “Nguoi Yeu Toi Khoc.” He also had done a great job of chucking the schmaltz out of “Lau Dai Tinh Ai” (from Tran Thien Thanh as well). The mid-tempo, funk groove adds a new flavor to the song.

The tempo for Y Van’s “Ao Anh” is a bit too fast. The brushwork behind his bass tone would have created a much better result. The somewhat disappointed track is Ngo Thuy Mien’s “Rieng Mot Goc Troi.” I was not looking for a better than a Tuan Ngoc version, but something completely different. Vocally, they are at the other end of the spectrum, which is good, but the saxophone killed it. Instead of accommodating the voice, the sax fights against it.

Like Thang Sau Troi Mua, Tinh Khuc Thang Sau (he must love June or something) shows Thuy Vu’s passion and admiration for the timeless ballads. He eases back, focuses on the lyrics and lets the sublime arrangements from Dinh Bao do the revitalization.

Like always, I woke up at 6:30 to get ready for work. While ironing my clothes, the doorbell rang. A neighbor informed me that someone smashed into my wife’s car around 6:00 in the morning. It looked as if the dude was driving for the opposite direction and somehow slammed into my wife’s car, which parked right in front of our house. The guy left the scene and his car as well. He did leave his insurance information on my windshield. That’s my birthday present.

Melody Gardot found her love for music after a severe car accident that caused her sensitive to sight and sound as well as left her with short-term memory loss. Since Gardot played the piano before she was hit by an SUV while riding her bicycle, a doctor encouraged her to use music as a form of therapy. Now, Gardot is an outstanding musician with a style of her own.

Gardot’s newest release, My One and Only Thrill, featured exceptional originals and a sensational cover. By wrapping her smoky timbre around the Brazilian rhythm, she gives Harold Arlen’s classic, “Over the Rainbow,” a refreshing flavor. From “Baby I’m a Fool” to “Deep Within the Corners of My Mind” she takes us on a journey of soul-searching and bittersweet introspection through her personal stories and honest deliveries backing up by Vince Mendoza’s lust, wistful orchestration.

Although Gardot’s lack of training in jazz is apparent on her scatting on “If the Stars Were Mine” (the way she rolls her Rs is somewhat irritating), her confidence in experimentation is made up for it. It’s not about technique; it’s about exploration. My One and Only Thrill testifies that if you like Norah Jones, Madeleine Peyroux and Diana Krall, you’ll dig Melody Gardot.

A heartfelt photo series of a bride who died five days after her wedding. Cancer stole her life.

Eminem’s cover for Relapse, his new album, has been revealed. His face is made up of various pills with a prescription label reads “Prescribed by Dr. Dre.” It’s quite a clever concept.

Quach Thanh Danh used to imitate Tuan Ngoc; now he is imitating Manh Dinh. On his fifth solo, Chuyen Hen Ho, the dude gets super wimpy. He sings like a pussy on the title track and dramatizes the shit out of “Ngon Truc Dao,” “Lanh Tron Dem Mua” and other “sen” songs with his campy phrasings. It’s a damn shame to witness such a great potential get sabotaged by the mainstream.

This dude fooled me. It takes me halfway into his debut Chang Trai De Thuong to realize that he is a dude. The title track is quite misleading. At first, I thought the singer was singing about a cute boy, but he actually sings about himself. “Kut Kit” is another track that is impossible to tell it’s a male voice. Move over Bang Kieu, Thanh Duy is the new bitch on the scene.

Just launched a page featuring student video. Portraits by Julie Woodford. Videos by Carl Meyster. Web design by yours truly.

Nguyen Khang is a cool, very down-to-earth fellow. He was quite animated when we talked about music and the Vietnamese music scenes both in Viet Nam and abroad. It was fantastic to hear his side of the whole industry in his wit manner. He showed tremendous admiration for Tuan Ngoc and often spoke highly of him.

In our last conversation, I took him back to his pre-big-production days when he used less technique and more feeling in his singing. From “Chieu Mua Thu Ha Noi” to “Em Oi Ha Noi Pho” to “Da Khuc Cho Tinh Nhan” to the live recording of “Tinh Khuc Thu Nhat,” the rawness in his voice and his unrestrained delivery mesmerized me. His take on the pop hit “Hay Ve Voi Anh” was a phenomenal and yet he cut it in less then ten minutes. At the time Nguyen Khang was fairly new to the game. He was free from all the pressures and all of the burdens. All he had to do was going into the studio and singing his heart out. The producer already picked out the tunes for him.

He felt that Pham Duy’s music is not suited for his voice, yet his version of “Con Chut Gi De Nho” almost put me to tear. I was driving home from work one day on the cold, lonely road in Poughkeepsie and the tune struck my chord. The way he phased “Ở đây buổi chiều quanh năm mùa đông” sounded as if he could feel my lonesomeness and despondency at the time. In this icy, miserable place, I was thankful for that special someone, “May mà có em đời còn dễ thương.”

When we walked toward the bar, chicks just came up and kissed him. Despite all the limelight and all the love he gets from the female fans, he is still a very lonesome soul deep inside. Listen to his version of “Tim Ve Chon Hoang Vu” (Bruce Doan and Nguyen Ha) and Pham Duy’s “Tam Su Goi Ve Dau” and you’ll feel him. Enjoy the selection.

P.S. I love you too, man!