In P.J. O’Rourke’s humorous opinion:

Facebook destroyed “cruising the burger stand.” You could have two Corvettes and drive them both at the same time and not look as cool as you could make yourself look on Facebook. Corvettes come with a lot of accessories, but not Photoshop. And what with e-mailing, tweeting, texting and cell phonery, boys and girls could meet each other at the speed of light.

Iggy Pop turns to jazz standards because he ”just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars.” Although he takes inspiration from Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton, Préliminaires feels more like European pop than jazz. He flips “Les Feuilles Mortes,” one of the most covered jazz ballads, into a nihilistic French romance. On “King of the Dogs,” the only track that comes close to jazz, his low, raspy vocals drown out by the New Orlean jazz band. Dare I say that the Godfather of Punk ain’t got no chops for jazz? Prove me wrong, Mr. Iggy.

Seventeen-year-old Simona Halep is blessed with a pair of 34DD cans and a talent for tennis. Even though her fans, mostly men, beg her not to, she is getting her big, natural breasts reduced. I am sure her boobs have to do with her 264th ranking in the world, but I not so sure if she could advanced into the top 20 after the reduction. While I am in no business of telling her what to do with her body, I challenge her to keep both. With hard work and determination, she could pull it off. Check her out!

How can you tell when an egg is done boiling? I am not sure if you know this trick already, but I just learned it the other day from a my mom’s friend (who learned it from her father) when I boiled a few dozens of hột vịt lộn (balut). For the obvious reasons, you don’t want to undercook or overcook hột vịt lộn.

Before getting to the trick, let me declare that I finally gain back my love for hột vịt lộn. For a period of time, I gave up on hột vịt lộn because of the westerners’ influence and how they have made such a big wuss out of it. A white guy once told me that he couldn’t eat hột vịt lộn because it looks like abortion. That image haunted me for a while. What help me get back to the groove are salt, pepper, lime juice, tons of hot sauce and shots of Patrón. I still can’t eat hột vịt lộn without those ingredients, especially the liquor.

Let’s get back to the egg-boiling trick. My mom’s friend said that if you could pick up the egg with a pair of chopsticks than the egg is ready. Three of us tried it and we all dropped it back into the pot. Half an hour or so later, I picked it up again and I didn’t drop it. It’s a very nifty trick, but I doubt that it would work with many westerners.

Her recent release, Desire, continues to show that Tierney Sutton is a gifted interpreter. She knows how to reinvigorate recognizable songs without losing their authenticity.

The classic “Love Me Or Leave Me” has been covered numerous times by great jazz singers like Lena Horn, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, yet Sutton still isn’t shy away from making it both whimsical and wistful. “Cry Me a River” also gets a sarcastic reinterpretation, which is Sutton’s signature style of singing words while suggesting the contrary. On the slow tempos, “Long Daddy Green” and “Then I’ll Be Tired of You,” Sutton’s phrasings demonstrate her deep appreciation for the passionate lyrics.

In addition to Sutton’s vocal artistry, the key success behind Desire is the backing of the hypnotic rhythm section, which consists of Christian Jacob on piano, Trey Henry/Kevin Axt on bass and particularly Ray Brinker’s pulsating rhythmic on the drums. Check out his double-time chops on “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”

My wife has made a wise choice on the Baby Trend Jogger Travel System. I have been using it for five weeks now and each day I can’t wait to take Duke out for a little ride. Every time I take him out for a jog, he would sleep the whole way through.

As soon as I start to jog, Duke’s eyes begin to close as well. He enjoys the jog more than the walk. With the big back wheels, the stroller runs smoothly even though Duke prefers a little bit rocky. Even when I hit a hump or a pothole, he still sleeps. The nice thing about the big wheels is that I could just pull the stroller up the porch steps without waking him up. Dana and I took him to the mall last weekend and he behaved really well in the stroller until he was hungry or wet.

Space wise, Baby Trend takes up almost the entire Acura’s trunk. Still, folding the stroller is a piece of cake. Just pull the triggers and press down to close. To unfold, just lift up the stroller handle until you hear the clicks. It is very convenience. If you want to take your baby out for a jog or a stroll without breaking your bank, Baby Trend Jogger Travel System is highly recommend it.

Jazz has always been about collaboration. Even if the musicians have never played with each other before, they have to work together as a team to bring out the beauty and the liveliness of jazz. The most challenging aspect of jazz collaboration is not how well each individual play, but how well he plays with his partners despite stylistic differences. How did Ella Fitzgerald’s girlish voice and Louis Armstrong’s gruff voice worked out so marvelously? How did Thelonious Monk’s choppy piano style flow with John Coltrane’s fluid saxophone? How did Chick Corea’s virtuosic piano meet Bela Fleck’s virtuosic banjo? Here is a list of 20 collaborative albums I have enjoyed enormously. The albums are listed in alphabetical order instead of from top to bottom. I cannot put a ranking to these works because it would be like comparing apple to orange:

At Basin Street (Clifford Brown & Max Roach)
The Avant-Garde (John Coltrane & Don Cherry)
Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (Ben Webster & Oscar Peterson)
Corea/Hancock (Chick Corea & Herbie Hancock)
Ella and Louis (Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong)
The Enchantment (Chick Corea & Bela Fleck)
First Time! The Count Meets the Duke (Duke Ellington & Count Basie)
Getz Gilberto (Stan Getz & João Gilberto)
Immortal Concerts New York City, Birdland Club. 1954 (Art Blakey & Clifford Brown)
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman)
The Complete Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington Sessions (Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington)
Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson (Louis Armstrong & Oscar Peterson)
Metheny Mehldau Quartet (Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau)
Side by Side (Itzhak Perlman & Oscar Peterson)
Sketches of Spain (Miles Davis & Gil Evans)
Skol (Oscar Peterson & Stephane Grapelli)
Somethin’ Else (Cannonball Adderley & Miles Davis)
Sonny Meets Hawk! (Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins)
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane)
Two Men with the Blues (Wille Nelson & Wynton Marsalis)

Duke is a little active fellow and he doesn’t like repetition. I do the same thing twice and he begins to cry. As a first time parent, I was having a hard time coming up with new activities to play with him until my cousin gave me Baby Play for Duke’s full-month celebration.

With 100 easy-to-do techniques, concise explanations and photographic demonstrations, I turn to Baby Play again and again to keep Duke stimulate. He loves cycling when I change him. I could feel the excitement when I give him a little massage after he takes a bath. When he cries, an airplane swinging with jazz would calm him down. He looks so darn cute with his little arms hugging around the roll-up towel on his tummy as I rock him from side to side. He even tries to pull his head up.

Since the book is divided into age range (from zero up to 12 months), I only got through the newborn section. I’ll get there when Duke get there. In addition to the doctor seal of approval, what makes Baby Play worthwhile is that I don’t have to have fancy toys to do these fun activities with Duke.

While going through my external hard drive, I came across a bunch of sites I have designed in the past. Back in 2000, I started a web design company called d3studio.net. After losing the domain to a hosting company, I went on and created Visualgui.com. I am not sure if any of you here today were there back then. In any rate, here are some entertaining sites for your enjoyment:

D3Studio.net version 1
D3Studio.net version 2
D3Studio.net version 3
D3Studio.net version 4
D3Studio.net version 5

Revenge is best served cold, but Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy serves a disturbingly imaginative dish of revenge that is bold, bloody, beautiful and brilliant.