Let’s get two things straight. Quynh Hoa has a young face, but an old, grainy voice, as if her vocal cords were sent through a dryer machine with a handful of small rocks. Although her forth release titled Tango 09, the album only featured three tango-style ballads.

All three tango tracks (Doan Chuan & Tu Linh’s “Tinh Nghe Si,” Pham Dinh Chuong’s “Xom Dem” and Duong Thieu Tuoc’s “Bong Chieu Xua”) are excellent because of her raspy vocals and effortless flow around the ballroom arrangements. Her jazzy rendition of Hoang Giac “Bong Chieu Qua” is exceptional and the intimacy of Nguyen Anh 9’s “Buon Oi! Chao Mi” (accompanied mostly by solo piano) is a reminiscent of the early Le Thu (before her ranges and tones are gone).

Tango also featured four special guests: Le Anh Dung, Duc Long, Quang Hao and Tuyet Tuyet. The weakest is the duet with Quang Hao on Hoang Giac’s “Mo Hoa.” The chachacha arrangement is robotic and Quang Hao’s voice is attractive but lacks the individuality. Overall, Tango is a solid ballroom dancing album.

Song Giang has a sexy, slightly smoky voice, but her song selection on her forth release, Uoc Mo Co Nhau, makes her sound rather sleepy. The leadoff title track is simply snoring and she has done her best but still couldn’t make Bao Chan’s overrated “Bien Em La Bien Rong” anymore exciting. Two tracks that truly showcase her talents are Duong Thu’s “Bai Hat Ru Cho Anh” and Nguyen Ngoc Thien’s “Tinh Suong Khoi.” On the first one she soars like a songbird with a wounded wing over the sensual Latin groove and the jazzy arrangement on the second fits well with her raucous timbre.

If Bang Kieu is your bitch, Phan Dinh Tung is mine. His latest album, Hat Nhan, is campy as shit and I am totally gay for it. Beside the lame-ass birthday track (“Khuc Hat Mung Sinh Nhat”), a heartfelt dedication to mom (“Nho On Me”) and a tribute to dad (“Loi Day Cua Cha”), the rest are sweet-n-sour ballads that are delicious enough to get you craved for at least three returns before getting sick of them.

On Your Songs, Harry Connick, Jr. uses the Frank Sinatra swag to reinvigorate classic popular tunes by the likes of Billy Joe, Elton John and Nat King Cole. The results are mixed. His version of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” is straightforward yet enticing thanks to the help of Wynton Marsalis’s gorgeous solo. On “And I Love Her,” Connick gives the Beatle’s classic song a sensational cover by wrapping his luscious, nasal voice around the lush bossa nova arrangement. On the other hand, tracks like Sinatra’s “All the Way,” Leroy Jones’s “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Some Enchanted Evening” sound like Christmas shopping mall music.

I am back at work today and only a few hours away from my boy, yet I miss Duke terribly. On Tuesday, I was coughing and sneezing so I couldn’t be near him even though we were in the same house. Yesterday, I felt much better so I spent a whole day with him. Dana and I took him to the doctor yesterday for his six-month visit. Disappointedly Duke only weighs 14lbs and 6oz, which is only in the 10 percentiles. Feeding him in the morning is quite difficult. The only time he would take the milk is when he was about to fall asleep. The problem was that he could only take 3oz before he fell asleep.

The doctor encouraged us to let him sleep on his own. The problem is he would roll over as soon as I placed him in the crib. He would rub his face against the sheet or drag his face by pushing his feet. He would get all rash all over his face. I tried to hold him on his back, but he would scream and wake up. I held him in my chest for ten minutes and he slept like a puppy. After that I can gently placed him in his crib.

Last night, I fed him some sweet potato for dinner. He ate so well that I kept feeding him and feeding him until he threw everything back out. I should have stopped when he had enough. I am now sitting here reminiscing on the time we spent yesterday. The beautiful smile on his eczema-laced face revealing his two bottom teeth is what I miss the most.

I read Dr. Seuss’s ABC to Cu Dao today and I couldn’t keep a straight face on some of his nonsensical verses including “Camel on the ceiling,” “Lazy lion licks a lollipop” and the very very very best ” Vera Violet Vinn is very very very awful on her violin.”

San Jose police officers caught on tape beating an unarmed Vietnamese student with baton and taser gun:

The video shows police standing over Ho in a hallway of his house for more than two minutes. During that time, one officer strikes Ho with a metal baton more than 10 times — at times swinging it with both hands — while another officer leans in and uses his Taser gun.

Damn!

Duke got sick, then his mom and now me. Duke is getting better so I am afraid he would catch the virus from me again so I am doing my best to stay away from him. Slept on the couch last night and tried not to hold him or kiss him. My mom coined (cao gio) my back this morning. I feel a bit better but still sneezing like crazy. Damn, I hate being sick.

I apologize for the messiness around here in the last couple of hours. Instead of tweaking the design on my laptop, I did it right on the server. I wouldn’t do this for client or GWSB sites, but Visualgui.com is my personal playground so I don’t mind letting people see what the heck I am doing with it. I made the header much bigger and took out the slideshow feature. It started to get stale after awhile with not much contents to cycle through. That’s pretty much it for now!

I have not read a single book by Dr. Seuss. In fact, the only time I heard of Dr. Seuss was at Vassar’s 2004 commencement Address by Samuel L. Jackson. At the end of his speech, Jackson read a passage from Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and I thought it was witty and appropriate. A couple of weeks ago, I told Dana that we should get a few Dr. Seuss books for Cu Dao.

I was working from home last Friday and the mailman delivered a big box. I opened the door and he dropped the box right on my lap and I almost staggered because I didn’t expect a heavy box. I opened it up and there were 50 books by Dr. Suess. I called up Dana and she told me she bid them on eBay. I guess we will be reading a lot of Dr. Seuss books to Cu Dao. Can’t wait!