Our good friend (a next-door neighbor in Viet Nam) who lives in Philly has a teenage son. Her son dropped out of middle school because he was getting jumped by black kids either from his way to school or home. Philadelphia Weekly finally picks up on this heartrending story with similar situations:

Dozens of the alleged incidents are relatively minor—name-calling, verbal threats, petty robberies, random punches in the head while walking down stairwells, and general intimidation. But according to Chen, at least six times last school year those minor incidents escalated into massive rumbles where outnumbered Asian students were pummeled by packs of teens, sending several of the victims to hospitals. Like the day last October when a group of around 30 kids allegedly attacked five Chinese students after school in the Snyder Avenue subway station, one block from school. That incident started when a black student walked up to a Chinese kid in the cafeteria, touched his hair and allegedly threw a carton of milk at him. Rumors of threats filtered through the school on the day after the subway rumble, and the notion of continued violence froze Asian students. 


Little Eric got beat up two days since he started school this week. I am worried about him.

On his debut Khong Gian Bach Bien, Vietnamese-Australian Ethan Thoi tries to please everyone from teenyboppers to club bangers to ballroom dancers. While he succeeds in giving “Thu Ca” a refreshing tango flavor, he flops miserably with the horrendous use of Auto-Tune effects (T-Paining too much) on “Hot Stuff.” Just when I thought “Hot Stuff” is an unsurpassable dud comes the Chinese bonus track, “Ai De Chu Ti Ya,” and the worst part is when he started to rap in Chinese. Ethan’s voice is actually decent (clear and forceful), but his song materials are pretty much garbage.

On September 11, 2001, Jay-Z’s now classic The Blueprint was born. Backing up by the then-hungry producers like Kanye West and Just Blaze, Jay-Z ran his own show with his impeccable rhymes and ruthless disses. The Blueprint featured only one guest spot (Eminem on “Renegade”) and no club hits (yet the beats were still banging). A year later, Jay-Z followed up with the double-troubled The Blueprint, Vol. 2: The Gift and the Curse and boasted, “Rumor has it, The Blueprint classic / Couldn’t even be stopped by bin Laden.” True, the first installment was unstoppable, but the second was a disaster full of distracting guests. The double disc was so unnecessary long that Jay-Z had to quickly release a 2.1 to trim down the fillers.

The final installment of the Blueprint trilogy is scheduled to release on September 11, 2009. Unfortunately, The Blueprint 3 is more like the second album than the first classic. Guests show up on most of the tracks and nearly every production is a club banger. On a Swizz Beatz’s typical bouncy production, “On to the Next One,” Jay-Z shows that he is still a maestro of flow and he could wrap his swag around any beat even the forgettable ones. The problem is that the beat doesn’t match up to his bravado: “Baby I am a boss / I don’t know what they do / I don’t get dropped / I drop the label / World can’t hold me / too much ambition / Always knew I will be like this when I was in the kitchen.”

One of Jay-Z’s artistic assets is, without a doubt, his braggadocio. The down side is that he uses it way too much already. We already know that Jay-Z doesn’t run rap anymore; he runs the map (“What We Talkin’ About”). We already know that Jay-Z’s the only rapper to rewrite history (“D.O.A.”). We already know that Jay-Z makes the Yankee hat more famous than the Yankee can (“Empire State of Mind”).

What lit the fire under Jay-Z’s ass though are his enemies. On the Kanye-produced “Already Home,” Jay goes hard at rappers and his critics: “Tell me I don’t get it / Everybody could tell you how to do it / They never did it.” Jay-Z obviously still doesn’t get it. If he got it, he would have learned his lesson from The Blueprint 2 and he wouldn’t cut embarrassing tracks like the sex-bragging “Venus vs. Mars,” self-congratulating “Reminder” and age-denying “Young Forever.” Jigga, get your grown-man on!

I am not yet a classical fiend, but I already am hooked on Michel Camilo’s jaw-dropping virtuosity. Backing up by the vigorous BBC Symphony Orchestra, jazz pianist Camilo displays his exemplary classical techniques on Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The 15-minute opening track alone is captivating and the energetic “Tropical Jam” is highly addictive. Duke and I have been enjoying this album every night until he goes to sleep. Check out “Caribe,” an electrifying solo piano.

I signed the petition to stop the violence and help save Bat Nha Monastary, which is under severe governmental pressure to be abandoned. Find out more info at the Petition Site, sign and spread the word.

The banning of Ban Mai’s Trinh Cong Son: Vet Chan Da Trang from releasing in Viet Nam piqued my curiosity. Trinh Cong Son is without a doubt one of the greatest songwriters of Viet Nam and many books have written about his life and his music. Why is this one prohibited?

In the biography section, Ban Mai briefly, unintentionally rubbed the sensitive spot in regarding to Trinh Cong Son’s neutral position of the war, which didn’t sit well with a few high-ranked officials. That was enough to cease the distribution of the book.

Vet Chan Da Trang was originally a thesis; therefore, only 66 out of 282 pages are reading materials. The rest is just appendix of song lists and lyrics. The author had done a decent job of keeping the biography part concise, yet she only scratched the surface when delving into his lyrical analysis. She drew mostly from other sources to explain his lyrical craftsmanship instead of providing her own interpretation. As a result, the book is disappointedly thin on contents.

Dan Cederholm is tha CSS man. His two titles, Web Standards Solutions and Bulletproof Web Design, are two invaluable resources I keep at hand for references. While there are many different ways to write CSS, I always prefer Dan’s simple approaches. As a designer himself, Dan knows exactly what issues we go through and he offers the straightforward, bulletproof solutions to solve the problems. When it comes to CSS, Dan is always at the top of his game.

Like his previous books, Handcrafted CSS is very focused. The contents are lean and concise but insightful on topics including image-free rounded corners, RGBA colors, and easy float management. Ethan Marcotte has contributed a very informative chapter on fluid layout, especially his formula for turning pixel unit into percentage unit.

Throughout the book, Dan encourages readers to design with “progressive enrichment.” With fast-advancing browsers like Safari and Firefox, now’s the time to experiment and implement new CSS technologies. He argues, “…by giving visual rewards to the browsers that can handle these advanced CSS properties, you’re creating flexible, easily maintained designs that push the development of these new standards forward.” After learning his case studies, I am convinced.

So if you have to make your web site looks the same in all browsers, including Internet Explore 6, than this book is not for you. But if you want to make your site look good on most browsers and great on a certain ones than Handcrafted CSS is for you.

The DVD comes with the book provides 10 guidelines that serves as a checklist for making bulletproof designs. Most of the tips are from Bulletproof Web Design. If you have the book, you probably don’t need the DVD.

Nowadays young singers try to cover timeless songs, but with not much success. Trinh Hoang Hai is an elderly man who could almost do the justice to the classic tunes on his debut Bien Hat. Though lack in techniques and range, he has a raspy voice and an understated approach to ballads. Unfortunately, his use of vibratos killed his effortless delivery. On Tu Cong Phung’s “Mat Le Cho Nguoi” and Pham Duy’s “Thuyen Vien Xu,” he sings like a man in constipation trying to push and pull his way through. His rendition of Trinh Cong Son’s “Ru Em” and Anh Bang’s “Hoa Hoc Tro” are the only two tracks where he sounds less shaky. If he dropped the pulsating effect altogether, his flow would have been so natural.

When a band plays together for 15 years, the members breathe the same air and that was how the Tierney Sutton Band holding down the tiny-ass Blues Alley on Monday night. The band, which consisted of Tierney Sutton (vocals), Christian Jacob (piano), Kevin Axt (bass) and Ray Brinker (drums), performed together as a unit.

Ms. Sutton was not just a jazz singer. She was an integral part of the group. She used her voice as an instrument. Trading lines with the instrumentalists, Sutton always played around with her vocals, especially on the up-swinging tunes. On “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” Sutton showed her remarkable sense of rhythmic by scatting and catching up with Ray Brinkers’s speedy tempo. Together the dynamic duo gave the standard a complete makeover. “Cry Me a River” also got a fantastic cover with an original arrangement and vocal treatment. “I Got a Kick Out of You” was fun, energetic and very unique. Love the opening bass solo, sensational piano improvisation, vigorous brushwork and Sutton’s playful scatting.

Alternating between fast swing and slow meditation, the band played some of the materials off its latest album, Desire including “It’s All Right With Me,” “Then I’ll Be Tired of You” and “Heart’s Desire.” The show was a perfect escape for a Monday night. My only dissatisfaction was that it was way too short. I wish the band covered my favorite “You Are My Sunshine.”

Cu Dao is wearing us out with his constant energy. He wouldn’t stay still and always wanted us to play or talk with him. He would roll over whenever we put him down on a flat surface. Yesterday he almost rolled off his car seat, which were sat on a chair, before I had a chance to buckle him up.

Whenever Dana feeds him, he would kick and move to all type of positions. As usual, Dana would bring him to bed in the middle of the night so she could feed him and then sleep. Last night Cu Dao didn’t want to sleep. He stayed wide awake and kept on talking while both of us were exhausted. He rolled over, talked and talked. I rubbed his back gently and suddenly I felt the wetness on my cheek. He was licking me. I was so tired and the fresh milk on his lips felt nice so I let him kissed me or drooled all over my face for a bit. I must admit. I enjoyed it.