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!

I finally dragged my old ass to Diamond club for the first time last night and it was a rambunctious site. I am indeed too old for this shit. The techno DJ was loud; the band was even louder. It was just depressing to watch Nguyen Khang wasted his voice in the joint.

My main purpose for going to the club was to approach Nguyen Khang about my ideal concert. After his first set, which I can’t even remember what he sang, we went backstage to discuss my concept. We had a good conversation and I really felt his pain. The industry is killing him. He needs to be resuscitated. I can still see the fire in him when he gave a heartfelt rendition of Nguyen Anh 9’s “Co Don.” It was undeniably the best performance of the night. That was the real moment of Nguyen Khang pouring his soul over the simple-backing keyboard.

Although, I have to admit, his upbeat version of “Delilah” was quite catchy, he doesn’t belong in that club. He deserves an intimate setting with real accompaniments. He liked my idea and encouraged me to make it happen. We’ll get there some day.

Even though my ears are still buzzing for all the noise last night, I had a good time. Thanks to Khanh Le, a new friend who is an artist I have met through Visualgui.com, for accompanied me last night. I also ran into an old friend from Lancaster who celebrated his birthday at the club. I am sure the club makes some nice revenue off the drinks. I had a few shots of Patrón, which was $12 a pop. Big shout out to my wonderful wife for cutting me lose for the night. Thanks for the trust, baby!

Our furniture from Marlo was delivered today. We kept the sectional sofa and sent back the dining table and chairs. The tabletop had a thumb-size chip and five out of the six chairs aren’t leveled. The two delivery guys (African-Americans) weren’t too happy about the return, but I couldn’t except damaged merchandise.

I still liked the dining set and was going to reschedule for another delivery, but the guys had done a great job losing the sale. I understand the heavy lifting all, but their attitudes turned me off. They had the audacity to blame it on my hardwood floor for the unevenness of the chairs. How could my floor uneven when one of the chairs didn’t rock? I can even see with my naked eyes that some of the legs are shorter than the other and none of our own chairs were rocking.

We paid a hundred and thirty dollars for the delivery charges and they acted like they were doing us a favor. Their grumpy attitudes not only lost my interest in their products, but also the tips I intended to give them. We’ll look for another table elsewhere.

“Autumn Leaves” is somewhat sloppy, but they nailed the speedy “Mr. PC.” Check out two tunes from this week’s session.

Graduated from the competitive Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County and held a double major in sociology and women’s studies at the College of William and Mary, Thao Nguyen became a musician and released two albums. “She’s a ‘Brave’ Girl” indeed.

Thao Nguyen and her band, the Get Down Stay Down, will perform tonight at the Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW).

After talking to eight Verizon employees, my simple question didn’t get answered. Although I explained to them my concern, all of them asked me the same question: “What is it that you trying to do?” All I need is to be able to view my latest charges online since my online account shows information from March. I was passed on like a cheap whore from FiOS department to Wireless department to landline office to One Bill department to Internet support to communication center to payment center to some center in Ohio, and then to some department in Virginia. The last representative couldn’t even find my information. Both my phone and my account don’t even exist in the system. She couldn’t pass me on to anyone anymore and didn’t know what to do with me. I finally told her that I guess I don’t have to pay anything since I am not in the system.

Designer of one of the most used and ridiculed fonts of all time, Vincent Connare:

“If you love it, you don’t know much about typography,” Mr. Connare says. But, he adds, “if you hate it, you really don’t know much about typography, either, and you should get another hobby.”

96 musicians around the world came together for a classical orchestra performance on Wednesday night at Carnegie Hall.