Jazz is a very competitive music, especially when two groups come together. At the jazz jam session at George Washington University today I witnessed the young cats butted head to head. Unlike the usual jam session, a band from Brubeck Institute was also in the house. The two horn lines joined force on the closing “Now is the Time” featured three trumpeters, two tenor saxophonists, and the rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar and keyboard). Each horn player took on a 2-bar solo. Once everyone did his part, each trumpet from each camp tried to car each other. One tried to play louder and floated more notes than the other. You can see the masculinity on these two guys’ face as they traded short passages. The one from GW camp did his usual shtick outplayed his opponent. The guy from BI came back at the last bar and they blew to the squeaking point. While all these macho sounds went on, the drummer who accommodated them all was a cute, dark hair (probably Spanish) girl. She kept the beat going and brought them back together at the end. This is what you get when you have all male player and one hot female drummer in one band.

Clean, organized, very well-designed web site.

Beautiful web site showcases Michael Potts’ picturesque wildlife and landscape photography.

Le Kieu Nhu can hardly sing, yet she knows how to get you hooked just like the way she had Nguyen Nhat Huy on the tip of her finger. The man who was responsible for the mega hit “Nguoi Ve Cuoi Pho” is now focusing his energy on the young, trying-to-be-sexy chick. Who can blame him? A man has to do what a man has to do.

Let’s be fair. Le Kieu Nhu is not a bad vocalist. In “Tinh Nhu,” an opening track off her second album Tinh Khuc Nguyen Nhat Huy, she rides the cha-cha tempo like a drunken chick in a karaoke bar, but she manages to pull it off. Her out-of-tune delivery and odd phrasings make the cute tune so damn amusing. Despite her limited vocal ability, she could soar like a bird with a wounded wing in the slow-ballad “Tinh Si.” In contrast, she sounds weightless on “Cuoc Tinh Chiem Bao,” as she tries to float with the Jacuzzi-jazz arrangement. If her voice wouldn’t put you to a snoozing mode, the smooth saxophone would.

Then again, who wouldn’t feel bad for someone who croons the last words for her lover (“Lan Cuoi Cho Nguoi Tinh”) with such benevolent? Never mind the generic, computer-generated rhythm, just listen to the way she delivers the refrain: “Tha anh dung den trong doi / De em dung qua hy vong / De trong long khong mang dang cay / Loi yeu nao nhu con gio bay / Gio em tin ai nua day?” She makes you feel guilty but in a pleasure way.

Vanilla Ice made it on the news for domestic battery.

I like they way Ian James Cox presents his creative work with full screenshots.

YoDiv turns your designs into XHTML and CSS.

A site dedicated to the art of X-rated movie posters from the 1960s and 1970s. They were much better designed than those found in video stores today.

Less on top, more at bottom. Nice and simple personal web site from David Sutoyo.

A nice site with gorgeous illustrations and smooth transitions for a design studio.

Young Buck is not ok.