A Web site dedicated to people who can’t park right. Don’t forget to check out the Asshole Parking Extravaganza.

Jon Pareles’ “A Southern Rapper With a Lot of Friends“:

In his music, Lil Wayne goes well beyond the basics of “dirty South” hip-hop. His hoarse voice gives his songs a texture that’s both weathered and slyly amused, for a glimmer of New Orleans R&B. He regularly changes up his delivery, borrowing Jamaican dancehall inflections or landing syllables on unlikely offbeats. He also has some quirky fixations: on food, on 1980s movies and on punning wordplay. Over the last few years, he has been ubiquitous, not only on his own albums but also on mixtapes and as a collaborator. He let the women in the audience enthusiastically sing the melody of “You,” a 2006 single by Lloyd that had a guest rap by Lil Wayne.

Asia 55: Hat Voi Than Tuong opened with an impressive performance from Don Ho and Da Nhat Yen. Somehow his raspy vocals and her sleek steps swing together. The show, however, slumped into a big mess with the digital mash-up between the dead idols and their living idolizers (Hung Cuong/Mai Le Huyen and Sy Phu/Quoc Khanh), laughable Michael Jackson’s chorography and Asia’s rotten two-generation pairings. The latest bizarre duo was Mai Le Huyen and Doan Phi. Her act was so ridiculous that she made his silly moves entertaining (gotta love that Condor-Heroes style). As for clones of Che Linh, how many do we have now? I lost count. Of course, not every coupling was awful. Beside Don Ho/Lam Thuy Van and Y Phuong/ Nguyen Khang, the best duet on the show was Lam Nhat Tien and Nguyen Hong Nhung. To elevate “Tinh Yeu & Tinh Nguoi,” no one on Asia could have done it better than the recovered drug addict and the victim of Internet porn. They seemed to share something in common. As always, Asia’s MCs (Viet Dzung and Nam Loc) never failed to take shots at the communist although the show was taped on Ho Chi Minh’s birthday. Even little Doanh Doanh was politicking. She will not return to Viet Nam until there’s freedom. Isn’t China her homeland?

Accompanied by the marvelous piano, Nguyen Thao gives an astounding performance of “Khat,” the best track off Giang Son’s album. Have a great weekend folks!

better watch out 🙂

I am following you, Ray

Drinking blueberry smoothie

All alone at work 🙁

“Southside” featuring Kanye West and “Play Your Cards Right” featuring Bilal.

In my review of Ngoc Ha’s recent album, I said what I want to hear next from Ngoc Ha is a Pham Duy’s album with the collaboration of Duc Tuan. It has yet to happen, but Duc Tuan’s latest album has a few songs Ngoc Ha has recorded in the past for Thuy Nga. “Tinh Hoai Huong” was one of her big hits as well as one of his strong cuts on the record. The reason I never pay much attention to Ngoc Ha before she left Thuy Nga was very obvious: the productions always failed me. So placing Duc Tuan‘s and Ngoc Ha‘s version side by side, we could hear the differences in the orchestration. The digital arrangement in her version is nowhere near the lively orchestrated arrangement in his. Vocally, both are exceptional in their own rights. While he soars like a bird, she takes a flight down to nostalgia, especially when she wraps up the tune with “Que huong ay…” In an interesting contrast, Duc Tuan left out the last three words in his version. My prediction is that both Duc Tuan and Pham Duy are now living in Viet Nam so “que huong ay” isn’t relevant anymore. Any thoughts?