In the introduction, the author Paulo Coelho declares that The Alchemist has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide. Even Bill Clinton read it and Julia Roberts adored it, yet he honestly doesn’t know “What’s the secret behind such a huge success?” After fallen for the hype and read the entire book, I really don’t know either. The story is about a shepherd boy who sets out to search for his “Personal Legend” and along the way he falls in love with any women that would talk to him or look at him. What the book tries to point out is to trust your own heart. It sounds more like a self motivation than a novel.

From Seattle PI:

Seth Cook, who lived in Darrington and captured hearts all over the world, died Monday at his home with his family around him. He was 13 years old and had recently suffered a heart attack as a consequence of progeria, a rare disorder that causes accelerated aging… Because of his disease, Seth stood barely 3 feet tall and weighed less than an average toddler.

Poor kid! (Via TTBlue)

Appearing along Robin William on the Tonight Show, Chelsea Handler made a crack on Angelina Jolie’s son, Pax:

“He’s three, okay? He’s not strong… He probably doesn’t even know he’s Asian yet. He certainly doesn’t know he’s going to be a horrible driver. Or that he’s going to be amazing at doing nails. He has no idea.”

Yes, he’s only three so give the kid a break. He’s not strong yet, but he’ll kick your ass 10 years later after he watched this clip. Revange is never too late.

Billie Holiday’s Lady in Satin has to be one of the toughest albums to appreciate. At the time she made these recordings (a year and a half before she left us), not only her health had suffered badly, but her voice had also deteriorated immensely. Both her chops and her vocals were gone with all the hard drugs she abused. All she had left was a harshing, tiring, and excruciating tone that was almost unlistenable, yet it was her personal phrasing that made the album deserved its classic stature. Right from the opening “I am a Fool to Want You,” we could tell that she was no longer interested in singing the tune. She stripped the melody down to its core of despair and expressed the lyrics like she was narrating her own unrequited love against the dead-slow orchestration arranged by Claus Ogerman and conducted by Ray Ellis. In the reissued version, which included alternative takes, the most unforgettable recording was the naked rendition of “The End of a Love Affair.” Her interpretation of the lyrics—”So I smoke a little too much, and I joke a little too much / And the tunes I request are not always the best / But the ones where the trumpets blare”—are as rough, rugged and raw as they get. She not only knew how a song should be articulated, but also knew how to breathe life into it.

For a hot and humid morning, what else is there better to do than kicking back and enjoying Ngoc Lan sings French ballads (while comping of course).

Sasha Frere-Jones’ review of R. Kelly’s latest album is pretty close to mine; however, it takes him damn near 1,500 words, without obscenity of course, to do so. Writing an album like Kelly’s Double Up is fun because he has interesting content—something I rarely find in Vietnamese music—to go off on. Someone once told me that I always focus on the voice, delivery and technicality when I review Vietnamese albums. What else is there to write when almost all of Vietnamese singers do not write their own music. It does get boring after a while, but that just the way it is.

Vassar’s On Campus puts together a list of activities you might enjoy in Poughkeepsie. Wow, there’s actually something to do around here.

There has been a shift in the way I blog. The site has been focused more on the Daily section. The Brief Commentary (my short reviews) has merged into other appropriate categories (Book, Film and Music). I find that writing blurb is better for the web. The format inspired by Rhapsody, Amazon‘s Editorial Reviews, and New Yorker‘s Briefly Noted. Not that I won’t write any more long reviews, but crafting a piece with 100 words or less is more fun and challenging. Less is more, remember?

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff “ruled Monday that no pair of pants is worth $54 million, rejecting a lawsuit that took a dry cleaner’s promise of ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ to its most litigious extreme.” Justice is served!

I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead captured some of the most chill, paranoid rhymes from El-P, an impressive lyricist from the dark side of Brooklyn. With hard-hitting, rock-inflected productions backing him up, El-P pours out his stream of conscious like, “Why should I be sober when god is so clearly dusted out his mind? / With cherubs puffing a bundle trying remember why he even tried?” If mainstream hip-hop bored you to dead with cash, sex, and coke, here is the underground alternative.