Straight from D-O-double-G, “A Bitch I Knew” puts Snoop back in the pimp game. So “You better watch your girl, cause if she’s on the loose. It’s a 90 percent chance she’s gon’ get pimp juice.”

Nina Simone got “Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter” from Jazzeem’s All Styles Remix. Turn up your speaker and let the funk get in your soul.

Let’s the class begins. Thug Motivation 102: The Inspiration is now in session. Young Jeezy might not be a professor, but his street tales being told in a straightforward approach and vivid lyricism will force you to pay attention. With his white powder-saturated timbre and slow-burning delivery, the young blood is at the top of his game. So you better watch out. The snowman is back in town.

Guan Zeju’s Timeless Series paintings. (I am speechless: so beautiful, so exquisite, so perfect, and so raw.)

Emmanuel Polanco’s graphic design portfolio. (The typographic works are spendid.)

Russell Peters on Viet Nam (Not offended at all since Russ has done many amusing cultural comics. This particular one on Vietnamese, however, isn’t as funny as the Indian shit: “Somebody going to get a hurt real bad.”)

Japanese Sex Slang (Not sure if it is an useful, but sure is interesting. For instance: Kusottare is literally “shit-drip.” So, you’re a shit-drip instead of an asshole. Nice!)

Wow! It sure is a Fantastic Machine.

“The Passion of the Maya” (I was impressed with the title as if A.O. Scott refers to the special effects in the film produced by Maya 3D program. After reading the review, however, he refers to the Maya empire instead. Still want to see the film, though.)

The N-word: Russell Peters got away with his, but Michael Richards (Seinfeld’s Kramer) didn’t. Ooops!

Have you ever tried to explain to your uncle what jazz is? Over Thanksgiving dinner, the subject somehow switched from my cousin’s hookup arrangement to music. My uncle said all that he knew about jazz was a bunch of noise. So there was no point of trying to sell him on Louis Armstrong or John Coltrane. Instead I picked out something that he was familiar with, and you just can’t go wrong with Khanh Ly and Trinh Cong Son. The challenge was to select a tune that had that jazz aesthetics in it. Khanh Ly’s 1973 rendition of “Dem Thay Ta La Thac Do” was perfect. As the song plays, I briefly walked him through it:

The intro kicked off with an exchange between the sax and trumpet like they were having a conversation with one another.

0:25: Khanh Ly’s raucous voice joined in as the plucking bass provided the rhythm. The blue note on the piano added an intoxicating tincture to her vocals.

1:30: The sax solo took over. Listen to how the horn expressed its tone like a human voice with its soars and screams.

2:00: The muted trumpet improvisation supplied a dark, mysterious, and sensuous mood to the break.

2:15: Both the sax and the trumpet interacted once again, but this time they brought back the original melody to introduce Khanh Ly’s second verse.

3:40: The sax and the keyboard gave a wonderful closing out, but it is the tinkering guitar that gave the ending a novelty.

After this little introduction, my uncle nodded his head. Not only that he didn’t think jazz was just noise anymore, he showed some interests. The only missing piece was that Khanh Ly didn’t scat, so I couldn’t show him the art of jazz’s wordless singing. Still this track was a great example for explaining jazz to a Vietnamese person.

It’s a damn shame that we don’t get this kind of “real” musical accompaniment with today’s Vietnamese music recordings. If you listen to Khanh Ly’s later rendition of “Dem Thay Ta La Thac Do,” you’ll feel the great lost immediately. The programmed drums are simply there to maintain the rhythm, and the bass sounds like my nephew’s fart. Too sad.

From the up-tempo swing (including “Jingle Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”) to the mellow groove (such as “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” “Christmas Time is Here,” and ” Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”), Diana Krall did it again with Christmas Songs: skillfully reinterpreted classic tunes with her exotic vocals, exquisite scatting, and extraordinary keyboard chops. With the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra backing her up, Krall gives the holiday season a jazzy spirit.

Love is blind. In the condition of Ho Ngoc Ha and Duc Tri, however, love is deaf. Their latest project, Muon Noi Voi Anh, demonstrates Duc Tri’s least imaginative effort behind the board and Ho Ngoc Ha’s drowsing voice in which she sounds like she’s rather be sleeping than singing. Duc Tri is a talented producer, but his creativeness has seemed to take a toll on him in Le Hieu’s De Tron Doi Thuong Nho, and continues to gravitate. Without good beats to ride through, Ho Ngoc Ha’s aspirate vocals get nowhere.

“Public Enemy #1” once again demonstrates Eminem’s rhyming, flowing, and producing skills. He spits forty plus bars straight, with an extraordinary breath control, giving a cinematic lyricism on how he’s about to go down in history the same way 2pac and John F. Kennedy did.

SimpleBits redesigned with new logo, zoomable layout, and simple organization.

Tanya Merone pulls off a striking one page design.

From Foccaland‘s portfolio: Sex Motion and Oooooouch.

Jay-Z’s “Lost Ones“
Nas’s “Hip-hop is Dead“