Apple introduces Mac mini. She is so cute. I need to adopt her.

After having no luck searching through the local Vietnamese stores for Hong Nhung’s Mot Ngay Moi, I decided to make an online purchase through Vietnamese websites for the first time and my experience is not so pleasant. I placed an order on SaigonCD.com, waited for a week and received nothing. I logged back into my account and the order was cancelled because they were out of stock. They did not bothered to notify me.

I hopped over to Hoa Phuong Nam since it is the only place that has the album I want. Made the transaction through PayPal, received a payment email with the product name Xa Roi Toc May, which I did not ordered. I contacted Hoa Phuong Nam to clear things up and they requested additional money for Hong Nhung’s Mot Ngay Moi. What? I can’t believe it. They did not stated why they needed additional two dollars, but I paid them anyway since it is only a small amount. I contacted them again regarding to the status of my order and no one replied.

Vietnamese websites need to conduct more professional customer services. Until then, this is my first and last time buying a Vietnamese product online.

She sits on her couch. She watches every Hong Kong TV series at least twice. She rewatches Vietnamese music DVDs for the 10th time. She stares out the window. She goes to bed. She lives her life in America.

With the slushy weather outside, the best way to kill my misery is to watch Vietnamese music DVDs. When the video is boring, it would not help, but -thankfully- Kim Loi’s 12th Anniversary is a great time killer. The goal for the DVD is simply music. Thanh Tung may not be the best host, but he does a good job of keeping the introductions to the minimal. It’s amazing that someone actually learned from other MCs’ mistakes.

The performances are consistently good; therefore, I won’t go into every detail, but only highlight the ones that stand out for me. The young new face, Anh Tuan, has great potentials. His voice is along the line of Nguyen Khang’s, but not as smoky. His style is definitely influenced by Tuan Ngoc. Similar to Anh Tuan, Quang Tuan is also inspired by Tuan Ngoc. His singing on “Gui Nguoi Em Gai” is beautiful.

Khanh Ha gives a fantastic performance on Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in both French and English. Her splendid voice pushes the band and she does it her way. While Khanh Ha is sizzling hot, Thu Phuong is on fire with her own interpretation of “Bang Bang.” What an attidude she brings to the work. Her powerful vocals give “Bang Bang” a fresh vibe.

Kim Loi has brought something new to the table by inviting both singers from the States and Vietnam. The combination is nicely integrated. The only mistake Kim Loi made was inviting a white dude to host a Vietnamese show. His accents are horrible and he just memorizes the notes. Tuan Anh would be a great MC. His freaky look and his dirty mind will bring something new to the show. He cracks me up.

Out of all Hong Nhung’s albums, Ngay Khong Mua is her weakest work. The problem is that – most of the time – she does not drive the beats. On Bai Hat Ru Cho Anh, she flows inside the arrangements, but on this album, she only rides beside the chords. As a result, her vocals sound bland. Once her voice is not fluctuating, it causes the music to be unexciting.

Even Duong Thu’s compositions could not save her this time. His “Pho Mua Dong” and “Bai Hat Ru Mua Dong” are the only two tracks that she could deliver reasonable performances. One of the luminous pieces is Quoc Trung’s “Tinh Yeu o Lai.” Though her timbres are not changing drastically, they fit flawlessly with Quoc Trung’s simple writing. The music is like a modern version of Trinh Hung’s classic folk “Loi Ve Xom Nho.” The lyrics in “Tinh Yeu o Lai” escape me from the cold winter while Hong Nhung walks me to the blossomed rice fields as her warm and sweet voice enters, “Da het buon va het van vuong / lua da vang toa ngat huong dong.” Yes, I can smell the fresh scent of the new crops.

Ngay Khong Mua may be the weakest album among her classics, but it is no way an unpleasant work. If she could embrace the dynamic persistently on every song, similar to the way she does on La Van Cuong’s “Roi Co Luc,” this would have been another eminent record. The song gives listeners a more delicate style of Hong Nhung and she is right inside the piano. The album proves that she is not afraid to experiment with new materials. Speaking of her new works, I cannot wait to collect both Mot Ngay Moi and Khu Vuon Yen Tinh.

For overseas Vietnamese entertainers, Khanh Ha is one of the most successful singers with the most albums ever recorded. Her latest solo Tinh Khuc Ngo Thuy Mien is the sixty-fifth album produced by her very own Khanh Ha Productions. Despite bootlegs and low prices of CDs coming in from Vietnam, any record with Khanh Ha’s hologram stamped on the cover remains the most expensive of all in the Vietnamese music stores. Even big productions like Asia and Thuy Nga wouldn’t dare raise their prices as high as Khanh Ha’s production. How does she have so much confidence in her own products while other singers are struggling to get a record deal?

Khanh Ha has established herself in the business and her confidence comes from her voice. Her elegant style has captured Vietnamese listeners for more than twenty-five years and will continue to do so in the next twenty-five years. She knows that if she puts out an expensive product, the product has to live up to the price. From the production to the vocalization, Tinh Khuc Ngo Thuy Mien is well crafted. She has successfully articulated Ngo Thuy Mien’s music to its full potential. The most outstanding track has to be “Mot Coi Tinh Phai,” in which she has truly captured his essence. When I close my eyes, the images of the song are visible as she describes a picturesque scene of a lonely fall in Paris, “Chieu qua song Sein / co con chim bay cuoi troi / cat len tieng ca ra roi / cuoc tinh sau khon nguoi.”

Fall must be an inspiring season for Ngo Thuy Mien. Both “Noi Dau Muon Mang” and “Trong Noi Nho Muon Mang” demonstrate his passion for the fall season in his descriptive lyrics. Khanh Ha, once again, expresses his words gorgeously as she sways the listeners with her vocals’ manipulation. While she pours her heart on “Noi Dau Muon Mang” to convey the painful soul, her singing is calm on “Trong Noi Nho Muon Mang” to mashup with the tranquil beats. “Mot Doi Lang Quen” is another quiet song, and she flows soothingly to the romantic arrangements.

On the more experimental tracks, Khanh Ha teams up with Thuy Anh for a feel of the blues on “Tinh Khuc Mua Xuan.” With Ngo Thuy Mien’s classic, “Dau Tinh Sau,” her musical producer gives it a makeover up-tempo beat while she makes it sound fresh with her signature style. Speaking of her signature delivery, “Mien Khuc” fits that category completely. It’s the right vocals for the right melodies.

Tinh Khuc Ngo Thuy Mien marks a successful collaboration among writer (Ngo Thuy Mien), singer (Khanh Ha), and musical producers (Duy Cuong, Nguyen Quang, Duy Hanh, and Peter Siebert). Break out the wine glasses, uncork a bottle of Merlot, pop in Tinh Khuc Ngo Thuy Mien, sit back, and enjoy the intimate atmosphere of an evening right at home.

Ho Xuan Huong’s skillful wordplays have always intrigued me. She was famous for composing poems with both thanh (“pure”) and tuc (“obscene”) contents at once. Using noi lai (“phrase reversals”) and taking the advantage of word tones, she was able to paint perfect pictures as well as provocative imageries with her poetry. For instance, the last line of “Qua Mit (Jackfruit)” reads, “Xin dung man mo nhua ra tay ([Please don’t] caress me [or] sap will slicken your hands).” I am wondering where does the word Jackfruit comes from? Just kidding!

While surfing through the Browsing Collection at Vassar College Library, I was thrilled to spot Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong still features on the current interest shelf even though the book was published in 2000. I am delighted to see her work is exposed in the West and I appreciate John Balaban for his incredible efforts.

The book features forty-nine selected poems from Ho Xuan Huong, written in Nom (calligraphic script), Vietnamese, and translated into English by John Balaban. Although the second meaning (tuc ) is lost in translation – even he admits it in his introduction – he has done a phenomenal job of transporting her poetry to the Western audience. His endnotes help tremendously in explaining her work to those who are unfamiliar with the Vietnamese language and culture. I wish the endnotes were printed below the English translations for better reference even though they would distract from the visual layout of the book.

Before reading this book, I did not know we had a script writing system similar to Chinese calligraphy called Nom. In Balaban’s introduction he states that only about thirty, out of seventy-six million, Vietnamese could read Nom. Isn’t that remarkable? Speaking of the introduction, he does a great job of giving a brief summary of Ho Xuan Huong’s biography.

Ho Xuan Huong is an amazing poet and her work deserves to be known. John Balaban has made it possible by making the translations available. Furthermore, the reprinting of Nom characters, which original used by Ho Xuan Huong, alone is worth the price of the book. Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong is highly recommended for a pleasure experience.

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Once a spanking new technology introduced to the world, I usually turn to the Visual QuickStart Guide first. When it comes to learn the basic concept of a program, nothing beats the Visual QuickStart Guide series and Mark Spencer’s Motion for Mac OS X is no exclusion.

Spencer assumes that you have never opened Motion before, so the first two chapters give you a quick glance at the program. Then he moves into Motion’s Objects, including the interface, timeline, and properties. Once you feel comfortable moving around, he will walk you through the goodies of Motion, such as Behaviors, Filters, Generators, and Particles. With the book’s concise style and Spencer’s simple instruction, you will be no stranger to one of the most powerful motion graphic tools on the market.

One of the advantages of Motion for Mac OS X is its depth of 504 pages. The book is a great reference whether you need to learn immediately how to create keyframes, work with audio, use templates, or produce title sequences.

Apple Motion is not too difficult to learn and once you understand the fundamental concept, you’ll be able to create professional looking motion graphics for only 25 bucks. The affordably priced is what I like best about the Visual QuickStart Guide series; learn a new software fast without put a whole in my pocket.

Uncle 9’s Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple is an incredible appetizer. The sour of pineapple blended with the creamy coconut milk produced an amazing sauce. Just give me a fresh loaf of French Bread to dip in the sauce and I am all set. Great starter!