I was on the phone with my boyfriend a little after 2 p.m. today when I heard the sad news. Like many others, I too couldn’t believe my ears and eyes. Regardless of his public reputation, I don’t think that anyone can honestly deny the talent that Michael Jackson had. I have yet to see anyone garner as much fame, and leave as great of a lasting impression in popular music as the King of Pop himself. You can’t remember the 80s without Michael Jackson…may he rest in peace.
Happy Father’s Day
For most people, Father’s Day is celebrated with a warm classic breakfast, or an evening out with the family at Dad’s favorite restaurant. Sometimes it’s not even an elaborate ordeal, and could just be a casual day out in the yard, or fishing perhaps. Within the past 21 years of my life however, I have yet to spend any form of Father’s Day celebration with my dad. It’s not something I could say I’m sad about, simply because I’ve never experienced it to even miss it. Yet a curious part of me wonders at times, how it’d feel to have him by my side. After my parent’s separation since I was 3, it was always an occasional visit on his business trips, or a phone call on the weekends. It wasn’t until recently when I moved to Southern California for college, that I’ve become closer to this man whom I’ve yet to know more about.
My father is an interesting man. For the most part, he’s a scholar who studied in France for the majority of his adolescent years, and practically lived and breathed music all his life. While he was in Vietnam, my father rose to fame as a songwriter with the success of his piece entitled Tình Khúc Mùa Đông, or Winter Lovesong. After a period of time, he left his homeland to attend Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, where is received his master’s in Economics. In 1973, he returned to Vietnam where he became a Professor of Economics at the prestigious University, Võ Bị Quốc Gia. It was during that time that he met my mother and fell in love. I guess my mother and I both have a thing for nerds/musicians. About three years following my birth, my father returned to the states on business, and our relationship was put on hold until my arrival to the US in 1991.
In all honesty, I knew about 80% of this information firsthand, but I had to learn the rest through biographical websites that were put up by others–critics, fans, and Vietnamese-based media. It’s always been interesting to me how I’ve known so much about his public life, but yet I’ve never really gotten to know him. With time however, I’ve come to realize that relationships don’t just sprout up overnight. It’s been a gradual process, but I’m grateful for each step that we’ve made so far. Through our occasional lunch dates and emails, I’m beginning to see him as more than just a person in writing–but a father…my father. Happy Father’s Day, dad.
For those of you who can read Vietnamese, here’s a website about my dad–nhac si Thanh Trang: http://my.opera.com/diemxuacafe/blog/show.dml/2434220
Nhạc Sĩ Ngô Thụy Miên và Thanh Trang. (This was at a musical event in Washington DC; my dad's on the right)
Spiffy T-shirt designs with the fob in mind
I was surfing around the internet the other day when I came upon a nifty little website: http://www.anhoi.com/shirts.htm. They carry a variety of t-shirts with witty play on word lines that any Vietnamese at heart would smirk at. One of my favorites in particular bears the phrase: “It’s a Nguyen Nguyen situation”–because you know it’s a win-win situation when you’re a Nguyen. Okay, enough of the cheeky jokes, but I thought it was cute. Here are some other designs to check out:
Why yes, I am quite FOB-ulous
WTH!!!!!
The infamous sauce by choice of every Vietnamese household--nuoc mam
Que Sera, Sera
The weather took a more pleasant turn today; it was sunnier than it’d been all week. I spent most of my time squandering hours away in the lower levels of the campus library. Well, in all fairness, I was quite productive for the first half of the day. It wasn’t until my fatigue caught up to me in the last couple of hours that I began to trail off into the happy imaginative corners of my mind. By the time I left the library and came home to prepare dinner, it was pretty late already. After the dishes were done and put away though, I’d finally gotten a chance to sit back and breathe. It was then that I suddenly remembered something that my mother once told me. She said that in the words of a famous writer, it is always wise to only lend your heart, but never to give it away. When someone borrows something, they must take care of it in order to properly return it to its rightful owner, but when someone is given something, they are void of these responsibilities and can do whatever they please since it is essentially theirs.
To an extent, this is a rather practical and pessimistic way of looking at love–almost to the point of robbing it of any sense of romanticism. Yet, a part of me can see some truth in it. I sat there on my bed only to realize that a part of me is still closed off. I guess George Michael had a point when he sang the words: “Once bitten, and twice shy…” 
Writer’s Block
It has come to my attention that I have not written anything here for a while. There’d be instances throughout the day when I’d see or hear something and think: “hey, I should really write about that”–never happens. The fact that I haven’t done much writing outside of class is beginning to take a toll on my academic work too. My final for LTWR 8A (short fiction writing) is a 10 page short story, and I’ve been having the worst time putting it together. I assure you the concept’s quite legitimate, but the overall construction of it is an insult to even my own writing from when I was an 8th grader. One of my peer readers told me that my draft was too cliche. I think that nearly impaled me.
It’s too beautiful of a day…
…to stay indoors and study. I had this song blasting off my speakers as I came out of the shower today:
gotta love the 80s influence.
I’m higher than a kite right now…
So, amidst all of this finals studying frenzy, I’d just like to share some good news: I’M GOING TO SEE DEPECHE MODE IN CONCERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s right, my dear friend from Stanford and I have been planning out our strategy all week long. We both signed up for multiple e-mail alerts, only to discover the pre-sale password…after the presale window had already closed. BUT, tickets are sold to the general public at 12 pm of today for the Chula Vista concert, so we both woke up early, studied, and stationed our troops at Ticketmaster and Live Nation. As fate would have it, Ticketmaster failed me, but luckilly my friend saved us both with not-so-bad seats from Live nation: section 103, row E, seats 21 and 22!
I can’t wait until Aug. 14th 
Dashing men served up with a side of guns and raw action
What’s better than a movie with Johnny Depp–how about one with monsieur Depp and Christian Bale? Summer is starting to look hot already with the July 1st release of the movie Public Enemies. The film tells the story of how the feds try to take down legendary depression-era bank robber John Dillinger (Depp). His dangerous and unstoppable antics make him the most wanted target, especially in the eyes of top agent Melving Purvis (Bale). Keep your calenders marked, everyone.
Banh mi–how I miss thee
banh goi
It’s been far too long; I’ve tanked it for this entire winter quarter without having gone to a single decent Vietnamese restaurant. The only closest reminder of home, and my mom’s drool-worthy cooking was my visit to a relative’s house in Carlsbad last weekend. She whipped up a tasty batch of banh goi, which are basically pot sticker-looking pouches that are filled with ground pork, glass noodles, shitake mushrooms, a wedge of boiled eggs, and chinese sausages–deep fried to goodness. We also had the staple nuoc mam dipping sauce with some pickled jimaca and fresh greens to boot. The end of the dinner was concluded with a bowl of chicken pho, which temporarily assuaged my taste buds from nostalgia, but I’ll be honest–it was no where near the perfection of my mother’s.
Today I was watching a couple episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations from the Travel Channel, and by the end of it all I had four words in my mind: I envy this man. I mean, what can be better than traveling across the globe, eating all the delicious foods known to man, and writing–all for a living? Anyways, there were a couple episodes where he went to Vietnam, and one clip on youtube where he tried a Vietnamese banh mi, or baguette meat sandwich. It looked so fresh and crispy, I was practically dying…I miss home.
