Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Tag: Arts
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I went out for my morning jog in slippery Saigon. I was hoping for cooler weather. Now that my wish was granted, I begin to have second thought: if it’s cool here, it means somewhere up North, people are freezing, or boats and houses destroyed. We live in a connected world and leave behind carbon footprints.…
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Ship sinking and plane crashing. Lives in chaos and lessons in control. We keep trying. To make sense of our lives. To derive meaning from it. Try always to be the Captain of our own destiny. Sweat not the small stuffs. Focus on the big picture: the 3 E’s i.e. economy, environment and education. Ask…
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A Vietnamese film producer is working on his version of The Ruin and Blair Witch project etc… One idea sparks another. Localization, customization, contextualization. Photo-sharing. Moment sharing. Life sharing. What’s relevant, resonating and regretful if we missed out. Deep down inside, what’s our core values. What’s all the hustling and bustling about? Some faceless stakeholder’s values?…
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She offered me water, from her huge one-gallon container. Hip-hop dancer-trainer, you see. We need water, especially when we dance many sets at a local theme park to entertain and engage visitors. So, you finished the first of the “girl w/ the dragon tattoo?” …..so it went. We broke bread and shared snippets of our…
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A Quoc Tri could be heard at Cafe Vuong Tron, GoVap on Sunday morning and M-evenings. Other nights, you can catch him at Cafe S, near Du Mien, in Phu Nhua District. This morning his band mate commented him on letting his hair out, and not pony-tailed. We even took an I-phone pic of him, with LOVE on black…
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It rained on the book fair here in Saigon. Word and water don’t mix. But I must admit seeing young readers eager to browse anything and everything, even kissing the note books we handed out, warms my heart. I can relate to why the Happiness Index listed top countries such as Costa Rica and Vietnam. Money might…
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As I saw him open the door, I said “Guitar Master”. He after all has played for as long as my memory can serve me: on the roof behind my house, and at various venues in Saigon. Still with that baritone voice and impeccable sense of humor. “You might think I am old, but put…
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Yesterday I saw Mike from UK play Bieber-like and adoring This morning I managed to have him in front of the mike at Cafe Vuong Tron Inter-generational and inter-cultural Sunday coffee house at the outskirt of Saigon The featured singer would take a break and Mike went to the mike He just let go “Broken-hearted”…
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Our own Duc Huy, along with Dylan, during the 80’s, sang about “the hope of redemption” and how “the heart found joy once again”. The 80’s was the time of culture war: right vs left, straight vs gay, East vs West, secular vs conservative. Thirty years on, we are faced with a different set of…
Thang Nguyen 555 