Thang Nguyen 555

Cultures on Collision Course

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With some short-term relief work in Asia/Africa and long stint in Telecom, Thang also earned a B.A. at Pennsylvania State University. M.A. in Communication at Wheaton Graduate School, M.A. in Cross-Cultural Communication at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Boston. In addition, he earned a CELTA – classes taken in Hanoi for cultural re-immersion.

Tag: Cinema Paradiso

  • Cyclo in the time of Google

    By now, you can still see a few weather-beaten cyclos around albeit restricted to tourist quarters. I still remember the sound of horse carriage in the streets of  old Saigon. My kid will be lucky if she knows what a cyclo is. She knows Google though. Paperless and painless search. Now with semantic search. My profile, age in particular, triggers online ads on…

  • Poor substitute

    We are so connected (Google Fiber) and disconnected (from people) at the same time. Starting with TV broadcast which reduces viewership from a theatre like in “Cinema Paradiso” down to a nuclear family in their living room, to a Youtube video download for personal  use. With smart phones, we don’t have people knocking on the phone booth for their turn or get…

  • Stars and stunts

    They stretched the truth to “show” it in better lights (as in Argo). They twisted some arms, pushed the envelopes and burned both ends of the candle (one end is dream, the other memories). They stepped into characters, sang the chorus and spoke the lines. Light, sound, camera and …”action”. Moving pictures. Marketing of dreams and…

  • Saigon Skyline

    Like a scene from Cinema Paradiso (when the film producer returned to his village just to find out his beloved movie house demolished for a parking lot) I too start seeing the skyline of Saigon rising, blocking the old bank where my sister used to work. Another one is being planned next to cho Ben Thanh…

  • Jobs’ off switch

    Steve Jobs hated the on-off  switch. Perhaps more so because it was a relic of electricity (Edison) and automobile manufacturers (Ford). He did not like old wine in the same wineskin, given our always-on Cloud Service in  A/C data centers. Apple chose North Carolina as a site to store music, video and the rest of its customers’…

  • Au cinema

    When Facebook profile (soon to be called Timeline) needs me to complete my favorite movie section, I put down Cinema Paradiso. It’s in Blu-ray now (Oscar-winning, well-preserved quality). It’s about growing up in an Italian village, with the cinema , Cinema Paradiso, as central theme. It was later demolished to make room for a parking lot.…

  • When men cry

    At the last World Cup, the team from Netherlands, who lost, cried. Ten years ago, at the World Trade Center, women and men cried (white dust on black suits). And last night, I cried, while watching The Best of Youth, an Italian saga of a family coming of age since the 60’s. So much idealism,…

  • Things we wish we could take with us

    When at Indian Town Gap in 1975, I was busy helping out at the Bureau of Child Welfare so time passed rather quickly. But not for my fellow countrymen. Many sat there worried: how were they going to make it in America, that winter was coming. Many hurried weddings took place at the camp chapel. …

  • cyclo in the time of google

    By now, you can still see a few weather-beaten cyclos around albeit restricted to tourist quarters. I still remember the sound of horse carriage in the streets of  old Saigon. My kid will be lucky if she knows what a cyclo is. She knows Google though. Paperless and painless search. Now with semantic search. My…