Hard Rock Cafe
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You will find a bunch of Filipino bands around Saigon, from Hard Rock Cafe to Acoustic. When the British rock bands gained noteriety in America back in the 60’s, the phenomenon was coined The British Invasion. Now Vietnam is experiencing similar invasion by their neighbors. They got the language (English), the look (still brown-skinned), and the connection (E2…
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Saigon wasn’t built or planned for 10 million (back in the 50’s, its population was 1 million). And certainly not when scooters are on fire as happened lately. Raging hot. World in flame. Flashback of Monk Thich Quang Duc protesting dictatorship (Tunesian’s style). I fight for my jogging lane, negotiating between the sidewalk and the drainage. It’s a…
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Rage, rebellion and Rock seem to fit together. Gone were Happy Days and the Mamas & Pappas. As soon as we got color television, it were as if innocence had vanished along with the Black- and- White TV sets. Rage against the machine. Against materialism and modernity. Against the wind (symbolically speaking). Rock, or stone, needs to roll. Rolling Stone.…
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Platoon, Thelma and Louise, Star Wars etc.. this time, in Blu-ray. Translation: making money twice on the same repackaged product. It’s as if the banquet hall offers to cater for your wedding the second time around. Or your high school decides to hold a prom again (this time, it’s even more difficult to get a…
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1976. Washington D.C. Belt-bottom pants and boom-boxes. The city was predominantly black. 2011 Washington D.C. Gentrified, half-black and half others.And that’s just one stat in the 2010 data. Asian population in Arizona, Texas and elsewhere like Philadelphia should surprise any demographer. While America went to war in Europe, European ended up at America’s shores. Then…
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The brand is revitalized and resuscitated here in Saigon. If not for the helmets, I would think it is a replay of A Roman Holiday. Back then, the burning monk was pouring gasoline on himself and asked a younger monk to lit the fire. He earned a memorial in that intersection. Another Buddhist temple a few…
Thang Nguyen 555 