Paul Anka – Thang Nguyen 555

12/16/2013

Cancer and Career

At Van’s Cafe Ho Chi Minh City, if you stayed til the end of their second set of music, you would no longer hear Truc Vy doing her closing songs. She performed her set last week for the last time. Despite her late-stage throat cancer, she gave her best with composure and courage. I did…

Again

Thought I saw the last of it. Snow again. The element of surprise, overused, lessened with each encore. I saw Paul Anka the other day on PBS. He did it “his way”. And then another encore. Again. The audience was on their feet, not wanting to leave. But then, everything, including good times, has to end.…

Switching the script

On film set, writer is often called out on short notice to fix the dialogue. Something is better left unsaid or sounded odd when in “live” context. In life, we can’t retrace our steps to switch the script. It’s live, and happened once only. There lies the importance of getting the right words first time around. Another…