Shock Value II

I don’t know if anyone knows this, but I’ve been following Timbaland since way back in the day. Back when the illest crew of 90s Hip-Hop and R&B was him, Missy, Aaliyah, and Ginuwine (Yeah, remember “Pony“?!). I must say he has reinvented himself many times throughout the years and I’ve come to appreciate what he’s come up with. As I sit here studying while listening to a leak of his latest album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value II, I must say that although I still support him and his music, this LP left me slightly disappointed. Not disappointing in terms of whether or not a song was good, but more about the production quality that Tim is usually known for. Before I get into it, let’s back track to how his sound has changed.

Late 90’s: You remember the joints:

“Are You That Somebody” – Aaliyah
“Make It Hot” – Nicole Wray & Missy
“What About Us” – Total & Missy
“What’s So Different” – Ginuwine

I remember listening to some of these songs when I was like, 13 years old and never realizing why they all sounded similar yet original at the same time. They all had this element about them. As I got a bit older I realized it was because Timbaland had produced them all and these artists consistently showed up in each other’s songs (all on Blackground records too, I believe). Anyway, the sound across these tracks was very distinct. They were pretty slow-tempo for the most part, but all had this “bump factor”. They all had a conglomerate of beats coupled with a lot of strange sounds looping in the background such as crying babies, beatboxing/”ficky-ficky”-ing, or hell, a sample of a screaming Godzilla. He definitely distinguished his sound from any other tracks out at the time.

Early 2000’s: During this time, I think Tim starting sampling a lot more and had his tracks include a lot of instruments resembling Southeast Asian/Indian instruments. He also made some crazy weird loops that would sound completely horrendous without the bass beat or the artists rapping and singing over them.

“We Need A Resolution” – Aaliyah
“Ugly” – Bubba Sparxxx
“Ching Ching” – Ms. Jade & Nelly Furtado
“All Y’all” – Featuring Magoo & Tweet

However, he still sounded like Timbaland, keeping his funky beats and looping of spooky voices:

“Dirt Off Your Shoulder” – Jay-Z
“Cry Me A River” – Justin Timberlake
“Gossip Folks” – Missy Elliot

Late 2000’s: Probably between ‘02 and ‘05 you saw Tim still producing for people, but probably on a lower scale. He had his hits here and there, but nothing explosive and no huge changes. That is, until he teamed back up with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado in ‘06, which seemed to skyrocket all three of their careers. This is where I consider he made the biggest changes in his sound, going from a slow/moderate-paced tempo with foreign-sounding loops and stepping into what I consider almost like a space-sounding, dance-pop rhythm. This could possibly be due to his collaborative work with his protege, Danja, who did a lot of the drum programming that gave the beats this futuristic, yet classic sound. He also started using more synthesizers as well as trance/techno sound effects at faster tempos that helped differentiate him in the Hip-Hop. I like to consider the bridging of these music genres as “Hip-Pop” — they were definitely made for the clubs.

Obvious examples are:
“Promiscuous” – Nelly Furtado
“SexyBack” – Justin Timberlake
“Ice Box” – Omarion
“The Way I Are” – Ft. Keri Hilson & D.O.E.
“AYO Technology” – 50 Cent & Justin Timberlake

From this point on until the present day, he collaborated with a lot of different artists, particularly outside of the Hip-Hop genre such as Madonna, Chris Cornell, Duran Duran, throwing elements of his distinguish sound onto their instrumentation.

And that brings me to this latest album. His first Shock Value album encompassed all of what I just wrote and described, but sadly, part II is sort of the same thing. Now, he’s got some really catchy tunes on here with an A-list group of collaborators ranging from Drake, JT, The Fray, Daughtry, and friggin’ Miley. However, I don’t see any huge changes in his production. His drum programming is still consistent with what he’s been doing, and the use of synthesizers is still there. Perhaps the biggest disappointment was that because he is such a renowned producer who’s seen it all the last 15 years or so, he still managed to rely on the heavily overused Auto-Tune. Don’t get me wrong, Tim’s voice has always been put through a vocoder to sound robotic/futuristic when he ad-libs over songs, so in some ways he contributed to it’s popularity. Nothing terribly wrong with it because a hit is a hit, and he’s definitely got a lot more signature traits to his music to back it up. I guess I just expected more from a producer with such a “track record”, especially after Jay-Z, one of his long-time collaborators and reputable MC himself, called out its overuse.

Oh well, it is what it is. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it, right? It works for him and the songs aren’t terrible. Here are some of my favorites:

“Carry Out” Ft. Justin Timberlake
“Meet In Tha Middle” Ft. Bran’Nu (aka Brandy’s new rap alter-ego)
“Say Something” Ft. Drake
“Tomorrow in a Bottle” Ft. Sebastian and Chad Kroeger of Nickelback (WTF, right?)
“Long Way Down” Ft. Daughtry

 

Still Not A Player

Big Pun (RIP) said it best: “I’m not a player, I  just crush a lot.” I take this particular lyric very seriously. Not the uncensored version where ‘crush’ is replaced by ‘f**k’, but what these words truly mean when you read it for the first time. Somehow it has served a lot of truth with the way my life has turned out the last few years.

What I’ve always failed to understand is what constitutes being a “player.” How is it defined, and what causes people to label a man as such? Is it his track record of girlfriends? Is it his attitude? Or maybe it’s just the way he looks? I have always considered the term to belong to a man who is literally just out to date and sleep with multiple women simultaneously while holding none in higher regard to the other. I define it as guy who goes out and seeks women only for the sake of getting into bed with them with no intentions of a committed relationship and absolutely no regard for any emotions whatsoever. Sounds pretty bad, right? I mean this world is a pretty nasty place, but how many of these guys really exist? Well, according to the female population, a whole lot. And apparently I’m one of them.

My whole take on the dating world is that if you’re able to, get to know someone by whatever means are available. If it works out, great. If not, on to the next one. Doesn’t sound bad, right? Additionally, as long as you are not showing signs of true exclusivity, there is nothing wrong with getting to know more than one person at the same time, as long as all involved are aware of what’s on the table. But if you’re a man, this is somehow frowned upon by women. And you know why? Simply, because we are men.

Let’s face it, if you’re a girl, you can totally get to know as many guys as you want at the same time and move on if you’re no longer interested, all without any bad impressions of you left on society. Why? Because you are not the one who is expected to make the first move and ask someone out. Let’s face it, even though we’re in the 21st century where roles are reversed all the time, it’s typically up to the guy to make a move when he wants to start dating someone. Sounds simple enough, but wait! In the old days, asking someone out was a big deal that genuinely shows when someone is particularly interested in another. It was a sign of exclusivity. But this day and age, asking someone out is part of the game, a game that we men can’t foul out on in the first quarter. Therefore, if a single guy is testing out the waters and happens to meet multiple interesting girls at the same time, he should take them out and get to know them right? It sounds innocent enough, but no matter how you defend yourself, you will be depicted as player-ish. Some women still view it as an exclusive move, since you are in control and will be calling the shots. The sad part is that if you are a traditional male, there is no other way to go about this without facing this depiction.  The only way would be to completely repress any additional interests once you’ve found one, but that rarely happens this day and age. Girls don’t even do that.

And how does this relate to me? Well, in my past, I have been very open minded to the dating world and although I do have a “type” of girl I am partial to, if there is someone who I think may be into me, I don’t discriminate immediately and give most of them a chance. What does that lead to? A whole lot of rumors, that’s what. What started as innocently trying test the waters gets magnified into a “stay away from that guy” stereotype. And I will try to say this without sounding conceited or over-confident, but I honestly think I am a decent-looking guy and it’s pretty known that I am all about having fun. I have reason to believe that with those traits, the player facade gets amplified. I’ve also developed a lot of little crushes that I try to see through. Granted, some physical moments may have ensued during the process, but they were not my initial intentions. These crushes don’t end up working out for reasons I’ll never fully understand, but when you mix those aforementioned personality traits along with this dating strategy in conjunction with rumors, you have some pretty solid ingredients for what most people will depict as a “player.”

But they couldn’t be any further from the truth.

 

The Difference

You know, there are many sayings or phrases that may sound alike, but bare completely different meaning. One can be tired, but can’t sleep. One can be in solitude, but not necessarily lonely. One can be content, but not necessarily happy. But there may be an even bigger difference here that a person, particularly us guys, should consider as one of our the golden rules in this life: Gentlemen, a girl can be satisfied, but not necessarily impressed.

Take a moment to think about all the dates you’ve had. Think about all you’ve done, all the flowers you’ve bought, all the chocolate you ate. Can you remember them all? If you can’t, there is one of two reasons why:

1) You haven’t been on many dates so you haven’t got a clue.
2) You’ve been on so many dates that you haven’t a clue on how much you’ve wasted doing the exact same thing, day in and day out.

I can’t say I am one or the other out of those two options, but with moderate experience, I can say that although the typical deeds are genuinely safe for the female race, it ain’t enough, fellas. Women are complicated and so are we. And we both have to deal with each other. That’s where compromise is the key to coexistence. Let her watch her chick flick if we can watch the game. Let her shop for handbags if we can shop for electronics. Girls Night Out vs. Bachelor Parties. But is that really enough?

Notice how I said that those elements are enough to coexist, and they will (or should) definitely keep her satisfied. But is it enough to impress her? A girl can be satisfied by any guy, but it takes a little something extra to make them impressed by you. It takes a little something extra to keep you on their mind. It takes a little something extra to have them smitten so that they might actually try to impress YOU for a change. So don’t just buy her flowers…find out what her favorite flower is and find a new way of giving it to her. Don’t take her out for her favorite meal…cook her favorite meal for her. Don’t just give her a gift the next time you see her…find a way to leave something in her mailbox.

Satisfaction may get you in the door, but being impressive always keeps you in. Good day, world.

 

This Is It

Saw the MJ movie last night and I must say it was quite…rejuvenating. Like many others, I grew up as a huge MJ fan and hearing/seeing the songs being performed totally brought me back to my childhood. My interest peaked right around the time he released HIStory, when I was about 10 and I could actually be conscious of what being a music fan was about. When that album was released, both MTV and VH1 would run syndication’s of his music videos all day long, which gave me a quite effective history (no pun intended) on the legacy he led prior. Sadly enough, his success was never quite the same after that album like it was during those golden years. That might explain why watching the performances from this supposed-concert was a lot like watching his previous tours; they contained pretty much no songs from the latter decade of his career. It was like watching the Dangerous tour, but revamped for 2009 with newly produced videos and state-of-the-art technology.

Watching this documentary really shows how talented this man was, and that he wasn’t totally crazy. The only thing crazy about him was what he had to deal with due to all the fame. However, it is another example on one of my theories: The greatest musicians in the world all have a little crazy in them. I figure if you weren’t losing your mind at some point you’d run out of substantial material to write about. On top of that, I don’t think you can truly show your greatest passion within the arts without being a little left of the middle. I saw that in myself back during my VSA days when I coordinated the culture show. I think all of my actors, dancers, musicians thought I was nuts for what I was doing/saying/making them do for rehearsals and whatnot. But the end product was one of my most proud moments and if I hadn’t spazzed out during those times, it would have never been that way. So kids, the moral of the story is: Entertainers can’t be normal. So unless you want to entertain yourself, give ‘em a break.

 

Successful.

“Success” can be defined in many ways. And for the most part, it is a pretty subjective definition. I never really thought about what the word means to me until it was challenged in my recent facebook status update.

The third year of pharmacy school at USC is definitely known to be the toughest. The material isn’t crazy-difficult, but it becomes crazy-difficult to manage given the bulk of information and exam schedule. I’ve had an exam almost every single week since the first week of school back in August. It’s even worse when you’re not sure what part of that bulk is testable, not to mention that you must learn most of it yourself due to incompetent lecturers.

So at one of my low points during studying, I was listening to Drake and posted a lyric from his song on my wall: “I just want to be successful.”

Not the most original line, and song’s nature is completely unrelated to my life. However, the principal still remains. All I want is to be successful, and you would think that being at USC School of Pharmacy would surely put me on that path. But I have never questioned my success probability so often until I got here. In my class, I’m the one who has to try *extra* hard to barely make the grades. Sure, all of my classmates stress out about exams and whatnot, but do they really know what it’s like to be on the forefront of being dismissed from the program due to inadequate performance? That’s me, ladies and gentlemen. Adjusting during the first year totally screwed me up and due to policies I had to fight the university to let me stay and prove my worth in the program. Thank God for them giving me a chance and as a result, I redeemed myself the following year. I can proudly say I did pretty well to sit comfortably in the “safe” zone.

But this zone is not as safe as I thought. I have to maintain this upward trend or else I may be put in jeopardy again. It just so happens that this pressure of doing well occurs during the death schedule of a third-year student. While everyone else hating life in this crazy schedule is so burnt out and slowly caring less, I need to stay motivated and pass with high remarks so I can keep moving forward.

It’s times like this I wonder if all this stress is even worth it. The financial payoff will be, which continues to be one of the motivational factors I use. But I’ve always had interests in other areas that’s not pharmacy-related, or even health care-related, for that matter. Perhaps that may be why my performance in school is so low; my mind is on something other than pharmacy half of the time. In fact, I am waiting for the day I become that licensed pharmacist so that I can immediately pursue my hobbies. Whether it be music, graphic design, or just finding a way to be creative…as long as I can do what I love and still make enough money to enjoy friends, family, and God, I will be happy. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my definition of success.

 

2006

So a long time back in one of those viral facebook “25 things” thread, I mentioned that 2006 was one of the happiest years of my life. I had been meaning to elaborate on this fact, but got caught up with life and never managed to write it. After reading this post by Jon, I decided that this was a perfect time to be nostalgic.

MUSIC: If you read Jon’s post, you’ll understand that music played a huge role in my undergrad. But never before have I ever performed for so many functions as I have in 2006. It was this year that I met Charlton, also a pre-pharmacy student who within a few short weeks would eventually become the drummer during my Vietnamese Culture Night performance. Yes…not only did I perform here, but D.Tran and I also coordinated this entire evening that we had envisioned for almost a year. It was, to this day, the one and only time I performed as a solo artist with a full band behind me:

Words cannot explain that feeling: standing before an audience of 400+ individuals on a theatre stage, with semi-pro lighting, and rocking out with three other talented musicians. Granted, it was a Vietnamese song that I performed (my attempts to make fob music sound cool…I called it V-mo–Vietnamese Emo)…but it was still an amazing experience. I also performed with Jon, Won, and Mike that night for the pre-show. JWM did our classic Yellowcard medley (probably our best performance yet)…

…then added Mike for our saucy Boy Band medley and our Boyz II Men-style Star-Spangled Banner…

All of us would go on to perform for school functions following this night, like the ICA Culture Show, and Future PILLS Banquet. I definitely made the most of my final months at UCR. Which brings me to…

GRADUATION: Not much to describe, but it was an accomplishment receiving my Bachelor of Arts in Biology this year. Yes, UC Riverside offered a Bachelor of ARTS in Biology. I remember struggling through the Bio, Ochem, and Physics series thinking, “If I ever make it out of these classes without repeating it, I’ll be damn happy.” Not only did I finish it without failing (something that was quite common at my school), they were some of my best grades (so unlike today). Graduating confirmed that the health care direction was probably a good move for me and kept me going while applying to pharmacy school the next year. Though those 4 years were probably some of the best years of my life, I was quite happy to have been liberated from the city of Riverside.

Strangely enough, I don't talk to many of these people anymore...

FAMILY: The summer of ‘06 was met with lots of family events. Why? Because my cousin Binh, the first of us boys, was about to get hitched! This monumental event allowed:

1) An amazingly peaceful weekend in Seattle where Binh, Viet, and I flew up to stay at Phong’s place at the VA during one of his rotations. This weekend consisted of rafting on the lake, visiting Bruce Lee’s grave, and of course, laying down tracks for Binh’s wedding song to Diem!

Phong was doing a rotation at the VA in Tacoma, Washington next to a lake. Sweet deal!

Boards...don't hit back.

Finished product at www.myspace.com/binhmusic

2) The first bachelor party…in Vegas! Details omitted.

3) And of course, the wedding itself. Took place in sunny San Diego, a few days before my birthday. Most people hate weddings, and being in them can be pretty stressful…but Vu-Tang weddings are always fun. Why? Well, thank Mr. Remy Martin. We performed the song we wrote and recorded in Seattle at the reception. It was here where the nickname “Matthew Dinh on the Violinnnn!” was coined. Haha.

Dressed appropriately with Corona-in-hand.

INTRO TO OC LIFE: Being that this was the intended “year off before grad school”, I decided to reap the benefits of free rent and most-of-the-time free food by moving in with my brother earlier that summer. This year was intended to take some extra classes, apply to pharmacy school, and relax a bit before my life got crazy as it is now. What came with that was my first pharmacy job, that I might not have gotten had Mr. Kevin (my pharmacy “sensei”) not been working the day that application came through his fax. As I got to know the crew at CVS better, I was introduced to the OC nightlife…well, at least the Bolsa OC nightlife. One too many nights at Shark and V2O. Oh and let’s not forget about all those coffee’s I would get every once in awhile.

Yeah...I was a club rat...

CHANG’S FAREWELL: Aaron Chang, one of my closest buddies graduated Fall ‘06 from UCR and was about to move to China for this internship thing (or, more like, working-for-his-uncle thing). So what better way to send him off? BACK TO VEGAS, BABY. This trip was absolutely ridiculous. It took place the weekend before Christmas, shortly after Chang’s last final and a few days before mine at GWC. 10 or 15 of us crammed up in a Mirage suite where we would discover the wonders of Dom Perignon, the probable inspiration for T-pain’s “Bartender”, and learning how to swim in a Caesar’s Fountain. Yeah, Vegas trips are typically full of inside jokes, so there is nothing more I can say. What a better way to send the man off?

This would be the night 3 became 4...

Enter Dj Fongie, ladies and gentlemen...

And that brings me to the end of ‘06. Following this Vegas trip was another great Christmas with the family, followed by a memorable New Year’s Eve at Jon’s place. That party in itself probably deserves a photo post, but since that technically falls into 2007, I will refrain from that.

Sadly enough, although the following years up until now were all special in their own way, nothing has quite been the same since. I shared it with my greatest friends who I probably see only 4-5x a year now. Not to mention the fact that my music-playing has never been even remotely comparable. The worst part of it all? I’m not even sure if what I’m doing now is going to be worth the past 2 years of sacrifice…

 

Hiatus

Wow…I cannot believe it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve posted anything.

Ok, I can believe it. Life gets busy and sometimes you don’t always have time to write in these things. However, I found it remarkable that my last posting occurred while I was still in Europe. You would think I would have said something once I got back to the states. But literally, as soon as I got back my life just started trucking as it usually did and I found other things to keep me busy.

So since I am very lazy, here is a link to my facebook photo album regarding the backpacking portion of my Eurotrip. It was definitely good times with my Norwegian cousins. We managed not to kill each other after 10 grueling days of hostel-ing, train-ing, and uh, drink-ing. All in all it was a good time. See pics for more highlights.

I suppose I should have returned to this blog to write something profound…but it escapes me now. So it will have to wait until another time. Be patient (because I know you check this thing every single day…)

 

Norway

So I got real lazy at posting since I arrived here in Norway…but I figure I better now, seeing as how I will really have no online access for the next 10 days. My cousins and I are about to go on our backpacking trip in a few hours and I can’t be more excited about that. Here are some pics of what I’ve done so far.

Oslo's new Opera house

Walking on the ramp that goes all the way to the top of the roof

In front of the castle where the King of Norway lives. Raised flag means he is home.

Parliament building

A park with naked statues all over the place...body art

The infamous angry baby...supposedly this statue gets stolen every year or so

They start so young these days...

Cousin let me take his gixxer out for a test ride!

Dinner with extended/distant relatives of some sort

My cousins here have been great. They keep telling me Oslo is the most boring place in the world and you can see everything in a matter of hours. I believe them, but the purpose of me visiting here is not to go site-seeing, but simply just to see family. The family dinners and just hanging around talking is more than enough for me. But that has now come to an end and 3 of us are going to start our journey.

Denmark -> Netherlands -> Brussels -> Paris -> London in 10 days.

Here we go! Talk to you all when I get back to the states!

 

Last Night in Budapest

I can’t believe that this time last month I was blogging about leaving the US to work abroad in Hungary. My, has time flown. Although it was only one month, I am finally able to say that I spent a good amount of time living somewhere that wasn’t “home.” I played with the idea of it many times before, but I am very happy to say that I have done it. I have truly learned a lot about myself and the rest of the world since being here. There are a few specifics I can touch up on, but perhaps now is not the time, as I would rather reflect on my final 24-48 hours here:

World Market for souvenir shopping...it was like a Hungarian Phuoc Loc Tho

Back for communist pizza at Marxim's

Pizza with an egg!!!!

Back to Morrison's for free entrance and dollar beers

I'll miss all of you

One of my first non-roommate friends

New arrival from London! Too bad I'm leaving...

Quite the Turkish delight to end the evening.

So all good things come to an end. But what does that mean? New beginnings! Tomorrow morning I will embark on Round 2 of my Eurotrip, and that’s Oslo, Norway to visit my cousins. Following, my cousins and I will be embarking on a 5 country backpacking trip. I can’t wait! Til then, everybody!

 

Wien – Praha

The last few days have been dry of posts because I went for a mini vacation during this vacation. A group of us decided to take a weekend get-away to Vienna, Austria and Prague, Czech Republic. All I can say is that it was AMAZING. Let’s do one at a time.

Vienna: Rated one of the most desirable and beautiful cities to live in the world. And it shows, because it is damn expensive! We only stayed one night there and cut back on going into every museum and building possible because it was so costly. It was also very touristy, as every other person was American or other English speaker. Nevertheless, it was beautiful:

7am Bus Ride to Vienna

Heldenplatz ("Heroes Square")

Natural History Museum

Volkstheater

City Hall

Burgtheater - one of the best guided tours I've ever been on...so much art and history

Beer break.

The Film Festival was held outside in front of the City Hall during this month...huge screen with stadium seating...

Inside Votiv Church...they are all starting to look the same now...

St. Stephan's Cathedral

Opera House

Battle of the Weekend Trips

Parliament by night

Schonbrunn Palace -- Probably the best tourist attraction ever, we spent 4 hours here

Opposite view with the garden, Gloriette Structure, and uh, international lady friends =)

Fun with Mirrors in the garden Labryrinth

Goodbye for now...next stop, Praha

Prague: This is by far, my favorite city ever. By the time we arrived we were so tired and I myself was a little sick of the traditional site-seeing. I just wanted to enjoy the city as it was, and enjoy I did. The quarters of where our hostel was located was perfect: close to the Old Town where you witness the most amazing street/building combination ever. Pictures speak louder than words:

Linkin Park's "From The Inside" was filmed in Prague...it was my theme song as I walked these streets

Astronomical Clock Tower

In front of the Ferrari Cafe

Oh yes...this place had...

Only 4 bucks!

No hallucinations...it tasted like green vanilla ice cream.. -_-

Church outside Prague Castle

Charles Bridge from afar

Later that night we decided to go for a night on the town, since we refrained from doing so in Vienna. And let me tell you this: Prague is probably one of the best party cities ever. The drinks are dirt cheap (beers like 3 bucks and cocktails 4 or 5) and there are tons and tons of bars/pubs/discos (oh man I’m saying ‘disco’ instead of ‘club’ now) all within not only walking-distance, but stumbling-distance. There were so many we didn’t know what to choose, so what did we do? A Pub Crawl.

For those of you don’t know what this word means, it’s pretty much an official way of saying “Bar hopping.” We paid this promotion company about $20 USD for the admission fee which entitle us to: unlimited beers at the first bar, free shots at each location (4 total), and VIP access at each stop. Not half bad if you ask me…it was more so for the experience instead of the perks. It was awesome meeting with people from all over the world and going to each place with them. Here are some pics:

The first stop, the official Pub Crawl bar: Free Absinth shot and unlimited beer!

New friends from South Africa.

Last disco stop...a club with 5 different levels, 5 different types of music. AMAZING.

Last pic...dance floor reminded me of Area hahah

Those are pretty much the highlights of my weekend. I have lots more pictures that will all be posted eventually on facebook. I just realized I need to start uploading them because once I get back I will surely get preoccupied by school business. I have exactly 1.5 days left here in Budapest! On Wednesday I will be leaving to visit my aunts and uncles in Oslo, Norway, and the following week my cousins and I will embark on our backpacking trip across 5 more countries. Eurotrip Round 2 is about to begin!