Showing posts with label am nhac my. Show all posts
Showing posts with label am nhac my. Show all posts

Thursday, April 14, 2022

My Vietnamese childhood and teenage days: From Vietnamese poetry recitals to Chopin and then Joni Mitchell

 Both sides now, and the circle game.  

Yes, that was part of my teenage days in Saigon, pre-1975.  There was a young, teenage Chinese actress who sang Joni Mitchell's Circle Game to me in a Chinese movie. 

Our house was near a cinema theater named Rap chieu bong Thanh Van, duong Le van Duyet Saigon gan cho Hoa Hung.  

Joni was so down-to-earth and sincere and expressive and meaningful.  She delivered songs of the heart: those beautiful notes and symbolic words, typifying the musical soul of contemporary America in transition: the latter half of the 20th century: the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, assassinations, hippies and beatniks, bell-bottom pants and long-sleeved T-shirts, dancing a gogo, etc. 

Yes, all those did get to a free South Vietnam, pre-1975. There was the countryside burnt with warfare, and divisiveness of the people, but there was also the hope of the middle-class...


 



Sunday, December 12, 2021

FIRST ASIAN WOMAN AT GRAMMY, TONY

Phụ nữ  Á đầu tiên đước giải Grammy là Lea Salonga, người gốc Phi, NĂM 2018 khi cô đã 47 tuoi. Cũng thế, với giải Tony thập niên 90.  Đây là hai giải thưởng về nghệ thuật trình diễn và giúp vui  cuả Mỹ: ÂM NHẠC/ĐIÃ HÁT VÀ KỊCH NGHỆ. 

https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/lea-salonga/243521  -- Miss Saigon