My name is Terry and this is my blog.

I am currently living in Los Angeles.

I like films, music, and don't even get me started on long walks on the beach.

I don't read a lot of books, but am always fishing for book recommendations.

My parents are Vietnamese and I was born in America.

That's all you really need to know upfront.

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Lil Ceesco aka Francis Huynh

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Keith Schofield
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Mitch Glaser

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Wednesday, November 30th

Winding Down

music: keep it off the record, off the record
mood: solid

WORK IN PROGRESS - CHECK AGAIN TOMORROW FOR EDITS (Mostly formatting)

So the year is coming to an end and December is upon us, the vulture that it is. The thing I love most about December is the plethora of year-end lists and reviews.

To that end, the VKLJ is no different from any of these other sites and publications. Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting some kind of superlative. Daily. So if you haven't bookmarked this shit by now, now's the time.

Today's superlative is what I will call "The Best Fucking Weekend in San Dieg, CA (2005)"

The story will be presented as an IM conversation between my friend Keith and his friend, who will remain anonymous. I didn't bother to change the names, though I did edit a small part of the story due to some legal issues.

Begin Keith's email to a friend:

man how to sum it up -

I drove down w/ Terry and this guy Mike. We pick up Matt along the way and then head out to the "strip" - the Gaslamp area was pretty much like the Santa Monica promenade or downtown Pasadena; very frat. Andy and his San Diego friend Jared meet up with us, as does one of Matt’s military friends - he was with us that night Matt couldn't get into Beauty Bar 'cause he was wearing shorts. Anyway - we all head to this bar and we can't get in because the Cod is wearing sandals - this is coming from the guy who told us all to dress up for "clubbing"....

at this point I trail off writing a cohesive summary and so here's the transcript of an all-over-the-place IM:

hoj: hey
hoj: how was san diego?
keith: whatsup?
keith: awesome
keith: insane
keith: craziest night I've had in a while
hoj: really?
hoj: what happened?
keith: we all got wasted -
keith: after the bar closed -
keith: we went back to the hotel -
keith: and wandered into this lesbian party
keith: pride week
hoj: what!!!
hoj: holy shit
keith: and just being out of control
keith: got kicked out - but cleared out their minibar
keith: then went down to the hotel bar - which was closed - and tried to get some drinks -
hoj: wait, you guys took stuff from their hotel minibar?
hoj: did they know?
keith: they said "help yourself to a beer"
keith: and so I grabbed 7, one for all of us -
keith: and they said "hey, don't clean us out" -
keith: i didn't realize it was a minibar
hoj: HAHA
keith: then just little shit throughout the night -
keith: breaking glasses at the bar
keith: hitting on girls
keith: knocking over signs
hoj: wait, so did you get drinks at the hotel bar?
keith: totally out of control
keith: just soda
hoj: oh ok
hoj: haha, sounds fun
keith: yeah it was dope
keith: slept the next day until 3pm
hoj: wow, i cant believe you found a lesbian party
keith: yeah it was hilarious
hoj: how the hell did you wander into a party in a hotel room
hoj: how did you even find it
keith: Matt -
keith: and Andy -
keith: they heard noise, so knocked on the door (Terry, Mike and I were just coming in)
keith: they said "You're making a lot of noise, so you could either keep it down or let us in"
keith: most of the girls were pretty hot
hoj: wow, holy crap man
keith: there was one totally butch -
hoj: ive never heard of anyone doing anything like that, except on TV or something
keith: and I, being an idiot, not knowing she was a girl, asked "what's it like being the only guy at a party full of girls" - which is a stupid thing to sat if she was a guy
keith: and then, she answered awkwardly, in a very feminine voice
keith: so stupid
hoj: dude, are you kidding
keith: but she was wearing a har and sunglasses
keith: no
keith: but I quickly changed subject -
hoj: she was so butch that you perceived that she was a man
hoj: jesus christ
keith: yeah
keith: or rather, like a 15 year old boy
keith: anyway, we got kicked out -
keith: cause two girls went off to the bedroom
hoj: so were any of them heterosexual?
hoj: the girls i mean
keith: and Mat and Jared has the bright idea to go into the bedroom to see some lesbo action
hoj: HAHA, ok
hoj: so thats what got you guys kicked out
keith: I was comletely unaware what was going on
keith: yeah, they said "okay, wer'
keith: we're going to bed, party's over."
keith: "...and help yourself to some beer"
keith: all lesbians
keith: and Mike was guzzling their Hypnotiq (the blue liquer)
hoj: wow, what a crazy story....i guess that was the crazy Matt weekend you were expecting though
keith: and when we got back to our room, he spilled it all over himself
hoj: haha, that stuff is gross
keith: and I kept thinking, where did he get Hypnotiq?
hoj: hynotic
keith: couple more:
keith: at the bar - Terry is lamenting that he can't meet girls and that there's no Asian girls there. Within 5 mins, this group of probably the 5 hottest Asian girls come up and sit down right next to Terry. We're nudging him, and then one of the girls begins to talk to Terry - it was hilarious
keith: nothing happened, though
hoj: who is terry
hoj: is he asian?
keith: yeah -
hoj: oh ok
keith: he was at the Millionaires party
keith: also:
keith: the bar was emptying out, and Mike noticed this girl eating a lollipop.


Mike: Whoa, check out that girl with the lollipop.
Me: Watch this. (I walk over to the girl)
Me: So, you're eating a lollipop. How's that working out for you?
(girl walks away).
Me: You guys missed it! I totally hit on the girl with the lollipop!


keith: eh maybe you had to be there. I thought it was the funniest thing.
hoj: haha
hoj: man, that is a pretty crazy story
keith: yeah
hoj: so you went to sleep about the same time the sun came up
keith: well like 5am
keith: Matt got up at 7:30 to go to the job fair
keith: dude is insane.
hoj: jeez
hoj: so thats why he was in SD?
hoj: for a job fair?
keith: Don't even know why he got a room - he lives like an hour away from SD
hoj: haha, yeah, not even, right
keith: We woke up after he came back
hoj: and did he get a job?
keith: interviews the next day (today)
hoj: i see
keith: yeah

And if you still don't believe it, believe it now:

PICT0013 (116k image)

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the 5 hot Asian girls that sat next to me at the bar. Have I ever lied to you, my sweet?



terry on 11.30.05 @ 06:32 PM PDT [link]


Monday, November 28th

ZEWEER

mood: Tired of trying to be clever . . . .

So I just watched the latest Weezer video "Perfect Situation" and decided that I will be smiling for the next couple of days. Straight. Take advantage of it.

ELISHA (57k image)

terry on 11.28.05 @ 07:20 PM PDT [link]


Sunday, November 27th

Other Masterpieces . . .

mood: Dreading Monday

So aside from Harry Potter, I was able to catch two other classic films this weekend at the New Beverly Theater - Days of Heaven and Badlands, both directed by Terrence Malick. People have complained that his films are slow and meditative, but I actually thought these films moved pretty quickly and were very story-driven. I was lucky enough to see these films on the big screen and what a difference that made, as the cinematography in both is just beautiful. If you haven't seen either film, I suggest waiting to see it on the big screen. Check your local listings.

It was weird because when I showed up to the theater the cashier said the theater was temporarily closed because of a black-out on Beverly Blvd. Instead of going home I decided to walk around for 20 minutes, crossing my fingers the whole time, and luckily when I got back to the theater the block had regained power. I got a medium Sprite and I sat in the front row. The New Beverly theater is a place for loners.

Also of note, I finished a book - Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Quite the accomplishment as the last book I finished was Platform by Michel Houellebecq. Some failed attempts have included Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem. I mostly read magazines and the Internet, but am slowly getting back into non-fiction and novels. Currently I'm on page 86 of Lolita and my frmr college roommate Ibrahim recently sent me The Four Agreements, which I'm looking forward to reading. If you have any recommendations, feel free to make use of the comments section.


terry on 11.27.05 @ 11:42 PM PDT [link]

Difficult Times

music: and one day we will die and our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
mood: sleeping way too much, again

Possible Spoiler Alert - If you have not see the new Harry Potter film, best to skip this blog entry for now . . . .

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with my friend Mike. I decided not to go home to Pennsylvania for the holiday and despite the initiations of two other parties (reason for turning them down: social anxiety) I felt it was best to just go to Chinatown for dinner and then off to the biggest blockbuster film of the moment. I liked the previous films (the 3rd one being my favorite of the three before) so I was excited to see the new one, by Mike Newell, whose work I've enjoyed (Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral).

So now I have to admit that the new Harry Potter film is now one of my top ten favorite films of all time. Not since Babe: Pig in the City has a film aimed towards the younger crowd captivated me with its magic and charm. The brilliance of the film lies in the balance of exploring the themes of adolescence while delivering the special effects-driven storyline. The kids are growing up and not only are they now realizing the responsibilities that their powers have bestowed upon them, but they also have to deal with other adolescent demons such as jealousy, the opposite sex and all the other insecurities that define early adulthood.

In a film that could easily be bogged down by spectacle and story, there were many subtleties that spoke volumes. The one scene of pure brilliance was after Hermione had just chewed out Ron outside of the Ball, and as Jarvis Cocker (!!!!) crooned "Magic Works," we see the frustrated Hermione sit on the steps and with tears take off her shoes. As if to say she isn't ready for any of this, as if to say that the idea of love isn't what it's cracked up to be. It was so subtle and so pure that I cried.

Mike and I were talking about the films last night as we were driving home from a party and he was talking about how he's been watching them again from the beginning and how much he realized that they were speaking to our current situation. In particular he mentioned a scene in which Harry stares into a mirror where he can watch his parents and Dumbledore tells him that watching them will not bring them back. In the Goblet of Fire, Harry's parents reappear at the final battle and help him defeat the evil Lord Voldemort, and when Harry explains to Dumbledore his vision, Dumbledore gently reminds him that they'll never be coming back. The poignancy of all the films is that while we are made to believe that the possibilities of magic and wizardry are endless, we are also reminded that there are certain impossibilities in life (for Harry it's his parents, for us it's girlfriends) and the only remedy is growing up, difficult as it may be.

Last thing: "Magic Works" by the Weird Sisters plays at the very end of the credits, during all the technical listings, but the song is excellent, so it's worth your while to stick around for it.


terry on 11.27.05 @ 03:04 PM PDT [link]


Wednesday, November 23rd

Shows

music: T-Rex Acoustic
mood: TGIW

Hey - so I went to the Animal Collective show last nite at the El Rey Theater. It was like watching Sigur Ros on crack. Enjoyable.

I've been going to a lot of shows lately -

Okkervil River and Band of Horses at the Echo.

Against Me! at the El Rey.

Wintergreen at the Troubadour.

Microphones at the Troubadour.

So far the best show this year has been Okkervil River at the Echo, although Against Me! is really good live. Check'em out when you get a chance and if you want, you can post your favorite show of this year in the comments section.

Have a safe and happy Thansgiving.

terry on 11.23.05 @ 08:52 AM PDT [link]


Tuesday, November 22nd

Sorry, It's Been So Long . . .

music: Down in Albion
mood: I remember when . . . .

In September and October of last year, I was in Thailand working as an assistant editor on my then-roommate's film “Journey from the Fall.” As one of the assistant editors, I was responsible for supervising the telecine sessions (the process of transferring the image captured on film negative to videotape). The telecine sessions were taking place in Bangkok while the rest of the production took place in a country-side province - Nakon Nayok . My memory wants to tell that the two places were 2-3 hours away from each other. For two weeks in the beginning of the shoot I was shuttling back and forth between the two places, troubleshooting all the technical issues (NTSC vs PAL) at the telecine house (where only 3 people spoke English) and getting yelled out by both the director and DP becasue the film wasn't dark enough (eventually it looked like The Godfather pt 2). And the sessions always happened after midnight because the producer didn’t bother to schedule in advance.

The time I spent away from set ultimately alienated me from the rest of the crew but it also casted me as the lucky guy who got to go to Bangkok daily. While the telecine house did serve alcohol (and fresh muffins) during our sessions, there were only a few times when I went ahead of schedule and got to explore the city with one of the translators, a former film student who spoke decent English. I remember now the clubs, the late night meals, the long quiet van ride back to the resort reading Houellebeq's "Platform," and how I quietly crawled back into the bed as to not wake my then-girlfriend, who was working as an accountant on the film.

One night I was asked to go Bangkok an extra four hours early as I needed to drop off a can of negative to be developed. I had to go by myself as the translator had other transportation issues to take care of, and for whatever reason the can of negative had to be developed and processed ahead of the scheduled telecine session. I wasn't going to complain.

After dropping off the negative at the lab, I asked the driver to take me to one of the more popular night markets – Silom. My translator had taken me here a week prior and it was the kind of place where you could get a very nice knock-off Bathing Ape t-shirt for 5 bucks and Jay-Z’s “Black Album” for 3 bucks. The energy of the market was always inspiring, though I kept mostly to myself the whole time I was wandering around, I didn’t bother looking for other English speaking tourists, nor did I bother to indulge in any of the flirtations that were thrown at me (and this happened on many occasions, but this is another blog entry). I wound up walking off the safe track/commerce side of the market into the more seedy side, where club promoters were throwing leaflets at me, asking if I was interested in threesomes or teenage girls. The clubs were pumping American music and the streets were lined with Thai girls and sweaty European men. In one of the more surreal moments of my life I remember grabbing a drink at an outside bar that was blaring REM’s “Daysleeper," as I watched the pretty parade go by.

Time was winding down and I soon had to go back to the telecine house. On the way back to the cab rank, I stopped by a CD stand. I knew what I was looking for but really doubted that the Thai’s would have it. The cd’s were organized alphabetically but in layers on top of each other, so the Jay-Z album may be hidden underneath the Jamiroquai album, which made browsing even more difficult. On a whim I lifted the John Lennon album to ultimately find what I was looking for - The Libertine’s second-self-titled album, which was released only a week before in the UK.

By the time I was in Thailand the band had been all over the English papers in light of Pete Doherty’s jail time and drug abuse. Supposedly at the time I was in Bangkok, Pete had fled a Thai monastery, Wat Thambrakok, where he was trying to kick his heroin habit. He retreated to a Bangkok hotel where he paid the bellboys to buy him heroin and eventually escaped by sneaking out in a laundry basket. I had burned the Libertines’ first album, Up The Bracket, off of my brother a few months before and it was one of the few albums that I had put on my then girlfriend’s laptop. The online reviews of the new record were very favorable, so I was eager to get my hands on it.

So back at the telecine session I had the producer play the cd in a small stereo system that was independent of the machines we were using. For 3 hours I let it play on a loop while we went through our session. Those 3 hours would become one of those transforming musical experiences – like the time I saw Suede perform "Metal Mickey" on Leno or the time in high school when I rode my bike to the local used cd store to find a promotional advanced copy of Pulp’s “Different Class.” I can remember the goosebumps when the chorus of "Can't Stand Me Now" kicked in - If you wanna try, if you wanna try, there's no worse you could do . . . I know you lie, I know you lie, I'm still in love with you . . . .

“Can’t Stand Me Now” would become my single of the year (2004) and thus began my strange celebrity fascination with Pete Doherty (other celeb fascinations include Winona Ryder, Jarvis Cocker and coincidentally Kate Moss, a 2 for 1 deal ha ha ha). It’s easy to slag Doherty off as a junkie who became famous (state-side at least) by dating the world’s most famous supermodel, but listening to those first 2 Libertines albums as well as the excellent “For Lovers” which he did as “Wolfman,” you can definitely sense what Hedi Slimane called “a really exciting time in punk rock.”

Anyways, the point of the story is that I received the new Babyshambles album, "Down in Albion," in the mail today and after listening to it, I was transported back to one of the happiest times in my life.

Good music does that to you sometimes.

(p.s. we'll always have Bangkok . . . .)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Postscript - In the middle of the production we moved our base to Chantaburi, a more industrialized area compared to Nakon Nayok. The hotel where we stayed had a stereo system that broadcasted in the elvators and outside hallways. I had developed quite the repoire with the hotel staff and to make a long story short - if you're ever at the Caribou Highland Hotel in Chantaburi and you hear "Can't Stand Me Now" playing in the elevators - you know who to thank.



terry on 11.22.05 @ 12:14 AM PDT [link]


Monday, November 14th

Hear me out . . . . .

music: to follow . . .
mood: salutory

It starts out quiet. But give it a listen. Turn down your speakers at work if needed.

says what needs to be said.

Idha's cover of Primal Scream's "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" used to play here.


terry on 11.14.05 @ 10:21 AM PDT [link]


Friday, November 4th

Talking About Music and Stuff

music: DCFC
mood: Settled

So it's official -

VKLJ's Track of the Year is "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie. Sorry to Gwen Stefani's "Cool" and Wolfman's (ft. Pete Doherty) "For Lover's" who will now be fighting for the 2nd place spot. Unless Badly Drawn Boy comes out with "Silent Sigh pt. 2" or Blur writes the sequel to "Tender," I'm sticking with Mr. Gibbard.

Some other good tracks I've been listening to of late - "Magic Works" by Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead, otherwise known as the Wyrd Sisters, otherwise known as the Harry Potter Song, "Number One" by Goldfrapp, "The Greatest" by Cat Power, "Get Big" by Okkervil River, "Don't Lose Touch" by Against Me!, "Hate It or Love It" by the Game, "Golddigger" by Kanye West, and 2 leaked songs leaked from the upcoming Strokes album "First Impressions of Earth." The songs are "Razor Blade" and "I'll Try Anything Once" which may or may not be the proper track names. Youth Group's cover of Aphaville's "Forever Young" is good too, but is disqualified from the list because it was used on "The OC," a show I used to like, but cannot watch anymore because it reminds of things that I would rather not be reminded of.

Post your favorite track of the year in the comments section to affirm how fucking hipster you are. Did I just say hipster? Was I being ironic?

terry on 11.04.05 @ 02:02 PM PDT [link]