Welcome to Độc Huyền!

This is my little abode on the internet, where you'll find all sorts of goodies from my humorous (or angsty, depending on circumstances) view on life to reviews of some of the best music you've never heard. I do everything and I'm not good at any of it, but I like to share, and this is my opportunity to do just that.

See About Me for biographical info.

Sections

Personal

• Blog - Treated like a typical blog, but here on PBWiki so that I can have complete control. Hear me talk about life in general, vent, do whatever it is a good Asian does best.
• Photos - Not much to say, pictures being worth a thousand words and all.
• Stuff to know - Random tidbits of information I keep for myself. Useless to everyone else, I'm sure.

Musings

• Music - Videos and recordings of my music, things I think are interesting, articles about the music world. If it's about music in any capacity and I like it, it'll be here
• Poetry - Poetry written or translated by me or even poetry that inspires me.
• Prose - Stories I've written.

Miscellaneous

• Reviews & Mini-Shop - A catalogue of everything I've reviewed as well as other things that I've deemed to be similar. Therefore, expect a pretty good selection of Vietnamese traditional music/hip hop/Asian movies. Most stuff I review will have links to Amazon.com, so if you're interested in it, do me a favor and click the link through me rather than getting it straight off of Amazon. I'll get a commission and maybe feel like reviewing more cool merchandise, and you'll be getting the same things either way. It's clearly a win-win situation.
• Links - For those of you who have to go elsewhere, at least go somewhere cool.

What does "Độc Huyền" mean?

"One string with all words light and heavy

Half a gourd containing a world of sound."

Poem by Văn Tiến Lê, trans. by Jason Nguyen (me)

"Độc huyền" is Sino-Vietnamese for "one string," refering to the Vietnamese "độc huyền cầm" or "đàn bầu," a single-stringed instrument. It is an instrument that I have learned to play and is one that has special importance to me, representing the depth of simplicity in my people's hearts and minds.

Check out my project, The Vietnamese Music Encyclopedia for more information about Vietnamese music than you can shake a stick at.

Why PBwiki?

Why PBWiki? Because these guys are good down-to-earth folk trying to make a living, just like we are, and they put a lot into making a system that is easy to use and yet customizeable enough to keep geeks like me happy.