To the Master...

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"El Dani" 

© Flavio Martín Morante_2007

"A friend is like oneself with another skin", 

Atahualpa Yupanqui. Quote translated from the spanish.

It always have been a certainty for me that one of the key elements of the word friend is not only about been there on the good and the bad times, but also that in either one, the person you consider friend it adds something to your life as you hope always to add to them. In this times where the word friend has been sadly devaluated, it is easy for me to say that from the few friends (real friends) I have, the ones that are still around from way back not only have been on the really shitty as well as the good times, but also have contributed (sometimes without knowing) to the growing of oneself, in the same way you always hope to have contributed to theirs.

One of those cases is one of my two best friends, Daniel, who I have known for 25 years already. It was him who I saw long ago (twenty years maybe) with brushes on one hand and paint on the other making these awesome custom made t-shirts, couple of them which were deeply treasured by me before time (and use) did his part. Like the older brother I never had, I imitated him naively and that is how one day bought my brushes and t-shirts and try to emulate him somehow. No need to say that I never got an inch close to his talent, but for sure thanks to him I was able to open several doors and windows which I have been able to walk and see through time. At the same time, among one of the windows he did open was the musical one. When my musical taste was still in development (a nice way to put it), he was the first person through who I got to hear Eric Clapton and B.B King for the very first time, introduced to me with as a "this is music!. Many of those "this is music" became with time part of what I like to call the "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of My Life".

Today (and the reason to this post) is that as the final touches to my Folk Guitar project for the Paramount Plaza are being done, ready to be dropped on Monday, I found myself thinking on that, and is why I would like to say thanks to him for that. Not only for having been there in some of the best and worst times of my life, but also for giving me more than what he thinks. To you (because sooner or later I know you will read this), I want to dedicated the "Side A" of that guitar with everything it means to me.

The other side goes to my other best friend on his upcoming birthday, Gabriel, who (to make the story short for now) gave me a record once that blowed my head, specially one song, "The Thrill is Gone", which finally I was able to hear live few weeks ago from the hand and voice of its own creator, Mr. B.B King.

To both of them, CHEERS!

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"Folk Art Guitar" 

© Flavio Martín Morante_2012