I always wanted a weeping guitar

Since high school I always wanted to be in a band and be the lead guitar player. I spent hours playing my air guitar to the music of Journey, AC/DC, The Who and other groups from the 1970's and 80's. 

It was not until my freshman year at the University of Puerto Rico that I started to play with the idea of acquiring a guitar. I was determined and talked to other freshmen about taking guitar lessons and what would be their advise on this while I watched them played theirs in the Estudios Generales' stairs. I was resolved to learn how to play a guitar. My enthusiasm to learn had no limits at that time, every Friday I visited a book shop in Old San Juan where I bought Carlos Montoya's tapes for 3 USD each; I spent hours listening to these tapes on my daily commute from Rio Piedras to Toa Baja.  

After looking at different newspaper ads, in Fall of 1984 I visited Casa Margarida (a music shop) located in Plaza las Americas. The guitars section was at the end of the store where they had a lot of brands and kinds. I grabbed a Yamaha C-170A and played it a little, just a few chords that I learned watching others played at Estudios Generales. Definitely this was the guitar that I wanted. It was a classical guitar and its colors were bright and it had varnish.

My guitar teacher was a Music Master Student also from the University of Puerto Rico. His studio was located at Dr Stahl Street in Baldrich. I enrolled in his study program and I lasted with him for two years. Although I was eager on learning new songs, most of the time he spent it playing tunes with my guitar or asking me to follow his lead with some chords. I remember that the first song I learned was Tengo unos ojos negros. It was one of the most boring songs I ever played because it only has  two chords as most of the songs I learned from him. The only songs that I learned and enjoyed playing were Dust in the Wind and Spanish Romance, an easy version. He never taught me to read whole notes or the scales. After two years of classes I told him that I will not continue taking any more classes. I felt disappointed and discouraged at the same time.

I never tried to look for another music professor or for books to learn by myself; I did not know where to look anymore. My Yamaha C-170A laid in a guitar case forever. Sometimes, I took her out and played the same old tunes. If guitars were meant to feel pain and sorrow, probably mine would have felt that I abandoned her completely.

26 years I met another Yamaha and a Fender Acoustic and these are my best companions. This time I did not made the same mistake, this time I am playing music and reading notes the way it should have meant to be. This time, a young teacher is teaching me how to play music for real; specially medieval, renaissance, and baroque.

My Passion For Books, The beginning

People who know me are aware of my favorite hobbies, two of the many I have is listening to National Public Radio and read certain books. I have a good friend in DC, whom I consider one of the brightest people that I have ever known, that is too aware of my listening streak on Stitcher and my obsession in reading all about Supreme Court history. He thinks that my obsession with these two topics is a pathological problem.

When I was on my early teens,  I had no much of saying of which books I would like to read. I remember having books that people gave me that I did not found interesting or did not feel its vibe. I remember one of them titled The Making of Star Trek which was bought in Bell Book and Candle, a bookstore located at De Diego Avenue and Wilson Street before filed for bankruptcy in the mid 1980's. I did memorized its pictures, but its contents was written in an English that I did not understood. However, I do remember reading Star Trek Collection books published by Bantam Books. I do not remember its stories or if I truly understood its plot. While living in Miramar, Puerto Rico, I decided to pay a visit to a small book store in Fernandez Juncos Ave and Monserrate Street in Santurce, Puerto Rico. The bookstore was on the first floor and was owned by a Cuban family that dedicated its life to sell books since their exile to Puerto Rico. I spent an hour going through its shelves until I stopped on my favorite subject: Ancient Greek History. Since I had only 10 dollars with me,  I chose Ancient Greek Anthology in Spanish. This was the first book I bought and it felt good. It was the the summer of 1983 and my passion for books will grow from there to the present.

Currently I am reading a book about Free Speech and Pornography by Prof. Nadine Strossen and if you already read my Spanish blog (Aficionado al Derecho) I book reviewed Sidney Powell's Licensed to Lie.... On my reading bucket list I mentally wrote my next reading: Mourning Lincoln by Martha Hodes. Of course, I heard Prof. Hodes' interview about her book in the Dianne Rehm Show podcast and me picó la curiosidad (as we say in Puerto Rico).