Katipunan’s latest boarder

as we all know, Katipunan Avenue is home to some of the best schools in the Philippines. You can pass by Miriam College, AdMU, and UP all in one Aegis birit-fest song chorus. and to the business minded, this could only mean income.

I think Katipunan is one big foodcourt. you have the high-end coffee shops (last count: 5), manang kendi and fishballs, fastfood chains, pizza, home cooked meals, small and cozy restaurants, American, Persian, Chinese… lahat na! and now there’s a new boarder — Mushroomburger!

Mushroomburger now occupies what used to be a Jollibee franchise right beside National Bookstore. When Red Ribbon closed their branch, Jollibee moved into its new building and vacated its old location. since Mushroomburger is now directly on the ‘babaan’ of commuters and those taking the overpass, (plus because it’s new!) people have been flocking to the store, myself included!

i never got the chance to eat in their original store in tagaytay so on its second day in katipunan, i decided to have breakfast. it was around 7:30. and the place was practically empty. and the crew were rushing to accommodate the couple on the counter. another man was reading his newspaper, seated in one of the rows of tables and chairs in the store, waiting for his order (he had a number on his table). i could already hear them say, “rice bowl lang po available for breakfast.” and “10 mins. pa po eh...”, etc.

handcrafted Filipino violins… that i can’t afford! LOL

finally found out how to commute papunta kina Mang Anghel from PHILCOA. andali lang pala! isang jeep lang sasakyan… yun lang P30 ang pamasahe at masakit sa pwet ang mahabang byahe. i think it’s just about an hour papunta sa kanila (4PM ako umalis ng PHILCOA at walang traffic. di din gaano hayok sa pasahero si manong driver kaya siguro mabilis ang byahe) at pagbaba mo sa jeep, konting lakad lang (as in wala pang 100 meters) eh shop na nila!

konting kuwentuhan, konting silip-silip sa mga current project, but the best part of my visit was that i got to play one of his creations! it’s a violin he made way back 1994 and he’s selling it for 80 tawsan pesosesoses! actually, may kukuha na daw nun. sabi ko eh post ko na lang pics, baka sakaling may kumuha ng 90k or 100k. haha…

The 80 thousand-peso violin:

flames sa likod. sorry for the flash. point-and-shoot lang camera ko. wala ako magawa sa flash.

as you can see, it’s 2 pieces of wood glued together. the ideal setup is that they should match/complement eachother. even if they don’t exactly match, the flames are still beautiful to look at with the varnish.

German Strad copy for repair

Mang Anghel said this is owned by someone in the medical profession and has been in their family for quite some time. i’m not sure how musically inclined they are but this must be a really treasured piece for them to have it restored instead of left dismembered.

a new violin, made-to-order by the Kabayaos’ neighbor(?)

this piece is brand new needs a lot of work, still. fingerboard, tailpiece, the pegs and end button must be glued and then the whole thing varnished. 😀

and finally, i took pictures of the labels he puts inside his violins. commonly, parchment is used and then this is stuck to the body of the violin. mang anghel ‘engraves’ his name into a piece of wood and then attaches it to his creations.

This one reads “Angelo M. Gabute; Luterio Violino, Tala CCMM Anno 2010”

the other, “Angelo M. Gabute; Dalla Liuteria Italiana; CCMM Anno 1994”

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my forum entry as posted (with edits) from pinoyviolinist.com ^_^ (tamad magsulat?) LOL

the quest for presinto dose

Last 9 april 2010, a couple of violinists decided to invade Mr. Angel Gabute’s workshop to have their violins checked and repaired, myself included. it ended up having mine “confined” in his “clinic” because LJ was too sick. 😦

looking for his workshop was an adventure, too! good thing carl had a car. after fetching the other 3 fiddlers (marc, clay, and ron), they picked me up from PHILCOA at 10AM in front of McDonald’s and we were on our way to Caloocan. from carl’s communication with mang angel, our landmark would be Precinct 12 — a police outpost near his workshop, no directions, no maps. just a street address of the workshop and that landmark.

i checked my phone (good thing i had Google maps installed) and started browsing for directions. but all Google had was until Malaria street and another major road! (yes, there’s a street called Malaria in Caloocan! LOL). from there, we started asking people along the road. we asked one lady about San Isidro, Tala, Caloocan and said “malapit lang yun!” but later realized a Filipino’s idea of “malapit” differs from place to place, not to mention it being relative on its own.

sacrifice

taken during Good Friday, Stations of the Cross procession where some go barefoot.