ANGEL M. GABUTE - FILIPINO LUTHIER

Filipinos are known for producing great music and musicians. Moreover, aside from being a good musician Filipinos are also endowed with great talents for making musical instrument starting from a humble bamboo flute, guitar and even great sounding violins. Yes, Filipinos also have a violin making tradition. From late violin makers like Prudencio and son Alejando "Mang Diding" Cruz and others to the present masters like Amador Tamayo and Angel Gabute.

Among the present luthier, Angel Gabute stood as one of the most successful luthier in the country. He is one of the trusted luthier for the various needs of Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, La Salle, U.P. and other schools. Even upstarting violinist and private individuals like myself witnessed the quality of workmanship of Mang Angel when he repaired my Strad copy violin.

While it is true that Angel Gabute possessed no certificate as a luthier from an international violin school he is a master in his own right. Angel Gabute was a former student of master luthier Amador Tamayo. Amador Tamayo was a German trained luthier who spent several years of training according German violin tradition. German violin making tradition is characterized by its adherence to precision and perfection. No wonder the work of these master luthier are excellent as well.

Through more than a decade of painstaking discipline and perseverance under the tutelage of Amador Tamayo, Angel Gabute had perfected all the intricacies of violin making. He has repaired various instrument from a "badly made" Chinese violin to precious Stradivarius.

However, his rise from obscurity to fame is without hardship. During my visit he recounted how as an upstarting luthier he experienced being discriminated simply because of his lowly origin as promdi(from the provice, He hailed from the province of Romblon). Ever humble Mang Angel never insisted to prove his skill but when he was given the opportunity of his lifetime everyone was left awestruck by the quality of his work. It was a sweet victory for Mang Angel. As the saying goes you should never judge a book by its cover.

All of his violin are entirely made by hand from start to finish. Normally, it would take several months to make one violin. Violin repairs and retouch like the one he did to my violin can take several days top depending on the job. He would never give a definite date when a particular project will finish but he would never fail to get in touch with his customer once it is done.

To those who would love to get in touch with Angel Gabute "Mang Angel" you can reach him at #15 San Isidro St. Tala, Caloocan City. Tel. 4966928. To get to his workshop simply follow this direction: From PHILCOA take a jeepney going to BAGONG SILANG PHASE 5. Tell the driver that you will be alighting at the TERMINAL END. When you see the Police Precint number 12 and Rhexan Academy you are not very far from his workshop.

Hibernation Interupted

After a series of horrible set back I finally realized that I have to slow down a little bit. For quite sometime now I been wearying my self to the point of exhaustion that I am starting loose sight of what really matters more to me. Slowing down though does not mean that I am packing my bags and quitting on my dreams altogether. Every thing comes at the right place at the right time and I guess this is not the proper time.

In baseball, if the hitter tried to kill the ball he will surely missed his target. Same thing applies in life. Our goals is not our life but rather we must live our life on a daily basis without loosing sight of our dreams and aspiration. If thing worked in our favor then we should we be thankful. If however for one reason or another these dreams and aspirations failed us it does not mean that our life must end as well. Temporary setback is an opportunity to rise from the ashes and recreate ourselves.

The Law of Attraction

The book entitled "The Law of Attraction" can be summarized into a universal maxim - "Cogito ergo sum" which means "I think therefore I am". It means that whatever we think subconsciously will ultimately come into reality. Although I have some doubt that it is a law I am convinced that in some way our attitude and mind set can significantly affect our destiny.

Looking back in the past I saw how this law worked its charm in my life. I noticed that whenever I wish for something no matter how simple it might be I always get it. I told my self maybe God is really fond of me because he always grant my wish. Actually its like this, whenever I want something I keep thinking of it day in and day out until a few days, weeks or months later I get what I wish for. It sounds so simple but I got a 100% batting average. Yeah, its amazing but its true.

However, there are some wish that will never come true no matter how we try. I think God made a buffer for all those selfish dreams. He wanted to make sure to grant only those things that will make us grow as a person. He wanted to enriched our lives and see us successful in our endeavour but he does not want us to get hurt with those unwise or wicked wishes. So when we do not get what we asked for its possible that - its not good for us, we are not ready to received it or we still have to wait a little bit more.

We can attract good things in life. So do not be afraid to hope, to dream or to wish because if its for us we can be sure that we will get it.

The Butiki Conspiracy

The world is working against our kind. I mean we used to live harmoniously with the human until the recent events took a sudden 360 turn. All of the sudden we found ourselves displaced. The ceiling where we used to hang around became unbearable. (It's so warm now a days don't you think?) Hunger is everywhere. Our staple food became increasingly scarce. Nowadays, we have to compete against a myriad of insects like the cockroach and other smaller mammals like the mice and rat for territory. Some of our kin even became a prey to our fiercest enemy Felix the cat. Occasionally, Mickey mouse bothered us with their constant running and munching specially at night. I really do not understand what is happening. Maybe, it has something to do with this CFL (condense fluorescent lamp) thing that people are now using nowadays. It is said that this CFL can reduce electricity consumption. Maybe, the world is really becoming warm that insect can no longer venture beyond the level of the ceiling. We can not simply wait for food to come to us like we used to do lest we die from hunger for waiting for eternity. So, do not be amazed if some of you people discovered us under your bed, linen, closet, shoes etc. Just like you we are also looking for a little comfort in this world.

Law of Law

I always thought that I can always get anything I want. I can do whatever I wanted to do without ever considering the consequence of my action. In my mind I was invincible, free and in control. But I was wrong, and that is when I realized the many errors I made in my life. That is when I learned that for every action there is always an opposite reaction.

Life can never be without order whether we like it or not. Our life is a life of rules and more rules. Every waking hour of our life follows a certain pattern. Laws predominantly occupies a greater portion of our being. From subatomic particles to the massive molecules in the universe law is always there. We are what we are because of the law. Without the law our life would be in a total chaos.

When we think of trying to free ourselves from the manipulative hand of the law we are actually trying to put an order in our life. Often we hate to admit to ourselves that despite of our antagonism against an institution and all these rules, we find comfort and serenity in the simplicity of things. We long for control but what we really wanted is order. Ultimately the law of life is that it is simple and whenever we attempt to put control to this law we often found ourselves in a collision course with the order of things.