Little Chopin

Jeremy
Williamstown, NJ
ninja rocker

Jeremy started banging on the keys of the piano as a toddler, when he had not even learned to walk completely on his own yet.  He would crawl on his father’s keyboard, his tiny feet and hands pummeling the black and white keys, a cacophony of haphazard notes blaring around their living room.

Now, thirteen years later, this 8th grader has mastered the beautiful and magical craft of playing the piano with such finesse and artistry that nothing could sound more poignant and haunting as the immortal tunes of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, and all of the classical greats he belts out with this dazzling instrument.

Jeremy actually started having formal lessons when he turned 7, but even before that, this virtuoso had already showed signs of extreme talent with the piano.  Turning 13 in a few days, Jeremy admits that it can be challenging to juggle schoolwork, playtime, and piano practice all at the same time, but thanks to the full support and careful guidance of his Mom and Dad, Jeremy has managed to accelerate his talent while maintaining his honor status at school.

And of course, in between practices and homework, Jeremy always finds time to have a little fun in between…well maybe, a little too much fun (or so his Mom thinks) especially when he gets his hands on his video game consoles and that indispensable faux-music instrument phenomenon also known as “Guitar Hero.”

But with all the hardwork and dedication he exerts for his piano playing, it’s only but natural that Jeremy finds other avenues of unwinding his mind through the different activities he also enjoys, namely reading books and magazines, watching cartoons and sport matches, and sketching.  From the onset, his parents had encouraged that Jeremy cultivate his artistic side, thus, they sent him to one of the more prestigious music schools in Philadelphia, where, with the conduction of a solid piano teacher, Jeremy has honed not just his skill but also his showmanship.

In May of this year, Jeremy was handpicked by his teacher among all her students to perform in the school’s annual certification concert where after a rigorous performance, he would earn a certificate to advance to the next level.  His performance was nothing short of extaordinary, and Jeremy recalls that it was to date, his most important event ever.

“I have one more year to go then I’m going to be in high school.  It will be busier than ever,” Jeremy remarks.  “The aim starting now is to get more experience with going to competitions and more recitals, and with a life like this, you might think I’d be tired.  But, actually, I’m not.  I love playing the piano.  I like having this.  It makes me feel like a star, maybe.”

A star, indeed, he is to those who have seen and heard him play the regal instrument with the ease and passion of modern day concert pianists such as Lang Lang or Vladimir Ashkenazy, who are two of Jeremy’s idols.  But on a regular day such as this, you’ll most likely find this really special kid enjoying what any average adolescent boy would — frolicking with his Wii while blasting The All-American Rejects on his headphones.

———-

A note from *the storyteller:

Jeremy does Chopin (and how!) in this beautiful rendition of Etude Op. 10, No. 3 in E Major… or more famously known as “Tristesse” (read: “Sorrow” in French)

Before and After New York

Isha
Cebu, Philippines
risk taker
The cool Hudson River breeze blew softly, flicking a few strands of her hair in the wind.  Isha lifted her hand, tucking the strands of long, black hair behind her ear, her gaze shifting to the silver waves lapping upon the hull of the yacht we were riding on in this beautiful summer day in New York.

Suddenly, the yacht made an unannounced stop right in front of the omnipotent monument that is the Statue of Liberty.  Isha excitedly perked up, her body swiveling to the side as she retrieved her point and shoot digital camera and snapped a couple of pictures of the colossal statue, the pinkish-orange sky hovered around it.  She took a quick glance at the screen of her camera and with a huge grin, she showed me the pictures she had just taken.  I smiled back, impressed at the composition of the photographs.

Isha reiterated once again that I should have given her a better heads up about this yacht cruise so that she could have at least taken her digital SLR camera gear with her, instead of this pocket-sized camera she toted around with.  I apologized for the third time, explaining that I really wanted to surprise her with this treat.  I wanted to make it extra special because my dear friend of 10 years would be returning back to our hometown of Cebu, Philippines after a 5-year stint in New York so that she could finally pursue her lifelong dream – a career in photography.

Isha moved to New York in 2003 for her graduate studies in Business and Arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).  Prior to that, she had a fledgling start as a photographer in Cebu, but once she was finished with college, her parents encouraged her to append her studies and it was decided upon that the best training ground for her would be at the FIT which happened to be located at the “capital of the globe” — meaning, New York.

There is that undeniable fact known to the world that New York is the land of milk and honey where exoduses of artists happen daily, these wandering souls making their giant leaps into this dazzling city of promise in pursuit of their respective dreams.  Isha was no different from the rest of these dreamers, striving to succeed in grad school and carving a name for herself with her photography as soon as she would set foot in this arts and culture hub.

Indeed, Isha accomplished much at FIT, and in the last few years, she managed to land a couple of lucrative job opportunities in the fashion industry.  Her photography slowly started picking up, too, especially with wedding photo gigs that came her way.  All in all, Isha was slowly living well into the way of her dream.

But as life happened, Isha begun to realize that New York was not the oasis she had thought it would be.  The city had presented her with so many golden opportunities, but somehow, there was still something amiss.  At first, when the answer started revealing itself to her, she was a bit reluctant to realize it, but soon enough, she understood that she could not deny it any longer.  No matter how great and significant her experiences were in New York, Isha discovered that the only place where she wanted to fully focus on her photography and art was nowhere else but home — in Cebu…

Five minutes after our yacht made that sudden halt in front of the Statue of Liberty, the motor of the vessel started guzzling again.  Heading west, the yacht drove further and further away from the Statue and into the dimming evening where not too far away, the skyline of New York’s skyscrapers lit up, an entire island twinkling with a million tiny lights from every window.  Isha gazed at the sight, a sigh escaping out of her lips.  She clasped my hand and thanked me for the very wonderful gift of this moment to experience and view New York from the best angle possible, one last time before she would make her astounding move back to the Far East.

I clasped her hands over mine, assuring her that she’ll always have New York.  Isha nodded with a grin as she glanced at me, the reflection of the glorious and shining New York skyline bouncing off on her sunglasses.  Before our yacht returned to dock at the pier by South Street Seaport, I asked my dearest friend what was the greatest thing New York had done for her.

She kept still for a moment.  Then, with the smile returning to her face, she replied,  “I guess you can say I found myself in New York, if that’s as cliche as it gets.  Because of your independence, you learn more about yourself.  You learn your priorities in life and you learn to be stronger and most of all, you learn that life is so short just like what they say, ‘It’s a New York minute.’  As crazy as this concrete jungle is and millions of people passing by you every single minute, somehow in that middle of all of that, you figure out who you are, what you want to be, where you want to go, who you want to be with…and then you just go for it.”

As soon as we descended the yacht as it made its docking into the pier, Isha snapped a photograph of me, but not before she remarked one more time that I should have really told her about this in advance because it would have made the perfect landscape photo shoot.  I laughed and promised her that upon her return to this beautiful city, another yacht cruise adventure would await her.

———-

A note from *the storyteller:

Isha has now returned to the Philippines where she will soon wed the love of her life while fulfilling her dream of becoming a renowned photographer.  You can check out her amazing and picture perfect collection here: Patricia Mancao wedding photography

Build-a-boat

Dan
New Jersey
master craftsman

Not too long ago, I had completed writing this screenplay about one of the greatest conquistadors in the annals of history, a story that had always captivated my imagination and sheer interest for the last 13 years.  When I was doing my full research on the subject, one facet of the topic that thoroughly enthused me was the amount of information and detail that encompassed about the galleons used by the expedition, those gargantuan, three-masted sailing ships used in the 16th century by the Spanish armada.

For Dan, creating the miniature versions of these galleons and massive vessels is just equally daunting and detail oriented.  I came across Dan at the South Street Seaport where a perfectly-crafted model of the Sovereign of the Seas, the British Navy flagship during the mid 1600s was displayed at his table.  Catching sight of the precious ship model instantly roused my attention, as I had longed to see a physical representation of these colossal warships after reading so much about them.  Thankfully, Dan was the kind of captain who had all the information for his fleet of model ships.

Like most renowned navigators who undertook their monumental voyages in the centuries past, Dan discovered the wonders of model ship building, literally, by accident.  He had torn off a joint in one of his knees, which prohibited him to enjoy his favorite hobbies of racquetball and high-end furniture building for a long time.  A friend bestowed the then trial attorney a wooden ship model kit to while away the time and to keep Dan doing what he enjoyed — and that was creating things with his hands.

After finishing the wooden ship that his friend gave him, Dan realized that he loved the process of model shipbuilding, most especially with the historical research that entailed with it.  Soon enough, he ventured into hobby shops to collect more model kits, as well as acquired magazines and books on the subject, and then joined a club of model shipbuilders.  Twenty years and a flotilla of impressive naval models after, the passionate hobby turned into a beloved livelihood for this skilled artisan.

In 2004, Dan retired from the active practice of law to devote his attention and energy to model shipbuilding, which allows him to not just build wooden ship models, but more importantly, to conserve history and restore the interest for these ships and stories, especially among the young ones.  Aside from being a full-fledged builder, Dan also shares a lot of his time and knowledge with the South Street Seaport Museum, Christie’s Auction House, and his most exciting project at present is spearheading a restoration of some portions of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s model ship collection.

He also gets commissions from private collectors who rely on Dan’s technical and theoretical expertise to restore their antique bone and ivory models that date to as old as 200 years, some of them handcrafted by prisoners back in the day.  Over the years, Dan also built something of an equally colossal nature that didn’t really involve any masts or rigs but is something just as dear to him — his private research library with an extensive collection of over 400 books and periodicals on anything and everything that talks about ship building and historical voyages.

Pointing to the tight-knots on the lateen rigs of the Sovereign of the Seas encased in glass on his table, Dan explains with a smile glinting on his eyes, “Shipmodeling itself is the highest and most difficult aspect of the craft of modeling because the ships themselves are so complex.  If you think about it, the large war ship was at the cutting edge of technology of every culture that it’s ever been in until the jet airplane came along.  They’re so complicated, they’re so interesting, that building miniatures of it, for me, is as interesting and enjoyable.”

I nodded at this, amused, and for a moment, an image flashed in my mind of the great Ferdinand Magellan walking towards the forecastle deck of the Trinidad and looking out into the calmness of the uncharted horizon, still waiting to be discovered, an ocean’s reach away.

From *the storyteller: Update #1

It’s been a while since I last posted a story here and I feel terrible that I have not been updating this blog, even when I had already interviewed several really interesting people over the course of the last few weeks.

I guess when you live in the brisk, urban wilderness that is New York, no matter how you try to coordinate things around you in a carefully planned schedule, you still end up shoving a lot of things in the back burner.  Unfortunately for me, it’s been a rigorous workout in juggling my priorities and updating this blog has been one of the things I had to set aside for a bit…well actually, way much longer than I should have.

Moving on, I did get a crucial update from one of the people I’ve interviewed and it is with great sadness that I relay to you that my favorite Singing Newspaper Lady of all time, Flor, has been on indefinite leave from her beloved job as she had to have some tumors removed from her throat.  Her daughter, Carolina, was kind enough to keep me updated about her mother’s condition, and thankfully, Flor seems to be recovering well.

However, she is still in a bit of a critical condition as her doctors have to monitor her progress over the next weeks in the hopes that the tumors will not grow back, nor will her thyroid be affected in a harmful way.  But I do ask each and everyone of you to please keep Flor in your thoughts and prayers as we all look forward to her full recovery so that she can return to the job that makes her the happiest.

Alright, I appreciate you taking time to gloss over this update.  Summer is officially over now, and hopefully with Fall comes a better sense of time management for me.  In the meantime, please do come back and check this blog in the next couple of days as I guarantee you that I will be posting more stories again of all the real, beautiful, and really awesome people I’ve met during my most favorite season in the year!

Be well.

*j