Report FFSMNRK1989's Profile

Well, what's up? This is Franco Ferrer-San Miguel, and this is my profile. I'm 29 years old (born April 15, 1989). I don't have anything to contribute here -- mainly, I'm writing a story called A-Eight, and it's taking my time (It'll be posted on dA because of the idiosyncratic style I've developed it as: it's in an idiosyncratic script form, as I'm trying to get it developed into a comic). I can't draw for shit, but I like coming here and seeing some deviations. My main interests are:

- singing
- anime
- playing musical instruments
- opening the eyes of the corrupt otakuists
- listening to punk rock
- human rights
- ANARCHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...among others

I was born in Santurce PR, but I call the US my home for over 15 years. Yeah, I'm a Puertorican. That means I speak Spanish as well. OK, OK; let's make this nicer: while I was living in Puerto Rico, I learned English in the Mid-1990s by watching American shows on TV (Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network included). To simplify: I speak Puertorican Spanish (with bits of other Spanish dialects) and American English; when I write, I always write in British English (how hypocritical I am! -- no, actually, I write in British English [with some uses of US language, like 'cause instead of 'cos -- I never understood that!] because that spelling is far more prettier to my eyes than the American Spelling normally used by the rest of us Puertoricans), but I occasionally write in Mixed Spanish for my translations of my stuff.

Something some of you wouldn't know: I've got ADHD (Adult Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) and a Mild Form of Asperger's. If I seem "abrasive" sometimes, it's because of this. However, I'm very sociable (or at least try to be!), unless, of course, you have the intention of harming me or my friends.

I'm also an essayist. I've written several essays (which are now gone, unfortunately, due to MySpace's BULLSHIT decisions) called the Bastardisations of Self, which serve as an inside view of what really goes on in the American otakuism (I did save them from Google Cache, luckily).

As I've mentioned in my interests, one of my interests is Anarchy. I'm an anarchist. As an anarchist, my dislikes are: pimps, blackmailers, misogynists, people who look down on any subculture as subhuman (even otakuism), people who like to act like Big Brother (i.e. watch our every move without impunity), liars, sociopaths, traitors, warmongers, right-wingers, Neoconservatives, Nazis, racists, etc. (My reasons to hate the first 3 I mentioned is a really long story, but it involves what I'm writing right now -- my A-Eight.)

I mentioned that like to play musical instruments. Here's a list of the instruments I play:
- Electric guitar (So far I've got 4: an ESP EC-50 [with a destroyed truss rod head, but still electronically functioning!], (as of 7/26/2017) a Gibson SGJ (9 years ago, I lost an SG, and the luthier refused to repair it, so I had to wait 9 years until I could buy a new one, which I did; I missed playing the SG!), (as of 5/3/2019) an Ibanez ASR70 (which I bought primarily for Psychedelic Rock stuff/Jazz stuff, and also because Epiphone don't make Casinos [which the ASR70 clones] which join at the 19th fret [save for the Casino Coupé, though with an ES-339 body that's smaller than a normal archtop's]/bigger horns to compensate and give better access for where the fret joins [actually the ASR70 joins at the 17th fret, but has better access to the upper frets, the 19th-22nd]; all these reasons make the ASR70 a Casino Killer! Plus I changed strings to flatwounds [as I've done with my other two guitars, and it sings better, primarily because the rounds my guitar came with were of a lower gauge and went too deep into the nut, which caused buzzing problems in some strings, especially the G-string, which buzzed a hell of a lot [especially while I practised "Charioteer" by Earth, an excellent song to practise drones and fingerstyle picking, and I was considering changing the nut as well, but the flats [D'addario 11-50, same as my SG, and opposed to my EC-50, which has 10s] solved the problem! [Which makes changing the nut moot, at least temporarily]), a Lotus Les Paul copy and a Danelectro U2 reissue [these two have the pickups no longer functioning, but I don't have the money at the moment to send 'em to the repair shoppe]. As to why I play electric guitars: I love the sound of an acoustic guitar, but they bring hell to my fingers, so I play electric guitars instead, but then again, I rather like the sounds of an electric guitar, since it's so versatile! Currently, I've bought 2 pedals, a Digitech Whammy V and an Electro-Harmonix Superego Synth Engine -- ostensibly to mimic bagpipes à la Mike Oldfield and/or Stuart Adamson and to recreate "With Or Without You", and I also run the guitar to Logic Pro! [Without counting the Crybaby wah I bought back when I was first starting.])
- recorders/fipple flutes (Don't judge me! Anyhoo, I've got 2 recorders: a Gill soprano [which is a bitch to play nowadays!], and a Yamaha YRA-28BIII [perfect for some Irish stuff, and stuff like the part in "Deep Forest/Fukai Mori" and early Os Mutantes stuff, and some other stuff]. The Gill has now been replaced [as of 11/4/2016] by a Peripole Angel Soprano Halo recorder, which is a two-piece recorder! A joy to play, 'cause the bell doesn't fall off anymore!)
- A Greek El Cheapo (meaning counterfeit but playable) tetráchordo (four-course) bouzouki, which is a fucking joy to play (There are 2 kinds of bouzoukia: the tríchordo (three course), the instrument of choice for rebetiko, and tetráchordo, mainly used for Greek pop music or Irish music [depending on where you live, the Greek tetráchordo is tuned to the top 4 strings of a 12-string guitar (i.e. in 4 doubled courses), and the Irish tetráchordo (or ceithre téada basúcaí in Irish) is tuned like a mandolin - GDAD or ADAD, low to high]). I got it becuase of several stuff: one was the score to Suspiria (which had 2 [probably 3] bouzouki-based riffs on it: "Suspiria", "Sighs", and [possibly] "Black Forest"), Mike Oldfield's use of it on Ommadawn and Amarok, and the aforementioned rebetiko songs and Irish music (stuff like Planxty [with Dónal Lunny and Andy Irvine], Declan Masterson, and Alec Finn]). I'm considering adding an Irish tetráchordo bouzouki/ceithre téada basúcaí to my instruments - stay tuned for updates!
- A Korg MS2000 synthesiser (A great synthesiser! I can even play the Suspiria theme on it, as well as the bassline in Autobahn)
- A Hohner Organa 30 Model 348 electric reed organ -- my first harmonium! I kept trying to find a proper harmonium that wasn't an Hindustani harmonium (y'know, the ones the Hindus pump with their hands rather than their feet), but this one, an electrically fan-blown harmonium (plus 5 stops [Violin, Bandoneón, Accordion, Bassoon/Bass Clarinet, and Clarinet]!), was a chance buy, so I bought it on eBay with a new account I made, thanks to good advice from Edgar Rodriguez, an old acquaintance of mine, and I'm not even regretting this buy!!!! I have written a few parts for the Harmonium, especially several parts in the Electronic Tone-Poem A-Eight, plus, I've mastered "Vaka", "Nearer My God To Thee", "Shockheaded Peter", "C'est Fini", "La Guerre est Finie", "Music for a Found Harmonium" (the quintessential harmonium piece!), "Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram" (the bhajan Gandhi and his followers sang and played), "The Teutonic Camp (Peregrinus Expectavi)" and a few others.
- A crappy K-Tone Violin Bass copy (it looks like the Höfner that Paul McCartney plays), which has finally been replaced by....
- An Epiphone Viola, which I bought for Christmas 2015! It has a better bridge, the neck is better glued.... I love playing this bass! The two remaining strings of the K-Tone have been absorbed into this bass, as have the tuners from it too! The Tuners from the Epiphone just couldn't take either stretching or me putting it in fifths, like Georgie Born! I plan on getting higher quality tuners soon for either of the basses though! (However, I've since changed the strings to flatwounds, like McCartney does too [albeit at a higher gauge than he plays], and the two strings, plus one I temporarily put on my bass -- all of 'em roundwounds -- will be used as spares.)
- A musical saw (Primarily for stuff like the main theme from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
- An Agnatone El Cheapo Mandolin which I can't play, which has finally been replaced by....
- A Fender MandoStrat 8, which I received on 4/4/2014! (I bought this mandolin because of FM's work with the electric mandolin. This mandolin is a joy to play! I've learned some of FM's music on it [as well as Nash the Slash's stuff]. Definitely a keeper!)
- Bodhrán (an Irish frame drum). I mainly got this because of Mike Oldfield's uses of it on Ommadawn and Amarok (trying to figure out those "bodhrán shoes"! I finally did so, though.)
- A mismatched tablā set bought at Ten Thousand Villages (the bayan [bass drum] in the set is made of clay instead of metal), but it still gets the job done
- Mellotron, Chamberlin, and Orchestron samples (I can't afford a real Mellotron - an early sampler which used tapes - so I use samples instead)
- Software synths: Arturia Minimoog V, Arturia Moog Modular V, Arturia ARP 2600V, Arturia Oberheim SEM V, Arturia Matrix-12 V, Arturia CS-80V, Arturia Prophet V2, Arturia Jupiter 8V, Arturia Synclavier V, Arturia Vox V, Arturia Farfisa V, Minimonsta, M-Tron, Oddity, Dexed, Full Bucked 3100-3300, Full Bucket Mono/Fury, Korg's official synth emulations, XILS 3 (emulates EMS VCS3/Synthi-A), OB-Xd, V-Sampler and/or Logic Pro EXS24 (for samples)
- A Korg electribe sampler (the lower-case in this is deliberate!), which I'm using as a drum machine; I've loaded samples from the 3 Linns (LM-1, LinnDrum, and 9000), the Oberheim DMX/DX, the E-mu Drumulator (in its standard stock bank and the Rock Drums used by Cocteau Twins and others), the Roland TR-707, and the Sequential Circuits DrumTraks (AKA Chromeo's drum machine). I've so far recreated "777-9311", "Maman a tort", "Playgirl", "When Doves Cry", "Giant" (That song alone was responsible for making me attempt to find Linn LM-1 samples!), "Perfect", "I've Been Waitin' For Tomorrow (All Of My Life)", and several others, as well as composing my own sequences.