"Yeah, I am THAT guy!" or Miguelito the flamenco guitarist is also Miguelito the webmaster!
It's a little after noon on Wednesday as I type these words. As usual I'm at my neighborhood Barnes & Noble enjoying coffee and soaking in the vibe of productivity in the air. I'm surrounded by other like-minded people sitting in front of their laptops. Most of them are typing away furiously or otherwise trying to look busy. As for myself, I'm staring off into space wondering which ones are college students, which ones are teleworkers and which ones are freelancers.
I am one of those freelancers. But we don't have a particular look that gives us away. What about me? I've got a ponytail—an old stereotype for musicians which doesn't really apply anymore these days. I've got artificial long nails on my right hand—I'm guessing that most people don't recognize that as a clue that I'm a classical or flamenco guitarist or perhaps even a drag queen, take your pick. :-)
Most of the time when I'm here at Barnes & Noble, I'm here because I want to get out of the house and write a blog entry which bring us to today's topic: ME!
Yeah...even though I write about flamenco for the purpose of making people aware of the local flamenco community as a whole, the truth is that I can write best about my own personal experience so naturally most of the blog posts will be about ME.
After publishing more than 500 blog posts over the years, a lot of people know me fairly well. Even though I am particular about what I want the world to read about me when I write, certain topics or trains of thought will come up again and again in very subtle ways without me realizing it. I suppose a psychoanalyst can read my hundreds of blog posts and come up with a psychological profile about the kind of person that I am. Scary! :-)
Anywayz, everyone knows that I play flamenco guitar. I run into people who recognize me on the street, at clubs and restaurants, on the metro, even in the laundry room of my building at 3 in the morning, really!! I've done a pretty good job of promoting my name and face on the web—and not just on my website, but also Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. But I learned the other day, that not everyone realizes that Miguelito the flamenco guitarist is also Miguelito the webmaster.
So yeah, the other night I was at a certain club (which will remain unnamed to protect the innocent...haha) and was talking to this girl at the bar. She was telling me that recognized me from my flamenco show at Cafe Citron.
So we talked about flamenco for awhile and one point I thought I would tell her about my website. But she beat me to it.
"Hey Miguel, do you know about DCFlamenco.com?"
I was taken aback. I mean c'mon. Maybe I'm full of myself...but I'm pretty sure everyone who is actively involved in flamenco in DC has heard of DCFlamenco.com by now. But I kept my cool and decided to have some fun—big mistake!
"Oh yeah, that's a pretty awesome website. I go there all the time."
"I've seen pictures of you there."
"I know. I put them there myself. I am the webmaster for DCFlamenco.com."
I must've had the word LIAR written across my forehead for all I know...cuz she didn't believe me.
"No...that can't be you!"
My guitarist friend Behzad Habibzai came up with a funny analogy for my frustration: "Imagine the guy who created Facebook being asked at a party 'So are you on Facebook or something?'" Good one Behzad!
Geting back to my story...it wasn't going to crush my ego that much if she didn't believe me, but I still wanted to prove it. And unfortunately I ran out of business cards. So what does one do to prove that he is the webmaster for a website? Well...I don't have a webmaster bio with my pic on there. I suppose I could've pulled out my netbook, and uploaded some text to my website that said, "See?? I am the webmaster!!!"
Long story short...we hung out for a little while longer and talked about other stuff, but we parted ways with her still not believing I am the webmaster. I was bit irked, I admit. But it is kind of my fault: I don't have a webmaster bio.
I suppose I should just quietly enjoy the satisfaction that she knows about my website. One of these days, she'll be visiting DCFlamenco.com and perhaps even be reading this blog and realize I am who I say I am!
When this happens I'll let you know. ;-)
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