Demf are actually the initials in my name, David Enrique Miró Feliciano. I'm a native of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (particularly Miradero), to where I've returned to live for the first time in nine years. I lived for close to three years in San Jose and Cupertino,California, while working at Apple Inc. Since then I returned to Puerto Rico, not before criss-crossing the United States and living for a while in Orlando, Florida. You'll see who I am and what I stand for in the Userboxes section down below.
I was, for over 12 years, the organizer of the Premios DUH! (or DUH! Awards), a mock award show where Puerto Rican odd news (and odd celebrities) were given awards and immortalized for posterity. Sort of. This was a minor media event in Puerto Rico every December 28th., the local equivalent of April Fools Day in Puerto Rico. I've since moved on and am now contributing with a humor column to a local newspaper, every week. For the time being, the newspaper shall remain nameless...
I used to be an active contributor to Wikipedia, and did contribute to pages that relate to either Puerto Rico or to Puerto Rican culture. I gravitated to pages about Puerto Rican landmarks, famous people (particularly singers and composers), and the one for my birthplace and those of fellow mayagüezanos. However, one article made me change my mind. I tried, unsuccessfully, to raise the Ramón Emeterio Betances artice beyond the paltry "B" rating it used to have a while back. For close to five months I researched the guy, took photos of all landmarks associated to him in Puerto Rico, transcribed podcasts, rewrote the article tons of times... and still didn't get much assistance to have it fixed. Everyone and his brother thought it was my article, so to speak; they would all critique it, but only a few would help. Some Wikipedians' paranoia over quotes and over WP's arcane rules made things worse, and I had quite a few decent Puerto Rico articles removed claiming I had done "original research" (ask a Puerto Rican about a sociological concept such as "Ay, bendito" and he'll tell you it is not a mere phrase in a dictionary, but some bozos here think it is), so I simply gave up.
A few fellow Puerto Rican Wikipedians carried on the torch for the Betances article and had it earn the Featured Article status it now has (and deserves, modesty aside). However, yet again, this place is the only place in the world where a person, in theory, cannot write an autobiography if someone hasn't quoted him or her first... There are also quite a bunch of trolls raising hell around these quarters, far more interested in rules and harassing other people about what they think this WP version should be: an Anglocentric realm of popular culture, where little else deserves more than stub treatment. I simply edit here first because the only language in far more use than English in the world is Chinese, and I know almost no Chinese. A broad worldwide editorial and tech support base made articles about my home country much better known elsewhere, and because of this, I chose English, and not Spanish, as the basis for most of my articles. Yet, I'm sure, some bozo will complain about me even saying this here.
My WP status as an editor is on hold. However, motivated by fellow boricua Wikipedians like Tony the Marine (whom I personally visited in Arizona in February, 2008), I am slowly returning to correct existing articles here and there. Finally, I'm starting a wiki project called Mayawiki, in Spanish. If you're a mayagüezano, feel free to join.
[edit] Archived Talk
[edit] Places I've been
[edit] Countries
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[edit] U.S. states & the future state of New Columbia (hopefully)
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[edit] Favorite places
- Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, my birthplace
- The western coast of Puerto Rico, from Aguada down to Cabo Rojo
- Culebra, Puerto Rico
- The towns along the Cordillera Central in Puerto Rico, particularly Lares, Jayuya, Barranquitas and Aibonito.
- The San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Santa Clara, San Francisco itself and the Bay Farm Island section of Alameda
- The Central Coast of California, particularly the area between Monterey and San Luis Obispo, as well as Hearst Castle
- The areas around Lake Tahoe, particularly the south shore.
- The strip of I-70 in Colorado between the Utah border and the outskirts of Denver
- Staunton, Virginia and environs.
- Princeton, New Jersey
- Eastern Tennessee, from Moore County, Tennessee (I'm a Tennessee Squire) to Knoxville
- Amherst, Massachusetts
- Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Cordoba, Spain
- The Alhambra, in Granada, Spain
- A recent addition to my list is Tempe, Arizona, particularly downtown and the area near Arizona State University. Yep, Kelly, you were right about your home turf(!)
[edit] Famous people I've met or talked to
(Sorted in alphabetical order, by name)
- Andy Montañez - great singer, and even greater with a dancing carrot behind him.
- Anibal Acevedo Vilá - was a pen pal while he was Resident Commissioner for Puerto Rico. He owes me one juicy lead I gave him once... however, we don't communicate any longer; see the José E. Serrano entry for details...
- Calle 13 - "Augerescere in te, Via Tredicim!" I have close ties to those nutcases...
- Carlos Gallisá - he does not realize he's a kleptomaniac; he inadvertently stole a ball point pen I kept...
- Benicio del Toro - he presented both of his Ché movies in my hometown. Turns out my gastroenterologist is his cousin... and that we're both fans of Mon Rivera; he quoted the chorus of Kijis Konar when I talked to him...
- Benjamin Cole - lived five houses down from mine.
- Billy Sheehan - we once took a flight from Buffalo, New York to New York City together, with only the cabin's aisle between his seat and mine.
- Antulio, "Kobbo" Santarrosa, when he was a local store owner in Mayagüez
- Carlos Romero Barcelo (Twice. And he didn't strangle me either time!)
- Carlos Vives - he was our master control guy come Christmas time a few times. Just imagine people's reactions when they called into our program and he answered the phone. Great guy.
- Carmen Jovet - helped her figure out who cybersquatted www.carmenjovet.com
- Chucho Avellanet - helped me with the lyrics for "Canción del Carretero" by Roberto Cole
- Edward Van Halen (aka God With Six Strings) - see the Sammy Hagar entry
- Sunshine Logroño - when I was a regular radio guy we staged the only time his characters Eleuterio and Vitín have spoken simultaneously, he as Vitín Alicea, and me as Eleuterio Quiñones (my imitation of Eleuterio is, all modesty aside, quite good...)
- Gilbert Mamery (he was my boss once)
- Gricel Mamery (wacky friend)
- Héctor Travieso, anti-carbohydrate promoter (twice)
- Jim Bohannon (Huh? Why?)
- John Sculley (Speaks decent Spanish!)
- Jorge Seijo, chupamattress extraordinaire (partner in crime)
- José E. Serrano - I can unabashedly claim to be the first blog author ever in Puerto Rico, back in 1996, when blogs had to be hand-coded. Lucky coincidence, not because I'm stellar or anything. Serrano followed my blog religiously, even called me over the phone a few times to discuss my entries. However, we had a run-in over a bill sponsored by Carlos Romero Barcelo that had to do with Puerto Rico; I dared to tell him Romero was outright lying to him (which turns out he did, as fate would have it), but since Serrano is a personal friend of him he felt hurt by my reaction and closed the communication channel. Too bad; Serrano is truly a gentle, humble, down-to-earth guy. There's something within the Beltway that makes politicians extremely touchy; I had a similar run-in with Anibal Acevedo Vilá over philosophical differences on the Puerto Rico status question. As time passed, Acevedo eventually (and rather painfully, I might add) realized where I was coming from.
- Julio Victor Ramirez, hijo (partner in crime)
- Luis Francisco Ojeda (I've done work for him and he doesn't know it!)
- María Celeste Arrarás - We both took a History of Puerto Rico course in college; in one of the tests, we were the only ones to ever get perfect score of 100 from the rather demanding professor we had. Of course, she had a perfect 4.00 GPA by the time she finished college; I'm still recovering from my less than stellar grades...
- Michael Anthony (fellow Tennessee Squire, some guy and I had to pick him off the floor of Cabo Wabo after his personal encounter with Old No. 7...)
- Michael Spindler (what an intense guy...)
- Sammy Hagar (twice, one in Cabo Wabo, one in San Juan)
- Sinbad, rest in peace... NOT! (met him at the former Apple, Inc. manufacturing plant in Fremont, California). Dude, welcome to the Mark Twain Club.
- Shorty Castro
- Steel Pulse - thee members of the band had an impromptu dub jam in a club in Carolina, Puerto Rico club during my 40th birthday bash. Of course, they didn't know I was in the audience...
- Susa y Epifanio (I keep on nagging them occasionally)
- Madelyn Vega and Raymond Torres-Santos - they were my neighbors for a while.
- The Wiggles (except for Greg Page, who couldn't visit Puerto Rico... extremely friendly!)
- Willie Colón - close pen pal for about 1 1/2 years. A genius, with gonads to match.
- The entire crew of El Vacilón de la Mañana (left them a bottle of Sangría de Fido)
- The inventor of the XCOPY command in MS-DOS (I can't remember your name, dude!)
I've also had to slow down while driving to allow Weird Al Yankovic and Steve Jobs cross the street on separate occasions... (For the record, I never worked under Jobs' during either one of his tenures, as was implied in a newspaper article in Puerto Rico recently... I did meet people who worked with the guy, though. What a character...)
OTOH Jacobo Morales lives up the street from me, but doesn't know me (I have no plans to run him over with the car, however. God forbid!) Tego Calderón's daughter was an acquaintance of mine's. Shy guy, excellent father, very respectful dude. Outside of that, I've had the chance to see Prince Charles, Mel Gibson and Mel Tormé (when he was alive) from a distance. I've stood right next to Otilio Warrington, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Victor Manuelle but wouldn't dare to greet them. I also literally walked behind Isabel Allende when she visited the U. of Puerto Rico, for about 60 yards (...them skinny legs!)
[edit] David's Userboxes
(Due to inconsistencies in userbox design this section may look sloppy)
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I would say I'm a cynic but I bet you just wouldn't believe me. |
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This user listens to Vallenato and recognizes its part of Colombia’s cultural heritage. ¡Ay Hombre! |
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This user is a graduate from the
UPR at Mayagüez.
Antes, Ahora y Siempre, Colegio!
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These last four userboxes are outta whack...
[edit] Musical influences
- First, and foremost, Van Halen, and particularly Edward Van Halen. Have seen them perform four times (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1982, with David Lee Roth as a singer; Mountain View, California, 1991; Cabo Wabo at Cabo San Lucas, 1993; San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2004), and met the band members from the Van Hagar era at least twice (except, for some strange reason, Alex Van Halen). Sammy Hagar gave me his autograph to a fake Puerto Rico license plate, FUCK 55.
- Saga, the most criminally underrated rock band in the planet.
- ¡Calle 13, más te crece!
- Flor Morales Ramos, otherwise known as Ramito, most criminally underrated song lyricist in the planet. An unsung giant of Latin American folklore, born in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
- The Father of Rock and Roll, Chuck Berry
- Queen; to the point of building an electric guitar inspired by Brian May's Red Special, called the "Egyptian Bean."
- Randy Rhoads seminal guitar work for Ozzy Osbourne.
- Willie Colón, who was a pen pal of mine for about a year and a half. Almost everything he has done from Hector Lavoe on... which brings me to...
- Mon Rivera, fellow mayagüezano done good. He and his father were, again, criminally underrated as lyricists.
- Kate Bush - before Enya, before Tori Amos, before Norah Jones, before all of them... there was Miss Bush. Love her to death. And speaking of death...
- Black Sabbath, during the Ozzy Osbourne days. What a fun concept.
- JPP, the true MONSTERS of fiddle and violin playing. They rock, even when playing tango!
[edit] Articles
I got sick of maintaining an article list. Just check "User contributions" on the side menu.
[edit] Awards(To Moi?)
This
Boricua Tireless Contributor Barnstar is presented to Demf for the continous work on
Puerto Rican related articles. Presented by
Tony the Marine 21:26, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
Puerto Rico National Merit Medal
Last Update: Demf 16:21, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
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