MEDIUM RARE
The last time I was with Boysie Villavicencio was four months ago, December last year. That was when I lost another friend with the same initials, Butch Valdes. (Another coincidence, the two BV’s lived a few blocks from each other.)
Boysie, 73, started his rise to fame as a fashion designer, then turned to culture promoting little-known groups of musicians until he was recruited for the big time, two big C’s as in Friends for the Cultural Concerns of the Philippines, or FCCP, an offshoot of Friends of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. He was not a musician but he felt music in his bones, at one time using a basketball court, or was it a parking lot, to stage a mini-concert for the neighborhood, if only to give the aspiring musicians their first crack at performing for an audience.
He always believed in giving everyone a chance – to shine, to do better, to seize the day and prove their worth. Long ago, he played publisher to a handful of journalists who had lost their jobs to a “good government” commission. Without hesitation, Boysie said yes, he would help them for as long as he could. Six months later, the group found another knight in shining armor, someone who owned a printing press — a happy solution for all.
Maurice Lim, a close friend, can recite Boysie’s c.v. without blinking (or thinking). Born Sept. 30, 1950. Alumnus of Ateneo de Manila grade and high school, La Salle college, UP fine arts. President of Fashion Guild of the Philippines. President and then member of the board of trustees of FCCP, where the acid test is one’s ability to raise funds for art and music scholars. (Boysie was absent from FCCP’s glittering gala at the National Museum last month; a sign confirming that he was not well.)
After learning how to paint, Boysie exploded like a tub of paint thrown against the wall. Seized by a manic desire to use colors and patterns – seashells, rock formations, textiles — to express himself, he put up exhibits, one after another, such as at a casino and in Louie and Mellie Ablaza’s Alfonso, Cavite rest house.
Paint on, Boysie, heaven’s skies and clouds are now your canvas.