The Remix

Some jeepney drivers play a private, somewhat exclusive, collection of remixed songs as they do their pasada along the C-5 route. The songs in their CD are famous Filipino ballads that were added a certain thumping slow beat. For months I was unable to place these songs in their context. What purpose does the electronically added beat serve? It cannot be for dancing in some jologs disco bar or sidewalk dance. Maybe some slow dancing perhaps, but they were not romantic enough. The added percussions would be extraneous for sing-along. For months I content myself with the thought that the songs were relaxing and that was their purpose.

One summer day, however, due to the hot morning commute and crowded jeepney space, I must have made a connection to a college summer class that had 50 students. It was a social science class and the instructor was a students' favorite due to his humor in lecturing and generosity in grading. Aside from those reasons, I was assured of his competence when I noticed that years of teaching had made him at least memorize his lessons so that he delivers his lectures and answers student questions straight and fast and without consulting his old rookie notes. That summer term was his last teaching stint, he said, so I guess we were fortunate enough to grace his last class.

In an effort to expose us to the hidden nooks and crannies of society, the class had various projects tasking us to explore, observe and investigate its different aspects. If it was a regular semester, not a summer term, which has limited time, our instructor would have taken us in a gay bar as he had taken his past classes. Instead, we had to settle with watching the Lino Brocka movie Macho Dancer.

It so happened that in the movie, the protagonist was an amateur in the male sex trade in Manila, and a kindly veteran offered to mentor him along the way. Thus it was shown how he learned the ropes, including the right way to gyrate and to undulate his body ("Lagyan mo ng libog!"). Due to my "impressionable young mind," I also learned some moves in the process (thus basic macho dancing was added to the list of non-academic stuff learned in college).

Back in the jeepney, four years later, as its radio plays the remixed ballads, I recall the moves I learned one summer ago. In my mind, I undulate and gyrate to the sound. The slow thumping beat matches the sway of the body. The ballad's lyrics wail about forbidden love, about forsaken love, and all those emotions residing in the nooks and crannies of society.