Trains

Unfortunately it rained today and my supposed fill of beerhouse hits while contemplating inside a jeep has to take a backseat in favor of the relative comfort of the MRT and FX. While yesterday's pleasant travel was due largely to the heavy dose of nostalgic sentiments I had during the ride, the one I've had a few hours ago in the MRT was for the humor books. I've been meaning to write about it for sometime but never really got down to it. Apparently the MRT management upgraded its services for the relative comfort of its commuters. No, they didn't fix the perpetual escalator problem in the North Avenue station nor improved the airconditioning system of most of the trains in operation; nothing outlandish like that. Time travel will be invented before those things are fixed for good. They just launched the MRT FM radio.


When the doors opened as I was getting ready to board a blast of latin music spewed forth along with the disembarking passengers. The first thing that came to mind was Tita Luz. Now that was enough to make me laugh out loud but I bit my lip as hard as I can. I didn't want the other passengers thinking they had a dope addict in their midst. Tita Luz, bless her soul, has a penchant for old 50s latin-flavored pinoy music and Filipiniana selections whose cassette tapes I suspect she bought at Nayong Pilipino. The kind with an Amorsolo-type painting in the cover, depicting the pastoral way of life in some barrio complete with bahay kubos and baro't sayas. She used to play those nonstop in the car everytime we came to visit her. For the life of me I couldn't understand how she and my father could have polar opposite tastes when it came to music or any other art forms for that matter.

I can vividly remember the "WAN! TU! TRI! POR!" of some (probably) middle-aged male band member before seguing to a crazy polyrhythmic assault of an undeniably pinoy version of latin dance music. My parents, sister and I always have a good laugh everytime we remember that. We weren't ridiculing her taste in music, but the fact that we already heard the same songs more than fifty times since we were in her car (a cab actually, with MUY BIEN plastred at the sides of both doors) and the ridiculousness of the "WAN! TU! TRI! POR!" did it. Professional comedians say things in threes are funny. Try listening to something ridiculous more than 20 times with people who have a healthy sense of humor and you'll have a riot.

That was what I was thinking when I entered the train. And even if the humidity inside was oppressive I couldn't help but let a little chuckle out every now and then. The music, coupled with the irritated and blank expressions of the passengers created a weird sort of music video.

Crazy.