Boom De Yada!

jeeps sometimes have eccentric decorations personalized by their drivers/conductors. the typical knickknacks usually consist of rosary beads, sampaguita garlands (bought out of guilt), Sto. Niño, small running LED lights, sometimes a TV if the driver's being fancy. i got on this jeep in Cebu that surprisingly had running electronic text, much like the ones in Radio City Music Hall or in Jollibee. not really that impressive right? but to my surprise, the first words that scrolled out were "Boom De Yada!" followed slowly by "I love the oceans". what the what?!? the driver or conductor know of the Discovery Channel ad? i was at the edge of my seat, anticipating a misspelled lyric or a wrong line, but the words came out perfect. what the what?!? i was smiling inwardly the whole time. it was late afternoon on a weekend, the sun was shining but the wind was cool and at that very moment, it felt like everything was right in the world, there was still hope for my country, we weren't so dumb after all (on the average) and we're going to choose the right person to lead us, etc. etc. i imagined that the driver and conductor probably ad libbed while singing the song in their spare time, adding "i love driving and conducting" in place of "i love tornadoes".

after the song ended its run on the marquee, then came the words "brought to you by<ad agency here >. to place an ad, call <ad agency no.>". and just like that, my optimism got zapped into that black hole of capitalist agenda. to top it all off, the driver wanted to go through a shortcut and dropped me a long way away from where i paid to get off while the conductor laughed at my vehement insistence of "nag-ingon lagi nga naa'y asilo!" Boom de yada!