BAGUIO CITY ? Kawayan de Guia chanced upon a warehouse full of old jukeboxes in Asin village in January last year. On a whim, he bought six for his artworks.

"Music is what I live for. I can't work in my studio without music. That and coffee and cigarettes," said De Guia.

And then one day, while on a noisy jeepney, an idea popped up and he decided to combine his jukeboxes with the jeepney. "I probably wouldn't be here if not for the jeepney. It was the jeepney that brought my parents together," he said.

Fans of his father, Kidlat Tahimik, knew how the jeepney was the central motif of the filmmaker's "Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmare)." From the rural village of Balian to Berlin, Tahimik brought with him a jeepney which eventually led him to Katrin Muller, De Guia's mother, then an art student in Germany.

Creating the "jukebox-jeepney transformers" seemed like a good idea. The jeepney has become central to one of De Guia's favorite phrase ? "part of the drama society." Explained this artist: "You are compressed in this small space and made to listen to kawawa [plaintive] love songs."

Jeepney art has always been part of mainstream Philippine society, from the horse hood ornament to the risque sayings on the mudguards. The jukebox, however, has been untouched by Filipino artisans. "The jeepney and the jukebox almost came at the same time to the Philippines," said De Guia.

Added anthropologist Padmapani Perez, a friend of De Guia: "Both are shrines to the psyche, receptacles for the soulful unburdening of the people. Both are vessels of memories, dreams and emotion."

But for De Guia, the only memory and emotion regarding the art pieces is obsession. He had nine exhibitions last year, including a stint at the City University of New York, but he remained attached to the jukebox-jeepney hybrid and tinkered with the pieces until he had five of them. "I was consumed by these," he said. "I was spent."

De Guia persevered with his hybrid art despite being ripped off by the first jukebox custodian in Pangasinan that he was referred to. One of the six jukeboxes, he found out, wasn't working.

Fortunately, he met Roger Berdun of Angeles City, who has been repairing jukeboxes since 1966, and June Ritumalta who worked on the casing.

All the art pieces should be spinning records and spinning consciousness like De Guia's previous works, and they did. The "j-j hybrids" resemble a jeepney's frontage with the speakers looking like headlights and grills. The compulsory horse motif is either on the sides or the front. De Guia used the original 45s left in the jukeboxes and ordered 150 more vinyl records from London. The original jukeboxes weighing from 80 to 100 kg each were slimmed down by 40 to 50 kilograms.

"Commutiny," the first of the "j-j hybrids," has the "Pilipinas Kong Mahal" declaration above the records and what seemed like a painting of the 1986 Edsa Revolution around them. On top is the statue of Sto. Niño resembling Brussel's Manneken Pis (Urinating Boy) waiting to shower the people. Angel wings in neon lights and bul-ol (Ifugao rice granary guardians) on the sides complete the suite. The artwork proved to be a hit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines during the Thirteen Artists Award show last year.

"Rock n Roll" has the famous Ginebra San Miguel trademark on the side so San Gabriel and the Devil are on equal footing. Light below the records resembles the fires from hell. The neon figure of a naked woman on top completes the sex and rock and roll motif.

"Perfumed Nightmare" is a tribute to Kidlat Tahimik's jeepney. Images of butterflies and storm (the conceit of the film) are everywhere on the shell, and a jeepney painting of Balian on the records evokes the movie that jumpstarted the indie film scene in the country.

This jukebox-jeepney was exhibited at the "Verso Manila, Verso Artecontemporanea" in Turin, Italy.

"Lilindol Muna Bago Puputok" emerged from Kawayan's mind and was not copied from a risque jeepney mudguard. A young man pulling a carabao sled with, presumably, his sleeping wife dominates the artwork done while Mayon Volcano is thinking whether to blow its mind. The horse ornament was sliced and placed on the sides while carabao horns and a neon crown adorn the top.

The last to be finished was the "Alien UFO." The red hybrid artwork had a huge eye overseeing the vinyl records. "Sa Araw (To the Sun)" was written on its eyelid and the neon rays seemed like its eyebrows.

Horses again were cut out on both sides and a pair of aliens strutting ala John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever is on the sides. Below is a capiz shell window with a bigger statue of an alien inside.

Aside from these, De Guia also made mixed media works, taking off from old record albums.

"Lilindol Muna Bago Puputok" is a literal take on Mayon with the skeletal man and horse beamed up by the sun. "State of the Nation" played on an old Ilocano album titled "Ilocana," with Manang Biday harvesting Virginia tobacco in the middle and De Guia adding dirigibles, a cigarette vendor and skyscrapers.

"Don't Think Twice It's Alright" is a tribute to Bob Dylan with twin fighting cocks carrying a brain.

"Alaskado" plays on the chubby boy in that milk brand and a cinema billboard with a movie about bad news messengers.

The "jukebox-jeepneys" and record sleeve paintings were recently exhibited at The Drawing Room in Makati. Two of them will be returning to Baguio after the show. De Guia and his gang plan to party once a week with the music. He won't reveal the music play lists, except to say that they're playing Imelda Papin and her royal court of jukebox queens and kings, Barry Manilow and the rest.

"You cannot choose the songs. They are pre-arranged just like in the jeepneys," De Guia said. "But it's worth the ride." ?