Weekend Plans Post: The Best Album Titles and How Kids These Days Don’t Know About Them

I have one of the best cubicles in the building. It’s all the way at the end of the cubicles where nobody ever goes. Most times, I don’t have to walk past a human being as I go to my cube to sit down. It’s just a row of 7 empty cubes and then, at the very back, the 8th is mine.

I can run servers. I can belch. I can even listen to music.

Well… except the powers that be saw that there was a row of mostly empty cubes in a disused part of the building, and they decided that that would be the perfect place to put the SUMMER INTERNS.

So now I have about 5 kids that I walk past on my way to do my job. No more music. No more loud servers. I still burp, though. They can deal.

Well, one of them is an extrovert. Like, he comes over and he talks to me. Keep in mind: I am one million years old. I have a cranky demeanor. He wanders over and just starts chit-chatting. He’s a developer. He’s a programmer. He is working on his degree in computer science and he’s going to graduate soon, and he wants to know whether programming is worse than system administration or better and whether he made a mistake and what did you get your degree in, Jaybird?

“Philosophy. Minor in Religious Studies.”

“How did you get a job in computers?”

“I knew how to type.”

He laughs like I told a really funny joke.

Anyway, we’ve reached the point where I say hello to him first, sometimes. I ask about his life, his various taskings, and his weekends. Nice kid.

I made a wry comment about how I still listen to CDs in the car and he thought that that was really funny and, nope, I wasn’t kidding. So I asked him whether he listens to albums and… no. He does not listen to albums. He has satellite radio and he also listens to podcasts about developing, programming, and that sort of thing.

And I remembered the arguments I got into at college about the best albums and the best album covers (“covers that made you buy an album” could get two hours of arguments with different people flipping through their LP collections) and, yes, the best album titles. It doesn’t have to be a good album! It doesn’t have to be a good artist! But you do have to say “Dang… that’s a good album title.”

And it was a good way to introduce music to friends! Hey, if you liked *THIS* album title, you’ll like *THIS* song because it’s about the same theme as the album title and if you like that song, you’ll like this other album in a completely different genre because the keyboard player was going through a hashish problem and processed it by writing a song that became a concept album that is totally also about that title. Pay no attention to the album cover, though. He must have been stoned when he signed off on it.

He has artists that he likes and radio stations that he prefers but albums? Like, 8 or 9 songs in a row by the same guy?

Anyway, the best album title is from Lyle Lovett. “Joshua Judges Ruth”.

As albums go, I don’t think it’s as good as his album “I Love Everybody” but… hey. Just because it’s a good album title doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good album. But if you like that album title, you should like “If I Had a Boat”, off of Pontiac, a different album entirely.

Sigh.

This weekend will be spent getting ready for Summerslam and otherwise trying to find some ways to cool down (though it has started raining again, which is nice).

So… what’s on your docket?