Friday night Margie and I went out with some pals for drinks after work. When I walked into the bar, one of the first things to catch my eye was the jukebox. Like a lot of bars in New York City, this one had a digital jukebox. But this was more than any old digital jukebox to me; I instantly recognized the brand of the jukebox because a good pal of mine wrote the software for it! And, I remembered that he had added in some secret codes for free songs.
With that in mind, I sent him a text message asking for the code for free songs and got back a list of codes for things like: add X free credits, add the selected song to the front of the queue, clear the queue (screw people out of all the songs they paid for that haven’t played yet), and skip currently playing song. Armed with the seekrit codez, I went to town.
A man on a mission, I punched in code after code, giving me free credits and bumping my songs to the front of the queue. At a bar that’s known for its amazing music collection in its jukebox, I had a lot to choose from. So, I played a bunch of old favorites (Radiohead, the Beasite Boys, the Postal Service). It’s really quite satisfying to hear your song selections come up immediately.
I’m sure I pissed off a few people who weren’t hearing their songs come up. But, I must have pissed out my morals along with my drinks, because right before we decided to leave, I prepped the jukebox for maximum annoyance: the same Moby song, nine times in a row (I like Moby, but ‘Honey’ can get really annoying after the second play in a row). And, to polish it off, three shots of Beck’s ‘Deborah’ for good measure.
Then we high-tailed it outa there, but not before I left 9 free credits in the machine as one last surprise for those we left behind scratching their heads.