If Side 1 of Transverse City (Warren’s 1989 album and the subject of the last half–dozen WednesdayWarrens) was a speculative leap into a dystopian future, then Side 2 hit a little closer to home, while being not one whit less mordant or pessimistic. Whether it’s last week’s yearning to be left alone in a world too close (“Splended Isolation”) or this week’s gnashing of teeth at the interconnectedness of relationships, Warren was rebelling not just against the future, but also the present as well. In “Networking,” he uses the then-new jargon of computer networking (remember: it’s 1989) as a metaphor for the noxious sort of interpersonal networking required by contemporary society:
Networking, I’m user friendly
Networking, I install with ease
Data processed, truly Basic
I will upload you, you can download me
If Warren had lived to see the rise of Facebook, he probably would have laughed his ass off at his prescience.