RustedRobot: The Tife & Limes of Jeff Copetas

I know I’ve mentioned before how embarrassingly bad most of the music from 1985-1990 was. So I looked up Billboard’s Top 30 songs of 1989 and here’s what the list looks like. If you can guess the four songs that I would actually listen to if they came on the radio, I’ll make you a copy of the album of your choice (if I have it). The bonus question: which of these songs might rank as my second most hated song of all time? Have fun playing.

You don’t need me to tell you that the amount of prescription drug television commercials has reached a fever pitch. I mean, watch a sporting event - I truly believe there is one of these commercials during every single break in the action. I am about to watch the first pitch of the NLCS and just before coming back to the start of the game, there was a commercial for some prostate drug called Avodart or something like that. Towards the end, when the narrator’s cocaine kicks in and he reads off the side-effects faster than a Jamaican sprinter, I hear this - “Avodart should not be taken or handled by women.” I then went to the website, which I won’t link to here (ever) and I read this: “Do not donate blood until at least 6 months after stopping AVODART.”

Did you get that? Finally, we have a prescription drug whose side effects are so out of this world that women shouldn’t even HANDLE it and your blood is probably lethal! What’s next? You can’t be NEAR it? You can’t THINK about it? I’m now wondering what the drug trials went like? Did a woman touch some Avodart and instantly grow three extra arms and a nose on her ass? If that’s the case, the drug maker most certainly bought her a house on every beautiful coast across the globe….and still sewed her mouth shut.

I hope it’s not long before these commercials are banned.

I can’t seem to make it through a debate anymore. I’ve tried to watch two - the VP one last week and then last night’s presidential debate. It’s just not worth the time. As is the case with every presidential campaign, nobody is telling the truth. I hate it. Every four years, the nation starts buzzing like bees around the flowers over this stuff and every single time whoever wins the presidency never accomplishes what they promise to do during the campaign. It’s patently absurd. The whole thing is absurd.

So here’s what I do now: no more debates. I can read about what happened on the internet if I really need to. Then, if you want actual truth, just go to factcheck.org and they will give it to you. Or, even better, head over to votesmart.org and - get this - actually read the candidates voting records yourself! Now that’s a novel idea. But by god, don’t listen to them and don’t listen to the media.

On a MUCH funnier note, this skit from SNL this past weekend really had me cracking up:

• I’d like to thank Javier Lopez for guaranteeing me another night of 5 hours sleep tonight. Yay! I would also like to thank Nathan & Zachary, who slept an extra 40 minutes this morning. It’s like they knew I needed the extra time.

• We have heard that if you put the kids to bed earlier, they actually sleep longer. That came from a book about infant sleep that we’ve been reading since Steph was pregnant.  The book is a miracle. The boys have been sleeping, on average, from 6:45pm to about 6am since they were about four months old. Not bad at all.

• Is it vain to want to get a new license because you don’t like the picture? Mine doesn’t expire until May 2010 and I don’t know that I can wait that long. Sounds too vain to me.

• October remains my favorite month of all time. You want to talk about sleeping weather? Perfect. Lots of good rock shows? Check. Foliage - obviously. Playoff baseball…..yep, that too. NHL starting? Well, I used to be more excited about that, but it’s still good enough to add to the list.

• Anybody watch Dirty Sexy Money? We’ve been watching since the first episode aired and it’s just a fun ride. Peter Krause is a sharp actor. You may remember him as Nate from one of my favorite shows ever, Six Feet Under. But the whole cast is solid - Donald Sutherland as the head of a obnoxiously rich, screwed up family is very good.

Let’s go back to high school for a second. Meet Matt Wilson:

Matt joined our school senior year as a new student, something I’m glad I never had to experience. He came from Missouri, which at the time felt about as far away as the Czech Republic. Most new kids spend the first few weeks in an awkward silence, taking it all in and trying to forge some kind of path. Matt could have easily mailed it in - I mean, he wouldn’t be establishing any longstanding relationships, since he’d only be there for a year before we’d all splinter off for college.

Turns out Matt was outgoing from the start and didn’t have any problem at all engraining himself into our school. And he was funny. We all really got a kick out of his catch phrase, “The King.” If something was really cool, it would be “the king.” If I told him I went to the Bruins game last night and it was a fight-filled extravaganza, it was the king. He would jokingly say he was the king. As you can see in the yearbook picture, that’s his little quote. Funny. Matt and I became pretty good friends. I took him to the Bruins-St. Louis game and we spent the whole game basically making fun of each others teams. Being from the mid-west, he was a wrestler, too. Naturally.  He also hooked up with the foreign exchange student in a car during our Senior Banquet after-party. There was a lot of foot traffic around that car, so he was the hit of the class the next week or so. Just an all-around good guy.

But just like that, we all went to college and we never heard from Matt again. I think he actually went to Brigham-Young University, but my memory may be failing me. This is the classic “I wonder whatever happened to?”

For those of you who are really that curious, here’s the text of what he wrote to me in the yearbook:

Bro, as seniors we have ruled, or perhaps I should say I have ruled, you followed. But we did finally make it across the finish line. I hope to see you face-down in the gutter this summer.

Matt

ps - the Bruins suck

And yes, he’s the one who wrote “sexy boy” up next to his own picture. Dork! Would love to hear what that dude is up to these days….

I’ve had a couple of recent releases playing relatively non-stop on my computer lately. Here’s a couple of samples:

Easton Stagger Phillips is a side-project of the grossly underrated Tim Easton, whom I interviewed here back in 2004 and actually posted on the morning of my wedding day. Easton has quietly built himself an arsenal of some of the best recordings of the past 10 years. He has multiple musical personalities, but it all ties back to his strongest asset - his songwriting. For this album, he teamed up with fellow musicians Leroy Stagger and Evan Phillips, his friends from Alaska and they put together a collection of songs that feel awfully Big Pinkish - and that’s a compliment of the highest order. The album is called “One For The Ditch” and the sample here is called “Stormy.” Easton doesn’t handle vocals on this track, but any of the songs will give you a sense of the great vibe on this record.

Blitzen Trapper is a band that kind of defies explanation. Part indie rockers, part campfire singers and part psychedelia, I suppose. But certainly unique. They sound like the kind of band that might not shower very much. I really have no idea what that means, but I think you still get the point. They’ve just released “Furr,” which I believe to be their 2nd full length release and it’s really moving the needle for me. Sample here is “War On Machines.”