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My name is Jeff Copetas. I was born in Worcester, MA on
May 5, 1971. I spent most of my childhood in
Lancaster, MA, which was about as regular and normal a place as one could expect. I grew up
with 2 passions - music and ice hockey. To be more specific, I listened to music, I played
ice hockey.
I went to high school at Nashoba
Regional High School in Bolton, Massachusetts, where I excelled in academi....uh, nevermind. I did
okay in classes. Okay, enough, that is, to attend college at
Kent State University, where I did much better in academics and also experienced
some pretty amazing things:
- I was standing about 5 feet from Blue Jays dugout in the
3rd base TV camera area when Joe Carter hit the home
run to win the 1993 World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays
- I spent the next hour in the
Blue Jays locker room while they celebrated
- I met and worked for Oprah
Winfrey for 5 days on a freelance assignment
- I asked someone where the "bubbler"
was on my first night in the dorms and they looked at me like I was from Mars
- I gave Al Green
a ride in a golf cart
- I was face-to-face with Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty at
Cleveland Municipal Stadium
- I attended a 19 inning baseball game on opening day in 1993 between
the Red Sox and Indians. Red Sox won.
- I brought Tim McCarver a cake on national television
for his birthday
- I met Michael J. Fox and John Candy in Toronto.
Not
bad for a college kid, huh? In retrospect, it was a lot like being Forest Gump, I guess.
At the time, I was in my late teens and early 20's, so I didn't realize how important
it was to take pictures. Lots of pictures - and I didn't have a camera. But I do have proof of all these occurences in
one way or another.
So anyway, after college I did what every post-college kid should
do - take 6 weeks and drive around the country, which is another topic for a another webpage
entirely. I returned from my trip flat-broke and stayed flat-broke for the next 4 years while
working at Rounder Records and trying to get my own
record label, Tar Hut Records, off the ground. We had some minor successes at Tar Hut, but it simply
didn't work out, and after 5 mentally exhausting years of which
I have absolutly no regrets and a hell of a lot of fun, I found myself not knowing what to do,
which is something that 90% of college kids experience, I suppose.
Convienently enough, the dot.com era arrived, and I've been in that game ever since,
having worked for two failed dot.com's, SoundsBig and Swapit, and finally settling in
at Ask Jeeves, where I've been the past two years now.
Hard to believe anyone can last two years at a dot.com, isn't it? But we seem to be
doing okay lately.
I think I'm alright.
I have a strong appreciation for the ridiculous, very little patience in traffic and trying to
find parking spots and a strong passion for a beautiful night at a major league ballpark. My love
for music remains (have a gander over there to your left for
some of my favorite bands). My fascination with social interaction grows - I love staring at people. So if
you see me staring at you, don't worry. I'm either jealous that you look so happy and wondering
how I can be more like that, or I'm picturing you dancing with a big hairy gorilla. Either
way it's all good. I think.
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