5.29.2002
My friend and co-worker Clay has a friend named Merrill visiting from Atlanta for three weeks and Clay was telling me this morning that they went to Friendly's (restaurant chain) last week and they were treated quite shabbily. So Merrill filled out a job application and she's now employed there, with the sole intention of screwing them in two weeks when she leaves (and making a little money along the way). I love that story. It just warms my heart.
I traded in a bunch of old CD's that I don't listen to and picked up five new ones! Five!
Fu Manchu "California Crossing"
The Kinks "Something Else By The Kinks"
The Kinks "Well Respected Band"
Gomez "In Our Gun" (new one)
Weezer "Maladroit"
Reviews forthcoming.
Went to the Red Sox game on Sunday night - they lost 14-5. The Yankees hit six home runs, and just about all of them were of the very long variety. Still, it was fun and it just solidifies my stance that being at Fenway Park at night during the baseball season is one of my favorite places to be in life. Serenity just overtakes me.
posted by Jeff Copetas 10:53 AM
5.25.2002
Saw both Spiderman and Star Warsin the last three days. My capsule reviews:
Spiderman: just fun to watch. Nothing too deep, but lots of action and lots of cool effects. I was much more interested and entertained by first half of the movie when Peter Parker was just discovering who he was and what he could do. Tobey Maguire was good. Kirsten Dunst, on the other hand, was insulting and horrible. I don't know why they bother casting her in this film at all. I had such high, high hopes for her when she was the lead in The Virgin Suicides, my favorite movie of 2000, but she's mailed in stinker after stinker since. Anyway, Spiderman was worth seeing for sure, but the end is a real dud.
Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones: Much better than Episode I. As expected, the special effects were just tremendous, and the storyline moved along well enough. What I don't understand is how Lucas can't seem to write dialogue above the 4th grade level. That leads me to wonder: when I was growing up and the first three Star Wars movies were out, did I like those better because the dialogue was written for someone my age at the time, or is the dialogue really just worse today? I don't know. But I can tell you that this movie was worth every dime - especially for one particular segment when Yoda just goes berserk with a light sabre, among other things. Never has "the force" been seen with such intensity - and hilariousness. I won't give any more away, but I thought the movie was pretty great, and you can now just start to tell how this all evolves into the original Star Wars storyline. Very cool.
posted by Jeff Copetas 11:53 PM
5.23.2002
So, I had to take my girlfriend to the emergency room on Monday (she's ok) and I use the term "emergency" loosely. We got there at 2:30pm and they didn't see her until 8:30. We sat waiting, worried and frustrated, for six hours. Some emergency room. After the examination we waited another hour and a half. Left the "ER" at 10:15pm, seven hours, and 45 minutes later. How ridiculous is that? And I didn't even get to see any of the doctors from the TV show. They must have had the day off. I was hoping my girlfriend would get Dr. Carter. Instead we got Dr. Reisner.
I learned today that the highest single-word score in Scrabble (in other words, one turn) was 392 for the word "caziques." That is incredible. It's statistically impossible to get that many points with just that word, so undoubtedly the "s" was used to pluralize another long, high-point word. I love Scrabble. I haven't played for quite a while now.
Elliot Smith is fast becoming one of my favorite artists out there. What an incredible string of albums this guy has released.
posted by Jeff Copetas 10:44 AM
5.19.2002
Ocean's Eleven was actually a pretty darn good movie. George Clooney and Julia Roberts spoken parts were pretty minimal, so no damage done there, and it features a good, and in some cases quite amusing, cast of relative unknowns. Take it for what it is - a decent caper with some great parts. Not a very deep movie, but shot in a 1960s fashion (it's an old '60s movie) and keeps you guessing. Andy Garcia was also excellent as the billionaire owner of three casinos.
I've been listening more and more to Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and while I still think that Jeff Tweedy is trying to be too artsy for his own good, there are three or four pretty stunning songs on there. What you should really be buying, as I mentioned before, is the Jay Bennett & Edward Burch album, called The Palace At 4am. Bennett was actually in Wilco when they made Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but left the band before the album was released and made this one, and it's waaaaaaay better. This is probably the first time I've liked an album so much that I've actually posted a link to it twice.
I watched Will Ferrell's last performance on Saturday Night Live last night, and it was bittersweet - he did his usual great bits, and at the end, the cast was visibly moved by his departure - a few were in tears. That guy is amazing. He's the only one who I can remember (been watching since the mid-80s) who makes the cast members laugh out-of-character so much during skits --even Belushi and Eddie Murphy couldn't do that. I really hope Ferrell doesn't end up in second-rate comedies like most of the old SNL people do. I hope he picks his roles carefully, because that dude is a major talent.
I've gotta buy the new Weezer album soon - that song "Dope Nose" that I've been hearing is kick-ass.
posted by Jeff Copetas 10:33 AM
5.15.2002
According to Ask Jeeves, toothpaste was invented over 5,000 years ago, and one of main ingredients of toothpaste, from that time 5,000 years ago until the early 1900s, was urine. Yes, pee. In your toothpaste. Apparantly it was a fine (and never-ending) source of amonia, which, as we know, is a wonderful cleaning substance. I wonder, though, who did they use as the source? Did they have a "pisser" on staff at the toothpaste plant? As odd and hideous as it seems, I would love to have a business card that had my job title listed as "pisser." Or "UEO" - the Urine Executive Officer. The fun possibilites are endless - imagine what you could put on your resume.
I find it truly hilarious that Dionne Warwick was busted for marijuana. They found 11 joints in her lipstick case. I wish I made the bust! I was listening to Howard Stern on the way to work yesterday, and naturally, they were having a ball with this. The best line: "They asked Dionne Warwick to open her lipstick container and they found Whitney Houston in there."
posted by Jeff Copetas 10:33 AM
5.12.2002
Sunday was a busy day. Got up early, as usual, and hit the gym at 8:30 - much better in the morning, when there's no one there and I don't have to wait for machines. One thing I hate is waiting. For anything. Except death, I guess. I'm happy to wait a while for that. That's a gloomy thought, isn't it? Damn, sorry 'bout that. Anyway, after I got home from the gym and showered up, it was off to Target to pick up some household items and I also managed to spend a couple of the gift cards I received for my birthday. Details: picked up a couple of shirts at Old Navy (thanks Steve and Barbara!). Old Navy seems to sell more hip-hop clothes every time I go there. Or maybe I'm just not their target buyer. Who knows. Seriously, though, their "shorts" actually come down well-below the knees? Those are not shorts. Those are "ports" or "shants." Either way, I managed to find a couple worthy shirts and all was well.
At that point, it was about 11:50, so I had ten minutes before Strawberries opened. Now, Strawberries is a store that I detest - one of those mall legends that sells CDs for $19.99, what a complete rip-off! However, I had a gift card (thanks Amy Cooper!). Anyway, I had ten minutes to kill before going to Strawberries so I went next door to the Matress Superstore and managed to fall in love with a king size bed that felt like I was lying in a giant marshmellow. It was pure heaven. It was also $3000. I don't need a new bed or anything, but for a brief, fleeting moment there, I needed a new $3000 king-size bed more than I needed anything else in the whole wide world. Whoo!
After my ten minute slumber, I headed over to Strawberries, looking for The Last Waltz on DVD, which is the documentary of the last show of The Band, a group of musicians whom I hold in the highest regard. Upon asking the clerk at the register if they had it, I got a blank-stare and after clicking a few keys, she assured me that they do not have it. Sad, but not shaken, I peruse the store looking for a few other things, maybe Weezer's new album or an old Kinks album I need. I find what I want and I am headed up to the register, when lo and behold there's The Last Waltz DVD, on an ENDCAP RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE REGISTER! Duh. I pointed it out to her. She was embarrassed. No harm done, mistakes do happen, and that's why I don't shop at Strawberries. Regardless, The Last Waltz is now mine. Now, this is significant for a couple of reasons: 1) I have never seen The Last Waltz, I only have the vinyl album and 2) I have never actually purchased a DVD, and technically I still have not since it wasn't my money. I rent them all from Netflix, which may very well be the best idea for a website I've ever seen.
Describing my day is taking quite a while, isn't it? That's okay, it's just before 11pm and I've got a few more minutes before Baseball Tonight starts. Anyway, I got home and Stephanie and I re-arranged the living room! Hot damn, it looks better now! We threw out the old coffee table and the entertainment center (Dan and Kerry, I appreciated it, but it just took up too much space in our living room......got a good solid year out of it though, so thank you, and Kerry, I'm still using the dresser) and I spent an hour on Saturday constructing a new and smaller entertainment center to use. So it's now in use and functioning quite well. Simply put, it's holding everything up. To celebrate our re-arranging of our living room, we proceeded to go over to Jordan's Furniture, where we purchased what promises to be a funky set-up, a couch and an overstuffed chair and ottoman - in purple. Yes, purple. Initially, I was apprehensive of this color, but after a while I came around. NOBODY has a purple couch and chair. But we do. In 5 to 8 weeks, I'll report back.
Another album that is just kicking my ass is called "Phoenix" and it's performed by a guy named Cary Hudson, who used to sing with a terrific band called Blue Mountain. Hudson's new album is much like Blue Mountain, in fact, but probably a little more, um, uh, how do I put this? Male? Whatever. It's good. Think Tarbox Ramblers and Lynyrd Skynyrd combined. Very, very good album. So yeah, it was a busy Sunday. Now, off to baseball tonight to close it out.......whoo!
posted by Jeff Copetas 11:00 PM
5.11.2002
It's Friday night, er, Saturday morning now. About 12:10 I guess. My girlfriend has long since gone to bed. The Red Sox are in Seattle and losing 6-2 in the 5th. Why am I up? Because I have some random thoughts:
- We watched Ali tonight. I was kind of upset I missed it on the big screen, but was equally excited when it showed up in my mail from Netflix. Well, I didn't miss much. 2 hours and 40 minutes of film, much of which I felt like sleep was a better option. How did this movie ever get good reviews? The movie stretches over a ten year span, yet we're never told what year it is, or where in the story we are. It randomly jumps from one of Ali's lovers to the next, when you're not really even sure how much time has passed, or if the kid his lover is holding is even his. The boxing scenes are simply too long. There's a lot of mumbling. There's no story to follow. Do I need to go on? All this talk about Will Smith deserving an Oscar? Nonsense. I don't recommend it.
I've now had Run-DMC's "Raising Hell" on CD for a couple of days now, and I am realizing that these guys were just plain genius. I've now played the album three times in a row at the gym, and it's so damn good. Makes the workout just fly by. I had forgotten how ahead of their time they were.
Had a terrific day on the highway today. Took me an hour and a half to get to work. Took me an hour and 15 minutes to get home. It usually takes 30 minutes each way. Lovely. The car companies really need to come up with better things to do in the car during traffic jams.
. How wierd is this? I'm on the phone with my friend and co-worker Dan Brough down in NYC today and it turns out he and his wife stayed not only in the same bed & breakfast as we did last weekend in Ogunquit, but stayed in the same room. That's odd! That's where I took that picture below, by the way, with my clones.
Everywhere I go now, I see Nissan Maximas. Nice ones. They're all nice.
Picked up an album yesterday that is just kicking my ass - Jay Bennett & Ed Burch, The Palace At 4am." I can't explain it, but the first time I heard this album it sounded like all these songs were just perfect pop songs that I had been listening to on a mix tape for years. It's that good. Last time something got me like this was when I first heard Sloan. Anyway, it's not like Sloan, this has much more tinkering and experimental noises whereas Sloan is just chugging chords and ass kicking. But damn, it sounds like I'm gonna be playing this one over and over and over again.
My new dream job is to get back into broadcasting. I used to do CCHA college hockey games for Kent State (best college hockey division in the country), now I want to broadcast baseball games. I get into these modes where I seriously think about doing this stuff, then I quickly and quietly snap back into real life when I realize that I'd probably have to move to Reno to broadcast AA baseball and make $20,000 per year. But I still wanna do it.
posted by Jeff Copetas 12:22 AM
5.8.2002
Ah, I forgot to mention, here's some pictures of Ogunquit, Maine from this weekend. Enjoy.
posted by Jeff Copetas 4:50 PM
OK, time to play the song lyrics game again:
"Now been a-checking the scene if you know what I mean
Good things are coming my way
Now I'm living my life and I'm taking it right
Sun shining everyday..."
Have fun with that one. Let me know if you know it and I'll talk about you on my site. What a privledge.
posted by Jeff Copetas 10:38 AM
5.7.2002
I finally bought one of my favorite albums from my high school days. I used to have it on cassette, but now I have it in digital format. It's been a long time coming! It's one of the best - if not the THE best - rap albums ever made. Really takes me back to being 14 and 15 years old and just starting to discover how many different kinds of music I really liked.
posted by Jeff Copetas 9:44 AM
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