|
|
Ever HEARD Star Trek? I mean, really HEARD it?May 20 '02 (Updated May 23 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Music
The Bottom Line This review is part of user mattygroves' Charity Write-Off for the Shooting Star Foundation to help terminally ill children in England
Algorithms Online Correspondence Tables Online Indexes Online Memory Alpha Linking Memory Alpha Confirmed** Welcome to My Universe* Captain’s Log. Stardate 48315.6 After receiving a distress call from a Class M planet in the Sol System, Sector 001, we have altered course to intercept what has been described as Shooting Star, an Earth phenomenon claimed to fulfill wishes. Sensor reports show that resident Mattygroves of the area known as the United Kingdom, has gathered members of her crew in the Ten-Forward Lounge, conveniently located on Deck 10, front rim saucer module of the USS Enterprise (A Galaxy Class starship, by the way, which, I might add, is superior in range, shield strength and weaponry to a Miranda, Nebula or Excelsior Class starship but … oh, sorry, I digress) … Translation: User Mattygroves is hosting the Shooting Star Write-Off to benefit the Shooting Star Foundation, a charity established to help terminally ill children in the United Kingdom. Her pals at the local pub are fronting the Latinum per writer and entry on Epinions through their sponsorship and I think we should strip ‘em like a Ferengi with a good number of reviews. So grab some Chech’tluth and a bowl of Gagh, or, if it’s more the earthly things you enjoy, one of Dr. McCoy’s Finagle’s Folly and some bio-enzymatic food supplements, and come along on a journey into Trek’s world of music by boldly going where no reviewer has gone before. May 2002 is the month in which the popular Star Trek series logs a total of 648 hours of TV episodes and nine feature films showcasing Gene Roddenberry’s vision of a better universe. And those are only the official hours and films produced by Paramount. Fan productions, documentaries and a short-lived animated series have probably been forgotten in this calculation offered in TV Guide’s 35th Anniversary Tribute and to truly let the mind-boggling vastness of Roddenberry’s universe sink in, one only has to ponder a fraction of the Trek-related events, merchandise and clubs out there before it all becomes as hard to understand as a Temporal Causality Loop. One of the many things one can buy are the scores to the various shows and movies; but if you’re a Trekker worth your assignment and got the talent, then hey – why not make your own Trek music? And that’s exactly what Bernd Felsberger does. “Who’s Bernd Felsberger?” you ask, and I shall respond as swiftly as a replicator: Bernd is a guy who likes Party of Five, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Star Trek, Patrick Stewart and his friends; and he doesn’t like ignorance, arrogance, egotism and stupidity. That alone is worth checking out his site. Very befitting to the reason for this write-off, Bernd works with children, helping them with their school work and their social interactions and working with the parents on dealing with their kids’ problems. Honing his musical experiences in various bands since 1981, by 1988 Felsberger started to make his own multitrack recordings and eventually embarked on a solo journey into writing, playing, recording and selling Star Trek-based music to a great reception in Germany and Austria. Okay, so there’s this guy who makes this music and a few friends get excited … Oh, you’re way off! If you think you’d like to see Jeri Ryan up close some day, you’re a sector behind Bernd whose image gallery shows him with everybody worth their phaser in the Trek Universe. But Bernd’s works also feature a number of Star Trek celebrities who have contributed their voices to his recordings or just sang along during one of his many convention concerts. Special appearances include Jeri Ryan singing on one of Felsberger's albums; Robert Picardo, the Emergency Medical Hologram of Voyager speaking in English and German or a duet with Tim Russ, Voyager’s Tuvok, on a cover of the Beatles’ song Let it Be during a concert performance. Felsberger has combined his love for Star Trek and his musical abilities into an audio storytelling, much like fan-fiction put to song or a musical retelling of Trek episodes; descriptions and odes to characters you can hum along with or just tap to. Felsberger’s work probably mostly appeals to die-hard Trekkers, but there are also non-Trek songs or instrumental scores, and the majority of the songs require not much more in-depth knowledge than just a basic awareness that there were several series with different ships. There’s funny stuff, too, like the English/German rap about Vulcan Willi, a song written for Willi Wiegand, a German Spock look-a-like so close to the real thing that his story has taken on a kind of Vulcan life of its own. It isn’t easy to describe the music since it varies in style. The theme scores are classical with rock guitar, there are soft rock ballads, some rap and folksy sounds. The best way really to make any judgment is to listen in on the sound files offered by Bernd which are very easy to listen to even with a modem connection. So where do you find Bernd Felsberger? Here are the coordinates: Go to the very beautifully designed web site at: http://www.fk-mediaworks.de/felsberger/index.htm *from where I borrowed the greeting "Welcome to My Universe" Click “Songfiles” on the left and scroll the blue bar on the right down to “Strange Phenomena” and listen to Vulcan Willi and Q Who and tell me that stuff isn’t just brilliant. Well, no, don’t come back and say that. I don’t want to hear any silly comments because just like any other expression of one’s talents and personal interest, Felsberger’s work is definitely worth some appreciation and respect. If you go to the “Songbook” link, you can read the lyrics to the various albums. Parts of Felsberger’s site are in English (almost all the lyrics are), and if you have any questions about the site or his work, you can e-mail the artist himself. If you can find your way around a German message board, you can leave a message in the Forum. After listening to some of the songs, you can order Felsberger’s CD’s from the site and start doling them out as presents to all the Trekkers you know who already have every mug, Frisbee and toy set out there. For any orders of his CDs in the US, go to one of the following links: http://www.cdbaby.com/felsberger http://www.earbuzz.com/berndfelsberger/ And if you’re really up there in the convention hierarchy, you can hire Bernd for a Star Trek convention and listen to him live. No worries, the Trek stars won’t mind – they all know him personally by now. Just check out his Gallery on above web site. Fellow Epinionator kris-kochanski should enjoy knowing there’s a song in her honor – well, by accident. Felsberger’s ballad “Risa” is featured on his album Station to Station. Oh and, by the way: if you need a good recipe for Vulcan Plomeek Soup – well, I got that, too. Just e-mail me. Confirm Memory Alpha Deactivation Request. Deactivation Completed. ** Shooting Star now disconnected from this Terminal. Nanu Nanu. Okay, sorry – Live Long and Prosper. Hint, hint: it’s not too late to invade (translation: jump in on the Write-off.) See http://www.epinions.com/user-mattygroves for more details. Other participants: LRGuis, tombarnes, counsel, tigger1313, freak369, lattechick, aerocat, psychovant, naphtalia, artbyjude, xifphoid, badkittym, xiphoid, hempem, and our honorable and honored host, mattygroves ** Credit to the Windows CD-Rom Star Trek Omnipedia  |
| Read all comments (15)|Write your own comment |
by George_Chabot
by PacManY2J
by starcollector
![Jersey Boys [Original Broadway Cast Recording] by Original Broadway Cast Reviews](http://di2.shopping.com/images/pi/95/a4/8a/2006752046-100x100-0-0.jpg?p=p8.49dda58edb554f3ee6b5&a=2&c=1&l=8071320&t=120603103213&r=2)
