Hello World!

Oh wow.

As I write this (but still a few days before I will be able to post this), I just returned from R.E.M.'s concert in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. This was only the second concert of their European tour, with the first concert having taken place Saturday in a small venue right here in Utrecht. I tried to get tickets for the Utrecht concert as well, but despite getting up at 6am that turned out to be hopeless from the start - most of the tickets had already been sold to fan club members.

It probably was for the best anyway, as in a small crowd like the one in Utrecht it would have been only more painfully obvious how few R.E.M. songs I really know. Sure, I know the lyrics to the songs from the big records like Automatic for the People, but Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills had apparently decided to reward their long-time fans by also playing some of the more obscure songs - Michael Stipe mentioned that one of tonight's songs they hadn't performed live for sixteen years. All that suited me fine, though, as I had just as much fun jumping up and down and waving my hands during songs I didn't know as I had singing along with Man On The Moon. It was good business decision by the band too, as I now won't rest until I've collected all the songs from tonight on CD.

I noticed an interesting phenomenon during Losing My Religion. Of course, several thousand pairs of hands went up in the air when the song started, but many people also started calling friends on their cell phones, to let them share in the band's most famous song. They should have just done that when a ballad started - now that fewer people smoke, the yellowish glow of the phone menu screens might make up for the lack of lighters.

Towards the end of the concert, Michael Stipe told an amusing story of the first time he went to Holland. When he was seven, he lived with his parents in Frankfurt, Germany, and at the time his favourite flower in the whole wide world was the tulip ("Can you see where I'm going with this?", he asked.) So for four months, starting in October 1967, all he did was pester his parents about going to Holland to see the tulips. Finally they relented, and they took him to Amsterdam. Being American, they weren't quite familiar with Dutch weather conditions, they didn't know there wouldn't be a tulip to be seen in January - and to make matters worse, only took little Michael's short corduroy trousers with them. As a result, Michael spent the whole time he was in Amsterdam complaining about the cold, and ended up seeing no tulips at all. Tonight, he promised to call his parents right after the concert was over, and make sure a photo of seven-year old him in his shorts would end up on R.E.M.hq before the week is over.

The concert ended with an extended version of This Is The End Of The World As We Know It, which of course had everyone jumping around and screaming their lungs out again. It's a good thing I'm off until the late afternoon tomorrow.

Trek BBS Today

Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Should Activision use the Dominion War as backdrop for a computer game?

-What do you think of Viacom's plan to rename TNN to Spike TV?

-And in Science Fiction & Fantasy: Have you heard why the latest issues of the JMS comic series 'Rising Stars' have not yet been published?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Trek Two Years Ago

Below are some of the news items that appeared on TrekToday around the 25th of June, 2001:

• Dawson: If I Can't Tell What It Is, I Won't Sign It
  Voyager actress Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) delivered some sound advice to the new Enterprise actors, telling FHM Magazine that she'd had "had my fair share of unpublishable letters from prisoners and men requesting my underwear." At conventions, she had also been presented with strange things to sign. "My rule of thumb is if I can’t tell what it is, I won’t sign it."

• 'Enterprise' Launch Promo Online
  UPN produced a second trailer for Enterprise, just as visually unexciting as the first one. No scenes from the actual show were available yet, so the promo consisted purely of several text screens and the show's logo.

• Zefram Cochrane To Appear In 'Enterprise' Pilot
  Ain't It Cool News reported that James Cromwell would be reprising his Star Trek: First Contact role and appear to give a ""stirring speech that sends this first crew of explorers on their way."

Poll Results

Below are the results of the most recent TrekToday poll:

Bakula and Trinneer have both hinted that their characters could become romantically involved with T'Pol. Should she date: She's a Vulcan, please spare us! 39.6% - (380 Votes) Archer 26.6% - (256 Votes) Sato 13% - (125 Votes) Tucker 12% - (116 Votes) Reed 3.5% - (34 Votes) Phlox 2.5% - (24 Votes) An alien of the week 1.3% - (13 Votes) Mayweather 1.1% - (11 Votes) Total Votes: 959

, Thanks for voting! In the new poll, you're asked what you expect to be watching next season after Enterprise. Does new UPN show Jake 2.0 stand a chance, or is the competition way too fierce? ,

Today's Television Listings

Tonight at 8:00pm Eastern Daylight Time, UPN will be repeating Enterprise's 'Stigma'. Here's the official synopsis of the episode:

While Enterprise visits a planet where an Interspecies Medical Exchange conference is taking place, Dr. Phlox tries to obtain research on a terminal disease from the Vulcan contingency there. But he must not reveal that T'Pol has contracted this disease, because that knowledge would forever stigmatize her among her people."

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