Trip Playing An Instrument

[WarpGirl]

So in addition to the harmonica, what other instrument might Trip be interested in? This is what we have so far...

1. Piano

2. Guitar

3. Fiddle/Violin (According to my granndmother who used to play they're basically the same thing. It's the Viloa that's different)

4. Exotic Wind Instrument (which I will not attempt to spell)

5. Electric Violin

What else folks?

[Alelou]

Jazz musicians would starve without Europe. I used to work with the wife of jazz trumpeter Ted Curson, and most of his living was made in travel to Europe, and especially Finland.

Demographically the whole eastern US should be salsa country in 200 years, but you never know. You never hear Trip slip into any Spanglish or express a longing for black beans on rice or guava turnovers or even a Cuban sandwich. So I'd say he's clearly not a Tampa or Miami boy.

Personally I find salsa pretty tiresome, and I of course have a salsa-loving family. For God's sake, vary it with a little merengue or something.

[EntAllat]

The talk about zydeco gets me thinking about the movement of cultural elements. Zydeco is popular in East Texas through to Houston but that's close enough to its origins in Louisiana for some strong influence (especially after all the population upheaval of Katrina). Given the history of Trip's time I'd expect that any currently more regional styles of music in Florida and nearby areas to have spread a little farther or, conversely, to have become even more tightly associated with specific areas because of the reduced population following the Eugenics Wars.

Regardless, Trip was a scuba diver and also mentioned having taken a girlfriend down to Tarpon Springs so I'd expect him, especially in the 22nd century (Quick and easy transportation across larger distances? Please tell me mass transit is better in the south by then.) to have been all over that state and the Gulf every weekend while growing up. Given that, I'd think he'd also like anything that you'd associate as 'beach music'. Also, because he was so into movies I'd also expect him to have listened to and liked a fairly wide range of music, even though I picture him enjoying primarily blues/country/rock. (In my story "Fear" I had him introduce Malcolm - who was slightly appalled - to a style even I don't really picture Trip listening to much. He liked it only because they put on such a movie-like performance on stage and in videos.)

Here's a couple of questions: would Trip be into any of what would be 22nd century popular musical styles? And what would that sound like? Alien influences by then or not yet? Both he and Malcolm seemed comfortable enough in a 'modern' type club on Risa (until they got in trouble) so what would Trip have experienced on Earth?

Also, bringing this around to TnT, we know that T'Pol became intrigued with the syncopated sounds of jazz coming out of a club in San Francisco (via the ep "Fusion"). There's a lot of jazz styles - bebop, acid, soul, funk, dixie, etc. - would she have explored that interest further? And if so, what styles would she have listened to by then and what would she think about them? When would Trip have found out about T'Pol's interest in jazz? Would they have argued about any of the styles? I always think of them coming together over the softer sounds of "island jazz", every time I hear "Smooth Operator" or "Hang on To Your Love" or over half a dozen others by Sade because it seems to fit T'Pol's quiet nature and Trip's cultural background. (Hint, hint for somebody to write a story around that.

Getting off the music thread for a moment:
One problem for me, and I'm sure somebody's brought it up before on these boards so feel free to point me at previous discussion, is exactly where Trip's hometown was. If it is was destroyed by the Xindi prototype weapon in the manner in which we saw (as if it had cut right through the middle of the city) it couldn't have been Panama City that he grew up in, right? That's in the panhandle. The probe cut straight down through the heart of Florida, probably through the Everglades and Keys and then through Cuba, etc. and it looked like it started somewhere around Gainesville. So where was his hometown? Or does someone else have an explanation for that?

[EntAllat]

Jazz musicians would starve without Europe. I used to work with the wife of jazz trumpeter Ted Curson, and most of his living was made in travel to Europe, and especially Finland.

Demographically the whole eastern US should be salsa country in 200 years, but you never know. You never hear Trip slip into any Spanglish or express a longing for black beans on rice or guava turnovers or even a Cuban sandwich. So I'd say he's clearly not a Tampa or Miami boy.

Personally I find salsa pretty tiresome, and I of course have a salsa-loving family. For God's sake, vary it with a little merengue or something.

LOL. Sometimes I have the same reaction to Tejano after I've heard it all day. But right now I have the urge to listen to it. Either that, or go down to San Antonio and watch the elderly couples dance circles around the youngsters.

[Silverbullet]

B it of Trivia: When I was a boy the Harmonica ws also known as a "Mouth Organ"
Where that name come from I am not sure or if it was regional.

SB

[WarpGirl]

Jazz musicians would starve without Europe. I used to work with the wife of jazz trumpeter Ted Curson, and most of his living was made in travel to Europe, and especially Finland.

Demographically the whole eastern US should be salsa country in 200 years, but you never know. You never hear Trip slip into any Spanglish or express a longing for black beans on rice or guava turnovers or even a Cuban sandwich. So I'd say he's clearly not a Tampa or Miami boy.

Personally I find salsa pretty tiresome, and I of course have a salsa-loving family. For God's sake, vary it with a little merengue or something.

Well he says to Hoshi he's terrible at languages, that to me says he might have tried to learn some Spanish and had a hard time.

And about the food, well... I'm not sure that is any indication especially since he does like Key Lime Pie... They made all of the character's food choices very... caucasian... except for Hoshi (one time) and T'Pol. Which kind of made me angry because even Travis and Phlox (with the exception of egg drop soup) had very "bland" tastes. And like I said, the reasearchers didn't really think to make Trip all that Floridian.

Edit: Hoshi spent how much time in Brazil, and never wanted one type of food from there. Malcolm might have spent time in Malaysia and he didn't want anything. Phlox never at anything from his home...

Trip's Hometown-

Born in 2121, Charles Tucker III grew up in Panama City, Florida. (ENT: "Fusion") Tucker acquired the nickname "Trip" due to the fact that he was the third (the "triple") Tucker to be named "Charles," after his father and grandfather. (ENT: "First Flight")

Interestingly enough it doesn't say he was born there...

[Rigil Kent]

Call me nuts (I am) but the man grew up in FLA one of the great melting pot states of the US... Let's add some Latino sounds, calypso, and Bob Marley. Yeah lots of carribian there but it is part of the culture. And come on don't Y'all think Trip can salsa. And interestingly enough, occasionally you will hear a harmonica.

Yeah ... I grew up in Florida and I'm not a fan of any of those music types you mentioned so I don't know if the argument stands. Plus, it honestly seems like the only music that continues to exist in the Trek verse is classical - can anyone point me to a single instance (apart from the jazz in "Fusion" which is the sole exception I can think of) when they're listening to human music and it isn't Berlioz or Mozart or Beethoven? I can't think of anything resembling rock, or country, or rap, or ... well, you get the point.

As to Trip's tastes being "bland," again, I've got to play Devil's Advocate because, as a native Southerner myself, his tastes pretty much mirror mine (except catfish - I can't stand catfish.)

[honeybee]

Here's a couple of questions: would Trip be into any of what would be 22nd century popular musical styles? And what would that sound like? Alien influences by then or not yet? Both he and Malcolm seemed comfortable enough in a 'modern' type club on Risa (until they got in trouble) so what would Trip have experienced on Earth?

Humans have always borrowed from different cultures and fused together different styles. I'm not sure Vulcans would do this, but humans would probably be riffing off various alien musical styles within months after first contact.

My guess is there would be classical earth styles - like jazz, blues, zydeco, rock and roll - and there would be 22nd century analogs to hip hop and rock and roll that would simply borrow anything and everything, put it in a musical blender and run with it. I mean, think about the Beatles and Indian music, the Beastie Boys bringing Heavy Metal riffs to Hip Hop, and most all hip Hip Hop artists using both spoken word and everything from disco to show tunes as samples. Nina Simone always claimed that jazz was not a separate style from classical music, but simply classical music infused with African rhythm. I think Trip, who was also a fan of classical music, would probably embrace both old and new.

In my stories, I have T'Pol embracing the later bop jazz artists like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, simply because I think this is the style Vulcans would find most subversive with the emphasis on improvisation. Plus, that music is sexy as hell. I can also certainly see 22nd Century jazz artists fusing the old with the new, using old fashion riffs and new ones picked up from alien cultures.

On NPR a few weeks ago, they interviewed a musicologist and he said "it's impossible to predict what the future will sound like" - and I think that's true. I mean, the theramin didn't take off the way futurists thought it would.

Plus, it honestly seems like the only music that continues to exist in the Trek verse is classical - can anyone point me to a single instance (apart from the jazz in "Fusion" which is the sole exception I can think of) when they're listening to human music and it isn't Berlioz or Mozart or Beethoven?

There's Zephram Cochran listening to Steppenwolf, which would have been more than a century old during first contact. Riker always listened to jazz. I think this is a function of not knowing what "hip" contemporary music would sound like in the future, and that the show couldn't afford the rights to pop music anyway. First Contact obviously had a pretty large budget, so they could afford the song.

[crystalswolf]

WG, I think you're thinking of Central and South Florida. North Florida, by most, is considered "The South," while Central and South Florida are not, even though it's geographically located in the south. This is not a first-hand account but from those I know that were raised or moved to the state. I can say from experience, though, that Miami (S.Florida) feels a lot like NYC.

[EntAllat]

Plus, it honestly seems like the only music that continues to exist in the Trek verse is classical - can anyone point me to a single instance (apart from the jazz in "Fusion" which is the sole exception I can think of) when they're listening to human music and it isn't Berlioz or Mozart or Beethoven?

There's Zephram Cochran listening to Steppenwolf, which would have been more than a century old during first contact. Riker always listened to jazz. I think this is a function of not knowing what "hip" contemporary music would sound like in the future, and that the show couldn't afford the rights to pop music anyway. First Contact obviously had a pretty large budget, so they could afford the song.

Ditto. That's also why every 'movie' we see is a really old picture or black & white. It was just too costly for production purposes to use more contemporary things so it ends up giving us the impression that the people of Star Trek's future like nothing but classical music and that only early, early movies and television survived.

That's changed a little bit now that some TV shows are part music video, with the contemporary artist's CD (usually new ones) shown at the end (I'm thinking Smallville and other CW productions here). But Star Trek shows weren't a part of that phenomenon. I just assume other stuff exists in some way or another, we just never get to see it. (Kinda like we rarely saw bathrooms for most of Trek. )

[Silverbullet]

Wasn't there a segmemt of a TNG episode where Data waa in a quartet (perhpas a trio) he was playing the celllo (I belive) the music was a Mozart piece (lovely)

Trip always claimed that his favorite pie was Pecan. Key line was apparently Sim's favorite pie. Believe that Key lime pie was the first intoruction of the sim character in that episode.

[honeybee]

The WB shows cut deals with record labels to feature the songs of up-in-coming artists in episodes as promotion. Part of the deal was that the songs had to be featured not only over the end credits but often in promos, and with the name of the band, song and record label on the screen. That fits very nicely into youth oriented shows, but it's not really something that would benefit Trek, given in the future they would probably be listening to very well-established classic acts - and those would be very, very expensive to feature. When Conan O'brien was leaving NBC but still on the air, he used the Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" in a sketch just to piss off the NBC brass - announcing just how much it cost. And, when Tom Hanks came out for the last show, they played him on to The Beatles's "Lovely Rita" for his wife, also something that would have cost a mint.

With the exception of "Frankenstein" - all the films seen for movie night were Paramount films owned outright by the studio.

Trek isn't alone, The Simpsons are usually only allowed to use material owned by Fox, which is why in several episodes you can hear Homer singing along to the Batman theme or the theme to The Flinstones.

But honestly, I think that using old classic stuff works in Trek's favor, since we don't really know what contemporary stuff will remain classic over time and what will fade away. It's hard to predict. The Wizard of Oz was a flop, but it became a classic. Interestingly, in that film, they shot a cute musical number called "The Jitterbug" but the studio cut it thinking that they had an "evergreen" movie they could release year after year - but that was the only thing that really dated it. You can see the number on most special edition DVDs.

Sure, makeup and hair dates each series to its era - and I think we met more than a few space hippies in TOS - but the lack of contemporary music and films does make the show feel separate from our own time.

[Alelou]

Getting off the music thread for a moment:
One problem for me, and I'm sure somebody's brought it up before on these boards so feel free to point me at previous discussion, is exactly where Trip's hometown was. If it is was destroyed by the Xindi prototype weapon in the manner in which we saw (as if it had cut right through the middle of the city) it couldn't have been Panama City that he grew up in, right? That's in the panhandle. The probe cut straight down through the heart of Florida, probably through the Everglades and Keys and then through Cuba, etc. and it looked like it started somewhere around Gainesville. So where was his hometown? Or does someone else have an explanation for that?

I know we've thrashed this out in some thread somewhere. That graphic was completely off for Trip if he's from Panama City -- that looked about an hour in from the southeast coast, heading down through Lake Okeechobee and through the greater Miami area. Nowhere NEAR Panama City or Gainesville, which are both quite a bit further north and west. I haven't been to Panama City, so I can't speak to it. And Rigil obviously knows Gainesville a lot better than I do, but I would say that at its heart it's a sleepy southern town with a big hopping university in the middle of it, causing modern sprawl (and an incredibly loud roar of football on Saturday afternoons in the fall).

And Rigil, I can only assume your grandma didn't know how to pan fry her catfish right. Because that's just sad, dude.

SB, maybe Trip's taste in favorite pies changed as he got older. Maybe he ate too much key lime pie one day and that was it for him. We didn't get to check in with Sim about his favorite pie the next day, after all.

[Silverbullet]

Alelou, in braking the Ice Trip said that Pecan Pie was his favorite since he was a kid. NOthing said about Key LIme.

It was Sim talking to Malcom who said that Key Lime was his favorite. which is why I said it was the firstindication of sim in the episode. Up until that time the clone was Trip.

[honeybee]

I totally believe that something like taste in pie would evolve from a combo of genetics and circumstances, so Sim might very well have a different favorite. Also, as Alelou pointed out, people's taste is food changes over their lifetime. I used to be a big carnivore and if you had talked to me when I was 25, I would have said my favorite sandwich was roast beef. Now, I'm a vegetarian, and today I ate a divine roasted tofu and veggie sandwich that would have disgusted the 25 year old me. It's not said on the DVD, but Manny Coto said he watched all the previous episodes of ENT prior to writing that episode, and while it could have been a mistake, I like to think that the change in favorite pie was simply something that differentiated Sim from Trip and/or maybe Trip's favorite pie was the one in front of him at the time.

When you talk region, pecan pie is very popular and considered a local favorite in Houston, while key lime is a South Florida thing - though you'll find both of them served all over the Gulf Coast and beyond.

I think musical taste is also something that evolves over time and changes with mood - it's fluid.