http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym Thoughts of a horn player and wannabe web designer Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:30:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I know, I know, it's been nearly a year, so in an effort not to disappear from the blogosphere altogether, here's a little thought: Next week I have to go to Hexham Abbey in Northumberland to shoot Songs of Praise, followed by a brass quintet recital in Cardiff the day after. ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2007/10/28/random-thought/ I was moderately surprised this morning to read about the trials of my old mate Bill Cooper, trumpet player extraordinaire and key member of England's Barmy Army, currently stationed in Brisbane for the first Ashes test. Bill was chucked out of the Gabba ground just after lunch on Day 1 ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/11/25/the-trumpet-shall-not-sound/ I am... In Copenhagen. Tired. Hung over. Full of cold. In need of doing some laundry. Have been wandering around the area for half an hour in search of a launderette which I'm sure wasn't where the hotel receptionist told me it was. Maybe I was just too tired, hung over and full of cold ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/10/24/on-the-road-again/ Forgive me for I have sinned. It has been THREE MONTHS since my last post! Many things have happened since then which were certainly blogworthy, but for one reason or another I didn't get around to writing and the moment passed. The main reason for this is a project I have ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/08/27/i-am-a-bad-blogger/ From the current Private Eye: The other week (Tessa) Jowell (British Culture Secretary) accompanied Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State, and an accomplished pianist) to a concert by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, after which there was a dinner... ..Ms Jowell asked one of the Philharmonic's principal players: "Are you paid for ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/05/15/beyond-belief/ Someone is selling a rowie on eBay. The rowie (a.k.a. the buttery, or the morning roll), which is composed of flour, butter and salt (although to be honest there's not that much flour involved), and is the breakfast foodstuff of choice for thousands of Aberdonians, has recently come under fire from ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/04/21/great-scottish-delicacies-the-rowie/ Don't worry, I haven't lost it. I have temporarily removed the stylesheet from the site in honour of the 1st annual Naked Day on April 5th. The point of the exercise is to promote Web Standards, and in particular the use of clean, semantic HTML markup in documents, so they ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/04/05/get-naked/ As I start to think about a redesign for this site, the first and most obvious question is: what is it for? I always intended to produce a site advertising my services as a performer, arranger, conductor and teacher, but up to now the only element of jamestopp.com has been ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/03/29/what-am-i/ During the tea break at a session for Songs Of Praise yesterday, a member of the choir collars me and says, "We were just favourably comparing you to the horns we were working with last week." "Oh thanks", I replied, "who were you working with last week?" "It was the English Symphony ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/03/19/you-cant-please-all-of-the-people/ On Friday the ESO's Beethoven symphony cycle came to an end in fine style at Worcester Cathedral with performances of the 8th and 9th symphonies. To do these two pieces back-to-back, following 5 hours of rehearsal the same day, with no bumper, is seriously hard work for the first horn, ... http://www.jamestopp.com/dfym/2006/03/13/motivation/