richard vodden’s blog

Wharfedale DV832B

September 12, 2008 at 1043 BST · Filed under General

I strongly suggest that nobody every buys a Wharfedale DV832B set top box. These are currently on sale in Argos punted as a low power model. I have not made any investigations into the power consumption, so I have no idea how accurate that is.

The unit looks nice, its apparently well built and the user interface is straightforward. It supports full 7 day EPG and has an option to drop back to the old 24 hour EPG. Tuning is fast and intuitive and the picture quality looks fine. I don’t like the absence of channel re-ordering, but that’s only a feature on more advanced units. The major problem I have with the machine is that every few minutes there is a 2 or 3 second audio drop. This is not accompanied by any clicks or pops, its just plain and simple silence. This could be an issue with just my machine you might think. No! Several people on Digital Spy have had the same issue as me:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=482516

I therefore recommend that no-one even considers buying this machine and opts for something made by someone else entirely. The unit has been in production for 3 years, and from what I can very few efforts have been made to rectify the problem. The technical support line told me it was a problem with my SCART lead (its not).

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Inspiration

June 11, 2007 at 1138 BST · Filed under General

Over the last few months I have had the privilege of working with some very great people. I have been conducted by Charles Mackerras, Andrew Davis and Mark Elder and most recently I played 3rd trumpet with the Rehearsal Orchestra who were accompanying Peter Donohoe playing the Busoni Piano Concerto. All of these events have fuelled my desire for a professional music career. Somehow, and I don’t really understand why, even more inspiring than all of these events was a somewhat random piece of prose I found whilst watching Darcy Bussell’s retiring performance on BBC2 last friday. This text, written by Martha Graham, I think beautifully sums up the emotional side of performance. She is writing about dance, and much of what she has to say focusses and applies only to that genre. I think, however, that there is something in this writing which applies to all art forms.

http://marthagraham.org/resources/about_martha_graham.php#dancer

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Names

April 7, 2007 at 1232 BST · Filed under General

R : You like to drink.
I : Fuckin crazy.
C : You are really silly.
H : You have a very good personality and good looks.
A : You like to drink.
R : You like to drink.
D : You like to drink.

Hmmm - appropriate

copy this and see what your name means…

A : You like to drink.
B : You like people.
C : You are really silly.
D : You like to drink.
E : awesome kisser.
F : You are dead sexy.
G : You never let people tell you what to do.
H : You have a very good personality and good looks.
I : Fuckin crazy.
J : People Adore You
K : You’re wild and crazy.
L : You like to drink
M : best kisser ever.
N: Easy to fall in love with.
O: Easy to fall in love with
P : You are popular with all types of people.
Q : You are a hypocrite.
R : You like to drink.
S : You are great in bed.
T : Easy to fall in love with.
U : You like to drink
V : You are not judgemental.
W : You are very broad minded.
X : You really like to chill.
Y : Best g/f b/f anyone could ever ask for.
Z : Always ready

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dating

March 17, 2007 at 0021 GMT · Filed under General

Free Online Dating
Read My Result
Take the Test

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Crimes

March 5, 2007 at 1621 GMT · Filed under General

I noticed on a thread the other day the following list of trumpet crimes and associated fines. I agree with these wholeheartedly:

MUSICAL OFFENCE AND FINE
Playing highest note possible in warm- up £100
Sound-checking mic with obnoxious jazz licks £15
Raising hand after mistake £15
Practicing multiple tonguing not called for on gig £15
Blacking out after high note £20
Obnoxiously show-offy warm-up £25
Taking tuning note up an octave £25
Vibrato on unison passage £50
Failure to use 3rd valve slide £50
Playing B-flat when band tunes to A £75
Being told by conductor to play louder £400
Failure to swing £1000

LEAD PLAYERS
Changing mouthpieces mid-song £10
Faking section into early entrance £20
Faking self into early entrances £25
Missing high lick, then mentioning previous gig(s) £25
Asking conductor if it’s ok to take a lick up £25
Asking conductor if it’s ok to take a lick down £400
Taking a lick down that you took up in rehearsal £100
Missing last note of “In the Mood” £200

SECTION/NON-LEAD PLAYERS
Missing entrance when lead drops out £15
Pointing out to the lead that guy on the record took that last lick up £20
Attempting unassigned lick biffed by lead £50
Asking lead what mouthpiece he uses £75
Hanging over past lead on last chord £100
Attempting to out-screech lead on last chord £100
Successfully out-screeching lead at any time £500

EQUIPMENT VIOLATIONS
Playing with screw on rim £10
Polishing horn on stage £15
Dropping mute £10
Dropping horn: Repairs + £20
Dropping dead: Warning
Forgetting pencil £20
Forgetting mute(s) £50 each
Forgetting bowtie or socks £30
Forgetting mouthpiece £30
Forgetting magazine £100
Blaming mistake on sticky valves £25
Getting marble or similar object stuck down bell £75

CRIMINAL BAD TASTE
Having nicest gig-bag in section £10
Talking about the great deal you got on a new horn £10
Hawking old horn on bandstand £10
Quoting Herb Alpert or Mangione Song £25
Farting on bandstand £25
Defecating on bandstand £75
Practicing legit style on swing gig £35
Discussing how plentiful gigs were in the old days £50
Beginning a sentence with “When I played for Kenton…” £50
Casually mentioning to Musical Director of cheap theatre that you also play keyboards £100

BASIC STUPIDITY
Playing on a Jet-tone mouthpiece £25
Continually asking “where are we? £25
Drunkenness on stage £50
Stoned on stage £50
Pretending to be friends with a trombone player £200
Actually being friends with a trombone player £750
Dating a trombone player £3000
Loaning money to bone player £4x amount loaned
Sitting next to conductor at meals £100

And I think that its worth paying 10 quids to be allowed to play with a screw rim

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Strauss

February 5, 2007 at 0828 GMT · Filed under General

Once again I feel it necessary to have a rave about how amazing the rehearsal orchestra are to play with. This weekend I have had the delight of playing 4^th trumpet under the guidance of Levon Parikian. Playing in a section of 5 trumpets (4+bump), 5 trombones (again 5+bump) and 8 horns is an awesome feeling in itself, but when those players are extremely experienced and supportive it transforms the game into a sport.

We played Richard Stauss’ Alpine Symphony, which is a tone poem of gargantuan proprotions - well worth a listen. I recommend listening to it a few times as, whilst its mostly tonal, its not the most approachable of pieces. Once you’ve approached it however, you appreciate that it really is genius.

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Requiem

January 19, 2007 at 1522 GMT · Filed under General

One of the most exciting pieces I have listened to in quite a while is Karl Jenkins “The Armed Man : A Requiem for Peace”. Karl Jenkins is best known as a Jazz Musician and plays (amongst other things) Piano, Oboe, Soprano and Baritone Sax.
The Armed Man definately reflects this is its syncopated themes, but its its juxtaposition of traditional choral tonality against a more modern sound in the orchestral accompaniment which really interests me. Throughout the piece Jenkins uses techniques reminiscent of John Williams to the point that, listening to the Sanctus, a collegue of mine commented “It sounds like the kind of thing you might hear while Indiana Jones is doing something quite exciting, not very exciting, but quite exciting”. The brass writing is nothing short of magic and combined with his gorgeous use of choral harmony the piece stands as one of the most original compositions of the last decade - definately worth a listen.

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KeepAlive

January 5, 2007 at 1134 GMT · Filed under General

Much as I dislike posts which simply exist to inform people that I’m still posting, I feel it is necessary, as I’ve not posted for ages!

Several things have happened in the gap. One of the more interesting was a Christmas party held by a clarinet player called Sharon, at which I met a fella who is the brother of a ‘Cellist called Sophie. He write a webpage called Toilet Scroll which is rather amusing - go and have a look!

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Depressed

November 30, 2006 at 1456 GMT · Filed under General

Or maybe depraved - I’m not sure. Very much in the style of Edward Monkton A Beautiful Revolution is very dark and in places incredibly deep and clever web “comic”. I recommend having a look - don’t do it when you’re down though!

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Google2

November 29, 2006 at 1644 GMT · Filed under General

I’ve further improved the “Google User Interface Enhancements” Grease Monkey script. Version 0.13 allows you to:

navigate to the “Cached” and “Similar Pages” links with the ‘c’ and ‘r’ keys respectively.
move forward and back through the results pages with the ‘,’ and ‘.’ keys. Finally
if you haven’t yet selected a search result, ‘enter’ will take you to the “did you mean?” link if it exists.
pressing ’s’ will bring the cursor to the search box.

Google User Interface Enhancements v0.13

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