Chris Hartzog dot Com

To close out this blustery, wintry month of March, here is another update for my Beatles Stat’s list:  When is Sir Paul McCartney’s birthday?    Born 18 June 1942 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney)

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Sorry about the little hiatus…took a mini vacation away from all computers and immersed myself in Dale Chihuly’s glass work and art….visited the rejuvenated Tacoma, Washington…spent part of the day at The Museum of Glass.  I think getting away from the normal routine is a good thing, especially for those of us calling ourselves songwriters.

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Someone has posted a new erie, but cool dayglo picture of me by an anonymous artist on the Pix page.

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Well, a recent post by MikeB/GarageSpin.com entitled “Rewriting, rewriting, rewriting…songs” has struck a chord with me.

The thing about working on the same song over such a long period of time is that it’s easy to lose the vision you originally had when you wrote it.

Have you ever had a song idea come into your mind that at the time you were sure was brilliant and would be a big hit someday only to get distracted by something, or someone else and then completely lose the mojo? How do you get it back? What have you done?

I am thinking I need to recreate the place and mood of the time when that brilliancy comet flashed past me and hope that I can conjure it up again. What do you think?

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Happy Easter everyone! I doubt anyone can say it better than the gospel writers themselves:

Luke 24

The Resurrection

1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.

And to put what this means to music, here is HE REIGNS from The Newsboys CD: Adoration: The Worship Album!

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I created a new page just for fun and for me because I have always sort of wondered what the answers are to these kinds of questions. So now, I will have a place to figure it out and keep track of things like when was the Beatles Last Live Concert?; how many songs did they write?; etc?

Anyway, Go here for the Beatles Statistics page.

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Yep, the still rocking former Beatle will be coming to the Seattle area this year.  Ringo’s site has been updated and his tour schedule now includes a concert in Woodinville at Chateau Ste. Michelle.  Tour dates are here: http://www.ringostarr.com/home.php

Tickets still are not available.  But when they are you can buy them either  through TicketMaster.com or at the winery gift shop:  http://www.ste-michelle.com/

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I am now on PodSafe (http://music.podshow.com/ ; my page is here). Music plays via podcasting looks like a viable option for independent artists….RIAA doesn’t want their mainstream music on podcasting since there is no money in it and hard to track. That seems to make it a perfect match for someone like me who is not making any money and I don’t care to track anything.

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OK, time for some MIDI fun….actually I like the phrase “MIDI Madness” better…since I enjoy alliteration I’ll opt for madness.

First, for the non-geeks out there “MIDI” is not referring to a midi-skirt (having a hemline at mid-calf length)– popular I believe in the mid 1970’s possibly just before or after the “maxi-skirt”.

The MIDI going on display here is Musical Instrument Digital Interface brand of MIDI.

Anyway, I couldn’t resist posting this. I fell in love with Josh Turner’s “Long Black Train” with its underlying theme of spiritual struggle along with the railroad images since my family has a strong railroad ancestry. So I have done my best to “un-MIDIize” the awesome MIDI accompaniment of Long Black Train that Bob Sorem produced. His permission has been granted to reuse his work for noncommercial use….so don’t send me any money for this, even though I am singing in it.

Here it is: Long Black Train.

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Here is one snapshot of what I love about living in Seattle.

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