Chris Hartzog dot Com » Concerts

Can You Find Me On iTunes?

chartzog — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:57:33 +0000

I Found Myself On iTunes

Wow….I took the big step this week of getting my music onto iTunes as podcasts! I think that is pretty cool. It is listed as the Musing Mana Song Project. At this point, these are the free versions….eventually, per my original master plan, when I have album-ready music available, I will be creating albums and release those for sale for real money on iTunes as well. For now, if you have iTunes installed, go to iTunes and search for my name under podcasts and you will find me….at least I have found myself. I found myself and never even had to leave home to do it…how cool and efficient is that?

One of the reasons I chose iTunes is regarding Digital Rights Management on digital media: iTunes is DRM Free. I don’t want restriction on my work and I can’t imagine why anyone else would want to put DRM on my songs. I know any time that I have gotten music that is DRM protected, the main thing it makes me feel is annoyed! Oh, I also suppose since I am a Mac-ite in training (see It’s Gonna Be A Mac), I felt moved to do some other Apple-ish activities.

Anyway, here is a good post from a few years ago by Cory Doctorow on Digital Rights Management on digital media basically saying that DRM is a really stupid idea and that people shouldn’t be complacent and allow it to gain a foothold.

So far, from my little vantage point it appears to me that the forces of IP freedom are winning the battle against DRM. Cory wants DRM dead and I don’t blame him.

Music for Alzheimer’s and Autism All at Once

chartzog — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:04:25 +0000

I sang at the Clare Bridge at Silver Lake Alzheimer’s/Memory Care facility on Sunday, August 3rd. Not only was my audience a group of residents living with Alzheimers and dementia, but my daughter who is on the autism spectrum attended along with my wife. I have read that people living with memory impairments such as Alzheimer’s disease are often stimulated by music that skips way back to their childhood. Some of what I experienced at Clare Bridge validates this a bit for me…Even though I put a lot of practice time and emotion into some of Elvis’ tunes, like “That’s Alright Mama”, the songs that I witnessed the biggest electrifying effect on these people in my audience were:

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

and

You Are My Sunshine

And, of course, when I mentioned “Old Blue Eyes” before I sang Frank Sinatra’s “All The Way”….that did elicit some eye twinkling amongn them!

Woodinville Concert Band MP3’s

chartzog — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:25:35 +0000

There is a page of free MP3’s available of a variety of Woodinville Concert Band performances. Hopefully some newer stuff will get posted sooner or later. Who knows, maybe another YouTube clip will surface too. Both the May and June concerts went great, although 94 degrees is a bit hot to be playing in “concert [...]

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Tim McGraw Concert Brawl in Seattle

chartzog — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:49:33 +0000

At Wednesday’s Tim McGraw concert at the White River Amphitheater outside of Seattle things got interesting during the concert. Apparently an over enthusiastic fan “smelling of alcohol” tried to rush the stage and either pushed or fell into some female fans in the front row. When McGraw saw this he actually grabbed the guy and yanked him up on to the the stage. Then it looked like McGraw was almost ready to get into a fist fight with the guy. More of the story and a video is available here on Seattle KOMO TV. When I play in nursing homes I only have to worry about out of control wheel chairs.

Concert on Sunday

chartzog — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:38:52 +0000

I will be playing bass Sunday. Come see the Woodinville Concert Band perform at the Shoreline Arts Festival. Come down to Shoreline Sunday afternoon for some free entertainment. The Woodinville Concert Band plays Sunday at 4:00. There’s a bunch of other stuff there to do and see as well. Here’ s the link if you [...]

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Spring Concert

admin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:00:03 +0000

The spring concert was a blast. We had a great crowd and a lot of fun. Now that we have played Raider’s March, now I have to go see Indiana Jones. The Northshore Performing Arts Center is a very nice venue and I encourage you to make plans to attend an event there [...]

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Interconnection redux

chartzog — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:57:14 +0000

Oops…I forgot one other to include in the list:

Truefire. What is Truefire you ask? Here is what they say:

What is TrueFire?

Since 1991, TrueFire and its collective of 450+ artists and educators, has produced thousands of guitar lessons and interactive video courses, which are available as downloads, streaming video and CD-ROM. We also offer top DVD and Book titles from other publishers.

You can find me here on Truefire.

Creating more interconnections

chartzog — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:06:32 +0000

It has been said (by Kevin Kelly ) that the Internet is a gigantic copy machine. It’s also a fact that the more digital connections there are to a piece of information, the higher the probability that it will be “stumbled upon” by a cyber seeker or seekers and in turn more likely to be copied again. In the spirit of my goals for this project some additional links in the kilika web have been created:

ReverbNation – I mentioned this before.
Yahoo’s GeoCities
Verizon (under construction)

This is in addition to my previously established web presences:

Of course all of these places point back here, but that’s kinda my idea, and it’s my game.

Have you heard of ReverbNation?

chartzog — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:37:18 +0000

Well, I am now on it: ReverbNation. You can find my profile at: http://www.reverbnation.com/chrishartzog I think it is an awesome service for artists and totally free. There are many more tools available than through MySpace’s music service. Let me know if you like it.

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Are you busy next Saturday evening?

chartzog — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:30:57 +0000

Just a reminder that I will be playing next Saturday (5/31) in Woodinville Concert Band’s Spring Concert. So, if you want to enjoy some free music, including some free PR for Harrison Ford - Indiana Jones, you can stop in and listen to us play Raiders of the Lost Ark and many more tunes.

Next Saturday at 7:00 pm. It’s free too.

May 31, 2008
7:00 PM
Free Admission

NorthShore Performing Arts Center
18125 92nd Ave. NE.
Bothell, WA

The NorthShore Performing Arts Center is on the campus of Bothell High School, just west of downtown Bothell.

Click here for driving diretions to the theatre.

Do you work at Microsoft? Do you know someone with autism? or Alzheimer’s?

chartzog — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:19:25 +0000

I am going to try this one more time. I know I haven’t gotten anyone’s attention yet, and that is okay. I am patient and I believe this is an idea that deserves waiting on.

Do you work for Microsoft? Do you live in the Seattle area or know someone who lives here?

Did you know Wired Magazine ran an article (The Geek Syndrome) discussing findings of autism rates much higher than average among children of high tech workers in Silicon Valley? Other research has uncovered similar links.

The Pacific Northwest, especially Seattle, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia are high tech communities and hold the possibility of higher rates of autism.

I wrote a post a few days ago, “How About a Seattle Area Concert for Caregivers?” offering to host a free concert - sing along - get together somewhere in the Seattle metro area especially for long term caregivers who need a little break away from things.

So, I reiterate:

If you live in the Seattle area and would be interested in coordinating this, please comment. My idea is for this to be a FUN event…and an INTERACTIVE event…i.e. some audience participation (sing along) and an ENJOYABLE event…i.e. Somewhere where everyone can RELAX, such as a coffee shop (Yep, we have those in Seattle) or a restaurant, or maybe a club (Eagles, American Legion, etc.) where you can enjoy some food and beverages. Do you think you can pull together 10, 15 or 20 couples to do this?

How About a Seattle Area Concert for Caregivers?

chartzog — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:55:35 +0000

I will probably post about this a number of times due to the fact that since I have no readers and no fans it will most likely take some time to get this idea off the ground!

While I was driving home last night, an idea popped into my head (this seems to happen a lot when I drive). I know from experience that people who are a caregiver for someone with disabilities or with a serious health condition often find themselves socially isolated. There were many days that my wife and I felt like prisoners in our own home due to the difficulties involved in going out in the community with our daughter who is developmentally disabled and on the autism spectrum.

There are many other people out there in similar situations, who have either a child, spouse, parent or other person that they are responsible for which requires 24/7 level of effort. Are you or do you know someone who is a full time caregiver?

I would like to offer to put on a free concert somewhere in the Seattle metro area especially for caregivers who need a little break away from things.