Songwriter contract

So a couple weeks ago I found a website for a company that promotes songwriters to major labels and artists in Nashville. They said they offered free critiques of songs, so I uploaded four of my songs. Last week I got a songwriter contract in the mail from them. Apparently what they do is make professional demos of songs and pitch them to recording companies and artists there in Nashville. So I would just need to pay them to make the demos and wait to see if anyone is interested in recording the songs, I guess.

The main reason I'm skeptical about the whole thing is that it seemed too easy. Do they make this offer to everyone who sends them songs? Because the fact that they record a demo and supposedly pitch to these companies is no guarantee that anyone will even listen to it, much less want to record it.

I did also get a message from a Christian musician promoter here in Wichita that said that "Worth it All" was a great song with a lot of potential. So that was encouraging. Maybe I should go ahead and pay for the demo of that one and see if I hear anything, if there is any interest in it.

My other concern is whether this would be an exclusive situation, if I did pay this company to market any of my songs. I don't want to be tied to just one company without knowing that they're really out there working hard to find someone to record my music. I really just need to read the fine print, look more at their website and probably talk to someone on the phone before I decide to do it.

So anyway, big things to think about. (Actually that's not the half of it, but the rest will have to wait for another blog entry.) Life is busy; sometimes I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the things I think I ought to be doing. But God is faithful. It's all going to work out for good.

Peace, y'all.

The Golden Compass movie

OK, I'm going to take a break from my normal blogging practice of just talking about myself and my life. This past week I found some information online about the upcoming movie "The Golden Compass." If you have a few minutes, check out this website:

http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

In a nutshell, it's based on the first book in a trilogy for children by Philip Pullman, an outspoken atheist who seems to advocate the complete abolishing of religion, since he believes it to be nothing but a source of oppression. He passionately hates the Chronicles of Narnia, and his trilogy is somewhat of a humanist's response to them.

Obviously I'm coming from a different perspective than his, but there's one thing that really dumbfounds me. I actually stumbled across some quotes from Mr. Pullman some time ago when I was doing some searching online about The Chronicles of Narnia. One really stuck out to me. As I recall, he basically said he thought Christianity was supposed to be all about love, and he didn't see love as a theme anywhere in the book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. So apparently Aslan volunteering to die so that Edmund doesn't have to doesn't seem to be a demonstration of love to Mr. Pullman.

I can understand a person believing that Edmund's situation is not a true picture of our situation in the real world, that we are not in need of salvation. So I can see someone saying that C. S. Lewis' story is manipulative for that reason. But I can NOT understand anyone saying that the story is not a picture of love if you take it at face value. And Philip Pullman seems to be revered as very intelligent and intellectual. How can people accept statements so preposterous and continue to esteem his logic and assertions?

I DON'T GET IT.

Well, thanks for taking the time to listen to my venting. God bless you all.