$4.99 Christmas Special on Background Musics

Good news everyone!

Background Musics, my latest ambient release is now available in most digital music stores. But even better than that, I’m running a Christmas special in 3 stores. From now until Christmas, you can pick up Background Musics for only $4.99 in the Android Market, Bandcamp and my own music store. Individual songs are priced at $0.49 each and I’m offering two songs for free at the Android Market and Bandcamp.

I’m also putting the finishing touches on my next release, Light 1, and have a preview, 8.extended, an hour long, extended version of one of the songs available at Bandcamp for whatever price you want to pay. You set your own price. It’s entirely up to you.

Light 1 has been an interesting experiment on musical modes to work on. It is a concept album on the properties of light and the various ways it impacts life on Earth and the human experience. The album features 8 new ambient songs that can be played by themselves or combined in any way to create even more music. More on that when I’m closer to releasing it.

Background Musics is Now Available

I’m happy to announce the release of my newest album Background Musics as well as the launch of my official digital music store!

Background Musics features a collection of 12 new musics for a variety of shared common themes, situations, and thoughts within the human experience. The album is on sale now for only $9 and all individual songs are available for $1 each.

I started writing songs for this album in 2007 as a short concept album called Moments. It was intended to be a short work of background theme music for common, human situations. The project slowly grew over time and eventually became the full-length album Background Musics.

Background Musics includes 12 new ambient songs of various tones and moods, some are generative, some are original compositions and some are experiments in repetition and timing structures.

Get the Full Album for only $9 now!

  1. Drifting on the Sea
  2. Future Events
  3. Watching Clouds Form
  4. Time Spent Waiting
  5. Past the Sacred
  6. Subterranea
  7. Missing Someone
  8. A Cold Day
  9. Trying To Remember Something
  10. Seeing Things Anew
  11. Staring out a Window, Riding in a Car
  12. Mistaken Lessons

Listen to some full-length songs below.

Staring Out A Window, Riding In A Car

Watching Clouds Form

Listen to more at the Background Musics Release Site.

As a special gift to subscribers & readers, here is a free download of Seeing Things Anew from the new album.

Play

Podcast: Download

Stephen Colbert gives Anonymous a sneaky shout out

During Thursday’s (Feb. 24, 2011) interview with Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald, Stephen gave a very brief and sneaky shout out to the Guardians of Free Speech, Anonymous, in the form of a Guy Fawkes mask super-imposed on his face.

Check it out here.  — Video has been removed due to Viacom International Inc. not realizing how embedded clips help promote their shows –

Either Stephen (or one of his editors) is simply covering his own ass or he’s making a subtle but interesting statement. I’m not sure how this will be perceived by the populous at large but I, for one, call it down-right awesome.

Via: The Daily What

New Dawkins Scale Images

Hey everyone. Well, after more than 1,000 downloads and a lot of great emails and feedback, I’ve finally updated the Dawkins Belief Scale Images Set.

The new set (Version 2) of the Dawkins Scale Images are 200 x 230 pixel PNG badges with rounded borders and a thin drop-shadow set on a transparent background. (As seen in the image to the right.)

The new set is available for download at the Dawkins Scale Images page. There are two new downloads, Ver. 2 for light backgrounds and Ver. 2 for dark backgrounds. Both downloads include the Photoshop template PSD file.

The original (Ver. 1) set will still be available for download as well. I really appreciate all the great feedback I’ve gotten and I hope everyone enjoys the new set.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I was listening to the new Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast last Saturday and near the end of the episode, host Steven Novella dropped a bombshell of a Christmas present. Steve informed us he had been working with The Teaching Company to make a lecture series on Medical Myths. I’m a big fan of The Teaching Company and the fine educational products they produce. Coupling that with my favorite skeptic on the planet AND producing a series with him on “the growing body of misinformation” that proliferates among the public discourse.

Medical Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths: What We Think We Know May Be Hurting Us

“You can’t assume that what you’ve always heard must be true simply because many other people believe it and spread it around,” notes Dr. Steven Novella of the Yale School of Medicine, a medical doctor who has built his career educating patients, the public, students, and professionals about the highest standards in medical science and practice. “You should challenge all of your beliefs and, wherever possible, try to rely upon a consensus of authority or primary sources in order to check out everything that you think you know to be true.”

Popular and easily accessible sources such as websites, blogs, advocacy groups, marketing materials, and celebrity endorsements are where we often get quick medical information. But they’re also the most unreliable sources.

Dr. Novella also opens your eyes to myths about pregnancy, loss of consciousness, detoxification, and the placebo effect. In one lecture toward the end of the course, he even takes you on a brief tour of common medical myths from around the world to demonstrate that medical myths vary, but misinformation is universal.

I’m a huge fan of The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe and The Teaching Company.

Every week Dr. Novella and his crew of ‘Rogues’ tackle the serious and the hilarious with wit and steadfast sincerity and a passion for a skeptical and critical approach to understanding the universe. They truly are a weekly escape to reality.

The Teaching Company provides very high quality, college level lecture courses on a variety of disciplines and specialized areas of education.

Combining these two elements into a single lecture series is a wonderful Christmas present for me and anyone else who happens to pick this up. Maybe there’s a God after all… or a great company recognized a great educator, got together and did what they do best. Which one do you think is more probable?