Recently, Apple cut the price of Shake drastically. Like from $3000 to $500. The educational version is now only $250. I had a $100 certificate for the Apple Store that I had to spend by the end of the summer. So that means I ended up with Shake for only $150 (5% of the original price).

That might sound like a lot of money, but as Mike and I have found out, you can’t take a piss for $150 when it comes to making film/video. So this seemed like a good deal. We actually used it twice last night while finishing up the Green Machine. There was a problem shot were the best take of a particular line was marred by a jiggle in the camera. We used Shake to stabilize the shot (took all of 30 seconds) and while it isn’t absolutely perfect, I think it did a pretty good job. Nice.

In other news…

I'd come from London
to explore the
the Alpine Wild
when I fell through the ice.

The matches wet
would not light
when from the white
the St. Bernard
appeared.

And I wondered,
"Does he really
have cocoa
in that little jug."

I finally purchased a decent set of monitors and the Logic Pro 7.2 upgrade. While playing around with the new software, I figured it was time to start putting up some of the other songs that Mike and I have recorded in the past 2 years. I think this was one of the first serious ones we did here in NJ. It’s called “Tears for Phil Collins.” I’m sure Mike will explain some more about it.

Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say

June 30 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation’s largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.

The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,'' plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview.This undermines that assertion.”

The lawsuit is related to an alleged NSA program to record and store data on calls placed by subscribers. More than 30 suits have been filed over claims that the carriers, the three biggest U.S. telephone companies, violated the privacy rights of their customers by cooperating with the NSA in an effort to track alleged terrorists.

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