Apple's going to release Soundtrack (currently part of Final Cut Pro 4) as a separate product in August. Soundtrack is a program for composing music out of loops, snippets and samples. Kinda like iMovie for composition. And about as easy to use, too. This program really captured my attention as I love music but am not a writer or composer of music. Now I feel like I am. Very fun. In anticipation of the release I've created a website for all things Soundtrack called Soundtrack Lounge. Join in and help make it a useful resource, whether you use it for musical beds in your video projects or just for music in general.

Theme of the week is "mechanism" and the other day a house down the street went up for sale. A few things appeared out on the corner by their driveway, including an old wringer washer, just like my grandma used to have.

This past weekend was a nice bit of fun. Finished painting the basement floor, after moving the washer and dryer and such, which means we've only got carpeting left to install on the other half. Then we can get stuff out of the rest of the house! Rode our bikes to our secret beach (no, I'm not gonna link it! it's a secret) in the afternoon on Saturday and basked in the sun. M got "bit by a rabid fish." Much dramatics ensued. How would you know a fish was rabid, anyway? A foamy mouth doesn't last long under the water, I'm guessing. Anyway, dinner at Cafe Brenda was delightful and scored us free downtown parking so we could attend the Michael Bublé concert at the gorgeously-restored Historic Pantages Theater. If you are a person of any kind of stature (say, above 5' 8"), do not get first level balcony seating. My legs were pressed (literally) against the seat in front of me. The show was enjoyable and fun, but Minnesota throws out standing ovations like Dennis Miller throws out obscure references. You know it's gonna happen no matter what. Sunday's paper over breakfast was entertaining as we did the crossword puzzle. Then off to Home Depot and Target and other such stores to gather supplies and necesseties. Somewhere in there we managed to finally watch "A Streetcar Named Desire." Hey Stella!

Check this bad boy out: Sony's new Clie with widescreen (horizontal) full-color screen, a much larger full keyboard (still small, though) and built-in Bluetooth and WiFi and Camera. Sony also has, of course, the Memory Stick slot built-in as well. Looks good to me. [via infosyncworld]

Apple announced today that Soundtrack, a professional music creation tool originally offered specifically with Final Cut Pro 4, will be available as a standalone product. Apple plans to ship the software in August for US$299. Soundtrack enables video, DVD and Web project creators to incorporate original music into their projects. The software includes more than 4,000 audio loops and sound effects available for royalty-free use. A search engine enables you to find sounds by instrument, genre or mood, and Soundtrack also supports importing new sound loops from formats including Acid, AIFF and WAVE. Soundtrack's native file format is Apple Loops. [via MacCentral]
Did I not say this would be a good idea once I used it? I did. Awesome.
Oh, and get yourself FCP for half price or maybe even for FREE through their trade-up program. A great deal!

Ok, I'm just gonna post a bunch of cool links today: first, read this article on copyrights and wrongs from The Morning News. Then go over to boingboing and read/view all the great things they've got linked up: an amazing video of a FutureCop in South Africa (direct QuickTime link, 15 megs), the Automated Music Critic, and the hilarious Pirate Keyboard. And is weeklyDV.com coming back soon?

I am not scary or intimidating, darnit. See? Look at the picture here. That's me on the right, stylin' in my denim jacket. March 1978. At school with Brian Johnson, and it looks like it might be in math class for some reason.

Ambrosia Software has released a free kick-ass little utility called WireTap that can record any audio your Mac OS X machine is currently playing. Very slick and it works great. And I was just about to purchase some software that did the same thing.

The other morning, round about 5:00am (which is a very ungodly hour), I was violently jolted from my slumber through a well-placed knee to my booty. I don't just mean a little casual accidental grazing, no, I mean a very strong and painful knee brought up and squarely into my tailbone. Remember in grade school when you'd come up behind somebody and grab their shoulders and then give them a wicked knee bump in the rear? That's what this was like. Except I was sleeping peacefully. At 5:00 am. After flailing about in panic for a second I rolled over and said, "What?!" The bump-er was mostly unconscious and didn't even realize the throbbing pain she had just inflicted. She mumbled something sleepily in response. I said, "You kneed me!" She processed this information slowly. "What do you mean I need you?" I said, "Honey, you kneed me." She was confused and still groggy. "Need you?! I need you?" If my bottom wasn't smarting so much this would have been hilarious. "No, kneed with a k. You just drove your knee into my tailbone." A brief silence. "Oh," she replied. I think she was going back to sleep. In fact, maybe she didn't even wake up. "It's still throbbing..." I whispered to the darkness.

Apple's Final Cut Pro 4 comes with a tool called Soundtrack that lets you make royalty-free music -- very easily. Think music composition ala iMovie. Here's my first full-length track, "Untitled Number 1." And remember, I am not a professional in any sense of the word. Just a dork with a computer.