Call us crazy, but we sense that something's askew with the fabric of reality right now-- at least, reality in the Apple realm. Usually when a Macworld Expo gets underway, we find ourselves struggling to narrow the burgeoning plot crop down to a few concrete elements to work into our show. There's a whole lot of chin-rubbing and head-scratching and looks of fierce concentration as we stare at an overstuffed MacSurfer page that looks like it blew up in the microwave and try to narrow thirty-seven potential subjects down to our final three. It's kind of like Star Search. (The old one with Ed McMahon, not that Arsenio Hall tripe.)

This time, though, we find ourselves engaged in a far more typical struggle. Forget about narrowing down from thirty-seven; this time around we're having enough trouble just scrounging up three borderline dramatic topics in the first place. That's not to say that yesterday's Stevenote was blah or anything, though it does seem that we enjoyed it more than a lot of people-- there's an awful lot of whining going on out there right now. But with no new Macs, one new iPod (five colors don't count, unless you really want us to do separate scenes on green, pink, and blue), and one all-new application, it looks like we may have exhausted the Stevenote drama supply in only one episode. It's just not natural, we tells ya. We've decided to blame it on tachyons.

If you still don't believe that something's amiss with the very structure of physical existence, then consider this: the day after a Stevenote, Apple's stock went up. Since when does that ever happen? At least we think we found the reason, though: according to MacMinute, we aren't the only ones who think GarageBand is the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, and the joints and/or sleepwear of the entire Insecta and Mammalia classes. In the Mercury News, analyst Michael Gartenberg is quoted as saying, "you look at an application like GarageBand-- you can't get that on another platform at any price. People will buy Macs on the basis of GarageBand."

That's right, people, an analyst agrees with us. And what's more, a Reuters article quotes another analyst, Tim Bajarin, as concurring that "GarageBand might even have more long-term effect on Apple's sales." That means two, count 'em, two analysts feel the same way we do. These are scary, scary times in which we live. If Rob Enderle winds up agreeing, too, then we're all in some serious trouble. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. It would be bad.

Then again, at least Apple's stock would go up. Ka-ching!