I tried the following command:

osascript -e 'tell app "Backdrop" to activate' osascript -e 'tell app "MenuShade" to activate' osascript -e 'tell app "TextMate" to activate'

which causes TextMate to hang because (as Allan told me)...

because you send an event to TM, but TM won't respond as it is busy executing the command, so the command will stall (waiting for TM, which waits for the command.)

He suggested:

osascript 2>/dev/null & \ -e 'tell app "Backdrop" to activate' \ -e 'tell app "MenuShade" to activate' \ -e 'tell app "TextMate" to activate'

Which returns the following error:

/bin/bash: line 2: -e: command not found

So I ask you who know more than I, what is the key to unlocking this one?

Thanks in advance.