Last week and this coming week have been set aside to work on new song ideas. Last week we wrote a new one that we had started work on before the last studio session, but didn't have time to finish. It is still untitled at the moment, but the lyrics and form are all pretty much in place. Everyone is still working on individual parts, but at the moment the song sounds great. There is a floaty, kind of ephemeral verse section, and a really aggressive contrasting chorus. I have been listening to this one on infinite loop lately, allowing the lyrics ideas to filter in.

Played the poker game on Saturday, and while I can't tell you what happened, I can say that I look forward to our next Panic Channel show (whenever that may be) when I will be playing Dave's beautiful white Gibson SG. The Poker show really seemed to emphasize the "table talk" and chit chat of the game instead of the actual game play, so while it was a fun day, it was pretty frustrating in the competition sense. I don't really like to mess around with my cards, I come to play.

Yesterday Riss and I went to Disneyland as kind of a late Valentine's day couple thing to do since all of my time in the last month or so has been all about the band. I never, ever go to Disneyland on the weekends, cause the crowds are just ridiculous, but Riss got me a season pass as a Christmas present, so we  went anyway. Ended up just going on the Haunted Mansion once and spending the rest of the day just walking around. It ended up being a really good time.

We got home and turned on the Oscars, and TiVo zipped around to the good (?) bits. Here is my take:

Chris Rock: Not feelin' it. I love Chris' stand up, but as the host he seemed a weird fit, and not super comfortable. The introduction with the allusion to Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz' breasts was flat out retarded. Nice suit, tho. He said some funny stuff, but hosting that show is a weird gig, and I think he's not the right kind of weird.

Beyonce: Um, that first song in French was really really beautiful, and quite impressive, but seeing her every 20 minutes was pointless. What about the people who sang the original versions of the songs?  I really didn't get why she was honorary Oscar staff singer all night. Hell, they let Counting Crows with Adam Duritz' and his goofy-ass Sideshow Bob haircut do their song, why not the others? And that Santana/Antonio Banderas thing made me feel dirty, like I needed a bath, or he did. Or something.

Jaime Foxx: I still haven't seen Ray, but apparently the guy nailed the shit out of it, God bless 'him. He seems like a smart, talented guy, and it was cool to see him win. The speech seemed maybe just a little bit, ... um, rehearsed, but that's appropriate.

Hillary Swank: Fucking shut up already. All you really had to do is make sure that you didn't blow your weeping husband off again, thank Morgan and Clint, and get your ass cleavage out of there, but no, you had to do the "acceptance speech battle with the Oscar band" bit and thank everyone from "the dead relative/mentor who is looking down on your accomplishments proudly" (always a favorite), to your frigging cleaning woman and everyone in between. Said with Love, Hilary, said with love. Have to give you points for the backless dress/visible nipple HO's on the red carpet. Kind of evens it all out.

Penelope/Salma: Like I said, the intro was just dank, but having them on TV in a two-shot like that just seemed to make my TV happy, but trying to follow the talking was rough going.

Morgan Freeman: Finally! Good for him. How many really good movies does this guy have to make to get a frigging trophy? Shoulda gotten it for Shawhank.

All in all, another pretty boring show, with a ham-handed attempt by the producers to look all "current" and happening by having Chris Rock host. If we're talking SNL almuni, I say give Mike Myers a call, he's due to get his funny back on, and I think he would do a fine job.