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Maybe people just felt relieved to talk about something aside from the presidential race. Or perhaps people are starved for a little bling and red carpet after the writers withheld our dose of “Desperate Housewives” for so long.

Whatever the case, people got excited about the Grammy Awards this year. I heard recaps from friends, coworkers, family. But I didn’t watch. Not only that, I completely forgot it was on. In fact, I wrote off the Grammys years ago. Not out of any bitterness or jealousy, mind you, but simply because they never seem relevant to what I was pursuing musically. Sure, I enjoyed seeing Eminem and Elton duet, but the awards themselves meant nothing.

This year, people seem particularly shocked about Herbie Hancock’s big win. Indeed, Quincy Jones’s disarming exclamation — “unbelievable, man!” — was one of those great award show moments (so great I heard it replayed later). I even know it happened at 10:40pm CST, because I got a euphoric text from Jazzy Jeff.

Hey, good for Herbie! Too bad it wasn’t for one of his more ambitious or landmark records. But this hardly seems such a surprise to me. Remember when Steely Dan won?

Sounds like a 50’s doo-wop group. But The Searchers is a classic John Wayne Western, which we TiVoed the other night.

I haven’t seen many Westerns, largely because of how silly the melodrama and stereotypes seem now — they’d be amusing if they weren’t so boring. This one is good, though, primarily because of what a wackjob Wayne’s character is. It also helps that the movie is told in such a hurry (it’s quite an epic to fit in under two hours), making Wayne seems that much more unpredictable. And all the more iconic that he truly does do the best John Wayne impression.

My favorite part, though, was the opening credits. After a dramatic orchestral swell announced the Duke, the film’s eponymous song abruptly starts, sung in three-part harmony by, presumably, cowboys. It’s awesome.

Cowboy doo-wop. Maybe it’s a good title for the film after all.

In response to my recent quandary, enter our drummer Jazzy Jeff, who enumerated the band’s next steps thusly:

• get a bass player to round out the sound of the group, and maybe a guitarist
• develop more material while we continue to tighten current stuff up
• work towards putting on an “evening with Gordon Wright Band and Friends” at Old Town School
• get re-booked at Schubas as headliner
• play out a bunch, adding in additional originals/covers to fill out the night
• Find a corporate sponsor to put us on the road from Chicago to Boston/Chicago to Denver…woo hoo!
• Crash SXSW and demand a showcase!
• Go Bowling
• Quit music and pretend that I am a normal adjusted individual… quickly leading to a “Who am I God!!!” moment.

I think he pretty much pegged it. A-Is-For-Aric (the band’s inimitable keyboardist) particularly endorsed SXSW and bowling.

What’s the next step?