I don't know about "natural", but it was one of the best things I've ever seen. Catty, funny, confused and confusing, and a better tribute than a hundred grandiose speeches. Altman's acceptance was one of the few real voices I've heard all night as well.

Exactly--"confused and confusing" = natural. Or at least seemingly natural. Even if all of that was read off a teleprompter, a good 40% seemed plausibly improved to me.

I'm royally pissed. My Comcast DVR says it recorded 3 hours, but the recording fizzled midway through Meryl and Lily and then suddenly came back with the Best Actress montage.

I missed the parade of the dead. 5 minutes of 'They died???'s and 'Shit, they were still alive???'s, peppered with the occasional 'Oh, yeah... I forgot that...' and the sniffle for those I did remember.

The greats who died: Shelly Winters and Fayard Nicholas. Winters I'm sure you know, though you probably don't know why she's a great, but Fayard Nicholas was the greatest dancer who ever lived--or half of the greatest. I say that as a huge fan of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and Sammy Davis. Nobodynobodynobody could dance like the Nicholas Brothers. Check out the movie "Tap". Fayard Nicholas was a god of art.

I thought the meryl/lily thing was hilarious and great-- for about 40 seconds. That's all we needed. It got annoying quickly after that.

But was this the best academy awards show in years or what?

I was put off by Altman plugging his current projects. He's an auteur, not a mainstream director. I don't understand why he needed to plug anything.