I thought that both U2 and McCartney acquitted themselves quite nicely, and I'm less than halfway in. I never watch this thing, except for occasional moments early on ("Soy Bomb"). What does anybody else think of the show and the Awards? At least compared to the nominees?

I only watched it for an hour, until Lost came on. I liked some the performances I saw. I thought Madonna was great, and I also liked John Legend. I'm happy that my guilty pleasure Kelly Clarkson won a couple.

McCartney sounded off all night. He just wasn't hittin' the notes. The linkin'/JayZ performance was weak although I like Jayz. The country performances were awful. And the sly stone performance was unbearable. Kanye's number was cool and fun although I was surprised to hear them doing that stupid "broke broke" line. Kelly Clarkson sounded great, no i'm not a fan.

U2 cleaned up pretty good. Those guys never cease to amaze me. I've only heard that one song that they won 'song of year' for and i'm not impressed with it. I haven't heard the whole cd. Does anybody here at metacritic recommend it?

Whatever, the grammy's are for top 40 listeners and that ain't me. But I watched. I actually thought it was a really decent production all in all.

Usually I read who won whatever award in the paper the following day. I heard the White Stripes won for best alternative album. Did they show up or was that award given out earlier in the day?

I liked U2's last album, I thought it was their best effort in a very long time. An '04 album wins big for the 2005 Grammies in '06. Hmmm.

They nominated Fountains of Wayne for best new artist a couple of years ago after "Stacy's Mom" was a big hit. I guess it doesn't matter that they released their first album in '96. "Radiation Vibe" was even played on MTV if I remember correctly. I guess they forgot or didn't do their homework, or just didn't care. It's things like that that make it hard to take the Grammys seriously (not to mention Milli Vanilli).

Anything interesting like The White Stripes and System Of A Down winning awards was not broadcast. It's turned into a showcase for Top 40 artists to perform live, I think there were 3 awards given out in the first 45 minutes! I enjoyed the Gorillaz/Madonna intro, Kelly Clarkson was great, as was Mariah Carey(neither of whom fit my normal listening preferences), U2 with Mary J. Blige was intense, it was a big thrill to hear Paul doing Helter Skelter, and I was mightily amused when he came out during the Jay-Z/Linkin Park set and Jay was standing beside him wearing a solo era John Lennon shirt! Nice touch! The Sly tribute was embarassing, John Legend continued to befuddle me as to why people like him, that song he played and won for is atrocious, and Kanye/Foxx was okay, felt like the whole marching band thing was a bit of a slap to Gwen Stefani though. Not that I care.

The grammies are pretty much given out according to being politic. I basically see them as record industry self gratification. The awards go to the bands that are generally accepted by the general public to be rock 'Canon'.