Welcome to our Grammy blog. Among the thrilling questions going into tonight's 50th installment of the Grammys: Will Amy Winehouse stand up straight? Will Kanye West meltdown? Will Fergie make me cut off my ears? Will any of us be able to sit through three and a half hours?

I'll be adding commentary as quickly as possible (I'm also writing a story for tomorrow's paper -- so forgive me if I'm not super duper prompt 100% of the time). But please feel free to chime in with your owns opinions and reactions as the show goes on, so I know I'm not alone in this.

8:00 p.m.: The announcer booms, "It's the Grammys' 50th birthday and everybody's coming to the party." Suppose they mean it, because here's Frank Sinatra in a black-and-white video, talking about the Grammys, saying how you don't win a Grammy for selling a million records, you get it for contributions to the recording world. Yeah, we'll see about that. T-Pain's still nominated, right?

8:02: Maybe this isn't the place to admit this, but I really just don't get Alicia Keys -- you know, in that best thing to hit music since forever way.

8:05: Alicia Keys: "To appear on the Grammy awards is to duet with history." OK, Grammys you get a point for that Alicia/Sinatra thing. That was kinda cool. For the Grammys.

8:06: Carrie Underwood comes out with some Blue Man Group/Stomp-ish percussion of people pounding on car parts to sing "Before He Cheats." Ummm, OK, I guess that fits with the song.

8:09: Prince is out in a red suit to announce best female R & B vocal performance. Alice Keys was just on stage. My money's on her. "No One" is everywhere and one of those songs that Grammy people love.

8:10: Yep. It's Alicia. Funny thing about Prince giving an award to her is that she's taller and they're speaking voices are about equally manly. See 8:02.

8:18: Can't front: The Time doing "Jungle Love" made me want to dance. Or at least chant "Oh-ee-oh-ee-oh."

8:19: And here's Rihanna along with dancing umbrella twirlers. Great, we're only 20 minutes in and I'm already gonna have "Ella-ella-eh-eh" in my head for the rest of the night.

8:21: Oh, and "Oh-ee-oh-ee-oh" > "Ella-ella-eh-eh"

8:22: Can't front II: I do like that Rihanna "Don't Stop the Music" song.

8:28: Dude, what the heck is going on with all this Cirque de Beatles stuff? People dancing to recorded Beatles songs? Is this the Tony's? What's the point? Can't we just get the regular ol' Grammy tribute of random people covering ... oh, wait, here's a choir singing "Let It Be." Yeah, how about we just let it be?

8:33: "Please welcome Cyndi Lauper and Miley Cyrus -- and Ms. Cyrus, please meet your wild-haired, semi-irrelevant destiny." At least that's what I heard them say. But ya know, Hannah Montana will be lucky if she ends like Cyndi.

8:34: Oh, they're doing best new artist already. Dude, Paramore got a huge pop ...

8:35: ... but of course, it's Ms. Amy Winehouse -- and with the most uneventful win I've ever seen. Cyndi Lauper just said Amy would be performing live via satellite later and that was it. I think what that meant was that Amy is currently using that satellite as a booze trough.

8:39: Sweet, Kanye is performing with Daft Punk. Eek, Fergie is performing with John Legend.

8:46: It's Glow-in-the-Dark Kanye. Coming soon to a toy store near you.

8:48: Jokes aside, this straight-outta-outer-space performance of "Stronger" is the coolest thing of the night so far.

8:50: Not to trivialize this very touching version of "Hey Mama," but what does Kanye have shaved into the side of his head? Mama?

8:52: Looks like that left a few people in the audience with teary eyes. And with good reason. Way to go, 'Ye.

8:52: Wait! Fergie is a three-time Grammy winner? When did they start giving out Grammys for suck?

8:54: Why Fergie? Why do you think you're Mariah Carey and feel the need to convince us? Big girls may not cry, but if you do that again, you're gonna make a grown man cover his damn ears. I really think the Grammys do this kinda stuff to infuriate me. I was digging the Kanye stuff, but they had to follow with it the "singer" I hate the most in the world?

8:56: Biggest misuse of a talent: John Legend's voice only announcing an award.

9:00: Oh, so we have to depend on a Target commercial to hear John Legend sing? Way to go, Grammys.

9:03: Dude, what the heck is going with Cher? That dress made her look like a muddy frog.

9:05: Tina Turner: Sounded pretty good, looked a little awkward.

9:10: Tina/Beyonce duet is pretty nice. This is the kind of stuff I expect from the Grammys -- inter-generational duets you're not gonna see anywhere else -- and it was well done.

9:10: See, I can be nice.

9:15: Song of the year time? Isn't it early?

9:15: "Amy Winehouse for Rehab." That's an upset. I was sure it would be "Umbrealla."

9:15: And again with the Amy will be performing live via satellite later and we'll hear from her then. OK, I object now. If you guys are gonna keep giving Amy Winehouse awards, then I think I deserve Wino acceptance hijinks. If I have to sit through three hours of this stuff, I think I deserve something entertaining.

9:25: So wait, was performing elsewhere the Foo Fighters solution for subverting a picket line all along?

9:27: Thinking during the commercial: So Amy won song of the year and best new artist already. She's still up for record of the year and album of the year. Can she pull off the big-four sweep?

9:33: What's George Lopez doing here? Oh, telling bad jokes and introducing Brad Paisley. Well, I could have predicted one of those. And you probably know which one.

9:38: Chris Brown looks three years older than he did last year during that show-stealing dance number. And his co-presented for best rap album, Akon is about equally annoying as he was last year. And Solange ... well, why is she even there?

9:39: Kanye wins best rap album, shakes hands with Stevie Wonder and marches up to accept with "Can't Tell Me Nothing" playing and starts off his acceptance by dropping "we" a couple times. Good that it's not all "me, me, me." He even said that if he doesn't win best album, that he hopes Amy Winehouse and producer Mark Ronson get it.

9:40: Yep, that's "Mama" shaved into his head.

9:41: "Oh, c'mon, you gonna play the music on me?" says Kanye, when the band tries to play him off the stage. Undaunted, he keeps talking, then brings up his mom and says, "It would be in good taste to stop the music." They did. And he got a heck of an ovation for it. I'm sure some people will think it's another arrogant move from Kanye, but I loved it. The man is passionate.

9:44: Wifealicious on Aretha: "Wow. She looks like a stick of butter."

9:45: Catching up from a few minutes ago. Just wanted to note, mostly for H-Mac, that Mark Ronsom was looking awfully Jim Halpert-ish.

9:51: "Will Kid Rock present the best rock album to Daughtry?" That question right there is why people don't watch the Grammys.

9:55: But you guys should definitely watch "Dexter."

10:02: How does Kid Rock keep getting invited to the Grammys? And asked to sing? Me = dumbfounded.

10:04: I was hoping Wilco for best rock album just because it's somewhat outside of the mainstream, but I'm glad my prediction of Foo Fighters held up.

10:05: My Name is Dave.

10:06: The way they keep talking about "the performance we've all been waiting for from Amy Winehouse" makes me think that they think she's going to croak live via satellite or something.

10:12: Stevie Wonder is a pimp, so when he says "the incomparable Alicia Keys," does that means have to agree? I guess she's gonna be pretty darn incomparable to get to perform twice, eh Grammys?

10:12: Official style expert Wifealicious: "At least she got better hair. Too bad it's a wig."

10:17: John Mayer brought us his freaky guitar face, but at least he didn't wear his Borat thong.

10:18: All the Beatles love tonight, all the things Ringo Starr could do, and he's presenting the best country album?

10:20: Does Vince Gill have the line of the night? "I just got an award from a Beatle. Have you had that yet Kanye?"

10:23: From the pre-show awards: Obama over Clinton! Obama over Clinton! Of course, it was just a Grammy for best spoken word album and it was Bill, not Hillary. But do you think Obama could trade a gold gramophone for some super delegates?

10:34: Juanes and Taylor Swift presenting best rap/sung collaboration? That makes total sense. Rihanna HAS to win this, right?

10:36: Glad that she did -- but not as glad as Taylor Swift, apparently. And I dug the little back-and-forth between her and Jay-Z on the acceptance speech.

10:36: Wifealicious: "What's up her and these poofy-ass ballerina dresses?"

10:39: My prediction for Kanye in best album aside, I'm starting to get the feeling that Amy is going to walk away with it.

10:41: So they've been hyping this Amy Winehouse performance all night and we get Cuba Gooding Jr. introducing her? Because his work in those Hanes commercials was so stellar?

10:42: Amy's up. So far, so good. She looks fragile and is not moving much, which I think we'd all agree is for the best, but she sounds pretty good.

10:44: It looked like she was about to dance, then we got a close up of her saxophonist? Extra precautions? Did they think she was just gonna fall?

10:45: And the award for best dance moves during a Grammy performances goes to .... anybody but Amy Winehouse.

10:47: The only words she spoke were "Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here. Thank you very, very, very much."

10:49: Record of the year time with Tony Bennett and Natalie Cole. I have to think Amy's taking it, since she just performed.

10:52: Yep, it's Amy. And she looks majorly shocked. Big hugs all around for her an the band. People are chanting "Amy! Amy! Amy!" She gives a brief speech, without too much incident. She brought her mom up on stage with her and hugged her. She shouted out her jailed husband. Good for you, Amy.

10:54: Alright, so Amy has a legitimate chance at winning the big four tonight. Heck, she already got a Kanye West endorsement for best album -- the only thing left for her to win. If she does, she'd join Christopher Cross as the only person to do so. Cross did it in 1981.

11:01: R.I.P. to a lot of people. Here's hoping we don't see Amy up here next year.

11:07: Admittedly, it's not my thing, but the Bocelli/Groban duet was a nice one.

11:13 FYI: Bonnie Raitt is coming to Table Mountain soon.

11:16: Sorry old rock guys, I just wanna see if Amy can pull off the sweep.

11:20: If you missed it the first time: Watch Dexter!

11:22 OK, so can this be over yet? Draaaaaaaaging. Also: Album of the year predictions? I think it has to be Amy. But it still could be Kanye.

11:25: Professor Will.i.am? Really? I can think of about 50 titles for Will.i.am and ain't none of them professor. Well, I guess professor of suck. OK, what the heck is going on here? He's just taking parts of various classic songs? This reminds me of that guy on E! who raps about the week in pop culture. Barf!

11:28: Quincy Jones and Usher up there for album of the year. I'm crossing my fingers for Amy. Usher: "There are no losers in the category, Kanye."

11:29: Herbie Hancock? Seriously? You gotta be Will.i.am'ing me. You wanna know why the Grammys have zero relevance in today's music. This is why. How does Amy win all the rest of these awards, but not the big one? Man, she went out like the Patriots.

11:31: This is like 2001 when Steely Dan beat Eminem and Radiohead.

11:34: Hancock: ""It's been 43 years since the first and only time that a jazz artist got an album of the year award. I know in the past, there have been several jazz musicians who unquestionably deserved to win or be nominated for album of the year, but that was then and this is now. It's a new day."

11:38: Suppose we're done here. Thanks for those who read and commented. Off to bed for me.