Watching The Grammys: No Live Streaming But Lots Of Twittering, Gossip And Promos

Watching the 51st Annual Grammy Awards and anyone who's watching it too will understand why I'm not paying full attention. Disappointing because with all our focus on music lately, I was looking forward to this one ...

—Not online: The signature event is meant to bring people to CBS (NYSE: CBS) so the show isn't being streamed live. The award for the most nonsensical explanation goes to the official Twitter feed from TheGRAMMYS: "there is no official way to stream the GRAMMY Awards live online. We do not have a published schedule of performances." (The pre-telecast ceremony was streamed live and is available on demand for the next month.) Seriously. In addition to Twitter, The Recording Academy has an official Facebook presence, an iPhone trivia app, blogs, video but so far no legit way to see the MusiCares Neil Diamond tribute from Friday night. CBS.com features a music video challenge sponsored by Lincoln; users can vote for the Project Rising Stars winner. You can also vote for the My Grammy Moment finalists. No official way to vote for least favorite performance by someone people usually pay to listen to.

—Speaking of Twitter: Real-time interaction definitely adds a different dimension to watching something live. Wonderwall's Alex Blagg says it makes award shows relevant again. What it really does is transform the experience into a kind of warped communal event—warped, because so much of it is anonymous and people feel like they can say absolutely anything no matter how personal, but still community because it's shared. Igot to vent about the golden banana entry by Katy Perry (seriously awful) and was able to reassure myself that the muddy sound was not because my ears rebelled against the latest flight. I did try to restrain myself, hence no snarky comment on gum-chewing Adele. (Update: Time delays make this totally surreal; it's like watching the wave go around a stadium in slo-mo.)

—CBS Radio: Can't remember last year's efforts but this year CBS is making a serious push to CBS Radio and CBSRadio.com. Users who follow the visual cue from the TV to CBSRadio.com can click on a format (rock, pop, R&B, rap, country, adult pop) and be directed to a CBS station where they can listen live now. The CBS unit now programs AOL Radio—leading to a promo for the "AOL Radio powered by CBS Radio" iPhone app—and starting Feb. 16, will power Yahoo LaunchCast, too. The latter will have 150-plus stations but user-customized "my stations" will disappear.

—Gossip: In addition to myriad red carpet pix, the real-life police drama that kept Chris Brown and Rihanna away from the show tonight plus Usher's last-minute departure for family reasons are giving gossip sites a workout likely to continue well into tomorrow. Gabe Rivera's WeSmirchis the best way to keep track of the not-so-good, the pretty bad and the very ugly.