Just in case you have been in a coma for the past 24 hours, the first thing you need to know about last night’s awards is that Kanye West should no longer be allowed on the premises. By Blast calculations, this is the third year that Kanye has publicly displayed his outrage at the MTV selection for an award. This year’s victim was America’s country sweetheart Taylor Swift, who won the first award of the night – Best Female Video. In outrage that Beyoncé didn’t win for “one of the best videos of all time” Kanye rushed the stage, took Taylor’s microphone during her acceptance speech, and proclaimed Beyoncé should have been the winner – leaving Miss Swift in horrified silence. Twitter explosions and blog frenzies after report that Swift was to be seen sobbing backstage after the debacle.

Outside of the dramatics, the VMAs this year contained a lot of W-t-fness, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every cut to Lady Gaga gave viewers a peak at outrageous outfit after outrageous outfit. Apparently being able to see was not a major concern when making fashion decisions. Equally as twisted was her live performance. Gaga performed her latest mega hit “Paparazzi” on the VMA stage. She lived up to her reputation of a fantastic live performance, but the crowd and viewers alike were a little disturbed by Gaga’s literal perception of the paparazzi killing her when she poured blood over her and then pseudo hung herself from the VMA ceiling.

R&B badass Pink also used a harness for her VMA performance, which may have been the most impressive of the night. Pink performed the entire sang, hanging about 50 feet off the ground, flipping around and somersaulting with her trapeze partner. The most amazing part of the stunt was that she was continuing to sing live – no lip syncing – as she continuously flipped head over heels.

In fact there wasn’t a bad musical performance the entire night. Taylor Swift was impressive with her take over of the 42nd street subway station and subsequent Times Square performance. Beyoncé amazed audiences not only with her fancy leg work but the fact that she didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction visa Janet Jackson at the Superbowl. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys topped off the night with their new duet, but it was the opening of the show that stole most of the attention.

This year’s VMAs kicked off with a Janet Jackson led tribute to her late brother, King of Pop, Michael Jackson. It was touching and very fitting that this year’s awards were dedicated to a man who took music videos to a new height. Dancers recreated moves from the iconic “Thriller” before Janet arose on stage and re-created the moves from “Scream” while Michael’s mirroring performance played on the screen behind. Intermittently throughout the show, props were given to Michael as well as a full trailer of “This Is It”, the film compiled of all the rehearsal footage before his death, which will appear in theatres nationwide on October 28.

Performances really took precedence at the awards. Only five trophies were given out during the actual aired show. Equally as insignificant was host Russell Brand. While admittedly hilarious in his own right, British stand-up comic Brand fell flat as returning host of the awards. While MTV was probably banking on Brand’s gained notoriety over the past year, his brash humor didn’t translate well to the stage. It seemed that producers spent more time cutting to commercial after Brand’s crude punchlines than letting him speak, and that’s when he was brought on stage to introduce anyone at all. Though Brand has conquered television hosting, movies and even the New York Time’s bestseller’s list with his autobiography “My Booky Wook”, hosting just may not be his thing.

Overall, the show was surprisingly entertaining, especially considering the disappointing past couple of years. There wasn’t a boring moment during the entire two and a half hour runtime. Last night’s show was so well put together that it might have actually succeeded in distracting people from the fact that the ceremony is completely irrelevant. Seriously, when was the last time MTV even played a video?

About foreign policy. And also Jay-Z. To wit:

But the limits on his ability to use this power recalls the debates about U.S. primacy. Should he use this power to its fullest extent, as neo-conservatives would advise, imposing his will to reshape the world, forcing others to adapt to his values and leadership? Or should he fear a backlash against the unilateral use of power, as realists such as my colleague Steve Walt or liberals such as John Ikenberry would warn, and instead exercise self-restraint?

Is Marc Lynch the Kai Ryssdal of FPM?

Brown has been flying mostly under the radar since beating Rihanna, a friend of Jay-Z and his artist, but was supposed to take the stage in honor of the King of Pop. A source told Page 6 that “Jay-Z wasn’t having it. He threatened to pull out of the show if Chris was involved, so BET dropped Chris.”

However, a rep for Brown told Page 6, “That’s not true — he was never confirmed to perform.”

Either way, Brown must be hurt. He was friends with Jackson and performed “Thriller” at the World Music Awards in 2006. This is likely just one of the major blows to his career he’ll suffer in the wake of beating Rihanna.

You can watch the whole CES keynote address here. Also Gizmodo has a better quality video than most.

Bill Gates put together a funny, fitting farewell video starring Matthew McConaughey, Brian Williams, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Jay-Z, Bono, George Clooney, Al Gore and more.

In one scene, Gates cell phones Bono during a show and tries to get in the band. Bono says to Gates,”Yeah, I know, I know, but I can’t just replace The Edge because you got a high score in Guitar Hero.

The video and keynote were given in front of 4,000 people Sunday night at the Venetian Hotel’s Palazzo Ballroom in Las Vegas.

Not a bad start to CES this year.