To liveblog is to recap in real time, generally done during a large special event--in my case, the Oscars. I (in addition to many other bloggers) was doing it as early as 2004, and that's not even counting the writeups I used to do on my GeoCities Movie News Site of Lameness; every major news and entertainment site now has someone on the payroll liveblogging major entertainment events. But we amateurs still do it as well. The thing about the internet, about individual bloggers having their own small readership fiefdoms, is that we become little entertainment reporters, and as such, become part of the circus ourselves. And I mean that in a fun way.
The weird thing about celebrity culture—particularly our current culture, in which everyone is famous for fifteen minutes, or at least thirty seconds—is that I feel compelled to namecheck things I know you don’t give a shit about. Like, I feel like I should be telling some breathless reporter, “Well, my bubblebath was Bath and Bodyworks’ Mango Mandarin; my towel was Royal Velvet; and my pajamas are by Laundry Basket."
"Now, we're hearing that your drink tonight is Sunkist...? Beverage stylists across the country are asking, what happened to your lifelong collaboration with Mountain Dew?"
"Well... [wistful shrug] they just didn't show up today. Sunkist stepped in when I needed them most."
And the reporter will shake her head and wish me a good night with the commentary.
Here's the trick to a successful liveblog: to do it decently, you have to set the scene for 1) people who aren't watching the event (or can't watch at that moment) and 2) people who might revisit the liveblog in a year or two. "Lol I can't believe he said that" ain't gonna cut it if the reader has no idea what "he" or "that" refers to. As a result, I'm usually pretty wrung out after a good liveblogging, because not only do you have to choose, there, on the spot, which details to include and to omit, but you have to type them up as fast as your little fingers can fing. Consider that the Oscars often run to four hours or more, and you see why it can be a little bit exhausting.