Rick Warren and Aretha Franklin on stage (get different reactions)

Rick Warren - megachurch pastor and not exactly the darling of the Obama faithful because of his support of California's anti-gay marriage initiative - gave the invocation.

The crowd was a little wary when Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced him, and there was the now-traditional titter when everyone (already standing out on the Mall) was asked to stand - but his invocation was met with solemn prayer, finishing with a rendition of the Lord's Prayer that some, at least, prayed along with.

Aretha Franklin followed the invocation, and her song got the crowd moving quite a bit more - warming the spectators up for Joe Biden's rather swiftly delivered oath of office.

He seemed to rattle off the words as fast as Justice John Paul Stevens.fed them to him, so that in a blink of an eye America had a new Vice President and it was time for a panoply of classical music greats (including Yo-Yo Ma) to start the next musical number.

Monologues, musical numbers, rapid-fire dialogue - you'd think this was Broadway.

Update:

It turns out President Obama knows his lines better than the Chief Justice, who flubbed a few while administering the oath. But oath duly administered, John Roberts congratulated the president and we launched into the big musical number finale - that's right, "Hail to the Chief".

To read President Obama's address, click here.

To look at a Lego-version of the Inaugural, click here.

What does President Obama's new limo look like?  Go here.

How crammed were the subways in Washington, DC today and what were people saying? Click here.