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Thought all I needed to read were the excerpts of Keith Richards' book, "Life" (with James Fox/Little, Brown & Company, 2010), but several months later, I've borrowed it and am really getting a kick out of it.

As you can guess, it's sleazy, shallow, rambling and all that, but it's insanely funny at times and there's rarely a dull moment in the thing. You've got one of the more underrated musicians of the '60s and '70s sometimes going for the cheap laugh or recalling a detail for shock value (is that a value?), but there are likewise genuinely
(perhaps) thoughtful ideas and sentiments. Here's the shocker: Richards is often
insightful.

So far, my favorite lovely passage from Keef happens to evaluate Mick Jagger, but it's also exceptionally moving: "(Friendship is) can you hang, can you talk about this without any feeling of distance between you? Friendship is a diminishing of distance between people. That's what friendship is, and to me it's one of the most important things in the world. Mick doesn't like to trust anybody. I'll trust you until you prove you're not trustworthy. And maybe that's the major difference between us."

Hey, the Grammy Awards show was more fun than I expected. The overkill--dancers, cyclists, ridiculous lighting--was the lousy part. All those bells and whistles end up as pure emptiness (isn't that always the case?).

Usually, the tribute to fallen heroes is one of the most moving sections of the show, but this year, it was extremely rushed. How can somebody follow three names (and photos) on the screen at once, of great musicians whom we've lost in the past year? At that kind of overly brisk speed? It was a truly awful segment that should have been great--at least Mick Jagger's electrifying tribute to Solomon Burke finished it off in style.

Electrifying is the missing word from any assessment of Justin Bieber, who's evidently making the talk show circuit, saying that he was really disappointed to be shut out at the Grammys. "Talent" is a relative word, little dude. Sure you can dance, and you can probably stay on-key. Where's the originality? The thing is to be compelling beyond your age group, and you are not. That youngster Bruno Mars--he's compelling.