Neil Young, K’Naan in Central Park for the Global Citizen Festival

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Hadn’t realized until today that a big benefit concert’s going on today in Central Park. K’Naan, Band of Horses, Foo Fighters, Black Keys, and Neil Young with Crazy Horse are all playing on the Great Lawn. Might’ve tried to go, but I have other plans for the rest of the day. Some free tickets were drawn by lottery at teh site of the worthy organization coordinating this push to end “extreme poverty” worldwide. Many organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Earth Institute are coordinating to pull it all together, under the rubric of GlobalCitizen.org. So far, K’Naan has played, brilliantly. Also, Band of Horses, who were good too. It’s all being livestreamed at this link, and maybe cached there later, too. I hope so, because I’m going out in a few minutes, and would really love to see Neil and Crazy Horse. Meantime, here’s a photo I took of K’Naan in the livestream. He only played three songs, but he absolutely killed with those three, including with a rousing finale of his global hit, “Wavin’ Flag,’ telling the crowd he was at last reclaiming the song as his own, after seeing it used in so many different situations, like at the World Cup. He sang the personal passages in the lyrics, about leaving Somalia as a youngster, very quietly and intimately. He is a very inspirational figure.
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Got home just in time to hear Neil and Crazy Horse’s two closing songs, “Fucking Up” and “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World,” on which the bands from earlier in the concert joined in. It’s been a Neil Young kind-of-weekend, with his new book, Waging Heavy Peace, one of my #FridayReads for this weekend.

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Paul Ryan–Mending Fences, Planting Seeds

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According to a brief item by Robert Costa in the National Review, Paul Ryan has recently

” . . . called several conservative commentators. In those conversations, he has expressed confidence about the Republican ticket’s chances, fielded questions, and asked for frank assessments. Ryan has made the calls one by one from the trail. The private press talks, which are ongoing, have often been lengthy and candid. Sources close to the Romney campaign tell National Review Online that Ryan has reached out to George F. Will, the Washington Post columnist; Paul Gigot, the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page; and CNBC’s Larry Kudlow, among others. A source close to the Romney campaign says the calls simply reflect Ryan’s warm relationships with many conservative media figures.”

While these calls are depicted here as all about the current campaign, I think the real subtext here is 2016, with Ryan probably eager to run on his own, without what he may perceive as the stultifying dullness of the Romney campaign weighing him down.

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Wendy Weil, Book Agent Extraordinaire, RIP

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Very sad to read about the passing of longtime book business friend, literary agent Wendy Weil. During my days as a bookseller with Undercover Books in Cleveland, from 1978-85, we had hosted a couple of big launch parties that were very successful for one of her author clients. Then, when I moved to NYC in 1985 to work in publishing she was very kind to me and I got to know her even better. Just saw Wendy recently when she told me of her delight at placing a new novel by this same client, who had left her agency for several years, but then had returned to her fold. She told me how good this had made her feel. She was very happy that day and seemed very well. I was startled to read this death notice in today’s NY Times. Wendy Weil was 72. She died last Saturday, on what happens to have been my birthday. My heartfelt condolences to her family and many friends in the book world. She was a tall, willowy woman, a dear person with a warm sense of humor. I will miss her, as will many others, I’m sure.

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