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Farm Aid NYC

“..out of kindness, I suppose” –
Townes Van Zandt , Pancho and Lefty 

If kindness is contagious, unkindness might be epidemic. But enough on that – it’s almost too big to touch. New York looked so nice that day, chaos not withstanding. Just the way the sun was hitting the buildings and that feeling of approaching Fall. I decided that I had to check it out for a while at least, a decision I’d been edging up on for five years. Unkindness aside, it was some sound thinking.

Farm Aid came to the city on Sunday. There aren’t too many of these epic cause-oriented events that I’d consider attending. Live Aid, while likely a good cause, seems like a truly tortuous afternoon to me. Sitting through a Madonna set and hearing her wax philosophic on starving Africans in a faux English accent approaches the surreal, never mind the unpleasant. Bob Dylan got a lot of heat forplaying Live Aid and mentioning that perhaps some of the money raised could be put toward paying off the mortgages on American farms. Apparently that didn’t sit too well with Bob Geldof’s Irish sensibilities, and he criticized Dylan for not understanding the difference between “losing one’s life and losing one’s livelihood.” He should have been thankful that Dylan even played an event whose credibility and commercial potential rest so heavily on the stature of the individual performers. Personally, I’d take Bob over Bob. What has Geldof ever done besides reiterate his distaste for Mondays?

So there I was on Randall’s Island on Sunday, a spot not entirely familiar to many native New Yorkers. It was a great afternoon despite the heat and humidity, momentously long porta-john lines, and the show’s more than twelve hour running time. Then again I’m a sucker for any test of endurance that wraps up with with Neil Young and Willie Nelson. I also liked the mix of influences in the crowd – youngish Dave Matthews types rubbing shoulders with Neil, Willie and Allman fans and a sprinkling of roll up your sleeves family farmer types. (Enough of a sprinkling that John Mellencamp, having finally settled on a last name, got a smattering of boos for getting specifically political and critical of current foreign policy.) Regardless of  one’s slant, I like an event where the crowd keeps you honest and focused on the specific subject at hand. Neil stayed more on-topic, with an aimless ramble about New York’s excellent tap water and the blackbirds that mysteriously disappeared from his ranch. The mass exodus from the event and island involved hundreds of city buses lining up and transporting folks like cattle from the concert site across the bridge to mainland Manhattan. The people on my bus were tired, but astoundingly polite and well-behaved. Call it lingering short-timer naivete, but for a very big city I continue to find New York impressively functional and, outside of isolated pockets, surprisinglynot unkind. (9/11/07)

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