https://youtu.be/diXSvr69yfk?is=dOYGvMxK2GqT-92g

The late John Stewart on the Smothers Brothers a long time ago. Sings a song, with others, that very much matters now.

I eat quite a lot of plain yogurt. This is my new favorite. It has a fresh tastiness.

 

CARLY SIMON REVEALS PARKINSON’S DISEASE DIAGNOSIS: ‘I AM STILL VERY MUCH HERE’

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/carly-simon-parkinsons-disease-diagnosis-skin-cancer-1236303188/

On my exercise walk I pass the Quaker Meeting House. 

I’ve only read 50 pages. I just got started. There are 400-some pages. So far it’s very good. Better than you’d think. Get it. 

 

IS THE AGE OF READING OVER?

Rose Horowitch on her cover story and what happens when a society becomes “postliterate”

https://apple.news/A2pH7di6iRgGspR2nOoPpNA

 Aging. My 79-year-old hand the other day.

Nikole Hannah-Jones Talks About Her Mission to Put Challenged Books Directly Into the Hands of Children in Iowa

https://apple.news/AZOMJQR0gQz6aTktt2f5CNQ

 

 He’s good. NYT.

 Too Many Books.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/style/too-many-books-new-york-city-apartment-scholar-landlord.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

I decided this week that this was probably the best book I ever read. 

K

 Chinatown the other night. 

 Last night in fantastic Chinatown.

 I just voted for Jack Schlossberg.

Maybe 30 more minutes with Josh Shapiro’s book. Here’s a talk with him.

https://youtu.be/GDtO6MGlyNk?is=sFBdAddh7t14ekoQ

 Bob Seger. ‘Against the Wind’.

https://youtu.be/PmrkY-EZy74?is=LW85O3SuLNHUtMAo

 I just bought this. 

Three days ago. A thin guitar store right next to the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd where friends were staying.

 Two Asian-American girls today late afternoon.

Bob Dylan, 85

About aging. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and Nobel Prize recipient. (In The New York Times.)

The best thing

The best thing about being 80 is that you outlive the clocks that have been chasing you. It's freedom from that lie that anything was ever under control. You don't chase the parade anymore. You're an old king from some vanished country. You're harder to program.

You're not rushing to become anything and you're not haunted by things that you did. You're haunted by how little of it really mattered in the way you thought it would.

The worst thing

The worst thing about being 80 is that you still want to say yes to everything, but the world moves without asking. The old fire in your heart still tells you to do this and that, but your body says we already did it. Also, nothing surprises you. It sounds like a luxury but it's not, and also you've run out of illusions. People treat you like either you've solved something or you've lost something, and you haven't. You see life repeating itself everywhere.

The really worst part about being 80 is that you find, at last, you've got an understanding of something that might have altered everything in the past, had it come at a time when something could still be altered. When you're young you think that time moves forward. At 80 you know that it doesn't, it stands still. We're the ones that move.

 

My five grandchildren. One in college. Another going this year. Three are high schoolers.

 

 My kitchen. 

 

 

PAUL MCCARTNEY

LOOKS BACK IN SPLENDOR WITH A NEW SOLO MASTERPIECE

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a richly nostalgic trip that proves this legend is still as creative as ever

https://apple.news/ABp8WlAPMTMmWY2o2JRljpA

 First real page of the book. 

 Got this yesterday.

 

“Ezra Klein, So Hot Right Now

Thanks to his best-selling book and blockbuster podcast, the wunderkind liberal wonk of the Obama years has become one of The New York Times’ brightest stars — and an unlikely thirst trap. (The beard! The biceps!) But is his instinct for thoughtful dialogue suited to our clickbait world?”

Excerpt From

“Ezra Klein, So Hot Right Now”

BY AARON GELL

The Hollywood Reporter (May 6, 2026)

https://apple.news/AgUhZb8-cReyHHrytEeQ3pA

This material may be protected by copyright

https://apple.news/AgUhZb8-cReyHHrytEeQ3pA

 

JACK ANTONOFF BLASTS AI MUSIC CREATORS AS 'GODLESS WHORES'

Bleachers frontman subscribes to “ancient ritual of writing, recording, and performing as it comes to us from god”

https://apple.news/AxwAk6pqgSYieTCa0drO3PA

Oldest daughter yesterday with Bill Clinton who was walking in her neighborhood.

 

 Waiting for the train.

 

Author Robert Caro on His Writing Process and Biographies of LBJ and Robert Moses (This was on C-SPAN last night. Wonderful.) He’s 90.

Robert Caro, who was working on the final book of his five-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson, offered a tour of his New York City office and home library.

https://www.c-span.org/program/qa/author-robert-caro-on-his-writing-process-and-biographies-of-lbj-and-robert-moses/678198

 A recent New Yorker. On my table/desk. 

 Madonna, I think, on a restaurant I walk by every morning on Irving Place.

On the subway on my way back yesterday from holding my reading sign. (The train is near-empty because sometimes people hop on the express train across the platform. Sometimes there are people standing in the aisles on this train.)

Joni Mitchell—Both Sides Now (Live at The Isle of Wight Festival 1970)

 https://youtu.be/YgtLZCe-GSM?si=FpkWCyyb9pSxk8dx

 

A solo woman baker runs a hidden gem bakery in Osaka 

https://youtu.be/uqjUFhJVpFQ?si=_Yt4bty5yfBl-bzg

 

 

Jack Antonoff on Why This Beatles Track is the ‘Greatest Recording Ever Made’

https://youtu.be/SEeAbMxYW44?si=DTpr_A1dWeSxLDQZ

 

GABBY THOMAS dominates 100m and 200m a few days ago. 

https://youtu.be/Gd9LjVJ6AB8?si=VmhYbJZ2WuzhV3Zs

 

“Check out the Brooklyn Public Library's list of 250 most notable books in U.S. history

The handpicked list includes iconic books that reflect the American experience

https://apple.news/AhpLuGGSbT9OFQEWJyM7gqg

• 
  
  

“OTIS REDDING CENTER FOR THE ARTS CELEBRATES ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY: ENSURING THE 'LEGACY KEEPS REACHING FORWARD'

Zelma Redding talks about her late husband’s belief in giving back — and lifting up.

https://apple.news/Af61iKv1TT1CDxB2nNp8h4g

 


Bob Dylan will come to you


And you don't have to be rich or live in a big city to see him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/23/bob-dylan-keeps-touring-playing-age-85/