Penn Badgley Campaigning For OWS Congressional Candidate George Martinez

Although one of my closest friends, David Kahne, was the head of A&R at his label and never stopped raving about what a star he was, I never met Jeff Buckley or saw him perform. And his father, Tim, was a friend of mine. I met Tim-- along with Jackson Brown and Steve Noonan-- at a Velvet Underground show in 1967 and invited them all back to my school, Stony Brook, where they spent a good part of the semester. I was the school's concert chairman and in October I gave Tim the opening slot for a breaking bad I had met that summer, The Doors. (Noonan I put on with Phil Ochs and Jackson opened for Judy Collins.) The stories-- intertwined because they were father and son, who only met once-- are of two young me who were both extraordinary singer-songwriters and who both died so very young and so very tragically. It was a time and a place-- or two times and two places. But I was transported back by watching, of all things, a campaign video (up top) from Occupy Wall Street activist and congressional candidate George Martinez.

We met George back at the beginning for the month when we were encouraging him to run for Congress in my native Brooklyn (born'n'bred). Now he is running and last week he was out in Williamsburg getting petitions signed when neighborhood luminary Penn Badgley stops by to help him bum rush the vote. Badgley, who plays Jeff Buckley in the upcoming film, Greetings From Tim Buckley, reminded me so much of Tim that I was stunned.

And even though he wasn't wearing a hoodie, maybe if he shaved and dressed a little nicer, Penn would have gotten more signatures on George's petitions. Anyway... thanks for putting up with my reminiscences. Reward: two old Tim Buckley live videos from back when I was a kid: