Who loves Ryan Adams? I do! I do!

As you may have already figured out from my tweets, just as I was lucky a few months ago when Coldplay was in town, I was again blessed enough to sit in on Ry Ry’s intimate performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater for Live on Letterman.

According to Ryan, for this tour he is doing all solo sets (yup, no Cardinals) because… he is. But he still has the classic crazy Ryan Adams between song banter — this time hypothesizing what would happen if you came to a Live on Letterman taping and KISS was performing, the “real” pyrotechnic show that is usually on display during “Lucky Now”, and an in-depth rant on the failings of the fourth season of “Moonlighting.”

Vocally, Ry Ry has never sounded better. Clear, crisp, and in control, I thought his voice was beautiful during the whole performance. He did an understated version of “New York, New York” on the piano — after which the guy a row in front of me shouted, “We still love you too, Ryan!” Another song of note was a cover of Bob Mould’s “Black Sheets of Rain.”

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen Ryan perform (was at the last time the 2008 Cafe Select show????), so I was delighted when he played some older hits — especially “English Girls Approximately” — as soon as he hit the chorus of the song I was reminded how MUCH I love that song. (The playing of “Love Is Hell” will be occurring all day today.)

More classic Adams details included Ry dressed in a black tee with red design, jeans, brown workbooks — but most importantly, one impossibly expensive looking black leather jacket with an homage to Iron Maiden painted along the entire back. (Of course!!)

Can’t wait to see him tonight at the big Carnegie Hall show!

Setlist via the Ryan Adams Archive:

Oh My Sweet Carolina
Ashes & Fire
If I Am A Stranger
Dirty Rain
New York, New York (piano)
Do I Wait
Lucky Now
Jacksonville Skyline
Black Sheets of Rain (Bob Mould cover)
English Girls Approximately
16 Days

You can re-watch the stream of the performance right here:

In 2001, The Strokes offered fans a way to ring in the new year with them with a special pair of shows co-headlined with Guided By Voices at the world-famous Apollo Theater in Harlem.

I remember going to the Dec 30th show and totally freaking out over Ryan Adams being there with Meg White. That’s right – The Strokes, Ryan Adams, and Meg White all in the same room. It’s a miracle my brain didn’t explode right then and there.

Last night was the LA premiere of the new animated Disney princess flick, Tangled, for which Mandy Moore lent her sugary sweet voice to the character of Rapunzel.

While Mandy was decked out in a futuristic-looking hot pink one-shoulder dress, Ry Ry chose to go casual with his standard checked shirt + jeans ensemble.

I gotta say, these two look so happy together. They look like such a great couple.

On the “awww” mushy note, take a listen to this rendition of Ryan and Mandy doing a “Oh My Sweet Carolina” duet during a rehearsal for a 826LA benefit from last month hosted by Judd Apatow. Adorable!

We all know that Ryan Adams loves pizza, but one North Carolina pizzeria has brought it to the next level. The Sticks and Stones has taken it upon themselves to name all their menu items after Ryan Adams songs.

Expect to find items inspired by North Carolina’s native son such the Rescue Blues (rosemary garlic fries), the Easy, Tiger (soup of the day), the Heartbreaker (classic Caesar salad), New York, New York (tomato sauce, Giacomo’s sopressata, arugula, fresh mozzarella, pine nuts, fresh basil, parmesan).

Apparently bbs Ryan Adams fans have known about this place for a while.

SOURCE: Slice via NY Mag

To pick up where I left off, the Ryan Adams + Mary-Louise Parker talk at the NYPL on Friday was pretty great. Structured as a casual conversation between the two poetry lovers, NYPL’s Paul Holdengraber gave a very brief intro before handing the stage over to the old friends (for three years they were neighbors).

Much of the first half of the discussion was peppered with references to Mary-Louise’s friend, poet and Columbia University professor Mark Strand, who both credited with widening their horizons and understanding of poetry.

Ryan spoke at length about how he imagines a big gang of people with “unhappy face shirts on” just waiting to tear him down. On putting his work and himself out in the world for public consumption, Ryan commented that when something is seeing as being “too artistic” people tend to paint it as coming form a place of “self-entitlement,” for Ryan it’s more of an opportunity for pure expression, that in general he feels his work doesn’t always stimulate the intellect, but does stimulate emotion.

Mary-Louise elaborated on the discussion of the mob mentality of critics by saying that for people who are the the public eye, there is very real hurt that comes with hearing criticism. Talking about anonymous internet commentators, Mary-Louise commented that “the voice that’s going to be heard is the meanest voice in the room.”

Ryan responded that the work he does is not even intended to be incredibly intellectual — that most of his songwriting and poetry is based on more trivial things, joking that it’s inspired by things like asking if his behind looks good in his jeans, or moaning about getting dumped.

He also talked at length about his dark years of addiction and alcoholism — about how it made him not a very nice person and how his first book of poetry was written during this time and how he now has “writer’s remorse” over the work.

Ryan also referenced one of his writing methods involving taking two pieces of information not meant to be creative (example – an entry in a reference book and a newspaper article), and trying to tie the two together with language and imagery. On top of that he mentioned his obsession with always doing something–commenting that if you leave him in your house alone, you’d probably come back to see him fixing your VCR, to which Mary-Louise laughed and reminded him of the time she came back to her apartment to find him cleaning her floor.

When asked by Mary-Louise if he was good at editing his work, he retorted that he has an “inability to edit” and that when he is writing poetry it is “Cold Roses times eleventy.”

Ryan ended the chat with Mary-Louise by mentioning some recommended poets (Frederick Seidel, Anne Carson, Elizabeth Bishop, Eileen Myles — whose book title “Sorry, Tree” bemused Ryan, John Ashbery) and reading two poems from “Hello, Sunshine.”

Here’s some video of the event I found on the Youtube:

More over at the Columbia Spectator.

Also, watch Mary-Louise read one of Mark Strands poems as part of Poetry Everywhere.

Some photos just for now of the nearly two hour talk that Ryan Adams did on Friday with Mary-Louise Parker at the Celeste Bartos Forum at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library for NYPL Live.

The charming twosome chatted about Ginsberg, Frederick Seidel, the mob mentality of Internet haters, Ryan’s writer’s remorse about his first book of poetry, vitamin A salad, battles with addiction and alcoholism, and much much more. Updates to come!

On the way home tonight I walked by David Ryan Adams‘s opening party for his solo show on auction for Housing Works at Morrison Hotel Gallery on the Bowery.

Characters with tongue-in-cheek signs stating things like “The Bowery Is for Bums, Not Art,” “Joey Ramone Is Turning Over In His Grave,” and “Not Funny Mr. Adams.” Inside, the artwork was displayed on the walls and the room was decked out with the strings of the multicolor balloons cascading from the ceiling. Buddy Jessie Malin served as auctioneer of the paintings.

At the time I was there Ryan was stationed up front signing books, posters, and pink 7-inches for “Oblivion” put out by his new record label, Pax Am.

After reading that headline, did your mind explode? Well it should have, because it’s enough when musical genius Ryan Adams and actress extraordinaire Mary-Louise Parker (aka the insatiable Nancy Botwin from Weeds) are on their own — putting them together in the same room is nearly fatal to the hearts of cool hunters worldwide.

For an hour and a half the two Carolina natives (Adams- North, Parker- South) will be discussing poetry and fiction, and Adams’s upcoming book HelloSunshine, at the Celeste Bartos Forum of The New York Public Library at 6PM on September 25th as part of the NYPL Live series. Tickets to this 500 person event will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, Sept 9th.

I can already see myself sitting there, eyes darting back and forth, my chest beating fast, and the little neurons in my brain completely frizzling out because I’ll be unable to determine who I should be focusing on at any given moment.

I think you’re all aware of my undying admiration to Mr. Adams, but my love for Mary-Louise Parker has gotten little play on this site so far, so let me just say ever since Fried Green Tomatoes, I have been in the M-L P camp. Fearless, uber-talented, and super-sexy – how could you NOT adore her? And let me just say, over five years since his breakup with M-LP, I can’t completely shake off my gnawing dislike toward Billy Crudup.

If you’re wondering what could be the possible connection between these two, one guess would be Adams’s wife, Mandy Moore, who starred with M-L P in 2004′s film comedy Saved!

It seems as though the multi-disciplined Adams’s will be the talk of the town that week, as this event falls directly after his stint as the first-ever artist in residence at the Morrison Hotel Gallery.

And, for the Adams-obsessives, Foggy TV is back! Ry Ry posted a “Happy Birthday” song two days ago:

Happy Birthday from Ryan Adams on Vimeo.

Ryan Adams will have his first showing of his original paintings and mixed media collages at the Morrison Hotel Gallery on the Bowery on September 23rd, with proceeds benefiting the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a nonprofit organization committed to ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness.

According to the press release, “three weeks prior to the opening, Adams will become Morrison Hotel Gallery’s first artist in residence, creating additional canvases in the front of the gallery to be auctioned off at the opening” — however the Morrison Hotel Gallery states he will become artist in residence two weeks prior to the opening.

At this time it’s unclear as to whether or not Adams will actually be painting in a space visible to passersby. Perhaps he’ll even simultaneously paint and blog for his alleged new side job as blogger for The Awl.

The Morrison Hotel Gallery is located at 313 Bowery, NYC.

Yesterday night I braved the impossibly miserable weather to check out the record release party for Mandy Moore‘s new album, Amanda Leigh, at Joe’s Pub here in NYC. The new Mrs. Ryan Adams (to my knowledge sans Ryan Adams in the audience), who was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt with a slim fitting leather blazer, looked radiant as she, her band, and a guest string trio featuring opener Tracy Bonham, glided through a number of songs off her new album. All the while, the massive all-diamond wedding band sparkling on her ring finger nearly blinded the front row.

The new tunes show a more sophisticated side to the songbird, some of the tunes seemingly inspired by Joni Mitchell, and yes–even a little dash of Ryan Adams, all the while showcasing Mandy’s incredible voice. (Seriously, why hasn’t she ever done a Broadway musical?)

Mandy stayed minimal with the inter-song banter and focused on soulfully crooning out songs like “Everblue,” “Merrimack River,” and “Bug” to the sold out crowd of fans. Ending with an audience participate version of “I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week,” she left the audience wanting more…

After a few minutes of constant applause, Mandy came back out for an encore–and much to the delight of the audience, she and her band broke out in a stripped down version of Mandy’s smash hit single, “Candy.”

Video below: