Michael profile picture

Michael

The Ultimate Fish Outta Water -- New Yorker transplanted to the deep, rural South

About Me



Layout Provided By FreeCodeSource.com
ABOUT ME:Ex New Yorker, Ex screenwriter, ex husband, ex Garage-punk bassist, ex journalist, ex music critic, ex English-As-A-Second-Language teacher, ex snob, ex extravert, ex United Nations worker drone, ex minister, ex liontamer (Just seeing if ya caught that one), ex world traveler, ex troubadour, ex galloping gourmet living now in an almost dry town where everything is fried in lard, ex and etc....
The following is a mouthful, but I'm catching up with old friends (and making new ones), so I don't have to replay the same story...
I was born on Long Island, but, please don't hold that against me. I went to NYU film school and lived many years in NYC and Hoboken, NJ. Played in the NY garage bands, Stinky and the Skunks(with members of the Optic Nerve and Tryfles)& The House Pets You can hear them at(www.myspace.com/thehousepets.) Had a fanzine in college called Trashbeat. Later had paying gigs with Request Magazine (Sam Goody's magazine) and The Bob (A Boston Rock mag). Taught English in Barcelona, Spain. Worked for a chain of international language schools. Imported art for a while from the Former Soviet Union (Played on stage with a band in Moscow and taught them "Louie, Louie.". Married a Parisian beauty (We're since divorced), so was often in France. In the 90s, I optioned a few film scripts (The Bee Keeper's Tango and W.P. Pullet, Childtamer) to Disney and the guys who did "Ray". Repped by CAA, so I made some nice moneys during that Hollywood run. In 1994, I got bit by a tick and pretty much lost everything. During that tough time, I worked at the United Nations and had an awful stint on Wall Street. Now, there's a new chapter.
Moved from NYC to rural GA while recovering from that long illness. Like Eddie Arnold in Green Acres, I left the big city to many surreal adventures down south. People who knew me then would be surprised to learn that I became a minister for a while down here. Performed the wedding of Evan and Linda of Muck and The Mires last year in New Orleans. That was my first and last. I have kinda left that calling (as a fulltime job at least) and am now dealing with rare books on the internet. Also designing and optimizing websites. I'll give the blog I set up for my Lyme Doctor a free plug -- www.covenanthealthclinic.info
Although dead to Hollywood after all this time, I have recently sold a low budget script about Rock Critic hero, Lester Bangs (with old buddy, Jim Dero of the Chicago Sun Times) and hope to one day claw my way back on top. Our director, Rick Caine, just did that Michael Moore documentary, "Manufacturing Discontent". Catch it!I spent a lot of time in the trenches of disease so health and wellness is still a topic of fascination.
Although I dig talking theology, I kinda do like that old, small talk and inane discussions about one-hit-wonder bands and trashy flicks. Although talkin' politics around here is taboo, I'm all for it!
MySpace Contact Tables


..

My Interests

.

Films, cool tunes, books, art, travel (Barcelona and Buenos Aires are my fave cities -- my ex may be in Paris so I can't go), the beach, poker, Scrabble, wining and dining, tiki cocktails, attempts at a healthy lifestyle (I said "Attempts"), watching jelly fish, an occasional game of raquetball and the endorphin rush of falling in love (or, more likely, the endorphin rush of finding a rare book or record). These are a few of my favorite things.

I'd like to meet:


Other locals who get antsy living in the Land Where Starbucks forgot and will venture into the big city for gigs, museums and Thai food.
Others who have fought off strange diseases without quite losing their minds. Other blue people living in a red state.
I just started a classic movie club in Thomaston and hope to expand to one day have a poetry or open mike folkie night in town. Would love to finally unite the artists in this burg.

Why this video? I was a grip on the shoot back in film school and got my almost close-up like 106 seconds in.Like you need an excuse to hear the Kinks?THE NEXT TWO FLICKS ARE THE SILLY MOVIES I MADE IN FILM SCHOOL. GOOD FOR A LAUGH. Please, I was like 19 -- Don't expect Noel Coward!!! See my Blog for more info about the guys in these flicks who have become famous as well as the great musicians on the Charley-ville soundtrack. There is a reason why I many times nearly got expelled from Film School ... AFTER THAT IS A SHORT PIECE I FOUND ON SHAG, THE ARTIST I ADORE. HIS COOLNESS ADORNS MY SITE.A Land Without Breadsticks
..
Add to My Profile | More VideosCharley-ville
..
Add to My Profile | More Videos

Music:

Blues, Garage, punk, soul, beebop jazz, power pop, exotica, lounge, folk, tango and all that rare, scratchy, crazy garbage. I really, really, really love Van Morrison, Nick Drake, Chet Baker, Dylan, Elvis Costello, Ella, Etta, The Kinks, The Raiders, The Ramones, The Clash, The Beatles, Byrds, Solomon Burke, anything with a jangly twelve-string guitar and a whole slew of others. "Shake Some Action" by the Flaming Groovies is the greatest pop song ever recorded!

Movies:



Screwball comedies, French Gangster flicks, Film Noir, the classics, midnight movies, Harold and Maude, Rushmore, Pee Wee's Big Adventure (Had a fiancee break up with me over this one). Car chase flicks, Heist flicks, Lubitch, Wilder, Preston Sturges and bad monster movies .. Really, just too many to mention -- I'll watch about anything -- but I will make comments. I do have some of my old film school movies posted on my Videos section. Watch at your own risk!

Television:

Lost and Prison Break -- Yikes, I lived without TV for 6 years now and just getting re-aquainted and re-addicted again. Love old TV like The Prisoner and The Avengers. Arrested Development ruled! And, yes, ladies, I really love the Gilmore Girls. Dig Scrubs reruns and this year's mighty fine Musical episode.

Books:

Lyme Disease ate up a few IQ points. Gone from Proust to being happy if I can finish a Robert Parker novel. I love mysteries, pulps, Elmore Leonard, The Beats, New Journalism, Cortazar, Marquez, Allende, non fiction, bios, weird alt health books, some religious writings too.

Heroes:



Orson Welles, Truffaut, David Mamet and Robert Towne for writing great scripts. Lester Bangs for introducing me to great music at a time when Styx was everywhere. The Ramones for paving the way to "ANYONE CAN DO IT". Alan Lomax for going out in the field. Meeting Gorey filmmaker, Hershell Gordon lewis, at the Dive was pretty neat. Met quite a few heros during those Hollywood studio meetings in LA. Too bad they didn't hire me. ... My biggest dissapointment was finally wrangling that invitation to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's film school in Cuba 7 years ago and being too sick to go...

My Blog

The Resolute Desk

DO YOU WANT TO OWN A PIECE OF WHITE HOUSE HISTORY? Michael Stark Are you a politics Junky? Is CNN and CSPAN constantly playing in the background? Then we are brethren, and like me, you probably wan...
Posted by Michael on Wed, 21 May 2008 02:44:00 PST

New site needs your support

Help your old friend, fellow musician, ex minister, etc, who has given life to ... yeah, shemless promotion.....Do take a gander at my new website www.isthereacure.info and click around some ads to ke...
Posted by Michael on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:05:00 PST

Durian - and my new website

DURIAN - THE SUPER DUPER SUPER FOOD WITH SPIKESwww.isthereacure.infoSUPER FOOD  DURIAN JUICEMy friend Perry Castle, taught me about some rather unusual super foods in the years we worked together. He...
Posted by Michael on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:02:00 PST

The Dive gets Divebombed

The club my band used to play at in NYC 20 years ago just made the news.  It was bombed!!!!   http://www.nypost.com/seven/09062007/news/regionalnews/bombe r_was_sending_message_to_.htm...
Posted by Michael on Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:48:00 PST

AUGUST 18th 2007 news

Sorry to be a hermit. I'll fill ya guys in on the latest, Reader's Digest style. Sherry, my fiancee, is here.  We are house hunting.  It is stressful.  I ask God daily for directio...
Posted by Michael on Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:14:00 PST

Slamdance Screenwriting Contest

>> Slamdance Announces Screenwriting Competition Winner The Slamdance Film Festival has named the three top award winners for its 4th screenplay competition. Selected from more than 1,500 entries, th...
Posted by Michael on Mon, 12 Mar 2007 08:23:00 PST

IDIOT TAX

Bush revealed his new budget to pay for the near trillion dollars this useless war is going to cost us. Sheesh, once again the middle class will get poorer.  Once again, His friends and close bud...
Posted by Michael on Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:47:00 PST

ABOUT THE VIDEOS I POSTED HERE

I can't say I'm all that proud of these flicks. Hey, I drank heavily during film school and it shows.  These aren't exactly where my head is at today, but who thinks the same way as when the...
Posted by Michael on Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:21:00 PST

THE THOMASTON CLASSIC MOVIE CLUB SCHEDULE

The Thomaston Classsic Movie Club Meets the First Tuesday of every month at the Thomaston Archives Building between Center and Lee Street.  Go in the back entrance and go down to the scary baseme...
Posted by Michael on Sun, 08 Oct 2006 10:04:00 PST

THE DIVE -- The NYC club we all played at in the 80s (Done for The Cheepskates Site

THE DIVE Bridge And Tunnel Clad In Paisley (But, Damn, How Some of Them Could Dance) Teary eyed and sentimental, listening over and over again to "Those Were The Days, My Friends" on my little, lost ...
Posted by Michael on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 01:33:00 PST