ryan profile picture

ryan

www.ryanstark.com

About Me

I tour a lot doing these talking shows that aren't really comedy or poetry but I get labeled into both. I have a book and a label that take up a lot of my time. I only do all ages shows and though I'm willing to go on stage anywhere, I usually wind up at punk type places with bands which is no bad place to be. I keep up a daily blog on my website www.ryanstark.com It is the best way to find out what I am up to. thanks. -R.

My Interests

I'm a sucker for books, music, film, art, expression, train rides, boat rides, jazz, I like it when it rains at the same time the sun shines on you during a partly stormy day, I devour books and documentaries on the Vietnam war with an insatiable thirst, I am a sucker for documentaries and useless information.

I'd like to meet:

anyone who takes the time to check out my page. Joan Didion, Kofi Annan. Fela Kuti. Bayard Rustin. Jane Birkin.

Music:

Fela Kuti, Nina Simone, Bad Brains, Fugazi, Sham 69, Coldplay, The Stranglers, The Ruts, The Damned, Blind lemon Jefferson, Rashid Ali, Sonny Rollins, Albert Ayler, The OJays, Fern Jones, Bandit Records, The Delfonics, The Spinners, The Nation of Ulysses, Harlod Melvin and the Blue Notes, The Shirelles, Death Cab, Brian Eno, THe Beauty Pill, 4AD, Smart Went Crazy, Young Jeezy, Blonde Redhead, Rites of Spring, The Buzzcocks, The Clash, 7 Seconds, The Minutemen, The Gun Club, The Platters, The Spaniels, The Coasters, Mary Wells, Betty Wright, Gladys Knight and the Pips, anything with the blood and fire logo, The Bar Kays, Everything on Teen Beat, Everything on Ipecac, Rounder Records, Arhoolie Records,Isaac Hayes, Old doo-wop, pre elvis rock and roll, Dischord bands, Robert Pete Williams, Capsoul Records, The Make Up, Leadbelly, Frank Black and the Catholics, The pixies, ABC, Sonny Boy Williamson, THe Fall, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Guy Picciotto, Die Haut, Einsturzende Neubauten, Capitol years Sinatra, The Black Eyes, Q and not U, Tom Waits, Etta James, Sabbath, Coltrane, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Miles, melt bananna, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Bright Eyes, Bud Powell, Bubber Miley, Lightnin Hopkins, Lemon, Blind willie Johnson, Gang of Four, MC5, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, John Lee Hooker, Pj Harvey, Swans, Queens of the stone age, James Chance, Lee morgan, Rollins Band, Tomahawk, the boredoms, Eno, King Crimson, Hendrix, Hardcore is weak. Metal is weak. We are all in a James Brown cover band.

Movies:

Kurosawa, fincher, Soderberg, Sofia Coppola (I watch Lost in Translation just about once a month), Zedd, felinni, Argento, Polanski, Stone, Cronenberg, Scorsase, Burton, Ford coppola, Penn, Allen, Almost everything on the criterion collection. I didn't like Napolean Dynamite, Donnie Darko or Amalie. Aim for the head.

Books:

Selby, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, kafka, Abe, Didion, Tosches, Fante, Algren, Nin, Camus, Hamsun, Nietzsche, Baudalaire, Wilde, Bill Shields, Rollins, Bukowski, Celine, Rimbaud, Catullus, Henry Miller, Thomas Wolfe, Billy Childish, Nietzsche, Russell, Jim Corbett, Faulkner, Mann, DH Lawerence, Iceberg, Conrad, Steve Martin, Senecca, Hesse, Tolstoy, Checkov, Gogol, andreyev, Lorca, Nick Cave, Pushkin, Kuprin, Gorky, Saltykov, Maupassant, Gide, Faulkner, Mishima, Max Frisch. there are more good books out there than there is life time so I'm not going to spend what prescious little time I do have on

Heroes:

Lenny Bruce, Bayard Rustin, Ian Mackaye, Fela Kuti, Bill Hicks, Che Guevara, Jesus Christ, Jack Johnson, John Coltrane, John Peel, Alan Lomax.

My Blog

To anyone on my friends list:

I am not going to be keeping up the myspace page regularly. I will still have it up but will not be using it. The best way to get a hold of me is to go to www.ryanstark.com. For all the people who sub...
Posted by ryan on Thu, 08 Jun 2006 05:59:00 PST

new website for Reno

there is a new show archive at www.renodiy.com it is a public access site and is very easy to use. You can post shows there or just check out whats happenning in the Reno area....
Posted by ryan on Fri, 19 May 2006 11:18:00 PST

2pm

Holly Golightly's "truely she is none other" album on. I have listened to this album whistfully on a ton of lonely, boring nights at the music store and have moved a lot of copies of it to friends and...
Posted by ryan on Fri, 24 Mar 2006 02:26:00 PST

Hunters Hope show after action report

H.H. raised over one thousand dollars for a nine year old kid with tougher luck in life than me. The sound was good. The clampers donated just shy of $150.00 to H.H. How cool. Stars Are Falling came f...
Posted by ryan on Sun, 05 Feb 2006 11:38:00 PST

a trite thing that gets under my skin

When I signed on to the ol' myspace this morning I saw this banner above that said something to the effect of "friends dont let friends go metro" I thought it ment public transportation which i am an ...
Posted by ryan on Sun, 22 Jan 2006 11:46:00 PST

Boston

In the Jamicia Plains district of Boston now. Having a good time. Went and checked out the Boston Art Museum. Saw some real heavy stuff. Got switched on to some painters I wasn't aware of Before. For ...
Posted by ryan on Sun, 15 Jan 2006 06:29:00 PST

I'm not perfect

Who'd have thought? I need glasses. don't hit me, I'm wearing glasses.
Posted by ryan on Thu, 22 Dec 2005 08:20:00 PST

lyric for new song

I had a story to tell it started bad and then it ended well but thats all over now   I wanted to sing you a song about how love was lost and then it was found its relevence was shot to hell  ...
Posted by ryan on Sun, 27 Nov 2005 02:16:00 PST

neil diamond

Neil has come back to his dark lyrical roots and man is it cool. 12 songs is an introspective and minimal record chalk full of the intense brooding that makes his earlier work so brilliant. This time ...
Posted by ryan on Mon, 14 Nov 2005 04:34:00 PST

live at the half note

this release marks one of the of the quartet recordings just before they broke up and is absolutely bulletproof. Recorded almost two years before coltranes death,  Live at the half note shows col...
Posted by ryan on Sun, 13 Nov 2005 11:03:00 PST