Ryan Adams paints you a picture

So this is going around as the cover of Ryan Adams’ long-awaited and oft-delayed next album Prisoner — which was originally scheduled for release last month but is now supposedly coming out in February (although he’s already playing its songs live and talking it up with Lil Bub). And this cover certainly does evoke a not-so-great feeling, making it a fitting visual symbol for an album made in the emotional fallout of his split from ex-wife Mandy Moore. That certainly seems to be the agenda of the first single, “Do You Still Love Me?”

Anyway, the cover art is one of Ryan’s paintings, and I thought it looked familiar. So I did a bit of online prowling around to try and find where I’d seen it before. And it appears to be from a group of paintings that Ryan had up for a charity auction back in 2009 at New York’s Morrison Hotel Gallery. You can see the original painting here, toward the bottom.

“This House Is Not For Sale”

Actually, however, this house is for sale: The marital home that Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams shared in Los Angeles before they split up in early 2015 just went on the market, with an asking price of $3.199 million. According to records from the county tax assessor’s office, the property has a tax value of $2,488,589 (of which $1,575,923 is the land value of the .29-acre lot).

Located in the “Oaks” neighborhood of LA’s trendy Los Feliz district in Hollywood, the house clocks in at five bedrooms and just under 4,800 square feet. And it certainly does look very, very nice — “truly an entertainer’s dream!,” as the seller’s description enthuses. The complete listing spiel is below.

But yeah, given that this is happening against a backdrop of ongoing separation unpleasantness between Ryan and Mandy — it’s sad.

In the coveted “Oaks” neighborhood of Los Feliz, this 5BR+4.25BA 1927 Mediterranean home is on a private street w/ a 12,000+ SF street-to-street lot. A perfect balance of original period details and luxury modern amenities: Original magnesite stairs, wrought iron railings, beautiful wood floors w/decorative inlay + direct entry 2 car garage,post alarm system, and 2-zone heat/air. Main floor includes a reading/sitting room with ornate “wedding cake” beading on the ceiling, a large living room with fireplace and access to an outdoor patio facing the quiet park across the street, formal dining room, large chef’s kitchen with a butcher block-topped center island and walk-in pantry. Upstairs is a beautiful master suite with a private balcony plus three additional bedrooms and two more full baths. Behind the house lies the terraced back yard with multiple sitting areas and gardens, dotted with mature citrus trees and rose bushes. This home is truly an entertainer’s dream!

Year-end wishes from Ryan Adams

For Ryan Adams, 2015 began with news breaking that he and Mandy Moore were splitting up. Sounds like a tough year, all in all, and those of us on the outside clearly do not even know the half of it. Below is his end-of-year summary, from an Instagram post. 

 

2015… My hardest year yet. It didn’t kill me but it tried. I’m stronger for all the failures. I’m wiser for the losses. I laugh with more ease knowing it can all be gone in a second. I lost people I loved so much but I also made the best friends I ever had. This will always be the year I lost myself to actually find myself again. My band brothers, Mike, Charlie, Daniel and Freddy, our fucking amazing crew who we love so much, my most incredible managers, my most protective pals like Donnie, Megs and Albert, Molly, Todd and all people who stepped in and held me up when it felt like the bottom had no end like Johnny T, Bob Mould, Cat Popper, Noah A, Jesse Malin, Ruby, Elton… People who gave me faith and sometimes a hard time I deserved. All those who rode with me and The Shining on the most epic tour ever, Jenny Lewis, like a tough kung fu sister I never knew I had and her badass band, Butch Walker a brother to me and an inspiration, Doc, Nate Lotz and Nate “Bishop” Walcott ( of Aliens fame) Marshall and Phoebe and Lee Foster an endless list of others… friends I lost or things we all lost to time like Letterman, Allen RIP and so many … Looking back it feels like a book I’ll never be able to absorb completely… Like tears in the rain… It was my worst Menieres year and yet the first year Menieres NEVER won… I never felt more connected to all the fans, to the shows… What a beautiful gift. I’ll never forget it. To anyone having a look back with trouble in their hearts, calculating the losses VS the wins you are not alone. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Keep your feet on the ground. Never give up. Never let the dark take you to a place you don’t deserve… Get up, brush your teeth, comb your hair ( if you want- I don’t want to ) and pull yourself up by your bootstraps and go live. 2015 is yesterday soon, and our hearts were there to be broken and our faith exists to be challenged and this life, this world and our dreams are ours to shape. Every day is a new chance to rise up and do good. Find the path. Find the magic. Build your fucking dream. Never give up. Ever. Ever. Do Good. Then BE the good. Happy New Years, I love you Peace DRA 2015

UPDATE (12/27/2018): It seems that 2018 was a pretty rough year for Ryan, too.

A Loserblog milestone

Sometime yesterday, this modest little WordPress blog quietly reached a milestone, though no one but me would have known it. According to the statistics page, loseringbook.wordpress.com has crossed the six-figure threshold, attracting more than 100,000 views since debuting at the end of July 2012 with an introductory post titled, “Hello world!” — actually 100,122 total views as of a few minutes ago, if we want to keep it up-to-date.

Two years and 10 months later, this is post number 313. My output has ebbed and flowed over that time, usually dictated by events. I was posting at least once a day during the initial publication period of the book “Losering” and also last fall, when there was lots of news surrounding Ryan Adams’ doings with his latest album and touring (and I must note with some disappointment that this blog’s most-viewed post to date remains the one about his divorce; oh well). There have also been slow stretches where I’ve gone weeks between posts, either because Ryan didn’t have anything going on in public or I was busy elsewhere — or just not feeling inspired regarding DRA World.

But I’ve had enough fun here to keep the blog going beyond its initial mission of supplying background for “Losering” (a function it sometimes still serves, such as when I have mistakes to correct). It’s been a way to acknowledge some of Ryan’s old bandmates, as well as various superfans and others’ Ryan-inspired artwork, plus weird reactions and other projects I’m involved in. If nothing else, the Ryan Adams Reference Library page gets enough traffic that I feel like the superfans still find it useful. And if Ryan ever takes the unlikely step of ending his North Carolina embargo, I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say about that here and elsewhere.

Beyond that, I’m not sure about the Loserblog’s future. It does have a certain amount of momentum built up and a handful of subscribers (thanks, y’all!), and it gets enough feedback on social media to make me feel like it’s worthwhile to keep it going. So I think it will continue, at least for a while longer. We shall see.

In any case, to everyone who has been a part of that 100,000 number — which, it goes without saying, is a whole bunch of multiples of the sales achieved by the “Losering” book — you have my grateful thanks. I appreciate you stopping by. Keep on coming back and I’ll do my best to make it worth your while.

Poor Ryan…

There will be a lot more said about this — there’s already plenty flying around out there — but all that needs saying from the outside is it’s too bad and we’re sorry to hear it.

(UPDATE, 12/9/2015: Almost a year later, things are turning ugly over money.)

Meanwhile, Ryan’s Twitter feed has been rather illuminating. Right around the time that news of the Ryan-Mandy split was breaking Friday night, Ryan tweeted a link to the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song.” He didn’t add any sort of comment, so maybe it was just coincidence. But coming on the heels of recent tweets with “Tunnel of Love” and “I Am the Cosmos”… I don’t think so:

All I know is something like a bird within her sang,
All I know she sang a little while and then flew on,
Tell me all that you know, I’ll show you snow and rain.

If you hear that same sweet song again, will you know why?
Anyone who sings a tune so sweet is passin’ by,
Laugh in the sunshine, sing, cry in the dark, fly through the night.

Don’t cry now, don’t you cry, don’t you cry anymore.
Sleep in the stars, don’t you cry, dry your eyes on the wind.

All I know is something like a bird within her sang,
All I know she sang a little while and then flew off,
Tell me all that you know, I’ll show you snow and rain.

UPDATE (6/6/2018): Mandy Moore on her exes, including Ryan:

Moore then touched on her first marriage to musician Ryan Adams, which ended in a “devastating” divorce.

“It didn’t sour my idea of romance or marriage or monogamy. I just chose the wrong person,” she said. When Stern said she should have done a Braff with Adams and just done “two years in and out,” Moore joked, “Maybe less!”

Though she denied Adams cheated on her, she explained, “We’re just different, we were not meant to be. It was a very lonely life. Someone who’s obsessed with themselves and obsessed with their work and wasn’t able to be a partner or husband. The anger subsided for me now. I have so much distance from it now, I have a different perspective.”

She added that new fiance Taylor Goldsmith “couldn’t be more diametrically opposite” of her ex. “Life is good, I feel very lucky,” she added. Moore also said she’s “ready” for kids, but will have to time it out with her “This Is Us” shooting schedule. “I jump around in time, so it would be weird playing an older lady with a pregnant belly,” she joked.