creative work by matt hoffman
Dear Mainstream Media: You’re Missing the Real Story of New Hope
As a Bucks County native and resident for most of my life, I’m getting tired of seeing the mainstream media tell the wrong story about New Hope, Pennsylvania.
Van Halen’s Third Act: Where’s the Love?
I’m excited to share the piece I just wrote for Ultimate Guitar. It’s about my favorite band of all time, Van Halen, and their criminally overlooked third act with Gary Cherone. I think this was a super interesting time of creative output for Edward Van Halen (real fans never call him “Eddie”), and I’m grateful to Ultimate Guitar for providing me with the platform to share this.
Spring into summer
Hi gang, how quickly two months fly by. Since my last update, I’ve published live show reviews for The Disco Biscuits and LaMP, and album reviews for Marco Benevento, Bleachers, Chris Kasper, Mdou Moctar, and Kacey Musgraves. I’ve also written reviews for the latest albums by EELS, Kate Nash, and Alex Jordan, and have a few album pitches out there, along with some live music review pitches. I’ve also got some concert reviews lined up over the next few months — weirdly, I’ll be in/near Woodstock, NY 3x as of now.
Happy Napping!
From our family to yours, we wish you a Happy 25th annual National Napping Day! Established in 1999 by a late BU professor and his wife, National Napping Day occurs each year on the first Monday following setting the clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time, the day that most Americans lose an hour of sleep and therefore could use the rest perhaps more than usual. You can learn more about NND here. Evan had some restful non-eyes closed time today, I flexed, and last I heard from Hen, he was going for one — what better way to ring in NND than with a trifecta?
Music Placement!
I’m pleased to share that my friend, Wally McCarthy, has featured a piece of music I wrote in the latest episode (Apple | Spotify) of his excellent podcast, Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio. As I appear to have discussed in a past life, I think his impressive podcast is awesome for drifitng off, whether during the day or at night, and I’m so glad I was able to produce something he decided to share with his audience.
Hello, Old Friend
If Squarespace (the new platform) let me include a subtitle with this post like Substack does, I’d probably have said, “Happy New Year!” If they allowed footnotes, I’d have put the following there: Several lifetimes ago, my brother and I had a contest to see who could say (with a straight face),“Happy New Year!” to someone later in the year, and I believe I won by saying it to a SDNY bankruptcy court clerk who left for maternity leave in late 2008 and came back to work in April of 2009, the year in question. But because subtitles don’t appear to be an option here, I’ll just say it’s nice to say, “Hello!” again!