Ben Westhoff profile picture

Ben Westhoff

I am here for Friends

About Me

I am a New York City-based freelance writer who writes regularly for Pitchfork, the Village Voice, LA Weekly, New York Magazine's Vulture Blog, Metro NY, Boston Phoenix, Creative Loafing and other weeklies and magazines around the country. My work has also appeared in the Associated Press, Harp, eMusic, Paperthin Walls, BlackMen magazine, The New York Observer, and Harvard Divinity Bulletin. I write magazine-style feature stories, news items, humor essays and music reviews. My story, "Private Enemy," published in the Village Voice, was picked as a Notable Essay in De Capo Press' Best Music Writing 2007. The past two years I have won top prizes from the National Association of Black Journalists, and have also been honored by the Religion Newswriters Association and the Missouri Press Association. My writing has been discussed on NPR, Salon, and Romenesko. A few of my clips are on the left side of this page (under "companies").

My Interests

Southern girls, hypochondria, the big brother/big sister program, watching TV and movies with the closed captioning on, rapping in the suburban style, discovering trends (this almost never happens), post-apocalyptic movies, avoiding trans fats, standing in my kitchen and reading, trying to get my hair right.

I'd like to meet:

I can be reached at [email protected] and my blog is healthiestmaninparkslope.blogspot.com

Music:

Lil Wayne, Zac Efron, RA The Rugged Man, White Rabbits, Bill Callahan, El-P, Avril, Replacements, DJ Khaled, MC 401(k), Brother Ali, White Lion, Kanye West, 50 Cent, John Maxfield, Daniel Johnston, The Long Winters, Band of Horses, Juvenile, The Streets, Ghostface, DJ Crucial, New Order, Serengeti, Bishop Allen, Helias, MC Paul Barman

Movies:

Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall, The Education of Charlie Banks, Fracture, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Rocky, Rocky Balboa, Faces, 28 Days Later, The Day After, A Woman Under the Influence, Junebug, The Puffy Chair, Funny Ha Ha, Mikey and Nicky, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, La Cienega, Wes Anderson movies especially The Life Aquatic

Television:

Just for Laughs: Gags, Arrested Development, Sopranos, Kenny vs. Spenny, Meet The Press, George Stephanopoulos, SportsCenter, The Wire, Jamie Kennedy, The British Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Letterman.

Books:

Rabbit is Rich, Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family, The Road, Rabbit Run, The Lay of the Land, Winter's Bone and the other novels of Daniel Woodrell, The Echo Maker, American Pastoral, Gilead, The Alchemist, Random Family, Cold New World, A Passage To India, Dead Souls, The Good Soldier, Journey to the End of the Night, Freakonomics

Heroes:

Ben Welsh.