Business Insider.
Business Insider.
You could call me a character journalist.
I’m a travel writer and photojournalist for Business Insider. I take my camera around North America and Europe to report from primarily a first-person perspective. In my articles, I’m the main character — the protagonist in a non-fiction story. I keep you interested by using a raw tone to describe my observations and emotions during my trips. I give useful details and fair, balanced critiques of accommodations, destinations, and transportation modes to inform your own travels. Basically, it’s travel journalism you can’t get anywhere else.
6,000 miles of train travel
I’ve spent 180 hours criss-crossing the North America and Western Europe — mostly at night.
I’m really into sleeper trains. I’ve traveled in peak luxury in a private room on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. I’ve shared bunk cabins and seating carriages with complete strangers. And I’ve slept in private compartments on Amtrak trains from the Northeast to the Southwest.
through the monitor.
through the monitor.
Let’s talk about local music.
Imagine seeing you favorite band in a dive bar with 40 attendees. The floor is so spacious that you step right up to the front without bumping into strangers. After the show, they jump off stage gear in hand and walk right through the club. Minutes later, you find them outside packing up their van with no fans around. You offer to help and end up talking about music for a half an hour. They share stories from the road that you won’t find online. They light up when you ask to take a picture with them, as if they’d never been posed the question before, and it feels like a special moment for all of you.
This happens for people who explore the local scenes all your favorite artists once emerged from. There’s a whole world of underground music to discover. And you can start at Through the Monitor.
through the monitor
On a 2023 tour with their band Blanket Approval, bassist Max Mena had a proposition for his drummer and long-time journalist, Joey Hadden: what if we made a blog highlighting the hard work that goes into the local music scene, from the venues to the musicians that make it possible?
Instantly hooked, Joey took it upon herself to spearhead the publication aptly named "Through the Monitor," in reference to the sounds musicians themselves can hear on stage.
Through the Monitor is a NYC-based music blog designed to connect and uplift local artists, bands, creatives, and music lovers with their finger on the pulse of new music locally and abroad. The publication is a branch of Wrong Choice Records, a music booking, marketing, and management company founded by Max Mena.
