Mateo Hoke

Executive Editor at San Diego Magazine

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Articles

Home Tour: Inside a Cliff-Hanging Midcentury Masterpiece

2 months ago | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

If architecture is music frozen in time, this house sings. Rising from a steep La Jolla canyonside, three bold orange steel beams prop up a midcentury home like the saddle of a guitar cradling the strings. But here in the sky, the chords are muted. It’s quiet. Hawks circle just outside, enjoying the same views of Bird Rock Beach and the short-tempered Pacific as the people lounging within.
Editor's Note, April 2025: Home & Design Issue

2 months ago | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

One of the distinctive things about being a journalist is that people open their doors to you. It’s like being a locksmith or a plumber, but without all the cumbersome tools. An email, maybe a text, and, suddenly, you’re in someone’s home, drinking iced tea and exploring textures of their lives they may not let many people see.
After SDFC's First-Ever Home Game Some Big Questions LingerSan Diego Magazine

Mar 3, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Brendan Dentino |Mateo Hoke

San Diego FC’s first-ever home game, and the energy around it, mimicked Hirving “Chucky” Lozano’s left hamstring: A solid start, with a less-than-ideal finish. In the parking lots around Snapdragon Stadium, fans arrived as early as five hours before kickoff. Walking past rows of cars sounded like the tuning of an AM radio—every tailgate played music and every tailgate played something different. Carne asada and burgers sizzled on smoking grills.
San Diego FC's First Home Game Brings Excitement & Controversy

Mar 3, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Brendan Dentino |Mateo Hoke

San Diego FC’s first-ever home game, and the energy around it, mimicked Hirving “Chucky” Lozano’s left hamstring: A solid start, with a less-than-ideal finish. In the parking lots around Snapdragon Stadium, fans arrived as early as five hours before kickoff. Walking past rows of cars sounded like the tuning of an AM radio—every tailgate played music and every tailgate played something different. Carne asada and burgers sizzled on smoking grills.
Editor's Note, March 2025: Here for the (Sports) Drama

Feb 26, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

Sports make us human. In fact, friendly competition is part of what separates modern Homo sapiens from the behaviors of our earlier ancestors, along with activities like music and dance. Cave paintings more than 15,000 years old depict wrestling and running races, proving that the history of sports dates far back into the B in BC. Sports today look very different, and for a handful of years in my 20s, I entered a phase in which I was wholly ambivalent to mainstream sports.
Inside San Diego’s Only Miniatures Shop

Feb 10, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

There are tiny homes, and then there are tiny homes. For lovers of the latter, Ms. Peggie’s Place in Pacific Beach is the type of shop that commands an almost religious devotion. Part home improvement depot, part department store, and part antique megamart, Ms. Peggie’s has provided a haven for dollhouse devotees for more than 45 years.
Fran Lebowitz Brings Her Wit to San Diego's Balboa Theatre

Jan 17, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

Let’s get something out of the way: promotional interviews are, by and large, a questionable idea. They rely on the assumption that one person cares enough to answer questions in an intelligent manner and the other is smart enough to ask them. Often, neither is true. But this is Fran Lebowitz. An articulate curmudgeon and the patron saint of sarcasm. She’s fun to talk to.
The SD Chapter of Great American Artist and Athlete Ernie Barnes

Jan 8, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

Artist and athlete Ernie Barnes painted what he saw, and what he saw was America through a rare lens. Drawing from a childhood in the Jim Crow South and time on our nation’s biggest playing fields, Barnes displayed his own particular cultural vantage on his canvases. Once you encounter his paintings—with their telltale elongated bodies, exaggerated movements, and forms alive with a musicality and quiet depth—his work becomes instantly recognizable.
Is This The Ultimate Spa Day? I Tried an All-Day Massage

Jan 8, 2025 | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

Some people look for diamonds; others seek golden fame. Me, I’m trying to find the world’s greatest massage. For years, I’ve been searching for a consciousness-altering, life-changing touch. A healing pain. The kind of muscular manipulation they outlawed centuries ago. I’ve explored high-dollar spas and in-home professionals1 in pursuit of a more perfect bodywork. But none have scratched my itch. I’m needing something more, my own vision of what a rub-down can really be.
John Waters is Coming to San Diego to Spit on Your Holiday Spirit |

Dec 6, 2024 | sandiegomagazine.com | Mateo Hoke |Cole Novak

Ladies, gentlemen, and degenerates of all persuasions, San Diego is in for a filthy little treat. John Waters—The Pope of Trash, the Sultan of Sleaze—is coming to Lou Lous at the LaFayette for two shows of heavy-handed holiday smut. Whether you first fell in love with his twisted brilliance during the dadaist Pink Flamingos debauchery or swooned over the campy ingenuity of Hairspray before it went all mainstream, one thing’s for sure: John Waters is the trashy uncle we all wish we had.