Meet The Team
Here’s a closer look at the lads & lasses that make the magic happen.
Why he got involved: Neon Snooze came about as a way to self-publish all the amazing work our talented creative friends were making. We looked around and realized we had all the tools to make our own publication, so why not do it? And nobody was gonna make it the way we wanted to, so we decided to go ahead and do it ourselves.
Favorite smell: A warm summer night, with tobacco and barbecue and shweed drifting through the air. Or a brisk winter morning. Or a crisp fall evening. Or a fresh spring day.
Favorite quote: "There are three rules that I live by: Never get less than twelve hours sleep. Never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city. And never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese."
– High School Basketball Coaching Legend Bobby Finstock
Caleb Jagoda
Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Creator of the Busty Dance, LLC
Alyssa Doust
Co-Founder, Design Editor, Embracer of Beans
Why she got involved: The short answer...to make cool shit and to showcase cool shit. You get the right people in the same room, under the same ideas, and those ideas turn into plans. Those plans turn into the first issue and then the second issue. and then the third! At the end of the day, we're all young creatives who want to build an outlet to give others the same feeling of unity, authenticity, and creativity that we've all been lucky enough to find on our own creative journeys. There is no bigger influence to an artist than the people that support and encourage their art. Neon Snooze is a stepping stone in our creative processes; a way to express gratitude back to the community that helped us grow as artists and writers. I'm passionate about art, and I'm even more passionate in helping other artists elevate themselves and bring them into our small (yet mighty!) artistic community. <3
Favorite smell: Wild flowers on a dry, hot summer day and freshly mowed grass.
Mason Burke (MB)
Co-Founder, Business Manager, Slurpee Connoisseur
The MB Manifesto: I bring a lot of heart, number-crunching abilities, and business strategy to the table. My goal is to grow Neon Snooze for the right reasons: quality art, culture, and dreamy sun-soaked vibes. I’m excited to see what the future holds for this special venture into the world of daydreams.
Favorite smells: Rain evaporating off hot pavement, and diesel exhaust. Both of these smells remind me of the Caribbean - where I am meant to live.
Why he got involved: I love creative people and surrounding myself with them. I have a deep desire to be confronted with new ideas; we, as people, have no idea what we don’t know. That drives me forward and I find that Neon Snooze fits perfectly into that vision. I get to work with people who have unique ways of seeing the world and creative outlets to pour their consciousness into. That’s a beautiful thing right there.
Favorite smells: A giant lamb shawarma spiced with halal-adjacent spices, roasting on a vertical spit all day long. Also lemongrass, and chlorine/bleach. It just smells clean, man.
Favorite food/drink combo: NY pizza and lemonade. It’s a deep cut for me. The $1 slice joints littered across Manhattan have a deal for 2 slices of ‘za and a canned drink for $3 total. I’ve spent many a lunch and drunken mid-night savoring this, and I’m a better man because of it.
Max Schoenfeld
Lead Photographer, Webmaster, Connoisseur of Foreign Cuisine
Why he got involved: I joined Neon Snooze because I believed in what it stood for. When Caleb asked me if I wanted to be part of a magazine made for creatives, by creatives, I could hardly refuse. I had no idea what it would turn out to be, if anything. But I knew I wanted to try, and now that I'm seeing where it's heading and this bold course that we're charting, I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it.
Favorite smell: Oven-fresh pizza. Ya can’t top it.
Miscellaneous favorites: Fruit gummy vitamins and Dungeons and Dragons. D&D goes hard.
Deus Boerner
Content Editor, World Builder
Why she got involved: I joined Neon Snooze because I am excited to see all of the unexpected places that works by talented writers and artists will take us. I love turning the lens to investigate areas we haven’t thought of before and exploring in our own backyards.
Favorite smell: Books. I love the smell of all books, but my favorite has to be the smell of glossy pages in encyclopedias.
Favorite punctuation: Exclamation point!!!
Favorite cryptid: The Yeti
Meaghan Scotti
Creative Director, Mischief Manager
The Heart
Why he got involved: We’re just some humans with unique abilities and we’ve always been on the same page about a creative pursuit bigger than just one individual. Neon Snooze is the actualization of our biggest hopes and dreams during conversations stuck in a proper “newsroom” bending and breaking our creative funk to abide by the “rules” set by those in charge. We all just want to do what makes us feel most alive and do that together. What comes out of it, well, who really cares, at least we did this thing we’ve been trying to find in other venues and aspects of our life. It’s to just continue to be each other’s biggest fans and put out something that is honest to each and every one of us.
The Smell Synopsis: A great smell is one that brings you back to childhood innocence. For me that means fresh cut grass. Brings me right back to wiffleball games, backyard cookouts, a itchy body and green stains on everything that Mom always found a way to get out.
