Hello! My name is Philo Hagen (figh-lo hah-gen). I’m originally from rainy Seattle, Washington, which in part explains the dark green moss you find growing beneath my California sunshine, then I spent many years in foggy San Francisco which helps explain my love big fat Mission style burritos. For more than a decade now I’ve been living in Los Angeles and Wonder Valley and I enjoy just how this megacity / remote Mojave desert combo really supports me and all of my oddball interests.
Perhaps you already know me in person, or from one of my previous and now defunct web projects like East Coast / West Coast – the original bi-coastal best friend blog where Choire Sicha (NYC) and I (SF at the time) shared way too much personal information online and even won a Bloggy for it, queerday.com – that top LGBTQ+ news blog several years running, or hooping.org – the world’s #1 hoop dance / hula hoop site with 2 million+ visitors annually for more than a decade. Whether you do already know me or not though, welcome to my personal website.
Over the years I’ve worn a variety of hats including non-profit management do gooder at places like Marin AIDS Project and The West Hollywood Recovery Center, freelance writer for a variety of print and online publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, modern hoop dance performer and instructor spinning things up across the country and beyond, to that psychic medium paranormal guy clueing folks in on the unseen forces in their homes, lives and businesses. Probably my biggest claim to some kind of fame, however, would have to be my short film Gotta Hoop. It won numerous awards and was featured by The New York Times and many other publications. Typically though you would find that I was up to several things all at once and truth be told I still prefer it that way.
In my spare time you might find that I’m working on that book, writing a freelance piece, updating my nocturnal music blog, tinkering on some songs of my own, wondering if Kate & I will ever get back to our trauma recovery podcast, roller skating incredibly long distances with my best friend Laura, scoring tasty al pastor street tacos, seeing what the Dodgers are up to, or maybe I’m exploring somewhere deep in the desert. Then again, I might just be home watching something strange on Discovery+ with a big bowl of popcorn.
To learn more about my psychic life go here. To dive into the paranormal side of all of that go here. You can find the history behind my hooping life here, and everything else – including repostings of years of previously lost content – will be showing up on the blog pages. Feel free to reach out about anything at philohagen@gmail.com and you can find me on BeReal daily, Instagram occasionally, Facebook rarely – and now on Bluesky trying to support this much needed alternative.