Matty Long
Bio
Jack of all trades, master of … Vocal? Especially fond of movies, watching football, country music, travelling, beer, and pizza.
X: @eardstapa_
Achievements (1)
Stories (82)
Filter by community
Spring Break (In Summer). Top Story - July 2025.
It’s been a while since I’ve published on here, and as bills continue to rise I was considering reverting back to the free version, but I would miss the community, so have decided not to. I must get my money’s worth however, and write something!
By Matty Long6 months ago in Wander
It Must Be Love
In March this year, Newcastle United ended a 70-year drought and won their first piece of domestic silverware since 1955 with the 2-1 League Cup victory over Liverpool. In fact, it was the first trophy in any form in 56 years, after 1969’s European Fairs Cup victory.
By Matty Long9 months ago in Cleats
Ice, Fire, Puffin Crumpets, and Pints
Been wanting to go to Iceland for a long time, as it’s so close to the UK and is supposed to be amazing. However, it did take until the New Year to come to fruition due to the fact that it costs somewhere in the region of a billion pounds.
By Matty Long10 months ago in Wander
One of a Kind
First of all, happy new year, as this is the first time I’ve updated my blog since 2024, and, truth be told, the first time I’ve updated it in a while. Unfortunately, however, my new year began with some fairly sad news when I read, whilst sat in a pub on New Year’s Eve, about the passing of Radio DJ, Johnnie Walker. Although we all knew it had been coming as he had been ill for a while, and had recently hung up his headphones for good, I remarked that I don’t think I’d ever been quite so gutted about the passing of someone I’d never met.
By Matty Long12 months ago in Beat
The Beautiful South
I went to America for the first time in 2022, and I absolutely loved it. I couldn’t wait to be back, and this time the itinerary was a specific part of the country that I’ve always wanted to travel through – namely the journey from Nashville, to Memphis, to “the big easy” New Orleans. My dad and I had saved for a long time to do this, and we finally had the opportunity. We set off from Heathrow (a perfectly pleasant flight with the obligatory British Airways’ complimentary booze and a badly streamed England win in the Euros) and touched down in our first stop, Music City itself, Nashville, Tennessee. It was good to be back where it’s actually hot in summer, and we took a taxi straight to our hotel in the middle of Opryland to immediately start appreciating the weather and what else the city had to offer.
By Matty Longabout a year ago in Wander
West Country Wander
I usually write about budget travel advice, and for the non-environmentally friendly minded (or those, like me, who just can’t deal with spending £500 on a train journey with three changes), I’d recommend flying to Bristol. Unless, of course, you live closer to Bristol than Newcastle, or indeed, you live in America, as I know the majority of you do. Actually, those of you who live in America probably would have to fly.
By Matty Longabout a year ago in Wander
Is It Ever Coming Home?
As the Euros kick off in Germany tonight, it reminds you that the English may have invented association football, but the rest of the world turned it into the beautiful game. And that has become all the more evident in our national team's history of disappointing near misses, terrible performances, and a country that became utterly disillusioned with their national sport at an international level.
By Matty Long2 years ago in Cleats
'American Fiction' and the Academy
When I recently watched ‘American Fiction,’ I posted on X that I thought writer-director Cord Jefferson thoroughly deserved his Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, being a witty, well-acted, and biting satire. I also opined, however, that I’m not sure how its title character, Monk Ellison (a black writer, like Jefferson), would feel if he won the award for his own work.
By Matty Long2 years ago in Geeks
Turkish Delight. Top Story - March 2024.
Firstly, shout out to my girlfriend Hannah for pointing out that the pun-based title of this blog was definitely going to be “Turkish Delight,” thus giving me the idea for a brilliant pun-based title for this blog. Couldn’t have come up with one better myself.
By Matty Long2 years ago in Wander
Billy Graham’s Legacy
When Billy Graham’s last remaining sibling, Jean Ford, passed away recently, Ken Garfield, the former religion editor of the Charlotte Observer, called it the “end of an era.” Graham himself passed away in 2018, aged 99, and with the passing of Pat Robertson last year, we truly have probably seen the last of the big televangelists of the past.
By Matty Long2 years ago in The Swamp
A Different League
As I write this, both North East teams are in the footballing headlines here in the UK. Newcastle because they’ve just placed their Director of Football, Dan Ashworth, on gardening leave following his controversial announcement that he was interested in a move to Manchester United, and Sunderland because they have sacked their manager Michael Beale (below), after only 12 games in charge. Quite remarkably, his sacking means they have had 17 managers in 16 years. I read reports of both these stories in the morning paper, alongside an article by the brilliant sports journalist Daniel Storey which remarked, on the Ashworth story, that the excessive interest in a role such as his indicated how much football has changed in the last twenty years. The roles of directors, backroom staff etc are as important as the coaches and the players. Football is a multi-million pound business, and that, I suppose, was inevitable, but it has, or has certainly set out to, put a significant distance between true fans and their clubs.
By Matty Long2 years ago in Chapters
A Different League
I need not remind anyone of what happened in 2020 when the world turned upside down. Stuck in our homes, one hour of exercise a day, endless Zoom meetings, endless stress and inability to find income for countless working people, and no knowledge of what would happen next. It truly was a historical time period for all the wrong reasons, and I'm sure many will agree that we very much appear to be in a colossal hangover period from it.
By Matty Long2 years ago in Chapters
