rough sketch for larger work

a very sad lake makes a change after being bullied by a mountain for years.

Year of Sighs

introduction to the building

that moment in the Musical when that there whole goddamn house cross th' street gets sucked up int eh machine in th' sky and hell i seen it with my own eyes took only a second 'for they were all blinked away quiet as a baby drownin in a pool too and ah hell gotta look over throughda empty lot now n see dem new old'r neighbors havin at it all night fuckin en fightin en forkin over dough to nightwalkers en god only knows what else livin in em halls outta be a law i keep sayin outta be a law n who the hells gonna call the fire 'partment er somethin' somebodys gotta do somethin round here theres things from other spaces suckin up owr houses!

sucked inta space

that whole goddamn house is hurlin' through space now, man. 

Just hangin' off a giant sled attached to some massive intergalactic tow truck packed to the gills with mishapen alien lifeforms... who turn out to be very stupid deep space redneck types... real backwater yokel aliens, you know; the "ya'll look like foreigners" type... without realizin' everybody's a damn foreigner when youz from a different galaxy n stuff. Sayin' weird shit, like "why you got two eyes and walk on them two fleshy sticks like so?" and askin' all kinds of questions bout "cap'toll'ism" n snortin' n hollerin' all the day through, saying weird shit like "in space nobody hear you wrestle huhhuh, but they sure can watch it!"  whatever the hell that means. 

Goddamn, earth might be on fire and maybe we aint got enough food and shelter but shit, anything's better than tripping the light fantastic with these turds here...

unbefristet planet rag

from a performance I wrote/composed called 
"A Seemingly Functional Window" 
© Nicholas Hoffman 2024

keyboard / lap steel / voice - me.

"snapshot"

"Parlor Music" test

Clack Clack

a cover of Heartbreak Hotel as made for the performance "Mercury Slouches South" 2016 @ Well Well Well gallery, Vienna, AT

Heartbreak Hotel

"Lucky"

Act 1 featuring: 
Hiuwai Chan as Delia 
Florian Fusco as J
Elizabeth Ward as B-Linda
Nicholas Hoffman as Lou

Words and music by Nicholas Hoffman 
(with the exception of: "A Fine Romance" by Dorothy Fields, 1936
and excerpts of "Love (can make you happy)" by Jack Sigler Jr./Performed by Mercy and "My Neck, My Back (lick it) by Khia)  

"Lucky" is a 5 Act drama that follows Lucky, a ghost who recently moved to the suburbs of Ohio, and her attention seeking quixotic neighbors. Deceit, intrigue, jealousy and egomania all play out in this suburban gothic drama as each character lays out their inner drives for making the community an ideal place for the living and the dead.

"Lucky" was commissioned for the exhibition "Nicht Auflegen!" at Mauve in Vienna, 2019. www.mauve-vienna.com/nicht-auflegen/

"Lucky" - Act 1: Delia's World Famous Potato Salad

Act 2 featuring:
Jesse Inman as Heston Heinz
Nicholas Hoffman as Narrator

Words and music by Nicholas Hoffman

"Lucky" is a 5 Act drama that follows Lucky, a ghost who recently moved to the suburbs of Ohio, and her attention seeking quixotic neighbors. Deceit, intrigue, jealousy and egomania all play out in this suburban gothic drama as each character lays out their inner drives for making the community an ideal place for the living and the dead.

"Lucky" was commissioned for the exhibition "Nicht Auflegen!" at Mauve in Vienna, 2019. http://www.mauve-vienna.com/nicht-auflegen/

"Lucky" Act 2: Heston Heinz Wakes Up Naked, Red and Sad"

There is that great joke, maybe you know it, about the Italian general in World War I. Dug into the trenches with his platoon, he shouts to the soldiers, “Soldiers attack (soldati all'attacco)! But no one moves. Shouting louder this time his voice cracking like a whip, “Soldiers attack” (soldati all'attacco)! But still no one moves. Finally, he bellows across the landscape, his voice quaking like thunder; “Soldiers Attack” (soldati all'attacco)! Still no one stirs, until finally a faint voice from the trenches timidly exclaims: “What a beautiful voice” (Che bella voce).