By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
Hometown Weekly Editor Julia Beauregard had the pleasure to sit down recently with Riley Fontana, Hometown Weekly Reporter. Fontana started working as a freelance writer at the paper last summer while on summer break before their senior year of college. After graduating, due to their impressive writing ability, they were taken on as feature reporter. Fontana details their hobbies, interests and passions. Be sure to keep an eye out for new installations of the Hometown Ten, and to look out for Hometown Weekly’s reporters on the road — you might be our next subject!
1. What is the best book you’ve ever read and why?
This answer changes every time I read a new book, but I always lean back to “Clown in a Cornfield” by Adam Cesare. It got me out of a reading slump a few years long and perfectly captures the energy of slasher horror movies. It’s a must-read for fans of campy teen slasher flicks.
2. What is your claim to fame?
I am mildly famous within the fanbase for the band All Time Low. I have a reputation for dressing up based on their album covers and music videos as well as handing out friendship bracelets when I attend shows. I’ve also played and won rock, paper, scissors during a show with the lead singer which brought a lot of people my way.
3. Besides your home, what’s your favorite spot in Walpole?
I really love Country Kitchen. It reminds me of growing up and getting raspberry lime rickeys with my family.
4. Give me a good recommendation.
I always recommend going on a long drive with no destination with a really good playlist cranked up loud. This always helps me regulate my emotions and find some really cool places I would have never been to before.
5. What advice would you give your past self?
Take the risk and do things on your own. It’s better to go to those movies and concerts by yourself than it is to not go at all.
6. If you had a million dollars to spend in a day, how would you do it?
I would immediately pay off my student loans and with what’s left over I’d get tattoos.
7. Who is the most influential person in your life and why?
The most influential person is my journalism professor Dr. Silverman. He taught me everything I know about being a reporter and helped me to find my love of telling stories. He also helped me through my time on my college newspaper which helped me become a reporter at Hometown Weekly.
8. How do you spend your free time?
I spend my free time listening to music and watching movies. I am always crafting as well. I am learning to knit but also am constantly making friendship bracelets to give away when I go to events like concerts and really anywhere I want to make friends.
9. Describe your perfect day:
It has to be cool fall weather, the outfit makes the day better. Cool enough for a hoodie and jeans. I am grabbing a pumpkin iced coffee and going to Spirit Halloween and searching out my new room decor. After Spirit I would go to small local retro game stores to hunt down merch from my favorite movie “The Lost Boys”, and then thrifting before going home with my new goodies to curl up with a book. Ideally, I’d spend the day alone but one or two close friends could be fun.
10. What is your favorite All Time Low song?
This is such a hard question, they’ve been such a huge part of my life forever. I think I have to “Kill Ur Vibe” as I literally have a tattoo dedicated to this song. This song came out during my junior year of college which was definitely really difficult to navigate, and this song just screams “Don’t care what anyone else thinks”. The song is all about killing people's vibe and how they don’t have to stay around you if they really don’t like your vibe. I really love it because I dealt with this a lot and tried to change myself for these people, but now if they don’t like me they don’t have to hang out with me. I’m not sorry for killing your vibe by being who I am.
