PhotosTo commemorate Father's Day, this issue contains a collection of reflections from Reader writers about their fathers:The Last Tag Sale — Jeanne SchintoAn Air of Exoticism — Duncan ShepherdKinder Than I Would Think Possible — …
June 20, 2026
As an undergraduate at Thomas Aquinas College near Ojai, California, Matthew Lickona co-founded and ran The Hype, a college lit-mag printed on the school's copier and sold at a dollar a copy to pay off speeding tickets acquired while trying to make movie times in Los Angeles. This may or may not have helped him to land a job at the Reader upon graduation in 1995, but the paper did reprint some of his collegiate Easter Island-based cartoons, and later, his Mudflap Girls series. He has been at the paper ever since, in a variety of capacities: feature writer, wine columnist, church reviewer, restaurant critic, television columnist, editor at large, and now, film critic. Plus some other stuff under various pseudonyms.
He is the author of a couple of books (Swimming with Scapulars, Surfing with Mel), and his essays have appeared in places like The Awl, FirstThings.com, and Doublethink. In his spare time, he likes to write movie pitches and country songs.
Articles by Matthew Lickona
The Reader's Father's Day extravaganza
Fanatic Porsche owners of San Diego
You have seen them, these Porsches — on highways, on city streets, in parking lots — and you have coveted. You have gazed at them as they passed you, stopped and walked around them when …
May 25, 2026
What are San Diego's 10 best high schools?
A liberal arts education seems out of place in a culture that defines people largely by what they do A liberal arts education doesn't prepare you to do anything in particular, at least, not anything …
May 22, 2026
Theater review: Purpose at La Jolla Playhouse
The Tony and the Pulitzer aren’t hard to fathom: there is real bravery in dismantling the myth of civil rights icon Solomon “Sonny” Jasper: a man whose image adorns classroom walls; a man who marched …
May 21, 2026
Judith Moore's tough-fisted regime at the Reader
"Moore wants more," I would joke to myself.Busy Fingers Are Happy Fingers — Joe DeeganI couldn't find an angle to get my story started, I told her. "Forget all about angles," she then said with …
May 12, 2026
Reader writers – music that shaped their lives
The Woes Of A Woman In Love — Barbarella....We've reached the end of the line. I hope your dreams turn out fine.Notes Give Pathos to Clouds — Laura McNeal.... I played Beethoven's sonatas until the …
May 5, 2026
Chargers fans – a different breed
December 2, 2007: During his radio broadcast of the San Diego Chargers’ victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, announcer Hank Bauer gave a shout-out to Charger fan Alfred Silva, who was battling cancer. (Silva’s brother-in-law …
March 14, 2026
Theater Review: The Recipe at La Jolla Playhouse
My family lived in Boston from 1978 to 1980, which happens to be the same two years that the great culinary ambassador Julia Child made her second series at WGBH, Julia Child & Company. (The …
March 6, 2026
Theater review: Hedda Gabler at The Old Globe
At the end of the Old Globe’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s masterful, quietly scathing Hedda Gabler, someone asks about the title character, “What kind of person does something like that?” It’s a fine question for …
March 6, 2026