Author Archive: Matthew Vasiliauskas
Matthew Vasiliauskas is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where he received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Film and Video Production. In 2009, he was awarded the Silver Dome Prize by the Illinois Broadcast Association for best public affairs program as producer of the Dean Richards Show at WGN Radio. His work has appeared in such publications as The Pennsylvania Review, Stumble Magazine and The Adirondack Review. Matthew currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Welcome to the Jungle: An Interview with Steve Zahn
Shoes are much more than a necessary safeguard for bipedal movement, and in fact will often create an intricate and intimate window into the emotions of the wearer. Colors, shapes, sizes, manufactured and self-made designs all construct a revealing geography of individual ideology, and possesses the potential to not only fulfill the owner’s desires, but [...]
Turn on the Radio: An Interview with Kasi Lemmons
In April of 1963, after a series of restaurant sit-ins and public protests in Alabama, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and confined to a small prison cell at a Birmingham jail. There, using discarded newspaper and a small notepad that was smuggled into him, King began [...]
An Interview with Guy Maddin: Brand Upon the Brain
In many cases, it is the often-warped remembrances of childhood that provide the greatest examples of joy, intrigue and fear. Looking back on one’s adolescence is like opening a pop up book, where the distorted, fantastical characters and events transport the individual to some of the most mystifying regions of the imagination. Perhaps someone who [...]
Brick
Within the fog-filled alleyways and decrepit hotel rooms of a city at midnight exists the brooding world of the noir genre. It is a land populated by blackmail, violence and lust. A world that ashes a cigarette while salivating over a blonde’s luscious, red lips. Along with dialogue that can strike a blow as hard [...]
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
Perhaps one of the most intriguing and controversial topics plaguing the international public these days is the issue of stem cell extraction and development. The idea of curing diseases and the construction of limbs and organs certainly appears to be a worthy endeavor, despite the criticisms from religious sects and governmental bodies. And although the [...]
Dirty Work
It’s no secret that Abraham Lincoln was an avid theater-goer, and especially admired the works of William Shakespeare. What is more of an unknown fact though, is a chance encounter President Lincoln had with John Wilkes Booth prior to the infamous assassination incident. On November 9, 1863, President Lincoln saw Booth playing Raphael in Charles [...]
Match Point
It was nearly 3 o’clock, when I sat down at a corner table and talked to Tom. Of course that wasn’t his real name, because his Christian name was something he preferred not to mention. Although his identity remained a mystery, his thoughts and attitude consumed the restaurant like exhaust on a summer sidewalk. He [...]
Good Night, and Good Luck
Italicized portions refer to comments spoken by David Strathairn. German born Paul Nipkow developed a rotating-disc technology to transmit pictures over wire in 1884 called the Nipkow disk. This was the very first electromechanical TV scanning system ever produced. Over a century later, what started out as a primitive and simplistic idea, has now blossomed [...]
Green Street Hooligans
Perhaps it is just the warped fantasy of a cinephile, but there has always been something deeply romantic and magical about seeing a film in a theater you have never been before. The plush, velvet seats and the tantalizing aroma of popcorn, seem to engulf the senses of the unsuspecting movie-goer, as the wide-eyed stares [...]
Everything Is Illuminated
Illumination And Insight At The Peninsula *Italicized portions refer to moments spoken by Elijah Wood For some strange and almost cosmic reason, it takes an extremely privileged individual to successfully pull off the act of smoking. According to the Huron Indian legend, in ancient times, when the land was barren and the people were starving, [...]
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