The Smart Set

Every time you pick up a novel from another country, you open the door to a new journey. You might discover new (to you!) foods and customs, pick up a few phrases in a foreign language, or gain a new perspective on something you thought you understood. If you are fluent in English — a […]

Rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s feud felt almost like it started with an inextricable bang and ended with a dull murmur. Everyone resides in the aftermath wondering if this is just a mere ceasefire – a pause before the next clash. But – and I’m just going to speak for everyone here — a fortune […]

Any given year of one’s time roaming the earth unavoidably has some effect on who they are as a person. It is perhaps especially so when a person has just turned 14, been forced the previous year to swap daily life with his family for the company of strangers and is on the cusp of […]

Alice Coltrane has been lionized for her light and her loving devotion to God and the spirits since her first collaborations (on albums with Terry Gibbs and her husband, John Coltrane), and her earliest band-leader albums on “Impulse!” such as 1971’s “Journey in Satchidananda” and “Universal Consciousness.” With her newest work, however, the posthumously released […]

In Zürich, I saw no drunken Bolsheviks at the Cafe Odeon. Down the block at the Terrasse Restaurant, there were no anarchists partying with war deserters. This wasn’t 1916.  Yet in the river, the swans were a feature still left over from more than a century earlier. They lilted on the surface of the water, […]

I often think about my deceased dog, Pokey. He was a Wheaton terrier with a genetic predisposition toward stomach problems, and he eventually succumbed to gastric cancer in his 11th year. I miss Pokey and have nostalgia for his daily routine.   He had a fairly mellow disposition (except with the mailman and the gasman, for […]

Like existentialism, surreal, and (sorry, Alanis Morisette) ironic, the term “Orwellian” is ubiquitous and often misused. It’s typically applied to government surveillance or totalitarianism in general. This is understandable, given that British author Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell, is likely best known for his novel 1984, which generations of […]

Despite only recently breaching his 20s, director and writer, Pedro Vasquez, a 2024 Drexel University graduate, completed an ambitious project: a film that marries existential anxieties, action-packed sequences, and challenging counterpoints to those with preconceptions about the life of professional wrestlers. Within this interview, we talk about his road to completing the film – the […]

“All Things Are Too Small” declares the title, borrowed from a 13th-century Dutch mystic, of the new collection of essays by Becca Rothfeld, one of the most prolific and versatile critics working today. The claim initially confused me. Too small? Casting a weary glance at the way we live now — visual excess blaring from […]

This piece contains detailed discussions of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), including descriptions of intrusive thoughts, compulsions, and rituals that may be distressing to some readers. If you are sensitive to content about mental health conditions, particularly OCD, or if you find such topics triggering, please proceed with caution. When I first came across Emma Noyes promoting […]