Melinda Lewis | The Smart Set

‘Tis the (Oscar) Season

Melinda Lewis — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 21:50:00 +0000

This is the first story in a package celebrating all-things Oscars, republished from The Smart Set archives. Entering the dazzling world of Hollywood’s glittering extravaganza, ‘Tis the Oscar Season’ is a whimsical journey through the pomp and circumstance of the Academy Awards. From the opulent red-carpet spectacles to the meticulously crafted speeches and the delightful […]

The post ‘Tis the (Oscar) Season first appeared on The Smart Set.

Pretty Much Your Standard In Memoriam

Melinda Lewis — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 13:05:00 +0000

I was in the middle of a meeting on Friday when a text message popped up on my screen: “I’m sorry to be the bearer of this news” with a link to Rolling Stone’s announcement that The Monkees’ Mike Nesmith had died at the age of 78. My gut flopped. Months prior, a friend and […]

The post Pretty Much Your Standard In Memoriam first appeared on The Smart Set.

Haunted Memories, Sifted Dreams

Melinda Lewis — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 11:30:00 +0000

Gina Nutt’s Night Rooms is a book of passages. I mean this literally in its form, a collection of nonfiction narrative poems that construct the book, and also metaphorically as each paragraph moves us from one sensation to another, unlocking a series of memories and feelings. Covering Nutt’s childhood, early adolescence, and adulthood, the collection as […]

The post Haunted Memories, Sifted Dreams first appeared on The Smart Set.

Lost Time

Melinda Lewis — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 12:30:43 +0000

During an undergraduate English seminar, our professor got frank with us about her multiple miscarriages. It wasn’t completely out of sorts — the seminar was centered around the body and we had spent a lot of time with the concept of madness as elucidated by Elaine Showalter in The Female Malady. After more than 10 […]

The post Lost Time first appeared on The Smart Set.

Out of Thin Hair

Melinda Lewis — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 12:30:27 +0000

In early November, I received an event notification in my email: “Presidential Hair: A Close Shave with History.” Speaker Robert McCracken Peck, Academy Curator of Art and Artifacts and Senior Fellow, was going to provide insight into the hair collection of Peter A. Browne, the subject of his book Specimens of Hair: The Curious Collection […]

The post Out of Thin Hair first appeared on The Smart Set.

An Open Bookstore

Melinda Lewis — Fri, 14 Dec 2018 14:51:58 +0000

Philadelphia’s Passyunk Avenue appears from nowhere, cutting diagonally from Queen’s Village through South Philadelphia. Following it, you get a cross-section of old and new Philadelphia. Historical row houses bump shoulders with condos. Family businesses coexist with hot new restaurants, boutiques, and local markets. Regardless of changes to the community is the neighborhood feel of Passyunk […]

The post An Open Bookstore first appeared on The Smart Set.

Subverting Seduction

Melinda Lewis — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 12:07:21 +0000

Howard Hughes was one of the most significant and impactful figures of 20th century. Tycoon, movie producer, and philanthropist, Hughes was immortalized in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, a romanticized epic about the Hughes’s ascent as rugged individualist willing to combat the film industry, risk his life experimenting with airplanes, and manhandle classic Hollywood’s greatest actresses. […]

The post Subverting Seduction first appeared on The Smart Set.

Kindred Spirits

Melinda Lewis — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 12:42:56 +0000

The opening of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire begins with a ship waiting in the middle of the night. It is dark, foggy, unsettling. Another boat approaches and they begin shifting boxes of whiskey from one ship to the other. A nameless character asks them to hurry, “I’m a sitting duck out here,” while another refers to […]

The post Kindred Spirits first appeared on The Smart Set.

At the Crossroads

Melinda Lewis — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 11:30:20 +0000

Within the past few years I have succumbed to a period of feminist ennui. It’s not that I no longer think the principles of equality are no longer important, but it seems as if the word and movement, “feminism,” has lost meaning. It has been co-opted, lazily applied, and devalued. I’ve become frustrated by so-called […]

The post At the Crossroads first appeared on The Smart Set.

For Shame

Melinda Lewis — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 11:30:33 +0000

I think about shame a lot. I wonder when and why I began to care so much about stuff — my body, my face, my intellectual ability. Did it start when I was bullied on the bus in kindergarten? Was it some sort of pseudo-consciousness mind trick passed down from my parents? Was it because […]

The post For Shame first appeared on The Smart Set.