The Smart Set

Read like a guest, not like a tourist!

ENG 310 — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 01:20:09 +0000

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 […]

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Shots Fired

Pres. Teape — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:30:00 +0000

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 […]

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A Year that Defined a Lifetime

Blake Maddux — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 11:30:00 +0000

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 […]

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The Holy Spirit of Alice Coltrane

A.D. Amorosi — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 15:22:00 +0000

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 […]

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Finding Inspiration in Chaos

Gary Singh — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 20:15:32 +0000

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, […]

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Pokey’s Cinematic Multiplex

Paula Marantz Cohen — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 11:30:00 +0000

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 […]

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1984 in 2024

Matt Hanson — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 11:30:00 +0000

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 […]

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A (Stone Cold) Stunner of a Picture

Melinda Lewis — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 12:31:43 +0000

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 Slow Dancing […]

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Reimagining Excess

Matt Hanson — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:22:02 +0000

“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 […]

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Out of Hiding

Camille DiBenedetto — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:30:00 +0000

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 […]

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