“Mais je t’aime” – Grands Corps Malade and Camille Lellouche

This is the best love song, not only because it is sung in the language of love (French), but also because the heart-felt words are expressed through a combination of singing and speaking. The greatest thing about this song? It talks about real love – love that is not always easy due to past experiences. Love that burns, but sometimes burns too hot. Still, we try, we do our best, we love. We love with all that we have and know. We love, as much as we can.

Je ne suis pas parfait. Je suis brisé. Mais je t’aime.
[I am not perfect. I am broken. But I love you]. – Suzan van den Broek, Online Content

“True Blue” – Mark Ronson (feat. Angel Olsen)

In the next room over, someone tunes an old FM radio and you hear the sultry voice of a chanteuse. The song couldn’t possibly be from this era. Did the tuning of the dial  take us a century back? You walk into the next room to investigate the haunting yet beautiful noise. The audio is more high fidelity now, and it sounds like the hottest pop song of 1986, one your mom probably loves.

This is the best way I can describe the transportive experience Mark Ronson takes us on in the first minute of his excellent collaboration with Angel Olsen, “True Blue.” Although it has a vintage aesthetic quality, Olsen cuts through with her modern songwriting: “f*****g around, I’m falling in love.” What a perfect way to describe the foolishness and magnetism of new romance. 

One of my favorite songs in general, it’s an especially fitting love song for the romantics who crave a little sadness. It’s for those with a penchant for melodrama, those who aren’t just in love but in the mood for love. Among an expansive catalog of songs for yearners, Olsen may have peaked with this depressing bop. 

When she sings the vague but hard-hitting lyric “I ran to you and you know why,” you wonder her complicated love affair. What did it cost? What did she give up? (a lyrical callback to another phenomenal, very different  Olsen love song) But these questions never get answered. We’re left to ponder our own old flames, current loves, and the hopelessness of knowing why love is the way it is. – Sam Bowden, Online Content

“How Can You Live If You Can’t Love How Can You If You Do” – Wednesday

Love brings us some of the most joyous and blissful moments we can recollect. But when it’s gone, it brings the most excruciating, soul-shredding feelings a human can have. No song conveys this feeling better than Wednesday’s “How Can You Live If You Can’t Love How Can You If You Do” off their 2021 album “Twin Plagues.”

An album and a band that traverses many sounds from dramatic grunge to screaming shoegaze, this song embraces a country sound. The song opens with quickly plucked, twangy arpeggios, and the gliding sound of lap steel that invoke feelings of a wide open, lonely frontier. Karly Hartzman sings in a dejected somber tone over a staggering guitar.

The lyrics, formed around a James Baldwin quote from his novel “Another Country,” are about a cherished former lover who left long ago. Someone whom Hartzman is constantly reminded of. The line “Has shown me that I know your voice in every sound I hear” reflects how at any given moment in our waking lives we can be whisked away by one of our senses to a bittersweet moment. A deep nostalgia for what was once so loved.

The last lines of the second and third verses and the namesake of the song are a trio of the most brutal emotional gut punches. Love can put us through the worst experiences that makes us feel like life is too painful to live through. But what is not the point of living other than to appreciate those that we stumbled across and now adore with every essence of our mortal being? – John Glab, Music and Online Content

“I’ll be Here in the Morning” – Jason Molina (Townes Van Zandt cover)

“I’ll be Here in the Morning” is a slice of positivity in these both of these artists’ troubled careers. While Townes Van Zandt’s version features exquisite fingerpicking and a wavering harmonica solo, Jason Molina’s cover is a thoughtful and personal rendition. This is a heart wrenching song about the sacrifices we make for loved ones. 

The song originally appears on Townes Van Zandt’s self-titled album, a masterpiece filled with complex fingerpicking and intricate songwriting. Van Zandt’s writing evokes a powerful clarity with poetic imagery. Lines like “I like to lean myself against the wind and tell myself I’m free/But your softest whisper’s louder than the highways call to me” capture the song’s tenderness. 

Molina’s personal touch makes this cover stand out. “This is a… Townes song,” Molina clarifies at the start of the track. Chirping birds fill the silence before a warm guitar hums a bright riff. His jangling electric guitar matches his soft voice. Molina places his inflection on “morning”, choosing to drag out the vocal pattern. Molina used home studio. The production value is noticeably lower than Townes Van Zandt’s version recorded in Nashville. Guitar parts collide into a soupy mix in his verses. But there’s beauty in the homelier quality. As his guitar fades, songbirds chirp away on a ripe morning. 

Jason Molina’s version started when he met with visual artist William Schaff after a Chicago concert in the early 2000s. Molina led the group Songs: Ohia at the time. After Molina requested an art piece, Schaff said he would oblige if Molina sent the Townes Van Zandt covers from the show. Months later, Schaff received them along with demos from Molina’s upcoming album, “The Magnolia Electric Co.”, including his most familiar song, “Farewell Transmission”.   

This song stands out from his bleak catalogue of shattered stories and broken people. Molina and Van Zandt have eerie parallels. Both artists shied away from fame. Alcoholism ripped both Van Zandt and Molina’s genius from them. And both showed devout care for those who helped them through their hardships. – Nick Layeux, Online Content

To check out these songs and other alternative love songs, check out KRUI’s Valentine’s Day playlist. Happy listening!

The post Valentine’s Day 2023: The best alternative love songs appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Formed somewhere in sun-dripped San Diego, TV Girl is currently made up of Brad Petering, Jason Wyman, and Wyatt Harmon. Though previous collaborative member, Trung Ngo, had a huge creative hand in composing “French Exit”.

Petering’s voyeuristic lyrics and vocals play second string to the pulsating, lazed beats which envelop each track. This artistic inversion becomes a main signifier of TV Girl’s discography. Certainly, some would find Petering’s soft alto musings less inspired than other bands with more charismatic lead singers. Mostly, I appreciated the nuance.

This 12 track work combines low-fi synth beats with firm roots in indie. All of this is tightly wrapped with candid lyrics. Playful percussion dots most of these tracks. The top-ranked gem of the track list, “Louise”, pays slight homage to the stylistic moniker of fellow indie-band, The Drums, by combining ‘laxed, upbeat music paired with lyrics marking heartbreak, loss, and tragedy:

“She woke him up and she whispered

But the answer wasn’t good:

‘Whatever made you think I would ever love you

Even if I could?’”

The albums first single, “Birds Don’t Sing”, begins almost as if the main hook, complete with tambourine and brass overtones, is playing beyond a closed door. Simple guitar strumming becomes forefront here, creating a scene of someone possibly taking respite from a bass-heavy party to pick some chords alone.

This synesthesia can be invoked by a listener in a lot of tracks on this album. TV Girl is nothing short of expert in creating multi-layered imagery in which these songs exist. Further examples of that are found in tracks 5 and 9: “The Getaway” and “Lovers Rock” respectively, which feature samples from both American and French noir films.

This choice of sampling could have easily come across as contrived. However, the well-plotted musicality of this group is too sound to shake, even with the dubbed background vocals of Lauren Bacall-types. Instead, the samples add a narrative backbone to an album that otherwise could have seen the vocals swallowed by synth.

All 12 tracks easily take place in the same vernacular; TV Girl brands themselves both relentlessly and successfully. Described on the group’s Bandcamp page as “12 songs about lost lust, too much love and not enough,” the themes are arching and all-consuming. Oftentimes, all three of them converge in a single track.

More notably thematically, TV Girl provides consistently redefined descriptions of women. There is no one muse that this album chooses to “pixie” and spends all 12 tracks consumed by defining and lamenting. In other words, there is no tragic, trailing love story here.

With that said, most of these songs feature some kind of female pro- or antagonist. Lead singer Brad Petering leaves these descriptions of the women in his songs enigmatic, at times almost universal. This allows room for muse to exist as human, as opposed to desirable objects of consumption. It’s subtle, but a win nevertheless.

Overall, this album is a strong group debut. With catching melodic hooks, prosaic lyrics, and innovative sampling, TV Girl is a group largely overlooked in an ever-popularizing genre of music. Their freshman album boasts their chops and should rightfully toss their hat into the arena with the likes of other alt indie powerhouses like Vampire Weekend. 9/10 for French Exit.

Link to Bandcamp:

https://tvgirl.bandcamp.com

Link to ‘Lovers Rock’ Music Video:

https://youtu.be/ksEHfUof184

Link to ‘Birds Don’t Sing” single:

https://youtu.be/L3KHQfLBK_w

The post Innovation in an Undefinable Genre: TV Girl’s “French Exit” appeared first on KRUI Radio.

With Valentines Day just occurring, I thought I’d take a look at some of the best indie love songs that are perfect for the occasion.

Bright Eyes– “First Day of my Life”

Perhaps the most recognizable indie love song ever made, no list would be complete without “First Day of my Life”. Conor Oberst combined his tender songwriting with a soft acoustic backdrop as he says, “Yours is the first face that I saw/ I think I was blind before I met you/ Now I don’t know where I am I don’t know where I’ve been but I know where I want to go”. With over 18 million views, the music video even furthered to popularize the song, with a touching display of couples on a couch listening to the song together.

Wilco– “You and I”

Wilco is not usually known for having guests appear on their songs, but Feist works incredibly well next to Jeff Tweedy on this heartfelt soft song from 2009’s Wilco (The Album). The back-and-forth between Tweedy and Feist shows the struggles of staying together as a couple before ultimately proclaiming, “You and I/ I think we can take it/ All the good with the bad/ Make something that no one else has”.

The song is a nice change of pace for a band known for pushing music and song to its limits; sometimes simple arrangements and straightforward lyrics can be just as powerful.

Daniel Johnston– “True Love Will Find You in the End”

With a pure, childlike spirit and a devastatingly honest way of conveying emotion through his lyrics, Daniel Johnston’s words have weight to them that other artists simply don’t have. By saying less, he says more. Nowhere else is that seen more clearly then on his most popular song, “True Love Will Find You in the End”.

The song is incredibly simple, consisting of only the slow strum of a guitar as Johnston proclaims, “Don’t be sad I know you will/ Don’t give up until/ True love will find you in the end”. The song is a small glimpse of hope from an artist who had to work hard to find any at times.

Neutral Milk Hotel– “Naomi”

Maybe the most touching and heartfelt song that Jeff Mangum has ever written, “Naomi” is an ode to Naomi Yang of the band Galaxie 500, who Mangum dated in the 90’s. The imagery and excited rhythm that Mangum speaks of his significant other is romantic and urgent.

As a cacophony of fuzzy guitars and noise erupts, Mangum exclaims, “I’m watching Naomi, full bloom/ I’m hoping she will soon explode/ Into one billion tastes and tunes/ One billion angels come and hold her down/ They could hold her down until she cries”. “Naomi,” is the best song from Neutral Milk Hotel’s first album and the best love song Mangum has written.

Radiohead– “True Love Waits (Live in Oslo)”

Radiohead and Thom Yorke have plenty of love songs to choose from, the nod ultimately goes to “True Love Waits,” however. The song has been played live for years by the band, but never saw an official album release until 2016’s A Moon Shaped Pool.

The live version that was released on the band’s 2001 live album I Might be Wrong features only Yorke and the rollicking strum of his guitar that propels each one of his poignant lines forward. Yorke closes out the song with simple yet effective imagery in the last few lines: “And true love waits/ In haunted attics/ And true love lives/ On lollipops and crisps/ Just don’t leave”.

The Postal Service– “Such Great Heights”

With the affectionate lyrics of Ben Gibbard and the sputtering electronic pulse of Jimmy Tamborello, the Postal Service created a classic with, “Such Great Heights”. The song has been featured in numerous commercials and movies, and has stood the test of time as the golden standard for indie love songs. Gibbard opens the song with the touching, “I am thinking it’s a sign/ That the freckles in our eyes are mirror images/ And when we kiss they’re perfectly aligned”.

The slightly cheesy lyrics paired with the soaring beat make for a highly enjoyable love song that has plenty of replay-ability, even 15 years later. The song finishes with the beautifully simple chorus of, “They will see us waving from such great heights/ Come down now, they’ll say/ But everything looks perfect from far away/ Come down now, but we’ll stay”.

The post Music Matters (Valentines Day Edition): Best Indie Love Songs appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I went into the Witching Hour workshop having the intent of having a relaxing, laid-back time. The description entailed laying on the ground with pillows and a blanket. What did I have to lose?

What I wasn’t expecting was the soul-cleansing, self-transcendent work I would be doing on myself. This workshop had me so deep in my feels, I thought I was never going to come out of them.

For the first fifteen minutes or so, the workshop instructor philosophized on how us humans go through our life journeys all fighting an internal war for peace.

We can’t seem to let go of hard experiences of the past, letting them linger in our present mind and taint our perspective. No matter how much pain it brings, we find ourselves clinging onto repressed memories and emotions instead of simply letting go.

The way he broke down the human condition and the suffering it entails definitely had me deep in reflection. He discussed the spectrum of emotion that life entails. The negative side of this spectrum consists of fear. He stressed how any negative emotion, thought process, or

perception we hold is all rooted in fear.

Since I will be graduating this semester and have been filled with a deep dread and anxiety of what the future holds, this struck a chord deep within me.

The claustrophobic and anxious emotions I’ve been experiencing, the stressful thoughts of finding a job, it all boils down to fear. Fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of screwing up, its the causation of all the suffering I find myself under.

It is through its opposing force of love, however, that this fear can be washed away. He stressed the importance of seeing everything as divine. Even though a person, experience, or emotion currently facing you may have a negative feeling connected to it, we must look for the silver lining in it all.

In addition to seeking guidance and insight through love and positivity, some individuals may turn to psychic readings as a way to gain clarity and perspective on their fears and anxieties. While some may be hesitant to try psychic readings due to skepticism or uncertainty, Get a Free Online Psychic Reading and it can be a great way to explore this practice without committing to a full session. By connecting with a trusted and experienced psychic, individuals can receive personalized insights and guidance on how to move forward with confidence and courage. Whether facing a difficult decision, a major life transition or simply seeking a deeper understanding of oneself and the world around us, psychic readings can offer a unique and valuable perspective on our fears and uncertainties.

At the end of the day, we are all still standing strong after all of the hardships we have faced in our past.

Through this workshop, he aimed to tune our collective mind to the all healing love frequency, and to come to peace with ourselves and the outside world. For the past 400 or so years, these giant bronze bells have been the door to the love dimension, getting used by spiritual healers and shamans across the globe.

Regardless of your spiritual views or religious affiliation, you can’t help but feel the power of these gongs. For 45 minutes, I laid back on the Englert Theatre stage, and let these sounds reverberate through my body and mind. If we’re being real here, I completely lost track of time and where I was because I was so washed away by these resonant sounds.

It seemed like a 15 minute experience at tops, and I was literally soaring through my mind and imagination like a madman. It may have been because I was tired and a bit hungover, but that is of course besides the point.

I couldn’t help but feel spiritually cleansed walking out of the Englert theater after this workshop, feeling much lighter on my feet and with a fresh, healthier perspective.

The post Witching Hour : Doorway to Intuition: Gong Bath and Sound Healing Meditation @ Englert Theatre 10/21/2017 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I instantly felt ashamed because of course music is art. I can’t believe that my first thought was that it wasn’t. I’ve played the cello for eight years of my life, and I feel nearly the same connection to classical music as I do to art, so why do I not automatically think of it on the same level?

Sometimes I forget that studio art isn’t always the first thing that people think of when they hear the word “art.” There is so much more to the art world than that. Poems, music, paintings, etc. There is so much to be said about those things created out of thin air and a person’s thoughts. But if that’s the case, what isn’t art?

Liberal arts – areas of study (such as history, language, and literature) that are intended to give you general knowledge rather than to develop specific skills needed for a profession.

Studio art – the making of visual art (such as paintings, drawings or sculptures), contrasted to the study of art history.

Fine art – an activity requiring great skill or accomplishment.

All of these definitions are so entirely broad. The Liberal Arts College at the University of Iowa is lumped together with sciences, so does that mean that science is art? Math? Engineering? Based on the definition of liberal arts, it looks like it all would, depending on how it’s taught/learned. Fine art could mean anything that is done well that requires skill.

Combine all of these definitions together and you get the definition that makes sense: anything that you can try.

But this is different than I’ve ever thought about it before. I made an entire post (kind of) about this and specified that I don’t like thinking about art as something defined or set in stone. Mostly because I don’t think that something so vast should be defined, but also because if I think about it too much it freaks me out. I always say that I love what I do, my art, my paintings, my drawings, my photos, the thought process behind it all, and everything that goes along with it. What if I could replace the words “paintings”, “drawings,” and “photos,” with any words pertaining to any profession and have it mean the same thing? What if all that we ever do in our lives is art?

No. For some reason, I don’t believe that.

Because, like I’ve said, I have such a hard time believing that everything is art. I think that art is a case by case classification, that we can’t have a checklist of rules that helps us define something so intricate. I think that there’s a thin line, and that line is passion. That is something that I think most people can accept.

Say a civil engineer is trying to design a building that won’t fall during an earthquake. This engineer really cares about this because their hometown was just struck with a series of earthquakes that destroyed almost everything. This person finally achieves what they’ve been working on and decades down the line sees that building finally constructed. That would be their work of art. After putting so much passion into anything, it’s hard not to see it that way.

An anthropology grad student travels to India to do some fieldwork. They could have chosen to study sexuality or gender roles or kinship, it doesn’t matter. After they finally live with the people they’ve read about and have become fascinated with, they put together the notes they took, the interviews they conducted, all of the other research they’ve done and they create their thesis. That would be their art. They put passion, thought, and love into what they did.

A composer writes a symphony about someone or something they love. An artist creates a great way to get over their anxiety. A mathematician discovers some kind of cool math thing that they worked for years to discover. Someday someone could cure cancer. All of these things are works of art. People put their heart into them and they mean something. Someone, somewhere, at some point in time, was passionate about something and made something happen because of it, and that is what I think art should be. Not a series of vaguely defined terms.

Things that we hate, as I’ve already kind of touched upon, are art. Things that we love are art. Things that we ourselves are not passionate about are art, but as long as someone was at some point passionate about them they are. This is something that I am going to struggle with remembering, but if you’re anything like me you will look at this as another beautiful part of this gigantic world of art. There is now just more to marvel at, wonder about, and discuss. I am excited to see things this way.

The Looking Glass is a bimonthly column that aims to educate, analyze, and share different aspects and forms of art. It will focus on sharing and analyzing different artists, works of art, exhibitions, etc. Along with this, the column will ask questions and point out interesting controversies. Art is a constantly flowing and vast part of our society and our culture that we are all submerged in daily, and discussion about the medium is a critical part of a full understanding and open mind.

The post The Looking Glass: What Art Entails appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Carl Sagan: This song is very easy to listen to. It has a really good melody; not too fast, not too slow. And the mix of the instruments slightly reminds me of something that would be played in the seventies. The lyrics are clear and easy to make out, which is really important to me. The vocals are why you want to listen to this song, though. It has a lot going for it, but the vocals are amazing. The way the singer travels between his chest voice to falsetto is utterly impressive.

Denis, Don’t Wanna See you Cry: This song starts off with the instruments sounding like someone is screaming, which I thought was fitting based on the title. This whiny sound is kept through out the piece. It gives it a techno feel, while maintaining it’s Indie rock identity. This piece has long instrumental solos, which I don’t particularly care for. And when the vocals do come back in, they just repeat the same verse over and over again. Granted, it is a good verse, but I would have liked the song more if it had more substance.

Leave Your Light On: This song has more twang than the others. The first time I heard it, I imagined it being sang in a run down bar with only old men drinking their beer to listen. It just has that far away sound that you find in a live performance. The vocals are crazy good. He is able to travel through his range without any hesitation. The music aspect of this song is really great, but I had a hard time understand what it was about. Which of course isn’t always necessary, but I do enjoy that aspect. I think if I could really understand what was going on, it would have really sold me on the song.

Border On Border: This song starts off with a great and poppy electric guitar solo. It really got me pumped up for what was going to come next. The vocals are a lot more whiny in this song compared to the others, which some artists can’t pull off, but this band really makes it work. My favorite part in this piece was when the instruments died down so the vocals could really stand out, then a few seconds later, the same poppy electric guitar came back in. It gave me goosebumps.

Kind Luck: This song reminded me of something behind it’s time. The vocals reminded me of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” because they both have that raspy feel to it at the beginning. This song was one of my favorites from the album, mostly because the lyrics are so crispy and easy to make out. Everything about this song really works, whether it is the clear lyrics, great  vocals, or the subtle acoustic guitar in the background.

Hiding in the Melody: This song features the high falsettos as well. Seriously so good. I can’t get over how well he changes his voice. There is even a part in the song where he creates a full but whiny sound. I think this song is my favorite on the album, mostly because of the insanely impressive vocals, but also because the melody keeps you on your toes and the lyrics are touchingly poetic. This song is by far the longest in the album, but I promise you will enjoy all seven minutes of it.

Staurolite Stroll: The beginning of this song really reminded me of the song by Maxine Nightingale, Right Back Where We Started From. Even the vocals kind of take you back in time. Really a great song. Understated yet excellent.

Alabama: I love the way this song starts, it is all high, airy falsetto and it is so well done. I can’t even put into words how good the vocals are in this song. It goes from high falsetto to something that sounds like Elton John to something entirely different. Seriously, everything about this song is utterly beautiful. Even the lyrics are touchingly insightful. If you are to check out any song on this album, check out this one. You won’t regret it, I promise.

Only To Live in your Memories: I loved this song as well. It had the airy vocals, like some of the songs at the beginning of the album, but the lyrics are so much more thought provoking and clear in this song. I can see why they saved this for last, because it truly made me feel something. “And I held on cause I feel love.”

This album was great. I may not listen to every song everyday, mostly because I like to sing along with what I am listening to and I had a hard time making out every lyric in some of the songs, but it definitely made me feel something, which is all you can ask for in an album. There were a few that I down right loved, but all of the songs on the album had something great about them, whether it be the impressive vocals or the fun instruments. If you like what you hear or just want to know more about the band you can follow them on Facebook and Spotify. If you want to see them in concert, their tour dates are on their website.

The post Album Review: “Pennied Days” by Night Moves appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Love is the newest film from infamous director Gaspar Noe. Released in 2015, the 3-D film immediately garnered attention for its use of nudity and explicit sex. Love blurs the line between art-house film and pornography in a way that is rarely seen, especially on such a wide scale. Love is not without its critics, and many of their points are valid; Love is not a perfect movie. But, it is certainly different, and for many, the film’s desire to push boundaries is enough to deserve attention.

The film follows Murphy (as in “Murphy’s Law“, which the film explicitly states in bold letters), a young father who wakes up on New Year’s Day deeply unsatisfied with his life. He receives a call from his ex-girlfriend’s (with the equally loaded name Electra) mother, asking him if he has seen Electra lately, fearing that she may have hurt herself. This call puts Murphy in a tail-spin, and he spends the rest of the film reminiscing on his passionate but volatile relationship.

Gaspar Noe is known as a boundary pushing director. His other feature length films, (I Stand Alone, Irreversible, and Enter the Void) all deal with tough subject matter, and his style of film making is designed to disturb instead of entertain. His work in Love is no different, and reminds me quite a bit of Lars von Trier‘s Nymphomaniac. Beyond the exploration of somewhat similar subject matter, and the explicit depictions of sex, the two films also share a fourth-wall breaking story telling technique. Love is filled with wild insert shots (including an ejaculating penis that is somewhat frightening to see in 3-D), harsh jump cuts, and non-linear vignettes. This is definitely an artsy film, and anyone coming into it with the same expectations they would have for a Hollywood blockbuster will be in for quite the surprise.

Despite all the sex and artsy film techniques, or perhaps because of it, Love still has its shining moments. There are moments of real and relatable intimacy between the characters. While romantic comedies may play on our happiest fantasies of love, Love brings to the forefront our darkest realities. There are moments and feelings in Love that are deeply human, but seem somewhat unexplored in movies. It takes a bold and honest look at a deeply dysfunctional relationship, and forces its audience to feel both revolted and sympathetic to its main characters. And that, I suppose, is enough for a piece of art, isn’t it?

Click here to see if Love is playing in a theater near you.

The post Cinema Spotlight: Love appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Now, we must purchase new calendars, adjust to writing a 6 on our dates, and sweep Donald Trump from the presidential campaign. I don’t know about you, but my New Years Resolution just might be to never see that carrot-colored toupee again.

I’m fine with many things from 2015 confined forever to 2015. For example, the all-white Oscars? We live in the 21st century, not the 19th. Come on. I could also do without the Fifty Shades of Grey industry. It is mind-boggling that some consider Christian and Anastasia a serious example of a modern relationship. Digital Trends reported in March that Fifty Shades set the record for Universal Pictures most successful R-Rated movie of all time. I do not find that okay.

Many good things occurred in 2015 as well. For all of the mixed press, Caitlyn Jenner brought awareness to reprehensible transgender discrimination. She graced the cover of Vanity Fair and Glamour crowned Jenner as 2015 Woman of the Year. Adele blessed the world with a new CD. According to Youtube, during the first 48 hours after the release “Hello” was viewed over one million times per hour. Inside Out, the 2015 Pixar film released in July, tackled the subject of depression. The family movie met incredible success, and for once, the film earned its publicity.

Also, the Hawkeyes swept the board with a 12-0 regular season this year, and claimed the title of West Division Champs. Go Hawks!

Yet, one of the finest cultural contributions of 2015 fell into bookstores and libraries. Throughout the year, I read fantastic novels, short stories, and nonfiction pieces and fell in love with too many to name.

I still have a lengthy 2015 To-Be-Read List in my little red Moleskin notebook.

However, I must recommend one novel I find particularly captivating.

Before I begin my review, I must confess to a slight transgression. In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you. I had not even finished the novel when I started this review. As a student, I never failed to read an assigned book. When I began writing this, I was halfway through.

I finished two days later.

Written by Lauren Groff, the novel in question is entitled, Fates and Furies. I discovered this gem a week before finals, and oh boy. I almost wish that Groff’s novel had not dropped into my hands. While memorizing the moon phases for astronomy class, I found myself daydreaming about the characters of Fates and Furies. I could not focus on Buddhist philosophers when I had yet to discover what fate would befall the furies.

It takes a lot to distract me from studying, yet Lauren Groff’s words swallowed me, refusing to release until I devour her story in its entirety.

The novel follows a fascinating, ambitious pair through the course of their marriage. Fresh college grads, Lancelot, nicknamed Lotto, and Mathilde, elope after two weeks. An affair bound for greatness, the couple alluringly transfuses passion into art.

Set in two parts, the novel examines both Lotto and Mathilde’s view, comparing the intrinsically different perspectives. As the old saying goes, “There are two sides to every story.”

In the review by the New York Times, Robin Black says of Groff’s novel, “A domestic union set prominently in a work of fiction has the sometimes unfortunate capacity to obscure whatever else is going on. Yet Fates and Furies explodes and rages past any such preconceptions, insisting that the examination of a long-term relationship can be a perfect vehicle for exploring no less than the nature of existence.” Indeed.

I could not compare Lotto and Mathilde’s marriage to any that I have known. The couple avoids the mundane trap that befalls many other relationship stories. Groff constructs the marriage as a character of the tale in itself. Marriage twists and turns Lotto and Mathilde, curling them around its finger. Despite certain attempts to free themselves, marriage binds them together.

To say the least, Lotto and Mathilde effectively avoid the noose of normalcy. Their relationship hardly drifts into the mundane. Rather, it spills excitedly into emotional and philosophical depths. Groff creates complex conflicts that call to question human nature, familial love, and passion.

The first part roots itself in Lotto’s mind, but Mathilde’s pithy character hints at the storm hidden beneath her calm facade. Lotto’s world sparkles with childlike reverence for life and art. Through the first section, readers experience the profound positivity and arrogance that Lotto embodies. His adventures and thoughts reveal an intricate character of remarkable depth.

Mathilde’s section reveals the irony of the title, Fates and Furies. Lotto lives and breathes theater in the book, yet he fails to realize the tragedy and comedy implicit within his life. As readers discover early on, Lotto perceives Mathilde as an angelic, superior being. The tragic truth? No human is an angel. We all have devils within us. Even the people we love and know best in the world can keep dark secrets from us.

Perhaps irony, rather than comedy, describes the complement to tragedy here.

However, I leave you to decide.

It has been a long time since a novel captured me so thoroughly. Groff’s intricately developed characters, attention to particular detail, and skill in directing dialogue sends this novel into literary excellence.

If you still need convincing evidence that I know what I’m talking about, Amazon.com named Fates and Furies one of the best books of the year, NPR Morning Edition selected it as a book club pick, it reigns as a New York Time Bestseller. Oh come on. Give it a read, you will most certainly be entertained.

The post Paperback Ponderings: Fates and Furies appeared first on KRUI Radio.

The Entries 

October 6, 2015
11:32 PM

My pillow collects my dreams. And sometimes at the end of a long day, I drop my head on my bed, and they puff up into the air like fairy dust, floating over my eyelids. Some seep into my hair, making my brain smell like vanilla orchids. Or the nightmares that taste like blood in the back of my throat, my eyes scrunching tighter. I turn, facedown into the feathers, and scream.

November 12, 2015
4:43 AM

In Which 36 MPH Winds Are Insomnia

You’re the high winds crashing against my bedroom windows. Rattling the branches of trees, and dominating the air at speeds that unsettle me. I know it’s hard for you to be tame, for sweeping things off their feet is all you’ve ever known. I know you are no match for my windows, nor my walls, and yet it is hard to breathe. But I’m trying to sleep. I’m trying to sleep. And yet it is hard to breathe.

I think much differently when I can’t sleep. My mind bends in ways that create melodies—only these are not lullabies. These are not songs I want to fall asleep to. They resemble broken sheet music that wedges you between every bar. You’re just a space heater for the cold spots, manifesting in places that are usual warmth when I’m fully awake. That’s the only reason you exist in the wind.

November 24, 2015
4:50 AM

I no longer communicate with people directly, because everything is filtered through this warped mass of dark rain. The cold shatters the inside of my skin, and pierces my inner walls like acid. It’s erupted in size—a tropical depression building and building into a roaring storm that tells me everything I need to know about love. What I deserve. What I don’t. And it’s scary, the way I find this stuff out. Something I may never know is how to start over, how to keep these warm waters calm, and from collecting in a war against me. Where do I start? How do I make up for lost time? The chemicals that are charged like lightning between our chests are hard to ignore.

But all the mistakes run through my veins like blood, and there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m not allowed to interpret for myself how your hand feels on my cheek, when there’s a storm brewing in my own eyes. But I’m also afraid you can see the dense clouds circling within me. And you will stand far enough away to watch the hurricane take siege over my body, as it’s already done to my mind. There’s nothing harder than trying to mingle with another’s soul while your own is tangled up in the winds.

Last month’s column: Love poems that includes every season. Read “Love Like the Seasons, Love Like the Colors” here.

The post Diary Of A Wallflower: The Entries appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Since I have yet to find a support group to help me with this, I am writing down my feelings as an outlet. Many people have many misconceptions about hopeless romantics. Some think that they are “crazy” or dangerous. But, according to Urban Dictionary, a hopeless romantic is not a stalker or anything threatening like that. A hopeless romantic is simply an incurable dreamer. They are perfectly harmless creatures. The only ones they bring harm to are themselves.

One way we do this is by possessing extremely high expectations when it comes to the love department.

We have watched too many Disney movies and read too many Nicholas Spark’s books to have an accurate depiction of a realistic relationship. But high expectations are just the start.

For me, being a hopeless romantic entails so much more. It means that I have erupted in sobs because I heard DJ Tanner’s husband dies in the new series of Full House. It means I cannot watch a romantic comedy without becoming emotionally attached to each and every character that walks onto the screen. I will, and have, started tearing up while talking about my infatuation with a main character on my favorite Netflix series.

Another misfortune of this disease is that I crave love.

The only thing I want is to be in love because I believe with my whole heart that it the best feeling in the world. What I am trying to get at is that living as a Hopeless Romantic is hard, but it is not all bad.

You cannot be a hopeless romantic without having hope, and an ample amount at that. So much hope, not just for you, but for everyone. Hope for every person to find love because love is the best drug, the best high, and the best addiction. It can leave you with the worst hangover that no amount of sleep or TLC can soften, but for those few moments, love takes you to the top of the world. If you’re in a relationship right now, it is worth considering to seek couples therapy San Francisco so you can work out any issues you’re struggling with.

The post Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic appeared first on KRUI Radio.