Campus is bathed in warmth, patios are filled left and right with smiling faces, people perched on blankets spot the grass of the Pentacrest. It’s the perfect limbo period to enjoy the new season, safely past midterms and with enough time before the end of the semester to have to worry about finals. This leaves plenty of time for finding new music to accompany the seasons changing.

Warm weather calls for some upbeat tunes, leaving behind the moody playlists of winter. Good music can be an even more powerful vitamin D. It lifts our spirits, gets us moving, and can even give us a better outlook on the day. With a mix of R&B, rock, EDM, and other genres, enjoy any of these sunny day songs!

“Universe” by Jess Locke

The easygoing vocals in this chilled-out indie track are perfect for lounging out in the sun, with just enough intricacies in the instrumentations to keep you from taking a cat nap from the warmth.

“Ready to Let Go” by Cage the Elephant

You may know Cage the Elephant from their hit “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” but this song takes on a different and intriguing style. Rock and techno elements dance together in a soundtrack to letting go and relaxing.

“DAVE (turn the music down)” by Juice

A young band that became known for their skill at mixing styles, Juice shapes a narrative about a curmudgeonly old man named Dave into a fun hip-hop showcase with a fascinating beat.

“Fanny Dog (Royal)” by Ty Segall

Brass backing tracks make this piece feel like you are listening to a live, big band concert. Intense musicality is on full display within the several solos in this song, from guitar to piano. And with an album cover of an adorable pup, who wouldn’t want to listen!

“still feel.” by halfalive

A fun baseline drives this upbeat track to its chorus, where the beat adopts a EDM style reverberation. Trumpets add flair to the verses, which will make you want to dance around and celebrate the sunshine.

“You Go Down Smooth” by Lake Street Drive

Folk rock is given a boost with a quick tempo and chromatic vocals in this bouncy track fitting for a day spent in the sun.

“Tell Me” by BROS

Though their band name may have you think otherwise, BROS is anything but your ordinary boy band. They use synthesizers, a steady bass beat, and a catchy chorus to create an unforgettable sound.

“Cruise” by Saeyers

There’s not much chance of finding a luxurious cruise anywhere in Iowa, but you can find smooth remedy in this techno lazy river.

“Be” by Hozier

Off of his recently released album Wasteland, Baby!, “Be” is a celebration in both lyrics and music. Hozier preaches to “be as you’ve always been,” pushing the song’s message of self-confidence and happiness further through soulful riffs and guitar undercurrents.

“Bigmouth Strikes Again” by The Smiths

An older piece that still feels new, Morrissey’s signature vocals shine against quick acoustic strings in this concoction of rock and post-punk.

The post Old Soul: Sunny Day Songs appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Kenzi Rayelle started out the night strong with an acoustic folk sound. Rayelle amazed the audience with songs accompanied by ukulele, guitar, and mandolin. Passionate during the higher points in songs and tender during softer sections, her vocals were mesmerizing throughout the set.

Originally from Indianola, Iowa, Rayelle has a unique indie sound that blends together aspects of folk and punk genres with relative ease. Her voice has a twinge of Lana Del Rey tone with its velvet timbre. Rayelle also contributes to design for both Fools Magazine and Scope Productions, a fruitful member of Iowa City’s artistic community.

Next up was Corbin Phillips. Several friends crowded around the stage to show him support, cheering and clapping as he started. Phillips was powerful on acoustic guitar, which contrasted wonderfully with his mellow voice. He was adept at using looper pedals, creating percussion-like sounds with his guitar and formulating layered harmonies to underscore several melodies.

Though he was performing solo, Phillips is a member of local band London Fog, with bandmates Emi Bendler and Brett Eikenberry. The band has an acoustic indie sound and released an EP entitled Snow in December of 2018, which Phillips wrote the music and lyrics for. Eikenberry was also at the event and joined Phllips on the stage for a few songs, supplying guitar and trumpet to the half hour set.

The two beanie-clad performers played together comfortably, some songs with combined vocals and others featuring just Phillips. Mixing jazz and indie styles, Phillips gave a varied performance that had the crowd clamoring for more. He ended the set involving the audience, leading a sing-along that had each half of the restaurant harmonizing with the other.

Lily DeTaeye closed out the night with a thrilling mix of guitar, piano, and harmonica. She started with a piece accompanied by Eikenberry on trumpet, a first-time collaboration on the song. The rest of the set included songs from her 2017 EP, an acoustic cover of “Little Black Submarines” by The Black Keys, and selections from an upcoming album she is currently working on with Jim Eno’s Public Hi-Fi in Austin, TX.

Relationships, past memories, and female empowerment drive many of her lyrics, giving each song a particularly emotional edge. DeTaeye is equally skilled at slow, ballad-like songs as she is with upbeat tracks. Her robust alto voice takes lower notes to the fullest while tackling the higher range with a delicate control.

The Des Moines native interacted with the crowd frequently, candidly telling stories about the inspirations behind her lyrics. The punchy “Downgrade,” she described, is about a past relationship with a fellow musician from high school. She talked about how another piece had recently been played in front of her class by a professor, unknowing fellow students commenting on whether they liked it or not directly in front of her. DeTaeye doesn’t let events like this affect her too much though, a beaming presence on the stage confident in herself and her sound.

A celebration of local voices on the rise, the entire night was full of support and joy. It seemed no coincidence that the onset of spring arrived alongside the warmth of these artists, who will hopefully regale Iowa City with more performances in the near future.

The post A Night at El Banditos appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Yes, cherry blossoms. Or sakura in Japanese. The symbol of transient beauty. Ahh.

Neighborhoods turn pink, the air feels fluffy, and all seems right with the world.

Time stops, but only to remind you of its presence as you watch the pink petals fall.

Sakura season is the ultimate experience, from the time the buds form until the trees shed their blossoms. And after finally experiencing sakura season for myself, I thought I would share with you the three main stages of this wonderful season.

The first stage is mostly one of anticipation—seeing the buds form. After weeks of damp cold and wind and wet snow, the appearance of the buds is that wonderful, warm sign of the coming of spring. These are by no means the first buds you’ve seen—the hardier plum trees have already bloomed at this point, as a sort of preview of what is to come. People are still wearing their scarves and heavy coats, waiting for that one warm day in which the buds will burst and signal winter to finally take its vacation.

Then the cherry blossoms bloom. There being multiple varieties, they don’t bloom at once but pop up in various shades of pink, salmon, and white. And it is so sudden that one morning on your usual walk to the local train station, you will suddenly notice monstrous pink clouds hovering over the street and people stopping for two minutes to take pictures before hurrying to the morning train.

Despite these pretty sights in the neighborhoods and little parks, many “go” to see the cherry blossoms in sakura hot-spots like Inogashira park, Ueno Park, the Sumida River, etc. Some just trek it, others go early in the morning to reserve spots for hanami, basically sakura-viewing parties. I went to Yasukuni Shrine and the neighboring Kitano Maru Park, that flanks the imperial palace.

The cherry blossoms were beautiful, of course. But I also enjoyed watching the people. People on lunch break, couples young and old, families, and friends, all took a break from their daily lives to look at the flowers and maybe sit for half an hour to eat lunch under the canopy of pink.

There is a word in Japanese (hitoiki) that roughly translates to “a breath”—and as you would expect, it means to stop and take a moment, often associated with a cup of tea. And I felt like sakura season is a particularly opportune time to take the moment to watch others take a moment. Everyone is united by one objective–to take a detour from life and enjoy the flowers.

The last stage, which rivals the second stage in beauty, is when the petals fall. Back home I never really appreciated flowers after they fell. Perhaps it’s common for us to associate the fall of the flowers as signal of the end. A bit like taking off Christmas decorations.

But here I noticed how much magic remains during and even after all the petals have fallen. Streams of pink run down the street. Blankets of petals flow down the rivers and pool up in eddies. Big trucks and bicycles pick up clouds of petals and send them swirling for a time in the air. Young couples and children try to catch the falling petals.

One morning, I happened to wander to a neighboring park and saw a bunch of kindergartners on recess, who were picking up big handfuls of petals, throwing them in the air, and stuffing them into little Ziploc bags provided by their teachers. It may just be my favorite sakura season memory.

Sakura season almost felt a bit like our Christmas—sublime, surreal, and short, ending before you’ve actually soaked everything in.

All photos taken by author

The post Matcha, Manga, and Mayonnaise: Sakura appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I saw a recipe for molten lava cakes using Cadbury crème eggs as the “molten” center and I was pretty hyped to try it because for one, molten lava cakes just always sound super cool, and secondly, Cadbury crème eggs are probably THEE best part of Easter. Don’t even try to fight me on that. (And no the caramel ones are NOT better, go eat a rolo if you want caramel and chocolate.)

Time started: 5:30 pm

LISTEN: I know it was early, and it was a week day, but I had a lot to accomplish that day and there ain’t no rest for the wicked.

What I’m drinking: I ran out of whiskey the weekend before and I was too cheap to buy more at the time of baking this so I opened the last bottle I had of my mom’s rhubarb wine and mixed it with some Sprite for a nice little spritzer. I feel like that is pretty springy/Eastery.

Estimated difficulty: 3/5

The main thing holding me back from giving this an easier rating is that I do not have ramekins to bake the cakes in like the recipe calls for and instead will be using muffins tins; it may not make a huge difference but I didn’t want to underestimate the difficulty just in case.

Challenges (besides being intoxicated): Welp, I almost died from slipping on water walking towards the microwave with a glass jar of hot fudge in my hand. Spoiler alert: I didn’t die and I also managed not to drop the jar of hot fudge throughout the whole ordeal.

The other challenge was figuring out what to do with all the extra batter because this recipe made SO MUCH. It called for 6 crème eggs to make six cakes, but I ended up using up the two eggs I thought were going to be extra in a second batch and my sister had the brilliant idea of putting a glob of hot fudge in place of the crème eggs in the other four cakes from the second batch.

So while the recipe claimed to make 6 molten lava cakes, there was enough batter to actually make 12, with even a few spoonfuls of batter left over that we may or may not have just eaten. I thought the muffin tins were about the same size as the ramekins would have been, but maybe there were a lot smaller than I thought. Or maybe this recipe just made A LOT of batter, I’m honestly not sure.

Time finished: 7:30 PM

Results:

My drunk opinion:  “It’s really good cake, you just can’t really taste the crème eggs :(”

Mollie’s opinion: “The cake itself is good, but the egg has a weird texture now.”

My sober morning opinion: Again, the cake is delicious, but overall it’s kind of disappointing.

Final deliciousness rating: 5/10

This was hard to give a rating since I would definitely use the cake recipe from this on its own, because it is honestly a fantastic recipe, but putting the crème eggs in it was kind of a waste of a perfectly good crème egg (8 of them to be exact, SIGH.) The ones in which we put a dollop of hot fudge turned out really well so I would recommend doing that if you still wanted to try the whole molten lava thing, and then just eat the crème eggs on their own. But you’re an adult and you can do what you want.

This recipe can be found here. (The only other modification I would suggest is swapping out where it calls for chocolate syrup in the recipe for hot fudge. Because hot fudge.)

Next month will most likely be my last installment of Whisks + Whiskey since I am graduating (!!!) so I will have to think of something amazing for the last big hurrah, stay tuned!

Previous Episodes:

Episode 1: Orange Chili Brownies

Episode 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Episode 3: (Almost) Vegan Dark Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Episode 4: Peppermint  & White Chocolate Brownies

Episode 5: Vegan Coconut Lime Cake

Episode 6: Berry Tart

Episode 7: Irish Soda Bread

The post Whisks + Whiskey: Episode 8 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Bonded with an old man buying sunscreen today at work over being Irish and pale. Didn’t have the heart to tell him I’m not Irish, just pale.

— Alison Schwebach (@alisonschwebach) May 17, 2016

Even before I was of the age to partake in the green beer and other green-themed festivities, St. Patrick’s Day was always just a fun, random holiday that helped break up the dreariness of March and meant spring was coming soon. So in honor of St. Pat and the Irish, I decided this month to make Irish soda bread.

If you’ve never had it, I highly recommend trying some. My mom used to have our grandparents over for a St. Patrick’s Day dinner a couple years in a row (again, our family is not Irish AT ALL so I don’t really know why), and although I would not touch the corned beef and cabbage, I always ate SO MUCH Irish soda bread. I didn’t have time to get the recipe my mom used before I had to do this thing, so I found a recipe from Ina Garten. Because I trust her.

Time started: 8:00 pm

What I’m drinking: I decided to go all out on the St. Patrick’s theme so I picked up some Guinness and had one before starting as well as another midway through. I also drank my favorite Black Velvet whiskey, of course, because what is more Irish than Canadian whiskey, am I right??

Estimated difficulty: 3/5

This didn’t seem too difficult, but Ina said I needed to use a mixer to properly incorporate the butter into the flour and I do not have a mixer.

Challenges (besides being intoxicated): The no mixer did turn out to be a bit of a challenge, but wasn’t as awful as I was expecting. I ended up having to mash the cold butter into the flour with a potato masher because I also do not have a pastry cutter. Its fine, it pretty much worked. However what was NOT FINE was me dropping the orange into the buttermilk mixture because I was using my hands to talk too aggressively while I talked to my sister.

Time finished: 10:00 PM (it honestly didn’t take that long to mix together, the baking time was just super long.)

Results:

My drunk opinion:  “This is some good Irish soda bread. I am happy.”

Mollie’s opinion: “You actually didn’t do bad.” (Rude.) “It’s good, good job. I am thoroughly impressed.” (Still rude???)

My sober morning opinion: I can’t tell if it is slightly undercooked or just a really moist recipe. Either way, it is delicious.

Final deliciousness rating: 9/10

I would probably make this again, however it didn’t really keep very well after a couple days so eat it quickly if you decide to make it! Here is the recipe if you wanted to try it for your own St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Stop by next month to see what else I manage to throw an orange at or something.

Previous Episodes:

Episode 1: Orange Chili Brownies

Episode 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Episode 3: (Almost) Vegan Dark Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Episode 4: Peppermint  & White Chocolate Brownies

Episode 5: Vegan Coconut Lime Cake

Episode 6: Berry Tart

The post Whisks + Whiskey Episode 7 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Since it is February and Valentine’s Day is a thing that happens in February, I figured I should probably make a recipe that harkens to the other mostly useless holiday in the month. Now, if you thought that meant I was going to make some sort red velvet-type of baked item, I’m going to stop you right there.

To be honest, red velvet is pretty freakin weird—why do we have to add an entire bottle of artificial red food dye just to enjoy a mildly cocoa flavored caked with cream cheese frosting?? Traditional red velvet is actually pretty cool with the chemical reactions happening to produce the red tint, but people have become so used to the artificial hue that the traditional just doesn’t have the same sex appeal.

Instead of fake food dye that stains your mouth and teeth red (which isn’t a very sexy look for V-Day, unless you and your Valentine are into vampire roleplay), I wanted to make something that was naturally rose-tinged. For some reason, the thought of making a rustic berry tart has been calling to me for a while and I figured with plenty of strawberries and raspberries it would be the perfect antithesis to the basic red velvet.

I found a berry tart recipe (okay technically it’s a “galette” not a tart, but I like calling it a tart so whatever) from a blog called Finding Zest that used frozen berries, which was fantastic because fresh berries in February would’ve been hella expensive. To enhance the ~*Valentine’s Day vibes*~ I invited the boyfriend over for moral support, because what says romance more than having to babysit your whiskey inebriated girlfriend to make sure she doesn’t drunkenly burn herself??

Time started: 8:00 pm

What I’m drinking: This time I went full whiskey. I had a couple swigs before starting, and then mixed the rest of what was left in the bottle with some cherry coke. (There were only like 2-3 shots left in the bottle, okay. Don’t panic.)

Estimated difficulty: 2/5

This seemed pretty simple, and since I cheated with store-bought pie crust there really wasn’t a lot of labor involved. (I was going more for aesthetics than anything, forgive me.)

Challenges (besides being intoxicated): To be honest, there really weren’t too many extra challenges this time around. I do remember running into the chairs and table more times than usual. I also knocked a cup to the floor, but thankfully it was empty.

Time finished: 9:30 pm

Results

My drunk opinion: “It’s super tasty, I’m in to it. It’s also “berry tart” but in a good way.” (I do remember thinking I was very clever coming up with that pun while drunk.)

Jake’s opinion: “It’s good. Definitely one of the best pie crusts I’ve had.” (Store bought for the win.)

Shanea’s opinion: It’s really good! 10/10 would definitely eat again. I really enjoyed the blue goo.

My sober morning opinion: This is a really great balance of sweet and tart. The berries turned into kind of a jam, and it goes perfectly with the crust. I might actually be obsessed, not going to lie.

Final deliciousness rating: 10/10

Heck yeah I’d make this again. Here’s the recipe if you’d like to make it yourself, and I’d highly recommend that you do. (And it’s extra easy with store-bought pie crust!)

As a sort of “blooper,” I tried making a glaze for the tart out of some leftover canned coconut milk I had in my freezer and powdered sugar, and although it tasted pretty good, when I tried drizzling the glaze concoction on the tart it ended up looking like a bodily fluid you probably shouldn’t put on any sort of baked good, Valentine’s day or not. I didn’t take a picture for evidence, so I’ll just let you use your imagination to work out the details on that.

Next month is March, which means that’s the month spring is actually supposed to arrive in and I have no idea what I’m going to make!! You should still definitely tune in then though!!

Previous Episodes:

Episode 1: Orange Chili Brownies

Episode 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Episode 3: (Almost) Vegan Dark Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Episode 4: Peppermint  & White Chocolate Brownies

Episode 5: Vegan Coconut Lime Cake

The post Whisks + Whiskey: Episode 6 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I’m going to be completely honest though, writing this month’s piece on January nineteenth, otherwise known as the eve of the presidential inauguration, it’s a little hard to find the humor.

While the more literal spring isn’t that horribly far away, we’ve got another long, cold winter ahead of us. You could benefit from knowing what is heat pump for house and why it’s essential during winter. So, while this month’s how-to guide can be used as a quick fix until the northern hemisphere shifts closer to the sun, it can hopefully also be used as something to warm your hands by until the longer winter breaks.

But let’s face it—if we’re going to get through these long, cold months, we need more than just humor; we need warmth. And not the kind of warmth that comes from layering yourself in every sweater you own, but real, reliable warmth, the kind that only a quality furnace can provide.

When winter stretches on and the wind howls outside, there’s nothing more comforting than knowing your furnace is up to the task. That’s where Climate Experts for outstanding services come in, making sure your home stays cozy and energy-efficient, even on the darkest, chilliest days. Because if we’re going to survive the next few months with our sanity intact, a dependable furnace is as essential as that first cup of coffee in the morning.

I’m getting really tired of hearing the word “snowflake,” but I have a feeling we’re going to be hearing a lot of it even when there’s zero chance of precipitation so we might as well jump right in:

1. Find what makes you happy.

I know, that’s a hefty first step, but if you can find the little things in your daily life that give you a flutter of joy or makes you smile even on the coldest days, hold on to it. For example: my plant hoard is probably going to keep growing, I’m going to try to paint more, and I’m going to be less reserved about singing along with my favorite songs.

2. Bask in whatever sunshine you can find.

That little kid that laughed at you in the grocery store, the person you saw bring food to a homeless person on your morning commute, the dogs that will gladly let you pet them. I know it’s easy to forget that there is good in the world when it seems like everything is dark and dreary, but look out for the little bits of sunshine peeking out from the clouds and soak them in.

3. Create your own sunshine.

Donate to a cause that is close to your heart, volunteer at the humane society or soup kitchen, clean out your closet and give your clothes to someone who needs them more. Don’t forget that you can be a ray of warmth for someone else!

4. Persevere 

If the grass and flowers can come back at full strength after devastating ice, snow, and frigid temperatures, so can you. Be resilient and carry on.

Good luck y’all.

Feel free to follow me on:

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The post The Walking Contradiction’s How-to Guide: Surviving the Winter appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I’ve lived in Iowa my entire life and yet I still don’t know how we as a human species endure winter year after year. You’d think having some Swedish ancestry would help me cope considering they hail from the literal arctic, but I still despise winter with every fiber of my being.

To help break up the dreariness of winter I decided to make what I hoped would be a refreshing spirit-lifting recipe reminiscent of spring. I found a coconut lime cake recipe from Cotter Crunch that sounded very tropical and spring-like and also happened to be vegan, but I didn’t really want to go through the effort of making the coconut cream frosting even though it sounded delicious. Since I wanted the cake to stand out a little more instead, I used a glaze recipe from Daisy and the Fox and also made the candied limes from their recipe for decoration. I know, THREE whole parts?? I am so brave.

Time started: 8:30 pm

What I’m drinking: I’m not generally a huge fan of wine, but my mom sent me back from Thanksgiving break with four bottles of homemade rhubarb wine so I figured I might as well tackle some of that. I drank part of a bottle a couple weeks ago but it didn’t exactly go down the easiest, so this time I mixed it with some sprite and that was a pretty decent starter drink. After I finished the wine, I mixed Toasted Caramel whiskey with vanilla coke and it might have actually been the best thing I’ve ever done. SO GOOD, 10/10 would recommend. Then as a bonus spur of the moment drink, since I was using limes I figured I pretty much had to do a shot of tequila. Had to, not want to; don’t ever accuse me of not giving this column my all because tequila SUCKS.

Estimated difficulty: 4/5

Listen, I’ve never candied a lime—I didn’t know what to expect. Also three steps seemed pretty ambitious.

Challenges (besides being intoxicated): The grater we have did not work very well as a zester and I was struggling to get a decent amount of lime zest until I realized I could just kind of scrape it off with a knife. Also, doing shot of tequila. Always a bad decision.

Time finished: 10:30

Results

My drunk opinion:  It’s okay, the parts with a lot of glaze are good. It kind of tastes like coffee cake.

Rylee’s opinion: “Is there ginger in this?” (…No) “Oh, well it smells like gingerbread. I don’t know how to feel about it.”

My sober morning opinion: It’s slightly better this morning, but it still reminds me of coffee cake. Not very refreshing or springy.

Final deliciousness rating: 6/10

I combined two different recipes for this, so if you want to test it out the cake recipe is from here (it’s a gluten-free recipe but I just used regular flour instead of gluten-free flour) and the candied limes and glaze recipe are from here. The only other modification I did was adding lime zest to both the batter and glaze.

Looks like next month’s column will arrive just in time for Valentine’s Day, so that should be interesting, feel free to check back then.

(Bonus: me complaining about taking a shot of tequila)

Previous Episodes:

Episode 1: Orange Chili Brownies

Episode 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones

Episode 3: (Almost) Vegan Dark Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Episode 4: Peppermint  & White Chocolate Brownies

The post Whisks + Whiskey: Episode 5 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

I began branching out into what I discovered to be the nearly infinite amount of different genres of horror films: Italian horror, psychological horror, horror comedy, splatter gore, invasion horror. These different movies offered a very unique take on the horror genre and really opened up what the term “scary movie” actually meant to me. Don’t get me wrong, these movies can be terrifying, but they do offer a lot more than simple scares in their storytelling.

Bone Tomahawk (2015) – There are even Western horror movies! Except for some choice scenes, this film is a true Western in every sense of the word. The film follows a group of lawmen led by Kurt Russell who are on a mission to rescue some peaceful townsfolk from prehistoric-appearing cavemen.

There are gorgeous wide open shots of panoramic western plains that make you almost forget you are watching what is classified as a horror movie. Indeed, after the somewhat brutal opening scene the movie eschews nearly all standard horror elements until the film’s finale. The movie is not titled Bone Tomahawk for nothing though. The title object features as the tool of destruction in all of the films grisly bits. These include one scene that, without exaggeration is the single most physically graphic moment I have ever witnessed on film. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Violence aside however, this movie is still worth a watch for both horror fans and seasoned western watchers alike. Just skip the above mentioned scene.

Deathgasm (2015) – Ah yes, the old metal-splatter-horror-comedy subgenre. As its name implies, Deathgasm is a movie not to be taken too seriously. As crazy as it may sound, a movie about two metal heads from New Zealand who accidentally summon an entity from Hell is actually quite silly, and even sweet. Oh yeah and there is a lot of blood. It is called Deathgasm after all. The core characters play well off of each other for occasional dialogue and story-driven moments, but the majority of the film is driven by a kinetic energy reminiscent of, well, a death metal track.

They Look Like People (2015) – This low budget pyschological horror film plays the most like a straight scary movie, but is also incredibly emotionally affecting. It followes a young man named Wyatt who believes that the people around him are turning into monsters that (name drop!) look like people. At the core of the movie is the relationship between Wyatt and his best friend Christian. As Wyatt struggles between his paranoia and preparing himself for the coming invasion, he must decide whether or not to help his friend even though Christian may be a monster himself. The film is very quiet and decisive in its scary moments, which amplifies their effectiveness and builds to a climax that is as heart stopping as it is heart wrenching.

Spring (2014) – What do you get when you combine low-impact yet high caliber dialogue with body horror reminiscent of The Fly? You get Spring, a romantic horror film. Yes, romantic horror films exist. Imagine crossing this year’s Sundance Festival hit Southside with You with John Carpenter’s The Thing. Stretching into even more adventurous territory is Spring , the story a man named Evan who takes a winding vacation to Italy. In his travels, he meets and eventually falls for Louise, a student studying in the field of genetics. That genetics major comes in handy for Louise because it turns out she has bouts of turning into horrific monsters every so often. Other than that, she is a total catch. The movie earns its points in the genuine relationship it builds between Evan and Louise. The viewer completely understands why Evan would stay and offer to help Louise near the end of the film rather than go back home and run away from the challenges she presents.

Holidays (2016) – Anthology horror films are notoriously unbalanced, which should surprise no one. If you get multiple directors together for a film there are sure to be some masterful segments as well as a few floppy duds. Holidays contains eight short films that pay homage to some of the more disturbing elements of our favorite times of the year.

The standout segment is Anthony Scott Burns’ Father’s Day. In the short film, a young woman named Carol receives a cassette tape from her father who she previously thought was dead. The tape contains directions from her father on how to find him as well as an explanation for why he had to leave. Jocelin Donahue gives an emotional and nearly silent performance as a daughter who is simultaneously stunned, grieved, and hopeful at the prospect of finding her father.

Likewise Michael Gross is a standout talent as the perfectly pitched dad, lending an air of fatherly love as well as morbid longing to his voice portrayal of Carol’s father. The conclusion of Father’s Day is left ambiguous, but this does not lessen the impact of the segment as a whole.

I absolutely hate when people get down on horror movies. With such a tremendous variety to choose from, everyone can find one that matches their taste. If none of these worked for you, don’t worry. I’ll be back with more choice horror gems later this month. Happy scary movie month!

Watch and Talk is a column about movies. It seeks to not only review movies, but to simply talk about them. Watch and Talk looks at the various cultural impacts and aspects that movies can have.

The post Watch and Talk: Scary Movie Month appeared first on KRUI Radio.