A Keen Eye For News

The FalconMonday, September 17th, 2012

Volume 1. Issue 4.

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Eclipse Show Squeal Day

page 8 arts page 6

See who shook it up last week,

In Pictures

CROSS CAMPUS

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AMERICA UNDER ATTACK

cont. page 2

Ultimate Frisbee Begins

September 17Intramural Field

Rasheed Ali Cromwell

leadership seminarSeptember 19,

6pm – 7pmTBD

Lori Hart- Greek Speaker

September 18, 6:30 8:00pm

Palmer Auditorium

UPC Open Mic Night

September 20, 7pm – 9pm

Student Life Center

A Rapper Rises to the Top. The Catch? He Raps for Jesus. page 2

IN THIS ISSUE

by Andrew Mechum Associate Editor

American diplomatic missions came under attack last week when the film, “Innocence of Muslims”, sparked protests that swept the Muslim world. A coordinated attack during protests at the consul-ate in Benghazi, Libya left four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris-topher Stevens. Stevens was the first American ambassador killed since Adolf Dubs in 1979. Dubs was the American en-voy to Afghanistan at the time.

Rioters at the U.S. embassy in Cairo managed to scale the embassies’ out-er walls, remove the Ameri-can flag and replace it with a black Islamic flag last Tuesday.

The protests and attacks started on the eleventh anniver-sary of 9/11 and quickly spread through the Muslim world.

By weeks end Ameri-can embassies in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, Af-ghanistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, England and Austra-

lia were targeted by protestors.

The film that provided the impetus for worldwide pro-tests against America depicts the prophet Mohammad as a womanizer, impulsive brute and child molester. A trailer for the film can still be found on YouTube, but with less than half a million views it’s un-certain how many protestors actually saw any of the film.

The man believed to be behind the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, was taken in for questioning by authori-ties in Los Angeles late Satur-

day night. Going by several aliases, including Sam Bacile and PJ Tobacco, Nakoula is currently on probation and for-bidden from owning or using devices with internet access.

Authorities will de-termine if he violated the terms of his probation by posting the movie online.

Friday saw the worst day of protests against Ameri-can interests as violence erupt-ed outside embassies in Cairo, Tunisia and Khartoum, Sudan.

Sherlock Holmes Interest MeetingSeptember 22,

7pm – 8pmHill House

Photo: Andrew Mechum

The Falcon Page Two

news “If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?”

-W. Somerset Maugham

ELECTION

continued on page 3

Christian Rapper Tops Itunes Chartsby Neal EmbyStaff Writer

ATTACKcontinued

Three people were killed trying to enter the U.S. embassy in Tunisia, police used tear gas and built barricades to keep protesters from the embassy in Cairo and the German embassy in Khar-toum was set on fire before protesters set their sights on the U.S. embassy.

Attacks at Camp Bastion and Camp Leatherneck in Afghani-stan killed two marines and left sev-eral buildings and aircraft damaged. Sunday saw further attacks against the joint U.S./U.K. base that claimed the lives of four N.A.T.O. soldiers.

Here at home, the protests be-came political fodder for the presidential campaigns. On one hand the Romney camp complained the White House’s response was tepid. On the other, the Obama administration says Romney doesn’t possess the foreign affairs back-ground to comment on the situation.

The average American howev-er doesn’t seem to be phased however. As of Sunday Kim Kardashian, gas pric-es and President Obama rounded out the top three on Yahoo’s trending now.

According to Google’s Hot Searches “Innocence of Muslims” topped out at 200,000+ searches on September 12, but topics related to the protests never cracked the top three searches for the remainder of the week.

While the protests calmed down or evaporated over the week-end, the strong anti-U.S. senti-ment spreading across the Mus-lim world isn’t expected to fade entirely as the U.S. stepped up secu-rity at it’s embassies and consulates.

Christian rap-per Lecrae wasted no time letting people know he meant business in his lat-est album, Gravity. The first line drops like this:

“Turn the mu-sic up inside my ses-sion/These folks got-ta hear my message.”

The world heard him. After debuting as the number one album of any genre on iTunes, and selling more than 72,000 copies in its first week, Gravity has put Lecrae on top of the music world.

For those new to the Christian rap scene, this may be the first time they’ve heard of Lecrae. But the Houston-born rapper has been reinventing hip-hop for the last eight years.

After producing his first album in 2004, and

another in 2006, Lecrae be-gan to pick up followers as Christian rap slowly came on to the scene. His hit song “Jesus Muzik” is still wildly popular, and remains one of his most down-loaded songs on iTunes.

In 2004, he found-ed Reach Records, which now features many major Christian rappers. Lecrae also founded 116 Clique in 2005. 116 Clique cur-rently includes Lecrae, Tedashii, Trip Lee, Andy Mineo, PRo, KB and DJ Official. In the past, artists such as Sho Baraka, Shai Linne and Flame have also been a part of the group.

In 2008, Lecrae re-leased Rebel, which held the top spot on Billboard’s Gos-pel Music for two weeks. Songs from the album in-cluded the hit “Don’t Waste Your Life,” “Go Hard” and the title track, “Rebel.”

In 2010, Lecrae re-

leased Rehab, which also peaked in the top five of the Billboard 200 for Gospel/Hip-Hop. However, Lecrae had yet to break into the mainstream world and his name remained unknown to most secular hip-hop fans.

Fast-forward a year to May 2012. Lecrae re-leased the mixtape Church Clothes, hosted by secular DJ Don Cannon. The mix-tape, along with Gravity, helped Lecrae break into mainstream hip-hop by fea-turing several non-Christian rappers. The biggest non-Christian name on Gravity was Big K.R.I.T. who is fea-tured on the song “Mayday.”

The commercial success of his latest al-bum leaves Lecrae as the undisputed king of Chris-tian hip-hop, but Lecrae’s focus is on another king.

Lecrae began to follow Jesus at age 19 af-ter a car accident nearly

killed him. He then be-gan a life dedicated to spreading the gospel.

Lecrae is the first Christian rapper to reach the top of iTunes. TobyMac, a popular Christian artist that also reaches mainstream listeners, has also made it to the top of the charts.

So what does this mean for Chris-tian music, and the mu-sic world as a whole?

Lecrae is able to reach an audience that Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman and other main-stream Christian artists may not be able to reach. Those that have become disil-lusioned with the church culture and hymns that seem so traditional may be looking for something else. They may find it in Lecrae.

The rapper often

Monday, September 17th, 2012

The Falcon Page Three

RAPPERcontinuedrhymes about his hopes for those who live on the street, and his desire to reach his brothers and his culture with the gospel of Jesus Christ. This sentiment is shared among all of those who rap for the name of Jesus.

Consider one of his lines in the song “40 Deep,” a hard-hitting rap that displays his intent to make Jesus known in the projects and areas where the name is not known. “40 Deep” comes from the album “Rehab.”

“While we was younger only had two place to run to/One become an animal, two get out the jungle/So we got our lion on the line bro, that’s what we do/Run up on you and your

crew and tell you Jesus is the truth.”

Lecrae doesn’t care about the money, the cars or women. He wants to make Jesus known. In a world where secular rap is filled with rhymes about seeking pleasure in the things of the world, Lecrae boldly breaks away with lines glorifying God.

The impact he can have in his personal ministry is monumental, as he has the possibility to reach an entire culture that may not be reached by traditional methods. He and his colleague’s ministry may change the entire hip-hop/rap landscape.

Having worked with secular

artists, Lecrae has opened the door for future work with mainstream hip-hop and may have found a way to share the gospel with his fellow rappers.

We know that Lecrae’s not giving up until he dies. In the song “Go Hard” from “Rebel,” he says he “doesn’t want to die tonight, but there’s too many people living who ain’t heard about the Christ.”

The question is whether or not the world will recognize him and Christian rap as a whole before he goes. His raps are chal-lenging and encouraging. His work is groundbreaking. And his Lord is using him in a mighty way.

Check Out Our Falcon Playlist

Monday, September 17th, 2012

The Falcon is proud to announce another step into the frontier of online jour-nalism. We would like to introduce The Falcon Playlist. Via Spotify, this playlist will allow us to share directly with you the reader. The playlist gives you a point of reference for the stories you read in these articles and in the future. For example, a variety of songs by Christian rapper Lecrae and punk outfit Useless Eaters, both are mentioned in this issue, are listed in The Falcon Playl-ist. All of us being big fans of music, this Fal-con Playlist will allow the staff to share what they’re into and showcase new or ris-ing artist. To listen to the playlist simply visit us at our website, www.thefalconat.tumblr.com or if you have Spotify search for “The Falcon Playlist” in the search bar. Here at The Falcon we are determined to push the boundaries and realize the potential of online media, if you have a suggestion or an idea please contact us via facebook or e-mail us at thefalconeditor@gmail.com.

by Kyle JonesEditor-In-Chief

THEE OH SEES / TY SEGALLWEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 | 9:00PMBOTTLETREE CAFEDoors at 8 pm / Show at 9 pm / 18 + / $13 adv / $15 day of

The Falcon Page Four

campusHush Puppies Roll Through Campus

By Rosemary MaguireStaff Writer

“News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”

- Lord Northcliffe

Photo: Rosie Maguire

Students walking by the cafeteria Wednesday, September 12, may have noticed a four-legged, floppy-eared visitor. A puppy caught the eye of many a student, posing for pictures and exposing her belly for rubbing. Penny isn’t just any dog, though. The 19 week-old Bassett Hound is the official Spokes-pup for Hushpuppies Brand Shoes. She is accompanying her mother and Hushpuppies Marketing Man-ager, Shannon Kennedy on the brand’s very first “Off the Leash” Airstream tour.

Penny and company were set up in a retro-airstream in front of the University of Mon-tevallo’s cafeteria for most of the day Wednesday offering students free goodies (including koozies, keychains, and autographed pic-tures of Penny), informing them about the new direction Hush-puppies is heading, and helping passersby enter in a contest to receive a free pair of shoes.

Hushpuppies was founded in 1958 and at the time focused mostly on comfort. This year, the company seeks to maintain com-fort while reinventing the look of their lines. UM students who missed the tour can still benefit. Entering the code: MONTEVAL-LO-OTL20 at hushpuppies.com will get you 20% off full-price merchandise until October 31.

Squealin’ All the Way Home

Monday, September 17th, 2012

Photo: Dillon Owens

The gauntlet of sorority recruitment ended last week. This now puts most of the sororities back at their member capacity. A total of 168

by Kyle JonesEditor-In-Chief

girls began the process of recruitment but those numbers slowly dwin-dled night after night due to the process of preference and selection.

The quota based on the amount of women going through the pro-cess was set at 22 for

continued on page 9

PNM’s anxiously await to unveil their bids.

The Falcon Page Six

a week in picturesMonday, September 17th, 2012

Squeal Dayby Dillon Owens Staff Photographer

The Falcon Page Five

editorialLies and Laziness on the Campaign Trail 2012

by Andrew Mechum Associate Editor

This November we are all expected to go to the polls and cast our vote for which direction we want America to go in. Or at least that’s how major media has framed the story. It’s a case of us against them, one side or the other, red versus blue.

We are bombarded with the idea that one party will lead us to glory and the other down the road to destruction. Which party is which of course de-pends on whose side you favor.

But I don’t think there is a right side. There can’t be a right side if the system itself is broken.

If I were to poll every student and faculty member at UM on wheth-er or not they think politicians lie, I’m willing to bet the majority would say yes. Yet, we still vote for them.

It’s widely believed that lob-byists have their hands in politician’s pockets. It’s widely believed this practice is hurting government. Yet, we as a people do nothing about it.

Moreover, the very sys-tem we use to elect presidents is ripe for misuse. According to the National Archives and Re-cords Administration’s website:

“There is no Constitutional provision or Federal law that re-quires Electors to vote according to the results of the popular vote in their States. Some States, however, require Electors to cast their votes according to the popular vote. These pledges fall into two categories—Electors

bound by State law and those bound by pledges to political parties.”

The site goes on to say:

“Generally, the political parties nominate Electors at their State party conventions or by a vote of the party’s central committee in each State. Electors are often cho-sen to recognize service and dedi-cation to their political party. They may be State-elected officials, party leaders, or persons who have a personal or political affiliation with the Presidential candidate.”

This, to me, is shocking. While oversight may be in place to pre-vent any misuse of power on the part of Electoral College mem-bers, the simple fact that there is no law requiring them to cast their vote according to the popular vote leaves room for malfeasance.

Combined with the fact that members can be appoint-ed as favors for “dedication to their political party” the window for abuse widens even further.

Regardless of whom you vote for in this coming election, and regardless of the popular vote, the election will be decided by the num-ber of electoral votes the candidates receive. But is there a better way?

When the founding fathers drafted the Constitution and set forth the laws that govern the elect-ing of public officials communica-tion between the states was limited. Today we have the ability to send messages in text, video and multi-media across the globe in seconds.

With the advances in tech-nology wouldn’t it be possible to tally every American’s vote indi-vidually without the Electoral Col-lege? After all, if American Idol can do it, why can’t big government?

Our system of government has been a beacon of freedom and hope since it’s founding. I don’t propose we destroy it, I propose we improve it. We have allowed our government to bog itself down in red tape and unnecessary buer-acracy under the guise of helping us.

I don’t blame any one presi-dent or class of congress for the $16 trillion in debt our nation is in. I blame the American people for continuing to elect corrupt politi-cians to an equally corrupt system.

Every election cycle the media trot out the tired line of “the most important election in Ameri-can history”. This year some of you may buy that line more so than in years past, and you wouldn’t be wrong. This election is important.

What is more important is that we as Americans, collectively, sit down and take an active roll in our government. The changes we can bring to this country don’t stop at electing candidate A over can-didate B. If all 314 million of us stand up and demand real and last-ing change, we just might get it.

Of course, that would mean putting down your super sized so-das and turning of your favorite re-ality TV show and actually work-ing for change. God help America.

Monday, September 17th, 2012

arts&culturePage Seven

Review: The Killers-Battle Born

By Matt SanderlinArts & Culture Editor

The Falcon

“Resident Evil a Resident Nightmare”By Mandy Steadman Staff Writer

continued on page nine

The Killers are a strange phenomenon in pop music culture. Born from a Las Ve-gas-based cover band, The Killers have kept fragments of their for-mer glitter and glam throughout their short-but-successful ca-reer, whilst threading strands of their major

The feel of a movie theater is like no other. The smell of fresh pop-corn in the air, long lines of people and kids jumping with excitement for their tickets, and the ca-sual list of movie

pop influences (U2, De-peche Mode, David Bowie etc.) through the core of their catalogue. T h e band’s fifth studio album, Battle Born, finds the band picking up where they left off four years ago with Day & Age. The soundscapes are even bigger than already-expansive past singles like “Human” and “Spaceman” previously were - Early-al-bum track “Here With Me” as well as opener “Flesh and Bone” both channel danger-ous levels of stadium rock with their extra-extra doses of reverb and thundering vocal arrangements. And now, while this commanding take on the

ageless pop/rock formula bolsters the band’s sound into U2 and Damn the Tor-pedoes-era Tom Petty terri-tory, the sonic atmospheres of the first half of the album border flippantly on becom-ing overblown and over-emotional. Leader Brandon Flowers is a strong propo-nent of the “story-song;” and while this is an admi-rable approach to song-writing, when every lyric cheaply mirrors his formula for hit single “A Dustland Fairytale,” the lyrical nar-ratives quickly become convoluted and nearly con-trived. (See “Miss Atomic Bomb,” “The Way It Was,” and even preliminary single

“Runaways,” though it’s less severe than the others.)

The sparser and less-overdramatic “Dead-lines and Commitments” is a solid, mid-album refresher piece, and the acoustic-based Jackson Browne-esque “From Here on Out” is short-and-sweet; giving the record at least a few de-cent tunes to be proud of.

Battle Born might be produced to fight for your attention, but the ex-cessive production and down-your-throat melodies ultimately backfire and burn before they warm. A “pick-and-choose”-er, at best.

times blinking in front of your face. This was the feel on open-ing day for the newest movie in the Resident Evil franchise: Resident Evil: Retribution.

The Resident Evil movies have been known for their precision kung-fu, stel-lar special-effects, and zom-bie apocalyptic drama. This current movie, however, was a total disappointment. Go-ing to the movies is supposed to be a fun experience watch-ing a work of art with people you care about. This movie was not worth the 10 dollars.

Resident Evil: Retribu-tion, directed by Paul Ander-

son, takes place in a futuristic apocalyptic world where a virus is sweeping the globe and turn-ing those infected into zombies with special powers. The hu-man race is close to extinction and it is up to Alice, a woman who once worked for the Um-brella Company that created the virus, to join with the re-maining survivors and help the human race regain control.

The whole movie was so extremely fast paced there was no build-up; there was not even a recognizable cli-max. Every story told has to have a set list of events and a booming climax in order to keep the audience interested.

It went from an attack, to the main character, Alice, in a holding facility, to another at-tack, to attempt at escape, to another attack and so on. Quite frankly, it was so fast paced it was hard to keep up and be-came somewhat hard to watch.

The acting was almost mortifying to watch. Sienna Guillory, who played Jill Val-entine, was absolutely disap-pointing. Her character seemed so unreal; her performance was no more than her reading her lines off of a cue card or off of the top of her head. Her fighting skills were also so be-low par for a movie like this.

Monday, September 17th, 2012

arts&cultureThe Falcon

I’ve noticed a reoccurring motif at an Eclipse live show: a red light. This light sits in the corner of the room, and casts a certain cough syrup-like color over the walls and the bands that play there. Whether this adds a certain ambience to the beauty that is live music, or its just whatever the employees can dig up to deco-rate, it acts as a signal: the lights get turned down, the red light is cast, and the opening beats of a song start.

Friday night’s show kicked off with a short set from Dommel Mosel, the one man project of UAB student Adam Measle. He told me he normally plays solo, but John-Paul Foster and Chris McCauley from local band Holy Youth joined him to play drums and bass respectively. Adam’s songs ranged from slower, short num-bers, to faster ravers, all emotionally packed and smothered in distortion.

While Adam’s vocals were covered in a thick blanket of reverb, what could be made out seemed to mean a lot to him, which really made the songs hit home. Adam seemed extremely happy to play his songs, laughing during certain verses, a grin plastered on his face throughout. “They’re doing awe-some!”, Adam told the crowd about his temporary band mates; the two really did drive his tunes, and John-Paul seemed especially loose com-pared to Holy Youth’s show two weeks ago. After around 7 songs, Adam cheerily announced the end of his set, packed up his equip-ment, and dispersed into the crowd to chat with new fans and patrons.

What do you get when you mix psychedelia, sea shanties, and a healthy comparison to the warbled

Sea Shanties and Punk Stompvocals of Modest Mouse leader Isaac Brock: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A self-proclaimed “Delta psychedelica” collective from my hometown of Mobile, Alabama, they play an Elephant 6 like brand of homespun rock-ditties, with sub-jects ranging from the local Mobilian hero of the Peanut Man, to “falling in love with a high-class stripper”.

The band was fronted by the enigmatic David Macclay (AKA Captain Nemo) as singer and gui-tar player, and was backed by UM student Virginia Phillips on march-ing bass drum, Jonathon Ashley on snare drum, and Alan Anderson on Hammond organ. This rag-tag band played everything from waltz, to hi-ho pirate tunes, to odes to mari-juana (in which they got the entire audience to join). Nemo wiggled, and stood tip toe while playing and singing, his moves almost as slippery as the tone of his guitar.

Snare drummer Jonathon Ashley was a must watch. Despite having only one snare and a cymbal to bash out the required rhythms, Ashley really drove and grounded the songs, equal parts smacking and tapping to the pulse of the music. While 20K Leagues recorded mate-rial relies on brass, acoustic instru-ments, and watery effects to get their point across, their live show was a much more amped up affair, espe-cially with set closing songs like “I Don’t Call It Livin’” and “Voodoo”.

The audience jumped and danced to 20K’s weirdo-waltzes, smiling and laughing at Nemo’s strange banter between certain songs. I’d heard of these guys long before I came here, and can hon-estly say that the hype that sur-rounds them is well deserved.

Fans new and old can pick up the band’s 2011 self-titled CD from our very own Dharma Records.

It was around 11:30 by the time headlining band Useless Eaters began to play, and the audience members were already well soused with alcohol. I had checked these guys out prior to their performance, and had declared the songs from their two 2012 re-leases as clear, dry post-punk. Guitar playing with chiming leads, tight-constraining rhythms, and singer Seth Sutton moaning and pouting in a paranoid call.

This, however, was not the case live. As a UM student behind me remarked: “With the jean jacket [singer Seth Sutton] is wearing, [the cut off t-shirt] the bassist has on, and the upside down American flag on that amp, I think these guys are gonna be a lot heavier”. With a few bass throbs and rapid fire drum hits, the show started, and the prediction came true

I wrote down several made up adjectives that fit with the word punk while these guys jammed: boul-der punk, cauldron punk, gravel punk, weight punk, lightning punk, and finally, clomp punk. Seth’s play-

By Reed StrengthStaff Writer

continued on page nine

Photo: Reed Strength

ing ranged from frenetic power chords to pin sharp leads. Mustached bass-ist Chet’s playing was like listening to a miked cannonball being dropped into a pipe; the bass overtook Seth’s gui-tar leads on more than one occasion.

Drummer Casey really stole the show, his wild hair bobbing and swing-ing with his frenetic playing. Fills became overflows, cymbal crashes became wrecks, and whatever rat-a-tat-tat snare playing that could be heard on their “Black Night Ultra-violet” EP was given away to machine-gun like bursts. The man literally had his own pitcher of water to cool himself down; a break his drum kit probably appreciated.

The audience was divided in the noise that these guys dished out. Those near the front bobbed, clapped, and shook to the storm. The back half was more docile, sip-ping drinks and looking mildly disinter-ested. “Alright guys, this is our last one”, a sweaty Seth announced to the crowd. A few patrons decided to jibe the band, ask-ing just what the band’s name was and call-ing for tunes from Creed and Green Day.

Seth took a few moments, grinned at his band mates, and started a dron-ing chord sequence. With a very classic “1…2…3…4”, the band rocketed into their closer, the patrons’ requests choked by the wall of distorted and explosive in-strumentation before them. Cody, one half of what makes up Dharma House Records here in Montevallo told me that the late garage rock saint Jay Reatard was a for-mer member of this band. “Maybe Jay was here in spirit, man.”, he later mused. I remembered early in the Useless Eat-er’s set that a beer bottle, originally rest-ing on the bar, had been smashed to the floor. Perhaps it was Jay, attempting to add his noise to his old band’s show.

At the moment, 20K Leagues Un-der the Sea are working on new material, with a new album arriving soon. Useless Eaters finished their tour on the 15th. They just dropped a new EP “Black Night Ultra Violet”, and it is now available on Manimal Records. A new album, titled “Hyperten-sion” will be released sometime in the Fall.

The Falcon Page Nine

PUNK MOVIEcontinued continued

Milla Jovovich, who plays Alice, and Johann Urb, who plays Leon, were the only adult actors who proved they had some acting ability. Although, it was still un-impressive how they carried them-selves in the movie, they actually showed some form of emotion in the deliverance of their lines and their reactions to the events around them.

The only actor that was truly memorable was the young actress Aryana Enineer, who played Becky: a clone who believes Alice to be her mother. She had so much poten-tial, so much charisma she truly fell through with her character. She is such a young actress, but she has the talent to transform herself into her character and be truly believable.

The onscreen combat for this movie was good, but it was not great. This movie’s signature is showing the action sequences in a very slow motion so the audience can see every kick, every gunshot, every punch, but also every mistake. There were basic techniques in these sequences, but there was nothing tru-ly impressive in those movements.

The beginning of the mov-ie, however, was the best part of this entire film. There is this sense of alertness, yet a sudden el-egance to the beginning. The audi-ence gets to see an attack on a gi-ant ship take place in total reverse. The actors ran backwards, the gun shots were pulled back into their guns, the dead came back to life. It was an extremely cool site to see, especially in such great detail.

This movie thrives on the video games based off of this story. It seemed to be directed like it was a video game from the monotone two-worded banter, to the descrip-tions and designs of the monsters. It was a basic video game with basic goals and strategies, but without the player sitting in a dark room glued to the screen and the controller.

Resident Evil: Retribution is an unimpressive feat that failed in trying to be epic and memorable. It had its few good moments, but it is not worth buying a ticket to see it at the local box office. This film gets a 2.5 out of 5

Monday, September 17th, 2012

each sorority, meaning that each sorority could only take in 22 girls out of the total 168. With five soror-ities on campus and 22 spots each, that means that 58 girls would not be getting bids from the beginning.

Though during the pro-cess, the number was increased for each sorority based on the amount of girls who were invited back to Pref or Preference Night and the amount of girls that didn’t “sui-cide” (writing down only one so-rority as your preference) them.

SQUEALcontinued

A total of 126 women re-ceived bids from each of the five sororities on campus, leaving 42 women who either dropped them-selves or were left empty handed.

got an idea?

E-mail us atthefalconeditor@gmail.com

10The Falcon

SPORTSWhat’s All The Fuss About?By Joey AntonioSports Editor

When many people think of labor unions, one may tend to think of someone who is blue collar, middle to lower class and just an overall average, working class Joe. This someone probably wears a uniform accompanied by steel-toed boots, a hard hat and carries a lunch pail to work. Not this time. The Unions that will be spoken of in the coming dialog is white collar and their business is quite lucrative. That’s right, I’m talking about the unions in professional sports.

During the infancy of professional sports teams, there truly was a need for unions. This was due to the fact that players were seen as property, who could be bartered like cattle at their own expense by villainous, cigar-smoking owners who paid them unbalanced wages, with no rights to pensions, or healthcare benefits.

Nowadays sports unions almost appear asinine, as players make elephantine salaries, not to mention that they can possess contracts with no-trade clauses, or have an option to explore free agency. They also have the benefit of an all-expenses paid hotel and accommodations while traveling to play visiting opponents. All of these luxuries should all but dissolve the need for these unions, but within the past couple of years they have been more active than ever.

Following the 2010-11 NFL season, many fans, owners and players feared that the following year would be lost to a strike, as owners and players repeatedly failed to find a uniting common ground that

would save the ensuing season. However, in the nick of

time the season was saved as the collective bargaining agreement was signed and all was right and well in the world of the NFL.

The NBA was not quite as lucky. During the same year, the NBA also faced a lockout as multi-millionaires sparred with billionaires over what was “fair” and what wasn’t. The lockout, unlike that of the NFL’s, extended into the regular season, forcing the league to shorten the season from 82 games to just 66. This also occurred back during the 1998-99 season as well, as the strike lasted even longer, resulting in a rather lean 50 game season.

If it sounds ludicrous to you to think about cry-baby millionaires and billionaires dabbing their misty eyes and runny noses with 100-dollar bills, then the next part is really going to sound absolutely absurd. Why? Well because the referees think the sports world owes them something as well. It seems everybody wants a piece of the action and the idea that the water boys or the wash workers want to unionize next might not seem much of a stretch for some.

What is going on here is more of the same. In a nutshell it is that management wants to give the union less of something. The union wants more of it. The union wants less of something. Management wants more. Yadda, yadda, yadda, now the league is stuck (hopefully temporarily) with referees who possess less than sophomoric job skills who miss

more calls than an answering machine from the 1980’s. Seriously? Refs have beef too?

As crazy as the world as a whole seems to be collectively going, the rich and the brainless certainly appear to be the ones leading the way. Are these people who beg for labor unions and “equality” so blinded by success that they do not realize that they already have it better than most people on this earth? Do they not realize that they have already made it to the top echelon as some of the richest and most elite people in the world? How much is enough for them? I’ll let Gordon Gekko answer that one. “It’s not a question of enough, it’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another.” Just another day in the life, so it now seems.

Labor Unions and the recent rise Of Union Strikes in Professional Sports

Monday, September 17th, 2012

The Falcon Page 11

religionMonday, September 17th, 2012

Ecclesia, in the orig-inal Greek, means “a gath-ering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly.” It is typically associated with the English word “church.”

For some Mon-tevallo students, Ecclesia has come to mean home. The college ministry at the Church at Shelby Crossings is very active on the campus, and this year the ministry welcomes a new minister.

Jeremy Maxfield, 32, previously served as a student pastor for youth at the Church at Shelby Cross-ings and also works as an editorial director for Nav-Press. Now, the Georgia and Samford graduate is serving as the college pastor and leader of one of Monte-vallo’s Christian ministries.

“When they (the church) started looking for a new leader, I told them until they found that guy, I’d like to help. Then I was asked if I would be that guy,” Maxfield said.

Ecclesia, as he de-scribes it, is “a community of students that gather together for worship and encour-age each other spiritually.”

“There’s a really sol-id, spiritually mature, but re-ally fun group of students al-ready involved. It’s exciting to me to see their ownership, and personal investment in the ministry,” Maxfield said.

Last year, Eccle-sia led the campus during Freedom Week, a weeklong effort to help put an end to modern-day slavery and hu-man trafficking, by hosting speakers, fundraisers and raising awareness on cam-pus. Maxfield wants to con-tinue to do things that involve the community as a whole.

“We want to be in-tentional about saying that Ecclesia is bigger than the campus at the University

of Montevallo. There are people all around us that go to Montevallo that don’t live on campus, or maybe go to another school. This is a community for ev-eryone,” Maxfield said.

Maxfield, and Ec-clesia’s students, have one mission, and it’s the gospel. The reason Maxfield be-lieves so strongly in Eccle-sia is because he believes so strongly in the gospel.

“I believe in the gos-pel that has changed my own life. A lot of that change hap-pened while I was in college. For me, it’s an honor and gratitude to what Christ has done in my own life to help other students. We really

get to decide what life’s go-ing to be about. We can help them as they wrestle with their faith,” Maxfield said.

College offers such a wide range of options when it comes to social cir-cles, and Ecclesia hopes to help students live out their faith. For those who don’t know the gospel, the hope is to help lead them to the gos-pel. Maxfield emphasized seeing beyond hang-ups and working through doubts.

“Ecclesia’s goal is to help introduce people to the gospel, and to the fact that it is a lifestyle. The real thrust of Ecclesia is helping people, whether they know the gospel or not, to live out their own faith. It’s to help people grow,” Maxfield said.

Jeremy lives in Ala-baster with his wife Aman-da. They have been married for ten years. They have three daughters: Analyn, 6, Ella, 4, and Katy Jane, 3.

Ecclesia meets Thursday nights at 8 p.m. in Comer auditorium for a time of worship and fellow-ship. On the first Thursday of every month, they meet at the Church at Shelby Crossings. The group also has a Facebook page: Face-book.com/EcclesiaPage.

Ecclesia Welcomes A New Leaderby Neal EmbyStaff Writer

Follow me at @nealembry

The Falcon Page 12

technologyMonday, September 17th, 2012

In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone, a revolutionary blend of smooth technology, and advanced engineering that paved the way for the modern smart phone. Every couple of years, Apple has upgraded the product. The models always seem to have faster internet, better cam-era abilities, sleeker designs, and a slew of new features to make Apple-tech fanat-ics go wild. While Apple has faced many competitors in the Smart Phone market, it still seems to come out on top, with over 12 mil-lion iPhones sold since its initial 2007 release date.

Apple on Wednes-day announced the newest model of iPhone to be re-leased, the iPhone 5. Billed as “The Biggest Thing to Hap-pen to iPhone since iPhone”, the catch phrase must refer to its increased screen size. The iPhone 5 has a 4.87 in. high display, exactly 0.27 in. taller than the iPhone 4; it also measured to be 18% thinner, and is 20% lighter than the 4 and 4S models.

What exactly does this mean for the user? Apple’s website says that the extra 0.27 in. will en-able the user “to see more of every web page, more of your inbox, more of your

The Most Amazing iPhone Yet…Hasn’t Changed Much

calendar, and more apps on your home screen”. I say, so what? The iPhone 4’s screen wasn’t tiny (its 0.27 in. smaller after all), and seeing more of webpages doesn’t mean less pinch-zooming and widening.

As far as the extra 4 spaces available for apps, it can total 40 more avail-able spaces for apps on the 10 pages of app space within the home menu of the phone; its more convenience for your favorite icons than functionality however, as the app folder feature intro-duced long ago made sorting a large amount of apps easy.

The iPhone 5, like all its predecessors, comes with an increased retina dis-play to make that picture of a flower or lake ripples that much clearer. It has 18% more pixels than the iPhone 4s (totaling 326 pixels to be exact), and is purported to “have a pixel resolution so high, that your eye can’t dis-tinguish individual pixels.” Color saturation is also said to be 44% greater. So: clear-er and brighter. I’d say this is a plus, as it is improved; too be honest, though, it’s what everyone expected Apple to do with the new model from the get-go.

For the big changes, the new iPhone 5 comes with an upgraded version

of its central A chip, the A6, which is said to be “twice as fast as the A5”. That means smoother graphics as well. The battery life listings read as 10 hours of web brows-ing (one more than the iPhone 4), 8 hours of talk time, and 10 hours of video playback. Standby time (the amount of battery life you phone has when you’re not directly using it) is listed as 225 hours, a disappointing comparison to the original iPhone 4’s 300 hours, and a slight improvement over the 4S’s mere 200 hours.

Another new fea-ture is the “Lightning Pin” dock on the bottom of the phone, where the con-nector dock is located for charging the battery and hooking up to a computer. Where the old iPhone mod-els consistently used the 90 pin style dock, Apple has changed the design, detail-ing the Lightning design as “more durable” and “re-versible…there’s no wrong way to connect the cable”.

I personally had no problem figuring which end of the 90 pin cable fit into my Apple device, and which fit into my computer. The Lightning pin cable presents another problem: all old apple accessories (speakers, charging ports, etc.) will need an adapter to work with the iPhone 5, an extra $29.99

added to the purchase of the phone itself. Apple says it is confident that the new style of cable will catch on and revolutionize the market.

In addition to the new features of the iPhone 5 itself, Apple is also de-buting a newly designed set of ear buds to come bun-dled with the phone. The newly named “earpods” is a response to the common complaints Apple has got-ten for its earbuds. These new models are designed to fit in any ear, and does away with the gray-single speaker port. Instead, there are 3 smaller speaker ports: one in the back, two on the stem, one on the side, and the larger one on the front.

These numerous ports are said to allow air flow and greater sound fre-quency. Will it? That’s for the consumer to decide. However, while I never had a problem with Apple’s orig-inal ear-buds, it’s a smart move to update what they used to be so heralded for: sound. It probably doesn’t hurt to throw in whatever updates they can, given that the iPhone 5 isn’t ex-actly revolutionary looking.

Apps are a feature Apple loves to advertise: “The App Store has the world’s largest collection of Mobile apps” says the Apple

By Reed StrengthStaff Writer

site. Apple has improved several built-in apps for the iPhone 5, and one of the biggest seems to be Maps. While the original Maps app had been a useful GPS, it was a dangerous one, as check-ing just where you as the blue dot were, caused a lot of scary near-accidents.

This new Maps is “built from the ground up”, according to Apple. In addition to an updated design, it fea-tures a new turn by turn GPS system, with Apple’s robotic female compan-ion Siri calling directions. It also fea-tures a traffic feature, updating you as to just what is causing a slowdown, and supplying you with alternate routes around traffic. The third new feature, and probably the most useless,

The Falcon Page 13Monday, September 17th, 2012

IPHONEcontinued

is Flyover: a 3D generator of any ma-jor metropolitan city that allows you to “zoom, pan, tilt, and rotate” around to “explore cities in high resolution”.

The iSight camera does not get as big of an overhaul as Maps: it’s still an 8 mega-pixel camera; it’s still got the flash, face recognition, and the edit features. The only 2 differences? The front face camera, used for Face-time and uh..pictures of your face, is now a 1.2 mega pixel camera that can record 720p HD video, and the back-side camera now features a Panormaic mode. It’s always been a fine cam-era, and the new improvements will please those tired of their loved ones faces becoming grainy in Facetime.

The price of the iPhone 5 is the same as any of the older models with a contract: $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB, and $399 for 64GB. All in all, I feel what Apple has shown in the iPhone 5, should’ve been with the iPhone 4S upgrade. It doesn’t look like a new model, as much as a taller, fast-er version of the iPhone 4. Perhaps the features that Apple has explained and showcased will actually revolutionize the market. Though, some early re-ports say that what Apple has shown doesn’t quite cut it compared to oth-er SmartPhones. The official release date for the iPhone 5 is September 21.

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The Falcon Page 14

the staffnext weeks issue- Falcon Fever Preview- Intramural Pictures-Montevallo Election Update-A Month in Review

and more...September 24th 2012

is accepting articles and applications for staff positionscontact us at thefalconeditor@gmail.com

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EditorsEditor-In-Chief:

Kyle Jones

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Sports Editor:Joseph Antonio

Campus & Local Editor:Joseph Thornton

Staff WritersRosemary Maguire

Mandy SteadmanNeal Embry

Reed Strength

ColumnistDavis Hayden

PhotographerDillon Owens

Monday, September 17th, 2012