A Keen Eye For News

The FalconMonday, April 22nd, 2013

Volume 2. Issue 13.

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News Arts & Culture

page 2

What is CISPA?How does it effect you?

The MHO presentsThe Return ofChi Tea

CROSS CAMPUS

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thefalconmontevallo

National Blueberry Pie Day

Sunday, Apr 28, 2013

UPC Midnight BreakfastApril 28, 10pm-12amAnna Irvn/Cafeteria

The Road to Record Store Day

IN THIS ISSUE

Philadelphia abortion doctor on trial for murder

CSM Honors RecitalThu, May 2, 7pm – 8pm

LeBaron Recital Hall

Trumpet Studio RecitalMay 1, 7:30pm – 8:30pm

LeBaron Recital Hall

Finals Stress Buster Hands and Paw

April 30, 11am – 12pm

Montevallo ChoraleApril 30, 7:30pm–8:30pm

LeBaron Recital Hall

page 4

Boston suspects stopped

NEAL EMBRYStaff Writer|

ANDREW MECHUMAssociate Editor | @amechum

REED STRENGTHArts&Culture Editor | @ReedStrength

The murder of an MIT police officer Thursday night caused a manhunt in the small Massachusetts towns of Cambridge and Wa-tertown that ended in the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the cap-ture of Dzhokhar Tsar-naev, the suspects of the Boston Marathon bombing last Monday. Around 10:30 pm on Thursday night, the two brothers robbed a 7/11 at gunpoint. Later, a night time MIT officer was checking on a dis-turbance report around the Strata Center of the campus. The officer, 26 year old Sean Col-lier, was shot and killed by the two suspects.The brothers then car-jacked a Mercedes SUV. Police inter-cepted the vehicle and began to follow it. The brothers reportedly crashed the

W a r n i n g : This story contains graphic language The case of Ker-mit Gosnell, a Phila-delphia abortion doctor suspected of killing at least eight people, in-cluding seven babies, has gripped the coun-try, leaving citizens on both sides of the abor-tion debate horrified. The details listed in the grand jury report are incredibly gruesome, and again, a warning to read-ers that the following is extremely graphic.

car. Once exposed, a firefight broke out with the police. The broth-ers used homemade grenades in addition to guns. An officer was shot and is still in seri-ous condition. Tamerlan was shot and killed after attempting to throw a pressure cooker bomb at the attacking authori-ties. His brother jumped back into the Mercedes and reportedly ran over his dead sibling’s body in the heat of escaping. Tsnarnaev end-ed up crashing the car again, escaping authori-ties on foot as he entered Watertown. A massive manhunt started in the

area, with police shut-ting down 20 blocks of a neighborhood. SWAT teams went door to door in search of the sus-pect. Residents were put on high alert, and were told to remain in-side until he was found.The manhunt was called off when police were unable to locate Tsnarev by 6 p.m. Fri-day night. However, the 19 year old was still in Watertown, hidden just a block outside the lockdown perimeter. When Water-town resident David Henneberry went into his backyard to check on his boat, he noticed

something amiss. In-specting further, he noticed blood on the tarp covering of his boat. The shaken resi-dent ran back to his house and called 9-11. Once officers began to descend on the scene, a brief spout of gunfire was exchanged. After negotiations with Tsnarnaev leaving the boat himself failed, a mechanised device with a retractable arm was used to tear away at the tarp covering the suspect.Police then entered the boat and dragged a bloodied and wounded Tsnarev out. Officer Richard Donahue, who

had been wounded by the Tsnarev brothers in the first gunfight, was given the honor of ar-resting the perpetrator. The suspect is currently in serious con-dition at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hos-pital. Due to the events leading to his capture, the public safety ex-ception to the Miranda Rights Law has been implemented. Inves-tigators have slowly begun to question the suspect without his Mi-randa Rights read to him, but his wounds prevent him from speak-ing. Instead, he has begun to answer ques-tions through writing.

“He (Gos-nell) regularly and il-legally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of preg-nancy—and then mur-dered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors.” But it wasn’t just abortion. The clinic was described as being similar to a third-world country, with stray cats wandering around and cat feces on the floor. There was blood everywhere, accord-ing to reports. There were organs and body parts from the victims stored in jars. The re-port calls the clinic a “baby charnel house.” Numerous vio-lations were allegedly committed, accord-ing to basic health and safety rules. Medical

equipment was unster-ilized, the emergency exit was padlocked and staffers as young as 15 worked there. Gosnell was the only doctor on staff. Two employees, according to the grand jury report, had been to medical school, but neither of them were licensed physicians. Gosnell report-edly made millions of dollars from his practice, right under the nose of Philadel-phia health officials. The grand jury, and most Americans that have voiced their opinion, agree that this isn’t abortion…this is murder. And that the Philadelphia authorities neglected that, choosing to not enforce laws that require abortion clinics to provide the same lev-

el of care as other pro-viders, such as hospitals. In Philadelphia, the cutoff for legal abortions is 24 weeks. Gosnell is accused of providing abortions for cash to poor expectant mothers that were past that date. This wasn’t news to Gosnell, either, as Conor Friedersdorf, one of the first writ-ers to talk about the situation, quotes in his story in The Atlantic. "Gosnell admit-ted to Detective Wood that at least 10 to 20 percent of the fetuses were probably older than 24 weeks in ges-tation - even though Pennsylvania law pro-hibits abortions after 24 weeks. In some instanc-es, surgical incisions had been made at the base of the fetal skulls."

What’s even more shocking, at least in the eyes of the public, is the supposed silence of the mainstream me-dia. Gosnell has been working in the business for around 30 years, and a raid occurred in 2010 in his Philadelphia of-fice. But with the ex-ception of a few stories here and there, the case remained unknown until it went to trial recently. Kirsten Powers of USA Today, along with Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic, helped shed light on the media

blackout. Their sto-ries shamed the media and provided the public with details about the case. Since the news broke, Twitter has ex-ploded with people calling for CNN, Fox News, NBC and other major outlets to cover the case. So far, only the Washington Post has had regular updates. What are your thoughts on the Gos-nell trial? What do you still want to know about it? Let us know on Facebook or Twit-ter @TheUMFalcon.

The Falcon Page Two

news “In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

-George Orwell

by Matt SanderlinArts & Culture Editor

Established 2012An Independant Student Newspaper

Jimmy Lee Dykes suspect in kidnapping

Follow me at @amechum

ANDREW MECHUMAssociate Editor | @amechum

CONTACT US AT:

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFKyle Jones

ASSOCIATE EDITORAndrew Mechum

ARTS&CULTURE EDITORReed Strength

STAFF WRITERSNeal Embry

Mandy SteadmanJake Smith

Teddie TaylorMatthew Lord

Clarke StackhouseConnor Bucy

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Fertilizer Plant Explodes in TexasMEGAN ROBERTSContributing Writer |

House passes CISPA bill

A fertilizer plant violently exploded north of Waco, TX at approxi-mately 7:50 P.M. lo-cal time on April 17th. The explosion, report-edly heard from dozens of miles away, killed15 people and left at least 160 seriously injured. Following the explosion, the nearby community of 2,600 was quickly evacuated as impending dangers of the aftermath were evaluated. At least one hundred people were rushed into Waco’s Hill-crest Hospital as well. State troopers

JAKE SMITHStaff Writer|

donned gas masks and began searching the area for evidence of what happened in ad-dition to searching the grounds for other sur-vivors. Six helicopters also flew over the area with orders to search and rescue those affect-ed by the blast. Since the initial evacuation, the community has been reopened, and residents have been allowed to return to their homes. However, the primary concern after the blast was the fact that an intact fertilizer tank remained in the facility. Many feared it would detonate as well, but as of yet it has not. Firefighters also noted concern over the airborne spread of an-hydrous ammonia, a potentially fatal chemi-cal that the fertilizer

might have released into the atmosphere in the blast. Fortunately, after five days of obser-vation, no significant amount of anhydrous ammonia has been de-tected in the local air. The plant is also suspected of containing 270 tons of ammonium nitrate, the primary in-gredient used in the Oklahoma City bombs. The plant did not report this number to local health and safe-ty bureaus which is il-legal. However, it is not currently clear wheth-er or not the chemi-cal caused the blast. As of yet, there has been no official sta-tistics released, and local rescue personnel have been relatively silent on the matter. Stay with The Falcon for updates as they are released.

Chances are you aren’t even read-ing this on its intended date. As we publish on Mondays and hacktiv-ist group Anonymous has called for an Inter-net blackout on Mon-day April 22 to raise awareness of a bill mov-ing through Congress. On April 18 the House of Representa-tives passed H.R. 624: Cyber Intellignece Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The votes were 288 yeas and 127 nays with 17 not voting. CISPA is con-sidered dangerous be-cause it overrides the Wiretap Act and Elec-tronic Communications Privacy Act. In ef-fect, any private busi-ness such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pin-terest, Instagram and even your cell phone provider that collects

user data must give the government your per-sonal information upon request, without a war-rant. Moreover, they can give your informa-tion to the government of their own free will. The best part of this all is that you never need know about it. Under the law you have no right to know when your information was shared, for what reason it was shared and who is looking at it. Any government agency, including the IRS, can request your information from pri-vate technology firms. The Electron-ic Frontier Founda-tion, a privacy and civil liberties group, called CISPA, “dan-gerously vague” in its wording and purpose. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) went as far as to label the Bill “extreme.”

Repeated cy-ber attacks by China are considered to be an impetus for passing this legislation despite the fact that the Bill would potentially do more harm to Ameri-can’s constitutional rights than protect from foreign governments. The bill now makes its way through the Senate, but may face a veto if it ever reaches the president’s desk. Obama has said in the past that he would veto the bill in its cur-rent form. This could mean that a change of language, for or against the people’s rights, may make Obama change his mind. For more in-formation on CISPA you can visit Gizmodo, ZDNet and, of course, Anonymous. If you wish to contact your senators about CISPA you can find them here.

We here in America love lists. Proof of this is the con-tinued career of David Letterman. More than lists we love num-ber ones. And more than number ones we love firsts. Last week brought us many firsts. Some firsts were joy-ous and some appalling. Last week be-gan with the Boston Marathon bombing which marked the first successful terrorist at-tack on the United States since 9/11. The first successful, but cer-tainly not the first at-tempted attack. Law enforcement has suc-cessfully thwarted the attempts of several in-dividuals since 2001 including the shoe bomber Richard Reid, underwear bomber Farouk Abdulmutal-lab, the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad

A week of firstand a host of others. With all the suc-cess agencies like the FBI have had in the last decade preventing terrorism on American soil, it came as a shock to many that they had con-tact with one of the Bos-ton bombers in the past. FBI officials questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the now dead suspect in the Boston bombings, in 2011 at the behest of the Rus-sian government. This marks what may be considered the first ma-jor mistake made by the agency since 2001. But as the week wore on we encountered a few heartwarming, if unexpected firsts. At the Red Sox pregame ceremony on Saturday David Ortiz gave Bos-ton a new slogan when he said, “This is our f------ city. And no one is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong.” This certainly isn’t the first time an athlete has cussed on the field. Nor is it the first time anyone has had to be bleeped from live TV for using foul language. What is a first is that the sometimes puritanical

Federal Communica-tions Commission, bet-ter known as the FCC, approved via Twitter by saying, “There’s a right time, and there’s a wrong time to be too emo-tional. Today was defi-nitely the right time...” Another first happened later during the eighth inning of the same game. Neil Dia-mond made a surprise appearance to sing his hit “Sweet Caroline”. The song has been an unofficial anthem of the Boston team since 2002. In what would be considered blasphe-mous under any other circumstances, the New York Yankees (for the first time) also sang “Sweet Caroline” dur-ing one of their home games last Tuesday. In a show of solidar-ity Yankee’s fans belted out the tune during the eighth inning show-ing that even archri-vals could stand to-gether in times of pain. As the Boston Marathon bombing case continues to unfold we will no doubt encoun-ter many more firsts. Here’s to hoping that they are happy ones.

ANDREW MECHUMAssociate Editor | @amechum

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

The Falcon Page Three

“Cous’n Effect”

MANDY STEADMANStaff Writer |

Mississippi man charged with threatening President Obama

In an incident that mirrors the anthrax attacks of 2001, a Mis-sissippi man has been charged with sending ri-cin-laced letters to Presi-dent Obama and Senator Roger Wicker, R-MS. Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, of Corinth, Mississippi is charged with using the mail to threaten public offi-cials. If he is convicted, he faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. The Elvis im-personator, who was

NEAL EMBRYStaff Writer|

ironically hired by Sen. Wicker for a party, al-legedly wrote letters that contained the dead-ly substance and includ-ed a message that read: “No one wanted to listen to me before. There are still ‘Missing Pieces’ Maybe I have your attention now, even if that means someone must die. I am KC and I approve this message.” Curtis was easy to find, as he had writ-ten letters to Wicker’s office before, signed “Kevin Curtis.” He also had a September 2010 blog post titled

“Missing Pieces.” Curtis’ wife re-ported him to Bonn-eville Police in 2007, stating that her husband was “delusional, anti-government, and felt the government was spying on him with drones.” His Facebook page and other social media outlets included talks of conspiracy theo-ries and how the govern-ment was out to get him. He felt that the govern-ment ruined his life. Curtis was sur-prised when he was arrested and claims that he is innocent.

A l a b a m a , along with much of the southeast, is often the punching bag for the rest of the country. Even Georgia’s own Jeff Foxworthy made a career of lambast-ing southerners with his line of “You might be a Redneck” jokes. We are called backwards, ignorant and racist. Worst of all we are considered incestuous and inbred. Foxworthy’s joke, “You might be a Red-neck if you go to the

ANDREW MECHUMAssociate Editor | @amechum family reunion to pick

up women,” nicely sums up this sentiment. But the days of “accidentally” hooking up with your cousin may be over if we can get our hands on a new app developed in Iceland. Affirming the adage, there’s an app for that, two University of Iceland engineer-ing students developed the cellphone app, IslendigaApp, that will alert you to any nearby relatives. By bump-ing your phone with someone else’s you can

compare your family tree with other users. Should you prove to be too closely related to embark on a one-night stand an “in-cest-prevention alarm” will sound according Arnar Freyr Adalsteins-son, one of the stu-dents behind the app. So why was this app developed in Ice-land and not the Heart of Dixie? Iceland has a population of just over 315,000, most of whom can trace their lineage back centuries. By con-trast Alabama has 4.8

million residents ac-cording to the United States Census Bureau. With few im-migrants and a rather homogeneous gene pool to draw from the chances for the girl/guy of your dreams to be a relative skyrock-

et if you’re Icelandic. One hurdle to bringing the app Di-xie-side is that the app utilizes the Icelandic genealogical database Islendingabok (Iceland Book). This database tracks the genetic lin-eage of Iceland’s citi-

zens going as far back as the ninth century. So until we de-velop a similar database you will have to rely on your guts and pray you don’t wake up next to someone only to find the same family members in their picture frames.

Ahh, Monte-vallo. Home to brick streets, small classes and a diverse student population. And ap-parently ridiculously annoying UPC events. With all due respect to my UPC/SGA/party friends, these events are poor-ly timed and some-times annoying. It's not you...it's the system. This past Tues-day, two weeks before finals, I walk into my dorm to do work. All of a sudden, rap music starts blasting and shaking my dorm from a foam par-ty being held outside. It's not even good rap. I'm a rap fan, but playing songs that repeat lyrics like, "You a big fine woman go on back that 'thang' up'" don't enhance the rap game at all. And let's be real..don't cen-

sor the words. It actu-ally makes it trashier, because it makes it seem like you’re hid-ing something. We all know what Juvenile’s talking about...we’re in college. I can’t stand the song or the lyrics, but my ears won’t burn if I hear foul language. Also, there were less than 30 people there. The reward doesn't out-weigh the cost here. We're almost at the end of the semes-ter. Two weeks stand between students and finals. And we're hav-ing a foam party that's incredibly and unnec-essarily loud. I'm all for having fun, and it's important to relax in these stressful times, but there's a way to do it without annoying those of us who need to work. My dorm should not shake, un-

less there's an earth-quake. Ever. This is unacceptable, and I feel like I, the rest of Lund, and those affected in New Res and Brooke deserve an apology. Set it up on the quad next time, away from dorms. Apologize to your students. Play better music (shoot, I'll help you with the playl-ist) and make sure that as you're offering students a chance to break away from the stress of study-ing, you're not infring-ing on my right to peace and quiet as I work. Thanks Monte-vallo. I do love you, and I want you to know that. What did you think of the UPC event on Tuesday? Think I'm a hater or an old man that doesn't appreci-ate fun? Let us know via Facebook or Twit-ter @TheUMFalcon.

Thanks Montevallo!

NEAL EMBRYStaff Writer|

The Montevallo Main Street Players brought a unique experience to their audiences on April 18-21st at the Parnell Memorial Li-brary. Their most recent play, “Smoke on the Mountain,” enveloped it’s audiences with the sensation of being in a weekend service of singing the word of God during the late 1930s. This musical was unlike any other musical performed on the stage. This was not a

A night in church with the Main Street Playersmusical with Jazz-hands or tap dancing. The mu-sic, itself, was all Bible songs with no real plot line or major plot twists. However, it was inter-esting to watch because its purpose was to make the audience feel like it was a part of the show. The plot of the play took place at Mount Pleasant Bap-tist Church in North Carolina. The time frame was June 1938 on a Saturday night. The citizens of Mount Pleasant wel-come the Sanders Fami-ly Singers to their church to lead them in singing hymns. Drama ensues, though, as minor fam-ily secrets are revealed and the girls of the fam-ily start dancing, which

was very controver-sial in this time period. The actors were very interactive with the audience in many ways. The Pas-tor, Mervin Oglethorpe, played by Len Ward, shook hands with audi-ence members and even gave some of them their own character names. The atmosphere of the show was very old-fashioned and gave you a sense of being in the 1930s. This was a decade of conserva-tiveness and preserv-ing the purity of all church-going children. Every actor on stage brought life and realism to the play. One actress that stood out the most was Mary Kate McLaurine, a

University of Mon-tevallo student. She played Denise Sanders, the female twin sister of the Sanders family.McLaurine had a genu-ine smile on her face that lit up the entire the-atre. Her voice, as well, was absolutely flaw-less in her solos and her emotions onstage felt very genuine in nature. However, one actress was trying too hard to seem real in her performance. Karin Godman, who played the sister June Sanders, really seemed to force her dialogue. The de-livery of her lines felt like the audience was watching a high school actress. She seemed to come more alive, how-ever, when she sang

and played miscel-laneous instruments. The chorus, or congregation, really helped to magnify the music of this play. Be-fore the second act be-gan, the congregation members sang duets and showed off their talents in music. Two mem-bers that really shined on stage during their duet was Diana Doug-las and Kelby Roth. Their voices were both very differ-ent: Douglas with a soft, yet high-pitched voice; Roth with a boom-ing, lower range. They fit really well together and it gave their duet a memorable melody. The only real concern about this play was it’s not very relat-

able for those who never went to church and for those who had bad ex-periences with church. This also goes for the younger generation, who are more into con-temporary harmonies. This was a great show for the older crowd, but it would be almost bor-ing for the younger gen-eration who have not had that old-fashioned coun-try church experience. Overall, “Smoke on the Mountain” was a very interesting play and gave audiences the feeling of being in church watching a fam-ily of singers lead ev-eryone in songs of God. The Falcon gives this performance a 7/10.

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Page FourThe Falcon

The road to Record Store Day

Album Review:

Hangout Music Fesitival in Gulf Shores, AL

by Mandy SteadmanStaff Writer

New this week

“Ghost on Ghost” by Iron & Wine

Frank TurnerTape Deck Heart

Folk RockInterscope

PhoenixBankrupt!

Alternative RockGlassnote

Snoop LionReincarnated

ReggaeMad Decent

Laura StevensonWheel

Indie RockDon Giovanni

Records

Gama BombThe Terror Tapes

Thrash MetalAFM Records

JAKE SMITHStaff Writer|

Grimey’s, a re-cord store in the heart of downtown Nashville, had a camp of over-night guests behind its four story main building Thursday night. These campers were not sleep-ing in the paved park-ing lot to experience the nocturnal sights of a metropolitan south-ern city. Instead, they were poised to have first pick at the year’s biggest holiday on wax, Record Store Day. For background, Record Store Day start-ed four years ago in an attempt to save the in-dependent record store. The day is celebrated di-rectly with the purchase of unique and limited edition singles and al-bums curated to be re-leased only on that day. Ranging from grand reissues to unreleased b-sides, these songs of-ten come packaged on uniquely designed vinyl. Grimey’s, per-haps the biggest record store Nashville has to offer, expanded on the normal patronage of purchasing by featuring live music and food be-hind its main building. Alt-rock band Paramore headlined, and met fans early in the day to sign copies of their just released new album. That line, how-ever, was miniscule compared to the enor-mous, curving snake of eager vinyl enthusiasts that wound from the back of the establish-ment up a hill to its front. Those expecting the long wait brought camping chairs and Kindles to pass the time. Others talked

REED STRENGTHArts&Culture Editor | @ReedStrength

amongst themselves, random tidbits of mu-sic nerdom floating around and occasion-ally reaching far enough to catch a new friend. The line moved steadily with pockets of 20 to 30 minute mov-ing times reaffirming hope to actually get to the exclusive mate-rial. Where the morn-ing began chilly, a quick coin flip of the weather caused patrons to remove their trendy jackets and coats. Even-tually, one could see the line end at the cafe doorway to Grimey’s Too, the record shop’s newly opened book-store and coffee bar. Smartly and strangely, an ice cream vendor and shoe maker setup tables near the middle of the line to at-tract potential custom-ers. Grimey’s capital-ized on the stationary customers as well, plac-ing tables of used re-cords and CDs between pocket burning collec-tors and the mysterious and far away door in an equal attempt to gain extra money and clean house of dusty old vinyl. Up a flight of stairs with the door in sight, an employee shooed away “cheat-ers” who weren’t aware of the large line and ig-norant of the plight of the dedicated that were. He confessed that the uncomforting wait was not because of the sheer amount of people, as much as the slow prog-ress of the checkout line. Only two people were apparently man-ning the bloating cash registers, their swift-ness completely reli-ant on their customers’ attitudes and requests.

He promised a still stockpiled amount of exclusive material inside, and he was not stretching the truth in a veiled attempt to make the wait worth it. While the air conditioning was pleasant, the trea-sure trove inside was even more refreshing. The records were ordered alpha-betically in record bins. Rows of similar packag-ing confirmed that after only two hours of the place being open, there were still plenty of cop-ies for everyone. Crates of 7”s lined a back table. Once purchases were picked, relieved buyers were ushered into the winding and multi roomed check-out line. There, pur-chases were comple-mented and accessed. Some may have had to

stare painfully at their most prized and pined after find, clutched in the arms of another. A blogger came to ask about the pur-chases, while employ-ees zipped in and out of the rooms. Some even took swapping requests to satisfy last minute decisions concerning just what was more im-portant to the collection. A popular re-cord tucked under the arm and slipped into the stacks of many enthusiasts was The White Stripes’ classic “Elephant” album re-issued for its 10th an-niversary. The record was housed in an on tip jacket, a double album with one record split half black and red. The other was pure white, all combined were an ode to the band’s fa-

mous color scheme. That White Stripes’ leader and mas-termind Jack White was this year’s offi-cial Record Store Day ambassador was no surprise to the reis-sues heavy purchase. The line wound into a book and used records room before fi-nally stretching across a hallway to the goal of the checkout counter. At this point in the day, possibly around lunch time, hungry and well worked Grimey’s em-ployees began to funnel in and out of the doors with small baskets of barbecued chicken. The smell of the fresh food carried far back into the store by the breeze whenever someone reached goal’s end and opened the front door of Grimey’s Too.

Record clerks punched the keys of the register with a quickened pace in an attempt to establish a small window of chow down time before the next overtly happy mu-sic nerd smacked their stack on the counter with triumphant pride.With records purchased, the air outside carried a particular sort of buzz. The dull sounds of a rock group with a soulful female singer emanated from behind the store. While many ei-ther rushed down to the barbecue stations, oth-ers emptied their loot in the car and headed back to peruse the main store. With all regular releases 10% off, and the excitement of wax well purchased still fresh, many could not wait to dive back into the bins.

Iron & Wine are one of the most excit-ing acts in music. Yes, I mean that. Hear me out. Sam Beam and company might not be the most visceral mu-sicians out there, and they certainly won’t ever be called fierce or energetic. In fact, their laid back, acous-tic vibes have more in common with early El-ton John than any 21st century act, but that’s just the thing. When Iron & Wine released “Our Endless Num-bered Days” in 2004, Beam sounded nothing

JAKE SMITHStaff Writer| like Sir Elton. Now, in

just nine years, he and his band have man-aged to create a modern day “Honky Chateau”. This is because Iron & Wine is constant-ly evolving, and this is the source of the excite-ment. Their sound has moved from laid back, solo acoustic demos and covers of The Postal Service to a full, vi-brant, jazzy sound with brilliant, clean produc-tion and well-crafted melodies and lyrics. In fact, each new Iron & Wine album has been a huge step in a whole new direction.

2007 saw Beam em-brace the full band and beef up his folk on “The Shepherd’s Dog” while 2011’s underrated “Kiss Each Other Clean” saw the band loving on arena-ready U2 styl-ings. Now in 2013, “Ghost On Ghost” has embraced Beam’s in-ner pop songsmith.The album starts with the fiercely addictive “Caught In the Briars” which worms its way into your head and re-fuses to dislodge itself. The addition of jazz-style drumming gives the song a unique fla-vor, and Beam’s unique

lyrical wit keeps you interested with clev-er lines like “As holy as she can be / The trick’s in the timing.” E l s e w h e r e , Beam and his crew continue to utilize these driving beats and sharp lyrics on tracks like “Grace For Saints and Ramblers” and the New Orleans flavored “Lovers’ Revolution”. However, Beam’s true strengths, much like Elton John’s, lie in the slower moments. When Beam softly sings the hypnotizing “Grass Windows”, the entire world melts away as he

sings “We found each other blown between the trees / Waning moons wanting to be swallowed by the sea.” The song also features a steadi-ly growing arrange-ment which perfectly incorporates horns, jazz drums and light piano to great effect. “ W i n t e r Prayers” takes things even farther as Beam is found in full-on ballad mode. The song is one of his finest moments and is the epitome of everything Iron & Wine did so well in their early days. Lightly strummed acoustic guitar and small piano are all that back

Beam’s vocal which shines brightly against the warm backdrop. “Ghost On Ghost” ultimately leaves its listener with very lit-tle to actually complain about until the nitpick-ing begins. Certainly the outro of “Baby Center Stage” could have been cut down, but when all is said and done, none of this really matters. Iron & Wine have de-livered what is one of 2013’s most entertain-ing and entrancing mu-sical experiences, and for that they should be commended. The Fal-con gives “Ghost on Ghost” a 9 out of 10.

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

The Falcon Page Five

Our two cents

No more than three chords used throughout:Check. Whiny yet endearing vocals: Check. Does every song sound like the one be-fore it: Check. No autotune or synth used:Check. Simply put: If you like middle of the road, not too angsty, not too political, not overproduced garage/punk rock you may be in search of Desperate Ground.

Who needs Daft Punk when you can sit and brood over this little gem?! There’s nothing quite like propping your feet up on a sunny Sat-urday afternoon while you sip a lemonade and listen to a concept album about a journey through a chasm of darkness after physical death.

If Bob Dylan had a child with all four of The Beatles and then told them to make a record, this would be it. I’ll let you be the judge of wheth-er or not that sounds appealing, but, spoiler alert, it is.

This album came out in 1996, and I’m still sitting here and making a point to tell you to listen to it. Honestly, you can’t call yourself a music fan until you’ve experienced “Misunderstood” and “Kingpin”. Just... Go. Drop The Falcon for one moment and pull up Spotify. You owe it to your-self.

If listening to a 100-minute long double album about gender and queer theory as composed by a Swedish brother/sister duo in the style of ex-perimental techno doesn’t sound appealing to you, then there is something seriously wrong with you. With titles like “Fracking Fluid Injection”, how can you resist?

THE THERMALSDesperate Ground

THE HAXEN CLOAKExcavation

WILCOBeing There

FOXYGENWe Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic

THE KNIFEShaking the Habitual

THE FALCON STAFF“Music Journalist”

MANDY STEADMANStaff Writer |

“This is only a single! The album isn’t even out yet!” Shut up, alright! I know. The rea-son we have this is due to the intrepid young indi-viduals who constructed full songs out of samples in an attempt to satisfy their thrist for new Daft Punk. What other musician do you know with that type of fanatical fanbase? Then it got leaked and our robotic friends had no choice but to give us the real thing.

DAFT PUNKGet Lucky

The Theatre Student Organization (TSO) has, once again, brought the spirit of collaboration and sup-port to students of the University of Mon-tevallo. TSO hosted their second install-ment of Chi Tea Thurs-day, April 18th and opened it to all students who wanted to share their hidden talents. Chi Tea is a type of talent show/fundraiser that is very free-spirited and a great way for students to have fun being who they really are and shar-ing their hobbies or passions with friends. This Chi Tea was similar to the first Chi Tea back in Fall 2012, including the 75 cent bake sale and the finger-painted canvas. It has become a Chi Tea tra-dition for students who come to paint some-thing of their own on a square piece of canvas. Both this painting and the one from last semes-ter is hanging in Reyn-olds Student Lounge. Before the fes-tivities began, students played popular music to dance and sing to. This included oldies like The

The Return of Chi TeaBackstreet Boys and ear-ly Britney Spears songs. The hosts of Chi Tea, Amber Chap-man and Nick Stokes, walked onstage in their “Sunday best” and opened the night with announcements about upcoming events and wanted students to know to be themselves and to have fun. Chap-man described this show as “low-key” and said this was a night of “col-laboration” amongst friends and peers. The first few acts included a poetry reading and a slam by Leilani Hayes and Lyd-ia Clements. Hayes read two original pieces, one of them she dedicated to the late Ray Brad-bury. Clements per-formed a piece called, “Birds and Bees.” One act that was truly original was per-formed by Liz-Anne Terry and Jonathan Ev-ans. Their act was an original skit where they both attempt to perform an interpretive dance to a song by Enya. The skit ended with Evans shirt-less and Terry making a dramatic exit offstage. The TSO presi-dent and founder, Tavi Juarez, also performed for the last time on

Reynold’s Stage. She performed a monologue she used in her auditions for graduate school. The last two acts of the night were two hula-hooping danc-ers, who practice hula-hooping for fun. The first hula-hooper had a friend accompanying her with a large horn, giving her rhythm and pace for her dance. The last hula-hooper, Luna Shedrick, was a returning per-former from last se-mester’s first Chi Tea. She did a fast-paced dance in the dark with her glowing hula-hoop. The audience filled the theatre with cheers and laughter as Shedrick did spins and flips with her flashing hula-hoop. When the fi-nal act was finished, the hosts came out in t-shirts and jeans and invited the audience to stay and have a dance party. Line dances were learned and everyone who stayed left with big smiles on their faces. There was not a huge crowd because of preparation for upcom-ing exams, but the en-thusiasm of those who came was large enough to fill the theatre, tenfold.

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Liz Ann Terry and Jonathan Evans

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Page Six

Rock, rock, Indie Rock High School...part IIREED STRENGTH & JAKE SMITHArts & Culture Editor| Staff Writer

When you last visited indie rock high school, your new friend Conor Oberst introduced you to a few of the most no-table cliques around the high school cafeteria including The Decemberists, Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire. Now you’ve been sent off to class as Oberst has left you to your own devices. Welcome back to Indie Rock High School.

You enter a cold classroom. The shades are down, and a projector has been set up in the center of the room. Behind it sits a pale, skinny man dressed in black. Atop his head is an old-fashioned cap, straight out of an old blues club. He notices you as you walk in the room. “You must be the new student! Glad to meet you. My name’s Jack White, and I’m to serve as your history teacher,” he says. You say a timid hello and make a nervous joke to break the ice. He laughs at it and ends up snorting which immediately has you feeling disarmed and welcome. You take your seat and listen closely to Mr. White’s words. “So the history of our music is a long one. It’s full of twists and turns, rises and falls, stars and nobodies. So I figure the best thing we can do is start from the top. Alternative music was born of the rebels. The guys who fought those who said that music could only be one way. Essentially, then, the roots of our alternative and indie scene was born around the same time as rock and roll.” White lights up a cigarette and continues. You don’t even think to question him. “Let’s take a look at some early rebels.” The slide changes to a picture of an African-American man with a crazy smile on his face. He is hunched over a guitar like its an awkward extra appendage to his body. “This is Chuck Berry. The man pretty much invented rock guitar. Every single crazy solo you’ll ever hear owes a great debt to this man and his wild antics. Learn him. Love him. Aspire to be him.” The slide changes to a photo of four men with mustaches in brightly colored marching band uniforms. “And these guys are The Beatles. No band has been this commercially successful with this level of artistic freedom. Ever. You will not surpass them, but you must always be trying to do just that if you ever want to get anywhere in this world.” You make a note as yet another photo pops up on screen. “Meet the Ramones,” he says. “These men challenged what was the bloated and ultra-prestigous aspirations of the prog-movement in rock. They donned leather jackets and played simple, fast songs that only concerned women and horror movies. Without knowing it, these knuckle heads invented punk, a genre that still can’t quite seem to figure itself out.” You glance around to realize that there are no other students in the room. Sensing your confusion, White puts a clammy hand on your shoulder. “Don’t shake it. Everyone’s already taken this class. Well, taken it or skipped it completely. It’s alright to be late in learning the lessons of the past. But ignoring them completely is a fool’s move. How can you be taken seriously as a rock n’ roll band if you don’t know the history behind what you’re playing? It’s the only way to take old techniques and reform and configure them into something totally new,” White muses. You aren’t sure if he’s really addressing you at this point, but you drink in his words either way. White walks over to his desk and pulls out a thin, squared shape made of paper. As he comes closer, you realize that there’s a black disc inside the square. He tenderly pinches the end of the disc, pulling it out of the paper sleeve. With care, he lays the disc on a rectangular device, and drops a small arm with an even smaller needle at the end of it onto the dusty object. A drum hit breaks the silence, as a trebly electric guitar followed by a nasally and strange voice invades your ears. “How does it feeel??” begs the accusing voice, now a veritable presence in the room. “When you can, visit your local record shop and pick up something. Talk to people. The history of music is detectable through its physical manifestations. Think about how many ears this particular record has converted to the genius of Bob Dylan. You ain’t gettin’ that kind of passed down lineage with a damn mp3 file.” As the song ends, White leans back into a cracked leather chair behind his desk. “I would say class dismissed, but that im-plies that you won’t learn anything more today. If you do it right, you’ll never stop learning.” You think you like Jack White. At least, you think you should. As you leave, you notice the unfriendly denim clad duo you met outside of the school. They’re leaning against the wall, next to the door of the classroom. “That man speaks the high-est of truths”, the shorter and scrappier one says to both you and his partner. You wait around awkwardly for more of a conversational opening, but the two aren’t interested in giving you one. You quickly attempt to walk away as one of them trips you. They cackle as you limp away when a lanky fellow with a big nose crashes into you. “Never seen someone attempt to plow through a janitor to get to class. You must be new. I’m Stephen Malk-mus.” He extends his hand and you shake it. You look back at the bullying pair as they walk the opposite direction of the hall. Malkmus laughs to himself. “You’d think the way those two talk and carry themselves that they’d get kicked outta here. But in truth they’re ace students, especially of Jack’s class. They’re just tired of the rules of this school and feel like its put-ting them down. I hear they’re getting scholarships from all kinds of ace labels. “They don’t seem to wanna break out of that established blues mold though. Sometimes, ya gotta get a little weird to establish yourself from the rest. Hey, lemme show you something.” You follow him to his supply closet. Inside is a mess. Stacks of old, moldy records take up most of the space. A photo of Malkmus with five other dudes hangs framed on the door. Before you can ask him about it, he hands you a record. You stare at the cover in silent bewilderment. It’s not an epic battle scene, or even a suave band photo. A can of green okra sits in stark black space. The cylinder is even labeled “Can”, as if the artist’s intent was to make the record’s owner feel stupid. “These guys are a German band from the ‘70’s. You’ll never guess what the band name is. Now, small warning, this re-cord will freak you out. But! If you keep an open mind and pay attention, you’ll realize how great these guys were. I used to listen to this album every night before I went to bed, and the music I made as a result of it...well.” He sighs and stares at the photo on the door. “Those days are behind me. But I found success kid, and so can you.” You walk out of the closet with the Can record in your hands, dazed and confused. You then realize that this small mis-adventure has made you late for your last class of the day. Running with the record tucked under your arm, you dash through the halls. “Stop,” a voice suggests more than commands. The door to the principal’s office swings open. A bald man with a scraggly grey beard steps out, and silently motions you to come in. As you shamefully walk towards the office, you read the name on the door: Michael Stipe, Principal, R.E.M. You guess that the last bit must be some sort of distinguishing degree. Pondering its meaning, you close the door behind you and sit down.

The Falcon Page Seven

next week’sissue-Suarez’ vicious teeth-Assassins review-Study Habits-Laotian Economy-Birds of a Feather-CISPA-Internet Sales-Music-Tech-News-Our goodbyes

and more...April 29th, 2013

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

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Monday, April 22nd, 2013

“Things on my bunny” has taken Twit-ter by storm. Things like honey mustard, an order from Chi-potle, and other mis-cellaneous items sit atop a user’s bunny and people retweet it. Pretty simple, right? Here at The Falcon, we’re starting our own “Things on my bunny.” Except we don’t have

Things on my Reed

a bunny. We do, how-ever, have a freshman named Reed. Since he’s a freshman, he joyfully does all the grunt work. That grunt work now includes letting us take pictures of him with random items, chosen by yours truly, on top of his head. Way to take one for the team, Reed! This week, we’ve put a rub-

ber ducky on Reed’s head. Everyone en-joys a rubber duck, even college students. Looking great, Reed! Keep read-ing The Falcon each week to see what’s on Reed’s head. Let us know your opinions or suggestions through Facebook or Twit-ter, @TheUMFalcon.

NEAL EMBRYStaff Writer |