A Keen Eye For News

The FalconMonday, February 4th, 2012

Volume 2. Issue 4.

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News Arts & Culture

page 2 page 5

Iran Jails Iranian-American Pastor

Giants and Toys rocks Eclipse

CROSS CAMPUS

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College Night Shows BeginFeb 6-9, 2013

College NightYeah!

IN THIS ISSUE

continued page 3

At least two killed in Ankara suicide bombing

College NightMen’s B-Ball

February 9 2pmMyrick Gym

Board of Trustees Mtg.February 8,

1:45pm–1:45pmMerrill Rm

CN Sign RaisingJanuary 22 6pm

Farmer Hall

UPC Relaxation Day

February 6, 11am–1pmAnna Irvin

College NightNo classes

Feb 8, 2013

It took all 60 minutes, but the Balti-more Ravens survived a furious second-half ral-ly by the San Francisco 49ers and sent future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis out on a win in Super Bowl XLVII. The Ravens jumped out to an early lead, as quarterback Joe Flacco hit Anquan Boldin for the first touchdown of the game. At halftime, Flacco had completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and the Ra-vens had a 21-6 lead. The 49ers had their fair share of chances in the first half, but couldn’t seem to take advantage. A drive stalled after Colin Kae-pernick, the explosive quarterback for San Francisco, was sacked on third down, forcing a David Akers field goal.

At approxi-mately 1:15 p.m. local time, 6:15 a.m. EST, on February 1, 2013, a suicide bomber deto-nated a bomb outside of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey killing at least two people, in-cluding the bomber, and injuring several others. The bomber, identified afterwards as Ecevit Sanli, made it to the first of several X-Ray secu-rity checkpoints before detonating the bomb and killing the Turkish guard standing nearby. Sanli, who has been linked to attacks

by Neal EmbryStaff Writer

A few min-utes later, Arthur Jones of the Ravens re-covered a fumble in the midst of a good-looking 49ers drive. Kaepernick also had a first half intercep-tion when his pass in-tended for Randy Moss, a future Hall of Famer, fell in the hands of anoth-er future Hall of Famer, Ravens safety Ed Reed. Reed’s ninth career postseason interception tied the NFL record. After Jacoby Jones returned the sec-ond half kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown, it seemed as though the 49ers had lost all hope. But just as all light for the 49ers seemed to fade, all the light in the stadium went out. The power outage lasted for 34 minutes, and gave both teams plenty of time to rest. It was the 49ers, however, that took ad-vantage of the extra time. Kaepernick hit Michael Crabtree for a touchdown to cut the Ravens lead to 15. After Ahmad Brooks sacked Joe

Flacco, the Ravens were forced to punt. Sam Koch shanked the punt, giving the 49ers great field position. Frank Gore cap-italized for the 49ers, running it in on first and goal. Soon after, news broke that Haloti Ngata, star defensive lineman for Baltimore, would not return to the game after an injury. Every-thing seemed to be turn-ing for San Francisco. Ravens running back Ray Rice fumbled, adding another twist to a wild third quarter. David Akers would add a field goal to cut the

Ravens lead to eight. After a Jus-tin Tucker field goal made it a 31-23 game with most of the fourth quarter left to play, the stage seemed set for the 49ers to complete their epic comeback. Kaepernick took the helm and marched San Francisco down the field. Randy Moss added a huge catch and Frank Gore had a stiff-arm filled run to move the 49ers into the red zone. The 49ers even-tually crossed the goal line on a 15-yard touch-down run by Kaepe-rnick. However, the

two-point conversion attempt was incomplete. After the Ra-vens held the ball for five minutes, Tucker hit another field goal to extend the lead to five. The 49ers had a chance to take the lead for the first time all night on the ensu-ing drive. Frank Gore busted a 33-yard run, putting the 49ers in the red zone with less than three minutes left. The 49ers came to a fourth and goal with less than two min-utes left. They had used two of their three timeouts, putting all

by Jake SmithStaff Writer

made on a police sta-tion and military train-ing facility in Istanbul in 1997, was known to have been a member of the Turkish Revolution-ary People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKPC. However, it is unclear whether or not the DH-KPC was involved in the planning and execu-tion of this attack. Since the 1970s, the DHKPC has been known to plot against and target U.S. and NATO installa-tions which puts the group high on the list of suspicious parties. This bombing comes on the heels of the highly publicized assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya where the protec-tion and general safety of American diplomats was brought into the na-tional spotlight. The em-

bassy in Ankara, which is known to have been plotted against before, was one of many U.S. embassies that were as-signed a date for a secu-rity overhaul following the Benghazi attacks. Jay Carney, White House spokes-man, issued a statement

the day of the bomb-ing saying “The at-tack itself was clearly an act of terror.” The White House also ac-knowledged that they have no clear answer on who was respon-sible for the bombing. According to the State Department, the U.S.

will cooperate with the Turkish investigators as they try to figure out the details of this attack. The State De-partment also issued an emergency statement on Friday saying that Americans were “ad-vised not to visit the Consulates in Istan-

bul, Adana or the em-bassy in Ankara until further notice.” This announcement comes after increasing vio-lence in Turkish urban centers that reached a boiling point in Fri-day’s attack. More de-tails will be reported as they are revealed.

Don’t call it a comeback

The Falcon Page Two

news “There are certain words which are nearer and dearer to a man than any others”

-Nikolai Gogol

by Matt SanderlinArts & Culture Editor

Iranian-American Pastor sentenced to prison

Washington wants to track you

by Andrew MechumAssociate Editor

Pastor Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American Christian pastor, has been sen-tenced to eight years in an Iranian prison. Abedini, a natu-ralized American citi-zen, has been held in an Iranian prison since September 2012. He was convicted of dis-turbing national se-curity by helping plant house churches throughout the country. The State De-partment, White House and the American Center for Law and Justice all denounced the sentence. Before the sen-tencing hearing, ACLJ Director Jordan Seku-low said Iran had showed its “true colors” again:“We have a U.S. citizen, who has been beaten and tortured since his imprisonment last fall, now facing eight years in Evin Prison, one of the most brutal prisons in Iran. A harsh sen-tence in a notorious pris-on—likely facing life-threatening torture and abuse at the hands of the Iranian regime. Simply because of his Christian faith,” Sekulow said.Abedini’s wife, who lives in Idaho with their children, spoke out against the Iranian gov-ernment, claiming they lied about his release:“The promise of his release was a lie. We

On Saturday the White House released a photograph said to be from August 4 depict-ing the president skeet shooting. The picture comes after critics cried foul over Obama’s in-terview to The New Re-public where he stated, “Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time.” The picture has done little to quiet critics and has lead some on the Internet to come up with creative variations on the official picture. Despite the hilarity of some of the photoshopped pic-tures, one thing skeet shooters should take note of: Who shoots skeet parallel to the ground?Whether you believe Obama is truly a gun en-thusiast or more in line with his 2008 speech where he derided Mid-westerners for clinging to their guns and religion, the pictures are amusing.

The future isn’t on the horizon; it’s al-ready upon us. Biomet-ric identification cards are big in Washington D.C. right now. So big in fact that Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have put aside their party differences and come together in support of the idea. It has been pro-posed that one meth-od of speeding along immigration reform, President Obama’s new topic of choice, is is-suing “super” Social Security cards. These cards would at the least include a fingerprint but could also house information such as iris scans and even DNA. The purpose of a new biometric ID would be to shore up the faulty E-verify system now used by employers. Ac-cording to Schumer E-Verify, “has too many false negatives and false positives,” that inadver-tently places the wrong people into authorized or unauthorized cat-egories to work legally. The fear of course by some, in-cluding civil liberties advocates, is that these moves will only fur-ther the federal abil-ity to catalogue its citi-zenry. Attempts have been made in the past for some sort of nation-al ID, but have always met with stiff resistance. One example is the Real ID Act,

which forwarded the idea that states should come up with univer-sal, standardized driv-ers’ licenses. The act was quickly shot down. And there’s a profit to be had as well. Should every American be required to update their existing Social Se-curity cards the profits for the biometric and ID card industries would be in the billions. As the cards are issued by a government agency the cost of issuing them would fall on the shoul-ders of the taxpayers. Let us not men-tion the fact that we all hate having to wait at the DMV to renew our driver licenses. Should we all have to renew our Social Se-curity cards, or worse yet have to get all new forms of ID, the lines across the country could all but shut down work. The presidency is behind biometric tracking. Obama met with both Cain and Schumer on January 31 to discuss the mat-ter and Obama said in his immigration reform that he wants a “fraud-resistant, tamper-re-sistant” card available with “new methods to authenticate identity.” The ability to forge documents and create or steal identi-ties is at the heart the renewed biometric kick. Coupled with the need for sweeping immigration reform, politicians see now as the time to make a national ID a reality.

by Neal EmbryStaff Writer

should not trust the empty words or promis-es put out by the Iranian government,” she said.The official religion of Iran is Islam, and apostasy by a Muslim is punishable by death, according to their laws. However, the Constitu-tion of Iran also states that “the investigation of individuals’ beliefs is forbidden,” and man-dates that no one be punished for his or her beliefs. In simple terms, a non-Muslim cannot be punished for his or her faith, according to the laws on the books.But the enforcement of these laws has been neglected. The United Nations has ruled that Iran is no longer abiding by the Universal Decla-ration of Human Rights and International Cove-nants on Human Rights.Since 1979, the Iranian government has killed more than 200 Baha’is. The Baha’i faith started as a sect of Islam, and now has a major mi-

nority in the country.In the 2006-2012 case of Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was sentenced to death for his faith, Iran was accused of false charges. He was originally charged with apostasy, for leaving Islam for Christianity. However, the govern-ment then allegedly trumped up charges to include rape and ex-tortion, for which evi-dence was neither found nor offered in court.The Iranian Supreme Court then offered le-niency if Nadarkhani recanted his Chris-tian faith. He refused, leading the court to put him back in pris-on to await execution. In September 2012, Nadarkhani was ac-quitted of apostasy, but found guilty of evan-gelizing Muslims. Be-cause he had served most of his sentence while going back and forth between trials, he was released from prison.

Christmas Day, 2012: Youcef Nadarkhani is arrested in his home while celebrating Christmas with his fam-ily. He is forced back to prison to serve the re-mainder of his sentence. Nadarkhani was released from prison on January 7, 2013. The hope of an eventual release re-mains for Saeed Abe-dini, whose lawyer has stated that the sentence is not final, and there remains the potential for an early release. His loved ones will stop at nothing to see that happen. “We must now pursue every effort, turn every rock, and not stop until Saeed is back on American soil,” Abedini’s wife said. For more infor-mation on the perse-cuted Christian church, visit persecution.org. For more information on the ACLJ, visit their website at aclj.org.

Obama shows off his boomstickby Andrew MechumAssociate Editor

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thefalconeditor@gmail.com

Monday, February 4th, 2012

The Falcon Page Three

Following Jen-nifer Hudson’s breath-taking “America the Beautiful” duet with a choir from Sandy Hook elementary school and Alicia Keys’ astound-ing version of “The Star Spangled Banner” there was girl power in the air of the New Or-leans Superdome on Super Bowl Sunday. Two quarters prior to the Baltimore Ravens defeating the San Francisco 49ers Be-yoncé performed a half-time show that included many hits from her solo career and her years with Destiny’s Child. With a Vince Lombardi voiceover playing and pyrotech-nics blazing Sasha Fierce appeared beneath a fiery female silhouette

Put a Super Bowl ring on itby Teddie TaylorContributing Writer

clad in a leather and lace bodysuit to open the show with a snippet of her song “Love on Top.” An all-girl band and dozens of backup dancers behind her the diva blasted through “Crazy in Love” with as much energy as she displayed in the original music video. The song, originally released in May of 2003, featured additional vocals from Jay-Z; though, pres-ent at the event, he did not perform or ap-pear onstage Sunday night with his wife. Rumors of a Destiny’s Child reunion were confirmed when Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams ap-peared onstage to per-form their song “Inde-pendent Women” from the 2000 Charlie’s An-gels soundtrack. Though the group is comprised

of three women it was obvious that Beyoncé had the louder micro-phone and was the true focus of the night. Rowland and Williams further as-sisted Beyoncé in sing-ing her well-known “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” The mo-

ment was truly nos-talgic for those who grew up watching the trio’s videos on MTV. One could have mistaken the singer for a Bond girl due to the James Bond-esque digital effects display-ing multiple versions of Knowles across the

stage while she powered through the remainder of the twelve minute set. Closing with “Halo” the singer set the somewhat somber tone for the soon to come power outage that affected half of the Su-perdome and resulted in a 34-minute delay.

Regarding ru-mors of lip syncing, as she did at President Obama’s inauguration on January 21, the artist stated, “I will absolute-ly be singing live. This is what I was born to do.” And sing she did.

the pressure on their young quarterback. The pass was lofted up in the end zone, but fell incom-plete on a controversial no-call by the referees. There appeared to be some holding on the part of the Ravens second-ary, but the side judge didn’t throw a flag, giv-ing the Ravens the ball. The 49ers would get one last chance on a punt return by Ted Ginn, Jr. with four sec-onds left. The Ravens, however, had no inten-tion of losing this one. They tackled Ginn and sealed the 34-31 victory. Ray Lewis, the 17-year veteran, played his last game for Balti-more, the team he has been with since he was drafted back in 1996. His last game wasn’t his most memorable; he ended up with only sev-en tackles, but his team was more than ready to win this one last game for their captain. Meanwhile, Joe Flacco turned in a fine performance, finish-ing with 287 yards and three touchdowns, in lieu of a non-existent Ravens rushing at-tack. He was named Super Bowl MVP. Colin Kaeper-nick finished with 302 yards, one touchdown and one interception on the night. Frank Gore added 110 yards for the 49ers, who drop to 5-1 all time in Super Bowls. What did you think of the game? Tweet us @TheUM-Falcon or check us out on Facebook.

SUPERBOWLcontinued

For the past four months there has been a long-standing competition between Apple’s Iphone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S3. Both are extremely powerful and innova-tive smartphones and attract huge amounts of customers. But which is the better phone? Best Buy cel-lular phone represen-tative, Sera Oglesby, said she has received numerous calls from customers asking about the Galaxy S3. Oglesby said she has an easier time explaining to custom-ers how to work the Galaxy S3 compared to the Iphone 5, but some people are uneasy about the Galaxy’s bigger screen. Most customers come in confused about which would be the better phone for what they need and want.

Iphone 5 Regains Sales Rep from Galaxy S3

by Mandy SteadmanStaff Writer

The Verizon Wireless website says that the Galaxy S3 is $100 cheaper than the Iphone 5 in retail price, but the Iphone 5 has a slightly higher rating. Bailey Gaskin, a University of Mon-tevallo student, was shocked that the Iphone isn’t the most popular smartphone.“I love my new iphone. When I got my iphone it changed my life. It is convenient and easy. It does not take a lot of great brain power,” said Gaskin. Gaskin’s friend, Sydney Fant, felt differ-ently about the Iphone. “I think [the Galaxy] is better than the iphone because the iphone has too many glitches, it’s slow, and it randomly cuts off. The apps are not worth paying for and I feel like the Galaxy has better choices and it basically can do ev-erything that an iphone can do,” said Fant. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has won the hearts of many Univer-sity of Montevallo stu-dents. Seven out of 10 students have claimed to like the Galaxy S3 more than the Iphone.

University of Montevallo student Diana Douglas, said, “The Iphone prob-ably started decreas-ing in quality probably about two years ago because their updates really started not im-proving. The longer it went on the worse it be-came user wise. There was more we couldn’t do with the iphone. The Galaxy fed the people’s needs to per-sonalize almost every-thing about the phone.” The Galaxy S3 won the award for best Smartphone of 2012, but the Iphone 5 is starting to snag that title away from Sam-sung and is starting to sell more in one day than the Galaxy S3. It is a newer model and has updated to an IOS 6.2 system, which has won over consumers. As the Iphone 5 regains its sales reputa-tion, the newest question among cellphone retail-ers is will the release of the Samsung Galaxy S4 win the battle against the Iphone 5? We shall see when the new “top of the line” phones are released this Summer.

Monday, February 4th, 2012

Good for us, Greg Ginn is back

Legendary gui-tarist and one of the many godfathers of American hardcore, Greg Ginn and his re-cord label SST Records, which was started in 1978, is set to release a new album on Feb 26. Greg Ginn was the founder, guitarist and driving force be-hind legendary punk rock band Black Flag as well as the founder of SST Records. In the 80s Greg Ginn defined west coast punk rock and was a proud pro-ponent of the DIY(Do it Yourself) ethos. What makes this album different is due to who will be appearing on the album with him. Profes-sional skateboarder and musician Mike Vallely will contribute the vo-cals on the hardcore al-bum Life is Too Short to Not Hold a Grudge by Good For You. Mike V was discovered and signed by industry legend Stacy Peralta in 1986 and 1987 respec-tively due to his skate-boarding prowess. Mike V is no stranger to punk

by Kyle JonesEditor-in-Chief

rock music either, long time vocalist for Mike V and The Rats as well as Revolution Mother. Mike V also joined Greg Ginn and vari-ous other former Black Flag members in 2003 for a reunion show. After Mike V received multiple tracks from Ginn in February of 2012, V spent months writing lyrics to ac-company the music and Good For You was born. The album, which was recorded in Ginn’s Casa Destroy Studios in Tay-lor, Texas, will feature “11 uniquely distinct high-energy rock songs blistered with themes of betrayal, regret, dis-illusionment, resolve, determination and in-dependence propelled by Ginn’s distinc-tive, stun-gun guitar,” a press release says.Greg Ginn and his Black Flag compatriots will also be perform-ing at various festivals this summer in two dif-ferent incarnations fea-turing various former members, as well as recording a new Black Flag album set to re-lease later this year.

WoW what a wing challenge

The Falcon Page Four

U Review: The Strokes-”One Way Trigger”

The World of Wings wingery located in Farmer Hall, held its first annual wing eat-ing contest on Thursday night. Seventeen con-testants took part in the 30 minute contest with three emerging victori-ous after a weigh in of their chicken bones. The contestants started off with four pounds of wings to start with. After finishing those four pounds, they would request additional wings by the pound un-til the end of the compe-tition. The only disqual-ifier was throwing up.The Falcon was there to monitor the action. Freshman Jacob Rob-ertson had been plan-ning to win since the contest was announced. He shared his strategy before the showdown, stating he wanted to eat a wing a minute and claimed the heat wouldn’t bother him.Dark horse contestant and Montage editor-in-chief Chris Holder decided his entry into the contest an hour or so before it started. Be-fore the contest started, he promised to “en-deavor to triumph in ev-ery shape, capacity and

campus

New York rock band The Strokes are set to release their fifth studio album “Comedown Machine” on March 26. The first single from the album, “All the Time”, was given to Seattle radio station 107.7 The End for preview. The second single from the album, “One Way Trigger”, was released for free via the band’s website five days before “Comedown Machine” was announced. The Falcon set out around campus to get a student perspec-tive on the new single.

by Reed StrengthArts & Culture Editor

form of mastication.”UM students weren’t the only University de-mographic to compete. Chef Botto, the head chef of the Anna Irvin Dining Hall, also com-peted along with Pro-fessors Forrester and Patton. Patton, from behind a pair of sun-glasses, stated that slow and steady wins the race and promised to leave his chicken bones, “bleached like the sun.”Perhaps the contes-tant who made the big-gest noise of the night was the American flag wearing Sammy Schiff-man. Falcon Editor in Chief Kyle Jones acted as Schiffman’s “man-ager” during the night, barking out trash talk to intimidate the other contestants. Schiff-man stood the entire time, perhaps unwisely bouncing up and down as he awaited the wings. The contest was scheduled to begin at 6, but with much cha-grin from the audience, started about thirty min-utes late. Once all of the contestants were sup-plied with wings and the contest was finally set to begin Dr. Stew-art, the president of the University, was asked to say a few words.Stewart noted that he witnessed many sol-emn occasions during the course of the school year, but claimed the first annual WOW Wing Eating Challenge could be the most solemn of

them all. As the con-testants cracked open their milks to begin, freshman Alex Galvez was asked what she ex-pected to witness from the wing challenge.“I expect it to be bar-baric,” she said with a glint in her eye.The contestants were then off, furiously cramming wing meat into their faces. The sauce on the wings was specially made for the contest and was dubbed “This Falcon’s On Fire”. One contestant’s reaction seemed to con-firm the namesake. Her eyes bulged as she cried out after consuming a few of the fiery wings.Schiffman was perhaps off to the most stel-lar start. He remained standing, both hands lifting wing after wing to his awaiting bearded maw. His face and beard were covered with sauce in no time. Schiff-man’s fellow brothers of Lambda Chi Alpha cheered him on in a large group from behind.While Schiffman’s star power gave him a lot of attention, Jacob Robert-son was steadily match-ing his pace. Robertson kept focus, only curs-ing slightly to alleviate the massive amounts of food going into his body. Dr. Patton was keen on Robertson’s strategy, naming him an early threat into the contest.As timed wore on, con-testants began to drop out of the race. Schiff-

man was the first to ask for more wings, as a chorus of the “Star Spangled Banner” ema-nated behind him. Oth-er contestants, such as Quinton Collins, played a much quieter game.Collins was never called out, but he kept his pace steady and tight. He wore a comfortable grin for most of the contest. He later confessed that he didn’t enjoy the wings he was eating. It was all competitive drive that kept him going.Eventually, Schiff-man’s furious pace got

the best of him. His manager held a white bucket aloft, as the star spangled contes-tant upchucked several ounces of wings into it. Where supporters once shouted “U.S.A!” in honor of Schiffman, murmurs of “Puke S.A.” could be heard throughout the crowd.Schiffman was later disqualified. Despite this, Schiffman man-aged to consume 40 ounces of wings. Rob-ertson emerged victori-ous, eating 24 ounces. Quiet candidate Col-

lins made it to sec-ond place with 21.9 ounces, and Dr. Stefan Forrestor was allotted third with 15.8 ounces.Robertson promised free wings to all of his “great supporters”, but noted that he felt ter-rible. Dr. Forrestor felt proud that he and Dr. Patton, both graduates of New York universi-ties, could represent the birthplace of buf-falo wings during the contest. As athlete Zach Walsh noted at the end of contest, “Nothing like some fun competition.”

by Reed Strength & Jake Smith

I. Emma Schlesinger-Freshman 1. What did you think of the song? Liked it. “It has a British pop feel to it 2. Would you recommend it to your friends? Yes.II. Nicole Lambertson-Freshman 1. What did you think of the song? Liked. “Sounds like an Urban Outfitters song” 2. What was your least favorite part? “The weird voice.” III. Lindsey Bennett-Sophomore 1. What was your favorite part about it? It was “nice and upbeat.” 2. Would you recommend it to your friends? Yes.IV. Pablo Urbina-Freshman 1. What did you think of the song? “Overall I liked the song.” 2. What was your least favorite part? “My only concern is the vocals.”V. Stephanie Howe-Freshman 1. What was your favorite about it? The drum parts 2. Would you recommend it to your friends? Yes.VI. Liza Schwieterman-Freshman 1. What did you think of the song? “Really liked it.” Gorillaz “Plastic Beach” feel. 2. What was your favorite part about it? The beat, the tone and the pitch. VII. Dr. Tiffany Wang-Professor of Communication

Studies 1. What was your favorite part about it? “The middle, instrumental section.” 2. What was your least favorite part? The ending was abrupt. Left hanging at the end.VIII. Mat Frank-Freshman 1. What was your favorite part about it? “Something I can vibe to.” 2. Would you recommend it to your friends? YesIX. Xavier Johnson-Sophmore 1. What was your least favorite part about it? “The vocal parts didn’t do it for me.” 2. Would you recommend it to your friends? No. X. Mason Webber-Freshman 1. What did you think of the song? “I didn’t think I liked The Strokes until I heard that song.” 2. What was your least favorite part about it? “I couldn’t understand the lyrics.” When all was said and done, it seemed like there was a general consensus on most aspects of the single. While many praised the catchy synth melodies and exciting beat, there was also a lot of disdain for Julian Casablancas’ falsetto vocals. The Falcon would like to thank everyone who supplied their opinions for the very first U Review of 2013, and be sure to check out “Comedown Machine” when it is released on March 26.

Monday, February 4th, 2012

arts&culturePage FiveThe Falcon

Looksy ma! giants!

Album Review: “Heartthrob” by Tegan and Saraby Jake SmithStaff Writer

by Reed StrengthArts & Culture Editor

Photos: Reed Strength

Two extreme-ly solid bands played at Eclipse Coffee and Books on Thursday night. Tuscaloosa band Looksy opened up for Montevallo veter-ans Giants and Toys in what turned out to be one hell of a show. A Raconteurs and White Stripes stick-er were proudly stuck on some of Looksy’s equipment. In the mid-dle of their show singer Daniel Ingram noted that the band’s lack of set list was deemed acceptable by Jack White’s standards. The reference point for the band’s influ-ence was no mystery. The Jack White adoration was especially evident in their music. The band played a very loud and tight strand of blooze rock. The group loved to pogo between stately intros and jack-hammer loud chorus-es during their songs. The band was led by frontman Daniel Ingram. Ingram was a serious and intimidat-ing performer. By the end of his band’s set, his light blue denim shirt was a Jackson Pollock done in sweat. Drummer John Laing seemed content only

I have to say one thing about Tegan and Sara’s seventh album, “Heartthrob” before I can tell you anything else. These lyrics are abysmal. They make Taylor Swift look like Robert Frost. I am not lying to you, and I am hardly exaggerat-ing. For example, “I wasn’t the hero, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t brave”, “Why don’t you want to show me off?” and, “This love will make us wor-thy” are among the fine pieces of poetry that you

to smack the hell out of his drums. His face was in a constant flux of tense tightening and open mouthed release.Rhythm guitarist Rob Keating and bassist Kyle Posten seemed content to stay out of the way of Ingram and Laing throughout the show. As the songs’ reached their tipping point after a minute or two of build, Ingram would rocket away from the microphone. He would leap back and forth as he pushed riff af-ter skull crushing riff from his guitar.As Keating and Posten added their string pow-er to the mix Laing would lose himself in causing chaos on his kit. The ruckus and energy the band cre-ated was impressive for a band with a mere 110 likes on Facebook. Despite the sound and the fury these dudes brought, the be-ings that bore them were in close attendance mon-itoring them. As Ingram noted some of the pret-tiest mothers ever were in the audience. The band moms support-ed their kids from the safety of a table close to the performance space. Their cam-eras flashed as they

hooped and hollered individual names.Giants and Toys, de-spite their home advan-tage, had big shoes to fill after Looksy’s set. Not only were Looksy mothers in attendance, but other Tuscaloosa natives were among the crowd that night. For the most part, Giants and Toys brought their A-game. The band has obviously played well together for a long time now. While it would be a stretch to call their shows ef-fortless the band is al-most certain to put on a killer performance. The band kicked things off with “This Town”, an oldie from their first album. The “woah-oh!” chorus the tune relies so heav-ily on for momen-tum was treated with shoddy vocal perfor-mance from the band members that contrib-ute to the harmony. A cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away” was also a little lack-luster, the tune’s odd guitar riff perhaps a bit too difficult for the band to pull of smoothly Despite these small kinks, Giants and Toys remain a well-oiled rock n’ roll ma-

chine. Cuts from the “Strand” EP were stellar as always, with “Dis-co (Only Love)” and “Blue Cars” remain-ing crowd favorites. The band per-formed two covers that featured crowd heavy participation. The Arc-tic Monkeys’ “From the Ritz to the Rubble” and The White Stripes’ “Fell in Love With a Girl” were supplied with enthusiastic sing-ing from the crowd. The band ex-plained in an Alabamian article that they wished

for more shows out-side of Montevallo. It’s obvious from Thurs-day’s performance why they seem set on expanding outward. These guys are professional. All of their gear is emblazoned with their simple but effec-tive logo and the band plays a healthy bal-ance of difficult, multi part songs and simple crowd friendly rave ups. The encore they played was great, but was perhaps a little un-warranted from the rest of the crowd. While

fans of the band piped up for one more song the rest of the crowd was content to back off and thin out. Was this a possible confirmation of over playing that the band seems so wary of? Giants and Toys are trying to move on to bigger and better things. For those in this area who haven’t caught the band at free rates and small shows, you may want to watch out for their next show. Hopefully, they’ll be getting giant elsewhere.

can look forward to if you pick up this album. However, it speaks very highly of the music on display here that, even in the midst of these confounding lyrics, I came away with a highly positive opin-ion of this album. The strength of this album lies not in the things the duo are singing but rather in the style with which they’re singing it. The album opens with the first single, “Closer”, which begins with a smooth synth lick before tran-

sitioning into its dance-inducing chorus. With its strong production, excellent vocals and general accessibility, this one is sure to be on the radio for months to come. This is defi-nitely a good thing. Elsewhere on the album, the duo fur-ther explores the bound-aries on synth-based dance pop as well as the kind of 21st century bal-ladry directed at emo-tionally fragile 15-year old girls. Songs like the peppy “Drove Me Wild” and the more bit-tersweet “I Couldn’t Be Your Friend” find their niche in their earworm hooks and their poten-tial to ring as Gospel truth to the aforemen-tioned teenage girls. Still, some mis-takes are found over the course of the album. “How Come You Don’t Want Me” has cheap sounding electronics and a vocal that sud-denly drops in quality compared to everything that had come before. Its lack of subtleties

keeps it from being as strong as the other tunes on display here. There is also a problem with the bal-ance of the mix on several tracks. For ex-ample, there were sev-eral times I caught on to a catchy guitar line only to have it imme-diately drowned out by the drums and synths. These lines brought a new flavor to songs like “I’m Not Your Hero” and “Shock to Your Sys-tem” only to be squan-dered by poor decisions in the mixing room. Regardless of these quips I find it dif-ficult to lay into this album too intensely. It was clearly made with-out a jaded music cynic in mind. Instead, this is a record created for love-struck teens who are struggling to under-stand new feelings like love and heartbreak. When all is said and done, the album ul-timately leaves its lis-tener with a smile on their face and a sense of satisfaction. Even if

they might not be spout-ing out poetry, Tegan and Sara have managed to create one of the most classy and fun to listen

The Falcon Playlist

to pop albums in re-cent memory, and that alone deserves praise. The Falcon gives Tegan and Sara’s “Heart-throb” a 7 out of 10.

Monday, February 4th, 2012

The Falcon Page Six

“Romero Rule” broken by Warm Bodies

by Teddie TaylorContributing Writer

New music is added every week.

Come listen to what we’re talking about...

The sound of Sound City

Chris Brown and Frank Ocean continue feud

The zombie trend continues with the release of the new film, “Warm Bod-ies.” This movie is dif-ferent, though, than most zombie movies. The main dif-ference is that it breaks a key Romero Rule.George Romero is wide-ly considered a godfa-ther of all horror films. His specialty is zombie apocalyptic themes. He has been writing and directing zombie mov-ies since the 1960s. His most famous films include “Night of the Living Dead” and “The Crazies.” He has his own set of rules most zombie film-makers follow called “The Romero Rules.” The set of zom-bie rules includes zom-bies walking slowly, zombies eating human flesh, and zombies in-fecting humans with the disease by biting or scratching. This recent film, though, has gone against one of the ma-

In October 2012 Dave Grohl, drummer of Nirvana and vocal-ist/guitarist of the Foo Fighters, announced that his latter band was taking an indefinite break. However, as fans can attest, Grohl al-ways has another proj-ect hidden in his red flannel shirt sleeves. The multi-tal-ented musician has di-rected and produced Sound City, a documen-tary focused on the his-tory of legendary Sound City Studios. From the earliest days of record-ing Fleetwood Mac with the revered Neve sound-board to Nirvana’s Nev-ermind saving the stu-dio from an inevitable closing, the film covers decades of magical mu-sic being made in a typi-cal rock and roll studio. With Pro Tools and digital recording leaving analog and live recording behind, Sound City closed in 2011; however, Dave Grohl salvaged perhaps the most integral piece of Sound City—the Neve. Custom built and truly vintage, the Neve soundboard was the tool behind the grip-ping sound of albums such as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, the Grateful Dead’s Ter-rapin Station, Tool’s

On January 28 Grammy nomi-nated R&B crooner Frank Ocean was in-volved in an alterca-tion with infamous brawler Chris Brown. According to TMZ Brown was at-tempting to leave Westlake Studio in Los Angeles when he was blocked from exiting his parking space by Ocean. Sources have reported that neither celebrity initiated the brawl, rather a friend of Ocean attacked Brown, thus causing the sing-ers to begin fighting.

by Mandy SteadmanStaff Writer

jor “Romero Rules”: A zombie cannot be turned back to life. "Warm Bod-ies" is the newest zom-bie film in theaters and is based on a novel by Isaac Marion. It centers on a zombie who falls in love with a human and starts to change back into a human. This relationship also has an effect on the other zombies and adds a whole new level to the zombie apocalypse be-cause love is the “cure.” This is by no means a typical zom-bie movie. However, it does stay true to most of the “Romero Rules” in-cluding the slow move-ment of zombies, their uncontrollable urge to eat living flesh, and some zombies still per-forming their routine duties they had when alive. Such as, a jani-tor zombie mopping the floor or an airport security guard scan-ning a person for metal. An interesting twist that Marion in-cludes is how a zombie will eventually whither away and become an unfeeling and relent-less creature called a bony. A bony looks like a black, decaying skeleton that moves ex-tremely fast and will eat

anything with a pulse. The bonies, however, are not what Romero had in mind for zombies to eventually become. The “Romero Rules” state that eventu-ally a zombie is suppose to decay to the point of falling apart within 10-12 years after turning. The director, Jonathan Levine, ad-dresses the breaking of zombie trend by intro-ducing this theme in a subtle and impacting way. He allows the au-dience to see the pro-gression of this "cure" in the main charac-ter zombie named R. The characters also do not freak out when they see a zom-bie save their life. They just acknowledge it and accept it in a way that it does not take two-thirds of the film to explain. It also is not cliche’ or over-the-top with the whole zom-bie-human romance. It is no sur-prise that this film is already beating box of-fice records at $19.5 million on Fandango.com. This tops the $9.2 million that the film “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” earned. The new twists on the zombie genre is recommended to ]

zombie and non-zombie fans alike. It is filled with humor, excitement and romance with a dash of gore and brains. This film will not fail to entertain you in

any way, shape or form. If you want to know more about the “Romero Rules” go onto www.zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Rome-ro_zombies. To know

more about “Warm Bodies” visit www.Fan-dango.com for a syn-opsis and movie times.

Undertow, and Metal-lica’s Death Magnetic. The album ac-companying the film, Sound City – Real to Reel, was recorded at the Foo Fighters’ Stu-dio 606 using the Neve and featuring many musicians who, as they admit in the film, owe their careers to Sound City. The Sound City Players, which includes Corey Taylor of Slip-knot, Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Ma-chine, Alain Johannes of Queens of the Stone Age, Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty and eleven other notable musi-cians, not only recorded the album for the film but are also touring. The only single to be released on iTunes from the album is “Cut Me Some Slack.” The song features Paul Mc-Cartney on vocals, Pat Smear on guitar, Krist Novoselic on bass and Grohl on drums. First performed at the 12/12/12 Concert for Relief following Hurricane Sandy, “Cut Me Some Slack” is as incredible as expected. With McCartney recalling his Beatles vo-cal power from “Helter Skelter” and the instru-mentals of former Nir-vana members echoing the raw talent of MTV Unplugged in New

York, the track is noth-ing short of explosive. Corey Taylor’s recording can be heard on the Sound City You-Tube channel. “From Can To Can’t” exhib-its Taylor’s Stone Sour vocals more so than his slightly aggressive Slipknot style. With Scott Reeder of Ky-uss on bass and Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick on guitar, the instru-mentals are as melo-dramatic as the lyrics. While “Cut Me Some Slack” is up-beat and consistently explosive, ‘From Can To Can’t” takes lon-ger to evolve into the emotionally satisfy-ing track that it is. With limited re-lease in the United States as of February 1, Sound City can be download-ed for $12.99 at buy.soundcitymovie.com. The album, Sound City -- Real to Reel, is not ex-pected until March 12 but is available for preorder on iTunes.

Following the incident Ocean tweeted, “got jumped by chris and a couple guys. lol. I only wish Everest was there.” Everest is Ocean’s Ber-nese Mountain Dog. Brown has yet to react to the event on social networking sites; however, he did post a photo of himself with friends inside of the studio from earlier in the night, adding the caption, “Working on my album. Not work-ing on negativity. Focus on feeding ya family. Bull**** will forever be in the shadows.” On February 2 Ocean said via his Tum-

blr page, “as a child i thought if someone jumped me it would re-sult in me murdering or mutilating a man. but as a man i am not a killer. i’m an artist and a mod-ern person. i’ll choose sanity. no criminal charges. no civil lawsuit. forgiveness, albeit diffi-cult, is wisdom. peace, albeit trite, is what i want in my life. peace.” If all goes as Ocean expects there will be no lawyers in-volved. Brown, who left the scene before authorizes arrived, will be questioned regarding the event before any fur-ther actions are taken.

Breezy and Ocean at it again

by Teddie TaylorContributing Writer

Monday, February 4th, 2012

The Falcon Page Seven

the staffnext year’sissue- College Night Review-The Falcon Guide to Music Festivals-Billy Elliot at BJCC-Midland City Stand Off-Music-Politics-Happiness

and more... February 11th, 2013

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

Webwww.facebook.com/thefalconmontevallo@theumfalconwww.thefalconat.tumblr.com

EditorsEditor-In-Chief:

Kyle Jones

Associate Editor:Andrew Mechum

Art & Culture Editor:Reed Strength

Staff WritersMandy Steadman

Neal EmbryMatthew Lord

Clarke StackhouseJake Smith

Contributing WritersTedie Taylor

Monday, February 4th, 2012