The Odyssey

INSIDE

A Saint James School Tradition Since 1969

Have a great summer break!

Farewell to Mr. Tatum

See Page 6

A day in the life of...

Mr. OliverTurn to page 6

Served!STJ tennis update

Page 3

Electric Guest

ReviewRead on Page 7

4 Stars!

Too Good to be LegalBy Reed O’Mara

Editor

Above: Wesley Carpenter (Elle) is tramatized by Reed Chisenhall (Warner) as he breaks up with her. Photo by Jessica Bozeman. Below right: Wesley Carpenter (Elle) and Miranda Therkelsen (Paulette) act out a scene for the play. Photo by Andy Clinton.

From April 26 to April 29, the Saint James Theater performed four shows

of Legally Blonde the Musical. One of the most exciting things about doing this ambitious mu-sical was that Saint James is one of the first theaters—not just schools—nationally to buy the rights to the play from Broadway.

Mr. Harrison, our hard-work-ing theater director, stressed the difficulties associated with un-dertaking a play of this propor-tion and intricacy. Not only were there many scene changes involv-ing lots of props, but many scene changes took place while the ac-tors were still acting—and the same goes for costume changes, which were aplenty with Elle Woods’s array of pink attire.

The play follows the same plot as Legally Blonde the movie, and most audience and cast members alike felt at home with the plot and characters. Elle Woods, the heroine of the musical and film, is hopelessly in love with War-ner Huntington III and chases him to Harvard Law School in hopes of winning him back. Her journey teaches us that we can-not always get what we want, but we’ll get what we need.

Elle was played by Saint James senior Wesley Carpenter, last seen in this year’s cabaret in a solo number but also as the star of this year’s production of A Bad Year for Tomatoes. This was Car-

penter’s last performance at Saint James, and as she reflected on the fact, she said, “It’s so much fun to for this show to be my last show because Elle is so much like me—I’m really bubbly like that. I think that all the shows that I have done in the past, even the comedies and straight plays, helped me get to this point where I can play [Elle] and make it work. All the things I have learned are in this show.”

The play was a great joy to watch, and crowds turned out for all of the four shows. Some audi-ence members, such as Mr. Ta-

tum, the high school princi-pal, compared the perfor-mance to the much-herald Beauty and the Beast of last year. He said, “It was well-done and very funny.”.

When Mr. Harrison was asked why he chose Legally

Blonde for this year’s spring musical, he said he picked it because it was “a hot show off of Broadway. […] It just seemed like a fun thing to do.” He also said his favorite aspect of the show was that “the students get to enjoy themselves and get to learn.”

Not to be forgotten were those countless members of the crew. Matt Young, a member of backstage crew, which helps with scene changes, said, “It was a lot of work moving props around, but it was fun.”

Saint James Theater car-ries a high mark of pro-fessionalism in its perfor-mances, and as seen in this musical and all the others, a true passion for theater is in all the hearts of those in-volved and in the audience.

“All the things I have learned are in this show.” -Wesley Carpenter

2 The Odyssey May 11, 2012NewsSGA News

By Reed Chisenhall2012-2013 SGA President

Club Corner: Spanish Club

By Caitlin CobbSports Editor

Epa! Spanish club, led by Señor Saavedra, is a gold club which meets every

other Wednesday. The Spanish club president is Caroline Crisp, vice president is Reed Chisen-hall, and Jason Nail is the trea-surer. This year, in Spanish club, members learned how to dance the meringue. Señor Saavedra started off by showing us the basic footwork, and then he gave us dancing partners and told us to try it out ourselves. Most of us, including myself, were not very good (only because we had not danced the meringue before).

At other Spanish club meet-ings, we had fiestas in which we assigned people to bring mostly Hispanic food. The parties were really fun, and all of the food

was delicious. Spanish club mainly focuses on the cultural aspects of the language and the regions where people speak Spanish.

Emma Matthews, a freshman and member of Spanish club, said, “The fiestas and dancing were really fun. I really like the food, and the dancing was extremely interesting.” Jordan Heymann, a junior who is also in Spanish club, commented, “Everything in Spanish club is really fun: from the people to the dancing to the food. All of it is always really great. Epa!” As you can see, almost all of the students in Spanish club really enjoy it.

All of the meetings for Span-ish club are always really fun and exciting. Everyone who is in any of the Spanish classes or who has ever taken Spanish should definitely join this club.

Mama Mia! We go to Italy!By Zoya Ahmed

Buissness Manager

The school year is finally coming to an end. Many will be going on trips to

the beach, visiting family, or even travelling the world.

Every year, Saint James School offers a trip to France, Spain or Italy. And this coming summer, after three years, it will be time for the students to join Mrs. Connor and other teach-ers on the Italy trip once again. Anyone was welcome to sign up, whether; you have taken the language or not. This year, there will be nineteen participants- ten adults and nine students. They will be departing May 28 and returning on June 6.

After the ten-and-a-half hour flight to reach Italy, everyone will have a great adventure ahead of them. Mrs. Connor and the others will be visiting the cit-ies of Assizi, Florence, Rome, Pompeii, and Capri. Also, they’ll be visiting the famous Vatican. Sites that will be on their agenda are as follows: the Basilica of St. Francis, Duomo, Academia,

the Coliseum, the roman Forum, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basil-ica, the Pompeii archaeological site, and they will be going on the Capri island cruise as well.

This trip will be full of learn-ing about new cultures, food, language and history. What won-derful learning experience!

When asked what she was

looking forward to the most, Mrs. Connor said, “I am looking forward to watching students’ de-light as they walk in the footsteps of the characters they studied in Latin class for the past year.” Sophomore Summer Pierce exclaimed, ‘I can’t wait to see all the super attractive Italian guys!” And sophomore Chloe Crane

added, “I am looking forward to the long flight partly be-cause I get to sit with Summer and because of the layover in London.”

Hopefully, everyone who is going on this exciting Italy trip will have tons of fun. And to everyone else, may you have a safe and memorable summer!

Oh, Baby!

Photo by Caitlin Cobb.

Dr. Oliver:My son's name is John Rivers Oliver and we call him John Rivers. My wife is Beth Oliver He was born Oct. 21, 2010 and he weighed 9lbs 4oz. He was a chunker. My mom bought him a miniature recliner that looks like mine for his birthday. One of the first times I had him on my own for a couple of days we were playing and he crawled up in his recliner. Before I knew it he had flipped out of it and landed our brick floor in the den with a loud thud. My first thought was that I just cracked his head and my wife was going to kill me. Luck-ily he bounced up and had a big smile on his face and the crisis was averted. I am sure there are many more but hopefully this will help.Dr. Turnipseed:My wife and I brought home Eliza-beth (Ella) Jane Turnipseed home during the Christmas break. Over the past 5 months we have had many things happen that have been great! We found out immediately she likes to sleep when there is noise, she doesn’t like quiet. She is very much a scheduler! From about the second

month on she gave herself a bed time (she fell asleep at the same time ev-ery night and hated being kept up af-ter her “bed time”). She is so bright, happy, and friendly! She smiles and laughs at everyone who picks her up. My favorite thing is every time I come home from work she smiles and laughs the second she sees me and throws both hands up for me to get her, and she’s only 5 months old! She loves baseball, we found this out because we were watching a Braves game one night and she started coo-ing the second it came on and would get grumpy every time there was a commercial until it came back on! She gets bigger every day, she smiles every day, she laughs every day, and she is constantly the most interesting thing ever. We already have a blue and gold pillowcase dress she will wear to her first Saint James Football game! She’s amazing and I can’t wait for her to grow up....but not to fast!

Students from the 2009 Italy trip gather in front of the Capris. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Connor.I am very excited about serving as your 2012-2013

SGA President. This is something I have wanted to do since I was in the 9th grade, and I’m so thankful to have this opportunity. Sydney Brasfield, your new Vice President, and I are already hard at work planning and preparing for next year. We are currently researching differ-ent organizations to find the charity that the SGA will support next year. We are also trying to come up with new service projects to raise a large sum of money to donate to our charity. The new SGA officers and I have taken on our first challenge in our new position- overseeing the Senior Walk and Send-off. We have had several meetings to prepare for this event and we were well-prepared. Again, the officers and I are very excited about next year, and are planning some great things to make it the best year ever. All the SGA ris-ing seniors want to give a big shout out to the class of 2013. We are ready to make sure next year is great for everyone. Have a good summer.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Turnipseed.

The Odyssey May 11, 2012 3Sports

By Allison RutherfordOpinions Editor

This year’s track season is coming to a close as they finish off with the

beginning of May in playoffs. Alexia Henig is the head coach and focuses specifically on the hurdlers and sprinters. Jeff MacIntyre works with the long distance runners. Jeff Elwell coaches the throwers which includes javelin, discus, and the shot put. The team has practiced Monday through Thursday with independent practices on Saturday since mid-February. The track team raced at Montgomery Academy each Monday afternoon. They also had a meet at Beauregard on Saturday, April 21st.

The team consists of girls and boys from 7th-12th grade. The girl’s team includes Hayden Barnes, Hannah Cape, Laura Catherine Clark, Cas-sidy Duncan, Taylor Duncan, Joanna Edmondson, Count-ess Johnson, Kelly Joyner, Elizabeth Kean, Sarah Kean, Lexie Larson, Emma Mat-thews, Kendall McCann, Nicole Millerakis, Macken-zie Montiel, Hayley White, and Ashley Williamson. The boys team includes Coleman Adams, Evan Border, Harrison Carter, Cal Cherry, Wesley Cherry, Will Cleland, Cole Collins, Eli Cox, Noah Cox, Harris Crews, T. Diebel, Pat-rick Domingo, Preston Elwell, Arthur Frawley, Joseph Gary, Hootie Gibson, Pierce Godwin, Antoine Goffin, Simon Gof-fin, Spencer Hamilton, Tyler Haveard, Tait Holder, Jordon

Jackson, Sterling Jones, Braeden Krow, Ben Olree, Caton Oswalt, Peyton Payne, Drew Pinckard, Whit Powell, Will Prater, Austin Ray, John Sullivan, and Zac Swearingen.

The team had a successful Sectional meet. Girls and Boys 4X8 qualified for state includ-ing Taylor Duncan, Lizzie Kean,

Emma Matthews, and Hayley White with Laura Katherine Clark and Sarah Kean as alter-nates. The boys’ team includes Coleman Adams, Antoine Goffin, Tait Holder, and Zac Swearingen. The boys’ and girls’ 4X4 also qualified for state. The girls 4X4 also qualified which includes Countess Johnson, Allison Mc-

Cabe, Hannah Cape, and Laura Catherine Clark. The boys’ 4X4 includes Jordon Jackson, Zac Swearingen, Chase Collins, and Tyler Haveard.

Individual events were also successful this season. Jordon Jackson also qualified for triple jump. Ashley Williamson quali-fied in 100 meter hurdles. Sarah

Kean is a qualify-ing wild card in the 100 hurdles. Taylor Duncan excelled in Sectionals by qualifi-ing for state in the one and two mile events along with the 800. Preston Elwell qualified in the javelin

while Evan Border qualified in the discus.

Senior Tyler Haveard commented on the season by saying, “The season was a great learning experience as well as enjoyable. The prac-tices really pushed our physical limits because they forced us to excel with the help of our coaches like Coach Henig and Coach MacIntyre by build-ing up our anaerobic capacity. With the great year we’ve had, it allowed me to have a great first and last track season as a senior. I appreciate the effort everyone had put forth, and I wish them the best next year.”

Running around the state

Hey, Batter-Batter

As the baseball season comes to a close, the team is stronger than

ever. They are currently coming off of a sixteen game win streak as they continue their track to achieve the goal of winning state.

The team is coached by Keith Lucky and Jay Gilliland. They are also under the strong leader-ship of seven seniors including Wilson Adams, Jay Goodson, Mason Handey, Jake Jabour, Graham Norwood, Taylor Poe, and Luke Strane. The team also has several other experienced juniors like Jake Allen, C.J. Duncan, Jake Farmer, David Hubbard, Matt Murray, William Olsey, and Chase Ritter. The team also consists of Kane Dav-enport, K.J. Mendelsohn, Frank Moody, and Jake Sharp.

There are five rounds of playoffs which end with the state tournament. The team plays each

round in a best of three series; the first two games are played on Friday afternoon while the third game is played on Saturday if it must go to a third game.

Fortunately, the Trojans were able to host the first two rounds of playoffs at home with the support of the Saint James family to cheer them on. The team won both series in two games. On April 20th the team played An-dalusia and won 3-2 in the first game. After a close first game, they came back strong in the second with a 9-1 win. On April 27th the Trojans defeated a local

rival, Alabama Christian Acad-emy, with two close victories of 2-1.

On May 3rd and 4th they will venture to UMS-Wright, the previous state champions, to continue their quest for a state championship. If the team comes out victorious, then they will compete in the semi-finals on May 11th and 12th which is followed by the state champion-ship on May 16th-19th. The team is off to a great start and has a bright looking future as they con-tinue their pursuit for the state championship.

By Amelia HananFeatures Editor

You got served!By Allison Rutherford

Opinions Editor

The tennis teams at Saint James are well-known for being one of Montgom-

ery’s best. Last year, the boys’ team had a great season filled with many victories. The girls’ team also was very successful with their win at State. This year, the tennis program has continued its success.

Geoff Waring and Cheris Sherlin, replacing last year’s coaches, contributed to the ten-nis program’s achievements. Both teams have played over ten games, and have won most matches played. In tennis, six people play at a time with four alternates. All ten people per team have had the opportunity to play this year and develop their skills.

At the end of April, both the girls and boys tennis teams advanced to State playoffs. The tournament took place in Mobile.

The boys placed second in the tournament, with five out of their six players making it to the fi-nals. Although the girls won last year, this year they still ranked high with third place overall. Even though neither team was able to achieve first place, they were still extremely triumphant during the season and have much potential for next year.

Next year’s team is expected to be just as victorious as this year’s team. Although the boys team will be losing their beloved captain, senior Kevin Varghese, they will try their best to make him proud. Sophomore Jared Hunter, who is well-known for his beastly tennis skills and in-cendiary serves, says of the team, “We’re not a tennis team, we’re a tennis family. Although the sea-son is over, we still go out to eat together as a family almost every Friday night. It’s a fun time.” Obviously, the tennis teams at Saint James are equally praised for their skills and incredible teamwork.

Photo by Hayley White.

Photo courtesy of Hayley White.

4 The Odyssey May 11, 2012 The Odyssey May 11, 2012 5

Where we’re going...Class of 2012

Central Alabama

Community College

Wilson Adams

Savannah College of Art

and Design

Hayden BarnesSammie Eiring

University of Alabama in Birmingham

CeCe BatesKevin VargheseAlason Lakhani

Evelyn StrohJared Black

University of Alabama

Maria Bedding-field

Stephen BisbeeCamilla Bryant

Holly CarrMatt Fields

Wes FunderburkJay Goodson

Brandon GreenbergMason Handy

Aurburn University

Hayley BellBraxton BentonJohn BradfordTaylor Duncan

University of Mississippi

Anne Banks Blackwell

University of Montevallo

Kimmie CainMurray McDonald

Rosie Smith Belmont University

Belhaven University

Cal Cherry

Cornell University

Dewey Davis

Birmingham Southern College

Kirsten Love

University of South Alabama

Blair Tucker

Huntingdon College

Jeremy Wolfe

The Citadel

Austin Yost

Troy University

Wyatt EdmondsonPierce Godwin

Desiree KirkwoodGarret Morton

Austin RayPercy ShufordZack Taylor

Auburn University

Montgomery

Julian Hill

Tyler HaveardHannah HooverAmber LedfordConnor Morton

Samanta MukkamalaAlex Pattie

Madeline PendleyTaylor Poe

Anna Clair SeanorRickie Seeber

Savannah SmithLuke Strane

Logan StraneForest Taylor

Alexandra Wise

Mary GriggsJordan Hall

David HavenAli IngramJake JabourMegan Lee

Hanes LitchfieldCarter Lloyd

Jay McCollumLaura McEnerneyAustin Meadows

Samira MukkamalaBrett MurrayRiley Newton

Gram NorwoodHollis Oswalt

Hannah RobertsAmy SmithClair Walter

Carlin Watson

Wesley Carpenter

6 Features

The Odyssey StaffEditors-in-Chief Reed O’Mara

Business Manager Zoya Ahmed

Section EditorsNews Hayley White Sports Caitlin CobbOpinions Allison RutherfordFeatures Amelia HananEntertainment Zoya Ahmed

Photographer Hayley White Cartoonist Sammie Eiring Advisor JamesHadleyGriffin

Member Alabama Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) and Journalism Education Association.Recipient of the ASPA All Alabama Award 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002

Recipient of the Troy School of Journalism Hallmark Award 2000, 2001, 2003

The Odyssey is published six times a year. The opinions in the Odyssey are the view expressed by individual staff mem-bers. This is not necessarily representative of the opinions of the faculty,

administration, parents, students, or advisor.

The Odyssey welcomes letters to the editor. The letters must be signed and the staff reserves the right to edit the letter before publication for length.

Saint James School n 6010 Vaughn Road n Montgomery, AL 36116 n (334) 277-8033 ext. 116odysseynewspaper@gmail.com

The Odyssey May 11, 2012

Cobby Da Fool

What We’ve Learned

Farewell, Mr. Tatum

By Reed O’MaraEditor

Mr. John Tatum has been the Saint James high school principal

for 3 years now. It feels longer. And as he chooses to retire this next year, hundreds of Saint James students will feel the absence. While we can be sure the next principal will be great, it is doubtful that Mr. Tatum’s “tatumness” can be matched.

Mr. Tatum hasn’t commanded over the high school with an iron fist or a soft heart. He is somewhere in between—making Machiavelli correct on the proper way to “rule.” He puts the “pal” in “principal” without forfeiting great respect. All the students, no matter their grade, feel close to Mr. Tatum, and it would be hard not to with him greeting every passing student with their first name in the halls which he always seems to be walking through.

Mr. Tatum has been an ever-present figure in my high school career. He’s been there to not only confirm the Saint James mantra—“We are Saint James!”—but to give it new light. All through his time here, he has been pushing students to be the best they can be, with integrity and strength to match.

When asked about what his first impression of Saint James was, Mr. Tatum said, “I had worked at a competing school before I came to Saint James, and I had heard a good bit about it. I think I had an overall good impression about what it was about.” Now he’s sad to go—but in usual Tatum fashion, he’s upbeat about it.

And it’s not only students who have cherished having him as

principal. The teachers, too, have loved having Mr. Tatum for their boss. Mr. McLemore said, “I’ve worked with four high school principals and Mr. Tatum is clearly the best. He’s an enthusi-astic leader for Saint James, and all of us value his wisdom.”

But it’s not all sad. Looking back, there are a lot of funny memories to be had with Mr. Tatum. For instance, I remember the time I had a detention—a miserable and boring experi-ence—and how Mr. Tatum walked in the room like a ray of sunshine. He’s the only person who can walk into a detention hall and say, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen” and get genuine smiles back. Senior Austin Ray said, “Mr. Tatum has a great sense of humor, and he is very straightforward. I have a lot of memories of him, and I’m glad he’s leaving the same year I am.”

Mr. Tatum said the favorite thing about his time here has been the students. “I’ve really enjoyed them.” When asked what his advice would be to the faculty and students, he gave a pleasant smile and said, “Just love each and care for each other…and work hard.”

We all are sad to see Mr. Tatum go, and we all wish him luck in the future. His time here, though brief, has been a great addition to the Saint James experience, and has surely made it brighter than it could have ever been without him. As Mrs. Richardson, head of school, said, “We certainly will miss him. […] He has been an extraordinary principal. He has come in and done everything I have asked him to do. He’s provided a lot of stability for the school. We wish him well in his retirement.”

A Day in the Life of... Mr. OliverWalk us through your day….“I usually wake up at 6:15. If my son wakes up, I have baby duties like getting him dressed. I usually get to school between 7:15 and 7:30. Sometimes I have to get here real early if I have a parent teacher conference which is where we have to talk to parents and teachers about var-ious different things. My work days vary which is nice; it keeps it kind of exciting and fun. Like, this time of year, right now we’re dealing with AP exams and getting all that stuff ready. In the fall we might be dealing with PSAT or PLAN testing, and then throughout the year we’re do-ing college recommendations for scholarships and college admissions applications. So, it really changes over the course of the year as to what a typical day is like.”

Do students ever ask you the same nagging annoying questions like they do to Mrs. Meadows?“We have things that we’ll post in the e-mail news or we will send out an announcement and then someone will come and ask exactly what’s in the e-mail new. But nothing really too annoying, I would say. We have such a variety of questions that almost no question is ever the same.”

Do you have a favorite counselor duty?

“Overall, my favorite thing is getting to know the kinds from 9th grade through 12th grade. My favorite thing is getting to see how scared they are in 9th grade ver-sus what kind of a student they turned into. Like when they become seniors and start applying for colleges, I think that’s really neat. My other favorite thing is doing things outside of school like sporting events and plays and stuff because then you get to see the students out-side the academic life. Outside of running up and down the halls. That’s really neat.”

1. To everyone who actually takes this column seriously, this is a joke. No one in this school would ever write to me about those kinds of problems (my name is DA FOOL!) or advertise them in the school newspaper. 2. To Mrs. McCarron, Anony-mous, Just a Friend, HELP, and A Good Student: please get serious help for the problems that you wrote to me about. I am absolutely astounded by the fact that you thought I could actually help you!3. This might shock you, but I think we actually did learn a few things this year: people with multiple personality disor-ders are awful to be around, no one wants to go to the juvenile delinquent center, and stay away from those who follow you around all the time. Remember all of the things I have taught you, and hopefully you will be able to survive the rest of the year and maybe sur-vive life… Have a great year! Without Love, Cobby da Fool

Dr. Oliver, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us, “Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education.” Photo by Hayley White.

The Odyssey 11, 2012 7ENTERTAINMENTThe Good, the Bad, and the Tasteless:

An Overview of a Year of ReviewsBy Allison Rutherford

Opinions Editor

Throughout the school year, the Odyssey has selected various restau-

rants in Montgomery to review. In addition to enjoying some of America’s classic foods, we have explored many different cultures by giving their food a try. From Korean to Thai, our staff has had the opportunity to review and re-port to you foods from all across the world.

The first restaurant we visited was Ruddles, a semi-German, perhaps Irish, pub located on Bell Road. Although I have never visited Ruddles, it has a good reputation of serving tasty food and having quick, efficient service. Reed commented, “I particularly enjoyed Ruddles’s sandwiches. Their fries are scrumptious. The German food was great.” From their delicious food to homey atmosphere, Hay-ley would recommend Ruddles to anyone. In fact, she awarded the pub a remarkable 4 out of 5 stars.

We transferred our taste buds from German to Korean as we visited Montgomery’s newest Korean restaurant, Woo Ga, on Eastern Boulevard. While I am accustomed to the kimchi and

the strange yet tasty side items Korean restaurants offer, it seems the rest of our staff, with perhaps the exception of Reed, was a bit confused. While we enjoyed the décor and homey atmosphere, the food failed to impress for the most part. We all left with a somewhat good opinion of the restaurant; that is of course until the waitress chased us into the parking lot looking for extra tip money. Overall, Reed gave Woo Ga 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Not feeling particularly in the mood to branch out after our ex-perience at Woo Ga, we visited a favorite, Tomatino’s, next. Toma-tino’s is a phenomenal pizzeria located in Old Cloverdale. From the eye-catching interior design to the fresh, yummy pizza, the

entire staff loved it. While on that day service was a bit slow, the wait was well worth it. In addition to our entrees, we also ordered ice cream from Toma-tino’s neighbor, the tasty eatery, Café Louisa. Zoya awarded the pizzeria a 4 out of 5 stars.

After attempting a visit to the late-opening Noodle’s Café, the staff decided to review Gigi’s and Montgomery’s 7th Waffle House, both located on Vaughn Road. Famous before debut, Gigi’s was overrated, but the rest of the staff loved it. While the atmosphere was unpleasant, con-sidering the rudeness of the staff, the small amount of space to eat, and the ridiculous prices, the cupcakes themselves were tasty. Well, that is if you could reach it

under the globs of icing and occasional bacon. We also reviewed Waffle House that day, and it was just like any other Waffle House: tasty breakfast food, generation-confused juke-boxes (this one included songs from Big Time Rush and Elvis), and great service from a kind staff. Impressed by the bacon cupcakes and legitimate bacon, Reed gave the overall experience 3 out of 5 stars.

Noodles Cafe followed. While Hayley compliments the spa-ciousness of the restaurant, she was not as impressed by their lack of lemonade and the food she ordered, the Pad Thai. Hay-ley and Amelia, who commented that the service is extremely slow, prefer Lek’s.

Electric GuestBy Zoya Ahmed

Buissness Manager

The staff’s final restaurant was Cantina, downtown in the Alley. Due to my lack of an in-vitation, or maybe a Spanish test the following day, I didn’t attend. However, it seems the rest of the Odyssey, along with Jeremy Fra-sher, thoroughly enjoyed Cantina for its diversity, unique décor, and of course, delicious food. Apparently their peach flavored tea and Cuban sandwich makes it extremely special--deserving of 4 stars.

The Odyssey has visited a multitude of restaurants all over Montgomery. While mine and Zoya’s favorite was Tomatino’s, Reed and Amelia preferred Noodle’s Café. Hayley and Cait-lin adored Cantina.

Recently, a new indie pop band came togeth-er in the exciting city

of Los Angeles, California. They are known as Electric Guest. The band consists of Asa Taccone, Matthew Comp-ton, and the brothers Todd and Tory Dahlhoff. You may know somewhat about Asa Taccone because of his famous brother Jorma Taccone, who is from

the well-known comedic group The Lonely Island. So now, both Taccone brothers are in the spot-light. Well, Electric Guest just came out with their debut album, Mondo, which was released on April 24, 2012, and it has gotten many great reviews. The album made number thirty-two on the French Albums Chart in its first week of release.

The album is absolutely wonderful! It would be great to listen to with friends or on a road trip. The best song on

Mondo would probably have to be “This Head I Hold” because it has such an upbeat and lively tune. It really makes you want to get up and dance. This album has several mellow songs as well as the many electronic-sounding ones as well. Other favorites are the eight minute and forty-eight second “Troubleman,” which has a very soothing tune that could help you fall asleep, and “Ameri-can Daydream,” which would probably have to be the second

best song on the album.Electric Guest has

gained much popular-ity because of their collaboration with pro-ducer Danger Mouse. They began touring in Europe in 2011, and are currently touring America until May 27, 2012. And this year, they performed at the film festival South by Southwest.

If you haven’t ever heard of Electric Guest, I suggest you should definitely give them a listen! The band produces a perfect amount of both indie and electric music. And Mondo is an amazing album. Believe me, you’ll love it.Image courtesy of Downtown Records.

8 Photo Gallery The Odyssey May 11, 2012

Top Left: Middle school students gather after competing in the Flimp Festival chalk contest. Photo by Evelyn Shoults. Above: At the performance of Legally Blonde the Musical, seniors Rickie Seeber and

Mr. Clinton’s Write Club held a poetry contest this month, and the Odyssey staff would like to take this opportunity to showcase the winner.

Purple Pixies by Maria BeddingfieldShadows of shape shifting stars, shake across the jumbled lines.They sway left and right, bluish-gray on silky brown.Dancers for a glance.

You don’t see them, but their audience is ceaseless.In the morning, rays drift, they settle.After hours, winds rustle, they meddle.Dancers, unnoticed.

Ruffles ripple and relax, warming up, performing ritualistically,Yet unpredicatably.Dancers, uncontrolled.

When it’s over and darkness folds,The dance, it coldly slows.Applause, only a light, Dancers, resting in the night.

Savannah Smith help in the orchestra. Photo by Andy Clinton. Bottom Left: Sixth graders work on their chalk drawing in the Flimp Festival. Photo by Evelyn Shoults.

Goodbye, Seniors