A Keen Eye For News

The FalconMonday, February 25th, 2012

Volume 2. Issue 7.

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News Arts & Culture

page 2page 4

Mississippi ratifies a historic proclamation

The return of Led Zeppelin?

CROSS CAMPUS

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UM Concert ChoirFebruary 26,

7:30pm – 8:30pmLeBaron Recital Hall

National Chocolate Cake Day

Wednesday, Feb 27, 2013

The 85th Academy Awards wrap up

IN THIS ISSUE

The hard part of space

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

February 25-March 2

by Andrew MechumAssociate Editor

Shuttles to AlabasterMarch 2,

12pm – 6pmBecoming Sculpture

Higher Ed DayFebruary 28,

7:30am – 2:30pmMontgomery

UM Honor Band FestivalFriday, Mar 1, 2013

Davis Music Building

Biden: Keep calm and carry on

On February 21, 2013 at Western Con-necticut University in Danbury, Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech where he had the brava-do to say the following: “No law-abid-ing citizen in the Unit-ed States of America has any fear that their constitutional rights will be infringed in any way. None. Zero.” This was in ref-erence to the Obama administration’s plan to limit the types of fire-arms available for pur-chase under the proposed assault weapons ban. Biden said there is no need for anyone to have an AR-15 style rifle for hunting or pro-tection. He is of course forgetting that the Sec-ond Amendment makes no mention of hunting. In fact, if you look at

A meteorite exploded over Chely-abinsk, Russia on Feb-ruary 15th. Before ex-ploding, the space rock was traveling at 10 to 12 miles per hour. The resulting blast caused a sonic boom that injured 1000 people, caused millions in damages and left a large crater in Lake Cherbarkul. Collectors and treasure hunters are now scouring the blast area, hoping to find a shard of the meteor-

the collection of writ-ings from the founding fathers it becomes evi-dent that their inclusion of the right to bear arms was about the citizenry protecting themselves from their government. This was in ref-erence to the Obama administration’s plan to limit the types of fire-arms available for pur-chase under the proposed assault weapons ban. The public is all too familiar with Biden’s tendency to flub his lines and make blundering mistakes when talking with the press. These com-ments however were not flubs, nor were they errors in judgment. It would seem that Mr. Biden genuine-ly believes, and expects the American people to believe that stripping away their rights to cer-tain types of firearms is not an infringement on the Second Amendment. He is perhaps forgetting that the Bill of Rights, and the rest of the constitutional amend-ments, are just that: rights, not privileges. The duty of our

elected officials, the men and women we elect to serve us, is to protect those rights and uphold the constitution. In to-day’s America our civil servants in Washington view themselves as en-titlement lenders and policy makers instead of defenders of freedom. Let us not for-get how little they have done to actually run this country. Article one of the constitution sets forth the Senate’s man-date to create an annual budget. As of this going

to print, it has been near-ly 1400 days since the Senate passed a budget. During his speech in Danbury, Biden also commented, “There is a moral price to be paid for inaction.” The context of this state-ment centers around what the Obama admin-istration aims to do con-cerning guns. Just as well, seeing as inaction on the part of the Presi-dent of the Senate (that’s Biden) and the other senators has, at least in part, left this coun-

try budgetless for four years and drowning in over $16 trillion of debt. Apparently mor-al prices paid on inac-tion only apply to the issues Biden and the Obama administration see fit. By their logic disarming an increas-ingly poor, unemployed populace is vastly more important than creating budgets and a means by which to protect and uplift the very people they swore to serve.

by Reed StrengthArts & Culture Editor

ite to covet or gain a quick buck. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a gram of the other worldly mineral is currently estimated to be over $2,128, over 40 times more than the current cost of gold. Around 20,000 citizens attempted to clean up the mess left after the crash, which amounted to an esti-mated $32 million in damage. Of the hunters the Ural Federal Uni-versity has probably the largest take, col-lecting 53 confirmed shards for study found near Lake Cherbarkul. Other pieces are being advertised on classified sites. Accord-ing to the International Business Times, one en-trepreneurial 18 year old resident advertised his

space pebbles for 500 rubles each (or $16.61). He suggested buying them as either “souvenirs or for sto-ries.” In comparison, an-other resident priced his take at 300,000 rubles ($10,000) claiming his

fragments were “new”. While treasure hunters revel in their take, not everyone in Russia is making light of the crash. Accord-ing to the Washing-ton Post the country’s Liberal Leader blames

the fireball not on the natural cycles of the universe, but the U.S. “Those were not meteorites, it was Americans testing their new weapons,” Zhiri-novsky theorized. The article further states

that local reports named Secretary of State John Kerry as the proverbial Paul Revere before the event, warning “Rus-sian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the ‘test’ in advance.”

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The Falcon Page Two

news “I’d rather put my cultural imprint on the fabric of life. After money, all you want is immortality.”

-Shane Smith

by Neal EmbryStaff Writer

by Matt SanderlinArts & Culture Editor

Bulgarian cabinet calls it quitsThe Editor’s Desk:Nation in trouble, but Mrs. Obama finds time for the Oscars

Jimmy Lee Dykes suspect in kidnapping

At least we’re not Mississippi

by Jake SmithStaff Writer

by Andrew MechumAssociate Editor

Follow me at @amechum

The Bulgarian cabinet has officially announced its resigna-tion after 8 days of pro-tests across the small European nation. The protests stemmed from the government’s un-manageably high elec-tricity bills but have more recently turned into a widespread dec-laration of govern-ment distrust and dis-approval of the way the nation is being run. Bulgarian presi-dent, Boyko Borisov, supports the cabinet’s decision to resign and

Ask anyone you know or a stranger on the street what is wrong with America today and you are sure to receive a myriad array of answers. Last night I stum-bled upon my answer. I don’t watch the Oscars. I don’t buy into the self-congratula-tory air that surrounds the star-studded event and I don’t pay atten-tion to who-wore-what-best either. It simply doesn’t interest me. That being said, I do find myself every year tuning in to the last few minutes of the Os-cars to see which film won best picture. I may not be a celebrity ob-sessed fanboy, but I do love watching movies. Last night, First Lady Michelle Obama presented the award for Best Motion Pic-ture from Washington. Service members in their finest dress uni-forms flanked the first lady as she wore a dress that will surely have fashionistas clamor-ing to voice their opin-ion in the coming days. What struck me in that moment however wasn’t how she looked, what she said or even who won the Oscar; kudos to “Argo” by the way. No, what my mind went to immediately was, “What in the hell is the first lady doing pre-senting at The Oscars?” Mrs. Obama isn’t the first politician, or in this case wife of a politi-cian, to participate in the Oscars. Some of you out there may remem-ber Ronald Reagan’s taped remarks at the 53rd Academy Awards in 1981. Fewer still will remember that President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the Oscars au-dience via radio in 1941. Nikke Finke wrote on deadline.com, “As if Hanoi Jane wasn’t fuel enough. Oh My God - the Academy actually fans the fire by draft-ing First Lady Michelle Obama to help pres-ent Best Picture from presumably the White House? So unnecessary and inappropriate to in-ject so much politics into the Oscars yet again.”

She is right. What I spotted last night was the American propaganda machine hard at work to distract the public from how terrible we are doing as a country right now. In World War II we had the Office of War Information doling out propaganda to fuel the war machine. The Bush years saw the likes of Rumsfeld, Cheney and Powell stumping for the “War on Terror-ism” fear campaign that touted, “You’re either with us or against us.” Today we have the first family cozying up to Hollywood glitte-rati at the Oscars and on the golf course as if they were one of them. This could be a way of giv-ing back for the hefty donations the Obama campaign received from Hollywood or, and per-haps much worse, it could be a sign that the first family views them-selves as celebrities in-stead of public servants. This is the crux of the problem. Should we celebrate our politi-cians on the same level as athletes or thespians? I, for one, think not. In a week’s time we face sequestration, a huge cut in government spending that some ar-gue will cripple the country. We have a con-gress that can’t work to-gether and hardly works at all for that matter. And to top it all off we have the leader of the free world, and his wife, trotting around the coun-try rubbing shoulders with super stars instead of tackling the dire so-cial and economic prob-lems facing America. Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but shouldn’t a president who claims to be for the poor and the middle class be more concerned with making sure the federal gov-ernment doesn’t throw them under the bus in-stead of spending his time with people whose bank accounts firmly place them with the now vilified one percent? I’ll let you be the judge. Let us know what you think about Michelle Obama presenting at the Oscars on The Fal-con’s Facebook page.

maintains that the na-tion’s economic situ-ation can still be sal-vaged. On Thursday, February 21, the Bulgar-ian Parliament approved the cabinet’s decision and the resignation will proceed as planned. Elections will be held at a to-be-de-termined date for a new

cabinet, and President Borisov maintains that the new cabinet will not contain members of his GERB party. The cur-rent government has been doing their best to work with the pro-testers in order to pre-vent all-out civil war that has been the trend in the Middle East.

Given the inac-tion by our leaders in Washington, do you think a similar option should be considered for Congress? Let us know what you think and keep up with The Falcon for more news on the world’s con-tinuing economic trou-bles and resolutions.

On February 7th, the Director of the Federal register (DFR) received documentation from the state of Mis-sissippi which gave the federal office the O.K. to ratify the thirteenth amendment of the U.S. constitution. If this move seems a little late, lets put it in perspective. The thirteenth amendment was estab-lished in 1865 after the end of the civil war. The bill declared all forms of slavery abolished within the then 36 states of America. Where some states ratified the amendment immediate-ly, others held out. At the time, the doctrine’s inclusion in the con-stitution only needed three-fourths, or 27, of the states to approve. Kentucky, Dela-ware and Mississippi held out on ratifying the amendment for the longest period. Dela-ware passed the bill in 1901 with Kentucky following suit in 1976. M i s s i s s i p p i originally made the move to ratify the amendment in 1995. However, the proper pa-

by Reed StrengthArts & Culture Editor

perwork never reached the U.S. archivist. The reason for this misstep has not been discovered. The last state to attempt to ratify the “anti-slav-ery” amendment held an unknown and unofficial ratification for 18 years. U n f o r t u n a t e -ly, Mississippi’s late move to rectify its mis-take creates plenty of new material for jokes about the Old South.This loophole was discovered after Uni-versity of Mississippi professor Dr. Ranjan Bantra watched the Ste-ven Spielberg directed “Lincoln”. After wit-nessing the struggle the nation went through to pass the law, Bantra was interested to learn about his state’s han-dling of the bill. When the professor checked usconstitution.net, the Magnolia State had a small mark next to the date of ratification, denoting that it never officially ratified the amendment. Dr. Bantra went to his colleague, Dr. Ken Sullivan, and told him to check on the matter. Sullivan came upon the same discovery on the website and trav-

Over the past week, the case involv-ing South African hero Oscar Pistorius has had some major updates. A chief investigator has been removed, sto-ries have been exam-ined and the case that has shaken South Af-rica continues to evolve. Chief investiga-tor Hilton Botha was removed from the case after police discov-ered that he was fac-ing seven counts of at-tempted murder from an incident in 2011. Botha was replaced by Lt. Vinesh Moonoo. Before being removed, Botha stated that there were no con-tradictions between Pistorius’ story and what the prosecution has come to find out, save for a few details. Pistorius says he shot while on his stumps, without put-ting on his prosthetic legs. The prosecution proposed that because the shots had a “top to bottom” trajectory, Pis-torius would have had to have been on his prosthetic legs. If he did move on his stumps, the defense could use this to show that Pis-torius felt threatened. Pistorius also says the bloody cricket bat found at the scene was used to beat the bathroom door down

Watching Oscarwhen he realized Steen-kamp was behind it. The prosecution as-serts that the bat was instead used to beat Steenkamp to death. Botha admitted police had left a 9 mil-limeter slug in the bath-room and had somehow lost track of ammunition that they say was illegal-ly obtained. The prose-cutor also admitted that the police acted prema-turely in calling a sub-stance found in the run-ner's home testosterone. On Friday, Febru-ary 22, Pistorius was released on bail, as the judge said the pros-ecution had not shown enough evidence to keep him in prison. The judge added that it is too soon to judge the case, due to numerous "im-probabilities" in Pistori-us' story and "blunders" by the prosecution. In other news related to Pistorius, Nike has suspend-ed their sponsor-ship of the athlete. ''We believe Os-car Pistorius should be afforded due process and we will continue to monitor the situa-tion closely,” a Nike spokesperson said. Popular eyewear manufacturer Oakley has also suspended its sponsorship of Pistorius. Pistorius’ agent, Peet Van Zyl, cancelled all races scheduled for the “Blade Runner,” in order to, “allow Oscar to concentrate on the upcoming legal pro-ceedings and to help and support all those involved as they try

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Monday, February 25th, 2012

The Falcon Page Three

by Michael ArtressContributing Writer

lifestyles

Coming Soon...

Deus Ex:Human Revolution

The Falcon Podcast

The new comic called Superior Spider-man does not live up to the long running Amaz-ing Spider-man which it replaced. This is ex-tremely ironic consider-ing it is called Superior Spider-man. I have been disappointed in Marvel a number of times, like the horrible One Mo-ment in Time story line, but what they’re put-ting out lately is even more disheartening. The half-assed writing of the once fan favorite Dan Slott is pa-thetic. I thought that Joe Quesada had the dumb-est ideas in Marvel (he wrote One Moment in Time), but this time it is Slott that has come up the current steam-ing pile gracing shelves. Superior Spider-man’s plot reads like this: Doc Ock is now the new Spider-man in Peter Parker's body after the real Parker died in his. Doc Ock switched minds with Parker on his deathbed in issue 700 of Amazing Spider-man. Doc Ock is tak-ing his second chance at

If the game play of Hitman and the en-vironment of Ghost in the Shell were to make sweet, passion-ate, late night, hormone induced love, the end result would be Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The year is 2027, and you are Adam Jensen, the newly hired security director of Sar-if Industries, a contro-versially biotechnology firm that specializes in human augmentation. However, Jen-sen does a real screw-up job and terrorists decimate Sarif’s head-quarters causing Jensen to be mortally wound-ed. The only chance of survival forces him to undergo advanced prosthetic surgery. Jen-sen comes out as an

“Aug”, and begins a manhunt for those be-hind the terrorist attack. The game is very slow to start, just because it sets up the basis for the rest of the game play. But once you get past the first big level arc, the game really picks up and is a lot of fun. The game has a free roam envi-ronment, which was completely unexpected and warms the heart. There are two ways you can approach each level, hide and sneak around (which takes a long time) or run in guns blazing (if you do this option, prepare to get your butt kicked.) The AI is merci-less and will chase you out from your hiding spot. And not only that,

it only takes a few bul-lets to take you down. It’s not like this is a video game or anything. You do get to carry out Mass Ef-fect dialogue situations quite often and you can customize your abili-ties through a point sys-tem that is hard to earn points on. Your col-leagues and everyone around you are full of sarcasm but that is plus because it’s rather enter-taining. The voice acting is very rough. It could have seriously switched between Bale’s Batman and Toufexis’s Jensen and no one would have known the difference. It was rather bothersome and more of a distrac-tion than an in game intimidation factor, which it was used for.

The sensitivity on the controls is a neg-ative. Those that play with low sensitivity will have difficulty finding the right setting. Also, the controls are diffi-cult to learn at first and even then, the aiming system is a little clunky. The cut scenes are stunningly beau-tiful and the cyber-punk feel the game features is lovely. The soundtrack fits perfect-ly with this game and sets the mood, which is ultimately its job. This game is definitely worth picking up, and that’s good by any standards. If this re-ally isn’t your genre, it’s still worth picking up, but maybe try renting it. CMD gives it a 3.5/5.

“Inferior” Spider-Man Disappoints

by Matt LordStaff Writer

life to become a “hero” and I for one find this extremely unbeliev-able. The classic vil-lain turned hero is a laughable idea to begin with and, simply put, it has been done before. Plus, a vil-lain taking over as Spider-man is a sim-ply ridiculous idea. The first page of the issue gave me hope that maybe the new di-rection for the charac-ter would be good. For example, when Doc Ock (in Parker’s body) put flowers on his own grave to say goodbye to his old life. That hope was quickly removed from my mind by about page three or four when the plot coalesced. The comic book is almost un-readable because of the cheesy dialogue and the idea of an overpowered hero. It makes a person wonder, what Marvel is thinking these days? The worst part is the ghost of Peter Park-er hovering around Doc Ock. This is just plain silly. The ghost Parker does make the title a bit more tolerable at points, but not much. The

whole of the story is hard to take seriously at this point. The sad thing is the Amazing Spider-man series was actually going pretty well be-fore issue 700. The last line of issue one made me groan:”I am Peter Park-er, and I swear I will find a way back”. This makes the end to the series pretty obvious with no surprises. Issue two only makes things worse with a creepy Doc Ock/Peter Parker. The second is-sue hit a new low when Doc Ock used Parker’s memories of Mary Jane to “fantasize” about sleeping with her. It was only bluntly hinted at what he was doing, but it still did not need to be there. With the line, “I can relive them over and over again,” it made for a very un-necessary few pages. Issue three was not too bad overall, but I still wish I could have my four dollars back. When the real Peter Parker went into Doc Ock’s memory, it was dull and pre-dictable. Using the standard scenes of a violent father, which attempted to make the reader feel bad for Doc Ock, just didn’t cut it. Child abuse is a ma-jor problem in this country and should be handled carefully. Instead, it felt like a focused at-tempt to add depth to the character.The main plot of the fourth issue was the Vulture, another classic

Spider-Man returning to the comic. Then it was followed by a few flashbacks of Doc Ock's first time working with the Vulture. Actually, most of the issue was flashbacks. The only good part of this was when Spider-Man blew up a “spider-signal” that J.Jonah Jameson made. The issue was decent at best, but then came the letters page. It almost seemed like the people at Marvel have forgotten who they are. The let-ter page highlighted a few people’s anger with the series with re-sponses to all of them. In response to the letters, the folks at Marvel said, “If ev-eryone does what they promise, sales on Supe-rior Spider-man will be ZERO! Guess we’ll see." This is unlike Marvel to verbally challenge their fans to quit reading. I have been a long time reader of Marvel, but enough is enough. After reading issue three, I for one have de-cided to no longer sup-port the company. I will not waste my money on Marvel’s comics any longer if they continue to produces such mind-less drivel. With prices on each issue ranging from $2.99 to $3.99 before tax, a step up in the writing depart-ment will be needed to justify me spending my hard earned dol-lars on their product.

eled to the state archives for a copy of the bill. While inspect-ing the document, Dr. Sullivan noticed that both Houses of Missis-sippi “unanimously” passed the bill’s rati-fication in 1995. He passed this informa-tion on to the Secretary of State’s office, who gathered up the files and sent them again to the National Archives. Once there, the DFR sent word that the amendment was now official within the state, 148 years after slavery was originally abol-ished. As ABC News reports, Dr. Sullivan was pleased to end this chapter in Mississippi’s history. “I know we have some dark spots in our history through the south, it still affects people’s opinions about Mississippi today.”

to come to terms with this very difficult and distressing situation.” The reality show that the victim, model Reeva Steenkamp, com-peted in, aired Saturday, February 16, as planned. Steenkamp’s last recorded words stuck out from the broadcast: "The way that you go out, not just your journey in life, but the way that you make your exit is so impor-tant if you even made an impact in a posi-tive way or a negative way, but just maintain integrity and maintain class and just always be true to yourself.” The Falcon will continue to moni-tor the Oscar Pisto-rius case and bring you updates as they come throughout the week.

MISSISSIPPIcontinued

PISTORIUScontinued

Monday, February 25th, 2012

arts&culturePage FourThe Falcon

And the Oscar goes to...

by Mandy SteadmanStaff Writer

by Jake SmithStaff Writer

Album Review:

Hangout Music Fesitival in Gulf Shores, AL

by Mandy SteadmanStaff Writer

Make no mis-take. Atoms For Peace’s debut album, “Amok”, is a Thom Yorke album through and through. Even with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ eccentric bassist, Flea, on board, there is no way to argue that this is anything oth-er than a Yorke project. The sounds found on this record are a strange amalgamation of latter-day Radiohead and Yorke’s 2006 solo album, “The Eraser”.

Since the death of drummer John Bon-ham in 1980 Led Zep-pelin has only reunited once. Having released a concert film of their 2007 reunion show, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones have sparked ru-mors of a possible tour. In a recent inter-view with the Australian version of 60 Minutes, lead singer Plant said, “You need to speak to the Capricorns because I’ve got nothing to do in 2014.” If taken lit-erally, Plant is open to performing with Page and Jones once again. The three have appeared together for several interviews and press conferences since the October release of Celebration Day. Cur-rently, however, Plant is touring with the Sen-sational Space Shifters

The Academy Awards is the biggest night for honoring and recognizing those in the film industry. The 85th Academy Awards aired Sunday, Feb. 24th with millions of viewers witnessing the cheers, grins and tears of the nominees and winners of the Oscar trophy. This year, the winner for Best Motion Picture was “Argo.” This, by far, is the best movie of the year and it was no surprise that it won. It is suspenseful, funny and inspirational to all who watched it. There exists no decent argument for Affleck being snubbed in the Best Director in a Motion Picture category. However, he impressed many people with his hard work and dedica-tion to “Argo”, and was able to walk away with a gold statuette after all. Even though I made a prediction in Volume One Issue Two of The Falcon that Ang Lee would win Best

Director for “Life of Pi,” it is still very sur-prising to see him walk away with the Oscar, especially when the great Steven Spielberg was a nominee as well. It is no surprise that Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress in a Motion Picture. She has proven herself to play so many different roles and has shown she is a leading lady. With an Oscar in her pocket we are sure to see many more wonderful per-formances from this lovely young actress. Best Actor in a leading role went to Daniel Day-Lewis for his work in “Lin-coln.” He is one of the best actors to have por-trayed Abraham Lin-coln. He looked and acted the part so well, in my mind he is Abe Lincoln. Day-Lewis is also the first person to win Three Oscars in the Best Actor category. Best Supporting Actor and Actress went to the very talented Anne Hathaway (“Les Mis-erables”) and, surpris-ingly, Christoph Waltz (“Django Unchained”). As foreseen, this year’s winner for Best Animated Film was a tough call. The new-est Disney princess in “Brave” not only wins

her place among the princesses, she also wins her place in the Academy with the Best Animated Film Oscar. The artistic mas-terpiece, “Life of Pi,” walked away with an Oscars for Best Cin-ematography, Best Vi-sual Effects and Best Movie Score. That totals four Academy Awards for “Life of Pi” this year, and the most Oscar wins for a movie in the Best Picture cat-egory for that evening. As with any awards ceremony, there were a few accidents along the way. Some of the dancers were a little off-key during host Seth McFarlan's big opening number and a couple of actors and directors looked like they had one too many drinks at the bar, including Rene Zelwe-ger. Zelweger appeared so intoxicated while onstage with the cast of the movie musical "Chicago" that she had trouble reading the first winner on the envelope. The Academy Awards celebrated sev-eral other achievements in film history during its lengthy telecast. This includes the 50th anni-versary of James Bond films. This was hon-ored in a performance

by Shirley Bassey singing, “Goldfinger.” The night also saw the greatest movie musicals being cele-brated. This was intro-duced by John Travolta and was followed with performances by Jen-nifer Hudson (“Dream-girls”), Catherine Zeta Jones (“Chicago”), and the entire cast of “Les Miserables.” For any fan of broadway and movie musicals, this was a chilling and awe-inspiring showcase that truly honored movie musicals at their finest. An announce-ment was made as well during the Oscars that an Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will open within the next few years in Los An-geles, CA. This mu-seum will represent and honor those who have made film his-tory with their art and mastery in directing, acting, producing, writ-ing and so much more. So many plans are in the works for more Acad-emy Award Winning movies and for the film industry it is hard not to get excited for what is to come. For those who missed the 85th An-nual Academy Awards, here is a list of the win-ners in each category:

Best Motion PictureArgo

Best DirectorAng LeeLife of Pi

Best Actor and ActressDaniel Day-Lewis, LincolnJennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Play-book

Best Sup. Actor and ActressChristoph Waltz, Django UnchainedAnne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Best Animated MovieBrave

Best Foreign FilmAmour

Best CinematographyLife of Pi

Best Original Song“Skyfall” by Adele

Best Music Original ScoreLife of Pi

Best Film EditingArgo

Best Visual EffectsLife of Pi

Best Original ScreenplayDjango Unchained

Best Adapted ScreenplayArgo

Electronic sweeps and light, jazzy guitar fig-ures are at the fore-front of the sound while swirling percussion and Flea’s minimalistic bass figures provide a dance-inducing foundation. All of this would be well and good if we hadn’t heard all of these tricks before. The fa-miliarity of Yorke’s bells and whistles make this album a bland and uninspiring listen even if it sounds great from a

sonic standpoint. Tracks like “Before Your Very Eyes” and “Ingenue” would make for inter-esting Radiohead tracks circa 2001, but now they just seem like re-cycled and lazy ideas. Perhaps the big-gest travesty committed by this album, though, is the complete waste of a fabulous and unique bassist in Flea. As was previously mentioned, most of the basslines found here are mini-malistic and sparse. Yorke could have created an environ-ment with Flea’s unique slapping style; however, he apparently decided that the best possible use for one of Genera-tion X’s greatest bassists was to have him repeat-ing the same phrase for four minutes straight. Still, the album has its strong points. “Dropped”, for exam-ple, revolves around an

interesting percussion section while Yorke’s voice rolls along in his signature paranoid falsetto. The single, “Judge, Jury and Ex-ecutioner” also has a catchy beat that en-trances the listener and provides a brief moment of semi-excitement in a sea of drab drones. Unfortunately, when the album came to a close, my first thought was not about its intriguing sonic layers or its impres-sive percussion perfor-mances but rather its pedantic and uninspired use of Thom Yorke’s favorite gimmicks. While it makes for comforting atmo-spheric music, “Amok” ultimately falls victim to its lack of originality and its waste of a talent-ed lineup. The Falcon gives Atoms For Peace’s “Amok” a 5 out of 10.

Atoms for Peace “Amok”

while Page is set to re-lease his remasters of the entire Zeppelin discog-raphy later in the year. In the thirty-three years since Bon-ham’s death, each of the surviving members has continued performing; from Page and Jones performing “Rock and Roll” with the Foo Fighters to Plant regu-larly singing Led Zep-pelin songs at solo con-certs, the trio have kept their songs alive. Jason Bonham took his fa-ther’s seat at the drum-set at the O2 Arena in 2007 and will likely play with the original mem-bers again in the event of a full blown tour. With fellow heavy metal founders Black Sabbath releasing a new album in June, could a joint tour be too far out of the question?

by Teddie TaylorStaff Writer

Zeppelin mayfly again

Monday, February 25th, 2012

The Falcon Page Five

the staffnext week’sissue-Tim Tebow bows out- 8th grade signing-Choir Performance-Horsemeat Scandal-What’s Eating Alabama-Banksy-Music-Politics

and more... March 4th, 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

Teddie Taylor

Contributing WritersMichael Artress

Monday, February 25th, 2012