FeatureBriar Woods’ Boy’s Basketball team takes first Dulles District Win.

Page 3

The Woods92 NHS Members Inducted in Grand Ceremo-ny.

Page 4

SportsBW Swimming teams looks to have best year ever.

Page 7

ArtsReviews: “Mi-crocastle” and “Merriweather Post Pavillion”

Page 9

VoiceAre we really the cause of Global Warm-ing?

Page 10

Falcon Flyer

Editor-In-ChiefTrent Reed

Woods EditorJulianne Lewis

Sports EditorBrandon Weight

Arts & Culture EditorShannon Wood

Voice EditorJohn Klees

World News EditorClarke Williams

Staff Writers Abbe Ramanan

Bailey JensenCaitlin Ronan

Casey FabrisDesiree Ochs

Emily RyanErin Pelletier

J.J. ElliottJosh Plumhoff

Kierra ChinLauren Young

Priyanka GogiaRyan Rather

Thomas BorkowskiTeacher Advisor

Ms. Leigh

Briar Woods HS23230 Belmont Ridge Rd.

Ashburn, VA 20148

Great DateBy Josh Plumhoff

Whether you just met someone or would like to get to know someone better, develop-ing a relationship is a fun and enjoyable part of life. When many people think of going out on a date, the stereotypical and evenly old school dinner and a movie are first thoughts. A date is about having a good time with the person you are with. It’s not about taking a girl out to a fancy restaurant, talking about boring and meaningless things to eat up time, and then hoping to pull off a successful good night kiss. The date should be relaxed and filled with fun and playful conversation rather then nervous tension.

Having fun first date ideas can make a big difference in the beginning of a new relation-ship; date plans could either make or break a relationship and lead to whether or not you go on a second date.

Every girl has their idea of a perfect date in the back of their mind, and though most women will never tell a guy what it is (because they want them to fig-ure out it for themselves) there are many date ideas that will al-low you and your date to have a fun and relaxing time. Here are our top five activities to do on

a date:Go to an outdoor concert.

Take your date to see one of her favorite performers or even go see someone new. The outdoor setting will make it more re-laxed and enjoyable.

Take your date to a sport-ing event. Go to a game that you are interested in and some-thing she would enjoy. You could go to a baseball game or and hockey game downtown. This will be fun and interactive for both of you.

Go participate in interac-tive activities together. If you are with a very active girl go play a sport together; ice skat-

ing or mini golf would be fun. I do, however, recommend do-ing something you are good at therefore you don’t make too much of a fool out of yourself. If it’s a nice day out you could also go to a park and do some-thing fun and interactive, may-be even bring your pet.

Go to a festival or carnival. Enjoy live music, tasty food, and interactive games; there will be something for everyone to enjoy. It will allow for good conversation and never a dull moment because there will al-ways be something else to catch you or your dates attention.

Go downtown sight see-ing. On a nice day you could go to DC, go see sights and go to a coffee shop afterwards. Not everyone will find these places to be the most interesting by themselves, but on a nice day and good conversation it will be enjoyable.

These are just five idea out of many possible opportuni-ties to have a fun and relaxing date. Use these, and build upon them with your own personal touch. Be creative, and just re-member she already said yes to going out on a date with you; you don’t have to try to impress her anymore. Just have a good time.

AD

Front PagePage 2

The Falcon Flyer is published every month of the school year (10 issues). All photos taken by author unless other-wise noted. Any and all views expressed in this publication are sole property of the au-thor, and are not neccisar-ily those of the Falcon Flyer.Cover photo by Brandon Weight

Briar Woods Boys Take First Dulles District WinBy Brandon Weight

As the ball left the hands of freshman point guard Miles Tate, a hush fell over the crowd. Hearts stopped, jaws dropped, and the Briar Woods student body prayed for the best. With only 25 sec-onds left on the clock, the shot had the potential to make or break the game. Tension had been mounting since the game started overtime after a 38-38 tie. Yet, when the 3 pointer was sunk, the crowd was alive yet again. Briar Woods had sealed the deal, and took away a 49-47 win over Freedom, adding to their already impressive record.

The night of pre-game festivities turned out to be just as amazing as the final game itself. Numerous fundraisers were held, including the DE-CA-sponsored “Beat Cancer Black and Blue” T-shirts and a spaghetti dinner in the cafete-ria hosted by Michelangelo’s. Nearly all of the proceeds benefited the American Can-cer Society, a nationwide, vol-unteer based organization that has raised billions of dollars to date. In total, close to 350 shirts

were sold, and nearly $2000 was raised from both schools.

The first game, a match up between the Wom-en’s varsity teams of Briar Woods and Freedom, started at 6:30. Unfortunately, the school didn’t show their true colors, as they fought to a score of 36-19 at the end of the half. Later in the night, Freedom took home an as-tounding 75-40 win against the home team.

All hope was not lost, though, as the night pro-gressed. The Briar Woods boys stormed the court, out to turn the night around. Students and teachers were impressed, as the boy’s var-sity team kept the score close, and occasionally taking the lead. Even at halftime, Briar Woods was ahead by one point, 13-12. PG Tate domi-nated the floor with 21 points, and senior Curtis Calder pos-ing 7 points during the night. The team’s impressive efforts led to a 38 - 38 tie by the end of the fourth quarter, forcing the game into overtime. It was

The beginning of the new year marks another histori-cal chapter in the record books. This past year, the sports world displayed some incredible feats that will be remembered for years to come; but can 2008 be considered the most memorable year in sports history in recent memory?

2008 showcased some of the most spectacular perfor-mances that the sports world has ever witnessed. In the Beijing Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps performed brilliantly, winning eight gold medals in as many events, breaking Mark Spitz all-time record of seven gold medals in a single Olym-pics. In addition to surpassing Spitz record, Phelps also set seven world records in the Wa-

ter Cube in Beijing. Last June, the golf

world witnessed one of the most remarkable finishes in a major Tournament. The U.S. Open at Torrey Pines proved to be a grueling and chal-lenging course for the players throughout the week, that the tournament winner finished at even par. Playing through a

(Continues on page 10)

2008: Best Sports Year Ever?By J.J. Elliott

only in the final moments did Miles Tate sink his infamous three-pointer, solidifying a 49-47 win.

Briar Woods, now with a 6-7 record, is looking toward the future. With the regular sea-son ending in just a few weeks, it’s crunch time for the Varsity boys. Key games will be this Friday’s home match against Broad Run, who Briar Woods suffered a close 70-75 loss against last month, and also a re-match against Freedom the following week. But with the domination the varsity team showed in this game, as well as a win against Dominon, Briar Woods will be the new team to face, ready for anything and ev-erything.

double stress fracture in his left knee and other torn ligaments in his knee, Woods persevered through that pain even though he was seen hobbling around off the tee using his driver or a long wood as a cane for sup-port.. Could the world’s #1 golfer win on one leg through all that pain? On the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open, Tiger Woods made a clutch 12 foot birdie putt to force an 18 hole playoff with Rocco Mediate the follow-ing day. On Monday, Woods jumped out to a three shot lead through 10 holes only to see Mediate birdie three of the next four while Woods stumbled. On the 18th hole Woods trialed Mediate by a mere two shots. When Mediate bogeyed the hole, Tiger again came through to sink a tricky seven foot putt for birdie that forced a sudden death playoff. Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open on the 91st hole of the tournament to claim his 14th major championship. Two days after winning the U.S. Open, Woods announced he would have reconstructed knee surgery and that he would miss the remainder of the year.

2008 proved to be a magical year for the Tampa Bay Rays and the Philadelphia Phil-lies. The Rays who had been the worst team in baseball the year before, won their first divi-sion and got all the way to the World Series. The Phillies won their first World Series Cham-pionship since 1980 and their

Front Page Page 3

Stressful Holiday Sea-son Brings Community Closer Together

It seems impossible to es-cape the horror stories about the economy. Houses all around the country are being fore-closed, people are unable to pay their mortgages, and the credit and stock markets are in an un-precedented slump. The retail world will undoubtedly have a grim quarter, but many Briar Woods High School students are worried about how the fi-nancial crisis will affect their families this holiday season.

Every week, it seems as if the bank is auctioning another house in Brambleton or Broad-lands. It is hard for students to find well paying jobs, and many Briar Woods families have had to cut back on some of the luxu-ries they had adjusted to. This holiday season will certainly be no different from the other seasons of the past year, and Briar Woods students will have to readjust to the new economic climate. The only question is just how much adjusting must occur.

Most students in Briar Woods will be receiving fewer gifts of lesser value than they

perhaps received a year, or two years ago. Briar Woods fami-lies can no longer afford to buy their children the latest gadgets and fashions that they could for the past several years. Many individuals might find this fact depressing.

“The crisis will mean a de-crease in my amount of gifts!” said junior Tyler Kirby. “That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.”

While numerous students are angry or upset about the changes that need to be made this season, some think that these changes are positive. The holidays seem to give much of the student body a chance to reevaluate their spending hab-its and the privileges they have been enjoying. Now, many stu-dents have to think about how they can help their families by saving money. If they did not have this chance, many stu-dents would probably continue to spend unnecessarily.

“I think the crisis has a greater effect on society during times of high spending,” said

Kirby. “Because the holiday season is a time of high spend-ing, people notice it more, and are thinking more about their habits. I think it will make for a more traditional Christmas.”

In spite of the current eco-nomic slump, Briar Woods ter-ritory is rather affluent. The average annual income for families in Loudoun County is about $107,000, more than double the national average of approximately $50,000. What-ever the effects of the economy on Briar Woods will be, as a whole, they will unquestion-ably be worse for the rest of the country.

“The changes have not yet really affected my family, but we need to not spend money as if there is an unlimited sup-ply,” said junior Claire Bay-les. “Most families here do not manage or use their money wisely because it seems so abundant.”

Numerous students in Briar Woods may not be sig-nificantly impacted by the cur-rent crisis, and many are taking the opportunity to help others within the community. There is always a need for community service during the holidays, but that need is increased when times are hard for all.

“I think community ser-vice is really important dur-ing this time of year,” said Key Club advisor, Mr. Bladel. “There are actually people in Loudoun County who need our help, especially during the holi-days, and even more so during tough economic times.”

The economic crisis is here to stay, most likely for a year or more. Regardless of annual income, every family within Briar Woods is probably go-ing to have to make certain changes, especially during the holiday season. Many students will have to go without certain

desires and wishes this year, and whether they find this fact inspiring or depressing, adjust-ments must be made.

SecretsBy Kathryn Webber

Can’t lose weight? No wor-ries. All you have to do is walk in to a high school building and ask around to find something to help you out. Many girls are taking Aterol or Hydroxycut as a fast way to get rid of those extra few pounds. America’s society has created the image that people are not right the way they are now, and girls are going to desperate measures to become perfect. This type of weight loss is mostly seen in girls, but can be a problem for males as well. Males give into the uproar of steroids, to be “better conditioned than the competition” for their sport. High school does not suppress the fear of not fitting in, but creates the anxiety of morph-ing into the scene. Becoming desperate, the easily influential population of high school kids will do anything and every-thing to shape up to society’s views. Then, shows such as the Hills, Gossip Girl, 90210, show that looking nice gets you far in life. The modeling industry hands out 5’11, 98 pound girls to represent the latest fashion. The younger girls look up to these models, because they are the “pretty” of the world. Is it necessary to become unhealthy and stop eating to become this so-called “pretty”?

Each time a student takes a pill, it makes them a little bit less of an individual and more exposed to becoming able to be swerved to new ideas. The me-dia can easily take advantage of the naïve mind of a teenager.

By Erin Pelletier

(Continues on next page)

The WoodsPage 4

NHS Recognizes Tomorrow’s LeadersBy Ryan Rather

Between October 1 and 16, many juniors and seniors at Briar Woods High School be-gan filling out their portfolios for the National Honor Society. The nationwide organization, known as NHS, promotes aca-demic success, offers volunteer opportunities, and encourages the development of good char-acter.

Membership in this pres-tigious organization appeals to many Briar Woods students because of the various oppor-tunities it offers. There are very few awards as coveted as admission into the NHS. Col-leges and Universities around the country recognize accep-tance into this exclusive club as an honor.

On December 4, the NHS Induction Ceremony took place in the Briar Woods Auditorium. Before the initiation, a few key faculty members gave speeches addressing the importance of the NHS. “Admission into the National Honor Society,” said Mr. Starzenski, “is the highest honor that the faculty can be-stow upon the student body.” Mrs. Armani, sponsor for the Briar Woods NHS, added that the ceremony “is testament of [the inductees’] hard work and commitment.”

While freshmen watched from their homerooms, sopho-mores, juniors, seniors, and proud parents cheered as 92 new members were inducted into the NHS. As part of club tradition, the excited inductees gathered together onstage, each holding their own candle. “I felt a real sense of accomplish-ment,” said junior Jasmine Virk about the induction. “It was an honor being recognized,” said junior Katie Ward, “but it was also awkward having your friends and family staring at you.” Following the induction ceremony, a reception was held in the auxiliary gym for the new members and their parents.

According to Mrs. Armani, the new members will have plenty of volunteering to do this year. Among other activities, the Briar Woods NHS plans on holding a warm coat drive, in which you can donate new or slightly used coats to under-privileged citizens around the country. Mrs. Gross and Mrs. Greely also sponsor the Briar Woods NHS, which now has about 200 active members.

The ceremony publicly recognized 92 students who consistently go all-out to achieve academic success and help the community. The mem-

bers of the Briar Woods NHS are some of the best and bright-est our school has to offer. The inductees truly demonstrate the four necessary qualities for ad-mission: character, leadership, scholarship, and service. If they continue their hard work and dedication they will cer-tainly make the NHS and Briar Woods proud.

Secrets

If the media can do this, then, the wrong crowds at school can, too. If every person suc-cumbed to the fake promotions that have been built up, there would be disappointed faces all around. There can be no trust in a simple pill, even if it is ex-posed by the media or recom-mended by a friend.

The pills are becom-ing an underground network of stealing and lies. The pills, never the less, are tearing up the inside of the bodies of growing girls. The side effects can change one’s metabolism and how the person acts. The diet pills over a period of time slow your metabolism making it harder to lose weight, in or-der to decrease your appetite. Aterol is not meant to be taken

as a dietary supplement. Aterol is for the children who have a hard time concentrating and allows them to focus. Aterol is becoming the new trick of the trade for taking long ex-ams or if you have a lot of work to do. Then, the students have the benefit of losing their hunger for many hours on this pill. Aterol does have a way of changing your mood. When someone is taking any type of substance, they are allow themselves to be different or have a shift in their behavior.

Why are students allowing themselves to get mangled into the drama of society’s vision? The culture needs to promote how we are, not to cut it down. The world should give a chance to the students, to become their own. The kids can’t be strength-ened, if they are always being negatively criticized. If given the right courage, the teenag-ers will be able to say no and build on their self-esteem. The issue of using these sub-stances needs to be addressed, but not in a manner of making the students feel guilty or hav-ing it come off too aggressive. Adults should want students to be able to confide in them, not as a friend, but as a guardian.

(Continued from pg. 4)

AD

The Woods Page 5

New Sport? NoIts Gymnastics!By Kierra Chinn

When the winter sports season rolls around, many students overlook one sport: gymnastics. With two hour practices from Monday through Saturday, the team at Briar Woods High School deserves recognition. This year, the team is doing things a little bit dif-ferently to reach their ultimate goal: placing at least fourth at Dulles Districts.

Last year, with only four team members competing at districts, Briar Woods was not able to show either the school or their competition what their true ability was. This year, the team has some new ideas that will put them at the top. In pre-vious years, the team practiced at Broad Run High School, with their gymnastics team while under Broad Run’s head coach. With the number of girls participating through BRHS and BWHS, one gym was not enough space. This season, the school has made space for them in the auxiliary gym, giving them plenty of practice room.

Replacing Broad Run’s head coach is Ms. Oliver, World History teacher at Briar Woods. “This year’s team is going to be a lot better because they have their own practice space and coach,” said Brooke Medeiros a sophomore and member of the 2007-2008 Varsity team. With new uniforms, new coaches, and a new practice location, “this team is destined for great-

ness,” said Kathryn Davidson, a new and eager member of the BWHS 2008-2009 Varsity team.

The gymnastics team does not cut candidates, and cur-rently consists of eleven mem-bers. They now have enough members to participate in every event. These events include floor, vault, uneven bars, and beam. The floor embraces the blending of choreographed ex-ercises and music. The creativ-ity and total body control of the gymnast is shown in this event. Vault is judged on height from the springboard and landing, with no additional steps taken after the landing. Uneven bars are judged on continuous move-ment without breaks or pauses. The beam, only four inches wide, requires the gymnast to perform a full routine with bal-ance and grace. “Gymnastics requires creativity and lots of dedication,” said Jenny Chase, member of the BWHS 2008-2009 Varsity team. “It’s not for everyone, which would explain the reason why not many par-ticipate and know about the team.” Gymnastics is not like many other sports. There are no announcements about their achievements at competitions, no posters around the school wishing them the best, no sta-dium of screaming fans. This team’s future looks bright, so come and be part of the win-ning moment.

BCS MadnessBy Tom Borkowski

Over the past few years, the BCS standings have aroused heavy debates between sports fanatics. Many think that the system of rankings in unfair or biased and, in some ways it is. If the #1 team loses to an unranked team, the top team could fall ten places in the rankings, which could seem to be unfair. There are three com-ponents to the rankings: USA Today Coaches Poll, Harris In-teractive College Football Poll and an average of six computer rankings. Each of these compo-nents count as one-third of the final rank. All of these compo-nents come in to play when the BCS ranks teams.

The USA Today Coaches Poll is comprised of points that determine the team’s rank. The maximum number of points is 1500 points and the more points a team has, the higher the rank. The Harris Interactive College Football Poll is also point based and the maximum amount of points a team can receive is 2850. The Harris In-teractive College Football Poll is based on voting by different sports editors who write for newspapers.

This all seems like it would be an organized and fair pro-cess, but there is one aspect of the voting that seems to be a bit off. That factor that plays into

those processes is that they are both decided in polls taken by people. The problem with a hu-man poll is that the voter can be biased and favor a certain team, which could determine the team’s BCS rankings. For example: Penn State’s Nittany Lions were undefeated in the Big Ten but they where not giv-en the top spot in the BCS rank-ings. The highest Penn State got was the #3 spot. Penn State played unranked Iowa and lost, which put them down nine ranks. Even though the team was 9-1, they didn’t get pass the top 5. This just shows how biased people are towards cer-tain teams and that can decide on which rank they get and ul-timately what bowl game they will play in.

The last component, the computer system, ranks the teams based on wins and loses. Six computers pick the top and lowest rating of each team and two of the computers have their vote discarded and the remain-ing four will have their vote counted. This is the most four part of the system because it cannot be biased.

The BCS ranking system needs to be repaired and be-come more organized because good teams that lose one game shouldn’t lose their top ten spot in the ranks. Because there are so many college teams, it will be a tough task to make the ranking system fair, but it can be done. A possible solution is to have playoffs next year which will decide which team is the really the best. Human votes ruin the system because of the bias that play a big role in what rank a team gets. All the voting should be done via computer so its fair and no bias votes will be cast. Hopefully the BCS figures out a new way to do the rankings to eliminate future problems.

SportsPage 6

Upcoming Events

BW Swimming Looks to Have Best Season Ever

With the start of the winter sport season, most teams make their migration indoors, includ-ing boys and girls swimming who make an all to familiar trip to Claude Moore Park. A huge, unpredicted turnout during the week of tryouts excited those returning swimmers, and pre-pared everyone for what is sure

to be a triumphant season.Briar Woods is home

to many county dominating swimmers such as juniors Elise Guessford and Chris Farley. They both are returning to head the team in what is predicted to be their best season yet. “With a full girls team, we have the potential to win the district this

year, and the boys are already off to a great start and are 1-1,” said Guessford. “The girls team is the team to beat in the district this year”

The swim team has pre-viously been recognized for not only its combined success, but the individual accomplish-ments of a number of members on the team. Senior Tim Mit-tian, Guessford, Farley, in addi-tion to a number of others hold many school records, and are also district and state qualifiers. Guessford was named MVP of the team last year, along with Farley who was awarded the title the last two seasons. With years of experience under their belt, these valued swimmers welcome a number of new members to their family. “It’s great that people want to join the team because we have nev-er gotten that much attention in the past so maybe with the increased interest, swimming will become as big as it is at other schools in the state,” said

By Emily Ryan

Guessford. “When I heard that there was a ton of interest for swimming I was excited. With more people we are definitely a much stronger team,” added Farley.

One of the many new swim-mers is freshman Ali Haufler. Haufler has been swimming since a very young age, while holding her own fair share of records. “She has already broke the 100 yard butterfly record, and that’s just the beginning,” said Guessford. She, along with many others are going to be a necessary component to the team not only this year, but also in the future.

“I think this season the girls’ team will win districts and will place very well at states,” said Farley “The guys’ team is much smaller, but I think we will still be top 4 at districts.” With the surplus of new swim-mers, and the returning of the old, Briar Woods is going to be one to beat this year in the Dulles District.

AD

Sports Page 7

Parents are always tell-ing their children to reach for their dreams, that nothing is impossible, that if they set their minds to something, they can do it. The beautiful thing about children is that they believe they are destined for greatness and have yet to become jaded by the everyday. Their faith in themselves can even lead them to fame at a young age. No one is a better example of this than Kira Plastinina, the sixteen year old Russian designer who has taken the fashion world by storm.

Plastinina’s dreams have resulted in a worldwide fash-ion empire with self-titled Kira Plastinina stores in multiple countries. There are fifty-nine stores alone in her homeland of Russia, four stores in Kazakh-stan, five stores in Ukraine, and twelve stores in the United States. At the mere age of six-teen, she has accomplished

Fashion’s Youngest Face By Casey Fabris

more than some designers have in a lifetime.

The fashion world opened its doors to Kira at the age of fourteen when she would sketch in her school notebooks. Her orange juice mogul father, the owner of a $5.6 billion busi-ness, Sergei Plastinin, saw his daughter’s talent. Sergei Plas-tinin’s prominence in Russia may have helped Kira enter the fashion world, but ultimately the brand and the designs de-veloped and inspired by Kira are what have made her a fash-ion icon.

“I think teenagers are all the same everywhere,” said Plastinina. This mentality along with the feminine, pink, light-heartedness of Kira’s enterprise helps explain why thousands of teenage girls relate to and love the line. Not only do the fash-ion lines have a fun and enter-taining feel, but the stores do as well. Each store is centered on

a pink piece of furniture known as a “pouf” and is decorated in Kira’s favorite color pink. These stores and products make shopping something more than a teenage girl’s favorite pas-time, they make it an experi-ence.

“Her clothes, with an av-erage $48 price point, are fast fashion moving from East to West,”The Los Angeles Times said of Plastinina’s growing empire, “[It is] Targeting teens who live their lives online, where image is reality more so even than in Hollywood, and cultural and international bor-ders are nonexistent.”

Despite Kira’s young age, she holds her own against other designers. She hosts fashion shows for her lines and designs clothes, shoes, and accessories. She travels the world to pro-mote the opening of her stores, as it is a tradition that she be the first to purchase anything from each of her new stores. She not only measures up to other de-signers, she goes beyond what they do, as she is also a full time student in Russia.

Although Kira’s success among her elders has been a great feat in and of itself, the fact that she began in Russia also shows her immense talent. Russia may not appear to be

an obvious fashion capital like New York, Paris, or Milan, but this is a misconception. In the past few years, Russia’s Fash-ion Week has become a major event in the fashion world. The popularity of Russian Fashion Week is quickly catching up with the fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan, and Par-is. Plastinina was able to build her career in a country where fashion is quickly progressing and evolving while establish-ing herself in the major fashion capital of the United States, New York. This is proof that she belongs right where she is: on top of the fashion world.

The world of fashion is not always kind and accepting, in fact, it can be cruel and difficult. It can require years of clawing at the seams to finally enter the realm of success and possibly have a shot at making it big as a designer, model, or stylist. It takes something huge, some-thing phenomenal, something that is an obvious sensation and asset to this world of exclusiv-ity for immediate acceptance and recognition. To simply fall into the lap of a world this posh and elite is nearly unheard of, unless of course you have the sparkle and passion of someone like Kira Plastinina, which sim-ply can not be ignored.

Arts & CulturePage 8

AD

Arts & Culture Page 9

Deerhunter’s “Microcastle”

Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavillion”

Following massive hype and impossibly high expecta-tions, Animal Collective re-turns with Merriweather Post Pavilion, their ninth album. Eluding conventional clas-sification, and shedding their previously established freak-folk persona, the collective embraces a humanistic form of euphoric, psychedelic dance music. Believe the hype: Mer-riweather Post Pavilion is an album for the ages.

The album title pays hom-age to the outdoor Maryland venue that the group, which hails from Baltimore, witnessed father-figures such as the elu-sive Grateful Dead, a band that similarly spent their career at-tempting to reach a sprawling

musical nirvana.Since their conception in

2000, Animal Collective has primarily consisted of Panda Bear (Noah Lennox; vocals, percussion, samples, guitar), Avey Tare (David Portner; vo-cals, guitar, samples, keys, per-cussion) and Geologist (Brian Weitz; electronics, samples, vocals).

Serving as the band’s pri-mary songwriters, Avey Tare and Panda Bear have never sounded better together; both members beautifully feed off the positive vibes of the other. Panda Bear’s songs emulate his near-perfect 2007 full-length, Person Pitch in their deconstructed pop meander-ing, dreamy soundscapes, and trance-like droning. Avey Tare tends to rely on harmonious, catchy, straight-forward pop hooks.

While Merriweather Post Pavilion retains traditional Animal Collective sounds, the album stresses the aforemen-tioned dance feel. Avey Tare’s album opener “Into the Flow-

ers” commences with sprawl-ing field noise and arpeggiated chords. After two minutes of expansive exhilaration, a pul-sating 4/4 beat kicks in, per-fectly setting the mood for the remainder of the album.

“My Girls” follows, in typ-ical Panda Bear tradition. Len-nox’s archetypical repetition is complimented with a looming, club-worthy heartbeat. Panda Bear muses on fatherhood, claiming “I just want four walls and adobe slabs for my girls”. Poignant moments like this give the album a reassuring hu-man aspect.

Animal Collective has al-ways managed to preserve a childhood sense of wonder and innocence. On “Summertime Clothes”, the band’s youthful musing is emulated, both soni-cally and lyrically. The track begins with an almost-Shoe-gaze loop that emerges into an half-baked hook and a familiar wall of chanted vocal harmo-nies.

The album closes with the blissful “Brothersport”. The track begins with a synchro-nized doo-wop vocal line be-fore budding into a loose danc-ey-drone. The ecstatic track is both intelligent and infectious; a feat that only Animal Collec-tive can pull off.

Like all Animal Collec-

tive albums, Merriweather Post Pavilion is initially tough to digest. Upon first listen, the albums psychedelic tendencies seem overwhelming. However, upon further investigation, the sheer pop brilliance emerges, and each song takes full form.

The most reassuring thing about Animal Collective is that they strangely top each album with their witty unpredictabil-ity and pop genius. Their 2000 debut Spirit, They’re Gone, Spirit They’re Vanished was a dark delve into electro-acoustic freakout, 2004’s Sung Tongs emphasized a primal folk feel, 2005’s Feels relied on both am-bient bliss and tribal eccentric-ity and 2007’s Strawberry Jam mangled the band’s previous exploration into perpetual hap-piness.

Merriweather Post Pavil-ion is Animal Collective’s best album and remarkably, their most accessible. It still remains a mystery how the band manag-es to embrace such a myriad of styles and deconstruct them into an eternal ball of beauty and bliss. Merriweather Post Pavil-ion may go down as a milestone in pop music, but as long as the collective remains lost in their youthful trance, they will re-main oblivious and continue to deconstruct pop music into an entirely new form.

Though the album doesn’t embrace 1950s and 60s pop quite as intensely as lead sing-er Bradford Cox intimated in early interviews, the sound it produces still carries under-tones of off-kilter indie pop. On the second track, Agora-phobia, lead guitarist Lockett Pundt’s comforting, repetitive wordplay- “Cover me, come for me, comfort me” rolls lan-

guidly through a pool of sunlit dream-pop. Nothing Ever Hap-pened, written mostly by bass player Josh Fauver, is filled with bright, bouncing guitars, including an enticing solo.

Microcastle is built out of imaginative, stirring songs that induce images darkly drawn and brightly colored. Yet the idea of a unified album is not lost here. Themes are repeated;

By Trent Reed

By Abbe Ramanan

in the wry Little Kids, aging is only a means to an end. Later, Neither of Us, Certainly, as-serts that it’s an enviable fate. And throughout the entire pro-duction, there is the barest note of that 50s and 60s pop, which ties together what would be an otherwise eclectic collection of songs, from the wistful Green Jacket to Saved by Old Times, which plays out with an ado-lescent smirk. The end result is thoroughly enjoyable album.

An Inconvenient Article By Ryan Rather

As 2009 comes into focus more scientists, journalists and people are beginning to ques-tion the role that man truly plays in climate change. When it comes to global warming, most people have never heard honest questioning against it, because disagreement with the global warming consensus usu-ally led to trouble. However, recent facts, studies, and weath-er phenomena have encouraged logical debate on man made cli-mate change.

One of the more famous

visuals in An Inconvenient Truth is the drowning of Flor-ida, where the Atlantic Ocean rises up to cover the southern half of the Sunshine State. The water engulfs everything from Miami Beach to about 100 miles north and connects Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean. That sounds scary, but Al Gore’s apocalyptic vision of the future is based on a water level rise about 17 times higher than what is expected by the United Nations. In fact, it is even five times higher than the

high end of the worst-case sce-nario envisioned by scientists who thought the UN report was too conservative. When Gore says the oceans will rise far more than the UN believes, he is not only applauded, he wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Many environmentalists say that the solution to global warming is for everyone to do his or her part. The truth is that their ideas about how we should all accomplish that do almost nothing to actually change CO2 emissions. If driv-ing a hybrid would actually help the environment, it should be advocated. However, what environmentalists do not share is just how small a piece of the puzzle that choice of automo-bile really is. Here are a few statistics that are not found in An Inconvenient Truth: just the increase in coal that China will burn by 2020 will send as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 3 billion Ford Expedition SUVs, each driving 15,000 miles a year. Also, Chaiten volcano, which erupted in Chile on May 7, 2008, put as much pollution

and CO2 into the air as man-kind has since the invention of the automobile.

According to scientists at the National Climatic Data Center, the average tempera-ture across the globe this win-ter is predicted to be the cold-est it has been since 2001. If global warming is happening, then why is this wintry weather making a comeback? If global warming is going to destroy the planet and our climate, where is all this cold coming from?

Environmentalists want us all to believe that anything abnormal weather-wise is the result of man made climate change. They seem to not un-derstand that climates change naturally. Human CO2 emis-sions do not explain why Vir-ginia was completely under water millions of years ago. The Ice Age did not occur be-cause cavemen refused to drive Honda Insights. There are still reasons why we should not take the environment for granted, but there is no way to prove that a man made apocalypse is imminent.

second World Series Champi-onship in franchise history. By winning the World Series, the Phillies also ended a 25 year championship drought for the city of Philadelphia.

The NBA witnessed the most remarkable turn around seasons in the history of the league. One year after finishing with a 24-58 record, the Boston Celtics finished the 2008 season with an aston-ishing 66-26 record and were crowned NBA Champions. The off-season acquisition of all-star Kevin Garnett filled the looming gap in the Celtics of-

fense while also establishing a very dangerous trio in the NBA featuring: Paul Pierce, Ray Al-len and Kevin Garnett.

The 2008 All-Star Game was held at Yankee Sta-dium making it the final big stage event in the stadiums his-toric past. Josh Hamilton put on an offensive clinic by bash-ing a Home Run Derby Record for most home runs in a single round with 28 long balls. The New York Yankees said good-bye to “The House that Ruth Built” and the New York Mets left Shea Stadium, as both teams prepare to move into brand new multimillion dollar venues in 2009.

2008 also had the most improbable upset of the year in

the Super Bowl when the New York Giants upset the New Eng-land Patriots 17-14 in Phoenix, Arizona. The New England Pa-triots became the first team in NFL history to finish the regu-lar season with a perfect 16-0 record. The 72’ Dolphins squad went an undefeated 13-0 in the regular season and won the Su-per Bowl. The Patriots dream for a perfect season ended with their Super Bowl loss to the Gi-ants finishing out the regular season and post season with a combined record of 18-1. The Giants overcame improbable odds as Eli Manning connected with David Tyree in the wind-ing seconds to help set up the game winning touchdown. The Patriots were left stunned in

2009...(Continued from pg. 3)

disbelief that their perfect sea-son was gone.

The sports world in 2008 had all the aspects that makes for the greatest year ever. 2008 displayed every-thing from improbable teams winning the big games to ma-jor upsets and undeniable per-severance through pain. The sports world may have wit-nessed something that may never be accomplished again in the Olympics in the swimming pool. Many may never live to see the day that a(n) NFL team finishes a perfect season and wins a championship ring. One thing that will always be seen in sports is the drive and com-petitive spirit that burns within these athletes.

VoicePage 10

War is all-encompassing: it is seen on televisions, read in newspapers, and heard on radi-os. When a war takes place, it is as much a major topic of discus-sion as it is controversial. With that being said, one would think a war that has been going on for over twenty years would be fol-lowed, studied, and known by the masses. However, today’s society seems to overlook the events of a seemingly different world, and that is why so few people know of the crisis in Uganda, where Africa’s longest war to date is occurring.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Govern-ment of Uganda (GoU) have been at war for twenty-three years in the government’s at-tempt to protect its citizens from a “rebel militia.” The conflict began as a result of the forma-tion of the Holy Spirit Move-ment when its founder, Alice Lakwena, believed the Holy Spirit instructed her to over-throw the Ugandan government in the 1980s. Joseph Kony took over Lakwena’s movement af-ter she had been exiled, and re-named it the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The change in power, transformation of the previous organization, and extreme tac-tics led to weakened support for the Lord’s Resistance Army. As

Invisible Children FoundBy Casey Fabris

a result, the LRA began abduct-ing children in Uganda, forc-ing them to join its cause. In an effort to protect the people of Uganda, the government took millions of citizens from their homes and moved them into protective camps.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada are among the countries that have aided Uganda. Some of these coun-tries encouraged peace talks between the LRA and the GoU. Despite numerous peace talks, the most recent of which took place in March of 2008, agree-ments have yet to be reached and peace is still a distant hope.

Although the crisis in Uganda remains, there are signs of progress through countless organizations, even here in Bri-ar Woods High School. One of the most promising is Invisible Children. The organization was developed by three young film-makers who traveled to Africa, made a documentary about the situation in Uganda, and were ultimately inspired to make a difference. The program strives to help children in Uganda, primarily with their education. Band tours, book drives, and bracelet campaigns are orga-nized to raise funds for the or-ganization.

Another association that works toward peace in Ugan-da is the Freedom in Creation program. The fourth block Art class in addition to Mrs. Wil-liam’s fourth block AP World History class at Briar Woods are involved in a pen pal pro-gram where students from both countries represent something symbolic of or synonymous with peace through photo-graphs or their own works of art with one another. These rep-resentations of peace are then sent to children in Uganda, who are given the same assignment.

This project allows for children in the United States to see what life is like in Uganda and it al-lows children in Uganda to see what there is to hope for.

Stephanie Carroll, a soph-omore who is involved in the Freedom in Creation program, said she felt that “Not many people knew of the conflict in Uganda due to the focus on our economy.”

After being involved in the Freedom in Creation program, Carroll and fellow classmates and sophomores, Bailey Kirk-patrick and Katie Allison, want-ed to further help the children in Uganda. The project inspired them to create an affiliation of their own, Operation Spread the Warmth, where they will be

AD

sending hand-made blankets to children in Uganda.

The conflict in Uganda has forced many to leave their vil-lages for crowded camps and, worse yet, children to join the ranks of the LRA through ab-duction. Although many coun-tries have come together to help the Government of Uganda restore peace and end the con-flict, this has yet to be achieved. Participation in a program like Freedom in Creation, a small donation to Invisible Children, or a visit to Invisiblechildren.com could mean the difference between change and continu-ance, peace and chaos, or life and death. If that is all it takes, everyone should band together to make that difference.

The World Page 11

FullPageAd