UAB extends their conference winning streak to 7 games this week as they have only three C-USA games left this year. Sarah Adkins/ Staff Photographer

After the Blazer’s loss to Alabama State, they showed up to the Kennesaw State softball complex ready to play a double header. After a win in the first game, the Blazer’s split the doubleheader losing the second game. UAB put their names on the board at the top of the second with Anna Kimbrell behind the plate catching. Caitlin Attfield scored for the Blazers again at the top of the fifth, and again at the top of the seventh inning giving the Blazers a 3-0 leading finish for the doubleheader.

After letting the Blazers get a quick run during the first inning and get their names on the scoreboard first, the Kennesaw State Owls game back ready to play. The second through fifth innings were pretty slow and uneventful for both teams, but the owls shook things up in the sixth inning. The bases were loaded with Kennesaw State players when Kaylee Williams hit a grand slam for the owls getting six runs in giving them a 6-1 point win for the second game.

After coming home from Kennesaw, the Blazers met up with Marshall at the UAB Softball Field for a conference series. Saturday’s games were special as they marked UAB’s cancer awareness day. The Blazers came out on the field wearing purple uniforms. Amy Nicholas, Hal Messersmith and Norm Reilly all came out from the UAB athletic department to throw out ceremonial pitches before the game.

The Blazers came out strong for the series and won the first game 1-0. Lannah Campbell threw in all seven inning and struck out five batters. The lone run of the game was scored at the bottom of the first by UAB’s designated hitter Kristen McGrath. The second game of the series was another shutout for the Blazers. Leigh Streetman threw a complete game for the second game striking out seven batters. UAB score two runs in the bottom of the third. The final score of the game was 2-0 for the Blazers.

UAB head coach, Marla Townsend, commented on Saturday’s game, “Lannah (Campbell) and Leigh (Streetman) threw a pair of outstanding games, but they obviously had help from their defense. We left several runners on base, and the fact that our defense came up huge is what I’m going to take away from today”.

After another winning weekend series, the Blazers will return to the UAB softball complex on Tuesday April 30 at 3 p.m. to take on Chattanooga in a doubleheader.

Taylor Suttle
Staff Writer
tsuttle@uab.edu

A blazer student will attempt to a self-guided climbing expedition in Denali over the summer. MCT Campus

McCoy’s love for climbing started when he was about 13 years old. His parents encouraged him along with his brother and sister to be active and adventurous. His mom took a job teaching pottery at some camps giving him and his siblings a great opportunity to get involved—ever since then, climbing has been one of his favorite hobbies.

Since McCoy developed his love for climbing, he’s experienced incredible things including but not limited to: Dachstein, Austria 27 pitches of Alpine Rock in one day in Oct 2011 5 months in Wrangell St. Elias National Park in May-Sept 2012; RMI Winter Expedition Skills Seminar in March 2010; Mont Blanc Gutêr Route in June 2010; and Mt Kilimanjaro Machame Route in December 2009.

However, this trip is different. McCoy was planning to travel with a couple of climbing guides he met last year, but they’re all going to guide this summer instead. With some changes in the original plan, McCoy is now planning to travel with a business professional from Ancrage, Alaska named Robert Blaisdell. Blaisdell has been climbing practically his entire life. He has experienced Alpine-tour skiing, ice and rock climbing, and mountaineering.

This trip is special because Blaisdell attempted Denali last year, but was turned around nearly 17,000ft up by a wild mid-season storm. Both of the climbers are ecstatic about their journey of a lifetime. McCoy plans to keep climbing strictly to a hobby as he is a firm believer that “when you’re required to do something all the time you kind of lose your passion for it”.

Taylor Suttle
Staff Writer
tsuttle@uab.edu

In the slow economic market, employers ae wary about hiring people that are fresh out of college especially when there are always experienced applicants. MCT Campus

When I talk to people of my parents’ generation who are college educated, their experience seems to be that college is a societal contract between the graduate and the white collar world.

Conversely, I have seen people of my own generation struggle to find full gainful and educationally relevant employment even with top marks and great references. Certainly this is an overgeneralization of a theme, however, I do believe that the job market is different than it was 20 or 30 years ago for most new college graduates.

So how does one procure a job to gain some experience in the working world and make enough to live a young adult lifestyle? How can one start the process between making a living and making a career?

What makes a good student and what makes a good employee are not the same thing. In a world where employers can hire someone with both, they almost always will. Therefore, how does one prepare for a career, while working independent of a desired field?

I think most of the strategies come down to working hard. I do believe that getting one’s foot in the door is harder now, but someone who works hard is always valued. The term work means something different in the context of a career than in the context of school.

While in school, there is always someone to tell you how things need to be done, and you are judged based on your capability to regurgitate information. In the context of a working environment, you are assigned tasks and it really does not matter how they get done so long as they are done and done well. Self-motivation, independent thought, and creativity prove to be the greatest gifts of the student turned professional.

As many of us graduate into a world with fewer jobs than applicants, there is a collective fear about what the future holds. I also think that this fear has been good for sociological progress. I think that part of this fear has lead those in my generation to really question what makes a career and what is involved in creating a real life. Therefore, the message I try to tell myself is to try and take it a little slower and think of the journey rather than the destination of the career arch.

On that note, I registered for my GRE this week, so do as I say, and not as I do. Find experience working in the real world because some skills are very much compatible.

Luke Meadows
Contributor
lukem@uab.edu

Furnace is UAB’s official ultimate frisbee team and is growing in size and plans to expand in the coming years. MCT CAMPUS

It’s not always clear where Furnace, UAB’s club ultimate Frisbee team, will be practicing. Sometimes they practice on nice, green fields with bright orange cones set up for cutting drills.

Sometimes they have to practice on the campus green, running scrimmages that turn into pick-up games. Other times they throw the disc around whatever patch of grass they can find.

The team is supposed to have the West Campus fields reserved on Monday and Wednesday nights, but scheduling issues with intramural softball and the UAB men’s soccer team often interfere with practice.

“It’s hard,” said Kevin Shrestha, the team’s captain and a sophomore at UAB. “We had Furnace before, (but) it was run by people who already graduated.” But turnover in leadership wasn’t the only problem facing the team.

“Recruiting has been one of the biggest issues”, Shrestha said. “The previous team was made up 90 percent of graduates…there weren’t many people left,” he said. “We also had to get sponsored by the new company that took over the Rec, and that took time.”

Many of these factors contributed to a brief ultimate hiatus at UAB. The team, which had been practicing regularly and even attended a few tournaments in the past few years, stopped having practices as a void in leadership arose.

People were graduating, and no one was taking their places. Shrestha hopes that’s different now, though. “I think (the team) does have a bright future,” he said. “We just need to establish who’s in charge.”

Part of the problem is the way people see the sport. “It varies,” he said. “Some people think it’s just a college thing you do on the green— unorganized. Some people don’t think it’s a sport at all.”

But not everyone has such negative view on the sport. In fact, without most people knowing, the sport of ultimate has been on the rise.

Two professional ultimate leagues have sprouted up within the last few years—the American Ultimate Disc League and Major League Ultimate. The leagues have teams in many major cities, including Chicago, New York and Washington D.C.

Besides the AUDL and MLU, many cities, including Birmingham, have ultimate disc associations. The Birmingham Ultimate Disc Association, or BUDA, has new-player friendly league play every summer and winter, and is also involved with spreading the sport around the community.

“I think BUDA had been a great organization,” Shrestha said. “Especially getting younger people involved and teaching them about the sport. That’s how I learned.”

He also mentioned that he thinks the sport is on the rise. “I think it’s definitely picking up some steam,” he said. “When organizations get more serious, people will take it more seriously.”
Beyond the growth of the sport, Shrestha has specific hopes for Furnace’s future. “I think our goal is to make it past regionals, to one of the bigger tournaments,” he said. “I want to at least make it to the next level.”

And if that doesn’t happen? Shrestha won’t let it get him down. After all, he knows what the sport is about. “Be a good player,” he said. “Be a good teammate, and be a good opponent… The main point of ultimate is to have fun.”

Ramsey Archibald
Contributor
ramsey25@uab.edu

Chicken and Dumplings may not be the healthiest thing out there, but it’s cheap and easy to make. I Believe I can Fry/Flickr.com

The best purchase a college student can make is a crockpot. In a crockpot, your normal everyday college student can place several food items, go to class all day, and come back to a home-cooked meal. Crockpots are also inexpensive; the cheapest one I’ve found was $15 at Wal Mart. It’s also quite a rush to go to class and know that when you come home you don’t have to worry about dinner.
Crockpot meals can also be very inexpensive to put together.

One of the best crockpot recipes is chicken and dumplings. Chicken is the greatest utensil a college student has at their disposal. You can buy it frozen in bulk and it will last for a good two or three months, and chicken is also one of the leaner meats. Together all of the ingredients of chicken and dumplings cost less than ten dollars and it is a hearty, nutritious meal that will send your taste buds flying.

Easy Crockpot chicken and dumplings
-Six chicken breasts or thighs
-One can of cream of chicken soup
-Celery
-Onion
-One can of Grand’s biscuits (not the flaky kind! The thick southern kind)
-Water
-Salt and pepper

First, clean off your chicken and season with salt and pepper. Place your chicken in the crockpot and pour in the can of cream of chicken soup. Add the celery, onion and water into the crockpot.
Cook for six hours on low. Half an hour before you’re ready to eat, open your can of Grand’s biscuits and tear the dough into chunks. Throw the chunks into the crockpot and let them cook for the remaining half hour. When the biscuits appear fluffy and cooked thoroughly, turn your crockpot off and serve.

There you have it! An easy and delicious chicken and dumplings recipe that will be ready when you get home from that annoying Algebra class. Happy eating and enjoy the doughy dumpling goodness.

Michelle Love
Staff Writer
mlove221@uab.edu

Mitchell—former LSU football and baseball star—re-joined the Barons last week after a slow start with triple-A Charlotte. Mitchell strained his right oblique fouling off a pitch. Ironically, he was just beginning to show signs of improvement with regards to his performance, as if he were getting out of his slump. Mitchell probably provided the season’s best catch record in minor league baseball.

Baseball is the kind of sport where, in one game, a team can experience hot and cold streaks. The Barons have cooled off in some regards, but are still atop of the southern League standings in the North division.

This week I was able to talk to a Chicago White Sox writer, Larry, for Southside Sox, which is a part of SB Nation’s website. Larry follows all of the White Sox minor league teams closely, as well as the parent team, the Chicago White Sox.

“Keenyn Walker is a switch-hitter, but in name only. Coming into the season his MiLB career line as a right-handed hitter was .235/.318/.299. He’s off to a slow start on offense for the Barons this season and a good chunk of that is his continued inability to hit left-handed pitching: .158/.273/.263. If this is all he can muster, I can’t imagine how bad he must have been facing them left-handed. It’s not unusual to still see somewhat large differences in splits for switch-hitters,” said Larry.

When asked about the Barons, he also added, “Trayce Thompson’s development is probably the most important of any of the upper-level outfield prospects, simply because he’s right-handed and hits for power. The other guys, Walker and Jared Mitchell, are both most useful against right-handed pitching and are platoon candidates. And the major league roster also has a left-handed tilt to it in the outfield, though only Alejandro De Aza has proven himself capable at the major league level.

The White Sox hope that at least one (preferably more) are ready to start in the majors by 2015, when De Aza would be in his final year of arbitration and Alex Rios would be in his team option year. Thompson hasn’t shown much of a platoon split so his presence would alleviate some potential issues in the outfield-of-the-future.”

The Barons are off Tuesday, May 1, but return to the friendly confines of Regions Field on Wednesday. Wednesday begins a five-game home-stand that runs through Sunday. Thirsty Thursday will highlight the nightly promotions as the Barons prepare to entertain the Chattanooga Lookouts.

Here are the days and times for each home game this week: Wednesday (7:05 PM), Thursday (7:05 PM), Friday (7:05 PM), Saturday (6:30 PM), and Sunday (3 PM).

Dan Harralson
Staff Writer
danh82@uab.edu

Mark Wahlberg plays Daniel Lugo in Michael Bay’s Pain and Gain. IMDB.com

Forget the Mayans, the end of the world starts now. Why, you ask? Because, surely hell must be on the verge of freezing over or I wouldn’t be about to write a positive review of a Michael Bay film.

That’s right, you heard me right. The ahem-auteur behind such non-classic shoot-‘em-up/blow-it-up travesties as the Transformers franchise, the Bad Boys series, and Pearl Harbor finally got one right. It must be Armageddon, am I right?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m under no illusion that Bay makes movies for the likes of yours truly. He’s what they call a real guy’s guy filmmaker—a guy who makes movies for guys in which the subtleties and nuances of plot, characterization, and acting are not very important. But to a certain segment of the predominately male population, his films are good old-fashioned check-your-brain at the door fun.

Mind you, even though I’m not a fan, I, at least get why certain guys swear by some of his work. I mean, there’s a certain demented genius at work in something like, say, The Rock, which absolutely falls into the category of mindless dumb fun of the sort one watches over an afternoon of downed beers with the guys. Even the first Transformers film had a certain flair for channeling a guy’s inner 12 year-old.

But, at the same time, a lot of what’s wrong with the typical Hollywood Blockbuster can be laid right at his feet. You know the kind of thing I’m talking about: the guy(s) walking away in slow motion as something explodes behind him/them. The diving into a room with guns blazing, aiming and reloading. Or the women all portrayed as blank-eyed sex kittens with as much substance as a wet noodle, the list goes on.

Basically, go watch Hot Fuzz, a brilliant, underrated deconstruction of films like Bay’s and you’ll get the essential idea. Just replace the Brits with an assortment of ethnically-diverse, uber-beefy dudes, and it basically is a Bay film.

But here’s the thing. To use a guy-friendly analogy, sometimes if you swing the bat for a long enough period of time, you knock one out of the park eventually. Sometimes the right material and the right director are paired and something magic happens.

Now, to be fair, something of this nature isn’t likely to have happened with, say, someone like Uwe Boll, for instance- the guy just doesn’t care about making a good film, so in his Ed Wood-like perspective, all his stuff is gold. Bay, I think, is very much in on the joke. He knows the films he makes are dopey, but he likes what he likes, and he knows that there’s an audience that likes it too, critics be damned.

The guy’s not without talent as a visualist- there’s a certain puerile poetry to his movies, with all their leering camerawork that never misses an opportunity to catch a glimpse of a nice backside stepping dripping wet out of a pool or a drop of fluid cascading onto a surface and going splat.

There’s a highly satisfying, bravura sequence in Pain & Gain in which the camera circles around the action like a panther, ducking in and out of peepholes and holes in the wall as things gets more and more intense and you just know things are about to go south- and hard. I was definitely reminded of Boogie Nights (and not just because of the presence of Mark Wahlberg), but because, like that film’s director Paul Thomas Anderson, Bay knows exactly what he’s going for and how to get there. Ultimately, the latter may rightfully be seen as more of an artist- certainly his resume goes a long way towards backing that up- but, for what he does, Bay is indeed the master of his domain, say what you will about the quality of most of his material.

The material here is strong, and it makes all the difference. In a true story that only could have happened in Florida, three idiots decide to kidnap a guy and things spiral from there. Having done my fair share of living there, I can say that with some authority that, without a doubt, crazier shiz happens there per capita than anywhere else in America I can think of, period- and it’s high time they made a movie about it.

Some have complained that the film makes the guys too likeable and relatable, given that people actually died in the commission of their crimes, but come on. Guess what? Criminals can be charismatic. It’s a staple of movies of this nature, from Bonnie & Clyde and Badlands to Natural Born Killers and most of Tarantino’s oeuvre. Consider this film Bay’s entry into that company- it may well be the one he’s remembered for- at least among critics. Besides, it’s not like they get away with it.

A certain contingent of fans are already buying a ticket, but to the rest of us, the ones that think twice about blowing part of their paycheck on a potentially crappy guy movie suck-a-thon, let’s just say a little more reassurance is needed. This is that reassurance.

The dialogue is more amusing than you’d think, it’s perfectly cast, well-acted, beautifully photographed, and executed like the best, most fun episode of “CSI: Miami” ever. As a bonus for the ladies, the girls in the film aren’t complete dead-eyed supermodel types. Rebel Wilson is worth her weight in gold, and that’s not a fat joke- she steals every scene she’s in, she’s totally adorable and I’ll say it, cute as all get out- and Bar Paly manages to take a stock role of a dumb stripper and fashion something endearingly new out of it. (Okay, so she’s smoking hot, too, but duh- have you seen a Bay film?)

What’s more, it’s the first movie Bay has done that I found myself actually wanting a bit more of. I suspect that a fair amount of stuff was cut out, and I’d actually like to see it, especially if it involves the aforementioned ladies. Don’t get me wrong, the film is actually edited in lean and mean fashion and even at a little over two hours, never overstays its welcome. By contrast, I would have had more fun and had less of a headache if I’d slammed my head into the sidewalk for the running time of the near-unendurable Transformers 2. I might actually buy this one, and for the freaking deleted scenes! Who’d have thunk it?

If that doesn’t put a few butts in seats that might not ordinarily be there, I don’t know what else to say. Except that if you’ve ever wanted to see “Monk” beat down with a giant rubber dildo, boy, did you come to the right movie, and I mean that as a compliment. And when’s the last time a Michael Bay film got one of those?

Mark Trammell
Staff Writer
ripmrgordo@hotmail.com

Employees and students are invited to participate in a contest to name the new UAB bus system. Visit www.uab.edu/namethebus and fill out the name submission form. An Apple iPad Mini will be awarded to the winner. If there are multiple submissions with the same winning name, a random drawing from those submissions will be held to determine the winner. The contest will begin May 7 and all submissions are due by May 21.

UA System Board of Trustees approves new UAB transit system

 UAB Parking & Transportation Services is partnering with First Transit, the nation’s leading bus transportation provider, to bring a new transit system to UAB beginning this summer. The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approved the bus system, which will be open to all UAB faculty, staff, students and approved visitors, at its April meeting.

The system, which will be named through an employee and student contest, will be implemented in two phases. Phase I, which will consist of bus routes for employees who park in Remote Parking Lots No. 1 and No. 2, begins the week of July 8. These buses will primarily transport hospital employees from remote parking areas into the medical core of campus, but they will be open to anyone with a UAB-issued ID. Phase II, which will add new circulating routes serving the entire campus and medical district, is scheduled for Jan. 2014.

“The system will be a transformational step for UAB,” says Chris Clifford, associate vice president for Business and Auxiliary Services. “It will provide reliable, timely and customer-friendly transportation service to the entire UAB community.

“Our focus with this system is to thoroughly serve the transportation needs of our employees and students and lessen the car traffic on campus,” Clifford continues. “We believe this system, which is state-of-the-art and high-tech, will enhance the campus experience for our customers and ease parking challenges. It will make transportation easier and safer and ultimately be a more efficient way to move people around UAB.”

The full fleet will consist of 12 buses, says André Davis, director of Parking & Transportation Services. It will replace the current Campus Ride/Escort systems that have served the institution well, but that the university has now outgrown.

“Due to the continued growth in the number of UAB students, staff, faculty, visitors and the expansion of the UAB physical campus, the new bus transit system will assist in meeting the current and future transit needs of the UAB community,” Davis says. “UAB now encompasses more than 80 city blocks, and employees and students need a way to efficiently access the campus without moving their cars. If you visit most large universities in this country, they have a bus system on their campus. That’s how they move employees and students around campus, and that’s what we need to fit all facets of our growing infrastructure.”

The cost of the new system will be covered primarily by redirecting budgets currently used for other transportation options, including Campus Ride and the current remote shuttle bus service.

Campus service ’round the clock

The system will be a 24-hour weekday operation and stops will be located so that all points on campus are no more than a five-minute walk from a stop. Traffic and site studies have been conducted to determine the best stop locations. A detailed map of the routes and bus stop locations will be provided this summer.

Parking & Transportation held several employee and student forums this past year to gather information about on-campus transportation needs. Employee and student feedback and ideas have been considered and incorporated into this new effort.

“For example,” Davis says, “based on student feedback, we’re planning to have a bus that will take students to local shopping areas at least one day per week.”

Each bus will be handicap-accessible, seat 30 to 35 passengers and have additional room for 12 to 15 people to stand. That will mean the fleet could carry up to 200 people at one time, a large increase from the 30-person maximum that the six current Campus Ride vans can accommodate. During peak work and school hours, at least eight buses will be running at once, with wait times at each stop from eight to 12 minutes. Scheduling for off-peak and secondary off-peak hours is yet to be determined, but wait times for those shifts are expected to be 15 to 20 minutes.

Follow that bus!

All of the buses in the fleet will feature GPS transponder technology, enabling employees and students to see where the buses are located in real time on their smartphones and desktop computers. This will allow riders to wait until they know a bus is coming before going to a bus stop.

TV monitors that show the location and movement of each bus will be installed in high-traffic areas around campus.

The buses will be painted in UAB green and gold and the system will have its own logo to make it instantly recognizable. The design of the logo and bus appearance will be undertaken after a “Name the Bus” contest is completed in May.

“This system will belong to the UAB community and we want the name to reflect our unique Blazer pride and culture,” Clifford says.

“We’re doing our absolute best to make this a service that employees and students are proud to ride,” Davis says. “We’re going to be very diligent in making sure that, from day one, this system runs like clockwork.”

With only 30 minutes to go before the show, Briggs didn’t have enough time to eat his vegan meal. He took a quick bite, left his dinner in the band’s North Carolina van and walked into a DIY venue, The Forge, to sell some merchandise.

Trioscapes

A little after 8:30 p.m., the opener Evan Brewer came on. Brewer played his set on the stage by himself with only a bass and a laptop to his right. The former bassist for Animosity now plays the same instrument in The Faceless. Dan and his bandmates, saxophonist Walter Fancourt, 21, and drummer Matt Lynch, 27, stood together at the front right of the floor and watched attentively.

The Forge opened up very recently and it’s entirely run by volunteers. The egg white walls are still in need of a new layer of paint, the grey stage is only a foot above the ground, and wires are seen running through the right side. The stage area has a few ceiling tiles missing, an out of place ceiling fan, a couple of fluorescent ceiling lights, and a black curtain behind the band’s equipment. When the music starts, one incandescent light bulb on the front left of the stage illuminates their presence while the subpar sound system tries to capture all of the noise. The venue is about 50 feet in width and maybe 200 feet in length, certainly a work in progress.

There are only fifteen people in the crowd. Briggs is used to all of this.

“This kind of show is fun, it’s intimate,” expressed Briggs. It costs $8 to catch this particular lineup, but seeing Dan play bass with progressive metal band Between the Buried and Me typically costs around $25.

Brewer and Briggs met in 2007, and their acts have toured together off and on ever since. Brewer, a Nashville native, joined Trioscapes for their shows in Knoxville, Nashville and Birmingham. The trio more than welcomed him to come along.

After Brewer was done with his set, Trioscapes started warming up. This is their first chance all day to practice.

“We don’t usually do a sound check,” said Briggs. “If the venue allows us to, maybe we’ll do it, but loading in and out equipment and all of that stuff takes up most of the time. I never usually write [music] on the road either. If I do, it’s usually with my headphones on playing on a little MIDI keyboard.”

The set kicked off at around 9:15, and it was clearly apparent that there was no need for a sound check. These guys went right into percussion grooves while changing time signatures seamlessly. To call them an afrobeat or jazz fusion group would only narrow the range of what these guys do. Fancourt busted out his flute for one piece and Lynch made the sounds of a tabla—a pair of small drums attached together —with an electronic drum pad on another song.

With their last song being the shortest, clocking in at a little over five minutes, the other four jams went on for no less than seven minutes. Briggs and Fancourt were trading off licks while Lynch held together a dense, technical beat.

Even though there’s an age gap between the two older members and the younger Fancourt, Trioscapes sees that as an aid for their sound.

“I guess that’s what’s great about it,” said Briggs. “Every group I’m in, everybody has different influences. I think if I were in a group where everyone always had the same influences, you’d have less of a drive to push yourself out of the box.”

Much like the way the band was conceived, each member is using the time off from their main projects to promote Trioscapes’ debut album Separate Realities.

“I play in an alternative rock band called Reptar,” said Fancourt, whose name was mentioned to Briggs by a handful of mutual friends before Dan finally contacted Walter. “I started playing with them about five months ago. I did some playing at the end of the Rubblebucket tour.”

“I was in a band called Eyris, it’s more on the progressive side,” said Lynch. Briggs and Lynch met while Eyris was opening up for Between the Buried and Me back in 2009. “I fill in for random people every now and then.”

The general reception towards Separate Realities has been pretty positive so far.

“For a lot of people, the album’s something they haven’t quite heard,” said Briggs. “Whether it’s fans of heavier music that haven’t listened to much jazz or vice versa, I haven’t really seen any horrible reviews so far.”

I think there was one review in Outburn Magazine where they didn’t understand the music? They said there was too much saxophone. There’s only three of us! We can’t just keep learning new instruments,” Briggs stated jokingly.

On their first tour going south of Georgia, Trioscapes is selling a limited edition live album with four tracks on it (it’s really good). This is particularly interesting, considering they’ve only been a group for a year with a small repertoire of songs.

“I’ve been to shows where the bands had tour-only merchandise and I went nuts over it,” explained Briggs.

“The band Cave In did a CD when they were at Lollapalooza that had like five or six songs. They played ‘Dazed and Confused’ by Led Zeppelin and other originals that were so good. I failed to get one at the show and I ended up buying a copy on eBay years later for an embarrassing amount of money, like $45-50. I had to have it to complete my collection because I was obsessive. To me it was like, you know, whatever, I’ll see them next time. And then they didn’t fucking tour for another six years. I kicked myself for a long time. I’ve always wanted to do an exclusive offer like that.”

When asked what city they were looking forward to playing next on this tour, the three musicians in unison quickly answered “San Juan, Puerto Rico.”

The band ended their fantastic set right at 10 p.m., finishing with their most popular song “Blast Off” (it currently has over 95,000 views on YouTube). After packing up, talking to fans and signing autographs, the trio got in the van. Dan finally had an opportunity to eat his dinner.

They started the engine and headed towards a friend’s place 45 minutes south of Birmingham to cut some time off of the next day’s drive to Tallahassee.

Safiq Islam
Staff Writer

As summer approaches, so will the need to be prepared for summer cocktail parties. To alleviate your summer cocktail woes, I’ve compiled a list of refreshing cocktails to beat the heat. Keep in mind that these measures can be tweaked to taste and are rarely replicated due to the imprecise nature of drink pouring.

Bellini
Ingredients:
Pureed Peaches
Sparkling wine, preferably Italian

In a champagne flute, combine 2 parts sparkling wine, and one part pureed peaches. This drink is deliciously sweet and peachy with very little of the alcohol bite. This drink may look a bit timid for the guys, but if you simply prepare it in a more masculine glass, the boys among us can enjoy this cocktail without fear of ridicule

White Sangria
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 shots of apple liquor
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced lime
2 peaches, wedges
3 apples, wedges
Dry white wine
Raspberries are optional

Place everything but the wine in a pitcher, and pour the wine over it to cover. Chill this for several hours and serve by placing fruit in the glass and pouring the wine infusion over it. Top with raspberries to taste

Dark and Stormy
Ingredients:
8 oz ginger beer or ginger ale
2 oz any dark rum

Place ice in a glass and pour the rum over it. Then pour in the ginger ale and stir

Cuba Libre
Ingredients:
1.5 oz dark or white rum
Juice from half of a lime
Ice
Coca-cola

Place all the ingredients in a glass and stir. Use a lemon wedge as a garnish if you have any left over.

Gin and Tonic
Ingredients:
2 oz Gine
5 oz Tonic water
1 lime wedge

Place ingredients in a shaker and shake well. Pour in a glass.

Luke Meadows
Staff Writer
lukem@uab.edu