The Heights October 12, 2017

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

EST. 1919

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2017

BC Updates Previous Alcohol Violation Stats Previous years’ data were questioned after a software switch.

BY CONNOR MURPHY News Editor

SAM ZHAI / HEIGHTS STAFF

Vigil Held for Victims of Disasters Students and staff reflected on natural disasters and acts of violence, A3.

After Boston College changed its disciplinary software accounting system, it discovered last month that the previous software had not properly accounted for liquor law violations that BC must report under the Clery Act, prompting some adjustments to numbers previously published in the University’s annual disclosure of crime statistics.

Reported on-campus liquor law violations for 2014 were adjusted from 889 to 1,113, and from 908 to 1,506 for 2015.

BC reported 1,573 on-campus liquor law violations for 2016.

According to Monica St. Louis, as-

sistant dean of students, the Office of the Dean of Students noticed that the new software system, called Maxient, was reporting very different numbers for liquor law violations, leading to a full review of prior statistics. The old system, Star Rez, was not pulling data on students who were referred to the disciplinary process but instead found not responsible of any policy violations.

“The Clery Act asks for all referrals to the conduct process, not ones where the student was only found responsible,” she wrote in an email.

St. Louis attributes the significant rise in liquor law violations between 2014 and 2015 to the one-year anniversary of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which resulted in a decrease in spring referrals for 2014, especially over Patriot’s Day Weekend.

See Alcohol Violations, A3

Number of Reported Sexual Assaults at BC Rises by 8 in 2016 There were 35 sexual assaults reported on campus during 2016.

BY KATIE MURPHY Heights Staff Boston College’s 2017 Clery Act crime statistics disclosures revealed a continuation in the past few years’ trend of increased reporting of sexual assault, to 35 in 2016 from 27 reported in 2015 and 23 in 2014. Those numbers were increases from seven in 2011, five in 2012, and 10 in 2013.

The statistics included in the Clery Act include rapes, burglaries, liquor law violations, and many other crimes that

occur both on and off campus. In each Clery report, the statistics for the past three years are included.

Th e s e f i g u re s a re re p o r te d in accordance with the Clery Act, a 1990 federal statute that requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funding to record and publish information about crime on and around their campuses. BC published its Annual Security Report with Clery numbers on Oct. 1.

BC’s peer schools have also seen general reporting increases. The number of sexual assault cases reported at Georgetown University in 2014, 2015, and 2016 were 14, 13, and 23, respectively.

At Fordham University, the number of sexual assault incidents was seven in

2014, five in 2015, and 15 in 2016. At Harvard University, the number of these incidents was 43 in 2014, 54 in 2015, and 43 in 2016. Tufts University reported that the number of sexual assault incidents was 14 in 2014, 25 in 2015, and 22 in 2016.

Melinda Stoops, associate vice president of Student Affairs and BC’s Title IX Coordinator, said the rise in number of sexual assaults reported could be a consequence of the many different programs on campus that promote bystander awareness and the many different avenues that are available to report rape through.

“This could be because of the increasing attention to the issue of sexual violence across campus and across our country,” Stoops said. “I think students

are more aware of this issue, and more aware of how to respond to this issue, which includes reporting.”

Every freshman coming into BC must complete Haven training online over the summer before their first year. This teaches incoming students about how to recognize signs of sexual assault and what to do once they recognize these signs.

Along with Haven and a seminar during Welcome Week, every BC student must complete bystander intervention training, which is done by Stand Up BC and educates students about how to be aware of potential sexual assaults that may be occurring around them, especially in party situations.

“Can I say with certainty that this

is what we can attribute the increased number to? No, because there is no way to know for sure,” Stoops said.

The reporting process that BC uses for sexual assault has not changed with the increased number of reported sexual assaults. Students can go to a number of different resources, including BCPD, the Sexual Assault Network, or SANet, a member of Residential Life staff, or the Office of the Dean of Students, to report sexual assault. From these sources, the campus police will then become involved.

“We have regular meetings with the police (about Clery reporting) to make sure the rapes are reported properly,” Stoops said. “The numbers are there for transparency.” 

For Spanish Students, Strong Feelings on Catalan Independence Some gave mixed views on violence at Spanish voting stations.

BY COLE DADY Heights Staff The Catalonia region of Spain voted in an Oct. 1 referendum to become an independent nation. The vote, declared illegal by Spain’s central government and the Spanish Constitution, comes after years of building tension discussion on the subject of secession.

About 900 citizens and 33 police officers were reported to have been injured that Sunday after riot police stormed polling stations, dragging out voters and firing rubber bullets into crowds, as reported by The Guardian.

All of it was captured by smartphones and news cameras and spread around

the world, creating a public relations disaster for the president of Spain, Mariano Rajoy.

In interviews with 14 BC students from Spain, some prayed for the unity of Spain, while others argued that Catalonia should be independent.

However, almost none believe that the violence is acceptable. “[Catalans] are trying to defend their right to vote and say if they want to be a country or not,” Georgina Rigol I Sala, a BC exchange student from Catalonia, said. “But the central government is responding with violence.”

This event comes as a result of a complex relationship between the region and the Spanish central government dating back centuries.

Miguel Saez Poveda, a BC exchange student from Madrid, explained that the region of Catalonia never existed as an independent political entity.

Instead, it was part of a monarchy called the Crown of Aragon from 1162 to 1716, when Philip V of Spain took control of Barcelona.

In 1939, Francisco Franco’s dictatorship came to fruition and lasted until his death in 1975. Laia Clotet Vila, LGSOE ’18, highlights that Franco systematically repressed all efforts toward Catalan nationalism.

“Under his dictatorship, the government tried to stamp out all Catalan institutions, the Catalan language was forbidden and highly punished if used in public, and thousands of people were executed in purges,” Clotet said.

Right before his death, Franco named Juan Carlos I the King of Spain, who initiated a transition from the Francoist system to a democracy by establishing the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

But many Catalans at BC feel that

the region has been treated unfairly under Spain’s current democracy.

They also argue that the current constitution should allow for a legal binding referendum on independence in Catalonia.

“At the time the Spanish constitution was written, women could not vote, gay marriage wasn’t allowed, people were forced to do military service,” Elena Jimenez Asins, CGSOM ’18, said. “Then they changed the Constitution to make them legal.”

Students also complained that Catalonia’s revenues subsidize other parts of Spain, as reported in a CNN article. While the region hosts 16 percent of the Spanish population, it contributes around 20 percent of the Spain’s GDP, making it one of the country’s main economic powers.

Jimenez and Clotet explained that Catalonia attempted to achieve greater autonomy by forming its own

SCENE

SPORTS

Chris Cheeseman talks about finding his voive and those who inspire his songs.

Head coach Katie Crowley won her 250th game as women’s hockey swept No. 4 Minnesota Duluth.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

See Catalan Independence, A3

THE POSSIBLE DREAM

MAJOR MILESTONE

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constitution called Estatut in 2006 and holding a “non-referendum popular consultation” in 2014. However, the Spanish government has never attempted to reach a settlement, forcing Catalans to hold the referendum.

“The Spanish government has had a circular discourse about the unconstitutionality of a referendum, but has not adopted the smallest measure to listen its people and understand the reasons behind their frustration,” Clotet said.

She further explained that the current president of Catalonia and leader of the movement for independence, Carles Puigdemont, called for the Oct. 1 referendum, even though it was not supported by the Spanish government. He argued that voting and listening to the public should never be criminalized in a democracy.

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See Galit’s, A10

NEWS: Church & Family

A collection of priests met to discuss the future of the Church..................A3

SPORTS: Hokies Smoke Eagles Virginia Tech added to BC football’s continued woes in the ACC............B1

INDEX

NEWS.......................... A3 SCENE...................A7

Vol. XCVIII, No. 32 OPINIONS.................. A4 SPORTS......................B1 © 2017, The Heights, Inc. ADS.........................A6 METRO......................C1 www.bcheights.com

The Heights

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TOP

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things to do on campus this week

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Today from 10 to 11 a.m. in Walsh Hall, the Office of Employee Development will host Jacquelyn James, the co-director of the Center on Aging & Work, to discuss how longevity and health are extending working lives, how employers have addressed this, and what the future holds.

Thursday, October 12, 2017

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At 7 p.m. today, Philip Landrigan, professor of environmental medicine, public health, and pediatrics at Harvard University, will be speaking on the impact of pollution on planetary health. The lecture will be in Gasson 100. Landrigan was included in New York Magazine’s “Best Doctors 2008.”

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The Center for Human Rights and International Justice will host Mishy Lesser of the Upstander Project from 12 to 1:30 p.m. today in Merkert Chemistry Center 130 for a talk about the origins of cultural genocide and white supremacy in New England.

NEWS Sen. Markey, BC ’68, Discusses DACA, Climate BRIEFS

By Charlie Power

Yadama Meets With Governor

On Tuesday, Gautam Yadama, dean of the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW), along with Tom Walsh, associate dean of BCSSW, met with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to discuss a new educational framework to address opioid addiction, called the Social Work Education Core Principles for the Prevention and Management of Substance Misuse.

The Baker administration just announced a set of educational core principles for social workers designed to address opioid addiction and treatment, the first of its kind in the nation.

Representatives from all nine of the Commonwealth’s schools of social work were also present to finalize the educational principles. Each of the nine schools of social work will incorporate addiction education and training into their curriculum. Yadama spoke on behalf of all nine schools.

“The work of the task force in developing a set of core competencies in primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention provides a blueprint for Schools of Social Work to provide the necessary knowledge and skills for all social work students,” he said to the BCSSW blog.

According to the Baker administration’s press release, the principles are designed to ensure that 4,300 social work students enrolled in Massachusetts have the knowledge and skills necessary to combat addiction effectively.

The principles are split into three domains that graduating social work students should be able to demonstrate ability or knowledge of. The Primary Prevention Domain focuses on preventing substance misuse through screening, evaluation, and prevention.

The secondary prevention domain focuses on caring for individuals at-risk for substance use disorders through engaging individuals in safe, informed, and person-centered care. And the tertiary prevention domain centers on managing substance use disorders as a chronic disease through eliminating the stigma and building awareness of social determinants.

“Social workers need to have the skills to deal with this ongoing crisis and this initiative to unify the schools into taking collective action to address these training needs will have far reaching positive consequences for the people we serve,” Yadama said.

Theology Prof.

Wins Award Mary Ann Hinsdale, an associate professor of theology at Boston College, was awarded the St. Elizabeth Seton Medal, which recognizes distinguished women in theology. The award was established in 1966 by Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati.

Hinsdale has been a faculty member at BC since 2000. She co-directed the University’s interdisciplinary minor in Catholic Studies from its inception in 2006 through the end of this past academic year. She holds a doctorate in systematic theology from University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto.

Hinsdale is known for her research and teaching on ecclesiology, theological anthropology, and feminist theologies.

Those who receive the Seton Medal are selected based on their contributions to the field of theology, including work on scripture, spirituality, ministry, and historical theology. They must have a doctorate in a related field and be distinguished in the field for excellence in teacher or making a major contribution to scholarship within the field.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award and to join the company of its distinguished past recipients,” Hinsdale said to The Chronicle.

For The Heights

U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey, BC ’68, BC Law ’72, stopped by Boston College Law School Tuesday to discuss immigration reform, gun legislation, and climate change. The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy hosted Senator Markey in a talk entitled, “A View from Capitol Hill.”

Markey talked about some of the parallels he sees between the Trump administration and the Reagan administration, especially in regulations, which President Ronald Reagan famously reduced and which President Donald Trump has also begun to reduce.

“Up until the 1980s, regulation was not a dirty word,” he said. “It was broadly understood that we needed these regulations that kept our air and water clean, our financial markets sound and stable, and our consumers protected from dangerous products and predatory practices.”

“In short, regulation was recognized as a vehicle in which government could ensure a certain level of safety, security and stability in the economy and in the marketplace,” he added.

Markey noted the “Fox in the Henhouse mentality” of appointing officials who want to abolish the agencies they lead, a strategy Trump has borrowed from Reagan.

“Instead of looking at the regulations and trying to prune those that might be accurately characterized as over-regulation, the Reagan administration came in and said all regulation was bad,” Markey said. “He pursued a deregulation for deregulation’s sake.”

Markey sees this in Scott Pruitt’s leadership of the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency. As the attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA 19 times, and many of the lawsuits, which are still winding their way through the courts, have the potential to impact the acceptable level of pollutants in the atmosphere, including mercury and soot.

The current tone, Markey noted, makes compromise difficult on climate change.

He told the story of Bob Inglis, a former representative from South Carolina. Inglis was a loyal conservative, but on climate change he announced the scientific evidence would drive him. In 2010, he lost to a primary challenger from the right, Trey Gowdy, who later became chair of the House Select Committee on Benghazi in his first term.

“What kind of message does that send to the more senior Republicans?” he asked.

“He gave up his career for climate change. That’s not a good place for America to be.”

In the question and answer session, Markey was asked about the recent events surrounding the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

“I think the president got disciplined by his base. Initially, you can see that the president was responding from a common-sense perspective,” he said. “But he got punished brutally by these right-wingers, and now he’s basically saying you have to build a wall, so we’re going into non-starter territory.”

“So I don’t know where this winds up now, to be honest with you, with these DACA kids. There’s a minimal sense of freedom I can see among Republicans, but so far they are the people who aren’t running for reelection.”

“I see my job as working to protect the public interest,” Markey said. “That’s my job

Danielle Rivard / University Communications

Markey was highly critical of Republicans’ focus on deregulation and positions on the climate. as a Boston College Law School-trained United States Senator. To represent what it was that we learned here at this great institution.”

After serving four years as a State Representative, Markey was elected in 1976 at age 29 to the House to represent Massachusett’s 5th district, a post he held until 2013. When John Kerry became Secretary of State under President Barack Obama, Markey won the special election to fill the seat, and then went on to win a full term in 2014.

Markey touched on his humble origins as the son of a milkman growing up in Malden, Mass., sharing fond memories of his mother, who wasn’t afraid to be strict.

“Whenever she was really upset with me, she would say, Eddie, we’re going to donate your brain to Harvard Medical School as a completely unused human organ,” he said.

Along with this prodding, he credits reading To Kill a Mockingbird and a fascination with Clarence Darrow and Abraham Lincoln in prompting to him to pronounce to his high school guidance counselor, “I want to be a lawyer, and I want to go to Boston College Law School.”

Upon learning he first had to go to college before law school, Markey asked, “What would be the best college to go to get to Boston College Law School?”

“Probably Boston College,” was the response.

“And so I had a plan,” Markey said.

“The likelihood of the son of the milkman from Malden being a United States Senator from Massachusetts was not even imaginable,” he said. “The first lawyer I ever met was the first professor who walked through the door at Boston College Law School.” n

Student Assembly Welcomes Freshman Senators

By Sam Browning For The Heights

And Samantha Karl For The Heights

The Student Assembly (SA) of the Undergraduate Government of Boston College welcomed four newly elected senators from the Class of 2021 at their meeting Tuesday. Elected on Oct. 5, the new members will start to share their ideas and work with SA committees.

Kate Canavan, MCAS ’21, began working with student government in high school, and it has become her main passion. She campaigned door-to-door and told other freshmen about her goals and plans for the forthcoming school year.

“After I joined student government, I basically quit everything else to focus on it,” Canavan said. “I want to focus on more reusable options in the dining hall.

There’s a lot of disposable cutlery that can be replaced with more sustainable alternatives.”

Canavan expressed interest in the Environmental and Sustainability Com-

mittee, the Interpersonal Health and Wellness Committee, and the Conduct and Student Rights Committee. She cares about the rights of students and has many specific plans to bring to BC. Outside of the SA, Canavan spends her time in Model U.N., the UGBC Leadership Academy (ULA), and partakes in swing dance.

Hannah Chen, MCAS ’21, also began her student government career in high school, and ran for SA to become more involved. She wants to bring in more speakers this year, especially for topics regarding domestic violence and sexual assault.

Chen’s main interest is in the Interpersonal Health and Wellness Committee because she is concerned with domestic violence and sexual assault. She also said she would also be interested in getting involved with the Campus Improvements Committee.

In her spare time, Chen is the director of student advocacy for the Residence Hall Council, is a member of ULA, and plays Women’s Club Lacrosse.

“[One] thing I want to work on is creating a stronger community for freshmen,” Chen said. She plans to listen to her constituents for their opinions and make their goals happen through committee involvement.

Joe Okafor, MCAS ’21, was student body president of his high school, as well as class president for two years. He is currently president of the FitzShawGa RHA, and is active in the AHANA Compass mentorship program.

Okafor wants to advocate for his fellow freshmen, and make sure that no student is without a voice on campus. He is interested in working with the Conduct and Student Rights Committee, as well as the College Democrats. Okafor also wants to challenge and change certain preconceptions about student government.

“The stigma around UGBC that they don’t get anything done is not true,” Okafor said. “In high school, the process of change in student government was slow, but in UGBC everyone works hard.”

Sireesh Vinnakota, MCAS ’21, was

class president for two years in high school, and is planning to triple-major in economics, political science, and mathematics, along with being involved in the South Asian Student Association and the Masti dance group. He is particularly interested in working with Intersections Committee, as well as many groups on campus that promote minority advocacy.

Vinnakota wants to explore other applications of EagleID cards, advocate for better and more plentiful vegetarian options in the dining halls, and expand printing services on Newton campus. His platform is based off the complaints and inquiries of freshmen students he met during the campaigning process, both on Upper and Newton.

“Coming into freshman year, obviously the transition is extremely hard, the fact that freshman year is going that way it has, I think it’s very important to do what you love,” Vinnakota said. “While I was running, I met a lot of people who were very passionate as well. My passions are other people’s passions.” n

POLICE BLOTTER: 10/6/2017 - 10/11/2017 Friday , Oct. 6 1:10 p.m. - A report was filed regarding property confiscated at Vanderslice Hall.

7:51 p.m. - A report was filed regarding an assault and battery at O’Neill Library.

11:20 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a drug law violation at 90 St. Thomas More Rd.

5:37 p.m. - A report was filed regarding the possession of false identification at Brighton Campus Lots.

police cruiser.

Saturday, Oct. 7

10:30 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a disorderly conduct. Non-BC affiliate Steffan Jackson was placed under arrest for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Jackson was transported to Boston Police District 14 for processing via

7:47 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a medical transport at the Flynn Sports Complex.

12:06 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated person at the Mods.

Tuesday, Oct. 10

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

CORRECTIONS If you could put a dining hall in your dorm, what would you call it?

“The Daily Eat.” —Riley Ford, MCAS ’21

“Lothian.”

—Brendan Iris, MCAS ’19

“H is Silent.”

—Kyle Hladky, MCAS ’21

“Puzzles.”

—Peter DaGiau, MCAS ’20

Please send corrections to eic@bcheights.com with ‘correction’ in the subject line.

The Heights

Thursday. October 12, 2017

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BC Conference Explores Pope’s Family Teachings

By Charlie Power For The Heights For many Catholics, Pope Francis has been a revitalizing force for the Church, albeit not without controversy. In April 2016 the pontiff released, “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love,” which focuses on addressing the full range of issues facing families in the 21st century, not just doctrine concerning marriage and divorce.

The nine-chapter, 261-page document, while not explicitly altering Church teachings, is seen as a break from the past, with Francis urging bishops to move away from “cold bureaucratic morality” and be unafraid in letting their lives be “wonderfully complicated” in their ministry.

There have been conferences to discuss the implications of the “Joy of Love” in other countries, but up until last week there had been no organized discussion of how the Church in the United States might respond to Pope Francis’s call.

This frustrated Rev. James Keenan, S.J., director of Boston College’s Jesuit Institute and the Canisius Professor of Theology.

“So other people in other countries are getting people to read the document, and they really like it,” he said, noting that there was no such effort in the U.S. Keenan began planning a conference five months ago, seeking leaders who would be “really interested in moving this forward in a positive way.” That group grew to include almost 40 people, including over a dozen bishops and distinguished theologians, who came together in a conference last week at BC. Keenan, in conjunction with Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, hosted a symposium entitled, “Amoris Laetitia: A New Momentum for Moral Formation and Pastoral Practice.”

The principal focus was how the church in the U.S. might benefit from Francis’s teachings on the centrality of the family, with the question, “Why is it that the family is having such a hard time?”, Keenan said.

“We started using his language like

accompaniment, discernment, field hospital, all those phrases,” Keenan said. “The words of Francis helped us to see that it was an urgent issue.”

“I think it was very important in the conference when we decided we would be talking about families as the key term and not marriage because they are such politics around marriage,” he added.

“But families give you a notion of the complexity, it’s not two people, it could be 20 people.”

In regard to families, the Church has tended to write about sexual morality issues. But Keenan believes that this scope needs to be broadened to include other areas that are also important, like the opioid epidemic, unemployment, the internet and technology, migration and economic refugees.

“All these issues come in: discrimination, immigration, health care,” he said.

“And so this was a conference in saying shouldn’t we be taking the family seriously in terms of a priority.”

And this is the heart of Francis’s message, according to Keenan.

“It’s trying to teach us that Catholic Churches and parishes should pay attention to the family more than any other entity, the needs of the family have to be addressed,” he said.

According to Keenan, the tone of the conference was collegial and constructive. One bishop told him it represented the best large-scale exchange of bishops and theologians that he had ever been apart of.

Looking to the future, Keenan hopes other universities will take initiative.

“We’re hoping universities do what we did, including what we did at BC, so we offer some hope to bishops and priests that they can do this work,” he said. “So that what BC did they should take leadership and do it again.”

“If you start doing gutsy things, people will step up. If you take risks and try to do something, people will take note.

And that’s what this is about. Can we take note about what’s going on with the family?” n

Sam Zhai / Heights Staff

Vigil Held for Mexico, Vegas, and P.R.

By Connor Murphy News Editor About 100 students and staff gathered on O’Neill Plaza Tuesday night for a vigil for victims of recent natural disasters in Mexico and Puerto Rico and the mass shooting last week in Las Vegas.

The vigil, co-sponsored by Catholic Relief Services and several student cultural groups, featured two students’ and a professor’s testimonials of how Hurricane Maria and the earthquake last month in Mexico have affected them and their extended families back home.

Edgar Sanchez, LSOE ’19, who was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, grew up on the nearby island of Vieques. Sanchez, his mother, and siblings live in the U.S., but his extended family still lives on Vieques, which he hasn’t been back to since 2003.

His mother called him Tuesday morning to tell him that his grandmother is in critical condition.

“I think it’s time for me to finally go home to see my island,” he said. “To us, it feels like [the United States] hasn’t done enough, and we feel helpless.”

He called for students to focus on aid to hurricane victims.

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, other Puerto Rican students called for more support from the Boston College community for hurricane relief.

Mariela Páez, a Lynch professor from Puerto Rico, has worked at BC for 14 years and said she has been on the mainland for longer now than on the island.

“It wasn’t until 20 days ago that I realized my heart is always in Puerto Rico,” she said. “Since then, it’s been a struggle to see … all the suffering and all the need

and not be able to do more.”

“I feel guilty that I’m safe here … I went food shopping the other day and almost cried in the middle of Whole Foods, because I can’t believe we have so much right now, and they have so little,” she said.

Gerardo Martinez Cordeiro, MCAS ’19, who is from Mexico City, talked about the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that occurred there last month, killing several hundred, injuring thousands, and leaving over a million with damaged property.

“That realization that it can happen to you, happen to anyone, and that you won’t feel it coming, is something that’s going to haunt us in Mexico for a while,” he said.

But, he added, he’s been encouraged by Mexicans’ response to the earthquake.

“I think there’s something about these natural disasters that brings out the best in everybody,” he said. n

BC Adjusts Liquor Law Violations Alcohol Violations, from A1 “Obviously that was an anomaly that really affected student behavior,” she said.

According to past reporting in The Heights, in 2011, there were 1,458 disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations on campus, and 1,082 in 2013. The 2011 numbers represent 98.82 violations per 1,000 students, a 257 percent increase at

the time. In 2012, that rate dropped to 62.58, and rose slightly to 75.62 in 2013.

One potential reason for the increasing rate of alcohol violations, St. Louis said in 2014, is that over several years, more resident assistants (RAs) were added to residence halls around campus in order to increase the staff-to-student ratio.

According to The Daily Orange, Syracuse University had 1,073 disciplinary referrals for alcohol in 2016, while

the University of Notre Dame had 902.

Harvard University reported 48 liquor law violations for its Cambridge campus in 2016, Georgetown University reported 289 alcohol referrals for on-campus violations, and Fordham University reported 611 referrals for on-campus violations.

These numbers have not been adjusted for student body size and on-campus population and are therefore not necessarily directly comparable to BC. n

Spanish Students Reflect on Vote for Secession in Catalonia Catalonia, from A1 On the day of the referendum, approximately two-fifths of the Catalan electorate participated, and 90.18 percent voted in favor of independence.

But, as suggested in a CNN article, these numbers may not represent true public opinion, since supporters of remaining in Spain may have abstained from voting because it was considered illegal.

“The only way to go out of Spain is to do it out of the law, and that’s what we decided to do in the end,” Rigol said.

B C students have mixed feelings about the violence of the day.

For most, it was totally unjustified.

However, some disagree, such as Marta Gonzalez-Ruano Calles, a BC exchange student from Madrid.

“The government has to preserve the security and peace in the country, so I stand for it.” Gonzalez-Ruano said. “The government didn’t have any other option.”

Nonetheless, the violence is indicative of the much larger issue at hand about whether Catalans should have the right to vote on indepen-

dence legally.

Spain is neither a federal state like the U.S. or a central state like France. Marta Cavestany Ribas, a BC exchange student from Barcelona, explained that it is a system characterized by autonomous communities that exercise their right to self-government within the limits set forth in the constitution and their autonomous statutes.

She went on to explain that while these communities have the ability to decide on education and how to manage money and regulate cities, there are certain decisions that only the central government can decide on, such as secession.

“I think the reason why the autonomous communities can’t vote [on independence] is because the whole of the country belongs to everyone,” Cavestany said.

Many Spaniards at BC also aren’t buying into the argument that Catalonia has been oppressed by Spain.

Since it is one of the most prosperous regions of the country and its citizens enjoy a very high standard of living, it is difficult for any Spaniard to imagine why Catalans want to secede.

“We don’t want Catalonia to become independent because I think there is a symbiosis,” Poveda said. “We benefit from each other.”

Other BC students from Catalonia, such as Rocío Sánchez Ares, feel that it is impossible to suggest that staying part of Spain will benefit the region.

“I am proud Cataluña [Catalonia] stands up against a colonial nation that has historically violated its language, culture and killed its people going back to Franco’s dictatorship,” Sánchez said. “Cataluña does not need Spain to survive as an independent republic.”

Although many believe in the ethical duty to let citizens vote, independence could be costly economically in the short and long term.

Cavestany argues that Catalonia will be a very poor nation because the European Union has stated that Catalonia will not be allowed to become a member. If this does occur, it may be very difficult to negotiate fair trade agreements with its neighbors, Spain and France.

Catalonia will also have to create a new currency, since it will not be able to use the Euro. Many companies

have already discussed relocating from Catalonia to Spain if secession occurs. The IBEX 35 tumbled 2.85 percent last Wednesday amid these concerns.

Cavestany realizes that she cannot help if someone feels Catalonian and not Spanish. But she is deeply worried about the consequences of withdrawing from Spain.

“I can’t fight the feeling but I can tell you the data, and that’s what’s going to happen,” Cavestany said. “I don’t want my children to live in a poor country out of the E.U.” BC students from Spain all agree that dialogue between the Rajoy administration and Puigdemont is critical to reaching a consensus on this issue.

Both sides have veered away from discussing the options, causing radicalism and hate to increase in the political arena. The E.U. has also avoided getting involved in the conflict, which some individuals believe is a mistake.

In the case that Catalonia declares independence, Spain could use Article 155 of the Constitution. It states that when an autonomous community

acts in a way that surpasses its competences, the state can take control of the community.

“If Catalonia declares independence, the central government will send more police, and take control of the [regional] budget, healthcare, and education,” Jimenez said.

It does appear, however, that many Catalans are also pro-Spain and don’t want to make a choice between being Spanish and Catalan. Large crowds protested in Barcelona on Sunday to demand that Puigdemont hold off declaring independence from Spain, as CNN reported.

On Tuesday, the Catalan parliament will meet to discuss the referendum. This will test whether the conflict will escalate further or if he backs down from his strongly held stance.

While the referendum suggests that Catalonia hopes to become independent, people around Spain believe in achieving unity among government and the people.

“Now is the time to be together to fight for Spanish unity, regardless of your political opinion about anything else,” Gonzalez-Ruano said. n

The Heights

A4

Editorials

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Students Must Express Solidarity Through Action On Tuesday night, about 100 students and faculty came together on O’Neill Plaza for a vigil in honor of victims of recent tragedies across the country, including the natural disasters in Puerto Rico and Mexico, as well as the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Speakers at the event gave a window into how these issues may seem far removed from Boston College’s campus, but in reality, hit close to home.

In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rican students at BC called for more focus on providing relief to the island.

One student created a fundraising page that has raised over $3,300 as of Wednesday night.

Events such as Tuesday night’s vigil and the on-campus activism relating to the situation in Puerto Rico represent important actions taken by

Thursday, October 12, 2017

students to raise awareness of tragic events that many at BC may otherwise become desensitized to.

Students’ lives at BC are often fast-paced and it can be easy to forget about the larger world that exists outside Chestnut Hill. This concept of mental insulation is often referred to as the “BC Bubble.” In light of the disasters that have occurred in the U.S. and around the world in recent weeks, however, there is no better time to move beyond this sense of isolation.

Students at BC may read news of recent disasters and feel sad or empathetic, but it speaks volumes when only 100 students out of almost 10,000 show up to a vigil to express solidarity with their peers. It is imperative that students realize that while many at BC were fortunate enough to have

not been affected by these disasters, some students were not, and support from the University community goes a long way.

Students need to recognize the value of empathy, and should attend events such as Tuesday night’s vigil in greater numbers in order to demonstrate their support for affected students on campus. One day, students currently at BC will say goodbye to this campus and enter the real world, where solidarity can no longer be an afterthought.

During this trying time, in which thousands of people outside the boundaries of the Heights are suffering as a result of natural disasters and violence alike, BC students must choose to break from the ordinary and practice compassion beyond what is expected.

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“Whatever good things we build end up building us.”

- Jim Rohn

Letter to the Editor CJBC Responds to “With Investment Returns of 13.4 Percent, BC’s Endowment Boston College’s endowment now stands at over $2.4 billion, growing nearly $300 million in the past year alone. But where does our money come from? While BC doesn’t disclose specific details, we know that 49 percent of its endowment is in equities. The fossil fuel industry makes up about 13 percent of the stock market, so conceivably BC has 6.5 percent of its endowment invested in fossil fuels, or a staggering $156 million. If this is accurate, we profited over $20 million last year alone off of our investments in fossil fuels.

While we in Climate Justice at BC (CJBC) support BC’s right to increase our university’s endowment, we fervently believe that investing in fossil fuels is in direct opposition to BC’s Jesuit Catholic values. BC needs to join the movement of nearly 800 institutions worldwide that have divested $5.5 trillion.

Fossil fuel consumption is one of the primary contributors to climate change. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, it is the most dangerous issue facing our country.

This makes divesting essential. Unfortunately the financial and political power of the fossil fuel industry stands in the way of this crucial transformation. In order to topple the industry’s hegemony we need to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in renewable energies. Divestment is not only the right thing to do, it makes financial sense.

A plurality of studies have shown that divestment protects portfolios from the financial risks of climate change.

Most important, however, BC’s Jesuit values compel us to divest. The preeminent Jesuit in the world, Pope Francis, wrote his first solo encyclical Laudato si’ on the Catholic moral imperative to take part in the fight against climate change. Just this month over 40 Catholic institutions divested, joining a growing number of Catholic institutions including Georgetown and the University of Dayton.

There is even historical precedent at BC. In 1985 under the guidance of University President Rev. J. Donald Monan, S.J., BC divested from South

African companies during Apartheid.

The Financial VP at the time, John Smith, based divestment on moral grounds, stating, “[I]f our investment advisor bought stock in a company in clear violation of our ethical standards, we would dump it without questioning it. Some stocks are just not worth it.”

CJBC is committed to BC divesting. We’ve shown our commitment through five years of devoted activism that continues this semester that began with our silent rally outside of Pops on the Heights. While we have always attempted to work amicably with the administration and will continue to do so, we will do everything in our power to have BC join its peers in living up to Catholic values and stop profiting off of deadly fossil fuels.

In BC’s own words, a university “discloses its values by the way it behaves as much as by what it says about itself.” Five years ago we met with University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., but nothing has changed.

We are reaching out again in good faith to talk about divestment and BC’s obligation to head Pope Francis’s call.

If this is unsuccessful, we will escalate the pressure, building power from the ground up because we know the BC community wants BC to live up to its stated values.

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel.

The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted to the newspaper.

Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by e-mail to editor@ bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

Climate Justice at Boston College Josh Behrens, MCAS ’18 Kayla Lawlor, MCAS ’20 Michael Osaghae, MCAS ’20 Conor McCadden, MCAS ’18 Aaron Salzman, MCAS ’20 Zachary Contini, MCAS ’21 Kyle Rosenthal, CSOM ’21 Catherine McLaughlin, MCAS ’21 Elizabeth Spitzenberger, MCAS ’21 Dan McCarthy, MCAS ’20 Alex Singer, MCAS ’20 Penny Hawthorne, MCAS ’20 Madison Boettner, MCAS ’19 Jack Demasi, MCAS ’21 Margaret Keithline, MCAS ’20 Sarah Engelberg-Nolan, MCAS ’20 Nathan Bradley, MCAS ’21 James Mazareas, MGSAS ’18

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Have an event that BC students might be interested in? Contact Madeleine D’Angelo, Metro Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email metro@bcheights.com.

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If so, contact Archer Parquette, Features Editor, at (617) 552-3548, or email features@bcheights.com.

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Editorial Anthony Rein, Copy Editor Alec Greaney, A1 Editor Abby Paulson, Creative Director Connor Murphy, News Editor Riley Overend, Sports Editor Caleb Griego, Scene Editor Archer Parquette, Features Editor Madeleine D’Angelo, Metro Editor Leo Confalone, Opinions Editor Julia Hopkins, Photo Editor Max Roth, Online Manager

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The Heights

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A5

Developing My Self-Confidence at BC A Pub in Rachel Loos It’s Almost That Time - I’m a big fan of leather shoes. Boots, chukkas , Oxfords , you name it . In the warmer months of the year, however, I find it hard to pull off wearing leather shoes, other than the typical brown Sperry boat shoe, which I refuse to wear regularly, as I’m not a member of a fraternity.

All summer, my leather boots sit untouched at the bottom of a storage bin, waiting for the changing of the seasons to signal their time to arise from their slumber. My chukkas sit sad and alone in the dark of my closet, untouched by the summer sun that prohibits their use.

The time is quickly approaching, however, when I will open up my storage bin, dig through the piles of sweaters, and lace up my favorite leather boots. I’ll brush the dust off my chukkas, and cuff the denim of my jeans just above their saddlebrown skin. I’ll trudge out into the autumn weather, colored leaves decorating the ground for contrast.

My feet devoid of canvas or suede, I’ll head up the street supported by smooth caramel.

WHen Things end - Midterm Season. It’s a period of every semester, albeit not exactly defined by specific dates, in which most midterm exams for classes fall. A rough estimate puts it anywhere from three weeks to a month, and its effects reverberate through campus like an emotional seismic wave. At its peak, open study space on campus is as hard to come across as a student who isn’t stressed out of their mind, and the reservoirs in the coffee dispensers in the dining halls often dry up by the early evening. Calls to parents about the potential of dropping out are frequent, and not a meal is shared without a laptop out somewhere on the table. It is a time that tries the souls of students, and pushes us to the brink of our motivation to buckle down and get through exams so that we can one day graduate. This hectic time, however, will soon come to a close, and we’ll be able to breathe once again.

Inconsistency - Boston College had school off for Columbus Day. My friends over at the University of Maryland, however, did not. Neither did my pals at the University of Michigan, nor my compatriots at the University of Virginia. There’s an obvious trend to be observed here, but I don’t know if it’s true across the board, and it isn’t even my point. Here’s the point: if Columbus Day is insignificant enough to prompt certain schools to still hold classes, among other inconsistencies, why even designate it as a holiday at all? Although Columbus Day is technically a federal holiday, as of 2015, only 23 states give their citizens Columbus Day as a paid holiday. Tennessee, apparently existing within its own universe, celebrates Columbus Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving. These bizarre inconsistencies regarding the second Monday of October ever y year, I hope, represent a declining public consensus on the merit of the holiday. Celebrating a man every year who killed millions of indigenous Americans is wrong, and if Columbus Day is hardly significant in most of the country, let’s get rid of it for good.

One of my first memories at Boston College was Admitted Eagles Day when I barfed in a trash can outside Stokes Hall, before projectile-vomiting a second time with my head protruding from my mom’s car as she shamefully pulled away from the University.

Turns out it had been a bad idea to mix alcohol and pills the night before, and probably a worse idea to gorge myself on red velvet cupcakes at the refreshments table the next day.

I like to tell this story to freshmen who may be uneasy about fitting in at a BC, a university that puts particular emphasis on achievement, conformity, and appearing effortlessly in control.

New students are expected to seamlessly transition to unfamiliar environments and gracefully undertake any challenges in the way. When we mess up, we are supposed to feel upset and embarrassed, then work quickly to recover without missing a beat.

I also like telling this story because I think it’s funny, and it is a good reminder of how irresponsible and ridiculous I was (and still can be). Somehow, even though I was a wreck, I remember being comfortable with myself and maintaining relative self-confidence.

At the very start, I felt like I didn’t belong at this school. I’m sure I am not the only person who has had difficulty tackling new social experiences without sacrificing their authenticity.

Making friends at BC as a freshman was exhausting for me, but I was still optimistic for the future and assured in myself and my abilities.

It’s cool to look back and see how I’ve changed over the years. I frequently plan my meals more than two minutes in advance, using a crockpot to slow-

cook chicken, veggies, and sometimes chili. I have been known to spend more than five dollars on a bottle of wine, and I even have adult acne!

Some things have gotten easier.

Over time I have refined my social skills, and in just one month I have made more new friends than I made over the course of my entire freshman year. But some things have gotten harder. I am far less self-assured and confident than I used to be.

This is most likely due to my apprehension over life after college and whether I am doing enough to prepare myself. If anything, I should be more sure of myself than when I started at BC. I’m certainly involved in more activities, engaged with more people, and holding more leadership roles than when I was a freshman.

But as my accomplishments have grown, I have developed an internal sense of doubt in myself and my abilities.

Most of us have heard about the finding that female students leave BC with lower self-confidence than they had as freshmen, while male students tend to gain self-confidence. This information, discovered in 2012 by Kelli Armstrong, Vice President of Planning and Assessment, led the Women’s Center to create the Rise mentorship program, which matches small groups of women from the senior class with female faculty and staff members.

Rise is now in its third year. I was lucky enough to be placed with a group and mentor for the coming year. We’ll meet together once a month to discuss life post-college, navigating relationships after BC, and other big, scary concepts.

Last week at our first dinner, we discussed how, because we are seniors, our involvements on campus tend to require us taking on leadership positions. More often than not, we are the ones acting as mentors for underclassmen instead of the ones receiving guidance. This means that, for the most

part, we miss out on talking over problems in our own lives, and instead help others with their issues.

I have noticed that the female people in my life do something that males do not. They tend to take time after something happens to discuss it, to summarize what went on, and what could have made it better. Driving home from a social gathering, my mom likes to talk about what happened, processing the events and relaying it back. I’ve noticed that male-identifying people tend to, in contrast, continue pushing forward without taking a break to evaluate what happened.

When we downplay our struggles or attempt to hide our pain, we lose out on opportunities to learn from our mistakes. Without taking the time to evaluate how things went wrong, we don’t get the chance to increase our self-understanding.

I think the stereotypically feminine behavior of reflecting and summarizing helps many to gain a level of self-understanding by pondering decisions and mistakes. And this self-understanding is related to our self-confidence.

Rise, I hope, will help senior women to discuss and evaluate the events occurring at this unstable time, allowing us to form a better understanding of ourselves and, in turn, improving our self-confidence.

I wonder if the statistic on female self-confidence has changed at all since the original survey, and if Rise has helped women become more sure of their paths after college.

I really hope that taking more time to reflect on my experiences and mistakes with a mentor will help me to gain a better understanding of myself and my future plans. Hopefully this will help me to grow as a leader and mentor, and I can continue passing tips down to freshmen who feel like they don’t fit in.

Rachel Loos is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Remembering to Spend Time Alone

Michael Razis As soon as Boston College students arrive at orientation, they hit the ground running with regard to the college social scene. While the amount of greetings and surface level small talk are heightened during orientation and throughout the first few weeks of freshman year, I have found that, while I am living at school, I am always “on.”

In contrast to our high school days, during which most of us could find relief in having our own space in our bedrooms, the overwhelming majority of college students face the unavoidable reality of sharing our sacred living space with someone else.

When we’re not interacting with our roommates, we’re walking through the quad, either alone while keenly looking out for who walks past us, or with friends and chatting. In class, we’re either listening to a professor lecture or discussing course material in groups. Our meals generally take place in large dining halls full of commotion from people we know and say hi to.

Needless to say, at school we are always socially “on.” The brief moments we have alone in our rooms are either disrupted by a roommate unexpectedly entering, or by the very real and prevalent “fomo” (fear of missing out) epidemic. When this lack of time for reflection, to take a deep breath, or simply to have silence is added to the stress brought on by the demands of courses, professors, and social outings, college life quickly grows overwhelming.

Characteristic of life at college is not only the rapidity with which change takes place, but the subtlety with which it can occur. Because we eat, sleep, and study in the same space, it becomes increasingly difficult to create a distinct boundary between school

space and our own space. Attending college is accompanied by an unspoken acceptance of blending work space and private space together.

This enmeshing can be very formative by necessitating independence— we are tasked for the first time with creating boundaries on our own. Fusing both spaces additionally exposes us to a social scene that is largely characterized by newness, unfamiliarity, and is different than that of high school in nearly every sense.

By the same token, the fusing of our living and our studying means that we consolidate all of our experiences—be they social, academic, or extracurricular—into a singular, confined space.

We lose the opportunity we had back home to literally, physically be done with school when the bell rang at 3 p.m. and we drove off campus.

By centering all of our necessary and formative experiences into one space, the space increases in its significance to us. It instantly becomes harder for us to leave it or to take a break from it. It’s for this reason that I have found this stress or anxiety to amount really quickly in college, effectively slamming me like a brick wall. Most of us can’t leave our school stress every day and head home to decompress.

For these reasons, it’s incredibly important for us to learn how to take time to ourselves and experience silence—both literally in our surrounding environment and mentally in regards to our thoughts. Making time for oneself is necessary because it’s one of few opportunities we have to put things into perspective.

As a junior straddling five classes, a number of demanding extracurricular commitments, and the monstrous internship application/interview process, it’s very easy to get caught up in small things that incite larger amounts of stress. Whether it’s remarks about someone’s GPA or seeing my peers walk through the quad in business formal attire, it’s difficult to prevent a slew of thoughts from running amok in my head. Moving from one thought

point to the next without a recess quickly overwhelms my brain capacity, and I tend not to confront my stress until it reaches an inordinate level.

Ensuring that alone time becomes a part of our daily or weekly schedule is the most accessible and effective way we can mitigate the quantity and severity of the stress we are all confronted with as students at an elite, demanding university.

The American Psychological Association has reported that anxiety, depression, and relationship problems are subjects about which college students are the most concerned. Many institutions’ counseling services funnel a number of resources into substantially marketing the services they offer and informing students of the ways in which they can seek help.

Much of the anxiety students face, however, is a product of small bouts of anxiety that accumulate into a larger, more daunting, and seemingly insurmountable mass of negativity. If students were better equipped with tools to cope with anxiety on a smaller scale with immediate, shorter-term solutions, smaller instances may be less likely to evolve into breakdown-inducing occurrences.

While my experience in solution development for mental health issues is rudimentary, I am very much immersed in the stress that is inextricably tied to college life. Through my experience, I have learned that alone time can serve as an effective tool to handle immediate instances of stress or anxiety.

Whether said alone time manifests itself in leaving Bapst library and sitting by the Labyrinth, asking your roommate for an hour alone in the room, or attending mass at Saint Ignatius, opportunities for self-reflection are accessible. It’s merely a matter of recognizing the benefits of said moments of purposeful isolation.

Michael Razis is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

The opinions and commentaries of the op-ed columnists and cartoonists appearing on this page represent the views of the author or artist of that particular piece, and not necessarily the views of The Heights. Any of the columnists and artists for the Opinions section of The Heights can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

Hillside?

Thomas Keenan It is an unfortunate but unalterable fact that students enter Boston College at an age when it is illegal for them to drink alcohol and graduate when it is legal to do so. Even the most responsible freshman drinker will be engaging in an activity prohibited both by political and University authorities. There is not much that can be done to alter the fact that all the benefits of alcohol consumption are closed to freshmen.

Yet, I detect some unfortunate attitudes toward drinking among the student body and the administration at BC which bear some relation to the drinking laws which bar about half the student body from drinking.

A 21-year-old friend recently asked me, in all seriousness, whether there was a restriction on drinking among Jesuits, as if teetotalism ranked among obedience or chastity as a moral imperative. The answer is of course no.

A Heights humor piece last month asserted there was some sort of odd contrast in the transformation of the School of Theology and Ministry into a tailgating spot. The piece went so far as to characterize tailgating as an exercise in “sins of the youth.” It goes without saying that excessive drinking, with the vomiting, blacking out, and irresponsibility that comes with it, is not to be tolerated by moral people.

But to equate drinking in general with such extreme cases is to be very confused about what drinking is good for.

I am 21 now, and want to speak a little from my own experience about how drinking can improve life by making one feel at ease. A glass of beer or wine is a means of signaling both to oneself and to one’s drinking companions that the moment we now share is one in which we can be at peace. It is one in which our anxieties about the future and the minor, yet real, obstacles that confront us daily can be presently put aside. There are times for staying up late in the library or earning money, but those times are not right now.

Being two or three (or four) drinks in allows for a focus on the present, and simplicity of thought that makes possible a form of togetherness not always open to us. My conversations tend to flow with a spontaneity and naturalness that I think most drinkers will recognize. The shared act of consumption, too, gives one the sense of being included in a group, participating in a shared lowering of inhibitions which seems always to bond people. If such was the publicly sanctioned reason for drinking on campus, there would probably be far less of a stigma associated with drinking itself.

One of the reasons for this stigma at BC is the complete lack of suitable venues for engaging in the sort of drinking that seems to me most valuable. Drinking in a room or a Mod has always felt juvenile to me, too associated with the binge drinking which is rightly objected to when the issue of alcohol on campus is brought up.

Although I have never been before, the “Pub Series” events which are sometimes held at Hillside sound promising. Here is a public place, sanctioned by the University, in which moderate drinking is a given.

The only issue I have with it so far, or at least with the one held last Thursday, is that, like tailgating, its focus was drinking in the context of a sports event. It seems to me that sports events, or “game days,” are the exact settings in which the effects of alcohol can lead to bad decision-making, given the passionate feelings that the events arouse in people.

My wish is that there were some suitable on-campus locations where moderate drinking could take place with University approval. In the current system, all alcohol has to be purchased off campus (except during football games) and there are strict regulations as to where it can be consumed to avoid the punitive patrol of RAs. In my opinion, Hillside seems like a good location for such drinking: it is a large space, has a bar already in place, and a laid-back vibe. This suggestion comes from my wish that drinking could be integrated a little more successfully into campus life, perhaps contributing to a removal of what I think is a pernicious stigma against such a beneficial pastime.

Thomas Keenan is an op-ed columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

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A7

Man’s Existentiality Examined in ‘Blade Runner 2049’

BY PETER GAVARIS Heights Staff

At its core, Blade Runner has always been about loneliness. Ridley Scott’s 1982 neon-soaked cyber-noir subtly explored the inherent alienation that comes from simply being a human (or replicant), by having us question everything we thought we knew about ourselves. Can we truly ever trust another person? What if he/she isn’t even a person? Can we even trust ourselves or our own deeply held memories?

Thirty-five years later, Denis Villeneuve (Arrival, Sicario) has been tasked with posing these same questions to a new audience. In Blade Runner 2049, Officer K (Ryan Gosling) is a repli-

cant—a synthetic human with superior strength—tasked with hunting down and killing older models of replicants that the government has deemed dangerous. This is one of Gosling’s better performances, as it seems to play into his stoic, unflappable persona that we see in films like Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines. He gives a similar performance here, but it works because he’s playing a synthetic human.

As we’ve seen in countless other film noirs and detective movies, K soon uncovers a secret that could thrust the entire world into chaos. And if that sounds vaguely generic, it is. As with the original Blade Runner, the strengths of Blade Runner 2049 lie in its meanderings. Villeneuve’s film becomes

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awe-inspiring when it leaves behind the plot to explore life in Los Angeles in 2049. The time we spend alone with K is particularly valuable because it gives us a glimpse into the technology that makes living in 2049 more bearable, and somehow more painful. When K returns to his small apartment, we see him preparing dinner for himself, pouring some unsavory black sludge into a bowl. He then greets his girlfriend, who we soon realize is an artificially intelligent hologram. As she asks him how his day was, he pours a drink, and sits down for supper. He then presses a few buttons that make a hologram of a steak dinner appear over this mysterious black substance. Instead of sitting by himself in his apartment eating some suspicious looking sludge, modern life offers K the chance to sit alongside his artificially intelligent girlfriend and eat a deliciouslooking steak dinner. These futuristic attempts to solve age-old problems seem disturbing because they remind us that modernity cannot offer us effective solutions to these innate human concerns; it can only distract from them.

Unsurprisingly, this new incarnation of Blade Runner also explores the crutch of memory. In the 1982 original, one of the characters recites the phrase; “I think, therefore I am.” Since replicants are synthetic, they are given false memories to create the illusion that they have lived a full life. When and if they find out that these memories have been implanted, trauma ensues because their sense of self crumbles—everything they

thought they knew had been fabricated.

We can sympathize with the plight of these replicants, because we too live an unknowing existence, and 2049 compellingly investigates this dilemma further than the original film did.

Much of this review centers on the philosophy and world of Blade Runner 2049 because that’s where it’s greatness lies. Villeneuve’s film is very much like the original, in that it is decidedly not an action movie. There are, of course, action set pieces, but the film is more Shakespearean in construction, painting in broad, languorous strokes. And, of course, this review would be incomplete without the mention of Roger Deakins, one of the best cinematographers of our time. Deakins’ camera captures the grotesque beauty of the future in his crisp images, helping to establish the operatic tone that Villeneuve was so clearly aiming for.

Admittedly, the film gets bogged down in its plot in the middle section, and at 167 minutes it overstays its welcome as the narrative stumbles into some unnecessary subplots. But, then again, the original Blade Runner also makes some of these same mistakes.

At a time when everybody seems to be complaining about the ‘state of cinema,’ Villeneuve has made an $155 million blockbuster that elegantly asks meaningful questions about human existence and nature. It’d be unfortunate to harp on these missteps when this film, like the original, is otherwise so audacious and challenging. 

‘American Dream’ Gives a Gilded Glimpse of Glamour

BY CANNON FEW For The Heights

On Feb. 8, 2011, LCD Soundsystem announced on its website that it would be playing its last show ever that April 2 at Madison Square Garden.

Fast forward five years to Jan. 4, 2016, and the band confirmed its reunion when it was announced it would be headlining Coachella.

Now, the band has released its fourth studio album through DFA Records—a 70-minute dive into endings, change, and what the concept of an American dream truly represents to people. The album, fitfully titled American Dream, has received widespread acclaim and has become the band’s first No. 1 record in the United States.

Musically speaking, the album falls under a dance-rock style that’s at the same time contemporary and an echo of the early ’80s. LCD Soundsystem somewhat establishes itself in this album as the 2017 version of the visionary and influential ’70s topical band The Talking Heads.

American Dream is filled with the new wave synths, funky bass rhythms, and the talk-singing of lead man James Murphy that typifies LCD Soundsystem’s sound and style.

The lyrics and the concepts developed in this album, however, give it more weight than their previous projects. With this album, Murphy insists his return to the music scene is a beginning of a whole new era for the band.

The album’s opening track “Oh Baby” is beautifully ambient, a near six-minute buildup of synth and percussion that features wonderful

crooning from Murphy. He sings, “Oh sugar / Give in to me / You’re just having a bad dream / Of ringing alarm,” establishing this concept of a damaged and less-than-idealistic (American) dream.

Indeed, this is a large topic, but much of the album reveals Murphy’s fearlessness in delving into a grand theme. Nearly all of the songs exceed five minutes, the last track “Black Screen” even reaching 12 minutes.

The lengthiness of the album reflects the difficulty in coming to a consensus on these topics that is agreeable to everyone involved. It surely reduces some of the album’s accessibility in our instant gratification-crazed society, but the patience is well worth the reward. The depth of the album keeps bringing you back for more.

Some of the highlights from LCD Soundsytem’s record include the titular track “American Dream,” a simultaneously comic and tender ballad about the end of youth and the prospect of the fabled and longupheld American dream for someone like Murphy.

The final minute of American Dream is filled with this final, declaratory proclamation, “American dream!

Sha-bang, Sha-bang’” that seems to show how the whole thing has exploded into this ideal we’re not sure we even understand anymore.

The hilarious “Tonite” is essentially a dance anthem about the pressing similarities of dance anthems.

Murphy tells us “Everybody’s singing the same song / It goes ‘tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight” exposing the tendency of pop songs to idealize the moment and the urgency of living life

to the fullest “tonight.”

Self-aware as ever, Murphy later sings “Oh I’m a reminder / The hobbled veteran of the disk shop inquisition / Set to parry the cocksure of mem-stick filth / With my own late era middle-aged ramblings” reminding us of the pre-internet times when things were a little less ephemeral. He is 47 now, after all.

American Dream does a great job of mixing the personal with the political. On “Call the Police,” Murphy goes into the current division and dissatisfaction with America’s political climate, claiming “it moves like a virus and enters our skin / The first sign divides us, the second is moving to Berlin.” With lyrics like these, Murphy keeps a finger on the pulse of discourse while adding a touch of humor to the songs. There is always wit and sarcasm in Murphy’s lyr-

ics—one of the qualities that makes him so great—but it is the blend of the sarcasm with sincerity in this album that makes it so compelling.

One moment Murphy claims , “Just call the police, the first in line / They’re gonna eat the rich,” the next moment he is expressing true, vulnerable sorrow on “Black Screen” with a small voice, “Been saving emails trails kept together / I read them back sometimes to remember.”

James Murphy is one of those few visionaries who seem to always succeed in helping us understand a little more about ourselves.

American Dream calls us to look both inwardly and outwardly as we try to make sense of everything. With all its wisdom, humor, and OCDperfected details of production, this album challenges us and dazzles us at the same time. 

For The Heights

If you are an existing human person over the age of 3, there is a significant chance you have been at the very least acquainted with the famous children’s book character, Winnie the Pooh. His and Christopher Robin’s iconic stories have entranced audiences both young and old for nearly 100 years, but did anyone ever really wonder where the inspiration for such a duo of influential figures came from?

Enter Simon Curtis and Simon Vaughan stage right.

Known for his hits My Week with Marilyn and Woman in Gold, Curtis felt attached to the script of Goodbye Christopher Robin the moment Vaughan pitched it to him, as he explained to the audience following a

screening at Coolidge Corner Theater on Sunday night. He wanted to do the story of the child behind the books justice, and do it justice he has.

This film focuses on the complex relationship between Christopher Robin Milne (Will Tilston & Alex Lawther) and his father Alan (Domhnall Gleeson). It begins before Christopher Robin’s birth as Alan returns from World War I with severe PTSD, which is a huge recurring theme throughout the film’s duration. He is a playwright, and after his son is born he and his wife Daphne (Margot Robbie) spend the majority of their time either writing plays or traveling to present them to the public, so Christopher Robin is left in the care of Olive, their nanny (Kelly MacDonald).

When Alan starts to believe that the “War to End All Wars” did not actually

FILM

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN SIMON CURTIS DISTRIBUTED BY FOX SEARCHLIGHT RELEASE OCT. 13, 2017 OUR RATING

FOX SEARCHLIGHT

EMILY HIMES

‘TAKE BACK HOME’ CHRIS LANE

An unlikely duet with pop singer Tori Kelly, Chris Lane’s “Take Back Home Girl” incorporates both a familiar country chorus and a catchy, unique verse to make a song destined to top the country charts. The lyrics in the chorus are reminiscent of those in many stereotypical country songs but in the context of the song they are endearing and sweet. Lane sings of a girl he wants to take home “to a house on the hill where the wild things grow.” These feel-good lyrics are mixed with a quick and almost raplike beat, differentiating the song from other generic, run-of-the-mill country singles. The title itself is a witty play on words. With a name like “Take Back Home Girl,” the song would lead people to believe it is about a hookup, but instead it describes Lane taking a girl back home to his mother. The inclusion of Tori Kelly shows that this song is not intended for just country radio—Lane is clearly hoping to attract attention from pop fans as well, which is not surprising since Sam Hunt paved the way for country-pop crossover hits earlier this year with “Body Like a Backroad.” To further this, although the lyrics have many “country” aspects, the song’s sound is pop all the way. If it weren’t for the one guitar included in the background, it wouldn’t be a country song at all.

With sweet, reminiscent lyrics and the inclusion of a non-country artist, “Take Back Home Girl” is bound for the top of the country charts. 

MUSIC VIDEO JACOB SCHICK

MUSIC ‘ONE MORE LIGHT’ RUDY MANCUSO AMERICAN DREAM LCD SOUNDSYTEM DISTRIBUTED BY DFA RECORDS RELEASE SEPT. 1, 2017 OUR RATING

DFA RECORDS

Memories Revisited in ‘Goodbye Christopher Robin’

BY MICHAEL TROY

SINGLE REVIEW

change anything, he feels as though he could be doing something better and moves himself and his family out into the woods. Instead of leaving him with Olive again, Alan and Daphne decide to bring Christopher to the house with them so they can actually spend time with him. It is within these woods where the magical stories of Christopher Robin, who prefers to be called Billy Moon, and his band of fuzzy friends begin.

Curtis’ portrayal of the bond that grows between Alan and Christopher Robin is brilliantly executed, as he chooses to make their relationship rocky and does not pander to the younger audience that the film will inevitably attract. Alan and his son get into arguments, don’t see eye to eye, and the former even almost physically hurts Christopher Robin when he has a war flashback while they are spending time together. The relationship feels genuine and unforced.

Although the writing and directing around the relationship between Alan and Christopher Robin is fantastic, it would be all for naught without great portrayals by the people chosen to play those characters. Fortunately, the actors deliver almost perfect performances.

Gleeson shines in his role as Alan, providing a fantastic and believable depiction of a man whose mind has been torn to ribbons by war.

Even more exceptional is Will Tilston, who plays the 8-year-old version of Christopher Robin. The 9-year-old actor, who had never played a role in anything (not even a school play) before

the film according to Curtis, is a natural on the big screen and dazzles in his feature film debut. His role was crucial because the whole story crumbles without a believable Christopher Robin, and the task was not too large for him.

This film spends a significant amount of time teaching the audience about the importance of being there for one’s child. Once the Winnie the Pooh books become popular, Daphne starts parading Christopher Robin around like an animal for events and photo ops, which he does not like one bit. Alan does not realize that his son’s childhood has been marred by the fictional character he created until it is too late, and even though he stops writing the books it affects Christopher Robin for the rest of his adolescence. Alan does redeem himself eventually, but he has to suffer greatly to get there.

Goodbye Christopher Robin is a feelgood nostalgia trip that will leave you laughing, crying, and ultimately grinning ear-to-ear once the credits roll.

The plot is woven together wonderfully for a “based on a true story” film, and is even quite loyal to the real-life chain of events as they were written in Milne’s memoir. The supporting cast is phenomenal, as they successfully tie together the rest of the story wherever Alan and Christopher Robin cannot.

The editing is fast-paced and stylized, with some eye-popping scene transitions early on that set the tone for the rest of the film. And last but far from least, Will Tilston’s wide-eyed grin may be the cutest smile to ever find its way on to the big screen. 

Rudy Mancuso, first popularized as a YouTube and Vine star, released his first single “Black & White” in collaboration with Poo Bear, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer. The accompanying music video adds additional layers, structure, and meaning to the new pop song.

The music video begins with the jaunty yet fluid piano instrumental that sounds classical and Latin at the same time. Suddenly figures covered in black jump out from a white background to surround and threaten the musician. The camera pans to show Poo Bear striding toward Mancuso with more black-clad figures at his back. Mancuso switches to an ivory piano while he is surrounded by more threatening figures.

As “Black & White” progresses, Mancuso finds splotches of black and white paint appearing on his arms, face and neck. Mancuso continues to be hounded by these mysterious figures, and it seems that each time he escapes them, the paint begins to cover more and more of his body, obscuring his skin and identity. Mancuso loses a sense of himself as his figure is coated with paint.

The non-chromatic personifications of piano keys and limited worldview begin to work in tandem with the indistinct Mancuso, dancing around him as he plays white and black pianos.

“Black & White” employs a progression of imagery to signify the progression of deliberation to choice in the lyrics of the song. When the video begins, Mancuso is himself, free from concealing paint. In the same way, the lyrics of the song question the value of viewing the world in black and white, instead of somewhere in between. The lyrics begin to lean toward a view of one or the other, forgetting the past and focusing solely on the present. In the video, his wrists and hands show traces of veiling paint, obscuring Mancuso’s, and to a greater extent humanity’s, figurative past. By the end of the music video, Mancuso is masked by the paint—he has lost himself—while the lyrics have settled firmly on seeing the world in two ways. The message Mancuso imparts with the video is that, by trying to squeeze existence into a binary, you lose everything that makes you distinct. 

The Heights

A8

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Latrine Exhibit Analyzes History of Flagrant Flushes in Boston

By Kaylie Ramirez For The Heights Gender normativity, nativism, and the unequal distribution of wealth in Reconstruction-era America are just a sample of the issues taken up in the latest installment of the Boston College history department’s Making History Public program. Titled History Down the Toilet: Rewriting Boston’s Past with Objects Recovered from Three Nineteenth Century Latrines, the exhibit aims to address the social injustices and misconceptions of deprived lower-and middle-class life in late 19th-century Boston.

The exhibit consists of Victorian era advertisements and photographs of objects excavated from the outhouses of a brick row house near Old North Church, Dorchester ’s Industrial School for Girls, and the historic Paul Revere House. The majority of the items featured in the exhibit are attributed to a middle class family who lived in No. 2 Unity Court, the house near Old North Church, and a lower-middle class family who lived in the now landmarked Paul Revere House.

A display title d “Masculinity Manufactured” is centered on the finding of a luxury jar of pomade in the latrine of the Revere House.

Despite the occupant family’s lower social stature, the appearance of masculinity was significant enough to elicit higher spending in the area of grooming. Parts of the exhibit touch on the cult of domesticity,

displaying ceramic dolls and teacups, which were used to teach proper Victorian manners to young girls, and The American Woman’s Home, the handbook for domesticated middleclass women throughout the United States following its 1869 release by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

A so cial commentar y on the hypocritical and vicious nature of the nativist movement is provided by the display titled “Return to Sender: Take Back Your Tired & Your Poor.”

Pictures of smoking pipes and alcohol bottles from the No. 2 Unity Court House and the Paul Revere House are a reminder of the picture nativists painted of immigrants in the 1800s, especially those of Irish and Scottish descent. While an American family occupied Unity Court, the family that lived in the Paul Revere House were first generation Irish and Scottish immigrants. The display informs viewers that a faction of nativists at the time viewed Irish and Scottish people as non-white and therefore inferior to Americans with English ancestry.

Th e u n e q u a l d i s t r i b u t i o n o f wealth is alluded to throughout the exhibit. A display discussing living conditions of the time specifies that the top-5 percent of wealthy citizens controlled almost a quarter of the nation’s wealth in the 1800s, a figure that may seem miniscule in modern America. Nonetheless, the less fortunate families that resided in the Paul Revere House and No. 2 Unity Court were able to emulate a

life of luxury due to industrialization and mass production, as signified by pictures of ornate buttons, lavish jewelry, and unbroken tea cups found in the latrines.

Despite the concentrated wealth in America, all Bostonians of the time were subject to constant illness and disease. “A Taste of Your Own Patient Medicine” includes images of medicine bottles found in the outhouses at the different locations, indicating the high levels of disease in the heavily settled North End. The display discusses how the removal of waste into the Charles River and Boston Harbor caused clean water to be scarce and often reser ved for the wealthy. A photo of the Chestnut Hill pumping station from 1899, still located on the bank of the Chestnut Hill Reservoir today, however, accompanies the display and details how the integration of public water systems was vital progress for Boston’s overall health.

History Down the Toilet: Rewriting Boston’s Past with Objects Recovered f rom Thre e Ninete enth C entur y Latrines not only provides an unconventional approach to analyzing history, but also helps form a better narrative of daily life for average Bostonians in nineteenth century America. The exhibit, which will be featured throughout the third floor of Stokes Hall until January 2018, is thoughtfully curated by BC students and faculty and creates a dialogue about social issues of the past and present on BC’s campus. n

josh mentzer / Heights Staff

Social and financial inequality are examined in the toilets of a Boston long gone.

Gaelic Roots Open With Demonstration of Dance

By Maura Monaghan For The Heights Adorning the century-old walls of Gasson 100 are myriad markers of cultural significance: twinkling stained glass windows, somber crucifixes, and a subdued green and gold stripes painted around the room’s perimeter in a shape resembling the Celtic knot. Also called “The Irish Room,” the cavernous space has played host to countless artistic and academic gatherings over the years, the kind that sustain the creativity of a university. And despite the history crowding the walls, the open hardwood floors below still prove perfect for dancing.

This is exactly the purpose they served when Boston College’s Gaelic Roots Series hosted its second event of the semester. Sponsored by the Center for Irish Programs, the Gaelic Roots Series is an effort to bring concerts, lectures, and performances to campus that are based on Gaelic music and the dance traditions that have sprung out of it. Tuesday’s event was a Traditional Irish Céilí (pronounced kay-lee) Dance, in which all students and members of the surrounding community were invited to learn some introductory social dances at the instruction of Kieran Jordan, a Boston-based performer, teacher, and choreographer of Irish dance.

At her eponymous dance studio in Hyde Park, as well as in her classroom here at BC, Jordan is used to instructing dancers who range from brand new beginners to professionals. She makes an effort to allow accessibility, with programs encompassing non-competitive Irish dance for adults, with dance classes, a performance company, and creative, welcoming community events for all. That combination of welcoming and expertise was in full effect on Tuesday night, with Jordan at the center of a circle of attentive

learners, their various footwear ranging from conventional Irish dance shoes to running sneakers.

As a beautiful, string-heavy supply of live music from Gaelic Roots director Sheila Falls Keohane and students from the Irish Studies department played in the background, Jordan began the evening with a dance called the two-hand reel. She began by breaking down the footwork into digestible steps at a count of one, two, three, eventually combining these steps into the reel. When it came time to make an inner circle and an outer circle to practice with a partner, the graceful dancers of the BC team with their naturally pointing toes and unwavering posture dispersed through the crowd to dance with their less experienced counterparts.

“The main thing about social dancing is that you’re dancing with someone … turn to the person next to you and give them your right hand!” Jordan said as everyone in the room searched for a partner.

Every so often the punchy, upbeat lilt of the music would pause for more directions, and Jordan’s periodical interjection of “Ladies move on,” to signify a rotation in the outer circle to new partners, was each time met with bouts of cheerful laughter as people readjusted to each other’s fumbling steps.A BC grad herself, Jordan was copresident of the Irish Society during her time here and performed as a dancer at many campus events.

“I have very fond memories of those times,” she said. “The Irish Studies program was a big reason that I myself chose to attend BC as an undergraduate.”

She acknowledges the role that events like the Gaelic Roots Series play in providing a rich forum for expression.

“There is a long tradition of music and dance on campus,” she said, “and I’m very happy to be connected to that now, as part-time faculty.” n

Jake catania / heights staff

Céilís, traditional Irish musical gatherings, provide glimpses of centuries-old culture.

Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor

Dinosaur Jr. Brings Rock Sounds of Bygone Era Back to Boston Area

By Julia Hopkins Photo Editor Returning home after almost 11 months since performing at the House of Blues, Amherst natives Dinosaur Jr. came back to Boston for two nights to kick off a tour that will take it through the country. These old rockers started way back in 1984, forming from the ashes of guitarist J. Mascis’ and bassist Lou Barlow’s hardcore band, Deep Wound, with the addition of drummer Emmett “Murph” Murphy.

Throughout the following seven years, the band worked tirelessly until it became an MTV mainstay with its major label debut album, Green Mind. After innumerable lineup changes, 11 albums, one breakup, and a reformation, Dinosaur Jr. continues on, touring and recording new music as if time never affected it.

It is possible that with time, the musicianship has gotten better, but the energy has certainly dropped from the performers. In no way was this show show anything short of spectacular, but it is clear that the two sold-out nights were conducted by men past their prime.

The effect of a lifetime of rocking was not only evident in the headlining performance, but in the opening act, Easy Action, as well. It was odd to see a punk act play hardcore music to a soldout show full of middle-aged locals who have aged beyond their ability to mosh, as is standard at hardcore shows. It was even stranger to see how these lords of the pre-grunge music scene still cling on to the good old days even after being worn down by the chisel of time. The result was a group of four 50-year-old men covering the songs from their youth, sans the energy and violence that drew the fans to them 30 years ago. This does not mean the performance was inherently bad, as

cult icon John Brannon’s vocals stood the test of time, screaming his punk anthems with a contorted sneer that resembles that of Regan MacNeil from The Exorcist, while guitarist Harold Richardson abused away from his guitar, tremolo-picking along to drummer John LeMay ’s lightning fast beats. Despite the anachronistic sentiment of the music itself, Easy Action proved to be a fun act, hyping up the audience to see their teenage heroes and the night’s main event.

The 30 minutes between the two sets had the crowd feeling simultaneously enthusiastic and impatient, as the guitar tech took 15 minutes to tune all J’s instruments, tinkering with each and every one of the gigantic Marshall stacks that flanked the stage.

Even after disappearing for another five minutes, the tech returned again to prepare the final touches for the show, building more suspense. After another seemingly infinite amount of waiting, the band silently took the stage, gave one look at each other, and launched straight into their first song, “The Lung.”

The cheers from the crowd, coming from a place of instant recognition and love, almost drowned out Mascis’ clean chords looping around Barlow’s distorted double-stop bass chords that grounded the band’s sound.

Given this song’s high energy and general appreciation from the fan base, it was clear that there would not be much movement from the crowd for the rest of the show.

Given this, I can’t help but think about how different the concert environment must have been 30 years ago, when the band had just released its emotional and raucous sophomore effort, You’re Living All Over Me, and everyone was moshing and dancing in between each other, while now e ver yone was simply

swaying and occasionally pulling up their smartphones to get a nice Snapchat story.

The first half of the setlist was full of newer songs from its latest albums, such as Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not and I Bet on Sky, to which the crowd responded positively, especially the successful 2012 single “Watch the Corners.” The true nostalgia trip kicked in when the band began to perform songs popular during its MTV era, such as “Feel the Pain,” “The Wagon” (the Sub Pop 7” version), and “Freak Scene.” Accompanying these performances in the background were snippets of the music videos of these songs mixed in with live footage of the members touring sometime around the ’90s. The only times anyone in the band addressed the crowd were to introduce the added sitar and extra drum player on “The Wagon” and reintroducing John Brannon during the encore before covering “TV Eye” by the Stooges. Barlow also waved at the crowd when the concertgoers applauded him after singing and playing guitar on the song “Lost All Day,” calling him by his first name, shouting things like “ Well done, Lou!” This cheer and adulation served as a reminder to both the crowd and the band that they are back home, surrounded by the people who were there to see them before the band became the international rock force it is known for today. As a young, relatively new fan of the band, it was truly humbling to see the older fans who have been supporting the trio since the mid-’80s.

It is evident that even now, 30-plus years after the formation, Boston is still in love with this band not only for its work, but for its massive influence on alternative rock as we know today. n

The Heights

Thursday, October 12, 2017

A9

Bayazids’ Syrian Films Attest to Spiritual Triumph Amid War

By Tristan St. Germain For The Heights Film allows us to witness many things without having lived through them.

This facet of film makes it a powerful tool when used to show people more of the world than we would have otherwise seen. Boston College student s and professors gathered in a sleek and spacious classroom in Fulton to watch scenes of a war occurring halfway across the globe.

The exhibition was of two short

films concerning the war in Syria, presented on Oct. 3 by the directors, husband and wife Muhammad & Samah Safi Bayazid. Samah Safi, who grew up in Jordan and attended the New York Film Academy, said the purpose of these films is “to humanize people who are just being labeled refugee.”

I n d e e d , t h e w o r k s ex h i b i t e d displayed an inclination toward the emotional, human a sp e ct of the conflicts which Western audiences only glimpse through statistics and news-footage. The husband-wife duo reinterpret the struggles of individuals

Lizzy Barrett / Heights Editor

Two short films examine the emotion and humanity present in the Syrian Civil War.

affected by the Syrian Civil War and migrant crisis through a nonpoliticized lens, focusing on the plight of children who, like the viewer, are without a tangible sense of their circumstance.

The first of these films, Oshina, follows the day-to-day activities of a woodworker tormented by a past he cannot escape. The film opens on a shot of a man gagged and blindfolded, sweat and tears streaming down his face. His conditions suggest that of a political prisoner. But he soon enough wakes, is greeted by his daughter who is the only other character to appear in the film.

B oth attend to their separate activities, the man cutting wood to b u i l d s o m e o b j e c t w h i l e h i s daughter crafts a crown of flowers.

The woodworker fluctuates between moments of hope and extreme sadness, always offset by a return to that nightmare realm in which his anguish is made palatable.

The film’s ending reveals he has been building a coffin for his daughter who died while emigrating from Syria.

In the final shot, the camera leaves the tightly enclosed spaces that have thus far defined the narrative and glides over the ocean into which the woodworker sends his most precious creation.

The second film, Fire Palace, exchanges the father’s perspective for that of the child. A young boy spies his father lining presents under a tree for Christmas. Without context,

one would assume the scene is set in America, or any other country in which the tradition is common. But a sudden roaring overhead disturbs the rite’s tranquility—in seconds the house is blown to bits. To protect himself, the boy hides in the fireplace, where he wakes some time later covered in ash and rubble. The film focuses on the boy’s inert and desperate condition, highlighting the tedious monotony of survival within this small and darklylit cubicle. He spots a bird perched along the chimney’s edge, tweeting at nothing, like a reminder of nature’s indifference to the atrocities of war.

When a second plane roars overhead, the child attempts to escape from his sanctuary turned prison.

After this second onslaught, the child wakes with ash covering his body.

The ash and dust, paralleling snow on Christmas, descend from the chimney.

He looks up, and spots Santa Claus peeking over the narrow chimney ceiling. The figure is in fact a member of the White Helmets, an organization that assists victims of war in Syria.

The directors share a deep emotional connection to the backstories of these films.

“Oshina is a peace of mind,” Samah Safi said after the screening, “a peace [which migrants] usually find nowhere in this world.”

The single example of the woodworker’s daughter is meant to illuminate the 600 Syrian children who die e ach ye ar c ro ssing the Mediterranean.

“We believe in informing people, in the power of the people,” Muhammad said, detailing the positive reception their films have thus far garnered. Their films have been shown in Washington, D.C. to audiences of politicians.

“But is positive feedback going to convert them to action, or nodding and smiles?” Muhammad asked.

Fire Palace was based on the true story of Omran Daqneesh, a fiveyear old boy whose survival of an air-strike garnered intense mediaattention. Muhammad revealed that the child-actor playing Omran had personally experienced the exact same situation.

“The boy said he knew how to do this, he had been through this before,” Muhammad said.

Such events at which we can only gape in awe and befuddlement are the reality of many children living in Syrian war zones. The Bayazaids blend the frequency of these events with the sheer difficulty of comprehending them, creating a dream-like world de void of sp e e ch and lang uage, in which the victim’s perspective becomes everything.

When asked how they maintain hope, Samah Safi responded: “We don’t have any other choice— hope is all we have. Sit and cry, or just try to recharge.”

Indeed, these films are the spiritual triumph over atrocity, a documentation of the human lives whose stories are lost in the spectacle of modern news entertainment. n

Classic Synth-Pop Sting Songs Twisted by Jazz in Concert

By Adam Mehal For The Heights Gasson Hall recently hosted four jazz musicians—John Lockwood on bass; Brad Hatfield on piano; Gustavo Assis-Brasil on guitar; and Tom Lee, a music professor at Boston College, on flute—in an intimate and warm jazz concert.

The soothing sounds of slow jazz worked nicely on the atmosphere of the audience—it was a calm, relaxed, and tightly-knit sort of crowd, a kind that was content to sit still for a long period of time and simply absorb the music moving all around them.

Gasson 100 did much to contribute to this mood as well, as the welcoming lighting and small stage in the room kept the concert both personal and added a gorgeous background to the whole event. The performance for the night featured a diverse range of talent.

All of the musicians are well known in their fields, from being professors of music at Northeastern and the Berklee School of Music, to having composed nearly 200 solo works.

The musicians performed what they called the “Sting Variations,” adaptations of many classic songs by the former lead singer of the Police, from classic smash hits like “Every Breath You Take,” to more obscure pieces like “And Yet.” The true magic of the concert, however, was how the songs molded and blended together to form a coherent narrative of music.

While they were all jazzy, featuring thumping walking bass lines and crisp

flute melodies, the songs had their own unique character. There was a definite order to the individualism, however, with the performers choosing to go for a string of more slow, calm songs, and then follow them up with a jauntier tune.

Purely organic, the connection between the performers was on display at all times, as the melody flowed freely between the instruments, with it usually defaulting to Lee on the jazz flute.

Special notice, however, has to be given to the solos performed by Hatfield on the piano, as his range of styles, tones, and expression was wonderful.

He took a song’s theme and twisted it in innumerable ways, shaping it into something that both flowed along with piece. The musical solos were buoyed by the delightful stage presence that all the performers exuded—personable and friendly, and constantly talking with the audience and each other.

This casual style of performing did wonders to keep the audience interested and light hearted, especially when Le e would pause betwe en songs for a short period of time and humorously give a brief description of the following piece.

The minimal interruption between different pieces was key, and a very g o o d m o v e o n th e p e r fo r m e r s ’ part, as it allowed the concert to be experienced as almost a perpetual string of music.

The style of music lent itself to an interesting version of audience engagement. The audience was not

hanging on the edge of their seats, eagerly anticipating the next guitar entrance or flute and piano harmony, but was rather more passively engaged, taking every chord and note as they came.

A b e au t i f u l , to u ch i n g p i e ce , “August Winds” was the perfect way to end the concert, sending everyone out on a mellow note.

It gave audiences the image of a chill wind breezing through a New England farm somewhere, blowing around freshly fallen leaves of orange and red, signifying the immediate end of summer, fitting for October.

“August Wind” also stood out from many of the other pieces that were played in that it appeared to be more focused on improvisation than a set method.

Each player seemed to feed off each other, producing solos that coalesced into an overall piece that was really quite special.

The repertoire was wonderful, and there couldn’t have been a better place for the concert than Gasson 100, flanked by soft orange lamps on all sides and a gorgeous mural behind the stage.

The band showed its talent as a group to immense extents, but so did the individual artists themselves, as each one had myriad opportunities to through a variety of solos, on which they all capitalized beautifully.

The audience walked out of Gasson on this day feeling happy, uplifted, and inspired to go seek out musical opportunities, to scratch that newly formed itch for coherent , freely choreographed, classic jazz. n

josh mentzer / photo staff

Musicians play the hits and deep tracks of former synth-pop star Sting of Police.

Library Sounds: Finding the Perfect Sound for Long Study Sessions

Caleb Griego The best way to study is to get lost.

Though sounding counter-intuitive the idea of getting lost really helps me when I study. I hate memorizing, but when building up a catalogue of regurgitated information it’s necessary. This mental brick-laying is an arduous process and is probably why we see so many of our college compatriots put down the books and boot up Netflix. I have to trick myself into playing a kind of game with studying, by making it unique. I like to get lost in the material, to be fully immersed to the point of internalization.

But getting lost needs to be complete.

I never sit in the same desk or room.

I study for 20 hours one day and four hours the next. But, as every study aficionado knows, blocking out distractions is critical to success. That’s where music comes in.

Early on in my college career, I realized that my standard playlist would not pair well with effective studying. As much as I loved grunge and classic rock, I knew I would never be able to listen to “Running With the Devil” while memorizing biosynthesis mechanisms. None of this stemmed from their tone, genre, or content. The problem lied in the fact that I knew the songs and therefore was distracted as I mentally traced lyrics and followed melodies. So I listened to soft rock, to bands I didn’t know. This served the twofold purpose of growing out of my isolated tastes, but also keeping

the music as a supplement to studying, rather than a substitute for it.

I continued along the that track, changing genres, even mistakenly delving into country. And a lot of genres work to isolate you in a world of study.

From heavy metal to noise pop to EDM, all put me in a zone of isolation perfect for study. But the music served to be there in the background to suppress the outside world from intruding. This was the case, until recently, I found what I believe to be the Holy Grail of music study aids: classical.

Classical music will make you feel like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, even if you are not wicked smart.

Every turn of the page, paired with a storm of violins will make even the dullest of studying seem sophisticated.

When listening to classical music on a good studying bender you become an

academic heavyweight. You are probably just memorizing amino acids, but you will feel like you are curing cancer.

Thanks Maher.

But the classics don’t just make you feel smart, they probably make you smarter. I have acquired a taste for the genre after several repeat listens. Several of my personal favorites are Sergei Prokofiev’s “Dance of the Knights” from Romeo and Juliet, and anything from Tchaikovsky or Chopin.

There is something imposing about many of these classical pieces which invoke feelings of power. In a quest for knowledge, that added elegance and grandeur of orchestral sounds imbue the listener with a sense of power.

I have dabbled in listening to some Gregorian chants, which offer a similar kind of droning power that orchestral music does. Those core, deep, and

elegant sounds hone in the listener into a sort of droning studying.

In all, my musical studying endeavors have really helped me expand my horizons and put myself in the right frame of mind when cramming information haphazardly into the brain. Much like studying itself, the hardest things to internalize are the ideas that are foreign or counter-intuitive. By losing yourself in a new sound or medium, you can more effectively to lose yourself in materials that are just as new.

And wrapping up information in a unique setting can help you remember more effectively. How can you forget anything being read over Beethoven’s 5th?

Caleb Griego is the scene editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

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@BCHEIGHTSARTS

The Possible Dream

KEITH CARROLL / HEIGHTS STAFF

Chris Cheesman speaks about his past, the Pops, and singing his aspirations into reality.

BY CALEB GRIEGO Scene Editor

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he applause comes to a close and silence overtakes the crowd. He knows what’s coming next.

“Alright, you’re up.”

The stage manager shuffles Chris Cheeseman, CSOM ’20, into position.

“This is it,” he thinks, stepping forward just offstage.

His heart races a moment, nervous like never before. Opposite the curtain await 6,000 people. That’s at least two times bigger than his biggest crowd. And he won’t be passing through on stage for a theatrical stint like he is used to doing. Cheeseman will be the center of attention—all alone—for a whole song. He has a piece to sing all his own at the 25th annual Pops on the Heights Scholarship Gala. Cheeseman has prepared for months and knows he is ready. But his pestilent nerves linger on. He thinks of the sage advice his voice coach gave him when staring down an great challenge: If you’re not nervous, you’re not ready.

“Center yourself,” he thinks.

Then he hears his name introduced.

“Woah,” he says to himself. “This is about to be so cool.”

Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra welcome him on stage. He can’t believe it, walking to his position. Light hits his face center stage. He can barely make out the faces of those in the first row of tables.

But everywhere else in Conte Forum, the pulsing wristbands give a holy aura to the concourse shrouded in darkness. This is big. The nerves swell to a level he has never felt before. Will he be able to do it? Will the strenuous hours of work bear a fruitful performance? He can feel his heartbeat quicken.

But, just like that, the nervousness dissipates.

As the harp sounds make their way to his ears, Cheeseman finds peace. hen describing that night, part of Cheeseman goes back to the moment. That sensation of nerves, hopes, and dreams flush over his face. He knows how much of a big deal it was. Last week he was just another musically gifted Boston College student. Now he has graduated in a sense, though he is only a sophomore. Not many people get to sing with the world’s most famous pops orchestra. Many celebrities never share that stage, let alone an undergrad from suburban New Jersey.

Cheeseman picked “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha for his song at the Pops because it reflected everything he was feeling after receiving this opportunity.

Moreover, that song represents something everyone at BC can appreciate because of its content about the downtrodden Don Quixote.

The song was important to Cheeseman because it was, as he described, such a relatable song to many of aspects of life. It’s about someone achieving a dream that a lot of people keep telling him is impossible.

“We are all here at this school trying to further our lives and reach the unreachable

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star,” he said. “If there is one song that you got to sing on that stage, it has got to be that song.”

For Cheeseman, the notion of impossibility is an important one. Through a series of unlucky coincidences, he thought his chances of winning the performance spot were slim to none. Cheeseman placed third in this year’s Sing it to the Heights competition singing a melange of “Stay With Me”

by Sam Smith and “Cold Water” by Justin Bieber. This allowed him to skip the first round of auditions and go straight to the final callback for the Pops performance auditions.

But come that day, Cheeseman grew ill.

To make matters worse, a friend who was supposed to play the piano accompaniment to his song, “Feed My Lambs” by John Angotti, didn’t show up. With little time and with all the other call backs ready around him, Cheeseman saw a dream slip away. Now desperate, he tried to piece it together without him. Though he had played some piano before, this was certainly a challenge.

“I had to figure out the piano on my own,” he said. “I did not practice for it. I thought I ruined it.”

But the unreachable star turned out to be a lot closer than Cheeseman thought.

Sickness did not stop him, neither did the hastily thrown together piano. Cheeseman was ecstatic upon winning the spot, immediately calling his mother, grandmother, and friends, telling them to clear their calendars for Sept. 29.

Everything else seemed to happen so fast. Over the summer, Cheeseman worked extensively with vocal coach Dan Thaler, brought up from New York City by BC to help Cheeseman prepare in New Jersey. Well into the first weeks of class, the pair Skyped to maintain the practice routine. All the vocal exercises, diaphragm relaxation, and range work helped Cheeseman prepare physically for the big night, but nothing could quite prepare him for the mental side he would experience in Conte.

He steps off stage after a thunderous applause. The first thought that crosses his mind is one of disbelief: “I can’t believe I did that.” t’s hard to peg the CSOM sophomore as the singing type. He is a member of The Bostonians a cappella group on campus.

But Cheeseman is practical, understanding that singing for him is really a side passion, as he looks to the business school as a great way to pursue his interests in finance. But it is in a sense practicality through which he discovered his love for singing in the first place.

As a young kid, Cheeseman frequently lost his voice. He had a problem projecting sound, leading him to overexert it. Luckily, his mother was a speech therapist. In an effort to further help him find and tame his voice, she got him enrolled in voice lessons.

“Any time he was in a social setting he would lose it,” his mother, Linda, explained.

Her profession allowed her to see the

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Syrian Civil War Documentaries

problem—he had bilateral vocal cord nodules, benign white masses that formed from excessive stress on the cords. She began to help him using techniques that helped him control his breathing and projection, even employing techniques used on patients with ALS. With the help of his mother, Cheeseman did find his voice and kept it, but he also found something else among all the scales, projecting, and hums—a passion for singing.

Now the challenge became where he was going to project this newfound talent.

In the fourth grade at his K-12 school at St. Joseph’s Regional High School, was putting on a performance of High School Musical and Cheeseman wanted in. His mother, knowing his tendencies, feared the outcome.

“I told him, ‘You don’t sing you don’t even have a voice,’” she said. But Cheeseman was unfettered.

He got some sheet music, went in, and was a part of the show. But fate was not kind to this determined middle schooler.

During his first show ever he again lost his voice. One of the onlookers of this sad sight was Raymond McLeod, a Broadway performer best known for his portrayal of Simon Stride in Jekyll & Hyde, was running voice workshops at St. Joe’s and saw that Cheeseman could really benefit. And so Cheeseman enrolled.

He kept going on with the lessons and other performances, continuing to shape his voice, delving into this new outlet for song in musical theatre.

But with this additional elements and practice came additional challenges, namely getting passed up or passed over for parts that he desired. Thankfully for Cheeseman, at around this same time in middle school, he met musical director and another longtime mentor Ed Ginter. Ginter was integral in instilling a sense of strength in Cheeseman when not getting a desired part or outcome.

When coping with losing a part, Ginter made it clear, that was just one person’s opinion.

“He always urged me to push through because there are so many opportunities,” Cheeseman said.

And the opportunities did come later at St. Joe’s. This time, he turned his voice, not out across a stage, but to the sky. Cheeseman had sung at mass since middle school and was a member of his high school choir. But one day, Ginter informed him of the need for a new church cantor, and he jumped at the chance. The choir helped Cheeseman effectively blend and mesh his voice well with others, but a solo cantor gig would give him more time to shape his own unique sound.

After landing the gig, he put many of the most religiously devote to shame as he performed at up to six Masses every weekend, something he still does when he is home for the summer.

“Sometimes when I miss Mass on campus I make up for it throughout the whole summer,” he said.

He performed at many weddings and funerals, which gave Cheeseman an edge in

the performance realm as he felt the stakes were higher. With the higher stakes came higher pressure. He certainly did not want to disrespect the dead, but he feared the wrath of the living.

“There is nothing more nerve wracking than singing at a wedding that’s being recorded,” he said. “Because if you mess up the wife is going to be on you. She is going to call you, she won’t give you a paycheck.”

He was able to quell unruly nerves and find a way to center himself when it really mattered. Moreover, he was getting paid to do something he loved as a freshman in high school. He could not ask for a better deal. n a sense, without his foundation in choir music and cantoring, Cheeseman may never have got the Pops performance to start with. His audition song, “Feed My Lambs” by John Angotti, the one he thought he bombed, was one of his favorite choir pieces.

Cheeseman considers “Feed My Lambs” one of his foundation songs and frequently goes back to it. But it surely became influential when he performed it for a spring concert one year in high school. Ginter told Cheeseman that he would have to perform the song a second time at the end of the show. Returning to the stage confused, he performed it a second time. Harkening back to the idea of impossibility, Ginter then enters the stage to welcome none other than Angotti himself. Angotti, impressed with Cheeseman’s rendition, invited the high schooler to perform the song with him at one of his concerts that weekend.

Sometimes the unreachable star reaches you first. Similar to the Pops audition, small, seemingly inconsequential performances can lead to bigger, almost unimaginable results.

“I did not think I would ever be able to hold my own with an orchestra like this, to stand in front of a crowd like this,” Cheeseman said. here are a lot of reasons to take the stage—some might say one is for recognition of talent. Cheeseman even before his performance, however, was getting a great deal of it. There was his face. Mark Crowley, a professor in the BC accounting department, had put his photo and biography next on the back of the note packet for that week. That’s a lot. But recognition is recognition.

“People have nightmares about this where teachers single them out,” he said. “If I was a freshman I would have crumbled on the inside. I thought it was hilarious. It was funny, it was a great thing, but it’s nice to get recognized for music here.”

But recognition is not the thing that fuels Cheeseman the most. He wants to give back.

But he doesn’t have to look far to get inspired.

His grandmother has always pushed his goals and given when others needed help.

“When my family couldn’t afford certain programs she would support us financially,” he said.

Within Cheeseman’s nuclear family, his grandmother also gives to numerous chari-

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‘History Down the Toliet’ Exhibit

Two films, presented by the Bayazids, reinterpret the The Stokes exhibit documents the years of salvagable struggles of those torn and surviving during the civil war....A9 Boston history flushed down the drain..................... A8

ties for cancer and Type I diabetes, which afflicts his two uncles.

“We always say, she will never have a penny in her bank account by the time she dies because she will give it all away,” Cheeseman added.

During his trials with losing his voice, she was there for him, and helped work through the emotional trauma of losing a key part of himself. Moreover, she has never missed a show and is certainly his biggest fan.

Because of her giving nature, the principle of giving is something Cheeseman tries to emulate to the best of his abilities, especially in his music that he holds dear.

This is also why there was so much thought put into picking “The Impossible Dream,” as he hoped to give and convey a cherished message to as many people possible.

“I want to reflect that. I don’t have the money to give yet. I don’t have everything. I don’t have time because I am a college student,” he said. “But I do have music.”

And, with respect to his grandmother, he is already trying to pay it back. During this last spring, his grandmother had a surgery on her back and was stuck at home. Being cooped up in a house on a spring day was not acceptable for Cheeseman. He wanted to cheer her up, but was unsure just how.

But then again, he did have music.

In a beautiful display of love Cheeseman rallied his fellow Bostonian members and went to her home and sang—just for her.

Something that touched her heart dearly and gave her a reason to smile. Her grandson got college students up bright and early to sing for her. ho would expect something so big?

“I don’t think anyone realized the magnitude of it,” Linda said. “I didn’t realize it because, he played it off like it was no big deal. He has always been very casual.”

And Cheeseman does give off the vibe of being casual. When speaking about achieving and making progress, the emphasis was never put on a single moment, though some were big and others were wildly influential. The process and progression were more important. He has natural talent, but everything that he has achieved he has had to work hard for. Nothing has ever been easy for him. But it seems nothing will stop him. or the time being, he goes about his day. Though in his next class he might not be on the back of a note packet, and in the coming weekend he may be found watching a game in the periphery of Conte rather than in the center of it before 6,000 people, but that would be enough for him.

In the future, Cheeseman hopes to find a career that marries his two passions for business and music. Such a career would bring the security that he strives for, but also joy and fulfillment.

Such aspirations may seem like a longshot for some, but for Cheeseman every dream seems like a possible dream, when tackled with equal parts dedication and passion. 

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SPORTS

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2017

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@HEIGHTSSPORTS

Jarmond’s Good Start

FOOTBALL

ANNABEL STEELE

For most of us, Saturdays are very busy. We’ll roll out of bed, get ready for another Boston College football game, and go out to hit some tailgates, making sure to get that perfect Instagram shot.

Eventually, we’ll straggle into Alumni Stadium to cheer the Eagles on for a while, until we make our way out of the stadium to enjoy any post-game tailgates and festivities. Yup, most of us have pretty jam-packed Saturdays. But I think someone has us all beat.

New Director of Athletics Martin Jarmond is non-stop. Take his schedule from last Saturday leading into the game against Virginia Tech, for example. It started with a reservoir run at an ungodly hour in the morning and included multiple meetings with alumni and donors, as well as stops with various teams, including football and men’s basketball.

By the end of the day, Jarmond was ready in the AD Suite for the game. And he didn’t even miss the chance to get lunch with his family.

This is just one example of Jarmond’s tireless, unceasing work so far this year.

He has been just about everywhere on campus—a friendly, accessible face, making stops, not just at football games, but at games for teams that are traditionally overlooked. On Oct. 8, Jarmond watched volleyball defeat Clemson before heading over to Newton to watch field hockey defeat Harvard in a shootout. He tweeted photos at both games—just one example of how he’s embraced social media to create his identity at BC. Since the first day of classes, he has tweeted 51 times—mostly about athletics, of course, but also about events like Parents’ Weekend, Pops on the Heights, tailgating in the Mods, and enjoying games with Jared Dudley and Doug Flutie.

And Jarmond’s fun, open social media presence isn’t limited to just his own tweets. A video tweeted by @BCEagles featured Jarmond hamming it up before a football game. In the video, he shakes

“IT WILL BE BEAUTIFUL”

LIZZY BARRETT / HEIGHTS EDITOR

TOP: AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR | BOTTOM: TIGER TAO / HEIGHTS STAFF

Halfway through Year Five, head coach Steve Addazio preached patience after the No. 16 Hokies handed the Eagles their third-straight loss to start ACC play.

BY RILEY OVEREND Sports Editor On Virginia Tech’s second drive of the night, star receiver Cam Phillips limped off the field, leaving his freshman quarterback, Josh Jackson, to navigate Boston College’s feared secondary without his top target. Before Phillips could even settle in on the bench, though, he turned and watched a freshman fill his shoes with ease.

Sean Savoy set the tone with a 53-yard catch and run—the highlight of his nine-catch, 139-yard evening—and the Hokies didn’t look back, coasting to a 23-10 vic-

tory under the lights at Alumni Stadium that was never as close as the scoreboard suggests.

BC (2-4, 0-3 Atlantic Coast) couldn’t cash in on an early gift, when Zach Allen tipped Jackson’s pass into the arms of Isaac Yiadom, who returned it to the Hokies’ 23-yard line. The Eagles tried to keep momentum on their side and took a shot to the end zone on the next play, but

BY ANDY BACKSTROM Asst. Sports Editor All season, Boston College football has looked lost offensively. Initially, the unit was running 87.3 plays per game, rounding out the top-10 fastest offenses in the country. But over the course of the past three weeks, the Eagles have averaged 68.7 plays per game, about just as many as head coach Steve Addazio called in 2016.

Up-tempo or not, BC’s offense

10 VIRGINIA TECH | 23

BOSTON COLLEGE |

See BC vs. VT, B4

hasn’t fared well. In fact, it’s one of the worst in the nation. The Eagles are averaging just 16.3 points per game—4.1 less than Patrick Towles and Co. put up last year. Through six weeks of play, BC has yet to score 30 or more points, something that hasn’t happened since 2004.

The Eagles’ 23-10 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday night was the icing on the cake. BC was a combined 2-of17 on third and fourth down. Every so often, quarterback Anthony Brown and the offense would move the ball downfield. But as soon as the Eagles hit VT territory, they stalled. Just like

See FB Notebook, B4

See Jarmond’s Impact, B4 WOMEN’S HOCKEY

With Sweep of No. 4 Duluth, Crowley Earns 250th Career Win

BY NICOLE PLA Heights Staff From her position by the left circle, Caitrin Lonergan dove onto the ice to push the puck to Daryl Watts. From there, Watts had her chance. The ringing of the Minn. Duluth 1 puck hitting Boston College 4 the pipes was audible throughout Kelley Rink, but by the time it stopped, the freshman had already secured her third collegiate goal—and it took only 60 minutes to get there.

No. 3 Boston College women’s hockey had a tough opponent in No. 4 University of Minnesota, Duluth.

After earning a win one night prior, the

Eagles faced their rivals from out west for the second time Friday afternoon.

BC headed into the long weekend victorious by clinching head coach Katie Crowley’s 250th career win.

The Bulldogs had a commanding presence early in the first period, firing shots on goaltender Katie Burt less than a minute after the game started.

Their control wouldn’t last long, as BC quickly took possession and challenged the Duluth defense. Less than 10 minutes into the period, BC found its first opportunity. Co-captain Kenzie Kent received a pass from Kathleen McNamara and didn’t hesitate. Her shot went right through goalie Catherine Johnson’s legs, giving the Eagles the first goal of the game.

The aggressive nature of the game eventually caught up to BC when Serena Sommerfield was booked for tripping. The Bulldogs capitalized 30 seconds before the game returned to full strength. Ashton Bell found a hole in the Eagles’ defense and snuck the puck past Burt. BC came back quickly, and took advantage of Michelle Lowenhielm’s interference penalty. Lonergan set Watts up for the perfect shot, and the freshman cashed in for her first collegiate goal, putting the Eagles in the lead once again as they headed into the locker room.

When the players returned to the ice, the Bulldogs were keen to tie up

See WHOK vs. Duluth, B3

CELINE LIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

No. 3 BC outscored the No. 4 Bulldogs, 8-4, in a season-opening sweep last week.

Eagles Fight Back for Tie in Opener Against Quinnipiac MEN”S HOCKEY

BY MICHAEL SULLIVAN Editor-in-Chief You can tell a lot about a hockey team in its first game of the season.

How does it start out in the opening frame? Can it get momentum on the power play? Or Quinnipiac 1 hold opponents Boston College 1 on the penalty kill—even worse, how long are they on the penalty kill? How will the team respond to pressure, especially when losing? And which side of the ice do fans

INSIDE SPORTS

have to worry more about?

To kickoff the 2017-18 season, Boston College men’s hockey gave an an answer to a lot of those questions—and an early look at the team’s new identity. The Eagles are going to be stalwarts in goal and beyond the blue line. And after losing their five top scorers from last season—four to graduation, one for an early trip to the bigs—they’re going to take a while to develop offensively.

But one thing’s for sure. They’re going to claw for 60 minutes, and sometimes more.

For the first time in 10 years, No. 13 BC opened the year at home, against No. 14 Quinnipiac. Goaltender Joseph Woll and the defensemen were sharp, and the offense—with a third-period goal by freshman Jacob Tortora, the first of his fledgling career—gave the Eagles just enough in a 1-1 tie.

“A good battle of goaltenders, and it required a late third-period goal by us,” head coach Jerry York said. “Good to see a freshman bury a goal.”

In the first period, BC’s special teams troubles prevented its offense from gain-

ing any momentum, and getting on the board. Just 30 seconds into the game, the Eagles got a chance on the power play, a section of the game with which they greatly struggled last season. Neither unit got a shot off throughout during the two-minute span.

For much of the first, the Eagles spent time with a man down. A team that averaged 5.6 penalties per game last year, BC allowed three power-play chances for Quinnipiac in the opening frame. Though not stellar, the Eagles’ were 22nd last year on the kill, and showed off why their now-

MEN’S SOCCER: Enstrom, BC Snap Skid FIELD HOCKEY: Eagles Outlast Harvard Simon Enstrom recorded his first career hat-trick to lift the Eagles over the Crimson, 3-1......................................B2

Sarah Dwyer had a career day in goal as No. 8 BC beat the No. 13 Crimson in a shootout...................................B2

veteran defensive corps keeps pucks away from Woll. Christopher Brown and Casey Fitzgerald, both captains this season, showed off their skills in particular, with good stick work that kept the puck in the QU zone. Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold expressed his frustration with BC’s ability to hold the Bobcats at bay.

“We struggled on [the penalty kill],” Pecknold said. “Just not cohesive, and lost a lot of battles. You’ve got to have good battles, and BC beat us there.”

See MHOK vs. Quinnipiac, B3

SPORTS IN SHORT................................ B2 WOMEN’S SOCCER................................. B2 VOLLEYBALL......................................... B3

The Heights

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Thursday, October 12, 2017

MEN’S SOCCER

Enstrom’s Hat Trick Snaps Eagles’ Four-Game Losing Streak

By Riley Overend Sports Editor Simon Enstrom tallied his first career hat-trick in a 3-1 win at Harvard, helping Boston College men’s soccer snap Boston College 3 a four-g ame Harvard 1 losing streak on Tuesday afternoon.

It also broke a scoring drought for Enstrom, the Eagles’ junior captain charged with leading their offense—often with little help up top.

The Swedish striker did convert a penalty kick in a Sept. 17 victory against Providence, but he hadn’t scored from

the run of play in over five weeks.

Against a Crimson (2-7-2) squad still winless at home, Enstrom got back on track.

Early in the first half, he redirected a Younes Boudadi cross through a small seam to put BC (4-8) on the board.

Then, in the 36st minute, he leaked out behind the Harvard back line on a counterattack, receiving a clearance from Adam French that set up a oneon-one with the keeper. Enstrom’s shot snuck in between the goalie’s legs to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead entering halftime.

Fifteen minutes into the second

half, head coach Ed Kelly decided he wanted to give his workhorse a rest.

Enstrom, however, saw his substitute looming on the sidelines and pushed forward for one final attack.

Boudadi and French combined for a give-and-go, leaving Boudadi with enough space to send in a cross.

His ball found the head of Enstrom, who flicked it above the keeper to complete his first-ever three-goal match. The goal also gave Boudadi his team-leading eighth assist of the season, and second of the game.

The Crimson chipped into the deficit in the 76th minute, after Christian Sady rocketed a shot that deflected off

Mohammed Moro’s arm in the box, resulting in a penalty kick.

Sady finished the chance past Antonio Chavez Borrelli, but it was the only time that the freshman was beat in goal.

Chavez Borrelli only made one save, thanks to the lockdown effort of BC’s back line.

With Heidar Aegisson, Nikita Bondar, Lasse Lehmann, and Len Zeugner all out due to injury or illness, French notched his first two assists in a career-high 59 minutes.

It was a must-win, to say the least, for the Eagles, who now need to go undefeated in their final four games

in order to crawl back to .500. It’s not a shock that they have such a dismal record in such a stacked conference—after all, the ACC is home to six of the top-seven teams in the country, according to RPI. But one would expect at least one signature upset win for Kelly and Co. with this talented, young group. Luckily for them, it’s not too late.

Awaiting them in the last two weeks of the season are Syracuse, UConn, Wake Forest, and North Carolina State, and BC has the opportunity to turn heads as an underdog in nearly every one of those matchups. n

FIELD HOCKEY

Thanks to Dwyer’s Eight Saves, BC Edges Harvard in Shootout

By Jack Goldman For The Heights Boston College field hockey goalkeeper Sarah Dwyer only recorded one save in the first half of Sunday’s game against Harvard. But Harvard 1 over the course Boston College 2 of the next 65 minutes, she would nearly tie her career mark.

The sophomore notched four saves in the second half alone, forcing overtime.

Then, she added three more in extra time.

And to top it all off, Dwyer stopped four of the Crimson’s five penalty shots, sealing the Eagles’ 2-1 shootout victory.

The New Jersey native’s eight-save performance was second only to her nine-save outing in Chapel Hill, N.C. earlier this year—but not according to head coach Kelly Doton. “[Dwyer] played the best game I’ve seen her play all year, and we needed it,” Doton said.

No. 13 Harvard (9-3, 3-0 Ivy League) was all over No. 8 BC (9-5, 0-5 Atlantic Coast) on the counterattack. The Eagles dominated possession, but when Harvard got the ball, it threatened on the offensive end. The Crimson outshot BC 19-14, and had the edge in the corner battle, 10-5.

Early on in the game, both teams were much more lethal in their attacking efforts. BC capitalized 17 minutes into the first half on its second corner.

Alesandra Miller whipped the ball to fellow midfielder Chelcie Mendonca, who laid it off to Carly Kauffman. She made no mistake from the top of the circle to grab her second goal of the year, giving

the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

That wouldn’t last long. A block and a save three minutes later initially kept Harvard off the board, but on the ensuing corner Hannah Pearce struck from the top of the circle for her sixth of the year. Ellie Cookson and Casey Allen were credited with the assists.

From then on, BC’s offense ran through players like Miller, who finished with two shots. But the Eagles struggled to actually put the ball on net. At the half, the game remained tied, 1-1.

In the latter portion of play, Harvard began to find more success on offense.

BC’s runs downfield made it vulnerable at the back, and the Crimson forced corners off the counter attack, including one just five minutes into the half. The ensuing attempt required an excellent save from Dwyer and a clearance off the line by two Eagle defenders on the rebound.

BC pressured Harvard goalkeeper Libby Manela, who was fearless on defense. Manela often left the cage to kick the ball away from Eagles attackers before they could set up a shot. But one of those attempted clearances created a scoring chance for BC, about 51 minutes into the game. Yet Manela dove to her right and paddled the ball away. Her efforts kept the game tied. Eventually, the Crimson seized momentum with 10 minutes to go.

In the closing minutes, Harvard owned the possession battle. The Crimson got one more good look on goal prior to the end of regulation. But Allen’s shot trickled just wide of the net.

Because Alyssa Olenick was booked for a foul at the end of the second half, the Eagles were a man down for the first five

Celine Lim / Heights Staff

Goaltender Sarah Dwyer recorded eight saves during Sunday’s shootout victory over the Crimson, one shy of her career high. minutes of overtime. BC’s defense held on, but not before Dwyer was tested on the break. In a one-on-one with Harvard’s Bente van Viljmen, the sophomore lunged for the ball, clearing it out of the circle.

The teams were still scoreless after the first overtime period. But in the second overtime frame, Harvard got its chance to complete the upset. Approaching the 91-minute mark, Dwyer went down again to try the same move in the circle to end a goal-scoring chance, but this time she was called for a penalty.

Fortunately for BC, Harvard’s Olivia Allin’s penalty stroke was directed right at Dwyer, and the ball dribbled away harmlessly.

The Eagles created one more scoring chance before the end of the period.

Miller rushed up the Crimson flank, and crossed the ball into the heart of the field. Fusine Govaert redirected the shot toward goal, but the ball flew wide of the cage. After 100 minutes of play, the game was still knotted up at one.

Dwyer had already saved one penalty stroke, so the Eagles must have felt good going into the shootout, and it showed.

Forward Caroline McGovern got things going for the Eagles. She used some nifty hands to get the ball by Harvard’s Manela. Then Dwyer stepped into the cage and denied Pearce—the Crimson’s lone goalscorer—easily.

Frederique Haverhals was up next.

But the junior rung a shot off the post, keeping Harvard alive. Then, the Crimson’s Mimi Tarrant scored the equalizer.

But that was the last time Dwyer would be beat.

Eagle Jaime Natale found the back of the cage for what would be the gamewinner, and Dwyer was hardly challenged by Harvard’s Cookson.

Even though Lucy Lyte failed to convert on BC’s final penalty shot, Dwyer held off Allen to finish off the Crimson, an effort that perfectly encapsulated a double-overtime battle, dominated by the two goaltenders.

Doton knew the win—BC’s fifth against a ranked opponent this season—was crucial.

“We still have some work to do,” she said, “but you know what, at this time of the season a win’s a win, and we needed it.” n

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Eagles Win First Conference Road Game in Two Years at Miami

By Mike Malley For The Heights Boston College women’s soccer continued its Florida road trip against Miami on a sweltering Sunday in Coral Gables, with temperaBoston College 3 tures estimatMiami 1 ed around 110 degrees. Both teams were looking to bounce back in the ACC after coming off of disappointing losses, but it was the Eagles that withstood the heat and emerged with the victory, 3-1.

BC (9-5-1, 3-2-1 Atlantic Coast), currently sitting in seventh place in the conference, was trying to climb the rankings as only the top-eight teams make the ACC tournament. The Eagles had come away without a win in their last two games after tying Virginia Tech and

losing to Florida State on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes (4-7-0, 05-0) were desperately trying to keep their tournament hopes alive, sitting winless at the bottom of the ACC. They had been shut out in their previous 4 games by a combined score of 6-0.

Miami managed to strike first when, seven minutes into the game, a beautiful pass put forward Kristina Fisher behind the BC defense. She took a touch past goalie Alexis Bryant, but was clipped at the ankles and went down for a penalty.

Fisher herself converted the spot-kick for the first goal in over 300 minutes of play for the Hurricanes.

The Eagles responded by dictating the tempo for the rest of the half. They kept most of the possession by stepping into Miami’s passing lanes in the midfield and making some key steals. The Hur-

ricanes, on the other hand, sat back and allowed BC to run at them with the ball, causing many problems.

BC got on the board with about a half hour remaining in the half when freshman Sam Coffey scored an incredible goal directly off of a corner kick. The former U.S. U-18 national team captain put an unbelievable amount of curve on the ball and it sailed in over the head of Miami keeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce, off the far post, and into the net for the equalizer.

The Eagles pulled ahead 15 minutes later off a great counter-attack. The ball was cleared into the midfield, passed up the field very quickly, and eventually ended up at the feet of junior forward Carly Leipzig, who made a great turn past a Miami defender and tucked the ball neatly into the bottom left corner

of the net. BC managed to take this 2-1 lead into halftime.

The Hurricanes came out firing in the beginning of the second half, controlling most of the possession and carrying the ball deep into the attacking third. They managed to get the ball off of some sloppy passing by the BC back line, which almost resulted in a Miami goal at one point. Defender Allyson Swaby, who had had a nearly perfect game up to that point, gave a misguided pass that ended up at the feet of a Miami attacker.

A great kick save by Bryant preserved the Eagles’ lead.

The beginning of the second half was one of near misses, with both teams trading shots that just grazed over the crossbar from both free kicks and open field play. Miami forward Kristina Fisher had one especially well-taken free kick,

but the shot was too hard and missed high.

The only real action of the second half came late, when the ball was picked up near midfield by the Eagles and dished out to attacker Carly Leipzig, who sent a beautiful looping cross into the path of senior Lauren Berman. She managed to touch the ball just past the keeper, and it rolled slowly into the back of the net to give BC a 3-1 lead that would hold until the whistle.

The game continuously swung back and forth between two teams trading momentum, and the game was full of chances, but BC simply converted them better. The Eagles managed to pick up their ninth win of the year, an important one considering three of their remaining four games are against higher-ranked teams. n

SPORTS in SHORT ACc Football

Numbers to know

Conference Atlantic Clemson 4-0 NC State 3-0 Syracuse 1-1 Louisville 1-2 Wake Forest 1-2 Florida State 1-2 Boston College 0-3 Coastal Miami Georgia Tech Virginia Virginia Tech Duke Pittsburgh North Carolina

2-0 2-0 1-0 1-1 1-2 0-2 0-3

overall 6-0 5-1 3-3 4-2 4-2 1-3 2-4 4-0 3-1 4-1 5-1 4-2 2-4 1-5

22

Number of shots women’s soccer logged in its 3-1 victory over Miami on Sunday, tying a season high.

9

Number of points football is averaging against ACC opponents this season.

6

Number of overtime games field hockey has played in 2017, just as many as head coach Kelly Doton’s team had all of last year.

QUote of the week

“It’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful. You can write that one down.”

— Steve Addazio,

on his team’s development, following BC’s 23-10 loss to Virginia Tech

The Heights

Thursday, October 12, 2017

B3

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

Freshman Watts Records First Career Hat Trick in Sweep of Bulldogs WHOK vs. Duluth, from B1 the game. After a fight for possession, the puck slid through Burt’s legs for what looked to be a tying goal. The experienced goalie showed why she’s one of the best in the nation when she bent back and covered the puck with her glove before it could cross the line.

Once again, Duluth tried to split the Eagles’ defense after Caroline Ross was called for holding. They hammered Burt with shots, forcing her to sprawl on the ice to make an array of saves. One shot in particular was heading right over Burt’s shoulder. Without hesitation, Kent positioned herself between the puck and the twine, robbing the

Bulldogs of a power-play goal.

As the game returned to full strength, Watts found herself battling the defense alone as she neared Johnson. She broke away from her defender and with a flick of her wrist, the puck sailed right past Johnson’s foot and into the back of the net. Less than two minutes later, the freshman received a pass from Loner-

gan and nabbed the hat trick.

It felt really good to finally score my first goal.” Watts said. “For the next two, I guess I was just in the right spot, so I wasn’t really expecting those.”

Burt made an impressive 31 saves in the second game of the series, only allowing one in the first period. Her agility between the pipes helped Crowley

pocket her 250th win, an achievement that she shares with assistant head coach Courtney Kennedy.

“It’s been a fun group so far,” Crowley said. “They love the game of hockey, and they love coming to the rink every day and that’s what we want from them.

Hopefully we keep going, and hopefully we get to 251.” n

Eagles Hold on for Season-Opening Win Over Minnesota-Duluth

By Shannon Kelly Asst. Features Editor

Boston College women’s hockey wasn’t going to let this power play, its fourth of the game, go without scoring a goal. With the time tickMinn. Duluth 3 ing downward, Boston College 4 a collaboration from a freshman, sophomore, and junior was in the works.

Daryl Watts skated down to the University of Minnesota Duluth’s defensive zone, swooping her way behind the net after a pass from her teammate. She found Makenna Newkirk on the opposite crease and passed it to her. Hooking the puck in would be impossible from that angle—the Bulldogs’ Jalyn Elmes was parked right there. Newkirk found Caitrin Lonergan up at the right faceoff circle and passed it up to her. The timing was perfect. With Elmes screening the goal and goalie Jessica Con-

very out of place, Lonergan found enough space in the five-hole to push it past her.

Seven minutes into the third period and BC was up 4-1. Though it ended in a 4-3 final, the game showed promise for the Eagles, No. 3 in the nation, against their No. 4 rivals.

The Eagles looked like a much tougher team than when it played UMD in their opener the year prior—the two-game series ended in a 3-3 tie and a 5-2 loss for BC. In the latter, BC held its own against UMD for the first 10 minutes of the period, then watched five goals go unanswered before the second period was done. Though the Bulldogs got the first goal this time around again, the Eagles appeared more defensive. Goalie Katie Burt saved 13 shots in the first period, almost double Convery’s seven. Naomi Rogge earned the first goal of the game on a tough shot above Burt’s head, after which Katerina Mrazov knocked her down.

Following the goal, the Bulldogs’ Jessica

Healey got called for roughing. The powerplay opportunity was brief, however, due to a too many players on the ice penalty for just a minute later. Now down a player, BC still managed to get one past Convery. Newkirk skated up to the goal off a pass from Watts and beat out Ryleigh Houston and Michelle Lowenhielm to go one-on-one with the goalie. She found a space between the right post and Convery’s skate and slipped the puck in to even the score before the first period ended.

BC found its groove and notched two in the second period, one from freshman Maegan Beres and Lonergan’s first of the night.

Lonergan went coast to coast with the puck, settling by the right faceoff circle for a better angle at her target. She sniped it from there, and the puck bounced off a skate and into a wide-open net to put the Eagles ahead by two goals. After the power-play goal in the third, it looked like BC was going to finish strong against a formidable nonconference

opponent. Among the improvements were shades of a more comprehensive performance from Newkirk. Though a stellar forward in her career at BC, notching 88 points in her first two seasons, Newkirk has developed a more defensive presence on the ice this season. Several times throughout the game, she threw her stick out toward Burt to add some reinforcement when UMD looked most likely to score.

“I think she’s a really smart hockey player,” head coach Katie Crowley said. “She knows when we need to get pucks out, she knows when she needs to block shots, and she can score, too. She’s a leader for us and I think she did that tonight.”

The Eagles’ performance was not without its faults, however, as the team ran into trouble and allowed three penalties, prompting two unanswered goals while time wound down. The penalties also created the dreaded 5-on-3 power play for the Bulldogs, and with fewer players, BC couldn’t handle

the offensive onslaught from its opponent.

Though it managed to get through the last 10 minutes unscathed, the one-goal lead was a little too close for comfort and demonstrated the need for improvement on special teams early in the season.

“It’s tough to have two 5-on-3s in the first game of the year,” Crowley said. “We’ll have to work on that a little more.”

Despite what went wrong, far more went right for the Eagles against UMD. Burt, who is not as used to saving as many shots as other goalies typically do both in and out of Hockey East play, saved 28 in her 60 minutes on the ice. Though that kind of work might make for a quick turnaround for the 2 p.m. game against Duluth on Friday, it allows her to become a more seasoned goalie and better prepared for the remainder of the season. And with offensive powerhouses like Newkirk and Lonergan, padding the score will only make the Eagles more comfortable going forward. n

MEN’S HOCKEY

Woll, Tortora Headline One-Goal Draw Against No. 14 Bobcats MHOK vs. Quinnipiac, from B1 The Eagles got their first real scoring chance when, Quinnipiac defenseman and Boston University transfer Brandon Fortunato was forced to hold a Zach Walker shot in the crease that put goaltender Andrew Shortridge out of position. But David Cotton couldn’t convert on the penalty-shot opportunity, with a slow-moving backhand that got stuffed.

In the second, Quinnipiac kept the pressure on Woll, knocking two off the post and forcing the goaltender into the splits. Alex Whelan finally broke through for Quinnipiac with under five minutes to go in the second. He rocketed a screamer past Woll from the top of the left circle that appeared to have been screened

by Michael Kim, putting the Bobcats up 1-0.

On the other end, BC created chances, but couldn’t deliver. Several times throughout the latter two frames, Brown

and Walker combined for solid give-andgo passes. But most either went wide before they got to Shortridge, or were deflected above his head.

The only one to break through was Tortora, who showed off his speed throughout the game. The alum of the United States National Team Development Program continuously put the pressure on Quinnipiac’s defense. And, with a power play thanks to a Quinnipiac too many men on the ice penalty, Tortora delivered. He ate up a rebound from a Fitzgerald shot, slotting it high over Shortridge for the equalizer.

“I think he’s got qualities that’ll really show as the season goes along—his skating, his good hockey sense, and he’s a goal scorer, he wants to score goals,” York said of Tortora. “He’s a good addition to our team.”

By the overtime frame, Woll took over. Twice, Quinnipiac tested him with slapshots, and he handily robbed

each with the glove. Connor Moore also made a game-saving play by diving in front of a shot.

And after losing all of those scoring options, the Eagles were only picked to finish fourth in Hockey East, lower than their typical spot at No. 1 or 2. They’re also considered just a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament, which they missed for only the third time in the last 15 years. For York, that lack of confidence, rare in his time, sticks with him, and the team.

“I really appreciated, from my vantage point, the grit of this team,” York said. “You start with that good, solid culture, and I think it’s going to be year that’s going to be a little bit better than some people forecasted for us.”

The Eagles showed on Friday why— with a lot of defense, some grit, just enough offense—they can get back to the show. So now the question is: Where, and how far, can they go from here? n

Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor

Julius Mattila won eight of his 16 faceoffs in the Eagles’ 1-1 tie against Qunnipiac.

VOLLEYBALL

BC Strings Together Back-to-Back Wins for First Time This Year

By Kate Peaquin Heights Staff

This weekend was make or break for Boston College volleyball. Coming off of a six-game losing streak on the road, the Eagles’ only hope to salvage their season was to start their four-game homestand out with two dominating wins. This is exactly what BC was able to do.

On Sunday, the Eagles (5-11, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) captured their first shutout win of the season by defeating Clemson, 3-0.

The first set started out relatively uneasy for both teams, with neither side really taking control. Strong kills from Cat Balido and Sol Calvete changed the momentum for BC as the team settled into a rhythm that would last until a Clemson (5-13, 0-6) timeout midway through the set gave the Tigers a chance to catch their collective breath.

After this timeout, they stole the lead back from the Eagles and eventually tied it up at 18. For the rest of the set, every

time that the Eagles would pull ahead by a point, the Tigers would again tie it up. This pattern lasted until back-to-back kills by Lynn Braakhuis and Calvete gave BC the first set 26-24.

The second set was marked by long and competitive rallies. Earlier in the season, this might have overwhelmed BC, but in this game, the Eagles showed resilience and created a sizable lead. A lot of this lead was built on the back of Braakhuis.

The graduate student led both teams with 13 kills over the course of the game.

Stats alone can’t fully describe Braakhuis impact though, as the power behind each hit could be felt throughout the Power Gym. Behind Braakhuis, BC pulled ahead to build a 23-10 lead. Then, an ace by Balido gave the Eagles a chance to win the second set. A kill by BC slipped through the ready hands of a Clemson block and slammed down to the hardwood floor the point to cap off a dominating 25-10 second set win.

Going into the third set, the Eagles had

the chance to sweep the match—a feat that they had yet to accomplish this season. The set started off with both teams going back and forth with neither able to establish true momentum. Impressive kills from Balido and Goss alongside two aces from Braakhuis helped the Eagles rediscover their rhythm from the second set.

Another Goss kill and several Clemson errors brought the score to 17-7. BC only allowed five more points in the rest of the match as it went on to sweep the match by winning the third and final set, 25-12.

Earlier in the weekend against Georgia Tech, the Eagles captured their first win since their Sep. 9 defeat of Delaware. Their six-set skid was extended to seven after BC lost a tight first set, 25-21. In the second set, however, the Eagles took control as they exploded with a 15-3 run against the Rambling Heard.

The third set proved more of a challenge as both teams had finally found their rhythm. The lead constantly oscillated be-

tween the two teams and, midway through the game, the two teams found themselves tied at 16. It was at this point that the Eagles permanently regained momentum as they proceeded to go on a 9-1 run that secured the third set.

Going into the fourth set, the Eagles had the chance to take the game and break their losing streak. The fourth game followed the same pattern as the third set with BC and Georgia Tech going back and forth for much of the set, although BC maintained the lead throughout. Two late kills from Calvete sealed the win for BC as the Eagles went on to take the fourth set 25-20 and with it the match.

While promising, the two wins this weekend for the Eagles leave many more questions than answers. All of the Eagles wins so far this season have come either at home or on neutral territory. While this bodes well for the coming two games—both of which are at home—it casts the weekend’s two wins into some doubt. Has the team re-

ally come into its own and found its rhythm or was the comfort of playing at home the real reason the Eagles were so dominant?

Earlier in the season, it seemed as if they had found their stride with a win against Delaware in neutral territory. BC soon fell apart again and didn’t secure a win for nearly four weeks.

Only time will tell if history is repeating itself or if the Eagles really have found longterm success.

Head coach Chris Campbell is confident that the Eagles have finally discovered the way to win consistently.

“We have emphasized right from the beginning of the season that this is a process of continuing to improve and you don’t get there in one set and you gradually build,” Campbell said after the win.

“We kind of knew that this was going to happen at some point. That this was going to come together and it happened to be this weekend at home and in front of home fans and that feels great.” n

SAm Zhai / Heights Staff

The Eagles’ 3-1 victory over Georgia Tech at home on Friday marked their first ACC win of the season, and their 3-0 sweep at Clemson on Sunday was head coach Chris Campbell’s team’s first straight-sets decision of 2017.

The Heights

B4

Thursday, October 12, 2017

FOOTBALL

Eagles’ Secondary Falters, Virginia Tech Rolls to Victory BC vs. VT, from B1 Tommy Sweeney couldn’t haul in a ball from Anthony Brown that was slightly underthrown.

The next two plays produced a mere two yards, and they were forced to settle for a field goal. Colton Lichtenberg, who made his first six kicks to start the year, missed his fourth consecutive attempt, this time from 40 yards out.

He’d have a shot at redemption, but not before Virginia Tech (5-1, 1-1) got on the board first. Jackson began the drive with an 11-yard pass to Phillips, but he came up hobbled after the tackle and never returned. Entering Saturday, Phillips’ 597 receiving yards and five touchdowns ranked third and eighth in the country, respectively.

Jackson didn’t seem to notice the absence of his top wideout, though. The redshirt freshman found his running

back, Travon McMillian, for a 13-yard gain to move the chains. Then he fired a dart across the middle, where Savoy broke a tackle for the huge score.

On the next drive, BC answered thanks to Jon Hilliman and a pair of Hokie penalties. The redshirt junior back hauled in a short pass and sprinted 22 yards down the sideline, and a late hit on Hilliman added an extra 15 yards to the play. Soon after, Michael Walker drew a pass interference call, pushing the Eagles into field goal range. There, Lichtenberg snapped his streak of missed field goals with a 32-yarder to cut the deficit to 7-3.

But Jackson continued to feast on BC’s pass defense, which ranked 12th in the nation before Saturday’s effort.

With Phillips still sidelined with an injury, Virginia Tech picked up 48 yards through the air before the Eagles made a goal-line stand and forced a field goal.

On their next possession, the Hokies marched down the field again, peppering BC’s zone defense with slants over the middle. McMillian finished off the drive with a 22-yard touchdown run to push Tech’s lead to two possessions.

A major turning point for the Eagles came late in the second quarter. Brown got things going with his feet, scampering for 16 yards and a first down. A couple plays later, he lofted a 32-yard pass deep to Kobay White, who came down with the jump ball in Hokies territory. A trio of rushes brought up 4th-and-2, and Addazio opted to go for it in field goal range. Brown rolled out to his left, where he was immediately met by a corner blitz and, consequently, missed an open receiver near the firstdown marker.

At halftime, BC entered the locker room staring at a 17-3 hole despite out-rushing VT, 89-76. The deficit was

made all the more frustrating by missed opportunities in Hokie territory.

What few fans remained after halftime witnessed one of the worst offensive quarters yet for the Eagles this year.

Bud Foster’s signature defense forced five-straight three-and-outs to start the second half. Brown and his receivers looked out of sync. Meanwhile, Joey Slye made it 23-3 with two more field goals, in the process becoming Tech’s all-time leading scorer.

BC’s offense showed signs of life in the fourth quarter, albeit in part due to the prevent defense it was facing. The Eagles pieced together three consecutive 20-plus-yard plays—first, a Thadd Smith run, then a pass to Tommy Sweeney, and finally a trick-play toss from Jeff Smith back to Brown himself. Somewhere out there, Patrick Towles was beaming with pride.

But it was too little, too late. Once

again, the Eagles spoiled an inspired defensive performance with dismal offensive play. Harold Landry tied a career high with three sacks, though he left with a right ankle injury. And Allen matched his play with three tackles for loss and a tipped pass that led to a pick. Ty Schwab contained the Hokies’ run game, which managed just 109 yards, with eight tackles and a sack.

Brown wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t better than his freshman counterpart, Jackson. At times, he looked elusive in the pocket, posting his best rushing numbers of his career (seven carries for 51 yards). In four games against Power Five teams, the Eagles have mustered a mere five touchdowns. And in Addazio’s last 19 ACC games, BC has managed just 10.6 points per game. But 10 points isn’t going to cut it, especially in this conference, and BC has yet to surpass that mark thus far in conference play. n

Under the Lights, Hokies Dominate BC in All Three Phases FB Notebook, from B1 the previous three games BC played against top-25 opponents this season, overthrown balls, dropped passes, and miscommunication dominated the narrative.

But this time, Addazio didn’t use the Hokies’ ranking, injuries, or his team’s youth as an excuse for another embarrassing loss on national television. Instead, he took responsibility for the Eagles’ lack of execution.

“I’ve got to do a better job. Let’s just leave it like that,” Addazio told reporters after the game.

Except he didn’t leave it at that. The fifth-year man went on to promise that his team will turn it around.

“It’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful,” Addazio said. “You can write that one down. I don’t have the time clock on it right here. But it’ll come together, and it’ll be beautiful.”

Addazio has six weeks to speak that into existence. The clock is ticking.

Three Up 1) Pressure off the Edge When the spotlight’s on, Harold Landry puts out. While the senior defensive end hasn’t quite lived up to the hype every game this season, he’s certainly helped his draft stock against marquee opponents. On Saturday, Landry recorded seven total tackles, including three sacks, tying a career high.

The NFL prospect now has five sacks on the year—four of which have come in ACC play. Not to mention that he’s logged 20 of his 32 tackles this season against conference opponents. Throughout the night, Landry provided excellent pressure off the edge, forcing Jackson either to slide up in the

pocket or hit the ground. Unfortunately for BC, the senior came up limping after sacking Jackson for the third and final time.

At the moment, there is no update on his injury status.

On the other side of the defensive line, Zach Allen was having a night of his own.

The junior racked up a career-best 14 total tackles—three of which pushed VT behind the line of scrimmage. Allen also recorded a sack and tipped Hokies’ quarterback Josh Jackson’s second pass of the game. The heads-up play resulted in an Isaac Yiadom interception, which gave the Eagles the ball inside of VT territory and an opportunity to take an early lead.

2) Brown’s Career Day on the Ground As a recruit, Brown was labeled as a dual-threat quarterback. But up until Saturday, the redshirt freshman hadn’t really used his legs like many were expecting him to. Brown led the team in rushing with a career-high 51 yards. A few of his carries were by design. On multiple occasions, Brown snapped the ball out of the shotgun, faked a handoff to an adjacent running back, and then ran the rock for a handful of yards. The read-option allowed the redshirt freshman to survey the defense before deciding to hand the ball away or tuck it and run.

He improvised to get the rest of his yardage. Two games removed from sustaining a shoulder injury, Brown looked like he was running for his life every time he felt pressure. As soon as the play broke down, he stepped up in the pocket, turned on the jets, and made a few people miss, ultimately picking up a couple of nice gains.

3) Late-Game Trickery BC’s offense reached a new low in the third quarter. The Eagles rattled off five-con-

secutive three-and-outs, all but forfeiting the field position battle. So when the final frame rolled around, Addazio found himself pulling everything out of the playbook just to generate some offense. After BC finally ripped off back-to-back chunk plays, Addazio called for a halfback option pass to finish off the Eagles’ first touchdown drive of the game. Brown snapped the ball out of the shotgun with running back Travis Levy at his right hip and Jeff Smith motioning left.

He handed the ball off to Smith, who then took a few steps to the right before dropping back to pass. The wide receiver hit Brown on a wheel route for a 25-yard score.

The play was reminiscent of the one that the Eagles ran in their Quick Lane Bowl victory over Maryland this past December.

Once again, Smith—who was originally recruited to play quarterback at BC—ended up with the ball and flung a pass to a wideopen quarterback down the sideline for an easy score. The only difference was, this one wasn’t a double reverse, rather it was a jet sweep.

The Eagles could have used this kind of play earlier in the game.

Three Down 1) Secondary Coming into Saturday, BC was ranked 12th in the nation in pass defense. The Eagles were only allowing 154 yards through the air.

That being said, they had yet to be tested.

With the exception of Central Michigan’s Shane Morris, BC hadn’t faced a pass-first quarterback until it lined up against Jackson.

At first, it looked as if the secondary was going to be just fine. Thanks to Allen’s awareness at the line of scrimmage, Yiadom was able to intercept Jackson on the Hokies’ first drive of the game. But from then on out, the

redshirt freshman gunslinger took over.

Jackson picked apart the Eagles’ zone defense, even without his go-to target, Cam Phillips. He kept going back to the middle of the field—easily the softest part of BC’s coverage. Typically in the pistol, but sometimes in the empty set, Jackson snapped the ball and quickly fired it to a receiver running a slant or an inside post pattern. This allowed him to fit the ball in between BC’s defensive backs, and create space for his receivers to run after the catch.

Addazio also noted that his guys struggled to tackle on the backend. It was more of a matter of wrapping up than it was hitting. The secondary had no trouble getting to the ball. Bringing receivers down was another story.

By the game’s end, Jackson had completed 22 of 33 pass attempts for 322 yards and a score. The Hokies may have laid a blueprint for how to beat the Eagles with the pass.

2) Drops Tommy Sweeney could have changed the complexion of the game. Following Jackson’s first-quarter turnover, BC had the ball right outside of the red zone. On 1stand-10, Brown dialed up a play-action pass to his tight end, 25 yards to the end zone. The ball floated over VT cornerback Brandon Facyson and into the arms of Sweeney. But as he fell, he lost control of the football, and the pass was ruled incomplete.

Running back A.J. Dillon ran the ball two yards up the middle. Then, Brown misfired on a pass to Smith. And to cap it off, Colton Lichtenberg missed a 40-yard field goal. Just like that, the turnover was virtually erased.

That’s a ball that Sweeney has to have.

BC’s entire receiving corps had a case

of the drops on Saturday, not just Sweeney.

Brown isn’t the most accurate quarterback, but he’s putting it where his targets can catch it, that’s for sure. Two passes bounced off the hands of Kobay White. And Smith started running with the ball on a screen pass before he even caught it.

The Eagles are 113th in the country on third down, and drops are a huge reason why.

3) Special Teams There have been games this season when BC’s special teams has played better than any unit on the field. But on Saturday, it didn’t do the Eagles any favors. On paper, Mike Knoll had a fine night punting the football. The senior averaged 40.9 yards per boot. But when BC needed him most, he couldn’t flip the field position. Twice in the third quarter, Knoll failed to punt the ball more than 41 yards from his own territory.

On the other side of the punt game, Michael Walker was a non-factor. After running back three punts for at least 25 yards against Central Michigan, the junior was held to just one return and a measly three yards.

But nothing was worse than Lichtenberg’s 40-yard shank at the beginning of the first quarter—his fourth-straight miss, after starting the season 6-of-6.

The junior converted on a 32-yard attempt later in the game to get back on track.

But the question remains: how big of a leg does Lichtenberg really have? In the postgame press conference, Addazio said that he decided to go for it on 4th-and-2 on the Hokies’ 23-yard line, because it was “a little bit out of our range”. That would have been another 40-yarder. A kicker who can only hit within 30 yards isn’t much of a kicker. n

2

third downs converted in 15 chances

5

straight three-and-outs after half

322

passing yards for VT’s Josh Jackson

Amelie Trieu / Heights Editor

An early end-zone shot to Tommy Sweeney fell incomplete, and BC’s interception led to no points on the opening drive.

Martin Jarmond Is Already Changing Culture of BC Athletics Jarmond’s Impact, from B1 hands with students, greets cars as they go past, and connects with BC fans and alumni alike. One man, shaking Jarmond’s hand, tells him, “I’m telling you, you’re our future!” In one funny moment, Jarmond, who played basketball at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, recognizes someone he once defended in the 2000 NCAA Tournament. Laughing, Jarmond points at the man and says, “You’re the fastest guy I’ve ever guarded!” Judging from the video and Jarmond’s schedule on game days, you get the feeling he really does

love being everywhere and seeing everything. His energy is infectious—and that’s exactly what BC needs right now.

It’s no secret that Jarmond has come into a tumultuous situation with BC athletics. Football, both basketball teams, men’s tennis, and volleyball, among other teams, have struggled to compete over the past couple of years. Fans are becoming increasingly impatient with certain coaches, no matter how many times they’re told that it will all come together and be beautiful (eventually). In an interview with the The Boston Globe, Jarmond acknowledged that fans and donors have warned

him about the challenging task that he’s up against.

“A common thing I’m hearing from fans and donors is, ‘You’ve got a tough job on your hands,’” Jarmond told the Globe.

But Jarmond, just 37 years old, is a breath of fresh air for BC athletics. It’s not for nothing that he is the youngest athletic director at a Power Five school—he’s excelled in fundraising and creating connections during his previous jobs at Michigan State University and The Ohio State University. And his work hasn’t been all social media and fun times.

Over the summer, Jarmond hired Jocelyn Fisher Gates and Vaughn Williams as senior associate athletic directors. Like Jarmond, Williams, a former Under Armour Athletics Director of the Year for his work with Kennesaw State, and Gates are both former student-athletes of color, bringing much-needed diversity and experience into the BC athletics program.

What’s more, Jarmond has been working hard on improving the atmosphere at football games. He’s established a fan council, expanded beer and wine sales in Alumni Stadium, and recently put out a survey indicating

students’ likelihood to attend football games depending on game day conditions.

Jarmond’s only been in charge since June, but he’s already changing the program for the better. Through creating a fun social media presence and being a familiar face around campus on game days, Jarmond is changing the culture of BC athletics. He might be busy 24/7, but he definitely isn’t wasting any time.

Annabel Steele is the associate sports editor for The Heights. She can be reached on Twitter @Steele_Heights.

THE HEIGHTS 2017 FOOD GUIDE

char siu bao

har gow

THE BREAKFAST CLUB crab cake eggs benedict

SOME SAY IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT MEAL OF THE DAY. WE AGREE.

phyllo-fried soft boiled eggs

2 | AMERICAN | FOOD GUIDE

October 12, 2017 | THE HEIGHTS

AND THEN THERE WAS BRUNCH Bistro781 brings new life to Waltham with its spin on comfort food.

Shannon Kelly | Asst. Features Editor

Jeff Abellard points to the photos on the wall. There’s the old sign for the Wal-Lex, a giant recreation center that was home to the town’s favorite roller rink and arcade. A Little League team photo in black and white is hung next to a mirror. Canvas prints, saturated with fuschia and deep blues, capture a sunset over the Moody Street Bridge. And then there are the massive clocks, frozen in time, just for decoration now.

They are portraits of what Waltham, Mass. was: a small city famously centered around its watch factory, with old-timey activities for the kids in the area. It only makes sense that Abellard would put up pictures and mementos as an ode to Waltham in his restaurant, Bistro781—the name itself pays homage to its area code. On Moody Street, the city’s main drag that’s now called its “Restaurant Row,” there have been a lot of changes over the years. Developments have gone up and younger people have started to move in. The Cronin’s Landing apartment complex, with one-bedrooms starting at upward of $2,200 a month, coexists with the Family Dollar down the street. But even with all the change, Abellard notices that a lot of the restaurants are like his— family-owned, mom-and-pop establishments created by Waltham natives.

It’s probably what gives him an edge in creating a successful restaurant—but having good food helps too, of course.

Abellard has always been a Waltham guy—he went to elementary and high school there, and stayed to attend Bentley University as an accounting and finance major. When his days in a cubicle became too dull, he started to work in restaurants. He owned another restaurant through a previous venture, but Bistro781 has been his life’s work for the past few years, from scouting out the location, to decorating, to finding the right chef.

Walking in to Bistro781, it’s clear that it’s not going for a run-of-the-mill restaurant format. Part of the ceiling is covered with detailed, gilded tiles, while the rest has art-deco cutouts for a long row of lights. There’s a giant, sleek bar, but the rest of the setup is mostly cozy, high-top booths. A chalkboard wall has the restaurant’s name emblazoned on it, along with mention of its customizable Bloody Mary. It’s fancy, but not too fancy—you can get dressed up or wear jeans and feel equally as comfortable.

The same goes for the food. Though Abellard and executive chef Jason Duff y take pride in offering gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options, it by no means limits the restaurant to an “earthy-crunchy” label. Instead, it’s just accommodating. And for brunch, that

means a lot of indulgent sweets and sandwiches that don’t confine to the standard pancake or bulkie roll.

For those who align themselves with the beginning part of the word “brunch,” Bistro781 offers an incredible French toast. Three giant slices of challah bread crowd the plate, each piece powdered with cinnamon and brown sugar. The crust is crispy, but when you get to the center, it’s almost like a custard. It’s rich without tasting eggy, and browned without being burnt. Then there’s the vanilla bean butter that comes on the side. Butter on its own makes everything better, but typically one does not butter her French toast. Slather this on, and it almost caramelizes the bread, creating another dimension of flavor.

For even more of a sugar rush, you can opt for the cinnamon bun skillet.

Cinnabon this is not—unbelievably, this one is bigger. With the icing melted on top, it’s the type of food that will make you look around to see if your mom is going to yell at you for having dessert for breakfast.

Of course, Bistro781 offers some staples—but even those are expected to be different from your usual.

“Everybody can do pancakes and waffles and whatever,” Abellard said. “Whatever we try to do, we try to make it our own.”

For him, that means the fluffiest pancakes you’ll ever see, browned and speckled from the griddle. Add blueberry, banana, or chocolate chips, and the pancake almost cracks down the middle from being stuffed.

The savor y menu items are no less extravagant. The crab cake benedict, one of the restaurant’s rotating brunch specials, packs a lot into one plate.

There’s the standard poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, but Bistro781 ups the ante with crab cakes and chive chimichurri, all served on a Portuguese muffin. The crab cake holds up against all of the moisture, leaving a melt-in-your-mouth taste with the creamy sauce that balances perfectly with the spicy chimichurri.

The egg is cooked just right, the yolk running over the rest of the meal when you bite into it. The Portuguese muffin, which is flatter and less textured than an English muffin, creates a substantial plate for all of these toppings, and even adds a garlic flavor to the dish instead of being bland.

The side dishes reinforce the comfort-food feel that the main courses

have. Duff y’s housemade bacon comes crispy with a little grease, the pieces forming curlicues on the plate. The spices add a kick to the standard breakfast meat, creating a flavor outside the realm of plain, maple, or applewood varieties.

Bistro781’s biscuits and gravy, however, cannot be outdone. Served in a skillet with a thick layer of gravy at the bottom, the biscuits seem incapable of getting soggy. They’re more textured than biscuits most people would be used to, with less of a smooth top. It’s crumbly, but not dense, and doesn’t absorb the gravy, making it the perfect vessel for such a thick sauce. It’s as if they pureed sausage with cream, leading to a better texture and bursts of smoky flavor.

You’ll run out of biscuit before you drain the gravy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a few spoonfuls on your own.

Part of the appeal of Bistro781’s

menu is that it changes seasonally. The summer has more fruit-based items, and the restaurant is already gearing up to alter its menu for the coming winter.

For now, however, the brunch features capitalize on fall flavors, depending on the day. Two weeks ago, Bistro781

featured pumpkin pancakes, and this past weekend had an apple cider mimosa. The ever-changing menu ensures that ingredients are used only at their freshest, when they are traditionally harvested.

In two years, Abellard has grown Bistro781 into a neighborhood favorite.

Its dinner and bar attract people the most, but it has a substantial following with the Sunday brunch set. While the music tends to stick to Motown and standards, with some mellow current favorites like Ingrid Michaelson mixed in, Sunday brunch has a reggae soundtrack to match the relaxed atmosphere.

B e h i n d t h e l e s s - t h a n - f a n c y, more-than-casual approach, there’s a

the administrative work. While some people are hesitant to mix business and family, it only makes Bistro781 more cohesive.

“We’re all here because we want to support him, as well as help the business,” Patricia Antoin, the hostess and Abellard’s cousin, said. “I enjoy coming here and eating myself.”

Though a restaurateur’s dreams are never truly fulfilled—there’s always the next location to find or the next fast-casual place to open in the future— Abellard can be content in knowing that he has altered the landscape of his hometown, both through food and the larger cultural development.

“When I was growing up, you didn’t want to be on Moody Street,” he said.

“So watching the city grow has become amazing.” 

real family affair going on.

Abellard lists off the many family members that touch the business, from the front of the house to

Where to Go When You Just Need a Breakfast Sandwich Sometimes the day ahead of you just seems too daunting, and you need something a little heartier to help you get going. Something between two slices of bread (or some other kind of carbohydrate), something like a sandwich.

When you want something that isn’t really a sandwich …

Where to go: The Friendly Toast What to order: The Breakfast Burrito What it is: Yes, a burrito isn’t a sandwich, but the ones served up at The Friendly Toast every morning are so good that I’m putting them on this list anyway. Made up of a flour tortilla stuffed to the brim with softly scrambled eggs, starchy black beans, salty melted cheddar, and a zesty lime sauce, you probably won’t be able to finish the burrito for breakfast, which means that you’ll have your lunch for the day taken care of too.

When you only want a tiny sandwich (on top of a Bloody Mary) ...

Where to go: The Met Back Bay What to order: A Crafty Mary What it is: If you run with the weekend brunch crowd, this miniature sandwich might just be up your alley. As a part of the Met Back Bay’s Saturday and Sunday Bloody Mary bar, you can order a teensy hamburger on a skewer with your drink. Some might say it’s the next olive or celery stick, but regardless it’s the perfect little indulgence to congratulate yourself on surviving another week.

When you want something a little different ...

Where to go: Mei Mei What to order: The Double Awesome What it is: It’s unlike any breakfast sandwich you’ve ever tasted. The Double Awesome contains two perfectly fried eggs (just runny enough on the inside) between a cushion of crispy scallion pancakes. The eggs are topped with sharp melted cheddar cheese, and the whole thing is covered with a delightfully earthy, bright green pesto. If you’re willing to try something just a little different, the Double Awesome will have you coming back for more, and if you’re like me you’ll find yourself actually dreaming about it.

When you’re trying to be healthy …

Where to go: Explorateur What to order: Avocado Toast What it is: With toast, you’re only eating one slice of bread, so that pretty much makes it a health food, right?

Well healthy or not, the avocado toast at the trendy new café Explorateur, with its smashed avocado topped with the acidity of lime juice and the spice of a sriracha aioli, is well worth a try (especially if you put the coddled egg on top).

When you want something picture perfect …

Where to go: Flour What to order: The Breakfast Egg Sandwich What it is: It’s no surprise that Harvard grad Joanna Chang has gotten the breakfast sandwich down to a science. Instead of fried or scrambled, the egg in this sandwich is a slice of a egg custard cooked in water bath—a technique that Chang developed to achieve the perfect consistency. Top that with tomatoes, cheddar cheese, bacon, and a tangy mustard sauce, and you might just have the golden ration of breakfast sandwiches.

THE HEIGHTS | October 12, 2017

FOOD GUIDE | AMERICAN | 3

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER

Joan Kennedy | Assoc. Copy Editor

One of Boston’s last 24-hour diners, South Street Diner will serve you Boston cream pancakes at 4 a.m.

MARK NIU / FOR THE HEIGHTS

Say the word “democracy.”

Upon hearing it, images of white Grecian columns are painted in the mind, one can see Romans fluttering about the forum—you know, S.P.Q.R. and such.

Thoughts fly back to every American student’s inevitable 8th-grade trip to Washington D.C.—think Lincoln Memorial, think House of Representatives, think Senate, think White House, don’t think about the fact that your crush never kissed you during poorly narrated bus tours along the Potomac. Democracy is a trigger word, thrown around by politicians and passed around like gravy—carelessly by everyone’s drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. But when we think about democracy, we should really be thinking about diners. And for Solomon Sidell, the owner of South Street Diner, diners are about people.

“The diner is a melting pot of America, whether you’re rich or poor, old or young— that everyone feels comfortable. That goes for staff and customers of all lifestyles, races, religions. Everybody comes together for a $5 plate of eggs. Everybody can afford it, but everybody wants it.” said Sidell.

The American diner is where home and street meet and hold hands—in the highly romantic waffle formation, obviously. Their fingers intertwine and touch, the divisions between them become a comfortable unclear. The diner is a cultural icon, a place where Americans come together to break bread and drink of creamy milkshakes—it’s a symbol for conversation and conversion.

Discussions are held in diners. South Street is perhaps the only place where Mitt Romney and Ted Kennedy (both frequent visi-

tors) could probably meet without throwing hands, and instead throw ham (onto some eggs benedict).

Every city has its diner, and South Street is Boston’s only 24-hour one. It serves over 800 meals a day. Sidell, who has been in the biz for a while, says it’s like having two— maybe three—restaurants in one. South Street was opened in 1947 by Worcester Dining Company, and originally named “Blue Diner.” It’s a hot spot for celebrities— former local athletes Clay Buchholz and Rajon Rondo can’t resist Sidell’s tricks—and it’s a hot spot for movies. The diner has been seen in Hiding Out, Second Sight, and House Guest.

It’s hard to operate a 24-hour restaurant, buts also hard to come by a 24-hour license in Boston. Residential neighborhoods, of which Boston has a bunch, are especially hostile to such establishments. The aspect of doing something that nobody else does, though, is what invigorates Sidell.

Sidell has had to combat his fair share of opposition. South Street is located in the Leather District and after the neighborhood became residential, the complaints came on the regular. One day, upon receiving a grievance late at night/early in the morning about outside guests being loud, a waitress decided to tell everyone outside to be quiet and considerate. Just kidding, she did quite the opposite: she riled up the crowd and got them to sing Irish songs. At court, Sidell admitted that he hadn’t trained his staff properly and that this was a mistake on his part. Outside seating was restricted to before 1 a.m.

The trouble continued, though, as new

residents continued to complain. Sidell dodged a few bullets, but had it not been for the loving community surrounding him—his little linoleum building would be no more. During the last scare, 1500 customers came together and signed a petition in the restaurant, 1500 people signed an online one, and 150 showed up in City Hall the date of the trial chanting “Save South Street Diner!”

“People stood up one by one and said things about me and South Street Diner that I didn’t think I would hear until my funeral. I was shaking. I was scared that I had invested 10 years of my life into a business that could be taken away in an instant,” said Sidell.

Nobody got up to speak against South Street.

South Street is a place where dreams come true, whether those dreams be related to eating breakfast for dinner, or building a stable life in America. One day, Sidell decided to hire a new prep cook. As it turns out, the Brazilian man he hired couldn’t speak English.

“Every employee becomes family,” said Sidell.

The crew at South Street helped the new prep cook get his green card, get a mortgage, and buy a house. But Sidell went further, he asked him to go upstairs and cook with the big guys so that he could give him a raise. When he refused because of his language barrier, Sidell helped him go to school and learn English. Now he’s been working at South Street for 15 years and Sidell cites him as one of his best cooks.

More importantly, he’s able to support his

family and his new granddaughter in Brazil whom he visits frequently.

“That’s the American dream,” said Sidell.

A different American dream, but an American dream nonetheless, is being able to have any food at any time. At South Street, you can have a burger at 7 a.m. and pancakes at 7 p.m. The menu is dripping in excellence. The chicken tenders—which are easily well done any way you throw ’em, just about anywhere—exceed expectations. The simple dish, often reserved for those under 12 years old, or those who have a palate under 12 years old, is a must-try. The tenders are marinated for 24 hours then deep fried to the crispiest of all crisps, while retaining the utmost juicy-moistness. If you’re getting the tenders, you’ve got to get the fries. The fries are fried to golden perfection, then topped with a three-cheese sauce and gravy—Sidell compares his fries to the popular Canadian dish “poutine.”

The eggs benedict are simply inspiring, and make waking up the best part of the day.

The English muffin on which the eggs marry the hollandaise is crispy on the outside, while the inner workings of the bread has a certain skeletal, crisp infrastructure, but the overall “muffin” retains its bready-bounciness. The home fries that accompany the dish beg to be dipped in the sauce, and when their request was met—fireworks went off.

No, fireworks didn’t go off. That was the sound of the next dishes being put on the table. Banana bread—Sidell’s grandmother’s recipe—which is complimentary on the weekends, and Boston cream pie pancakes.

Three pancakes do a balancing act on the plate, stacked on top of each other with

homemade Belgian cream in between— these examples of pancake perfection are one of the reasons Food Network named South Street among their top-five picks for late-night eats in America. The fluffy discs of perfection were blanketed in a homemade chocolate sauce. One bite could’ve killed my diabetic grandmother.

While tasting the banana bread, and expressing my flabbergastation at the fact that the thin slices were moist and balanced with a bit of cinnamon-y crust I heard God—no!

Sidell—say “dip the banana bread in the pancake’s chocolate sauce,” and that’s when things went from good to f—king fantastic.

“Know who you are, play to your strengths, and always make it better than it was yesterday,” Sidell said when asked about his personal restaurant philosophy.

Sidell and his people know what they are doing. They do typical diner food, and they do it good. They don’t try to stray, they don’t try to be something they’re not.

“Boston is a cultural bastion of all different kinds of ethnic food. You’re not going to come to a diner for chinese food. You’re not going to come for pizza. In your mind you’re looking for a milkshake, burger, and eggs,” said Sidell.

Nothing is better than the classics. Sidell proves this everyday within his modest lunch car, wedged in between Boston’s downtown skyscrapers. The linoleum floors shine, and countertop glistens—plates crash into one another, bacon sizzles on the grill, the vinyl of the booths squeak as children shift around in them: These are the sweet sights and sounds of breakfast of the people, by the people, and for the people. 

A CLASSIC START Taylor St. Germain | Managing Editor Alec Greaney | A1 Editor When Jay Hajj arrived in the South End of Boston 22 years ago, there were no early-bird brunchers sipping mimosas on sidewalk patios. No one took pictures of their decorative French toasts or brought toy-like dogs along for a stroll. Young mothers didn’t jog along the brick sidewalks of Washington Street at twilight, pushing their toddlers in decked-out strollers.

At that time, inhabitants of the Boston neighborhood were more worried about getting shot.

In 1995, the year Hajj bought Mike’s City Diner, he opened the doors to one of the only restaurants along Washington St. at the time. The high-income area of today, with rows of brownstones sporting ironclad fences, decorative planter boxes, and Range Rovers parked out back, was lined with boarded-up storefronts.

It was also dangerous, so much so that Hajj had metal shutters shielding the front of his diner, which he would wait until 7 or 7:30 a.m. to open.

“Not because I was scared of robbery,” he said. “Just in case there was a flying bullet.”

Because of those conditions, rent was cheap. And 25-year-old Hajj needed cheap, at least until he could find a decent lease in the financial district. He had no idea at the time that he’d struck gold. Today, the South End is second only to Beacon Hill in terms of the average price per square foot.

“Yeah, yeah, it changed a lot,” Hajj said. “I look like a goddamn genius, because it was all boarded up all around me.”

Hajj started as the only cook at the diner.

He eventually bought the building, but back then he had only his tiny, affordable

lease. By this point, Hajj had run his own business before, and worked in the restaurant industry years before that. He started as a dishwasher at Vinny Marino’s, an Italian restaurant in Boston. He worked his way up in the industry to salad boy, learning the ins and outs of greens and dressings, to sauté guy, and eventually line chef.

At 19 years old, he bought his first restaurant: a bankrupt ice cream parlor, which he transformed into Temptations, a falafel shop. He introduced numerous Bostonians to a Middle Eastern dip relatively unknown in the early 1990s: hummus.

Hajj didn’t sleep much for the first couple of years—he spent about 100 hours a week at Temptations, trying to get it off the ground. Over time, his efforts paid off, and in his early 20s, Hajj decided to take another step forward and try something new. He invested in another restaurant in 1995—what is today Mike’s Diner.

While Hajj tried to incorporate different, ethnic tastes into his falafel shop, he has always been passionate about true American food. He wanted to stick with the American diner theme at Mike’s, so he served the classics: pancakes, waffles, eggs, omelettes. But Hajj also tried to add a bit of his own flare.

He decided to travel and experiment with flavors, allowing him to bring Mike’s most famous staples to the restaurant.

The diner serves a Thanksgiving dinner every night, which has been heralded time and again by Guy Fieri, the host of several shows on the Food Network, including Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Hajj has appeared

For the past two decades, Mike’s City Diner has served Boston All-American classics from the South End. on about 11 shows over the years, and since 2009 has joined Fieri on the Best Buddies Challenge, meeting Tom Brady and raising money for Down syndrome.

Breakfasts at Mike’s are just as memorable. Besides the more traditional items—the Belgian waffles, which are light and fluffy with a bit of crunch, or the home fries, which are soft and sweet but with a hint of spice—Hajj has attracted customers with his experiments beyond the average breakfast.

One example is his Southern-style breakfast options, which bring comfort food to the New England eatery. That’s what got Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and Tom Menino in the door one day.

If you wait out a long, but steadily moving line and pass up a seat at the traditional diner bar on your left, you may be seated at a table closest to the back corner. On the wall above, there’s a picture of the trio sitting at that same table, just before getting their order of smoked ham and eggs with grits and cornbread.

“I’ve always said, I don’t want to be this brunchy kind of a place—I want to keep it a diner,” Hajj said.

Hajj raves about his assortment of hashes, ranging from turkey and beef to the newly-added duck confit. The turkey hash is deliciously reminiscent of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but coalesces as a flavorful breakfast staple. The mix of moist turkey, soft potatoes, and spices is sure to remind you of home.

Mike’s also prides itself on filling both your plate and your stomach. While not every dish is sure to provide leftovers, the norm will leave you stuffed, and moving

right along with your day. The staff at Mike’s doesn’t waste any time, moving its patrons in and out the door. The waitstaff won’t rush you along as you dine, but having an idea of what you want before sitting down will help you fit into the efficient dining environment.

It’s also important to remember cash before entering the diner, since Hajj’s joint doesn’t take cards. There’s an ATM in the back, but don’t rely on it being up and running.

Ample staff is on-hand to make the restaurant run smoothly, getting food to its customers in Hajj’s goal of seven to eight minutes. But finding enough passionate workers to meet this mark is one of Hajj’s biggest challenges.

“If it was easy, I’d have 10 Mike’s,” he said.

He doesn’t necessarily want employees with experience—he wants workers that care, that can take the heat behind the kitchen, that are willing to learn. Hajj is happy and able to teach them the rest.

Many of these workers, like Hajj, are immigrants. The owner was born in Beirut, Lebanon, but immigrated as a boy to the United States when a civil war broke out. The family settled in Boston, where Hajj watched and learned from his dad the importance of a strong work ethic to keep a professional job.

Hajj doesn’t have the day-to-day responsibilities of running a restaurant anymore.

He has trained his people, many of whom have worked at Mike’s for over a decade, to keep the operation running. Hajj has taken a more hands-off approach, but continues to have a role in setting specials and purchasing certain ingredients.

Like many other restaurants, he relies on a distributer for most of what he needs.

But he likes to pick out certain specialty items himself. His pepper paste, which he uses for his more ethnic meals, has to be bought at a Middle Eastern market. His homemade strawberry jelly, which is the perfect mixture of tangy and sweet, is made with frozen strawberries from none other than Costco—not because they’re the best deal, but because they’re the best.

“With me, everything is from scratch, everything is homemade,” Hajj said.

He spends his time these days treating

food as more of a lifestyle than a profession.

Hajj has designed and brought to life his dream kitchen, a 1,500-square-foot test lab in a circa-1760 farmhouse. He keeps chickens and used to raised his own pigs every year. He has a vegetable garden, an herb

garden, and a flower garden. This year, he released a cookbook, Beirut to Boston: Comfort Food Inspired By A Rags-To-Restaurants Story, where he incorporates traditional Lebanese dishes with his own take on modern American cuisine.

This pair over the decades, combined with Mike’s location and Hajj’s unwavering dedication, has served as a go-to spot for members of the South End community.

He has hosted meetings with city officials and planners at the cozy diner that helped literally pave the way for Washington St.’s revival. It continues to be a hub for all kinds of people, who can plan to meet for a meeting or roll out of bed to eat in jeans and a sweatshirt.

Hajj hasn’t stopped experimenting for the sake of the restaurant, even if much of what he cooks now is for friends and family.

But perhaps more than anything else, he cooks for himself, because it’s what he loves doing most. Even while he vacations on the Cape—fishing with a buddy and talking with a college reporter for a story—his mind isn’t on his friend’s latest catch.

“I’m not into it, but I’m there to clean the fish,” Hajj said. “I love to skin the fish. I have a lot of pleasure working with food.” 

4 | CHINESE | FOOD GUIDE

October 12, 2017 | THE HEIGHTS

ALL THAT AND DIM SUM At Hei La Moon, breakfast comes in bamboo steamers filled with dumplings and bao.

William Bachelor | Asst. Metro Editor Amelie Trieu | Assoc. Photo Editor Editor’s note: The interview that formed the basis of this article was conducted in Cantonese by a Heights editor and later translated from Cantonese to English.

It’s 8 a.m. in downtown Boston and rush hour traffic is nearing its peak.

The normally bustling streets of Chinatown are deserted with only a few passersby wandering the narrow alleys.

Chinese restaurant Hei La Moon is opening its doors to the early morning breakfast crowd ready to indulge in a traditional Chinese breakfast.

The morning sun fills the space inside the vast dining area, illuminating the red and gold furniture that dominates the restaurant’s interior.

A waitress pushes around a cart piled with buns, lifting the covers off several bamboo steamers to reveal what freshly made dumplings are on offer.

Meanwhile, a handful of diners meticulously choose what dishes to feast on for breakfast.

The two-story Chinese eatery looks more like a ballroom than a restaurant.

The main dining area is one big open space, crowded with round tables draped in white tablecloths. Images of dragons hang on the walls, and red decorations—symbolizing luck and happiness in Chinese culture—are interspersed throughout the space. Hei La Moon’s simple furnishings allow the food to serve as the main attraction.

The restaurant’s refined dim sum, the Cantonese brunch tradition that translates to mean “touch the heart” and refers to the cuisine of small foods and the savoring of tea, has allowed Hei La Moon to become a staple in the Chinatown food scene.

Even before you get a mouthful of the dim sum, you can tell it’s going to

AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS EDITOR

be authentic—the kind of food you would be served at a highly regarded eatery in Hong Kong. The waitstaff— clad in red uniforms—speak only a little English. When it comes to ordering, there will usually be a lot of pointing and nodding involved.

In the morning, Hei La Moon doesn’t have a menu customers can order dim sum from. Instead everything is ordered off constantly moving push carts filled with an array of dishes from dumplings to sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf. Ordering can be tricky and slightly like a game, as the server constantly brings around fresh batches of dumplings that are too hard to resist.

Dim sum is originally a Cantonese custom, but is now served throughout China and the world. Most people associate dim sum with lunch, however it’s traditionally a meal eaten at breakfast. On weekend mornings, the large dining space fills with hungry customers, and Hei La Moon’s manager, strolls amongst the tables, ensuring that everything stays under control. This is John, “just John,” as no one at the restaurant knows his full name. Despite the secrecy, his passion for dim sum is obvious, and he emphasized why bite-sized dishes make for the ideal breakfast.

“Your appetite isn’t very big in the morning so you want to eat smaller amounts of food, so you can eat more for lunch,” John said. “Chinese people don’t eat much for breakfast so they want something small in the mornings.”

Dim sum dishes are commonly light and not very filling as most of the servings are relatively small. But the small quantity allows for custom-

ers to order a variety of both savory and sweet delicacies to be shared with the table. Many of the dishes are steamed in a basket made of bamboo, with usually three to four dumplings per serving. Other dishes are baked, while fried dumplings tend to be too decadent and heavy to eat early in the morning.

At Hei La Moon, the tea is just as important as the dim sum itself, which makes sense, because in Cantonese another way to say to eat dim sum is ‘yum cha,’ or to drink tea. Right as you are seated, the server will ask you what tea you would like. Pu’er tea is always a wise choice—it’s what those in Hong Kong pair with their dim sum. Tea is served to cut through the richness of the dim sum while also help with digestion. There is also etiquette that applies with tea service. To ask for a refill, simply lift up the lid and place it askew on top of the pot. The waitress will know to immediately fill the teapot with scorching hot water.

The table setup is as simple as the restaurant’s decor. The only items placed in front of you are a bowl, a porcelain spoon, chopsticks, and a tea cup. There are no knifes and forks to make things easy. If your chopstick skills aren’t up to par, you better start practicing.

Xie Ping Lim is one of the 10 chefs who prepare dim sum day after day in the kitchen. She has worked at Hei La Moon since it opened in 2004. Lim passionately spoke about making one of the restaurant’s signature dishes, BBQ pork buns—known as char siu bao.

“The char siu [pork] is cooked in a special stove then we cut it into small pieces,” Lim said. “Once it’s cooked in

small pieces, we mix it with a special barbecue sauce and put it inside the buns.

Due to the considerable size of the bun, char siu bao is a struggle to eat with chopsticks. Here, it’s okay to break the rules a little. Dive in with your hands and tear open the light and fluffy bun to expose the rich barbecue pork filling before stuffing it in your mouth.

Shrimp dumplings are arguably the most popular dim sum item at any Chinese restaurant. Har gow—as it’s called—is filled with whole pieces of shrimp and bamboo shoots. At times, har gow can taste fishy, falling apart when it comes into contact with chopsticks. This is not the case at Hei La Moon. The chewy wrapper delicately holds the succulent shrimp inside. The perfectly plump dumpling is translucent, showcasing the pristine quality of light pink prawns.

The restaurant is known for having various assortments of siu mai, but your best bet is the classic pork and shrimp variety. Ground pork and diced shrimp are wrapped in a thin yellow wrapper and topped with a whole prawn. Dip the siu mai into soy sauce for extra flavour or delicately place a little dab of the chilli sauce onto the dumpling for an added kick of spice.

Lim and the nine other chef ’s sole responsibility is making dim sum.

Everything on the menu is made in house, from the dumpling wrappers to the custard of the egg tarts. While there are dozens of different dim sum items on the menu, there seems to be only three core ingredients.

“We only really use pork, beef, and shrimp.” Lim said. “These three are the

most important meats in dim sum.”

Not all dim sum dishes come in the form of a dumpling. Hei La Moon’s shrimp cheung fan is a glutenous roll made from rice noodles and filled with small pieces of shrimp. The server pours a sweet soy sauce over the dish, allowing the acidic sauce to perfectly coat the gooey noodles.

You may have also noticed that desserts are scarce at Chinese restaurants.

There are a few sweet treats, however, to cap off a dim sum brunch. The last thing you should order is the traditional baked egg custard tart—dan tat in Cantonese. The rich egg filling paired with the light and flaky crust of the tart makes for an exceptional way to end your full tea brunch.

But what about soup dumplings?

This fatty pork dumpling can be found at most Chinese restaurants around town, but not at Hei L a Moon. Soup dumplings—referred to as xiao long bao in China—are a Shanghainese-style dumpling that’s not usually eaten at breakfast. Hei La Moon prides itself for serving authentic Cantonese cuisine, so it would not make sense to serve items from another region.

While the clientele remains heavily Chinese, John admits that he notices many Americans like to take food risks and taste some of the more unusual dishes. With many different types of dim sum dishes served in small portions, it makes it easy for people to try new dishes.

“The unique thing about dim sum is that it is cheap and the portions are small,” John said. “If you order something you do not like, you can order something else, it’s only three dollars for a dish.” 

THE HEIGHTS | October 12, 2017

Love the Oatmeal You Think You Hate Madeleine D’Angelo Metro Editor For me, mornings have always been a painful, messy time.

So it’s fitting that my relationship with oatmeal, one of my favorite breakfast foods, has been a long and gnarled one.

It all began when I was 6 years old, and seated at the kitchen table.

It was another hectic morning before kindergarten, my dad bustling around to get ready for work, and my mom moving swiftly around the kitchen in a noble and ongoing attempt to make sure that we had a warm breakfast before school.

Then, it didn’t occur to me to appreciate her effort.

I just assumed that making breakfast was a given, something that would always happen.

So, like any morning, I sat perched on one of the wooden chairs crowded around the table. My stumpy legs swung back in forth in the air, and my elbows sprawled in weird angle along the pine-colored table as I supported my head with my hands.

I stared mindlessly at the corner of the table, wondering what today’s breakfast would turn out today.

Maybe it would be pan cakes—one of my preferred options then, and even now.

I could see them so clearly in my mind’s eye, a pair of pale circles studded with the purple indents of fresh blue berries.

Much to her dismay, I would prod my mom to undercook my pancakes—a bad habit, I know—but I loved how the almost batter of the middle mixed with the oozing tartness of the berries, and the stickiness of the liberally applied maple syrup.

Those undercooked pancakes were heaven to a 6-yearold Madeleine, and at that moment, I was convinced that I could smell them from the kitchen.

But instead, my mom put a bowl of something tan and mushy in front of me.

It was speckled with darker brown spots, and it smelled strange—not exactly like cardboard, but definitely not pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup.

I looked at the bowl, and then back up to my mom, who handed me a spoon.

“Mom, what is this?” I whined.

“Oatmeal,” she explained, pointing at the brown flecks.

“Look, I put some brown sugar in it for you, it will be delicious.”

Sugar sounded promis ing, so I prodded the mushy object cautiously, shifting just the littlest bit onto my spoon before slowly putting it into my mouth.

The taste was overpowering and horrible, so I made a face and dropped the spoon, announcing that I definitely was not going to eat that “oatmeal.”

In fact I hated oatmeal, didn’t my mom know?

She looked at me exasperated, knowing there wasn’t enough time to make a new breakfast.

We were out of cereal and had to leave within minutes to make the very strict kindergarten drop-off time.

But I decided to make my stand, digging my heels in and refusing to eat until the threat of punishment became too much.

Like someone being forced

to swallow a maggot, I ate a spoonful of oatmeal, gagging as the chunky gruel slid down my throat.

But it didn’t end there, I was forced to finish a few more bites, and glared at my mom with increasing hostility with each spoonful.

Finally released after the fifth swallow, I stood up, and gathered my backpack, and realized that revenge was well within my grasp.

So I waited until my mom rushed over, with purse in hand and my younger brother in tow.

“Ready sweetie?” she asked.

In response, I forced my breakfast back out of my stomach, staining the front of my plaid jumper with oat-speckled vomit.

Wiping my mouth, I smiled in triumph, convinced that in the war against oatmeal, I had come out on top.

So I avoided oatmeal for the next decade or so, starting my days with crispy omelets, clusters of granola, smooth and tangy yogurt, decadent eggsin-a-hole—anything that wasn’t the lumpy, taupeish substance that I now associated with vomit and defeat.

I wouldn’t even consider touching the stuff until one day in high school, when mornings became so hectic, that having overnight oats, something that we could prepare the night before, was a boon.

Plus, oatmeal was something that I strongly associated with my mom, and like many young girls, I wanted to emulate her, even if I didn’t really know it.

If you are what you eat, then maybe oatmeal would make me a little bit taller, more eloquent, more mature—more like her.

So 10 years later I sat down at a different kitchen table, and I prodded the lumpy substance cautiously.

I shifted just the littlest bit of oatmeal onto my spoon and slowly put it into my mouth.

Instead of throwing up, this time I smiled.

“See,” my mom said. “I told you that it would be delicious.”

From that moment, I haven’t looked back, ordering and making oatmeal right in left.

When I came to school, it became the backbone of my diet, and I ate the dining hall’s goopy, gelatinous version of the dish every morning without any toppings whatsoever (disgusting, I know).

I liked it simple—no sugar, only fresh berries—just the way my mom ate it.

Recently, I’ve noticed oatmeal cafés popping up around the East Coast, one just off of Washington Square Park in New York, and one down in Somerville’s Davis Square. At these restaurants, oatmeal is anything but simple, it’s an art form in and of itself.

Chefs toss the simple grain with nut butters or pestos, topping carefully constructed bowls with everything from chocolate and jam, to cheese, vegetables, and eggs.

I’m still intrigued by the ingenuity, but the only time that I’ve visited one of these places, mom in tow of course, the bowls created to make oatmeal your main food group, just seemed too complicated, too fussy.

Oatmeal and I had come so far, why ruin a good thing?

So I ordered what I could make at home: plain oatmeal with berries on top. And it was perfect.

It’s funny isn’t it, how the things we hate can so quickly become the things we adore?

FOOD GUIDE | FRENCH | 5 .

NOT ALL HEROES WEAR CREPES...

...BUT THE HEROES AT PARIS CREPERIE KNOW HOW TO MAKE THEM. Riley Overend Sports Editor What happens when nerds take over a fine French cafe in the heart of Brookline’s hipster haven? You get an entire section of the menu devoted to specialty nutella drinks, a Super Secret Menu accessible only through social media, and crepes of the month inspired by gamers and Game of Thrones alike.

Nestled among boutique coffee shops, falafel joints, and an independent bookstore, Paris Creperie is the kind of hidden gem you’d expect to find in Coolidge Corner. Founded in 2001, and easily accessible off the MBTA and bus routes, the business has blended into the Boston subculture in more ways than one.

Their crepes of the month have featured creative combinations and pop culture references that young adults literally eat up.

Like “Stark Chocolate.” Or the Kanye-inspired “Omelette You Finish Crepe.” Or “Jiggly-fluff,” created at the height of the Pokemon Go craze, which even the manager admits may have had too much fluff.

Or my personal favorite, “Churro-surgeon,” a delicious homage to Ben Carson that comes with two cinnamon sugar, churro-style crepes filled with nutella and served with dulce de leche sauce for dipping. They couldn’t help but market that crepe with a poster of the former presidential candidate performing brain surgery, except his arms are churros, and the words “Super PAC’d with Flavor” float above a pyramid of stored grain.

“Many of our guests loved the crepe, as well as the advertising,” an assistant manager later wrote on the website’s blog, “however, we got one very angry email from a local Brookline gentleman for dishonoring his presidential pick with such an ‘offensive sign.’”

But the overwhelming support that Paris Creperie has received for its crepes of the month, which are crafted by employees but often inspired by customer feedback, has drowned out any occasional criticism.

And when they talk about a team effort, they’re not just speaking in clichés.

Paris Creperie practices an open-book management style, meaning finances are made available to employees and profits are

shared among them, too—effectively giving staffers a brief business education while incentivizing them at the same time. If the company exceeds financial expectations, employees are rewarded quarterly based on the number of hours they have worked.

“Our longest-standing employee has been here for almost eight years now,” shift supervisor Emmit Nahil said. “The people who stay on more than a year are really inclined to be invested in the business and to invest in the quality of food, not just the business structure.”

That’s rare in the food service industry, but not surprising when you consider the cafe’s work environment. It’s transparent, upbeat, and most importantly, collaborative.

“We also try to teach other skills,” general manager Kaia Machalek said. “A lot of marketing students will do our social media, art students will do the chalk drawings or create posters for us.”

In other words, they know how to play to their strengths. It’s in the nature of their grassroots model. Free from the constraints of traditional bosses and workplace hierarchies, workers can voice their opinions and take more risks in the kitchen.

“Their opinions actually matter,” Machalek says of her staffers. “If somebody has an idea, we like to try it out to see if it works.”

Maybe that explains some of the more unorthodox crepes, like “Sweet Cheesus” (gruyere and brown sugar), “The Nan-BearPig” (cookie butter, bacon, and banana), and the always-tempting “Chuck-olate Crepe” (nutella and bacon), all of which can be found on the Super Secret Menu. There is certainly not a shortage of sweets at Paris Creperie.

When I arrived there on a mild Thursday afternoon, though, I was craving one of the cafe’s savory options instead. Behind the counter, a young man with much cooler hair than me suggested the “John Gouda-man” crepe, so I went with his recommendation and returned to my seat. On the walls, French art and memorabilia reminded customers of the Parisian recipe that inspired the restaurant’s birth 15 years prior. But on the red, white, and blue menu, the jarring combinations are reminders that this isn’t your traditional creperie.

After 15 or 20 minutes, my food

emerged from the back. For $11.99, it came stuffed with turkey, bacon, spinach, chipotle aioli, and gooey smoked gouda cheese, accompanied by a side salad. Each ingredient tasted fresh and rich with flavor.

While it might be a bit pricy, it’s sure to leave customers satisfied with a full meal—which isn’t to say there won’t still be room for dessert.

Paris Creperie’s version of a post-meal cup of coffee is a warm mug of nutella.

Specialty drinks include mint nutella hot chocolate, raspberry nutella hot chocolate, nutella lattes, and for a hot summer afternoon, nutella frozen hot chocolate—the refreshing beverage you didn’t know you needed until now.

Ultimately, Paris Creperie succeeds because the lines between customer, staff, and management are so often blurred.

Managers ask staffers for ideas. Staffers ask customers for advice. The crepes flip, steam rises, and the feedback loop repeats.

It also helps that Paris Creperie seems to genuinely care about its customers. When the cafe decided to cease production of its chicken parmesan crepe, loyal fans couldn’t get over the loss of their favorite menu item.

“A customer actually e-mailed us with a huge poem about how much they loved it,” Machalek said. “So we were like, ‘Fine, we’ll make it.’ Then we gave him the poster and he loved it.”

Another customer was so adamant about the chicken parm that staffers simply couldn’t break his heart. So after he voiced his frustrations, employees chose to keep the ingredients on hand just for him—though they’ll whip up the off-menu specialty for anyone, if requested.

This level of attention is part of the reason the cozy hole-in-the-wall remains packed all day. A mostly college-aged crowd is attracted to the cafe, stopping by regularly for raspberry nutella lattes, or just to say hi. A product of its liberal Brookline hub, Paris Creperie has transformed into a crepe commune of sorts where faces old and new gather in concert.

It’s just a really thin pancake. And it’s just another hip cafe geared toward millennials. But for one meal, at least, it feels like just enough of an escape. Because even though the French flags won’t fool you, the food will. n

RILEY OVEREND / HEIGHTS EDITOR

6 | TURKISH | FOOD GUIDE

October 12, 2017 | THE HEIGHTS

TURKISH DELIGHT

MADELEINE D’ANGELO / HEIGHTS EDITOR

At Sofra, Middle Eastern flavors redefine breakfast.

Madeleine D’Angelo | Metro Editor It’s early in the morning on a weekday, but the line at Sofra still snakes around the counter, reaching toward the restaurant’s glass door. Light streams into the space, casting a warm glow on wooden tables already packed with customers. Some wait for their food eagerly, others happily tuck into gleaming copper bowls filled with steaming red soup, or plates crowded with delicate slices of bright green cucumber, gem-like spoon sweets, and soft-boiled eggs cocooned in a birds nest of fried phyllo dough.

Those who wait, either in line or for a free table, do so calmly. Many of them have made a point of visiting this out of the way Turkish bakery, and they are more than happy to linger just a little longer before partaking in one of the Boston area’s most unique breakfast experiences.

In fact, for many regulars, including Jenna Lyons, the marketing and events manager for Sofra and the rest the Oleana restaurant group, this early morning crowd is nothing. Little compares to the droves of Bostonians that flock to this cozy, neighborhood bakery perched on the outskirts of Cambridge over the weekends, crowding into the café to order from a crafted menu holding an option for every visitor, as flavors range from sweet to savory, from familiar to something more fresh and exotic. Here breakfast won’t be what you expect, not a dense pile of pancakes, or greasy piles of eggs and bacon.

Although you can get a breakfast sandwich—a carefully cooked egg on a fluffy bun paired with halloumi cheese and feta

butter, or sausage wrapped in delicately thin pita—most of the options will be an adventure for the taste buds. Choose between an almost translucent poached egg with fried quinoa and shishito peppers atop a pool of labneh, and a shakshuka, a spicy tomato broth with poached eggs just begging to be mopped up with a fluffy disc of pita. Or maybe just choose from the decadent pastries displayed behind the glass counter—tangy danishes studded with fruit and pistachios, morning buns topped with a glistening orange blossom glaze, or a perfectly moist almond cake infused with just the slightest hint of rosewater.

Everything, from the densely chocolate earthquake cookies to the unbelievably layered hazelnut baklava, is baked fresh that morning, which is why the five pastry chefs that make Sofra run arrive be 4 a.m. each morning. But Maura Kilpatrick, the executive pastry chef and co-owner of Sofra, actually got there at 2 a.m. in order to gear up for the busy holiday months ahead.

Deftly moving through the basement kitchen space, she bakes with the rest of her staff and plans for the months ahead, smoothing the transition between summer peaches and fall flavors.

Evident from the box of bulbous and gorgeous pumpkins, which Kilpatrick steams, purees, and turns into a version of her own grandmother’s pumpkin bread, the transition is already underway for the year. Apples will slowly make their appearance both in the pastries and on the menu, and although Kilpatrick has trained her customers to expect the change—menu items and pastries often rotate depend-

ing on season and inspiration—there are always some familiar options that are Kilpatrick’s signature.

Take for example her version of a morning staple: the poptart. Instead of a skinny envelop of dough and jelly, Kilpatrick presents Sofra’s customers with a towering masterpiece of phyllo containing a pocket of pistachio, sesame, and orange, topped with a sweet glaze. Her ease and ability to have fun with Middle Eastern flavors unfamiliar to many is evident, but for Kilpatrick and her business partner Ana Sortun, Sofra’s executive chef, the process of understanding and mastering these Middle Eastern flavors began over a decade—and a restaurant—ago.

For Sortun, the process began almost 20 years ago, while she worked as a chef at Harvard Square’s once iconic Casablanca restaurant. While there, Sortun immersed herself in bright central Mediterranean flavors, focusing on the cuisines of Southern France, Spain, and Italy. But when a friend suggested that Sortun accompany her back to Turkey where she could study the nuances of a cuisine completely underrepresented in Boston, she jumped at the opportunity, even though she didn’t really know what to expect, and couldn’t possibly predict that it would change her relationship with cooking forever.

Sortun immersed herself in Turkey’s culinary culture, marveling at the new landscape of flavors that she was discovering, and finding that she was actually getting excited every time that she sat down for a meal.

“Everything was so new and the flavors were so incredible rich but nothing was heavy,” Sortun said. “So I decided that this was a much more interesting way of cooking than adding cream or butter just to make something taste better, because it wasn’t making people feel good and all this stuff that I had studied and learned in France was not the way that I found. I just thought that it was much more interesting and dimensional to learn

how to work with these spices.”

She absorbed everything that she could, bringing it back to Boston with her, and hoping to bring Middle-Eastern food into Boston’s “mainstream.” Sortun wanted to widen the public understanding of Mediterranean cuisine, breaking away from the stagnant confines of hummus and stale pita, and decided to open Oleana, her very first restaurant where she could celebrate the aromatic Middle Eastern culinary tradition.

From the very start, Kilpatrick worked with Sortun as Oleana’s executive pastry chef, but Kilpatrick will be the first to tell you that she “got the job first.” Although skilled as a pastry chef trained in the European tradition, Kilpatrick had absolutely no experience with Middle Eastern flavors, so she had to jump into this new world and figure it out for herself. While Sortun provided insight into traditional Turkish recipes and cuisine, Kilpatrick learned how to delicately incorporate ingredients like tahini, dukkah, and za’atar into her pastry creations. She had to do her homework, staying up late into the night to read and experiment, making countless mistakes along the way. Oftentimes Kilpatrick would find a base recipe that inspired her —when you’re working with a hallowed pastry like baklava the wheel doesn’t need to be completely reinvented—and “just play around,” transforming it into five or more variations to make the dish her own. Ultimately, Kilpatrick developed a whole “new pallet,” and Sortun and Kilpatrick were both met with success for their work at Oleana to the tune of a James Beard Award and praise from reviewers at The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

But after eight years of success, Kilpatrick and Sortun wanted to do something different—something faster, something more laid back, and somewhere where Turkish flavors would be even more accessible to the public than they already were in Oleana. Given Oleana’s success, the two chefs knew that while they would have the advantage of being “instantly established” according to Kilpatrick, they also would have to meet a high standard from day one.

But the went for it anyway and, in 2008, the duo opened their little bakery. They selected the perfect space, a green and white enamel building nestled between Watertown and Belmont that was owned by their friend Richard Kzirian, the owner of the neighboring Violette Wines. Not only was the building conveniently located near a collection of Middle Eastern specialty shops where high-quality ingredients like labneh, a strained yogurt like cheese,

could be found, but also a retro, architectural wonder that was one of the last of its kind in Boston. They named it Sofra, the Turkish word meaning a small rug for eating, for a picnic.

According to Sortun, she and Kilpatrick followed a “quirky model” for Sofra. Much like Oleana before it, located in the rapidly evolving Hampshire St. area, the two chefs worked the bakery’s “off the beaten path” location into its identity, allowing the restaurant to be driven by the community and become a true center of a changing neighborhood.

“The neighborhood has really developed behind Sofra,” Sortun said. “We like to kind of plant ourselves in an area that’s really moving and changing and growing, and really be a part of it so it’ll be something that everybody’s really proud of having in the neighborhood.”

But in the nine years since it first opened, Sofra’s reach has extended far beyond the immediate neighborhood it’s located in, a true embodiment of the ‘if you build it they will come’ phenomenon. Even as more and more restaurants featuring authentic Middle Eastern flavors have sprung up in Boston, diners keep flocking back to Sofra. They want to be part of a restaurant where the balance between healthy and decadent, between sweet and savory, is both fair and interesting, and where starting their day with cucumbers picked from Siena Farms, run by Sortun’s husband, is a real possibility.

“You’re eating cucumbers, you’re eating olives, you’re eating tomato, and you’re eating feta,” Sortun said. “It’s not cereal and a muffin or a bagel. We’re trying to introduce these different ways of eating breakfast, so having cucumbers in the morning is a great idea.”

With Sofra, Kilpatrick, and Sortun change the way that their customers eat, and the bakery changes along with them. Whether that means changing the tiny things, such as seating or adding a concierge-like server to answer question while customers wait in line, or combating the challenges of functioning in such a relatively small space, Sofra has evolved and thrived over the past nine years—a fact that makes both Kilpatrick and Sortun incredibly proud.

And as Sofra thrives, so too does the culinary scene in Boston. According to Kilpatrick, one of the best characteristics of Sofra’s current state is that the shop “give[s] other people opportunity,” fostering an interest in baking and exploring flavors in the next generation of pastry chefs.

“I want to be able to help another generation of pastry people in the city—here and at Oleana—and sort of grow and teach them because I did a lot of this work by myself so I can sort of like be a resource for other people.” Kilpatrick said. “And I feel like that’s a good place to be at.”

With Sofra, Kilpatrick and Sortun prove that food builds community, using flavors and stories to hold everything and everyone together as they shift and morph over time.

But some things will stay the same, like the beauty of eating cucumbers for breakfast. 