The Heights 11/07/2013

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2013 BASKETBALL PREVIEW

In honor of Movember, The Scene combs through celebrity facial hair, C1

Captain Joe Rahon and the Eagles look to break through in a loaded ACC this season as they set their sights on a return to the Big Dance in March, B1

SUPER STACHE BROS.

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 41

Fall Concert took $112,000 loss with lowest turnout in three years SA committee offers recommendations for future concert plans

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor

JORDAN PENTALERI / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

‘AHANA’ still relevant, alum argues

With a record-low attendance out of concerts in the last three years, this year’s Fall Concert lost $112,376, according to data provided by Isaac Akers, a senator in the UGBC Student Assembly (SA), co-chair of the Fall Concert Fact Finding Committee (FCFFC), and A&S ’16. With total ticket sales of 955, the concert brought in only $23,325 in revenue against $135,701 in expenses. This is the lowest revenue, and resulted in the most money lost, since the Spring Concert of 2010 brought in just $28,650 of revenue.

Although it is normal for UGBC concerts to lose money, the $112,376 that the 2013 Fall Concert lost is the most since the 2010 Spring Concert, which lost $131,394. By comparison, the more successful Fall Concerts in 2010 and 2012 lost $23,761 and $38,460, respectively; the 2011 and 2012 Spring Concerts lost $81,949 and $74,278, despite higher attendence at the latter.

On Tuesday, the FCFFC, created in September to “investigate the disappointments of the 2013 Fall Concert,” according to the SA resolution establishing the committee, released its findings at the weekly SA meeting. The report did not include the total cost of the concert or the effect of the shortfall in revenue on the programming department’s budget for the rest of the year. It mentioned the low ticket sales, but did not supply numerical data. Later, Akers provided specific revenues, expenses, and ticket sales for each of the last

MARTY WALSH CHOSEN AS BOSTON’S NEW MAYOR

Co-creator of acronym considers its importance

Students work to supplement Bystander ed Heights Staff

Assoc. News Editor

See AHANA Acronym, A3

See FCFFC, A3

BY JENNIFER HEINE

BY DEVON SANFORD “AHANA is not a club, it is not a name, it is not a distinction of a particular group or a person. It is an acronym.”

Valerie Lewis-Mosley, director of Catechetics and Youth Ministry at Christ the King Church New Jersey and BC ’79, returned to campus Tuesday evening to discuss the relevancy of the AHANA acronym in today’s society. Lewis-Mosley was one of two Boston College students who coined the AHANA term in the late 1970s.

“The A in AHANA stands for anyone who comes from the diaspora of the continent of African peoples,” Lewis-Mosley said. “The H, which also can be substituted for L, is for the Hispanic or Latino peoples that originate from their diaspora nations, which are a multiplicity of countries and even various continents. A is for all of those folk who originate from a diaspora of Asian nations. N is for natives peoples. And the American is not so much that each person may be documented American per se, but that we are folk living here, on these shores at this time, embracing our cultures.”

Lewis-Mosley originally introduced the term as a BC undergrad studying in the Connell School of Nursing. She and Alfred “Alfie” Feliciano, BC ’81, created the acronym in the fall of 1979 and received the approval of the Board of Trustees to change the “Minority Student Programs” to the “Office of AHANA (African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American) Student Programs.”

The AHANA acronym was trademarked by BC in 1991, and has since been used by dozens of higher education institutions, including Boston University, Seattle University, Emory University, Fairfield University, Cleveland State University, the University of Wisconsin, and LeMoyne College. The Office of AHANA Student Programs (OASP) now serves hundred BC students each year through its 23 regular programs, and reaches all students through events, presentations, outreach efforts, and collaboration with other BC departments.

When Lewis-Mosley first joined the BC community, a student programs office for minorities, multicultural, and multiracial students was nonexistent. Instead, there was the “Black Talent Program.”

“My relationship began several years before that when a Dominican nun told me about the Boston College scholarship program called the ‘Black Scholarship Program,’” Lewis-Mosley said. “It was a scholarship that was for the purpose of recruiting black students to attend this college for changing the fabric, the quilt if

six large-scale UGBC concerts.

“Simple math reveals that ticket sales were lower than in previous years, which translates into a shortfall in revenue,” the report read.

“It should be noted that great lengths were taken to scale the event to the ticket sales, saving thousands of dollars.” The report did not include specifics on how much was saved by scaling back the event.

Ticket sales of 955 indicate the lowest student participation in recent history. According to Akers, the least successful recent concert—the 2010 Spring Concert—sold 1,146 tickets and brought in $28,650, costing $160,044 overall. The 2010 Fall Concert, which was the best-attended concert among the six that Akers listed, brought in $120,000 in revenue on 4,800 tickets sold and cost $143,761.

Also well-attended was the Spring 2012

STEVEN SENNE / AP PHOTO

Walsh, WCAS ’09, edged out John Connolly in Tuesday’s election to secure the position of Boston’s next mayor. See C10 for more coverage.

Seeking to expand the Boston College Bystander Intervention Education beyond presentations, the program’s lead trainers Joseph Palomba, A&S ’15, and Andrea Giancarlo, CSOM ’15, along with graduate assistant Megan O’Hara, GSSW ’15, have begun to develop a program that will explore the concept of masculinity.

The Bystander program, under the umbrella organization of the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), boasts between 40 and 50 trainers each year who present strategies to prevent sexual assault and combat rape culture with various organizations on campus. In order to further this goal of fostering a culture in which rape and sexual assault can be discussed more openly on campus, Palomba hopes to open the conversation up to men.

“As an organization, we have 40 to 50 trainers, and I’d say under 10 are men,” he said. “So for me personally, it’s a direction I want to bring this program.” He hopes especially to bring the program to those without experience in these types of discussions. “The basic idea is not to preach to the choir, it’s to target the people who aren’t getting this message already,” he said.

For Palomba, the other men’s organizations on campus serve both as inspiration and possible partnership.

“A lot of solid men’s groups already exist, and a few that I’m still learning about, and so part of what I’m doing is just figuring out what those are, how they fit into the BC community and how my goals fit into what they do,” he said.

For instance, the Center for Student For-

See Bystanders, A3

York makes case for sportsmanship in hockey stands

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor Jerry York paced back and forth in the Boston College locker room, a bright light shining on the head men’s hockey coach as he rehearsed lines for a video on sportsmanship. There was a slight strain on his face, and his hands began to clench and release. He wanted to nail his next take.

“Just how Obama does it, right?” York asked the video crew, and the room let out a chuckle.

After hearing from his wife, family, assistant coaches, and fans about some of the profanity used in Conte Forum recently, York, along with the athletic department, decided to produce a video on the topic. He delivered an earnest message, which BC fans should see soon, on camera yesterday afternoon. Some of the team’s veterans—Brendan Silk, Teddy Doherty, Cam Spiro, Destry Straight, Peter McMullen, and Patrick Brown—were there for the

shoot, and they had their eyes locked on the coach throughout his speech.

York even made sure he had his patented blue notebook on hand, letting sports information director Mark Majewski run to grab it from his office after the first take felt wrong without it.

“We’ve got to do something about this,” York said, taking a quick break while the camera crew rearranged the setup.

York hadn’t heard any of the explicit cheers from the student sections, including the use of “f—” and other profanities, since he stays concentrated on the game, but enough people have told him about it that he thought the issue needed to be addressed.

“We’re among the world’s finest universities, so we’ve got to display that as far as how we treat other people and how we support our teams,” York said after the video shoot wrapped up. “I don’t think it

See Hockey Cheers, A3

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Members of the men’s hockey team gathered to shoot a video on sportsmanship.

TopTHREE

THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

A Guide to Your Newspaper

things to do on campus this week

1 2 3 Gov. Tom Ridge

GLBTQ Issues at BC

Today Time: 4:30 p.m.

Location: Heights Room

As a part of the Clough Colloquium, former governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge will be speaking about his experience as the first Homeland Security advisor and then first secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush.

Addie Smith

Today Time: 7 p.m.

Location: Cushing 001

UGBC is hosting a panel to address concerns about GLBTQ issues being a concern for the entire BC community. The panel will be comprised of student leaders from groups across campus and will show different student perspectives of the issues.

Friday Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Murray Function Room

As the opening to Native American Heritage Month, Addie Smith will be speaking about the Indian Child Welfare Act and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that has impacted Native American families. She works for the National Indian Child Welfare Association.

FEATURED EVENT

Author finds connection between CIA, fiction

BY SOO JUNG RHEE Heights Staff “I really thought that I’d go work for a place where they would give you false passports, get a Swiss bank account, right, and blocks and things like that,” said Joseph Finder, a New York Times bestselling author. “And it turned out that when I was recruited by the CIA, they brought me over to a sort of a cubicle and said, ‘this is where you will be sitting translating Russian economic journals from Russian to English.’ And I’m thinking there, ‘where’s the Glock?’ So basically, eventually I ended up writing about spies rather than being one.”

Finder, author of more than 10 thriller novels and short stories, including High Crimes and Paranoia, which were made into movies in 2002 and 2013, was invited by Boston College’s Stylus this Monday to give a brief talk to aspiring writers.

Laureate of Strand Critics Award and International Thriller Writers Award, Finder opened his story with an episode of him turning down a job offer from the CIA after he discovered that writing was a better fit for him. Following the renunciation of his fourth-grade dream of becoming a spy for the CIA, he studied at the Harvard Russian Research Center, where he read a letter from Vladimir Lenin to Armand Hammer. Struck by the irony of a capitalist CEO of a petroleum company exchanging friendly remarks with the leader of the Soviet

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS STAFF

Finder discussed his path from working for the CIA to being an author of spy fiction.

Union, Finder decided to write about the intriguing relationship between them.

With a $10,000 research fund, Finder visited Moscow, soon confirming that Hammer had worked for the KGB, the main security agency of the Soviet Union until its disintegration in 1991. Nervous about fiction, Finder instead resolved to write a non-fiction piece, which he quickly decided was not as exciting. In addition to threatening Finder to stop him from writing the book, Hammer offered Harvard a gift of $25 million under the condition that Finder’s work be destroyed—an offer which was readily rejected.

From this terrifying first experience of writing a book while fighting against

one of the most powerful business owners in the world as a 23-year-old college graduate, Finder overcame his fear of writing fiction. He read as many thriller novels as he could, taking notes and dissecting many interacting components of the books, but had to undergo numerous rejections until eventually finishing his first work of fiction in 1991, The Moscow Club. The imagined plot of a coup against Gorbachev actually took place six months after its publication.

“I hadn’t predicted this,” Finder said.

“I had really just sort of talked to people who were willing to talk to me because I was writing a fiction and not a non-fiction. And I discovered at that point that

POLICE BLOTTER

11/1/13-11/3/13

Friday, November 1 9:01 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a motor vehicle that was towed as a result of a registration violation from Campanella Way. 10:44 p.m. - A report was filed regarding an intoxicated person of legal age at the St. Ignatius Gate.

Saturday, November 2 1:28 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Corcoran Commons.

12:28 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated student on Campanella Way. 1:53 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a fire alarm

activation in Robsham Theater. The Boston Fire Department responded.

ported by ambulance to a medical facility from Vanderslice Hall.

1:51 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported by cruiser to a medical facility from Medeiros Hall.

Sunday, November 3

8:18 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an injured BC employee in Stuart Hall.

1:53 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a BC alumnus who was ejected from Alumni Stadium for possession of an alcoholic beverage.

Two professors at Occidental College have launched a Title IX complaint against the university for its handling of sexual assault issues on campus in the past few years. According to The Chronicle for Higher Education, Danielle M. Dirks and Caroline E. Heldman have begun a federal complaint because of the environment that the university has created for victims of sexual assault.

The report, which was initially filed in April, has caused controversy among faculty and administrators on campus. Because of the complaint, the faculty expressed— via a vote—no confidence in two administrators who handle sexualassault cases.

Heldman, an associate professor and chair of the political science department, has said that students have always turned to her for sup-

12:19 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated BC student who was transported by cruiser to a medical facility from Maloney Hall.

1:00 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Keyes North.

3:43 p.m. - A report was filed regarding the arrest of a non-BC affiliate from South Boston in the Lower Lots.

3:08 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Walsh Hall.

7:55 p.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was trans-

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor

I can actually find out a lot more by doing research for writing a novel than I could write a non-fiction.”

Finder continued to talk about his unique experiences with the movie business. From speaking with the president of 20th Century Fox regarding production of a movie based on one of his novels, which was never actually produced, to meeting Morgan Freeman in person during a shooting of High Crimes, his positive and negative experiences from the movie industry comprised the latter half of the lecture.

“I really learned how cool it was to be in a movie that I made up,” he said. “I’m sitting on the set of a courtroom that I designed in my head, and the set is exactly the way I described in the book.

Movies are cool, but to me, what was cooler was being able to actually be the complete boss of this narrative.” He also emphasized how the book is the only medium over which the writer has full control, while movies are hardly predictable when it comes to interpretation, characterization, and even their production possibilities.

The following question-and-answer session covered topics including the influence of movie adaptations on a writer’s creative power and the detailed process of publications of novels and research techniques. Finder concluded his hour-long talk by establishing a message for prospective writers. “If something can discourage you from writing, then you’re not a writer,” he said. “If you want to do it, nothing’s going to keep you from doing it.” 

port, which she believes is because of her examination of gender in class. Dirks, an assistant professor of sociology, began teaching at Occidental two years ago and has expressed only mild concern over signing the complaint without having the protection of tenure.

Last year, a group of students started meeting on Saturdays to investigate the university’s policies regarding sexual assault, eventually forming the Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition. They compiled accounts of victims of sexual assaults on campus and went public in February after a student reported being raped and the university did not alert the community about the attack.

Since they began their complaint, the university has made some changes, including offering more guidance to students on reporting sexual assaults. The university has also increased the time spent at orientation for new students in sexual assault education. 

The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467 Editor-in-Chief (617) 552-2223 Editorial General (617) 552-2221 Managing Editor (617) 552-4286 News Desk (617) 552-0172 Sports Desk (617) 552-0189 Metro Desk (617) 552-3548 Features Desk (617) 552-3548 Arts Desk (617) 552-0515 Photo (617) 552-1022 Fax (617) 552-4823 Business and Operations General Manager (617) 552-0169 Advertising (617) 552-2220 Business and Circulation (617) 552-0547 Classifieds and Collections (617) 552-0364 Fax (617) 552-1753 EDITORIAL RESOURCES News Tips Have a news tip or a good idea for a story?

Call Eleanor Hildebrandt, News Editor, at (617) 552-0172, or email news@bcheights. com. For future events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the News Desk.

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Clarifications / Corrections The Heights strives to provide its readers with complete, accurate, and balanced information. If you believe we have made a reporting error, have information that requires a clarification or correction, or questions about The Heights standards and practices, you may contact David Cote, Editor-in-Chief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

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The Heights is produced by BC undergraduates and is published on Mondays and Thursdays during the academic year by The Heights, Inc. (c) 2013. All rights reserved.

CORRECTIONS This correction is in reference to the issue dated Nov. 4, 2013, Vol. XCIV, No. 40.

In the article titled “Bostonians host Halloween a cappella show,” Paul Wagenseller was incorrectly said to sing Elvis’s “Burning Love.”

He actually sang “September” by Earth, Wind, & Fire.

VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What is your favorite Nickelodeon character from childhood?”

“Eliza Thornberry.”

—Maria Rodriguez, A&S ’15

“Spongebob Squarepants.”

—Ryan Shannon, A&S ’15

“Tommy Pickles.”

—Catherine Larrabee, A&S ’16

“Football head from ‘Hey Arnold.’”

—Collin Stansberry, A&S ’16

The Heights

Thursday, November 7, 2013

A3

York calls on fans to keep cheers classy

FCFFC focuses on future shows FCFFC, from A1 concert, which was more expensive—costing $214,678—but brought in $140,400 for the 4,680 tickets sold. The Spring Concert of 2011 had revenues of $46,800 on 2,340 tickets and cost $128,749. There was no concert in the fall of 2011, but the Fall Concert in 2012 had $112,530 in revenue for 2,751 tickets sold and cost $150,990. The Spring Concert in 2013 was also canceled, as UGBC pooled the allocated funds with the annual Modstock.

The report focused on recommendations to UGBC about how to improve programming in the future, and also made mention of the concert’s successes. According to the FCFFC report, the programming department—Denise Pyfrom, vice president of programming and A&S ’14; Timothy Koch, co-coordinator of concerts and A&S ’14; Melanie MacLellan, manager of on-campus programming and A&S ’14; and Michael Warren, co-coordinator of concerts and CSOM ’16—“held one of the best-produced concerts ever at BC.” “All technical aspects from the sound to the lighting to the seating arrangements were executed with near perfection,” the report read.

“Furthermore, there were zero transports from the concert. Boston College should applaud the efforts of this year’s on-campus programming branch and look forward to seeing the great events that this truly capable, experienced team has planned for the future.”

According to the FCFFC report, the committee’s first recommendation was that UGBC get more student input on the choice of artist for the concert.

“After having been given a short list of artists, we recommend that the programming branch send out a survey to the student body asking for their feedback on specific artists,” the report read. “This would ideally occur prior to the commencement of the programming branch’s negotiation process with artists.”

Their second point dealt with when the programming department should start planning the Fall Concert.

“We recommend that the Vice President Elect of Programming (herein VPEP) be given

the responsibility to have his or her team start planning the subsequent year’s fall concert and annual boat cruise,” the report read.

The FCFFC recommended that the vice president of programming begin preparations in the spring and begin working with the vice president elect, as soon as he or she is chosen, in order to smooth the transition and give the new vice president more experience ahead of the actual artist selection process.

Its third recommendation was not related to the concert, but rather dealt with the UGBC budget. The committee recommended that the president elect submit an outline of the budget to the chair of the finance committee for the first SA meeting. It suggested that the highest priority of the SA be to confirm the new staff and then the second priority be to confirm the budget for the following year. Its suggested timeline was that both of these be accomplished before the beginning of summer break.

For its fourth recommendation, the FCFFC assessed the combination of the Fall Concert with the Boat Cruise on the same weekend.

“Scheduling two major events in [the] same weekend is not recommended (as was the case with the Annual Boat Cruise and the Fall Concert, due to unavoidable circumstances and predetermined dates),” the report read. “However, if it is inevitable, more consideration should be given to the ticket prices for both events. The programming branch should seek creative solutions to alleviate the financial burden on students seeking to attend both events.”

The fifth recommendation was in regard to community relations and looking into other possible venues for the Fall Concert. The last recommendation was to encourage the Student Programs Office (SPO) to be more proactive in approving the artist.

To prepare the report, the FCFFC, led by co-chairs Akers and Thomas Napoli, A&S ’16, collected written testimony from Matt Nacier, UGBC president and A&S ’14; Matt Alonsozana, UGBC executive vice president and A&S ’14; Braedon Lord, UGBC aide-decamp and A&S ’15; Pyfrom, Koch, MacLellan, and Warren, before questioning them in the committee’s hearing. n

Trainers look to expand Bystander education ethic Bystanders, from A1 mation’s Freshman League, which joins freshman males and junior and senior “captains,” or mentors, engages its members in the same types of conversation Palomba hopes to promote. “They discuss a lot of issues on campus, everything from faith to classes to everyday life here at BC,” Palomba said. “That’s a really good base, that’s the kind of environment I want to create, in order to continue that conversation, not just for the few captain junior and senior men and the freshmen men involved, but the whole population.”

Palomba also found himself galvanized by the “Deconstructing Masculinity” panel held every C.A.R.E. (Concerned About Rape Education) Week, during which several speakers facilitate a guided discussion concerning the meaning of masculinity in contemporary society. “I’ve been both my freshman and sophomore years, and I really loved it, but as I’ve talked to some of the people who run the event, it sometimes seems like that event exists in a vacuum,” Palomba said.

He considers the goal of the new program to bring this type of discussion to a wider audience, perhaps through the same type of guided discussion with various figures on campus. “As far as the program goes, I’m looking to involve all sorts of campus resources that already exist, to continue the discussions that they have in smaller, intimate settings in a larger, more casual setting so that men can be in on the discussion too,” he said.

Palomba used the controversy of the Boston

College Confessions Facebook page’s infamous post No. 7122 as an example of the current state of ignorance.

“I think the reaction from people [about the post] is a really good indication of how little people know about the issue of sexual assault and rape on campus, on our campus in particular,” he said. “People live in this world of ‘this doesn’t happen here’ or ‘none of my friends would ever do this.’ It’s difficult to make the person in the post seem real. People picture rapists as people who jump out of bushes in the night. It’s hard to think of them as a part of our community.

“I had friends who’d never talked about this issue before, of rape and sexual assault, talking to me in class about it,” he said. “It shows that people all of the sudden see it as a real issue, something that can really happen. Even though it was a hoax, it’s a real issue, and this really happens on college campuses. It engages people into having that conversation. It demonstrates how little we know as a community, and how much there is left to gain and to learn by engaging in conversation.”

But Palomba acknowledges that these conversations won’t happen without the support of the BC community. “As a whole, it’s going to take a lot of work from a lot of different people, from faculty members and from a lot of different organizations, but I think that it really comes down to the students,” he said. “The program will only be what people make of it.”

“This isn’t really about me starting anything, it’s about having people on campus who really care about it, as well as people who are open to learning,” Palomba said. n

Hockey Cheers, from A1

photo courtesy of BCPD

BCPD officers offer free self-defense classes for the BC community through the RAD program.

BCPD offers RAD defense classes for men and women

By Sara Doyle For The Heights For members of the Boston College community looking to learn self-defense techniques, RAD programs are offered on campus free of charge. Lt. Christopher Santiago of the BC Police Department has been a RAD instructor for 12 years and oversees the program.

According to Santiago, 90 percent of defense is mental.

“We hope that you prepare yourself in such a way that you never have to get into physical contact with somebody,” Santiago said.

The classes are structured in four three-hour sessions, with the first session focusing on the educational piece.

Students watch videos, learn risk-reduction strategies, and discuss ways to get out of dangerous situations.

The second and third classes focus on teaching physical defense techniques, and the fourth involves a voluntary simulated attack in which students can practice against an assailant.

Lawrence Nadeau, a retired officer, started the RAD program in 1989 as a result of his daughter going to college.

“He felt there wasn’t a good balance of getting across education that students would pay attention to,” Santiago said.

“During orientation, you’re worried about so many other things. There needed to be a better delivery system to get across information for young women about the topic of sexual assault, and to give themselves some tools for defending themselves should they find themselves in a bad situation.”

Today, RAD has become an international program for self-defense.

There are different programs within RAD, in which the initials stand for different things. BC offers RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) for Women, and RAD (Resisting Aggression with Defense) for men. The men’s program is built similarly to the women’s program, but focuses on issues of domestic violence advocacy and social constraints that govern the ways in which men are expected to act.

“We talk a lot about social norming and issues regarding men in that sort of fashion,” said Santiago, citing the “men don’t cry” mentality. “What we’re really trying to teach men as opposed to women is teaching to avoid confrontation.”

Santiago said that he wishes more students would participate in the

program, citing different reasons why men and women take and don’t take the course.

“I think for men, some people may be embarrassed,” Santiago said. “They think, ‘Why do I need to take this?’

That’s exactly what the class tries to focus on in terms of social-norming.

For the women, there’s also that embarrassment piece. But my experience with female students is that most of them take a practical approach.

“Either their parents told them they had to take it or it’s a practical approach if they’re a senior, they probably don’t live at home, and they have the intention to live in a more urban environment for the first time. They’re trying to think ahead of things they can do to protect themselves as they enter the new environment.”

For those who do take the class, Santiago has found significant changes in the way women feel about themselves. “In terms of impact, there’s a resounding self-empowerment,” he said. “Everybody is uplifted, and feels better about themselves and a level of comfort with the techniques, that if they found themselves in a precarious situation they would be able to defend themselves.

“Many, many p e ople who have gone through my classes are survivors.

Some I can recognize the signs through their behaviors, others have privately shared that information with me. It’s a tremendous honor when somebody shares that with you.”

Santiago also noted the importance of the discussion for women, and said that the women in the class are able to learn from each other’s experiences and form a bond.

“It’s very interesting to see how an 18-year-old college freshman relates to a topic with a 40-, 50-, 60-year-old faculty member,” Santiago said. “The life experience changes so much of how they view particular threats. As an instructor, that type of dialogue between women in a safe environment teaches more that we ever could. It lets people learn for themselves.”

Students can find more information about signing up for the program at rad-systems.com, where they will find different sites around the country.

Once the course is completed, it can be taken again anywhere for free. At BC, there is no charge for the course, and students who complete it are still eligible to take it again elsewhere. n

needs to get to that junior high level, where you’re just dropping F-bombs.

“There’s got to be some more creativity to it.”

The use of profanity at games is not just a problem at BC, York noted. He hears some of the chants when the Eagles play away from Conte, and he knows how rough they can be, especially for one of the nation’s top teams—but he wants BC to be different.

“Some of the chants have been embarrassing, and I think some of our students feel the same way,” York said. “It’s not like we’re at East Podunk University. We’re at Boston College and we should represent this school, whether it’s at the rink or on the campus in any social activity, with a lot of class and a lot of dignity.”

York said the fan base should strive to reach the same goals as the schools’ teams. “‘Ever to excel’ is our motto, and I think we can reach for the loftiest goals as teams, whether it’s football or basketball or hockey or whatever, but our fan base should be the same way,” he said. “They should be very supportive, loud, creative, and very supportive of our home Eagles.”

Although the students are the loudest and most prevalent part of the arena crowd during games, York said they have to be aware of the rest of the audience as well.

He referenced the small children, their parents, and the alumni in attendance, who don’t want to hear explicit cheers.

“They’re not going to be as loud or boisterous,” York said. “But they’re coming to every game and supporting our Eagles.”

That doesn’t mean he’s against a few jabs at the visitors, though, especially the traditional sieve chant. He’s more concerned with the profanity than anything else.

“I love the sieve chant,” York said. “I think that’s a great chant. We’ve played at a lot of college hockey venues that have funny chants, you know, but they’re not all derogatory statements toward us. Now certainly some do, but I’d like us to display the type of education that we’re gaining right now.”

Conte Forum has been packed for the Eagles’ first home games this season, breaking the student attendance record in the opener against Wisconsin. York remembers when the crowds were a decent size, but not nearly as energetic as they are now, after four national championships since 2001.

“It’s been unbelievable,” York said. “For years we had a pretty good crowd that sat on its hands. Now we’ve got a very responsive, very knowledgeable crowd. They know penalty kills, they know power plays, they know good hits, good defensive plays.

We’re a knowledgeable fan base, so now I’d like to see us be a little more supportive rather than derogatory.”

Before he left the locker room, York, holding a water bottle in one hand and a Dunkin Donuts coffee in the other, started to ask what things are like at Bruins, Celtics, and Patriots games. He asked what else he, his team, and the department can do.

He kept searching for answers.

“The peer group has to handle this,” York said. “The peer group is the most important. The administration, certainly, and the coaching staffs and our sports information office are all reaching out, but ultimately it’s going to be the peer group that puts us in which direction it puts us. So I guess we’re just appealing to the students to represent ourselves in a classy manner—but we certainly like loud boisterous crowds.” n

Lewis-Mosley asserts AHANA acronym’s continued relevance at BC AHANA Acronym, from A1 you may, so that it was more inclusive of what our society looked like.”

Lewis-Mosley was recruited as a student in the Black Talent Program, and during her time at BC, assisted in student recruitment, financial aid allocation, housing, and disciplinary procedures for AHANA students.

When BC chose to reorganize the program and rename it the Minority Student Education Program, a number of students raised objections. Lewis-Mosley was one of them.

“AHANA became not just an academic endeavor that provided scholarship and admission to this program,” Lewis-Mosley said. “It was a family endeavor in protecting the young ones who came, providing them a safety net. It was a cultural experience to discover who you were and whose you were as an African, Latino, Asian, Native American people.”

When asked by Alex Sarabia, the facilitator for Tuesday’s event, chairman of the AHANA Leadership Council of UGBC and A&S ’15, if the AHANA name is still relevant

today, Lewis-Mosley referred to the most recent Miss America winner, Nina Davuluri, who is of Indian decent.

“Whether the lovely woman who won was Muslim, Islamic, or Christian, I don’t know and I don’t care,” Lewis-Mosley said. “She won that crown legitimately. The stuff that I saw on social media speaks to the fact that yes, the term AHANA is very relevant for today. She was called everything but the child of God that she is, simply because she was Indian.”

Lewis-Mosley urged the audience to celebrate, not ignore, differences in culture and ancestry.

“If you really want to do justice to anyone you engage [with], you want to be able to know their culture,” Lewis-Mosley said. “You want to be able to celebrate their culture. We are not a melting pot, and I don’t want us to be, because to assimilate something is to melt it down to its least common denominator. How boring would that be?”

Sarabia asked if Lewis-Mosley believed that the AHANA acronym perpetuates selfsegregation.

“We need to look at the legitimacy that

AHANA student affairs is there to build support, to help those students who may need it,” Lewis-Mosley said. “Every single person who walks on this campus does not have the confidence to walk through these valleys and these hills by themselves. They need a support service—they need to know there is somewhere they can go that is a safe haven.”

Sarabia then opened the conversation to the audience.

Nanci Fiore-Chettiar, A&S ’15, asked about the last letter of the acronym, “Americans.” Fiore-Chettiar said that Lewis-Mosley’s definition is unlike anything she had heard before. Other students asked Lewis-Mosley about how AHANA should be used with faculty and administrators, and how students not directly involved in the AHANA community could still participate.

FACES, an organization committed to educating the BC community on the issues of race, then led small group discussions.

Students discussed the need for the AHANA acronym to be properly explained and the importance in introducing the acronym sooner to students.

emily fahey / heights staff

Valerie Lewis-Mosley, BC ’79, discussed the AHANA acronym with Alex Sarabia, A&S ’15.

In her closing remarks, Lewis-Mosley reiterated the relevancy of AHANA. She discussed the sesquicentennial alumni book that was recently released and how, in the timeline of BC events, there was not a single mention of a milestone or achievement by a

person of color.

“That’s why it’s relevant,” she said. “When I can look at the 150th alumni celebration and not see myself, or any other person of color— black, Latino, Asian—represented on these pages, that’s how I know it’s relevant.” n

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Paul Elie discusses the relevancy of Bach

Airline interference

By Kayla Famolare Heights Staff

Daniel Lee When I visited Amazon.com to buy some books, I found its main page a little ridiculous—it put the Kindles on sale by saying, “Thank You, FAA.” On Oct. 31, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced its decision to allow all airlines to permit the use of electronic devices on board during all stages of flight.

I have two empirical qualifications to criticize this new decision: one as a frequent traveler, and another as a person who has a great interest in aerospace industries and technologies. I have flown on a minimum of four international flights every year, and more domestic flights, since I was little.

Takeoff and landing are the most crucial phases of a flight. During these phases, pilots have less response time and less control over potential emergencies. During takeoffs planes are in full throttle—during landings planes are in idle throttle at the last seconds. Electronic interference in any bad weather conditions can be critical to the safety of everyone on board.

For instance, pilots use autopilot for landing when landing visibility is low.

Electronic microwaves could interfere with the Instrumental Landing System (ILS), which is composed of the localizer (LOC) and the glide slope (GS).

The reason pilots turn off the cabin lights during takeoffs and landings is to give passengers and crews some time to adjust to darkness in case of any potential emergency. The reason flight crews ask window passengers to pull up the shades is to have extra eyes on the aircraft’s exterior for a possible default, just as Air Traffic Control (ATC) sometimes gives a visual confirmation for landing aircrafts on whether their landing gears are fully extended. The reason passengers were asked to turn off their electronic devices was to dismiss any potential interference with the electronic aviation equipment in the cockpit.

Another reason passengers had to wait until touchdown was to reduce their response time, and the chaos that might follow if they had to evacuate.

Despite the continual ban on the use of voice calls and text messages— cell phones may be on, but still must be in airplane mode—the concern of possible radio wave interference still remains because the crews have no practical way to make a distinction between the airplane modes and network modes of passengers’ phones. I have sat next to people who kept their phones on during takeoffs and landings—some were even texting. I’ve both told them to turn it off, and remained silent—the result was same. These kinds of people didn’t care about the rules and the safety of other people. The current rule can’t even fully control the use of potential interferers, and the FAA lifted the regulation in the absence of certain technological breakthroughs.

Aircrafts have been improving to become radio wave-proof, but are not perfect yet.

Behind the scenes, there have been lobbies from the electronics producers, such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. What really bothers me is the fact that the safety-first FAA gave in to these commercial lobbyist groups, ranking them over safety. The demand for change is, of course, something we need to consider in the world of instant information, but the policy implementation still seems a little early, especially when the policy proposal hasn’t entailed specific technological breakthroughs and practical methods to regulate on board.

Some say that the new policy will save their reading time at flight levels below 10,000 feet (FL100—where the captain turns the seat belt sign on).

But consider this: the flight time below FL100 is only about 40 minutes at maximum. The policy implementers will face obstacles during and after the policy implementation. My biggest concern is the risk of passenger safety. Considering the scale of a potential aviation accident, both passengers and aviators should stay conservative in changes. We can wait another 40 minutes without our little distractions.

Daniel Lee is a senior-staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

Drew hoo / Heights Staff

Americans for Informed Democracy hosted ‘Freedom and National Security’ last night, featuring three BC professors.

BC professors question surveillance

By Connor Farley Heights Editor On Monday night, Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) of Boston College hosted a panel of three professors—Paul Christensen and Jennifer Erickson of the Political science department, and Rev. Charles Gallagher, S.J., of the history department—to discuss matters of national security, specifically regarding recent government-related information revealed by former CIA employee Edward Snowden.

The event, titled “Freedom and National Security,” sought to prompt discussion between students and faculty regarding the federal government’s role in intelligence gathering, the extent to which the NSA should exercise civilian surveillance, and whether or not classified data leaks like Snowden’s are justified.

Gallagher opened the event by presenting the audience with three historical cases of what he termed “data dumps” (major leaks of highly sensitive government data from a single individual) and “non-adversarial spying” (spying on allies), and how those two facets of publically disseminating classified information parallel that of Snowden.

“I look at event’s like [Snowden’s] from a historical perspective,” he said.

The cases profiled three individuals: Herbert Yardley, an American cryptologist and WWI code breaker who later divulged the secret activities of MI-8 in his book The American Black Chamber; Tyler Kent, a cipher clerk for the U.S. State Department in Moscow arrested in 1940 for espionage after decoding sensitive telegrams between Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt; and Philip Agee, an exCIA case officer who exposed the names of over 250 clandestine CIA agents in his book Inside the Company: CIA Diary, and exchanged information with the KGB and the Intelligence Directorate of Cuba for payouts.

Each of the three incidents

resulted in new legislative measures—including a 1933 amendment to the Espionage Act prohibiting the disclosure of foreign code, or anything sent in code in response to Yardley, and the creation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, otherwise known as the “Anti-Agee Act”—that further regulated dispersion of government information.

“These are all operations of what I call major data dumps of U.S. secret data into the light of day, and each one has different consequences,” he said. “What I’m waiting for is what’s going to be the consequence of this Snowden situation.”

Christensen, a specialist in Russian domestic politics and civil society, related intelligence leaks to modern political systems, particularly Russia’s, and identified how acts like Snowden’s might actually help U.S. relations with allied countries in the long run.

Current U.S. and Russian attitudes toward spying, he said, are largely remnants from the Cold War, and are traceable to a period in history when covert intelligence gathering was a product of the military tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

“During the Cold War, a logic— very much like the logic that has dominated American political discourse since 9/11—also was dominating, and that is if you’re not with us, you’re against us,” he said. “What this meant was that both sides of the Cold War were led to massively expand the secret role. Both sides spied on each other and both sides spied on their allies—not to mention spying on their own people. “[Spying] led to the undermining of democratic politics in allied countries … and led to a climate of fear and suspicion in our own country,” Christensen said.

Christensen also addressed the potential problems posed by secretive, unfettered government surveillance, and why acts like Snowden’s help minimize the NSA’s reach.

“I think it’s fair to say these

[national security] programs are evidence of the fact that we are increasingly living in a surveillance state,” he said, speaking from his experiences living in Russia. “What makes a surveillance state work, and what is the scariest part of it, is that you don’t know who might be a spy or an informant, or what will cause you to run afoul of the authorities … And the reason you don’t know is because there are no mechanisms for you to find out—no transparency, no checks and balances from other parts of the state or society, no accountability.”

Erickson, a researcher in the fields of international security and political economy, also addressed how an unchecked and non-transparent NSA could actually become counterintuitive to its mission of combating terrorism.

“How much privacy should the government expect?” she asked.

“We talk a lot about our personal privacy. I think it’s also important to talk about the kind of privacy the government can expect.”

Erickson argued that unrestrained national security programs could destroy U.S. relations with allied countries, and in doing so might lessen shared intelligence on terrorist efforts between countries: “In the long run this could actually cause harm to our counterterrorism programs if our allies are less willing to share information with [the U.S.],” she said.

The event concluded with a Q&A session, but the conversation between students and panelists maintained the theme of an over-reaching national security program and the danger it poses to individual freedom.

“And that is what makes me the most nervous about the entire NSA and FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] program,” Christensen said on the invisibility of intelligence gathering and civilian spying, “and why, off balance, Snowden has done us all a favor in the long run.” n

Closing out this semester’s Lowell Humanities Series, author Paul Elie of Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, discussed the connection between the transcendent, the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, and our experience of listening to music as he discussed his recent work, Reinventing Bach. The key to making these connections, Eli claimed, is technology.

In Reinventing Bach, Elie tells the stories of influential artists that have renewed Bach’s music, giving the pieces relevance in our time through re-creation and collaboration with other artists using various technologies. In doing so, listeners are able to form their own experiences and interpretations, specifically with the transcendent.

Elie began his discussion with the backstory of Walker Percy, a “Christian-minded segregationist,” as Elie described, and how his experience of listening to Bach’s music on a phonograph, “the state of the art record at its time,” with his Uncle Willie allowed him to experience the transcendent.

“Music can convey the deepest and most human feelings,” Elie said. This allowed for Percy to “propagate new ways of thinking and reflect about the ways of the old south.”

Elie continued to speak of R o b e r t Jo h n s o n , re n o w n e d blue s singer and mu sic i an, and one of the first musicians to learn guitar from records.

“Years later, he made the first full recording of Bach,” Elie said. “[Johnson] reinvented the works by traditional musicians with today’s technologies … in order to reinvent Bach’s music.”

Throughout his talk, Elie emphasized the importance of recordings, which facilitated the sharing of Bach’s music, with Johnson as a pioneer.

Bach himself, Elie said, was one of the most technologically advanced composers of the 18th century. Elie described Bach as an “organist, keyboardist, cantor, music director” and a frequent user of the pipe organ found in most churches he arranged in, which Elie said is, “the most complicated piece of technology that people would have seen in Germany during that era.”

“Bach can also be seen as an inventor,” Ellie said. “He invented aspects of classic rhetoric in his new ways of creating and performing pieces.”

Elie commented on the mixed reviews of Reinventing Bach, arguing that many critics did

not even highlight the first part.

He questioned why the connection was not made between his discussion of the transcendent in part one and the sharing of more contemporary interpretations in part two. “Catholics, for one, don’t know much about Bach,” Elie said.

“They have a hard time relating spirituality to technology, often wanting to keep the two separate.

We can’t if we want to understand the connection between Bach and spirituality.”

Elie discussed the connection between Bach’s music and spirituality and how his own experience echoes the experiences of Bach.

“Many of Bach’s organ works coincide to represent events in the church calendar … as he supervised two church musical ministries,” Elie said. He continued by describing his usual routine of listening to Bach on his way to his own job, and how he eventually realized that the duration of his trip to work usually lasted about the time of one of Bach’s pieces.

“My experience of walking to work with Bach in my head was in Bach’s own experience of walking between churches several times a day … through his tempo of a brisk walking pace,” he said.

“My book is about experience, the nature of experience, the experience of beliefs and how that takes root in our lives,” Elie said.

“The protagonists [of part one] render that experience in others …

In the Catholic faith, we take the experience of others and model our own lives around it.”

It is through other’s experiences of music made by artists such as Bach, Elie said, that many hope to share with others: “The transcendence allows us to leave ourselves, and in my experience, that is accomplished through my listening of Bach,” he said. It is through technology that artists are able to do so.

Yo-Yo Ma, world-renowned musician, has displayed his powerful experiences of listening to Bach by performing his pieces virtually everywhere, from concerts to live performances, and has more recordings in order to share with even more listeners.

After experiencing the transcendent through his listening of Bach, Steve Jobs showcased Bach’s pieces when presenting the iPad, Elie said.

“Without experience, there is no Bach,” Elie said. “Many people come to the music of Bach looking for new things, hoping to find different things,” especially in regard to spirituality, he said.

Elie said that Bach’s music acts as “spirituality technology,” as listeners use it as a tool for discovering their own experiences with the transcendent. n

Exhibition details experiences of grad, others in the Iraq War

By Scott Bailey For The Heights Members of the Boston College community gathered in the basement of the BC Law School on Tuesday night to hear three men engage in an honest discussion of their experiences in the Iraq War during the early 2000s. Tim McLaughlin, BC Law ’09, a first lieutenant during the war, teamed up with Peter Maass, a war journalist, and Gary Knight, a war photographer, and presented a powerful exhibition of McLaughlin’s diary entries from the war, Maass’ accounts, and Knight’s photos.

All three men, admittedly changed people after their experiences, had a similar motive for putting together an exhibit like this—discourse. “The purpose of it isn’t to tell you what to think,” McLaughlin said. “This isn’t a left or a right, a Republican or Democrat thing. The purpose of the project is to add another voice into the conversation that’s reality-based and doesn’t take a point of view.”

McLaughlin’s recounting of the events doesn’t spare his audience much detail. “It is what it is,” McLaughlin said. “I hope when you look at [the exhibit] you’re horrified.

That’s what it is.” McLaughlin doesn’t want to glorify what he’s done—he simply wants to let people know what goes on behind the newsreels.

Knight, who has dedicated his life to capturing the essence of moments

with his camera, said about his goal in the project, “[The exhibit] gives us an opportunity to engage in a different conversation and to add a little bit more context and perspective to that brief period of that war.” This idea of contextualizing that which civilians do not usually understand ran strong throughout the panel.

The exhibit itself was created through Maass, as part of a story that aimed to reconstruct that day in Firdos Square when the statue of Saddam Hussein was so famously taken down. Among the details he wanted to know was whose flag had been put on Saddam’s face in that iconic moment. “I very easily found out that it was this guy named Tim McLaughlin,” Maass said. “I contacted him and we had a nice conversation.”

The conversation fell silent, though, for a few years before Maass resumed McLaughlin’s story, joining him on a trip to McLaughlin’s native New Hampshire to see the actual flag that had covered Saddam’s face in Firdos Square. It was on that trip that McLaughlin opened a chest of his Iraq War memories. In it were diaries that literally still contained sand from Iraq—they hadn’t been opened since he had left. It is in the pages of these diaries that this exhibit rests.

As unique as the exhibition’s genesis is the way in which it gained its financial legs. Knight pointed out

that there was little institutional interest in funding the exhibit.

“The museums weren’t very interested at all,” Knight said. “And the marines didn’t want to fund it.”

Undeterred, the three men turned to Kickstarter, an online platform that allows its users to crowdfund their projects. “We reaped the benefit of having it be ours,” said McLaughlin. “We didn’t have to worry about what some other money source wanted it to be.

We had freedom.”

Consisting of poster-sized diary pages as well as Knight’s photos and excerpts from Maass’s writings, the exhibit is captivating and honest.

In the pages lay stories, lists, handdrawn maps, letters, and poems.

They offer an unparalleled look into the life of a man caught on the forefront of one of America’s most confusing wars.

McLaughlin sought to drive home a single point as each of the men offered their closing remarks.

“For so many people [when they come home] there’s nothing to catch them. And then all of a sudden there’s nothing. There aren’t as many people who are as lucky as I am, and I try very hard [to help them].”

McLaughlin is currently the president of the board of directors for Shelter Legal Services, which provides pro-bono legal counsel to low-income and homeless veterans. n

erin fitzpatrick / Heights Staff

McLaughlin, BC Law ’09, and two others presented diary entries and photos.

CLASSIFIEDS

The Heights The Heights

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Community Help wanted $$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through California Cryobank’s donor program. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply online: SPERMBANK.com.

Personal Assistant needed to organize and help.

Basic computer skills needed, good with organization. Willing to pay $300 per week. Interested person should contact: lizzyjones06@ outlook.com.

Personal Assistant needed to organize and help.

Basic computer skills needed, good with organization. Willing to pay $300 per week. Interested person should contact: aadrain11@aol. com.

Directions: The Sudoku is played over a 9x9 grid. In each row there are 9 slots, some of which are empty and need to be filled.

Each row, column and 3x3 box should contain the numbers 1 to 9. You must follow these rules: · Number can appear only once in each row · Number can appear only once in each column · Number can appear only once in each 3x3 box · The number should appear only once on row, column or area.

That 9 dollar lunch is worth more than you think.

Like 19,000 dollars more.

Pack your own lunch instead of going out. $6 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $19,592. That could be money in your pocket.

Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.

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FCFFC fails to hold UGBC accountable

Thursday, November 7, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

-Winston Churchill (1874-1965), prime minister of the United Kingdom

Report neglects shortcomings in concert execution, fails to propose concrete suggestions for future success In September, the Student Assembly (SA) passed a resolution to establish a Fall Concert Fact-Finding Committee (FCFFC) that would investigate the “disappointments” of the recent Fall Concert featuring Moe Pope and O.A.R., which sold just 955 of the nearly 5,000 available tickets and resulted in a loss of more than $110,000. At the time, the establishment of a fact-finding committee seemed to be a step forward for UGBC in terms of transparency and accountability. The hope was that the FCFFC would speak with those involved in the planning and execution of the concert, determine where mistakes were made, and then specifically report on and posit solutions for those mistakes.

The report, which was released on Tuesday, begins by applauding the work of the programming department for putting on “one of the best-produced concerts ever at BC.” The report delivered by the FCFFC lauded the accomplishments of UGBC, celebrating the success of the show in terms of sound production, seating arrangement, and lighting. Leaving aside the fact that most of the work involved in these aspects is out of the hands of UGBC—being arranged either by Conte Forum’s intrinsic set-up, or by the technical teams of each performer—these should be seen as basic expectations for holding a successful concert, not as accomplishments. This section of the report can be summarized in rightly saying that the concert, for those who attended it, was a technical success. The music did not cut out, the lights did not fail, and everyone had a seat with a view of the stage.

While definitions of success may vary, it seems that student interest should play at least some role in determining how successful a concert is, however.

The next, shorter, section of the report claims that “it would be ignoble of UGBC to only reflect on what was done well.” Yet the section provides no specifics of shortcomings on the part of UGBC, other than coming to the obvious conclusion—based on “simple math”—that the concert lost money, without specifically reporting the amount lost.

Overall, the fact-finding committee found—or at least reported—very few facts. The report makes several reasonable and appropriate suggestions for improvements to future Fall Concerts, which hopefully will be taken

into consideration by UGBC during its next programming venture. Many of these suggestions are common sense ideas that will hopefully be met with little opposition. Yet many of them still fail to be specific enough. As an example, one suggestion points out that “scheduling two major events in the same weekend is not recommended,” but the report fails to provide specific solutions should such an occurrence be unavoidable, instead proposing that “the programming branch should seek creative solutions.”

Either way, suggestions are not facts. Here are some: 955 tickets to the concert were sold. The concert resulted in a net loss of more than $110,000, or about $115 per student in attendance at the concert. It is important to note, however, that no large-scale concert hosted by UGBC in recent memory has resulted in a profit, and they are generally not expected to. Hosting a concert on campus is an investment that costs money but entertains the student body.

The fact remains, however, that this was the most poorly attended concert in recent memory. The exceptionally low ticket sales are indicative of a failure to attract a wide audience from the entire student body, which UGBC claims to represent, and could potentially endanger future programming ventures, either from lack of funds or from lack of student interest.

While the fall concert was not a success, UGBC does host successful programs. The Macklemore show at Modstock last spring was overwhelmingly successful, bringing to campus a popular, mainstream artist that attracted a huge crowd and much excitement.

On a more regular basis, programs by BC2Boston and the other divisions of UGBC, such as Heritage Programming and Student Initiatives, succeed in entertaining students, starting important conversations, or both. The limits on the programming department in terms of available weekend nights in Conte Forum, available artists, and available funds are all very real and should be taken into account. Yet without an analysis of the real, specific problems and facts of the concert—namely, why so few students bought tickets, and how that problem can be rectified in the future—the FCFFC failed to live up to its name.

HEIGHTS FILE

To fight sexual assault, culture must change With more participation, Bystander Intervention and RAD can help foster a climate that prevents assault Post No. 7122 on the now-retired Boston College Confessions Facebook page, which detailed three alleged sexual assaults, sparked a discussion on campus about the prevalence and seriousness of rape and assault in a college setting. This conversation centered in large part around the resources available at BC for victims of assault—the Sexual Assault Network (SANet), the Women’s Resource Center, BCPD, and the Office of Residential Life, to name a few.

While the value of these resources cannot be overstated, the BC community must not only consider sexual assault in terms of its aftereffects—more attention should be paid to ways in which the University’s culture can be shaped to prevent assaults in the first place.

Some programs are already in place to combat assault, and are open to all.

The free RAD programs, run by BCPD, include tracks for both men and women.

The women’s course, Rape Aggression Defense, focuses on self-defense techniques. While sexual assault is never the victim’s fault, the course can help women feel better prepared to defend themselves. The men’s track, Resisting Aggression with Defense, focuses more on ways to avoid physical conflict and to change social norms surrounding gender

roles and violence. BCPD should make an effort to publicize the classes more widely, and male students in particular should be encouraged to attend—a perception that the classes are only relevant to women may be preventing more male students from taking part.

An effort should also be made to expand the existing Bystander Intervention program so that it reaches more students—for example, including the program in Orientation. These programs have been proven effective, and all students could benefit from learning ways in which their actions can prevent assault.

Beyond programs and classes, which are inherently limited, the BC community should cultivate other ways in which to address the culture surrounding rape and assault. Preventing sexual assault does not only mean intervening when someone is directly in harm’s way—it can also mean, for example, taking a stand against rape jokes, which desensitize people to the issue.

The issue of rape and sexual assault is serious and directly or indirectly affects a staggering percentage of college students. Each member of the University can and should take steps not only to support victims, but also to create a culture that stops assaults long before they can happen.

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 DAVID COTE, Editor-in-Chief JAMIE CIOCON, General Manager JOSEPH CASTLEN, Managing Editor

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The Heights welcomes Letters to the Editor not exceeding 400 words and column submissions that do not exceed 700 words for its op/ed pages.

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Submissions must be signed and should include the author’s connection to Boston College, address, and phone number. Letters and columns can be submitted online at www.bcheights.com, by email to editor@bcheights.com, in person, or by mail to Editor, The Heights, 113 McElroy Commons, Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467.

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The Heights

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A new career calling for Edward Snowden The age of apathy Matt Auker Panini Party - Anyone who is a regular reader of this column knows that we are huge fans of the Rat. In this Thumbs Up, however, we shall focus on a particular aspect of the Rat which pleases us immensely: the panini press. Any panini press deserves this Thumbs Up, actually.

Firstly, they make any sandwich 10 times better, and there is no denying that. Cheese is always better when it’s melted. And pressing down the top and hearing the sizzle of your sandwich as the cheese melts and becomes the delicious glue of that assembly of previously mediocre ingredients that with merely the application of heat have transformed into a delectable meal, is definitely the best part of our lunch time. Pro tip: Panini the turkey and swiss on multigrain, but take the lettuce out before so it doesn’t wither and lose the crunch that just really makes the sandwich, you know? Clearly we don’t think about this too much at all.

Odorous Surprise - It randomly smelled like a campfire outside of Higgins/Devlin/Fulton yesterday, and we loved it. We cannot explain it, but it was like the statue of St. Ignatius was delivering to the throngs of Jesuit-educated students scurrying about him carrying his legacy, a little gift from the man upstairs by emitting this most pleasant of aromas.

Celebrate TOday- We would like to take this time to recognize today, Nov. 7, which is one of the most overlooked days of the Gregorian calendar. In honor of this day, we present to you some fun facts about Nov. 7, according to Wikipedia: Nov. 7 is the 311th day of the year. There are 54 days left in the year. This day was the official October Revolution Day of the former Soviet Union.

In the year 644, the Islamic caliph Umar died on Nov. 7. Amelia Vega, a Dominican model and Miss Universe 2003, claims Nov. 7 as her birthday, as do the unstoppable twin duo of Jason and Jeremy London, of Dazed and Confused and 7th Heaven fame, respectively.

rING RING - One of the precious few bad things about going home is once again residing in a place with a land line. Those things are the worst. You actually have to stand up to answer them most of the time (unless you happen to be located right next to the phone when it starts to ring, which always makes you disproportionately excited and infinitely more willing to answer the phone), and, if your phone is old school, it doesn’t even tell you who’s calling. How did people live like that? Especially because most of the people who call your land line don’t even know you, or anyone you live with. So essentially, it is a device that exists solely to make you stand up when you don’t want to and enable people you don’t know to contact you and try to sell you things you don’t need and/or want. oH nO! iT’S cOLD!- The cold is officially upon us. We were all abruptly reminded at the end of this weekend just how quickly and dramatically Boston’s weather can change. And we were not pleased. Suddenly, we were thrust into a world in which being outside is a punishment and to be avoided at all costs. We were struck with the horrific realization that soon the beautiful fall foliage will be gone, and our Instagram feeds will be blanketed with white instead of red, yellow, and orange. Buckle up everyone, here comes the cold.

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News broke last week that Edward Snowden, the whistleblower behind the NSA policy leaks, has gotten a job at a major Russian website while he spends his year of granted asylum in Russia. While Snowden was known to be very adept with computers during his time at the NSA, perhaps a better position for him would have been in a company’s public relations department. I say this because the manner in which Snowden has interacted with the press and foreign officials since he fled the U.S. to Hong Kong has been nothing short of masterful.

For those of you who haven’t been closely following the Snowden situation, here’s how the past several months have played out. Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian newspaper, who is Snowden’s confidant and the man responsible for actually leaking the NSA spying reports, will release whatever the revelation du jour of the week is through either The New York Times, The Guardian, or the German newspaper Der Spiegel. This can be anything from the NSA attacking Google or Yahoo data centers to glean private information about U.S. citizens, to NSA employees using their privileged hacking capabilities to monitor former love interests. I’ll leave this to your imagination because as it turns out, if you can imagine it, the NSA has probably done it.

Once Greenwald releases the latest news, there’s a media flurry, followed by flat-out denials from whomever the accused party is—examples so far have included director of National Intelligence James Clapper, senator Diane Feinstein,

and various world leaders. After a satisfactory level of repudiation has been reached, Snowden and Greenwald will release more information proving the defending parties wrong. Backtracking commences, crow is eaten, etc. And while each release hasn’t been dominating the media headlines as when they first started emerging, they have each been carefully timed to maximize impact and have succeeded in keeping the NSA spying revelations at the forefront of government and media discourse throughout the world.

The most recent example of Snowden’s brilliant manipulation comes with the allegations that the NSA has been tapping the personal phone communications of close U.S. ally German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Let me preface the kicker to this story by explaining in the clearest possible terms that every country with the capacity to spy on other countries, including its strongest allies, does. This has been the case since before World War I, and any reasonably informed world leader should expect that they are being spied on. The supposed outrage coming from countries that have been revealed to be victims of the NSA is either out of a desire for political points or ignorance. For example, the Brazilian government, which has been one of the most outspoken critics of U.S. spying, acknowledged on Monday that its top intelligence agency has spied on diplomats from the U.S., Iran, and Russia. Surprise, surprise: governments with intelligence capabilities spy on one another.

Which brings me back to the current Merkel situation and how masterfully Snowden manipulates circumstances to the promotion of his cause. Merkel was absolutely incensed at the prospect of the U.S. spying on her, even personally calling Obama to demand an explanation. And how did Snowden react? By sending an open letter to the German government offering to testify to the German parlia-

ment about the supposedly traitorous NSA practices, on the condition that he is granted asylum. So while Merkel has been soaking in the political admiration of her people for standing up to the evil U.S. spying methods, she now has to put up or shut up. If she truly were that upset, the German government would find a way to get Snowden to Germany. Obviously she is not willing to grant the United States’ public enemy No. 1 political asylum.

Snowden knew there was no chance for that. But by staggering the releases of the revelation of U.S. spying on Merkel and the letter offering to testify, Snowden and his handlers allowed Germany to play the victim before showing its complete unwillingness to actually act on its “outrage.” And while this has not yet been confirmed, many are speculating that the German government has been complicit in some of the spying conducted by the NSA. Would anyone be that surprised if that turned out to be the next leak from Greenwald and company?

This type of scenario has become commonplace from the Snowden camp over the last several months. Stagger revelations of intelligence misconduct to maximize their impact and paint an increasingly clearer picture of global cooperation among governments in monitoring their citizens. Whatever you may think of Snowden, whether he is a hero or a traitor, an objective observer has to admit that he has been very shrewd in manipulating the reactions to the leaks to his advantage.

The entire process has been on his and Greenwald’s terms, with various intelligence agencies and diplomatic leaders consistently backtracking, forced to react defensively, and most likely in fear of what damaging information the next revelation might bring.

Matt Auker is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

No country for old music Tessa Mediano If you’ve been to a sporting event in Beantown in the last 10 years, chances are you’ve heard the energy-pacing riff of the Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.” The song rapidly rouses a crowd, not that we need it: the success of virtually every major-league sports team in the hub has all but guaranteed the best fans in the country. However, while the Quincy rockers undoubtedly convey that Southie sensibility, they don’t really express the true spirit of New England. The reality is that upon trying to name a band, or even a genre that represents my region of the United States, I couldn’t think of one. Though New England has such a rich history, it seems as though our musical tradition is totally impoverished—in fact, it’s pretty much nonexistent.

Before we delve into the history of song in New England, let us first try to define what the “spirit” of the region is. Though I was born and grew up here, I had difficulty putting into words what my people’s temperament is like. The first thing that actually sprang to my mind when I was reflecting was William Faulkner’s brief but insightful essay, “A Guest’s Impression of New England.” Anyone who is from the Northeast will laugh out loud at the tale the author relates, as I did when I came across it. In short, Faulkner and his friend are lost in the countryside of either Massachusetts or Connecticut, until they happen upon a pair of farmers near some hills. They ask the farmers if the road they are traveling on will cross the mountain ahead, to which the farmers respond in the affirmative.

Faulkner and his companion drive toward the mountain before turning back less than a minute later. The companion thinks to ask the farmers if their car will make it over the mountain. They reply that it probably won’t.

The New Englander, writes Faulkner, has been taught to believe that “to be individual and private is the thing and that the man who cannot cope with any environment

Lecture Hall

anywhere had better not clutter the earth to begin with.” The Southerner’s tone strikes the perfect balance between admiration and criticism, though I could argue he perhaps leans toward the former more.

It would appear then that two of New England’s dominant characteristics are independence and privacy. These traits were, of course, famously endorsed by two of New England’s greatest writers: Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. In fact, in the introduction to The Works of Thoreau, editor Henry S. Canby calls Thoreau “a concentrated essence of New England eccentricity,” and adds that his “Yankee sense … led him straight and true” with respect to his moderation of illustrious language.

Moderation is, of course, a cornerstone of Puritan belief, so it is little wonder that Thoreau, living in 19th century Concord, would live according to it. However, I’m not so sure that this Puritan value is still as prevalent in New England in our current day and age. Furthermore, moderation hardly lends itself to great music.

Maybe the religious sect can be blamed to some extent for the lack of distinctive music produced in New England. After all, it is well known that Puritans weren’t exactly the celebrating, exuberant types that usually yield powerful emotions and artistic creativity. This is what our region is recognized for: our sobriety, intellect, and frigidity (both climate- and personality-wise). Music, I guess, never found its way into our identity. For it is clear that the aforementioned traits unify and give an identity to the Northeastern states—if you go to Vermont, you’ll almost certainly find a similar kind of people as you would encounter in Massachusetts or Rhode Island.

The strange thing is that there is also a lot of activity in New England—Boston has more colleges per square mile than any other city in the country, and one of them is Berklee, which is consistently ranked as one of the top music schools nationwide. Despite all of this, there is still no musical tradition in the Northeast. There are no songs you can listen to and immediately think of the sweet wild blueberries of Maine or the intoxicating scent of wood burning in a Victorian home’s fireplace on a snowy evening.

Investigations to discover a quintes-

sential New England sound were further stymied by some quick Internet research. It is pretty telling about New England that our three biggest music festivals celebrate classical music (Tanglewood), jazz (Newport Jazz Festival), and folk music (Newport Folk Festival). All three genres have deep roots elsewhere and are by no means especially celebrated in this particular region.

Besides looking at music festivals, I also went to a source that I was confident could lead me to some historic Northeastern tunes: Alan Lomax. Lomax, for those of you who don’t know, was a legendary fieldmusic recorder who traveled all corners of the world to unearth and document traditional music specific to a certain population. Much of his work is available online, and some can be found on the American Folklife Center website. I discovered, to my dismay, that among over 100 of his recordings, documents, and photographs, there is only one item hailing from New England (“Alan Lomax and Helen Hartness Flanders recordings from New Hampshire and Vermont”). The catalog record indicates that this collection contains folk songs and Irish fiddle tunes and songs. Once again, we’re back to the Irish. Though their presence in New England cannot be denied, most of the region’s characteristics listed earlier don’t apply to them. When was the last time you heard someone describe an Irishman as moderate?

Perhaps, though, the Irish are all we’ve got in New England. It appears that like their Puritan ancestors, WASPs never established a musical heritage, and other large populations, such as the Italians, made their mark in different ways. It is interesting to note that in the Northeast, the various ethnic groups that have settled here failed to influence each other musically. In the south, on the other hand, the impact of Creole and African-American melodies is evident and extremely relevant to the formation of what we consider “southern” music to be. Even in the west, particularly in California, Mexican and reggae influences can be ascertained in, say, the music of Sublime.

Tessa Mediano is a staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at opinions@ bcheights.com.

BY PAT HUGHES

The opinions and commentaries of the staff 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.

Evan Goldstein Talking to students from across the country at the College Democrats of America convention this summer, I began to notice a pattern.

“The biggest problem we have is that not many people on our campus care about politics.”

“Politics turns students off.”

“Nobody cares.”

From Massachusetts to Arkansas, the biggest challenge CDA chapters face is political apathy on college campuses. And it’s not like that’s terribly shocking: millennials are consistently criticized for being apathetic about basically everything. We spend too much time hooking up and not enough time in the library, they say, we drink too much and don’t learn enough.

We anesthetize ourselves with Facebook, YouTube, and porn, shutting out the real world and replacing it with a virtual fantasy of sorts. Or at least that’s what they say.

I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s certainly true that students on college campuses generally aren’t tuned into political events. As anyone who worked on Boston College’s team of interns for Senator Elizabeth Warren can tell you, students often need to be prompted several times to be aware of basic political facts, like what elections are coming up and who’s running.

Indeed, how many BC students knew that we just had a huge mayoral election in Boston? How many voted? Attendance at political events is generally low on campuses and membership in political groups is even lower. Maybe this is a function of the toxicity of our politics—gridlock in Congress and partisan extremism in state legislatures have reached such a point that associating oneself with a political party is now somewhat taboo. Partisanship is perceived as rigid, inflexible, ideological, and uncompromising. But more generally, we have to face the fact that our generation simply doesn’t care enough about politics.

This isn’t to say the young people haven’t done great things in politics—indeed, the election of Barack Obama was characterized by unprecedented grassroots advocacy from traditionally unreliable demographics like students. But we can do better.

At a time when our country faces so many challenges, there is no excuse for sitting on the sidelines. Our economy is struggling to adapt to technological change, our schools are failing to adequately train the workforce of the future, and too many millions of Americans lack quality health insurance. Nobody has a greater stake in the future vitality of our country than young Americans, because it is we who will ultimately inherit all the problems we face. So many of our elected officials are tainted by the legacies of bygone eras, but we have the unique opportunity to come together to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Young people, for all our problems, aren’t cynical yet. The strength of a movement like the president’s two campaigns is that the young people at its center believe in what more jaded political operatives have long thought to be impossible. We still believe that we can give every American access to quality and affordable healthcare. We still believe that we can bring down the cost of college. We still believe that we can one day live in a country where every citizen truly does have a shot at the ever-elusive American dream. We still have, as the president would put it, “the audacity of hope,” hope against hope and belief against all odds that the impossible can and will happen.

Or maybe we don’t. Maybe the proliferation of mass media has expedited the cultural cynicism that inevitably permeates each successive generation. Maybe we’ve learned too soon that the impossible is impossible, and that realization is the source of our apathy. And hey, don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying if more BC students voted, we’d change the world. I’m not saying we can make every problem go away.

Hard things will continue to be hard and politics will continue to be frustrating. But maybe a little less apathy and a little more engagement would yield progress. And ultimately, isn’t that what we want? Not to make all the problems go away, because they won’t. And not to pretend like the world is perfect, because it isn’t. But at the end of the day, it’s all about moving the ball down the field, about leaving things a little better than we found them. Because nobody wins an election on their own. But if I knock on 100 doors, and I bring five friends to knock on 100 doors, and they bring five friends to knock on 100 doors, and across the city, or the state, or the country, people keep knocking on doors, we’ll get there eventually. Decisions are made by those who show up, and it’s too important not to.

Evan Goldstein is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at opinions@bcheights.com.

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The Heights

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Takeout can eat up your savings.

Pack your own lunch instead of going out. $6 saved a day x 5 days a week x 10 years x 6% interest = $19,592. That could be money in your pocket.

Small changes today. Big bucks tomorrow. Go to feedthepig.org for free savings tips.

THE HEIGHTS

EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS

Thursday, November 7, 2013 The Week Ahead

Standings

Field hockey hosts Syracuse in the first game of the ACC Tournament today. Men’s hockey takes on BU at Agganis Arena on Friday. Men’s basketball plays UMass at TD Garden on Sunday. Meanwhile, women’s hockey hosts Northeastern. The Ducks and the Cardinal will meet in a top-10 Pac 12 grudge match on Saturday.

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Recap from Last Week

Game of the Week

Women’s soccer topped Syracuse in overtime. Men’s hockey swept Northeastern in a home and home series. Football defeated Virginia Tech 34-27 for its second ACC victory. Volleyball fell to Duke in four sets, 3-1. Tom Brady led the Patriots to a 24-point rout of the Steelers at home in Week 9.

Field Hockey

Guest Editor: Graham Beck

Syracuse

Photo Editor “Get the shot.”

This Week’s Games

Austin Tedesco Sports Editor

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Field Hockey: No. 10 BC vs. No. 2 Syracuse

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Men’s Hockey: No. 8 BC at No. 17 BU

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Men’s Basketball: BC vs. UMass

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NCAA Football: No. 3 Oregon at no. 5 Stanford

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Eagles seek first road win since ’11

Boston College

This afternoon, head coach Ainslee Lamb’s BC field hockey team will host the Syracuse Orange in the ACC Tournament quarterfinal round. The Eagles finished the regular season with a No. 10 overall ranking and the tournament’s seventh seed. Despite their 12-6 record, the Eagles lost five of their six conference matchups in 2013. They’ll meet a dangerous opponent in Syracuse, who finished the year 15-2 and No. 2 in the country. Each team boasts an elite goalkeeper, as BC’s Leah Settipane and Syracuse’s Jess Jecko were tied for second in the conference with four total shutouts. Today’s contest will come down to which goalie outmatches the other.

Today at 1:00 p.m.

BC could be bowl eligible BC’s case, one loss doesn’t mean the end of the season. Nobody expected an undefeated season from the Eagles, but I had some sort of Boise State PTSD that caused me to shut down after the first defeat as though all was lost.

But now the Eagles are 4-4 going into a stretch of opponents that is arguably the easiest they have seen all year. Two more wins, and BC will have a shot at a bowl game, and while it is likely to be a minor affair, the possibility of any bowl game was lost behind my veil of BCS-or-nothing prejudices that I feel for the Broncos.

This weekend in Las Cruces, BC will visit New Mexico State. Let’s put it this way: The Aggies are 1-8 this year, the one win coming over Abilene Christian. Then comes NC State, Maryland, and Syracuse. NC State and Maryland round out the very bottom of the ACC Atlantic standings, and Syracuse sits just ahead of BC at No. 3.

Two wins in these last four games and BC will be bowl eligible for the first time since 2010. At this point, instead of feeling the enormous sense of defeat that the season is over and all hope lost after a couple of early setbacks, my feelings are swaying.

Nobody at BC will receive the threatening remarks and backlash that Brotzman did after missing his kicks if the Eagles don’t have a winning record this year, but at this point I’ll be surprised if BC’s season ends in November rather than December.

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Against Virginia Tech, Rettig was just 11 for 14 for under 100 yards and one touchdown.

While it was enough for a BC victory, Rettig will be looking to improve on mediocre numbers from last week.

Williams will, in turn, be looking to improve the prime performance that he carried out against Virginia Tech when he gained 166 yards on 33 carries.

“I thought Andre ran really hard, and I thought our offensive line played really well,” Addazio said. “So I just think that he had a couple of runs where he was breaking tackles, and he’s a power runner, and that’s the best thing that we can do right now on offense, so we need to do that well.”

Alone, Williams is averaging 147 yards per game thus far. In contrast, the entire New Mexico State roster has managed just 135.4 yards per game and 1,219 total—just 13 more yards than Williams has produced this season with BC having played one fewer game than the Aggies.

In other areas, the Aggies’ offense has not been completely unsuccessful, putting up an average of 20.3 points per game, just not receiving the support on

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After an upset win, Andre Williams and the Eagles head to New Mexico to take on the Aggies. the other side of the ball that it takes to win games.

“I mean, it’s going to be one of tho s e toug h, hard-foug ht g ame s ,” Addazio said. “We’re on the road. It’s a four-and-a-half-hour plane flight out there, and we’ll have to battle against everything.”

This weekend begins a stretch where the Eagles will play three of their final four games on the road while hoping to

break .500 and become bowl eligible.

“We’re battling at the very, very end to try to get five in a row and at the end to become bowl eligible,” Addazio said.

“There’s a tremendous amount of focus right now with our seniors and everybody in this program about just centering in on trying to get win number five, and I think our kids understand, I certainly hope they understand that it’s all hands on deck with us.” 

four minutes remaining.

Brotzman missed the kick. Kiss the National Championship goodbye, not to mention Boise State’s status as the WAC’s undisputed top dog.

And there goes BC’s season. All of a sudden, all of the optimism that I had held onto so firmly heading into the USC game was gone. 2-1 doesn’t look nearly as pretty as 2-0, and I wasn’t about to hope for a win against Florida State next week after the Eagles’ performance in Los Angeles.

Sure, BC surprised me during the first half against FSU, but then Jameis Winston was shaken from his semi-comatose state, and the Eagles imploded during the second half of play. 2-2.

At that point, bowl eligibility wasn’t even on my mind. I didn’t care that BC beat Army or put up a fight against Clemson. Its season was over, just like the Broncos’. Then came the loss to UNC, and any positive feelings about this team’s future this season flew out the window.

But this year’s Eagles have something that Boise State didn’t.

Brotzman’s missed kick and the loss to Nevada came in the second to last game of the season, giving the Broncos no time to recover or redeem themselves.

The Eagles had last Saturday. Even though Virginia Tech had just dropped out of the top-25, the win breathed new life into my hopes, and even expectations for this team.

All of a sudden I realized that, in

Marly Morgus is the Asst. Sports Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

Doug Martin, BC to meet again in Las Cruces after breakup

BY CHRIS GRIMALDI Assoc. Sports Editor

Entering week nine of its 2013 regular season, the Boston College football team will be headed into uncharted territory as it travels to Las Cruces to duel with New Mexico State.

Saturday will mark the first meeting between both teams, and the third occasion that the Aggies have squared off with a current ACC program.

Yet the game will also be an unlikely reunion, as the Eagles face their former offensive coordinator from a year ago, Doug Martin. After one season spent honing a pass-friendly offense at BC, he was one of the faces to depart the Heights following the firing of Frank Spaziani and the hiring of current Eagle head coach Steve Addazio.

Now, Martin stands on the opposite sideline—at the helm of a struggling Aggie squad.

Despite his brief tenure with the Eagles, the 34th head coach in New Mexico State football history changed the offense’s dynamic with an aggressive approach that thrived off the big play. Multiple Eagles excelled in his system, as Chase Rettig became only the fourth quarterback in school history to notch a 3,000 yard season and Alex Amidon broke onto the national scene after averaging over 100 receiving yards per game.

While the Aggies’ record stands at a putrid 1-8, Martin’s offensive expertise has paid some positive dividends.

Ranking 61st in the nation with over 242 yards from the air per game, the New Mexico State offense owes its success to the efforts of quarterback Andrew McDonald. The senior signalcaller has thrown for 1,800 yards and 10 scores, and is coming off one of the best games of his career—a 327 yard, three-touchdown performance against the University of Louisiana.

The Eagles, however, will also have to contend with a wild-cat formation on offense that the Aggies have adopted in the season’s second half. If last week is any indication, Martin’s team will employ the dynamic abilities of offensive weapon Travaughn Colwell.

In addition to making noise from the slot and the backfield, the junior lined up under center to help fuel the wildcat.

His triple-threat style has amounted to 500 passing yards and 200 rushing yards over his career, giving Addazio reason to make sure that his own defense takes nothing for granted.

“I’ve watched about every game now and every snap, and I just think they’re really improving,” Addazio said.

“I thought they got a lot of productivity. They went to a wildcat quarterback situation. They used two wide receivers in there. I thought they were very, very productive.”

Although New Mexico State’s offense has averaged an output of 32 points over the past two weeks, its defensive execution—or lack thereof—is the major culprit behind eight losses in nine games. The Aggies surrender an

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average of over 46 points per game, and have yet to hold an opponent under 25 points this season.

As much as the Aggie defense has deflated its own team’s chances for any sort of midseason resurrection, it has given opposing offenses a weekly opportunity to light up the scoreboard and fill up the stat book. Opponents have scored a total of 233 more points than the Aggies, while tallying an average of nearly 560 yards of offense over four quarters.

The r un-friendly, g round-andpound BC offense Martin will see on Saturday will look quite different than the downfield strategy he employed during his own tenure. Yet the explosiveness it displayed last week—particularly with the rush—can be the subject of a beleaguered Aggie defense’s latest nightmares.

New Mexico State’s best shot at containing the Eagles will simply be to keep them off the field by limiting their time of possession. The longer Martin’s defense is left out on the gridiron at BC’s mercy, the better the chance Rettig and running back Andre Williams will be spending the afternoon running up a blow-out score.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle facing New Mexico State is neither the pass nor run, but rather a hungry BC team that’s two wins short of a potential bowl game berth.

“It’s time to put the pedal further down to the metal,” Addazio said, “and run this gun lap.” 

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Thursday, February 7, 2013

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2013

BY MARLY MORGUS

died down, and a surprising loss to the University of North Carolina the next weekend.

“So here we are,” Addazio said, “we’re going on the The last time that the Boston College football road, we haven’t won a road game, and we need to get headed west, it was 2-0, coming off of wins over Vil- a fifth win, and we’re playing a team that’s playing lanova and Wake Forest, full of optimism about the their best ball.”

New Mexico State has indeed seen growth during matchup with USC. The Eagles, however, seemed to have left some of their talent on the plane, as the the past two weeks, but that growth came in the form Trojans handed them their widest margin of defeat of its first win of the season against Abilene Christian University and one of the team’s more narrow so far this season, winning by 28 points.

Not only was this the last time that BC played a losses—49-35—to Louisiana. Those games still leave the Aggies with a 1-8 record. game west of the Mississippi River, but it was Currently allowing an average of 46.2 also the first of two non-conference matchpoints per game after being defeated ups to take place on the road this year, the by a margin of more than 20 points six second coming this Saturday against New times this year, three of New Mexico Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M. State’s losses came when Texas, UCLA, “We’ve got to make a long trip out there,” NOV. 9, 2013 said head coach Steve Addazio, “so it’s going BC vs. New Mexico State and New Mexico each scored more than 3:30 ON ESPN3 50 points on the Aggies’ offense, New to take a lot of focus, a lot of great mental Mexico taking the highest tally with 66. strain, a lot of great game prep by our team With such high offensive numbers being produced and maturity and leadership, go on the road, travel out against the Aggies, the Eagles will face a sharp contrast there, and compete like crazy to get our fifth win.”

While BC has seen relative success in its schedule to last week’s meeting with Virginia Tech’s highly outside of the ACC with two wins and a loss, another ranked defense in which BC pulled off an upset win.

“We followed the plan to win … and we had to record, 0-3, needs to be considered heading into this matchup. That record reflects the Eagles’ success overcome adversity and win in the end,” Addazio said. on the road so far this year, as they have dropped “So I was really proud of the way our team fought each of their first three games played away from and scratched, and I hope that that was validation to them on how we have to play so that we can have that Chestnut Hill. kind of success.”

Along with the USC loss came the loss to Chase Rettig, Andre Williams, and Clemson, during which the Eagles held the rest of the BC offense will be lookon until the fourth segment of play ing to build off of last week’s success but were overcome as the clock and exploit the faults in the Aggies’ defense in order to put up a big Asst. Sports Editor

See Football, A9

Overcoming my BCS PTSD with BC Football

MARLY MORGUS After the Villanova and Wake Forest games, I thought that they had a fighting chance.

Starting 2-0 following a 2-10 season—the only one that I had witnessed as a student at BC—felt like an impossible feat. As a fan of a college football team that has historically played in a weak conference, I don’t usually get that excited about wins. It’s more of a feeling of utter devastation when that first loss (almost always) comes.

With BC though, starting 2-0 felt about as good as it did to watch Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman line up for a 29-yard field goal in overtime during the Broncos’ 2010 matchup with Nevada. It’s in the bag. The Broncos are going to the National Championship.

2-0 is one-third of the way to bowl eligibility—something that I never expected to see during my time at BC, not to mention the first year after the firing of former head coach Frank Spaziani.

There’s no way Brotzman could miss that kick. No NCAA kicker has more points than him. His career long is 52 yards. This is a chip shot.

While I don’t have as much confidence in BC football as I do in Brotzman’s abilities as a kicker, I was feeling a lot of optimism as the Eagles

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

BC

With a 4-4 overall record, BC has seen half of its wins come from out of conference play (OC). BC opened the season with a win over Villanova, then split the USC and Army games with a loss at USC and win at home over Army. Saturday will be the Eagles’ last non-ACC matchup of the season.

Avg. Margin of Victory ACC: 10.5 OC: 15.5 Avg. Yards per Game ACC: 309.4 OC: 373.3 Forced TOs per Game ACC: 2 OC: 1.33 Avg. Yards per Rush ACC: 4.2 OC: 4.97 Passing TDs per Game ACC: 1.6 OC: 1 Forced Sacks per Game ACC: 3 OC: 3

Villanova In the 24-14 win BC put up 413 yards of total offense with Chase Rettig completing 23 of 30 attempts and throwing for two touchdowns.

USC In the Eagles’ biggest loss of the season, a 28-point margin, their main offensive weapons were shut down and USC’s offense was relentless.

Army With a career high 263 yards rushing, Andre Williams led the Eagles to a 48-27 win over Army to bring BC back over .500.

After taking on one of the top defenses in the country, Rettig, Williams, and the BC offense will face less resistance against New Mexico State this week.

BATTLE OF THE GREEN LINE

headed west the weekend of Sept. 14 to take on USC. Sure, USC is a storied football program and usually one of the more successful teams in the PAC-12, but BC is 2-0 and USC has seen better days—much better days. There has to be a chance.

Now, in hindsight, I see how ridiculous it was for me to think so highly of BC’s 2-0 record heading into that game.

In coach-speak, wins are wins, but wins over Villanova and Wake Forest are wins over Villanova and Wake Forest, not USC. I had to Google the Brotzman kick.

I can’t remember which side he missed to. All I remember from that night is being absolutely sure that the kick was good and the game over—twice. Then, disbelief and a slamming door as my brother ran swearing out of our house and around the block as the referees crossed their arms.

The video results are some of the first to appear when you search for Brotzman, but I couldn’t make myself click on them. I can’t watch them, so I can’t say exactly what happened—if Brotzman lined up wrong or hooked it, or a stray bird lost in the middle of Nevada swooped in and pushed the ball off course.

We all know what happened at USC. Andre Williams couldn’t take more than a step or two in any direction without the Trojan defense converging on him, Chase Rettig only managed 83 yards in the air, and the USC offense put up 28 unanswered points to start the game, adding a cherry on top with only about

See Column, A9

BC outside of the ACC

See Column, A8

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Johnny Gaudreau and the No. 8 Eagles will take on cross town rival No. 17 Boston University in the first of the teams’ three scheduled meetings on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at BU’s Agganis Arena. It will be the 263rd meeting between the programs.

reunites with former OC

Doug Martin, head coach at New Mexico State, spent last year at BC...............A9

2013 Heights Basketball Preview The men’s and women’s teams are gearing up for another ACC season.........B1

Editors’ Picks........................A9 Game of the Week................A9

WITH ONE YEAR ON THE BENCH UNDER HIS BELT, ALEX DRAGICEVICH IS READY TO HIT THE COURT AS AN X-FACTOR FOR BC SEE PAGE 2

THE EAGLES ARE LOADED WITH DEPTH, PREPARING FOR ONE OF THE NATION’S TOUGHEST SCHEDULES IN 2013-14

FRESHMAN GARLAND OWENS HAS A PAST SCATTERED WITH BROKEN RIMS, BUT NOW HE’S LOOKING TO PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

SEE PAGE 3

FUN AND GAMES THE HEIGHTS 2013 BASKETBALL PREVIEW

AFTER SUFFERING A STRING OF CLOSE LOSSES LAST YEAR, RYAN ANDERSON AND OLIVIER HANLAN CAN FINALLY PLAY FREE, FAST, AND FIERCE, CHASING HIGH EXPECTATIONS. PHOTOS: GRAHAM BECK

SEE PAGE 6

2 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 7, 2013

BASKETBALL PREVIEW FEATURE

LOOK WHO’S

LAUGHING NOW KNOCK KNOCK WHO’S THERE? ALEX DRAGICEVICH ALEX ... WHO? A COMEDIAN OFF THE COURT, JUNIOR FORWARD ALEX DRAGICEVICH IS READY TO MAKE A NAME FOR HIMSELF IN HIS FIRST YEAR ON THE COURT AFTER TRANSFERRING FROM NOTRE DAME WORDS: CHRIS GRIMALDI PHOTOS: GRAHAM BECK

I

n the spring of 2012, head coach Steve Donahue was looking to add a valuable piece to the Boston College men’s basketball team’s puzzle.

He caught wind that Notre Dame’s Alex Dragicevich was looking to transfer after two years as a member of the Irish. With a 6-foot-8 frame and natural shooting ability from outside, the Northbrook, Ill. native matched the description of a versatile weapon for Donahue’s youthful squad.

BC’s head coach wanted to know more.

So he took his investigation to the Internet, eager to see what the sophomore guard could bring to the table. The initial search didn’t yield the clips of on-court highlights or detailed scouting reports of Dragicevich’s skills over two years in Division I basketball.

Staring curiously at the top of his Google search, Donahue realized that the young man he was considering was much more than your average college hoops player.

“The first thing that came up was his improv comedy act,” Donahue said.

Dragicevich—the same man who had made his mark in high school as a McDonald’s All-American nominee and at Notre Dame with a single-handed upset of ranked Pittsburgh—was a thespian at heart.

Now a film studies major and theatre minor at BC, Dragicevich is cultivating a love that he’s had since his days at Glenbrook North High School, where he immersed himself in improvisational acting classes during his time off the court. Entering South Bend his freshman year didn’t only mean suiting up for the Irish, but also applying his creative art to screen writing. When he wasn’t taking on Big East defenses, Dragicevich was making his peers laugh with a standup comedy group on campus.

Yet taking his craft—both on and off the hardwood—to Chestnut Hill the spring of his sophomore year didn’t frazzle him one bit. If you made it to a “Hello, Shovelhead” improv comedy show at BC last year, chances are you saw Dragicevich performing a sketch onstage.

While the lives of an ACC college athlete and stand-up comic seem like they would be worlds apart, the BC junior can spot where they gracefully collide.

He lives it.

“I think it’s a nice contrast because in basketball, a lot of it is happening right away,” Dragicevich said.

“There’s a lot of stuff you have to pick up, a little more improvisation, whereas writing characters and scenes is a completely different form, which I think is really cool.”

His charisma and ability to make people laugh aren’t confined within the boundaries of a stage or the four walls of a theatre. They translate to the practice court as he and his teammates prepare for battle during the 2013-14 NCAA season. They bring levity to a locker room that’s focused on shedding the rebuilding process and heading to the Big Dance in March.

Dragicevich’s versatility exceeds the reputation he has garnered as a sizeable guard who can shoot.

The intangibles he carries along cannot be fully captured by a highlight reel or scouting report.

The audiences he has performed in front of understand that laughter is contagious, but so is positivity. And Donahue knows that contenders don’t play well with past shortcomings weighing down on their shoulders.

“He’s an intricate part of us off the court,” said BC’s head coach. “He’s someone who brings a little more personality to our team. He’s such a good person to be around. I think guys like him.

“It loosens guys up.”

Ask Dragicevich about his dual-persona as athlete and performer, and he’ll tell you that making people laugh is something he really likes to do.

But laughs weren’t easy to come by on the hardwood as the junior reached the crossroad of his college basketball career heading into the summer of 2012.

He was in the midst of adjusting to a new school after deciding it’d be best to leave his former one behind. After two years playing for another program,

he faced the challenge of fitting his way into a new system with new teammates who had the benefit of growing up together at the collegiate level—BC was a team starting to come into its own.

Dragicevich came to the Eagles having already played in 48 college games, but in many ways he was starting again from scratch.

Before going head-to-head with an elite ACC defense, he had to confront an immediate roadblock—his own body.

For a couple of years at Notre Dame, he managed to get away with playing out of shape. Dragicevich had established himself as a contributor, yet in the back of his mind lingered the apprehension of untapped potential. Each extra pound was an obstacle in the way of reaching a higher level on the court.

Whatever doubt Dragicevich had over whether he was fit enough to endure the rigors of a college basketball season were erased when he struggled through summer workouts with his new squad.

“I was fat when I got here,” Dragicevich said, “that’s pretty much the only way to put it. I was a fat kid playing high-level basketball for two years.”

Finishing last in sprints and lumbering down the court weren’t indicative of the slick, quick-paced style of play Dragicevich knew he could bring to BC’s gameplan. Just how a series of poorly-delivered jokes encourages a comedian to rewrite his routine, Dragicevich’s immediate trouble with keeping pace pushed him toward the precipice of recommitment.

“I wanted to see if there was a lot of potential for improvement,” he said. “When you’re leaner, you’re quicker. You’re faster. All of that helps.”

He had to endure the added frustration of having to watch his first year as an Eagle from the sidelines, sporting the mandatory redshirt that NCAA rules handed down to him. But coping with sitting out from the game he loved also meant turning to self-discipline. When Dragicevich wasn’t practicing with the Eagles in Power Gym, he was running, eating healthy, and conditioning himself in every way he could think of to be better than merely acceptable.

Acceptable wasn’t going to cut it in a gradually improving BC men’s basketball program making the leap from rebuilder to contender.

“HE’S AN INTRICATE PART OF US OFF THE COURT. HE’S SOMEONE WHO BRINGS A LITTLE MORE PERSONALITY TO OUR TEAM.” Ready to run After not seeing much time on the court in South Bend, Dragicevich is expecting to contribute more at BC this season.

FRESHMAN Games played 14 of 34

Games started 0 of 34

Points per game 1.4

3-point percentage

20%

SOPHOMORE Games played 34 of 34

Games started 10 of 34

Points per game 6.6

3-point percentage

34%

The frustration of having to watch the Eagles steady growth in street clothes rather than his No. 23 jersey was undeniable. He couldn’t suit up just yet for the coaching staff and alongside the team he chose as the comrades for his reclamation project, but he still had a job to do.

He had to improve.

“It was frustrating at first,” Dragicevich said of his time spent on the sidelines last year, “but once you look at it and say, ‘this is what it is,’ then I focused on the good aspects. I was getting better, I was learning a new system, and I was getting comfortable at a new school.”

The junior is a comedian who stays true to his word, and enters the 2013-14 season in the best shape of his college career. And if the past year was a character test for Dragicevich, then his head coach believes he’s passed with flying colors.

“He worked extremely hard and was extremely dedicated,” Donahue said. “He changed his body, and I think you’ll see it on the court.”

As the Eagles finished up a Friday afternoon practice a week before the season opener, Dragicevich conducted a solo shoot-around at one end of the court. He set his feet and drained a series of jump shots from the top of the key, conveying the confident poise of a veteran with each fluid shooting motion.

Yet the junior knows that within the week, he’ll be embarking on a new beginning.

The regular season minutes he’ll clock in with the Eagles tomorrow against Providence will be his first in over a year and a half. In some ways, the meaning of tomorrow night’s matchup is the culmination of his journey and will give this veteran the eagerness of a rookie. It’ll mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Dragicevich has his focus on gelling with his teammates on offense and scoring from the wing, but his mind isn’t totally cleansed of jitters.

“Maybe they’ll be there,” he said candidly. “Can I let you know after?”

As different as tomorrow will feel for him, it’s also a clean slate for the Eagles.

In only a year, they’ve gone from the youngsters behind a reclamation project to veterans who boast the most returned playing minutes of any team in the ACC. They brandish the experience of fighting through growing pains alongside each other. At a glance, the 2013-14 Eagles pass the litmus test for NCAA Tournament-caliber teams.

And with newfound legitimacy comes heightened expectations.

With one of the conference’s most dynamic backcourts and a proven winner at the helm as head coach, there’s reason to believe that punching a ticket to March Madness is in the realm of possibility. The prospect of ending a disappointing four-year hiatus from NCAA tournament play only adds to the anticipation.

After persevering through the highs and lows of his transition, Dragicevich is ready to take each step of the way in stride—and his team must do the same.

“I don’t think our goal is to look ahead to March right now,” he said, “so I think our mindset has to be do your best every single day. Let the rest take care of it.”

When a team makes a mad dash for the winner’s circle, it can take the little things for granted. If the Eagles learned anything from last season, it is that those little things—the execution or neglect of the sport’s fundamentals—matter a whole lot.

They mean rimming a last-second, game-tying foul shot into the hoop instead of out of it. They can help a defense hold a lead over an ACC Goliath instead of squandering an upset in the final minutes of regulation.

BC became all too familiar with these heartbreaks last year. This season will show whether the team can overcome them. One added piece to the puzzle can’t remake a team, but he can help decide that one-point game. It is in his power to make that pivotal stop.

And like a laugh in a silent audience, Dragicevich is looking to fill the void.

“We’re hoping we can close those games out,” he said. “I think I can help.” 

THE HEIGHTS 3

NOV. 7, 2013

BASKETBALL PREVIEW PROJECTIONS

P R O

J

E

C

T

I

O N S

BACKCOURT SEASON PREDICTIONS 2013-14

OLIVIER HANLAN SOPHOMORE GUARD STRENGTHS Finishing at the rim Transition offense Ball handling

Rebound Leader

RYAN ANDERSON

52.6

WEAKNESSES Shooting consistency Offensive rebounding Creating his shot

Blocks Leader EDDIE ODIO

Number to Know Olivier Hanlan shot an effective field goal percentage of EFFECTIVE 52.6, the second FIELD GOAL % best among ACC rookies in 2012-13.

Under the radar Donahue on Rahon: ”I would’ve liked people to recognize the accomplishments of Joe. If you come in and you play for a team that already has four or five upperclassmen, three first-round picks, and you’re asked to be a piece as opposed to a guy [like Joe] where you have to play well every night or we’re not winning. That’s a way different situation.”

STRENGTHS All-around defense Running the offense Setting up assists

OLIVIER HANLAN

WEAKNESSES Communication Passing out of P&R Assist/TO ratio

Steady growth Donahue on Hanlan: “He’s got so many parts of his game that I feel that he can make such growth in because he’s such a terrific player already and he’s got great chances to be even better.”

JOE RAHON

SOPHOMORE GUARD

Points Leader

Number to Know Rahon was on the floor 89 percent of game time for the EFFECTIVE Eagles, handling FIELD GOAL % the ball often without turning it over.

Defensive Player of the Year JOE RAHON

52.6

Best Newcomer GARLAND OWENS

FRONTCOURT

Incremental improvement BC can use multiple frontcourt combinations, but Heckmann, Odio, and Anderson may make up the best trio.

Below are their combined per game numbers the past two years.

Points

20.4 27.2

Rebounds

Assists

11.4 13.9

2.8 3.5

Blocks .8

1.5

JUNIOR FORWARD

RYAN ANDERSON

STRENGTHS 3-point shooting Creating offense Free throw shooting

STRENGTHS Rebounding Blocking shots Finishing lobs

STRENGTHS All-around scoring Defensive rebounding Consistent play

WEAKNESSES Consistent play On-ball defense Staying healthy

WEAKNESSES Slow release Ball-handling Post defense

WEAKNESSES Post defense Consistent shooting form Athleticism

Number to Know Nearly tripled his 3-point total from his freshman to sophomore year, going from 15 to 42.

Number to Know Finished 15th in block percentage last year among ACC players, with an average of 3.73.

Number to Know Top-10 in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage among ACC players.

2012-13

JUNIOR FORWARD

SHOOTING

REBOUNDING

2011-12

JUNIOR FORWARD

EDDIE ODIO

PATRICK HECKMANN

JOE RAHON

OLIVIER HANLAN

LONNIE JACKSON

PATRICK HECKMANN

WILL MAGARITY

OLIVIER HANLAN

EDDIE ODIO

RYAN ANDERSON

DENNIS CLIFFORD

Pros & Cons: If BC needs to go big, or if the Eagles want to overpower a smaller team, this lineup could do damage when Clifford returns. A focus on offensive rebounding would need to make up for the risk presented on transition defense.

TRANSITION

DEFENSE

Pros & Cons: Almost every BC player can knock down the three, but this combination of five players can space the floor most efficiently. Defensively, though, the frontcourt could end up allowing too many points for the tradeoff to work.

PATRICK HECKMANN

OLIVIER HANLAN

GARLAND OWENS

LONNIE JACKSON

RYAN ANDERSON

EDDIE ODIO

JOE RAHON

Pros & Cons: If opponents go big, BC can throw out this lineup to beat them up the court for layups, dunks, or transition threes. This lineup would rely heavily on Anderson and Hanlan to create in halfcourt sets, as well as Jackson’s shooting.

ESPN’s Jeff Goodman says BC has the 4th toughest schedule.

On BC’s challenging out of conference schedule: “When a 9-7 Boise State from the Mountain West makes the NCAA tournament and an 11-7 Virginia from the ACC doesn’t, I think in my position, I gotta wake up. And that’s what we did ... I don’t want to be 12-1 [in the nonconference] with an RPI in triple digits and then have to win 13 games in the ACC.”

ALEX DRAGICEVICH

EDDIE ODIO

DENNIS CLIFFORD

Pros & Cons: Donahue has shown he likes to do offense-for-defense substitutions late, and he can use this lineup out of timeouts to get necessary stops. Rahon will need to facilitate the offense well if this group is going to find points, though.

ACC STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

SCHEDULE

GARLAND OWENS

ONE

North Carolina TWO

Duke University THREE

Boston College FOUR

Florida State

SCOUTING REPORTS PROVIDENCE The Eagles will be tested early, going up against the Friars dynamic combination of guard Bryce Cotton and forward Kadeem Batts in the opener.

VCU One of BC’s toughest tests before conference play starts, the Rams will use an absurdly quick and aggressive gameplan to throw off the Eagles.

CONNECTICUT UConn shouldn’t be able to overpower BC up front, but the Huskies have plenty of talented guards that will give the Eagles trouble at MSG. HARVARD It’ll take a complete effort from BC to end the long losing streak, as Harvard is not only a heavy favorite to win the Ivy League but also one of the nation’s top teams.

4 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 7, 2013

NOV. 7, 2013

BASKETBALL PREVIEW FEATURE

“

IT’S NOT LIKE COACH D’S CALLING ME UP TO COME WATCH TAPE. I REALLY FORCE IT UPON HIM. I’M IN HIS OFFICE BASICALLY EVERY DAY, IF IT’S NOT WATCHING TAPE IT’S JUST TALKING TO HIM.

EMBRACING THE NOISE

FRESHMAN FILM FESTIVAL

RYAN ANDERSON #12

H

OLIVIER HANLAN #21

DESPITE PLENTY OF INDIVIDUAL ACCOLADES LAST SEASON, BC’S TWO BEST PLAYERS TOOK THEIR GAMES TO A WHOLE DIFFERENT LEVEL THIS SUMMER. HERE’S HOW THEY DID IT...

WORDS: AUSTIN TEDESCO PHOTOS: GRAHAM BECK

Assists/g

DEFENSE

2

RELEASE Anderson has struggled to keep his off-hand on the ball during his shot since he got to BC. It has caused him to be less efficient from midrange.

ATHLETICISM For all of Anderson’s skill offensively, detractors have said he’s not capable of defending ACC big men, mainly because of his athletic ability.

PICK & ROLL The Hanlan/Anderson pick-and-roll could be one-dimensional at times, as Hanlan often drove to the rim or pulled out if he got cut off.

Turnovers/g 2

W

hile criticism can often make a player put his head down, the knocks on his game that Hanlan heard this offseason have helped him to, literally, pick his head up. One of the best scorers in the conference, Hanlan knows that people think he can’t create for his teammates. He’s ready to prove those doubters wrong.

“Last year I scored the ball a lot, but my assists per game were kind of low,” Hanlan said. “I was really just working on that. Just coming off ball screens and making it easy for my teammates to get open shots and everything. Going and being at the Chris Paul camp and talking to Chris Paul—he’s the best in the league at finding his guys and picking his spots. I just kind of brought that to practice.

“Instead of always being aggressive for my shot, I’m coming off the ball screen with my head up and it’s a lot easier to see everybody. I just pick my spots. I’ll attack a big and draw a defender and get Drag or whoever’s open open shots.”

It’s helped Hanlan that there is less pressure to create on his own now.

“He just has a better understanding of what he’s looking for in the pick-and-roll,” Anderson said. “Last year, it’s not like he was a selfish player, he was just an aggressive player. Now he understands there’s more than one way to be aggressive. You can be aggressive by surveying the court. You can be aggressive by attacking. You can be aggressive by sitting behind the screen and shooting a three if they give it to you.

“There’re so many different ways that you can attack the defense in a pick-and-roll situation. He’s finding ways to score it more often, whether it’s a floater or it’s a pull-up, and he’s finding ways to kick it out to guys like Alex and Patrick and guys that can just make shots. I think it’s really just about efficiency with him. He wants to be really good, and the best way to do that is just to be efficient. Limit your turnovers and shoot a high percentage, and he’s been doing that so far.”

AS

E

ALL HANDS ON DECK

RE

LE

W

Left of center With his off-hand leaving the ball

early on his shot, Anderson’s efficiency dipped last season from the field and from behind the arc.

Field Goal %

21.4

Three Point %

hen the best shooters miss, the ball sails long or short, not left and right. For all of Anderson’s prolific skills as a scorer, that’s the one aspect he’s struggled with most throughout his first two years at BC. His left hand has consistently flown off the ball during his release, leaving his right shooting hand to guide the direction of the shot on its own. It’s led to a shooting touch, especially on open mid-range jumpers, that can look great on one shot and poor on the next.

Anderson spent the offseason working on his release, especially holding his off-hand on the ball for more time.

“It’s just knowing that I have a better feel for the basketball when I’m shooting it,” Anderson said. “It’s not really a guessing game. I think it’ll translate well for me this year, hopefully.”

The transition hasn’t been perfect, though. When Anderson is rushed, his off-hand will sometimes float away more than he would like, but those issues go away when he makes sure to set his feet. He’s also noticed an improvement in his efficiency from the foul line.

“Any time my feet are set I feel

extremely confident, whether I’m in a fastbreak situation, set offense, anything like that,” Anderson said.

“I feel very comfortable. With any shooter, if your feet aren’t set and you’re not fundamentally sound.”

Anderson gets plenty of looks in Donahue’s offense from the elbows and even the 3-point line.

Adding a consistent touch from those spots won’t just make him a more efficient shooter, but it will also allow him to effectively pump-fake and drive, either finishing himself or kicking it to open teammates.

It took a daily commitment to put up multiple repetitions with the new form for Anderson to get to this point, and that’s another way in which Anderson, now a captain, has matured. His work ethic is much better than it was his freshman year.

“I didn’t do everything on a daily basis to be a great player on a great team,” Anderson said. “I was just a good player on a notso-good team.”

“Where he’s come, he’s made such growth in his daily preparation, work ethic, weight room sessions. Everything is showing up because he’s just been willing to be coached,” Donahue said.

“

RYAN

SUPERLATIVES

E NS

Minutes

SIXTH IN THE ACC

Still, Donahue wants Hanlan to make the best play with the ball, and a lot of times that means he should, like last season, keep it for himself and score.

“Last year, we needed him to score quite a bit,” Donahue said. “As much as you want him to do this and do that, there were certain times when we needed him to get to the rims and make plays, and we still do. I think there’re times were he needs to find his teammates, but that’s just a piece of it.

“Yeah, I’d like to see him get more people involved, but he has a unique skill that we can’t overlook. He scores in different ways against almost anybody. He’s maybe our best standstill shooter as well. I don’t want to overdo it with trying to get everybody involved, because his natural instinct is to go by somebody and score. And if it’s the right decision, which a lot of times it is, there’s no reason for him to kick it to somebody else if he in turn has a high percentage shot.”

ANDERSON

FE

FIFTH IN THE ACC

Last year, it’s not like he was a selfish player, he was just an aggressive player.

Now he understands there’s more than one way to be aggressive.

- Ryan Anderson Junior Forward

Steals

EIGHTH IN THE ACC

Field Goal % TENTH IN THE ACC

Free Throw % TENTH IN THE ACC

ACC Rookie of the Year Voting

Conservative defense

Although he’s an effective transition player with good defensive instincts, Hanlan either lost focus off the ball or was afraid to make mistakes and go for steals.

FIRST

Steals 38

Blocks 2

Defensive Rebounds 3.4

Minutes %

“

He dedicated himself to changing his body, and it shows. He’s way better laterally, plays longer, jumping quicker taking a hit, all those things are a credit to how much he’s done.

- Steve Donahue Head Coach

Points

EIGHTH IN THE ACC

Rebounding FOURTH IN THE ACC

Four to five

Field Goal % NINTH IN THE ACC

Offensive Rebounding SEVENTH IN THE ACC

Anderson worked to make his body ready to play more center this season for the Eagles.

Vertical Leap 4 inches

Bench Press 15 pounds

Free Throw Attempts FOURTH IN THE ACC

Body Fat Percentage 1 percent

85%

still have to remind him to talk, but not much more than the typical reminders they give to other players. That communication has helped him grow as a leader, but it has also let the BC defense grow as a whole.

“When you open your mouth on defense,” Hanlan said, “it makes it a lot easier.”

The off-ball defense is just a small part of the larger improvement Anderson and Donahue have seen from Hanlan as he becomes a better all-around player.

“In general, now, I think he’s really good with the basketball, and I think he’s really good defensively on the ball,” Donahue said. “It’s all the other aspects, playing off the ball defensively—I think he can be someone that can lead the league in steals. I think he can be a great rebounder. I think he can be a great facilitator of the offense when the ball gets swung to him with his decision making.”

“Olivier is focused on becoming an all-around player,” Anderson said. “He’s a better defender, he’s a better passer—whether it’s kicking it to me or kicking it to shooters—I think our scrimmage is a great example of that. He had six rebounds and eight assists, I don’t know if he had that all last season.”

“

I want him to absolutely think more aggressive. When he worries about being in the right place, he’s actually very conservative in his approach. I need him to really think next play—how can I get in there. Usually good things happen, because he has really good instincts when he does that.

- Steve Donahue Head Coach

RO LL

15

Points

AT HL ET IC IS M

Points/g

A

SUPERLATIVES

lthough he held his own guarding the ball last season, Hanlan struggled with help defense off the ball. To Donahue, a lot of that had to do with overthinking things.

“I want him to absolutely think more aggressive,” Donahue said.

“When he worries about being in the right place, he’s actually very conservative in his approach.

I need him to really think next play—how can I get in there. Usually good things happen, because he has really good instincts when he does that.”

Donahue has worked with Hanlan on breaking free defensively. Rather than making sure he’s in the exact right spot when his man is two or three passes away from the ball, it’s better for BC if Hanlan stands in a spot where he thinks he can steal a skip pass and go the other way.

“He’s ready to prove that he can get steals a lot of times off the ball, whether it’s digging into the post or getting into passing lanes,” Anderson said. “That’ll really ignite our offense, and any time you can get Olivier with the ball in transition, you want that.”

A quiet player on the court last year, Hanlan has already been much more vocal in practices this fall. Occasionally the coaches will

&

11

Hanlan had no problems creating a shot for himself by the end of last season, but his assists totals were low given his usage rate.

HANLAN

STEALING SECOND

PI CK

Shots/g

An okay on-ball defender, Hanlan lost his man away from the ball at times last year. He was also conservative, avoiding risky lunges into passing lanes for steals.

OLIVIER

DE

IN AK AY M

FINDING A BALANCE Hanlan was asked to be an aggressive attacker last season, in part because of BC’s lineups. This year, he’ll have the chance to show his ability to create. All stats are from 2012-13.

PLAYMAKING

47.6

Ryan Anderson and Olivier Hanlan lead BC in a chase for an NCAA Tournament bid

More than a scorer

PL

BC’s dynamic duo of point guard and power forward heard all of the knocks on their games this offseason, especially in these areas. Here’s a breakdown of their weaknesses.

G

HEARING THE CRITICS

THE HEIGHTS 5

anlan and Donahue fell into a routine over the course of the 201213 season, and it’s a routine that Hanlan expects to become even more prevalent this year.

A day or two after every game, Hanlan would go into Donahue’s office and they’d use the website Synergy to go through all of Hanlan’s plays from the previous night. It could be a time-consuming task, seeing as Hanlan was on the court more than 85 percent of the time for the Eagles, but the freshman point guard loved it.

“It’s not like coach D’s calling me up to come watch tape,” Hanlan said. “I really force it upon him. I’m in his office basically every day, if it’s not watching tape it’s just talking to him. We kind of slowly started that last season and just made it a routine.”

Hanlan started using Synergy even before he and Donahue began watching tape. He used the service, which breaks down every part of college and NBA games into every single possession and type of play, to learn how professional point guards like Chris Paul and Tony Parker can be so effective.

“It really breaks down your game and it rates you, says what you’re weak at and what you’re strong at,” Hanlan said.

Although every shot in practice and in games is charted and logged, a lot of the players don’t see or hear those numbers, according to Anderson. The BC coaches use it to direct their instruction, telling players in practice when they take a good shot or when they should’ve passed it.

“It’s just coaching tools for them,” Anderson said. “Not only are they telling you something, but they have reasons why they’re telling you something. And we know that, so there’s no second-guessing whether they’re right or wrong.

You know it’s all backed up with stats.”

For Donahue, it’s a combination of Hanlan’s willingness to learn and his ability to handle criticism that’s led to the one-on-one film sessions and the use of Synergy. He still watches film with certain guys, but Hanlan’s dedication to learning is at a different level.

“I think a lot of guys would take it in, I think the difference is that O is really interested,” Donahue said. “He’s really anxious to hear some bad things and where [he’s] poor.

“A lot of guys, one, they don’t want to hear it, two, they don’t want to keep hearing it, so I think it’s a credit to him that he’s willing to really watch and listen and learn and try to correct it.”

It also helps that Donahue sees so many ways in which Hanlan can still get better.

“A lot of guys do certain things, but it’s not necessarily that they can do more or it can be corrected,” Donahue said. “He’s got so many parts of his game that I feel that he can make such growth in because he’s such a terrific player already and he’s got great chances to be even better.

“I think he has so much potential that I feel like if we can continue to chip away at certain things I think it just has a chance to make a big impact.”

The extra time watching games has helped Hanlan tremendously, especially since he has a strong ability to translate what he learns on tape into his play on the court.

“I think it was imperative that I got involved and helped him,” Donahue said. “Some guys don’t care to watch that much film. They don’t want to put in that time. So, he was willing to put in the time, and then he’s willing to work on it, on his own and in practice, and it’s made him a better player.”

And he isn’t going to stop.

“I’m going to do it even more this year,” Hanlan said, “because it’s helped me a lot just to get so much better throughout the year.

“A lot more people should be watching tape.”

CHANGING HABITS, BUILDING A FOUNDATION

A

nderson has never looked more comfortable physically on a basketball court during his college career than he has during practices this fall. After trimming body fat and adding muscle this offseason, he can finally reciprocate the punishment opposing big men put on him early in his career.

“He dedicated himself to changing his body, and it shows,” Donahue said. “He’s way better laterally, plays longer, jumping quicker taking a hit, all those things are a credit to how much he’s done.”

Anderson honed in on an aspect of his game during all of his physical work over the offseason. The four inches added to his vertical leap will help with dunking and rebounding, 15 added pounds on the bench press will

give him more strength to use against centers in the paint, and his quicker time in sprints will let him switch on to guards in pick-and-roll.

“He’s done a good job,” Donahue said.

“He’s moving way better than he ever did.

I think obviously the defensive end has been our Achilles’ Heel for the younger group, so if he can continue to battle physically with bigs and then keep people in front it just gives us so much more versatility on the defensive end.”

Anderson came into college as a power forward, but, as long as he can hold up defensively, he and Donahue think he can help the team more as a center.

“I think the advantage of having Ryan at the five is that he’s such a skilled basketball player with the ball, so if he’s

your five man, the ability to find guys and go by guys and make plays for others, it’s such a great asset to have,” Donahue said. “And then if he can hold his own physically at the same time it obviously makes us a much better team.”

The added athleticism also gives Anderson an edge in consistency, both late in games and deep into the season.

He won’t get as worn down battling centers for position on either end, and that also applies to the mental toll post play can take.

“I really learned how to approach the mental side of being a five man, being a leader, being all of that kind of stuff,” Anderson said. “The mental side of the game is really going to help me this season.”

Screen test

With Anderson’s improved shooting technique and Hanlan’s focus on playmaking, the duo will be able to use the pick-and-roll in new ways. Anderson can finish on a roll or a pop, and Hanlan can find open men when his path to the rim gets taken away by the defense. Stats show percent of team totals.

All ball

Points

44.5%

Free Throw Attempts Field Goal Attempts Anderson

Hanlan

The duo finished 52.9 percent of BC’s possessions.

51.0% 43.8%

52.9

Usage Rate

WATCH THE TAPES Hanlan and Donahue go through every game, watching each of Hanlan’s plays for ways in which the young guard can improve.

6 THE HEIGHTS NOV. 7, 2013

BASKETBALL PREVIEW FEATURE

FLIGHT PLAN

After just two years of serious high school basketball and one year of gaining perspective at prep school, Garland Owens has arrived in Chestnut Hill and the dunks aren’t far behind WORDS: CONNOR MELLAS, PHOTOS: GRAHAM BECK

A A

mong a whole host of other superlatives, Garland Owens, a 6-foot-5, 203pound forward from Maryland, has been called highly athletic, versatile, competitive, and an intelligent player. But few have highlighted his hidden talent, his secret strength: he’s a proven rim-destroyer.

The summer before his senior year of high school, Owens attended a Hoop Mountain basketball camp at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. with his AAU team, Mid Atlantic Select. During one game, Owens received the ball on a fast break and raced toward the backboard.

Two defenders stepped to him, but Owens beat them both, leaping into the air, slamming the dunk home, and snapping the rim clean off its hinges.

“I fell, and then they ended the game because they couldn’t fix it,” Owens said, barely stifling a laugh. “So we just left.”

About two years have passed since he landed on the floor during that camp.

Now a freshman at Boston College, Owens has returned to Massachusetts, and the Conte Forum rims have been put on notice.

Yet there was a time, not too long ago, when east-coast rims were much safer, and Owens was doing a lot less dunking. A few years ago, he was riding the bench on the hardwood and playing under center on the football field. For half of his time at Magruder High School, Owens was all about football—he played safety and wide receiver in addition to quarterback—and

youth-basketball days, on the bench. But even as a kid, Owens said he barely used to get on the court, and when he did, he was out there just to be out there. That finally changed after a junior-year shift in priorities, when Owens began to focus on basketball. Then, one dunk after another, the pieces started to come together.

“I saw the potential that I had and I just wanted to keep growing as a basketball player so I decided to just put more focus into it and put more time into it,” Owens said.

The change of heart was spurred by multiple factors. Owens deliberated on his future, the frequency of injuries for football players, and the changes he noticed in the game of football. Eventually, he realized that pursuing basketball was his best course of action and his greatest shot at becoming a professional athlete.

He began pouring energy into the sport.

With the newfound effort came a greater appreciation for the game.

“I started to fall in love with basketball as I started to play it more,” Owens said.

He also began to appreciate his ability on the hardwood, and how quickly he could improve by pushing himself harder,

“I’M MORE REFINED IN THE WAY I CARRY MYSELF AND THE WAY I LOOK AT THINGS. I FEEL LIKE I GREW UP A LOT FASTER AND IT JUST MATURED ME A LOT.” basketball was on the backburner.

Capable of dunking as a freshman, Owens played on the basketball team but rarely saw action during games.

“My sophomore year I got moved up to varsity but I still never really took basketball seriously,” Owens said.

It wasn’t until his junior year that he began concentrating on basketball.

Always tall and athletic, Owens has become known as a highlight-creating, dunking machine, a role he began cultivating around eighth grade. At the time, Owens wasn’t playing organized basketball, so it wasn’t until his freshman year of high school that he unleashed a dunk in a game for the first time.

“I didn’t play that much, but I got in at the end of the game and I just got a wide-open dunk,” Owens said. “It was pretty exciting.”

Given Owens’ size and natural athleticism, it’s difficult to believe he spent half of his high school career, and most of his

in practice and on his own.

“Every other sport you need somebody else to get better,” Owens said. “You know football, you’ve got to play catch with somebody, and same with baseball and a lot of other sports. But [for] basketball, all you need is a basketball.”

Owens’ growing love for the game helped him lead Magruder to the Maryland 4A Title his senior season, where he averaged 15 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks while shooting 62 percent from the field. Then, it took him to Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va. for a post-graduation year. There, Owens found the tools he needed to elevate his game to another level.

“It really helped me out a lot because I just prioritized things and found out what was really important, and just worked on my game,” he said.

Massanutten helped Owens grow as a person off the court, giving him focus, maturity, and a new sense of perspective.

While at the academy, Owens played with a group of other talent prospects including Kansas’ Frank Mason, Miami’s DeAndre Burnett, Utah’s Ahmad Fields, and Maryland’s Damonte Dodd. The highly competitive practices pushed Owens’ level of play on the court, and the strict military academy lifestyle helped his overall discipline. Unable to leave campus, it was all basketball and schoolwork for Owens. Even so, he and his teammates still managed to have a good time.

On one such occasion, when new mattresses arrived for Owens’ and his teammates, they re-appropriated the old ones before they were collected and barricaded parts of the hallway.

“We were just stacking up mattresses on peoples’ doors so they couldn’t get out when they went in their rooms,” Owens said with a laugh.

“The best part was the bond that I created with those guys. We had a lot of good guys.”

Now at BC, Owens is building on the lessons he learned at Massanutten and is forming new bonds all over again.

Adapting to the speed and size of college ball has been a manageable challenge for Owens, who said that his coaches and teammates have been invaluable in his transition and have remained consistently positive around him.

Focused on developing his game, Owens is constantly concerned with improving and competing, and has been busy putting in extra, out-of-practice work with BC assistant coach Akbar Waheed, even on off days. The additional effort is paying off, and while Owens doesn’t have much time for any mattress-inspired dorm-redecorating projects, BC head coach Steve Donahue is expecting Owens to contribute right away. While he won’t be left on an island, Donahue said Owens is the best option to spell Joe Rahon and Olivier Hanlan as BC’s primary ball-handler on certain plays.

“Especially with us banged up—first of all he got here as a freshman and he got to come to both sessions,” Donahue said.

“He’s way farther ahead than the typical freshman because of that. Different than most of our guys. Extremely athletic.

Plays a lot of positions. Can play one, two, three—four in a pinch. He can guard all four of them. Probably our best offensive rebounder.”

According to Donahue, like most freshmen, Owens isn’t free from inconsistencies in his game. When Owens tires he sometimes reverts to high school habits.

That said, Donahue stressed the positive and fresh impact Owens will bring to the Eagles, and that he’s going to play.

Right now, Owens is concentrating on improving his shooting and is confident that greater consistency will come with practice. Though athleticism has been the most common buzzword associated with Owens, he highlighted his passing ability as his biggest strength, citing the vision and ability to find people he gleaned during his quarterbacking days. Donahue expanded on Owens’ self-assessment:

“EVERY OTHER SPORT YOU NEED SOMEBODY ELSE TO GET BETTER...

BUT [FOR] BASKETBALL, ALL YOU NEED IS A BASKETBALL.” “I think he gives something we haven’t had,” he said. “With that, he has way better basketball IQ than you’d expect a freshman to have. One of our best passers.”

Additionally, Donahue praised Owens’ ball handling ability, calling him maybe the third-best ball handler on the team.

“We won’t hang him on an island, but I feel he’s good enough to get us into stuff at times,” Donahue said.

Due to his size and versatility, Owens is capable of playing point guard, shooting guard, small forward and even power forward, but he prefers the two because of his size advantages, and the three because of his speed advantages. His ability to get to the rim could be a huge addition for the Eagles, and regardless of the position he plays, Owens will bring a level of athleticism that can only bolster BC. Defensively, the wing has a large upside and a plethora of energy.

Mentally, Owens is bringing a positive

attitude to Conte. He stressed a desire to help the Eagles improve in any way possible, underscoring his positive attitude, defensive work ethic, and willingness to just let the game come to him.

And of course, Owens adds a huge excitement factor to BC. As one of the most purely athletic Eagles on the men’s basketball team in years, Owens has the potential to light up Conte Forum with explosive two-handed, one-handed and backwards dunks, alley-oops, and defender-ditching moves.

When college basketball finally does come to Owens on Friday night, he’ll be ready. While Owens isn’t much for superstitions, before the game begins he’ll be eagerly visualizing every aspect of it, continuing a pre-game ritual he formed during his senior year of high school.

“When it gets close to the game—I like to joke around a lot in the locker room— but when it gets close to the game, I like to be off by myself and kind of meditate on the game and what’s ahead of me.”

When Garland Owens walks out of the locker room to play his first collegiate basketball game against the Providence Friars, he’ll be focused. When Garland Owens steps onto the court he’ll have the chance to prove—at the N’’CAA level—that military academy, and all the extra hours of practice, were worth it. When Garland Owens walks back into that locker room, exhausted and dripping with sweat, there’s a good chance those Providence rims will be in need of a little maintenance. 

NOV. 7, 2013 THE HEIGHTS 7

BASKETBALL PREVIEW PROJECTIONS

P R O

J

E

C

T

I

O N S

BIG THREE

SOPHOMORE GUARD

KRISTEN DOHERTY

SENIOR FORWARD

KATIE ZENEVITCH

STRENGTHS All-around shooting Creating offense Free-throw shooting

STRENGTHS Rebounding All-around defense Distributing the ball

STRENGTHS Soft touch at basket Defensive rebounding Free-throw shooting

WEAKNESSES Physical play On-ball defense Staying healthy

WEAKNESSES Foul trouble Turnovers Efficiency

WEAKNESSES Establishing position Guarding the perimeter Turnovers

Number to Know Finished seventh in the ACC in 3-pointers made per game with 2.1, just behind BC’s Kerri Shields

Number to Know Top-20 in the ACC scoring, averaging 13.4 points per game for the Eagles in 2012-13

Number to Know Eighth best freethrow shooter in the conference, hitting at an 78.3 percent clip from the line

NICOLE BOUDREAU

STARTING

DEFENSE

Seeing Triple Although the Eagles will need production from plenty of places to be successful, the gameplan starts and ends with Boudreau, Doherty, and Zenevitch for BC.

SENIOR FORWARD

NICOLE BOUDREAU

KELLY HUGHES

KRISTEN DOHERTY

LAUREN ENGELN

KATIE ZENEVITCH

SHAYRA BROWN

KAT COOPER

KARIMA GABRIEL

KATIE ZENEVITCH

Pros & Cons The Eagles might struggle defensively this season, but BC head coach Erik Johnson has a few different options at his disposal, especially this group which puts Doherty at shooting guard to help on the perimeter.

SHOOTING

REBOUNDING

Pros & Cons This is the projected starting lineup for BC. Hughes, a freshman, and Engeln, a transfer from UConn, join Boudreau, Doherty, and Zenevitch in the starting five, which brings a little bit of everything on the offensive end.

KRISTEN DOHERY

SHAYRA BROWN

KRISTEN DOHERTY

ALEXA COULOMBE

KAT COOPER

KATIE ZENEVITCH

NICOLE BOUDREAU

Pros & Cons If BC is getting beat on the boards against bigger or more athletic teams, this combination of players can be thrown out onto the court to secure the ball, and then Doherty and Zenevitch can create on offense from there.

BOSTON COLLEGE UNRANKED

Scouting Report The Eagles will bring another year under Johnson’s system to the season-opener on Saturday, with a better understanding on both ends of the floor.

Alexa Coulombe Could be an X-factor for the Eagles off the bench, both against Stanford and later on.

KRISTEN DOHERY

LAUREN ENGELN

Pros & Cons Perhaps BC’s best way to stay in games against the best teams, this lineup can stretch the floor and hope that enough players get hot from the arc to shoot the opponent out of the gym to force an upset.

62-57 L

No. 15 North Carolina Mar. 8 85-57 L

No. 17 North Carolina Feb. 28 86-61 L

No. 8 Maryland Feb. 21

Scoring Margin -3.1 Free Throw % .740 Rebounding Margin -4.0

80-52 L

STANFORD

RANKED NO. 3

Scouting Report UConn received all the preaseason No. 1 votes, but Stanford carries the nation’s best player in Ogwumike and she’s surrounded by plenty of talent.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Scoring Margin +18.6

Chiney Ogwumike Received all 36 votes from the national media for preseason All-America.

Free Throw % .718

No. 16 North Carolina Feb. 7

Rebounding Margin +7.5

GAMES TO WATCH

SCHEDULE

BOSTON UNIVERSITY

On the challenge of playing in the ACC: “The ACC is a great platform to get national recognition and play a great schedule. We were really close last year to winning a lot of games, we’re talking about just a few points here and there. It’s just about taking that next step and having those close games go your way.”

SHAYRA BROWN

BC VS. RANKED TEAMS IN 2013

OPENER

PLAYER TO WATCH

KELLY HUGHES

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 7:00 p.m.

The Eagles lost to the Terriers in the season-opener at BU last year, and will be looking for revenge at home this season after falling by a slim eight-point margin.

Erik Johnson enters his second season as BC’s head coach.

NORTH CAROLINA Sunday, Jan. 19, 1:00 p.m.

In what may be a budding rivalry, BC fought the Tar Heels to the last minute of an ACC Tournament game after being blown out twice before by UNC during the regular season.

VIRGINIA TECH Sunday, Jan. 5, 1:00 p.m.

BC gets Virginia Tech in its ACC opener and its second televised game. The Eagles won 53-46 on the road in the two teams’ only matchup last season.

MARYLAND Thursday, Feb. 27, 7:00 p.m.

Maryland is the last home game on the schedule for BC, and should serve as senior night for veteran players Shayra Brown, Kristen Doherty, and Katie Zenevitch.

8 THE HEIGHTS nov. 7, 2013

basketball preview feature

women’s basketball

A road less traveled the eagles took extra weeks of practice to develop a new offensive plan and persistent attitude to guide them through an even more formidable acc schedule words: marly morgus photos: graham beck

A

s if an ACC schedule wasn’t hard enough—as if matchups with North Carolina, Duke, Clemson, and Miami weren’t enough of a challenge—the Boston College women’s basketball team has added another top competitor to its schedule this year, taking on the challenge right out of the gate.

On Saturday, the Eagles will welcome Stanford to Conte Forum in the first true contest of the season, with no exhibition or throw-away game under their belts before they take on the No. 3 team in the country.

“Game one,” said BC sophomore guard Nicole Boudreau. “We could use a little warm-up before maybe, but we’re all excited for them to come to our house and hopefully give them a game. I don’t think a lot of people expect us to stand up with them, and expect us to just get blown out and that’s not what we’re thinking in our locker room. Who knows what can happen when you stick with a team like Stanford.”

After a long offseason and months of preparation, the Eagles will hope to be the little engine that could and stick with the Cardinal, defying preconceived notions.

Last year, the Eagles finished 12-18 with five wins and 12 losses in the ACC. It was head coach Erik Johnson’s first year coaching at BC, and an entirely new system had to be implemented as the coaches grew accustomed to their personnel and vice versa.

Though it did not show in the win column, Johnson thought that his team played some of its best basketball within the conference last season, pushing Wake Forest to two overtimes in the first matchup between the two, and pushing North Carolina to the very last minute in the ACC tournament.

“The ACC is a great platform to get national recognition and play a great schedule,” Johnson said.

“We were really close last year to winning a lot of games, we’re talking about just a few points here and there. It’s just about taking that next step and having those close games go your way.”

This year, with the new additions of Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Pitt to an already talent-packed ACC schedule, but also with a season of coaching under Johnson’s belt, the Eagles have their sights set on more success within the conference.

“Last year was completely different,” said senior captain Kristen Doherty. “The coaching staff, everything was brand new, and we were starting from scratch, so we all came in not knowing what to expect, not knowing what the coaches wanted, how they coached, they didn’t know how we played.

Last year we were building trust, and this year I think we’re starting at a place where we know what’s expected already, so right now we have to build on what we already built last year.”

Doherty and her fellow captain Katie Zenevitch will lead the Eagles into this second year of Johnson’s tenure, building on last year’s foundation but also enforcing a new, tougher work ethic in all of their players. “[Johnson] kept telling us how it was a lot more than lead by example,” Doherty said. “It’s not enough to just go out there and show them how to work.

You need to hold them accountable to work at the same standards as you and, you know, it’s okay to be vocal and tell them what you expect from the beginning and doing that will help.”

One of those foundational elements from last season will be the stellar performance that Boudreau put forth in 2012-13, as she led ACC freshmen in 3-pointers and was the second leading scorer among ACC freshmen, earning her a spot on the All-ACC Freshman Team.

During the offseason, however, she has been battling a back injury. In the weeks leading up to the season, Johnson and Boudreau have been working together with the training staff in order to limit the stress on an injury that is unlikely ever to be fully healed. As of yet, Boudreau has practiced only every other day, hoping to limit the stress that all the twisting and pounding on the court takes on her back.

“That’s one of those things that every team has a couple players that they wish could practice the way everyone else does but they just can’t,” Johnson said.

“It’s just a matter of finding that equilibrium point where we can keep her as tough and trained and in shape as possible without breaking her down, and I guess that’s still a work in progress.”

This year, Johnson and his team have had even more time to figure out that system, as for the first time, the NCAA allowed coaches to hold workouts with their players during the summer. Heading into what was only his second season coaching at BC, Johnson relished the opportunity to get the extra hours with his team on the court.

Rather than skipping around and only laying a loose focus on many areas of the Eagles’ play, Johnson and his staff decided that they would rather focus on one area during that time and do it well.

“We really focused offensively and especially with the freshmen joining us, we were going to have to make huge adjustments to what we did offensively with just some of our new personnel,” Johnson said. “We tried some new ideas and we actually used some things we learned from the men’s staff—Steve Donahue has been a great mentor to me and his personnel is actually quite similar to ours, so we discussed some things and we had the chance to implement it and really teach it during the summer.”

Boudreau went into the specifics of those weeks more closely.

“Last year a lot of teams, their defensive plan on us was just to switch, because our posts weren’t that strong at being able to utilize a little guard on them,” she said. “We really focused on getting those switches for post to really post off a small guard and be able to score off that.”

“I don’t even know. I thought the ACC was hard last year. I can’t even ...

We’re just going to have to fight.”

The Big Three Although the Eagles lose Kerri Shields this season, BC will look to make up for it with a big three of Kristen Doherty, Katie Zenevitch, and Nicole Boudreau. The trio was a large part of the team on both sides of the ball last season, although BC didn’t top opponents in many categories.

Wins Points/g Field goal % 3-point % Rebounds/g Assists/g Turnovers/g Steals/g Blocks/g 3-point fg made Free throw atts

BC 12 61.9 .404 .336 32.6 14.3 16.2 7.4 2.3 7.0 454

Opps 19 65.0 .422 .324 36.6 13.5 15.9 6.9 3.4 4.9 541

Points Rebounds 3-point field goals Blocks Steals Free throw attempts Field goal attempts

57.3% 49.2% 56.9% 47.2% 53.9%

51.8%

55.8%

Kristen Doherty Katie Zenevitch Nicole Boudreau *Percentages represent team totals

Already, the team has seen and felt the results of those extra couple of weeks of practice that gave them a head start on the season. Senior captain Kristen Doherty thought that the extra practice during the summer was especially helpful in terms of allowing her and her teammates to fall into their new roles on the squad without the pressure of games looming over them.

With three true freshmen on the 13-person roster, it also gave the newcomers more time to feel comfortable on the team.

“It was funny because we were talking this summer and we said that if we had this our freshman year, it would be a completely different story,” Doherty said. “It’s very helpful for them. As far as Katie and I, being captains, it gave us an opportunity to step up and lead before the season started, so we would meet with coach all the time and we would talk about what we have to do as leaders on this team to come together and be a successful team.”

Come the start of August, the Eagles went their separate ways only to return for the school year and the beginning of their true practice schedule 40 days before the first matchup with Stanford.

With the matchup in the back of their minds, the Eagles chose to focus on building themselves as a team during the majority of preseason practice, rather than focus on what it was they specifically have to do in order to hang with Stanford.

“It’s hard to stay energized and focused into what you’re doing because every day you’re practicing against the same people,” Doherty said. “We look at [Stanford] more as a reminder every day. We’re still focusing on us, but we’re looking to get better, as us, for them.”

With a little sister program to help acclimate the freshmen and a conscious effort off the court to become a solid unit, the team is hoping to use its bond to become more in sync and effective on the court.

BC will need to hold onto any advantage that it can, as the schedule never really slows down after the Stanford game. With the new additions to the ACC, the Eagles will have to work even harder to improve on the shaky conference record from last year.

BC is aware of the challenges in front of it, but takes them in stride with an attitude that if it plays hard and puts in the effort in practice, it can compete with any competitor that comes its way.

“With the addition of Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Pitt, I don’t even know,” Boudreau said. “I thought the ACC was hard last year, I can’t even, we’re just going to have to fight.”

“Last year we got blown out twice by North Carolina and then in the ACC tournament we gave them a game. We were right there at the end and we have to know that we can play with them. If we get tough and we don’t get punked by those teams we can stick right with North Carolina, right with Duke, right with all of them, and I think that’s what we have to think like.”

It’s a long road ahead, but the Eagles have aspirations of making a strong showing in the ACC tournament and also earning themselves an NCAA tournament bid.

When the Eagles take on Stanford on Saturday, it will be just the first of many tests on their horizon as they enter a long season of highly competitive play. With enough of a fight, though, Boudreau, Doherty, and the rest of the team believe in their ability to surprise people.

“I have high expectations of this team,” Doherty said. “How we finished off the season last year, I think we really surprised a lot of people and now we definitely raised the bar to a new level. We have a tough schedule, but I do think that we’re going to rise to every occasion and we’re going to play our hardest every time.” n

A2critical curmudgeon

lorde of herself

why the 16-year-old should avoid pop star collaborations, page B2 fashion forward

blog boredom

trendy fashion blogs could use a serious makeover, page B4

The Heights

Thursday, January 17, 2013

album review

eminem

the rap superstar re-asserts his godlike status on ‘the marshall mathers lp 2,’ b5

MOVEMBER To shave or not to shave?

By Sean keeley, Arts & Review Editor | Ariana Igneri, Assoc. Arts & REview editor | John Wiley, Asst. Arts & Review editor See B3

MAGGIE BURDGE / Heights graphic

THE HEIGHTS

C2

KEELEY’S CORNER

Abstract art?

That’s a pisser

Thursday, November 7, 2013

SCENE AND HEARD

BY: RYAN DOWD

SEAN KEELEY While walking through the abstract art wing at the Museum of Fine Arts this weekend—scanning its bizarre assembly of twisty metallic sculptures and inscrutable paintings—I stumbled across a work that seemed strange even by the gallery’s standards. It was a massive piece, a 76 by 52-inch canvas mounted imposingly on the wall. Like the other pieces in the gallery, it didn’t make any claim to represent reality—it was simply a canvas with a metallic sheen, covered with a series of splotchy blue-green stains. As I approached closer to the placard, I read that it was a 1978 piece by Andy Warhol, simply called “Oxidation Painting.”

And then I read what the medium was: “urine on metallic pigment in acrylic pigment on canvas.”

The description that followed told the story: the work was made by coating a canvas in a copper sheen and then peeing on it.

To help with such an arduous task, Warhol enlisted friends and fellow artists who were all too willing to relieve themselves after drinking too much wine. Unmentioned by the MFA was the fact that “Oxidation Painting” was just one of many such works, colloquially called Warhol’s “piss paintings.”

At first, all I could do was laugh. There was such a gap between the artwork—a silly, irreverent thing made by a bunch of drunken artists peeing on a canvas—and its placement in the rarefied, high-art world of the MFA. The description of the painting’s medium was the funniest part to me—“urine on metallic pigment,” a helpful little factoid offered up with no judgment, just as if it were oil on canvas.

As I stared at Warhol’s 35 year-old urine stains mounted on the walls of the MFA, though, my laughter turned to reflection. I heard a nagging and familiar little voice in my head, one that often reappears when I see radical modern art in a museum. It whispered to me: this does not belong here.

To be clear, I certainly do not write off modern art as worthless—there’s a good deal of it I enjoy, and I think that it is museums’ jobs to bring unusual, challenging art to the public. On some level, though, radical art really doesn’t belong in a museum. The avant-garde is all about rejecting tradition, stirring controversy, provoking a shock.

Museums are about codifying culture, placing something on a wall to officially sanction it as art. When you place something in a museum you de-radicalize it, incorporating it as a part of acceptable artistic culture.

Walking through the museum with my classmates, I realized that nearly every work of art on display was once shockingly new and controversial—before time inevitably came to moderate and tame our reactions.

Picasso and Magritte’s grotesque surrealism became the stuff of art history textbooks.

The Impressionist works of Monet and Van Gogh—once derided for their flouting of conventional brushstroke styles and lack of “realism”—are now celebrated as masterpieces, and adorn coffee table books and postcards. Even an abrasive iconoclast like Warhol gets his spot in the museum.

It seems to me that there’s a self-reinforcing mechanism at work here. With each successive generation, art becomes increasingly radical to distinguish itself from the previous generation, but then becomes assimilated and acceptable, so the next generation goes even more radical. It’s a strange paradox, this way that art becomes ever more radical and more tame at once, encouraged by a museum culture that desperately wants to display what’s new and innovative.

So where does this story end? You might think it would have ended sometime early last century. After all, where can you go after an art movement that explicitly calls itself “modernist”—which by its very name seems to have the final say on what is new? Well, you go to postmodernism, and then to postpostmodernism, apparently. Go any further down this rabbit hole and headaches ensue.

I don’t pretend to know the answers to all of these questions, nor can I accurately predict what will be the next generation of museum fodder. But I think it is worth questioning why a museum would elevate something like “Oxidation Painting” to the status of valuable art. When shock value and sheer weirdness is privileged over meaning, you give an easy opening for artists to exploit that reality for their own self-promotion, rather than for art. Funnily enough, it’s the same thing that happens in the world of pop culture. Is Miley Cyrus twerking and swinging naked on a wrecking ball all that different from Warhol’s peeing on a canvas? Both are cries for attention more than meaningful artistic statements.

That doesn’t mean that shocking art can’t be great art—look at Magritte or Picasso or the Impressionists to see how it can be.

But shock value shouldn’t be equated with artistic value. Sometimes pee stains are just pee stains, not art.

Sean Keeley is the Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

2. BACK IN BOSTON

1. A WINNING ‘GAME’

Warner Bros wishes you a merry Christmas, in the form of Ben Affleck’s next directorial endeavor Live by Night, set for a Christmas Day release in 2015. Shooting is slated to start in September of 2014—after Affleck has donned the cowl of the bat, of course. Live by Night, based on Dennis Lehane’s novel, is a tale of corruption set in the prohibition era.

It takes place in Boston, obviously.

Ender’s Game won the weekend box office, but unfortunately for the long awaited adaption, it will lose the war. Ender’s Game won the weekend with a quiet $28 million, a far cry from its $110 million budget. With Thor: The Dark World hammering its way through the overseas market and eyeing a U.S. release this weekend, Ender’s Game may not be considered a bomb, but it is far from an unqualified success.

4. BIEB’S BROTHEL BUSINESS

We know Justin Bieber entered a brothel in Rio de Janeiro on Friday night. We know he exited the brothel three hours later with two women.

We know he was kicked out of his hotel for breaking hotel rules. That’s more than enough.

Meanwhile, Ryan Seacrest recently asked Selena Gomez about single life. The touring starlet responded, “It’s been great. I’m really enjoying it.”

3. A BERRY ‘GLEE’FUL SPINOFF

5. RETURNING TO ‘ROOTS’

Glee creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy is reportedly working on a spinoff centered on Lea Michele’s character in the show, Rachel Berry. The spinoff would be set in New York and could feature other members from the now-graduated Glee class.

Murphy apparently had an ending for the show in mind, but with the death of show star Cory Monteith this past July, Murphy has switched gears toward a spinoff.

Once upon a time the History Channel might have produced a dry program covering the social significance of the landmark 1977 ABC mini-series Roots. Those were the good old days. These days the History Channel takes a more direct approach to history. They make Viking dramas, or buy the rights to Roots and start production on a remake (or “reboot”). The History Channel has not set a release for its remake.

THE CRITICAL CURMUDGEON

@RILAWS (RICHARD LAWSON, WRITER, ‘THE ATLANTIC WIRE’)

“THIS IS THE ONLY TIME THE CITY OF BOSTON HAS EVER PUNISHED A CARDINAL.” @BJNOVAK (B.J. NOVAK, ACTOR) PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Lorde’s breakaway success has led to calls for collaboration, but we should give the 16-year-old time to develop her own voice.

Resisting the call for pop collaboration MATT MAZZARI Now that Lorde, New Zealand songstress of “Royals” fame, has hit the big time, pop media outlets are racing to see what site or network can completely miss the point by the furthest distance.

Basically, the name of the game is to completely ignore Lorde’s music and fabricate as much drama between the 16 year old and random celebrities as possible.

It’s like throwing darts combined with dizzy bat, only markedly less dignified.

Following her debut album, Pure Heroine, online music news sources started printing headlines such as “Lorde Dethrones Miley Cyrus” (Celebuzz.com), “Step Aside Cyrus” (Sheknows.com Entertainment), and “Lorde Disses Miley” (everyone). The lovely folks at Fuse News thought it necessary to ask Lorde if she plans to “get naked and ... go crazy [like Cyrus]” literally the day after the album’s release. Good on ya, Fuse News!

Obviously, these comparisons are completely asinine and reflect the skewed priorities of pop music news outlets more than anything else. Thus far, though, Lorde has handled the lackluster “criticism” impressively well.

But there was one topic she mentioned that gave me pause, and I’d like it to be our subject for our one-way discussion this week: in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Lorde said that she would “love to work with [Kanye West].” Now I want to describe how that’s a super bad idea.

But Matt, you might say, Lorde has such a tremendous voice, and Kanye West

is the established creative tour de force of our generation! How could that duo not be awesome?

Well, first of all, the subjects that Kanye raps about and what we’ve seen on Pure Heroine couldn’t be more different. I mean, just compare “Royals” to basically any track from Graduation. How does “counting dollars on the train / to the party” relate to “bought more jewelry / more Louis V”? There’s a huge gap there, not just economically (because I’m sure Lorde is very wealthy by now) but symbolically.

More importantly, though, I believe that if she and Kanye collaborated, Lorde would be relegated to “hook duty,” as has happened so many other times on singer-rapper compilations. When a male rap artist and a female vocalist “team up,” the product frequently looks like it’s being directed entirely by the guy while the girl just comes in to handle the refrain. Part of this is due to the relationship between verse and chorus in songwriting: the verse drives the song, while the chorus grounds the music with a (hopefully) catchy riff.

In my mind, there’s frequently no way to avoid having the song feel like it belongs to the rapper, even if he’s the less talented participant of the two.

Consider Rihanna or Katy Perry. Both women can sing and write well enough to sustain wildly successful solo careers, but as featured artists they get, in my opinion, a raw deal. When Rihanna sang for Jay-Z on “Run this Town,” or when Perry did “E.T.” with West, their parts probably stood out to you the most, since pop hooks are made to be memorable and make you want to purchase the song on

iTunes for an exorbitant $1.29. But even though you imagine their voices when you hear the songs, do you think of the song as theirs? Probably not, and that’s not just because they were put behind the “feat.” stamp. Male musicians employing female background singers for challenging vocal parts is such a trope at this point that most people recognize the woman’s voice as a secondary part to the song.

For example, everyone knows “Gimme Shelter” is by the Rolling Stones, but how many people today would recognize Merry Clayton, the hauntingly talented voice that made that song what it is? Take a more current example: we all heard “Same Love” by Macklemore a million times this summer, but what about Mary Lambert, whose voice dominated half the track? The rap vs. pop element makes it even worse because, structurally, you can’t make a song with rap in it not sound like a rap song. That’s why I think that if Kanye and Lorde teamed up the result would sound just like a Kanye album with more consistently well-sung hooks.

The outcome of rapper-singer collaboration tends to be that the rapper stylistically dominates the singles, even though the vocalists tend to put in just as much effort and be equally (if not more) important to the listener’s experience. Before we see her collaborate, I’d like to see where Lorde can take herself as a solo artist.

Matt Mazzari is a staff columnist for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

“I’M IMPRESSED THAT ‘MILK DUDS’ WAS THE WINNING CHOICE FOR THE NAME AT THE FINAL HERSHEY’S BOARD MEETING ON THE SUBJECT” @DEANNORRIS (DEAN NORRIS, ACTOR, ‘BREAKING BAD’)

“TORONTO MAYOR ROB FORD GONNA B BANGING WENDY AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE WITHIN THE YEAR.” @ALBERTBROOKS (ALBERT BROOKS, ACTOR AND COMEDIAN, ‘FINDING NEMO,’ ‘DRIVE’)

“I’LL MISS THAT KID IN BLOCKBUSTER TELLING ME EVERYTIME I WENT IN, ‘WE DON’T HAVE ANY OF YOUR MOVIES EXCEPT FOR NEMO.’” HAVE A FAVORITE TWEET THIS WEEK? TWEET IT FOR CONSIDERATION AT @BCHEIGHTSARTS

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 7, 2013

C3

Shave or No Shave?

From the baseball diamond at Fenway to the halls of Stokes, facial hair is back in a big way. As the annual men’s Movember movement kicks off and beards become an ever-common sight, on campus and on screen, The Scene looks at the best and worst of celebrity facial hair, and asks the fundamental dilemma of men everywhere: to shave or not to shave?

Sean Keeley, Arts & Review Editor Ariana Igneri, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor John Wiley, Asst. Arts & Review Editor

VE

HA S O N

SHAV

E

Mike Napoli

Brad Pitt Brad Pitt needs to cut the crap. Since he gained widespread fame in the early ’90s, he’s been pinned as one of most attractive men in the world. With his charming grin and sparkling blue eyes, he hasn’t been able to wash himself clean of the title. And honestly, why would he want to?

In the past couple years, though, it sort of seems like Pitt is trying to brush his fans and their adoration aside by sporting atrocious beard styles. It’s a hairy situation. There’s no denying that his acting career, philanthropy projects, and six kids keep him busy, but is it really impossible for him to trim a few seconds out of his life to lather up and pass a blade over his beautiful face?

And let’s not forget that he’s with one of the most gorgeous celebrities in Hollywood—so if not for his fans, Pitt should, at the very least, shave for Angelina. There’s no excuse for the scraggly whiskers, the braided goatee, or the caveman bush. Sorry Pitt, but you and the beards have got to split. –A.I.

David Ortiz might have gotten all the glory and the World Series MVP trophy, but first baseman Mike Napoli deserves his own award for MVB: Most Valuable Beard. Even on a team full of bearded baseballers, Napoli stood out as the scraggly, scruff y face of the Red Sox this season.

Since his fateful decision to ditch the razor during spring training—inspiring teammates from Dustin Pedroia to Jonny Gomes to do the same—Napoli’s beard has blossomed into a creature of its own. His bushy brown beard, streaked with hints of ginger, is so massive and unkempt, such an ecosystem unto itself, that it’s easy to imagine microorganisms living inside of it, coexisting in a dense jungle of hair follicles. Napoli’s facial hair doesn’t seek or need trimming or styling—his is a beard in the state of nature. And it’s likely to stay that way for a while—though Big Papi and Shane Victorino have already shaved their beards for charity, Napoli has no such plans. “I’m keeping mine,” he told MLB.com in late October, and facial hair aficionados everywhere breathed a sigh of relief. – S.K.

VE

HA S NO

Nick Offerman If any man has facial hair that approaches the perfection of a Platonic ideal, that man is Nick Offerman. His full and impeccably coiffed brown stache—a trademark of his character Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation—is less an outgrowth of hair and more a fundamental feature of his face, an indispensable component of his scowl that matches with his intense eyebrows and slick brown hair. In real life and in movies like 21 Jump Street, Offerman has opted for an impressively bushy, silver-streaked beard, but the mustache remains his best look. It’s a sign of its centrality to his character that when Ron Swanson fell under the spell of his tyrannical ex-wife Tammy One early in season five, his decision to shave the mustache represented total emasculation, and even a descent into insanity. Ron Swanson without the mustache is not Ron Swanson, and thankfully for him and us, that close shave with Tammy only lasted for an episode. Since then, the moustache has been back in full bloom, blissfully unchanged. May it ever be thus. –S.K.

SHAV

E

Michael Cera

The facial forecast for Juno star Michael Cera is bleaker than expected—in February of 2012, when the star grew out his mane of manhood, tabloids were quick to cut away at Cera’s new look, describing it as “Superbad.” Cera’s paintbrush-style mustache mixed dangerously with his gangly physique. It was a look unfit for school zones, challenging the longterm vitality of the mustache, which has otherwise seen significant growth over the last decade. Images of Cera with his new mustache became a viral sensation, involving everything from Buzzfeed articles dedicated to Cera’s look to Tumblr pages exclusively posting pictures of the baby-faced wonder boy gone bad. The star, who first gained notoriety for his work in Arrested Development, in time freed himself from the subtle oppression of really bad facial hair—but to give respect where it’s due, Cera is seemingly the one Hollywood star who somehow skipped over the stage in which facial hair is ironic and funny. If nothing else, Cera’s facial hair proved the mustache still is an extraordinary vehicle for public terror and unease. –J.W.

VE

NO SH AVE

Zach Galifianakis Comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis seems to be a sort of Samson. His luscious, curly locks may not be a source of super human strength for him, but his full-grown beard might just be the spring from which his shining sense of humor flows. Really, his lumber jack-esque beard is so intensely dense, that it wouldn’t be surprising to discover that he hides a lengthy list of winning jokes and punch lines behind his wiry bristles. Let’s tease this theory out a little: The Hangover—absolutely hilarious—and he has a beard as thick as a forest. The Campaign—not nearly as funny—and he’s only got a well-groomed mustache. Could there be a correlation between his laugh factor and the amount of facial hair he has? It’s not entirely clear. You’d probably have to comb through his character and measure the length of his beard with hair-splitting precision to analyze such a thesis and actually find out. But no matter how it works for Galifianakis, the truth is, he’s funny with a beard, so he may as well save the shave, for, well, never. –A.I.

SHA O N

Will ferrell I don’t know how to put this, but Ron Burgundy’s mustache is kind of a big deal. The bristles of actor-comedian Will Ferrell’s mustache tickled the hearts and minds of moviegoers across the country as action news comedy Anchorman brushed into theaters in 2004. Ron Burgundy, a mustachioed misogynist who anchors for San Diego’s leading news broadcast, is the unlikely protagonist of the film—Ferrell’s iconic oeuvre in the role of Burgundy is the story of man and mustache. Ferrell’s hypersexual chevron is more stache than the common upper lip can handle, rehashing the ’staching of ’70s pop icons like Freddy Mercury. When Burgundy loses his job later in the film, his mustache devolves into a horrifying display of beard, implying that Burgundy’s confidence in his masculinity is reflected in his cropping of facial hair. If there’s any truth in the mustache being an indicator of wellbeing, perhaps there’s a whisker of hope for Western culture in characters like Burgundy. Anchorman 2 is expected in theaters Dec. 20. – J.W.

THE HEIGHTS

C4

Thursday, November 7, 2013

WILEY’S FOLLIES

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK BY HARRY MITCHELL

Pusha T and Kendrick put aside differences on ‘Nosetalgia’ Waiting for ‘Superfan’ TITLE: “Nosetalgia”

ARTIST: Pusha T feat. Kendrick Lamar PRODUCED BY: Kanye West WHY: Two of modern rap’s biggest talents put aside their competition to collaborate on an elegant, single-take music video

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOD MUSIC

Deviating from the stereotypical mold of a hip-hop music video featuring half-naked women, cars, and liquor, Pusha T teams up with Kendrick Lamar to create a fresh yet old school video that is simple and effective.

“Nosetalgia,” the single off of Pusha’s new album My Name is My Name, features a laidback beat with aggressive guitar riffs and modest drum loops, creating a subtle background that couples smoothly with the simple style of the video. Using only one camera with a black and white filter, the video follows Pusha as he struts down the middle of a neighborhood road dimly lit by the streetlights. Pusha casually raps about his previous drug dealing endeavors, emphasizing every line with confident hand gestures, all while staring, eyes wide, into the camera.

Pusha’s verse ends forcefully, ushering in a 10-second vocal pause allowing Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar to enter the frame. Almost three months earlier, rapper Big

Sean released the single “Control,” on which Lamar spends nearly 30 seconds denouncing most publicly appreciated rappers, including Pusha. This is the first collaboration for the two since “Control” shook the rap industry, intriguing those who thought the song might have hurt any sort of relationship the two may have had. Lamar delivers a hard-hitting first line as the beat cuts out, followed by a reminiscent verse, touching on past familial experiences as the camera continues to follow the two, now walking side-by-side down the same road.

As Lamar’s verse finishes, the two come into a respectful embrace that seems to resolve any sort of difference the rappers shared. The beat continues to play independently as the two march out of the frame, still side-by-side.

Pusha and Lamar come together to make a simple yet elegant music video providing an interesting and distinctive viewer experience. 

FASHION FORWARD

Filtering through fashion’s blogosphere When you’ve seen one fashion blog, you’ve seen them all

THERESE TULLY It is time to put it to rest—the fashion blog, that is. If it hasn’t already kicked the bucket, it’s definitely on its deathbed. By my estimation, months, if not years, separate it from total decimation. Trust me, it’s hard for me to utter these words, but I think it is time to wake up and smell the coffee. Enough is enough. Flashes of brand obsession without product discernment leave me queasy, and all of the nail art has me questioning exactly who has the time to paint chevron-striped nails. Because, genuinely, I would like to know where you find the time.

Let me preface this by saying this hasn’t been an easy realization for me. I began with a “Blogs” tab on my bookmarks folder that consisted of no fewer than 50 different blogs that I frequented far too regularly. Between Tumblr and Bloglovin, my process was eventually streamlined to a feed full of fashion week’s finest, celebrity styles, and up-andcoming bloggers who were just trying to find their place in the newly emerging fashion blog space. I was hooked.

But as time went on, more and more of these blogs began to feel the same, and I even started confusing their names. Ampersands ran rampant through their titles, from Cupcakes & Cashmere, Lace & Tea, Sequins & Stripes, and Red Soles & Red Wine just to name a few. The formulaic nature of these blogs goes far beyond the title format. Most are a mix of lifestyle and fashion choices, and they feel very much like Pinterest boards in blog form.

I am a very busy woman, and I do not have hours upon hours to scroll through 50 blogs that are all the same. I get that your outfit is really cute, but it looks like everyone else’s outfit! And who is taking these photos on these blogs? Which one of your friends have you roped into giving you a personal fashion photo shoot everyday? Because if my friend asked me to do that for her everyday, I would think she was way too obsessed with herself, first of all, and second of all, I would tell her to get new friends.

Even Tavi Gevinson, who was supposed to be the new face of blogging, the latest in what is young and cool, has redirected her efforts to her

online magazine, Rookie. It seems that Queen Tavi herself has let the blogosphere slip away from her.

Is anyone cool blogging anymore? When I was investigating this very question, I came upon an article about a newly popular blog, The Coral Court.

I searched it, viewed a few pages, and was left with a very bleh taste in my mouth. Going back to the article where I had first heard about it, I read that the blog attracts up to 20,000 views a day. Yes, you read those zeros right.

What? Do these 20,000 people not have higher standards? Not to bash this girl, because she does have some nice outfits, but it’s all kind of bland.

It’s nothing I haven’t seen a million times before walking around campus, perusing Pinterest, or on Atlantic to Pacific. Just because everyone with an Internet connection can blog doesn’t mean that they should blog.

I guess now, it just takes more creativity to really make a splash. That’s what was so great with Tavi, even though I loved to hate her. She was a young teen, making big waves, dying her hair grey, writing, and doing other cool things. Anyone can have their friends take a picture of them in riding boots and a vest against a backdrop of fall leaves.

But I am begging you, please don’t. You are glutting the pool, and making it even more difficult for us to weed through it all and fish out the real talent.

Not only are blogs bringing fashion to the masses, but some brands are catching onto the idea as well. Diesel’s latest ad campaign, “Tribute,” was shot entirely on an iPhone, giving its viewers the misconception that anyone can do what real photographers do. It’s just not true. An 8-megapixel camera on your smart phone and an arsenal of artsy Instagram filters does not make you a fashion photographer, or a fashion blogger for that matter.

Yes, it’s great that fashion has become more accessible to the masses. As someone who is very far removed from the fashion scene in geographical terms, I can appreciate it. I don’t have to wait for each new issue of Harper’s Bazaar to hit the news stands to know what’s going on. But, something has been lost in the shuffle also. Something of the specialness of the fashion scene has dissapeared.

I am tired of all of these amateur bloggers posting pictures of their outfits. We get it already. Let’s weed out the playing field and hold ourselves to a higher standard of fashion bloggery.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Therese Tully is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

Despite the best efforts of hip fashion bloggers like Tavi Gevinson (top), fashion blogs have become bogged down in mediocrity, with each one looking exactly like all the others, and resembling a glorified Pinterest board.

THIS WEEKEND in arts

BY: ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOCIATE ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

Friday

Saturday

1. HARD ROCK CAFE & IMPROV ASYLUM (FRIDAY, 11/8 7:30 P.M.)

3. UNIVERSITY CHORALE FALL CONCERT (SATURDAY, 11/9 8:00 P.M.)

BC2Boston is sponsoring a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe and the Improv Asylum this Friday night. Vouchers for the event cover the costs for both dinner and the comedy show—they can be purchased online through Robsham for $30.

Presenting Haydn’s St. Nicholas Mass and premiering “God’s Grandeur”—by BC’s own Thomas Lee—The University Chorale of Boston College is performing in Trinity Chapel on Newton Campus.

Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door if there are still some available.

2. MACKLEMORE CONCERT (FRIDAY, 11/8 7:30 P.M.)

4. ADELE MEYERS AT THE ICA (SATURDAY, 11/9 7:30 P.M.)

The “Thrift Shop” hip-hop team, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, is returning to Boston for a show at the TD Garden. Tickets start at $42.90, including fees and service charges.

Directed and choreographed by artist Adele Meyers, Einstein’s Happiest Thought is a multidisciplinary work inspired by Meyer’s fear of heights as well as her love for trapeze. Student tickets are $10.

Ongoing

5. ABOUT TIME (ONGOING) From the creators of Love Actually and Notting Hill, About Time is a romantic drama about a young man who, after he discovers he can travel through time, tries to change his life by finding love. The film stars Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

JOHN WILEY I have been misrepresented as a BC student—not by my classmates, but by myself.

You see, I am not a Superfan.

I recognize this is a particularly strange statement coming from someone who’s only missed a single home football game. A quick scan of my Facebook albums will provide sufficient evidence that I am a prolific Eagle supporter, if nothing else. Only with great shame do I admit my Superfan t-shirt is just a t-shirt, an identity I quickly shed as I return from games.

And I imagine my public admission of this would be an immediate point of contention were I ever to meet a true Superfan at BC. Two years in, and I have not.

You can put a cat in a shirt that says “dog,” but you’d be remiss to expect that cat to bark. Strangely, however, if you put a freshman in a shirt that says “Superfan,” it can be reasonably predicted he’ll try to be one.

It’s worth asking what the shirts we wear can say about us, and what they cannot.

I run the risk of sounding a tad elitist here, but I sincerely believe most students arrive at BC with a plurality of well-defined interests and talents—these were the most interesting and competitive people in their respective high schools, and most likely leaders. And there’s something particularly tragic in seeing this community formed of leaders quickly forced into a harsh state of compromise.

I recall myself distinctly bewildered on the last day of freshman orientation, as we gathered in Robsham to learn precisely what it meant to be a Superfan. I just didn’t get it. Why was I being told how to enjoy these traditions I was already eager to be a part of? Why did no one around me seem to question any of this? More disturbingly, why did I not seem to question it?

We’d fallen into a trap. Perhaps for you, there’s been a moment in the third quarter of some game, standing in the cold of Alumni stadium, when your legs began to tire, and maybe you caught yourself pretending to be happy as a TV camera scanned past you. Perhaps you’ve felt an inexplicable sense of discomfort, wondering why you weren’t naturally contented being part of this big, gold mob.

I am increasingly skeptical of the traditions I’ve been handed—while I love the idea of going to football games, sometimes I wish it was an idea I had arrived at myself. I question why it was something I needed to be taught, when I’ve always known the best of tradition as capable of teaching itself. It’s ironic, how this University often brands itself predominantly to be an athletic school, when we consider all the means of coercion required to maintain crowds at its sporting events.

For me, the arts at BC have proven a great remedy to the overwhelming sense of anonymity I felt upon arriving here, being swallowed by its traditions.

Two weekends ago, improv comedy group My Mother’s Fleabag put on a minimally advertised fall cafe show in Gasson 305, and filled the 98-seat venue with well over 150 people (if the fire marshal is reading this, close your eyes). Granted, the scale of this event was profoundly smaller, but I found the measures students took to fit into the tiny room quite interesting, many forcing themselves into uncomfortable positions for well over an hour to see the show—and probably 90 percent of those in attendance did stay till the end. At football games, it strangely seems many students are desperately looking for an excuse to leave—whether it’s the team losing by too much, the team winning by too much, the team being locked in an unexciting tie, the weather, the time of day.

I apologize if this strikes you as an unfounded attack on BC Athletics.

Admittedly, the most poorly attended BC football games will still attract more people than just about any arts event ever to take place on campus, save for maybe for the annual Pops on the Heights gala and a few of the more successful fall concerts. Moreover, even the most poorly attended of men’s hockey games this year will likely outsell this semester’s O.A.R. concert. Take away our teams, and we’d be a very uninteresting school.

But don’t get trapped in the bright gold fabric—when we confuse our duty with our joy, we lose the meaning in both.

The Superfan is the supporter BC deserves, but not the one it needs—Superfans are just too hard to come by. It needs normal people—who might find their joy elsewhere, who might be skeptical of tradition—to strap into the gold shirt and come out and support their school on a Saturday afternoon.

You see, I am not a Superfan.

John Wiley is the Asst. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 7, 2013

C5

Rap god Eminem cements his legacy with ‘Mathers’

BY JOHN WILEY

Asst. Arts & Review Editor Eminem is either hip-hop’s greatest storyteller or hip-hop’s greatest story—for years, it has seemingly been the latter. The clear deficiencies of 2009’s Relapse album, which was released following a five-year hiatus, challenged the legitimacy of Eminem’s legacy as a rapper. Eminem was seemingly America’s great tragedy—a loner growing up in a troubled Detroit neighborhood, born to a mother who was mentally unstable and parentally neglectful, and a father who ended all contact with him.

He developed into one of the most successful acts in hip-hop, only to be swallowed by his career—a troubled mind first starved in poverty, then obscured by wealth.

Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP 2 is the putrid, unresolved, angstfilled retelling of a tragedy—a clunky collection of fragmented anthems and sounds that, seemingly in spite of itself, proves one of the most captivating narratives in hip-hop.

For the first time in years, Eminem manages to successfully probe his emotions on Marshall Mathers LP 2, and with that, he exposes some previously unexplored dimensions of his artistry. I caught myself shaking a little bit, trying to shake the strangest of Eminem singing the predominantly level-toned love ballad “Stronger Than I Was”—it’s an odd departure for a rapper made iconic by rap verses that seem to sit

atop seemingly bottomless reserves of anger. For the first time in his career, Eminem seems fully capable of contextualizing his vengefulness with compassion.

There’s a level of emotional nuance throughout Marshall Mathers LP 2—there’s clear distinction between Eminem’s confidence and arrogance, bravado and honesty. It’s a very sophisticated element to what content wise is a crude work. While it’s common practice in hip-hop to construct an album off an ego, it’s a far more challenging task to pin an entire work around one’s moments of weakness.

Eminem compromises his dignity on tracks like “Bad Guy” and “So Much Better” to highlight some of the more interesting parts of his humanity. Under this “dignity compromise,” he navigates past the smoke and mirrors surrounding mainstream hip-hop. What’s left is a remarkably genuine stream of vulgar, and often telling thoughts.

It develops what structurally is an anthemic, and often excessive hip-hop album into something of a minimalistic work.

“Rap God” is one of the few tracks that stand out sonically on the album. While Marshall Mathers LP 2 is not entirely devoid of singles, its treatment of individual tracks is somewhat neglectful. Songs on the album will fade out mid verse, and its choruses are often interrupted, incomplete. The resulting sensation is this neurotic, uneven sound that subscribes itself to the musical

CHART TOPPERS TOP SINGLES

1 Royals Lorde 2 Wrecking Ball Miley Cyrus 3 Monster Eminem 4 Roar Katy Perry 5 Wake Me Up Avicci 6 Story Of My Life One Direction 7 Hold On We’re Going Home Drake 8 Demons Imagine Dragons

THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP 2 EMINEM PRODUCED BY SHADY RECORDS RELEASED NOV. 5, 2013 OUR RATING A

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHADY RECORDS

Eminem proves himself to be one of hip-hop’s greatest storytellers with his brutally honest ‘Marshall Mathers LP 2.’ tradition of late ’90s hip-hop, with inflated hooks and liberal sampling, but ultimately proves unreligious to these roots. Some of its moments are simply absurd, like when a sample from Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good” pops up in “So Far...” and suddenly the whole album devolves into five-minutes of Eminem rapping over country rock guitar.

Clearly, executive producers Rick Rubin and Dr. Dre were willing to take exceptional risks with the album. The stakes are decidedly high for the strange, somewhat dis-

jointed sound bites they compiled.

The collaborative choices on the album seem to be a way to manage this risk, with appearances from artists including Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Nate Ruess, and Skylar Grey. Their appearances are minimal, however, and this is decidedly Eminem’s album.

Marshall Mathers LP 2 begins as a simple narrative of the dysfunction in Eminem’s life, and grows into an angry portrait of a failing America, and while perhaps it’s a bit damning in its assessments, its discussion of poverty, education, and culture is

refreshing in its honesty and powerful in its bite.

Eminem never frees himself from his legacy, nor does he try to.

Rather, he solidifies his place within it, and for the first time, Eminem comes across clearly in control of his story, versus previous efforts in which Eminem’s story seemed to control its teller.

Eminem is America’s great tragedy, and his own great triumph.

He is the most important mind in hip-hop, and one of the last artists still willing to dirty his hands in the fundamentals of the genre. 

TOP ALBUMS

1 Reflektor Arcade Fire 2 Prism Katy Perry 3 Wrapped In Red Kelly Clarkson 4 Duck The Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas Various Artists 5 Nothing Was The Same Drake Source: Billboard.com

Lavigne holds on to punk image with album of angsty anthems

BY MICHELLE TOMASSI Heights Editor

Avril Lavigne is still embracing her defiant, skater-girl personality with the release of her self-titled album Avril Lavigne, and let’s face it: that undeniable coolness is not going anywhere. The album, largely

co-written by husband Chad Kroeger of Nickleback, maintains a balance that Lavigne has beautifully mastered—she’s still sticking to her pop and punk-rock fusions, but isn’t afraid to experiment with some new styles. Throughout the album, Lavigne is proving that she hasn’t abandoned her musical roots, but

that she is still going to push forward—as her song title says, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” The first few songs of the album are a reflection of the Lavigne we know and love—carefree celebrations of youth and living the badass lifestyle. The first track, “Rock N Roll,” starts off the album strong, inform-

AVRIL LAVIGNE AVRIL LAVIGNE PRODUCED BY EPIC RECORDS RELEASED NOV. 1, 2013 OUR RATING B+

PHOTO COURTESY OF EPIC RECORDS

Lavigne’s latest release finds her simultaneously embracing her skater-girl roots and exploring different styles.

ing listeners that the “mother f—ing princess” of her “Girlfriend” days has not changed. There’s something to be said for an artist who can completely own her predictability—she knows who she is and what her fans love, and that reliability is why she’s still relevant today. Lavigne has made no attempt to deviate from her classic “hey-heys” and simplistic yet hardhitting end rhymes. With lyrics such as, “I don’t care if I’m a misfit / I like it better than the hipster bullshit,” she’s rejecting today’s obsession with the hipster culture with bold lyrics, singing further, “You still love it.” Yes, Avril, we really do.

The next few tracks follow perfectly in suit—with “Here’s To Never Growing Up” and “17,” Lavigne is cherishing the simplicity of the past and the rock-and-roll attitude that first gave rise to her fame when she began her career around age 17. The latter plays on the young love theme that has been beaten to death by artists such as Taylor Swift, but as she sings, “Yeah he taught me how to break the rules” it’s clear that she’s not lamenting a lost love or overcome by nostalgia—rather, she’s celebrating that “All we needed was love / And that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

Brace yourselves, Nickleback haters (aka everyone), because “Let Me Go” features their leading man Kroeger, in an ironic duet about a breakup. Hearing his grating voice alongside that of Lavigne is a bit like having an uninvited guest at a party—he clearly doesn’t belong, but you don’t question him because the main event is enough to keep you sticking around. With piano and cello instrumentals in the backdrop, Lavigne is truly able to showcase her vocal range. “Give You What You Like” is probably the most successful of her attempts at vocal experimentation—with slow, crooning lyrics that clearly show she has matured from her innocent “Sk8r Boy” days. It’s a more subdued and understated display of sex appeal, in contrast to the following song “Bad Girl” featuring Marilyn Manson. With blatant lyrics such as “Choke me because I said so / Stroke me and feed my ego” and “One night, you won’t forget the rest of your life / So come on over to the wild side,” along with Manson’s throaty shrieks, she’s just trying way too hard on this one. It’s a good thing this one wasn’t included in the first five tracks—otherwise she would have scared us away for sure.

Before winding down, we unfortunately have the biggest miss of the album: “Hello Kitty.” It’s clearly outside Lavigne’s musical genre, but the risk was one that was just not worth taking. Aside from strange and somewhat insulting lines such as “Let’s all slumber party / Like a fat kid on a pack of Smarties,” the blaring dubstep-techno mixes and the incessant “Come come, kitty kitty” are almost unbearable to listen to for the entirety of the song.

But fear not—Lavigne recovers from this disaster with her last few songs, such as “Falling Fast” and “Hush Hush.” She slows it down with notes of country-pop, marking a complete contrast in sound from the beginning of the album, and sings with passionate, breathy vocals to strengthen the emotional impact of the songs. The young, wild, and free Lavigne is now a seasoned artist with plenty of experience in love, heartache, and recovery, and it’s in these last few tracks that we are able to see how Lavigne can use music to tell her story. For the most part, Lavigne has listeners on her side throughout the album, and at least one of these songs is sure to be your next personal anthem. 

Rapper M.I.A. seeks career reincarnation on latest release ‘Matangi’

BY PHEOBE FICO Heights Staff

Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, better known as her stage name M.I.A., has been just that, missing in action. Now she’s back with her first album in three years, Matangi.

One of the reasons for her long absence from music was that the English-born Sri Lankan rapper found that she had lost inspiration after the mixed reviews that her third album, Maya, received. Searching for inspiration, she found it in the Hindu goddess that is her and the album’s namesake: Matangi, who is the goddess of the spoken word and music itself.

The goddess is usually depicted with parrots for hands. This represents both her connection with the spoken word, as birds are one of the only animals in the world that you can teach speech, and the goddess’s connection with music.

Much like the parrots that occupy the goddess’s hands, M.I.A’s new album is colorful and original—but it’s also a little exhausting.

The album starts off with “Karmageddon,” a track that is under one minute and announces her

return. What it also signals, however, is the musical oddity that is this work. The fifth track, “Come Walk with Me” might be the most odd of all. At first, the track starts off as a simple pop song, where M.I.A. attempts to sing, as many rappers, like Kanye, have done before her. While her voice is thin and not the prettiest, it is a welcome break from the intense horns and whistles that flowed through the previous tracks. Then all of a sudden, the track turns into a club jammer, where the beat drops as effectively as any of the dubstep tracks on the charts.

While the music is a little exhausting, the album really hits its stride with “Exodus,” the first of two tracks that feature The Weeknd. It is without a doubt the album’s mellowest track, about the most exciting of things: sex.

Next comes the addictive single, “Bad Girls,” that features some of the only important lyrics on the album: “Live fast / Die young / Bad Girls do it well,” which has at this point been used on every TV show or movie when girls are behaving badly. And rightly so, it makes you feel invincible.

While the album is one of the most musically inventive of the year, with some sounds that I cannot even identify—I think I heard a door hinge that needed to be greased on the 12th track, “Bring the Noise”—most of the lyrics are incomprehensible because they are overshadowed by the music or just plain meaningless. For a girl who grew up in a tough Sri Lankan town, where her father was part of a political organization that supported the rebel forces, you would think she would have more to write about.

With that said, M.I.A. does have one other significant lyrical moment. On “Y.A.L.A.” she challenges Drake’s acronym, Y.O.L.O. As a result, in the outro of the song, she questions, “YOLO? / I don’t even know anymore / What that even mean, though / If you only live once why we keep doing the same shit? / Back home where / I come from we keep being born again and again and then again and again / That’s why they invented karma.”

The end of the album loses steam, just as M.I.A. did in the last three years. The last three tracks,

one of which she repeats “Exodus” with the new title of “Sexodus,” have mellow beats that are more suited for hip-hop hipsters such as Frank Ocean and Miguel. While the other tracks, like the title one, were sonically all over the place—using both tribal drums and animal sounds to transfer you to the Sri Lankan jungle, or

the reggae guitars on “Double Bubble Trouble” that suddenly turn into a club thumper and then back again—the final tracks seem a bit lazy for a musical iconoclast like M.I.A. On this album, M.I.A.’s goal seems to be to throw her listeners for a curve at every turn.

Her musical eccentricities seem

true to her artistry, unlike some of the other album released this year—say, Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience. While none of the songs reach the sonic genius and pop appeal of “Paper Planes,” I have yet to see an artist since Bjork take such sonic risks. And whether you like it or not, you won’t be able to turn it off. 

MATANGI M.I.A. PRODUCED BY N.E.E.T. RECORDINGS RELEASED NOV. 1, 2013 OUR RATING BPHOTO COURTESY OF N.E.E.T. RECORDINGS

M.I.A.’s sonic experiments don’t always come off, but ‘Matangi’ is an uncompromisingly personal album.

SINGLE REVIEWS BY GUS MERRELL Lady Gaga “Dope”

Eminem feat. Rihanna “Monster” Eminem can be considered one of the great rappers of today because he’s able to create songs that are easy to listen to while still retaining the profound and meaningful lyrics for which he is known. The relaxed chorus sung by Rhianna provides a sweet contrast to the fastpaced, flat tone in the verses. Yet another stellar production by Eminem.

Flo Rida “How I Feel” In this melancholy single, Lady Gaga describes the struggle of losing a best friend because of her own addictions.

While the lyrics are moving, she definitely hurt the performance by practically moaning throughout the song, making much of it very difficult to understand. A little disappointing, to say the least.

Although not quite as catchy or memorable as “Whistle” or “Low,” Flo Rida gives us another likeable song. It seems to have every sort of instrumental sound present at some point in the song, along with a very strong beat. While he draws from a few other songs for lyrics, Flo Rida still does enough to make it his own.

C6

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 7, 2013

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 7, 2013

C7

THIS WEEK IN...

BY SARAH MOORE | FOR THE HEIGHTS

WHOOPS

MBTA

O n Tu e s d a y night after the mayoral election results were counted in Boston, Vice President Joseph Biden attempted to call Marty Walsh to offer congratulations on his win. Biden, however, mistakenly called Martin Walsh, a former aide to U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who is currently the president of Gateway Public Solutions in Boston. Biden wasn’t the only politician to make the mistake, with Walsh also receiving voicemails from vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Ryback, as well as the chairwoman of the DNC, U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida. In each of the situations, Walsh graciously thanked the callers from his couch in Natick and helped them contact the other, Mayor-elect Marty Walsh, who was celebrating at the Park Plaza Hotel.

Last Wednesday, at about the same time Koji Uehara finished off the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series win, Transit Police officers pursued a man into the MBTA Green Line portal tunnel at Blandford Street station. William Goodhue, 23, of Allston, was arrested and charged with trespassing after officers reached him at Kenmore station. Goodhue’s stunt caused multiple MBTA delays as well as the closure of the Hynes and Kenmore stations at arguably the busiest time of the night on one of the most traveled days of the year.

When placed in custody, Goodhue was unharmed and taken to Transit Police headquarters. He is expected to face charges in Roxbury District Court today. Although Goodhue managed to cause a few substantial delays, Transit Police and MBTA employees were able to finish off the exciting night smoothly.

ECLIPSES On Sunday morning, residents of Boston and those along the entire East Coast had the chance to witness a partial solar eclipse. At about 6:20 a.m. the sun rose over the east horizon, but instead of the regular full-circle that sits among the clouds every day, the sun was missing a large chunk out of its lower right side. The silhouette of the new moon, as it begins its monthly cycle across the sky, overtook the sun until 7:12 a.m., explaining its missing piece. Though only a fraction of the sun was concealed from view in Boston, along a narrow line crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Gabon through Kenya in equatorial Africa, the event was a much more dramatic, total eclipse.

Although always a unique sight to witness, U.S. eclipse enthusiasts are more excited for the total solar eclipse that will move across the nation from Oregon to South Carolina on Aug. 21, 2017, leaving the New England sun a thin sliver instead of a sphere.

CUISINE POLITICS Thi s p a st we ek Coca-Cola announced that it would join Boston in celebrating the World Series victory with a specially designed Red Sox Coke can. The commemorative cans will be produced locally at the Coca-Cola production site in Needham, Mass. and, per a statement released on Friday, will include the Red Sox logo with a message of congratulations. Vice President of Market Unit Sales Operations, Coca-Cola Refreshments USA, Inc., Susan Fagan, stated that with the dedicatory Coke can, the company is “toasting the Boston Red Sox and their fans to celebrate this thrilling baseball season.” The special-edition sodas will be available for Red Sox fans to purchase at participating retailors in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont early next week.

On Tue s d ay, Boston wasn’t the only city to elect new political figures. New York declared Bill De Blasio, 52, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s replacement. Defeating Republican Joe Lhota, the head of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, De Blasio was elected New York City’s first Democratic mayor in 20 years. Though his liberal running platform contrasted Bloomberg’s record over the past 12 years, De Blasio managed to secure 72 percent of the vote to guarantee his role as the 109th mayor of the nation’s most populous city. Voters also flocked to the polls in New Jersey to reelect Chris Christie as governor. The incumbent led his challenger, Democrat Barbara Buono, by almost 23 percentage points , making him the only Republican in 30 years to win an electoral majority statewide.

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Affordable breakfast in Allston

ZACHARY COHEN / FOR THE HEIGHTS

B Y Z ACHARY C OHEN For The Heights

HOUSE AD

Breakfast is said to be the most important meal of the day, so why not start it off right?

Allston’s Twin Do-Nuts is the place to go to fulfill that early morning hunger. The friendly atmosphere of this establishment and the donuts will keep regulars coming for years.

Located at the intersection of Cambridge St. and N. Beacon St. near the B line, this Allston classic has been serving locals since 1959. Interestingly enough, this location is the first of a chain of franchises that spans across the U.S. George Psathas founded the first location after working at different donut shops for seven years.

Since then, this place has been made famous for its high quality donuts and most will say that they taste better than those available at the nearby Dunkin Donuts. A word from the wise, though—if you want the chance to enjoy one of Twin Do-Nuts’ popular creations, do not go after the morning rush, because once they’re gone, they’re gone. This establishment makes batches only through the morning because, in a way much different from their competitors, they want to ensure that their donuts taste the best around.

This establishment does have a very friendly wait staff and cashier, but sometimes customers will get the feeling that the employees get overwhelmed by the large amount of people and the relatively small staff. This problem can be most directly related to the small size of the venue. Twin Do-Nuts has about a dozen chairs in a few hundred square feet that suffices for the dining area. Therefore, waiting for a seat may take a while, but they do allow for take-out which can be a good choice if in a rush. Once seated, though, waiters did not take long to take orders and bring out the food.

One overall comment that should be mentioned about Twin Do-Nuts is its price points for items. Donuts are very affordable at under $1 per donut, and the breakfast sandwiches— and meaty ones at that—were under $3. But you will be most shocked when your waitress brings you a free refill of orange juice.

It is always recommended to start off a full breakfast with a donut. They have a huge selection with all of the popular choices, but a good donut shop should be judged based on the old-fashioned style.

The texture was firm at first, but the inside of the donut immediately crumbles apart.

The taste was equally as good in being able to maintain that prized, fried flavor. One donut is never enough to share between multiple people, so the butternut donut is also recommended. The name is a tad misleading, but it is basically a glazed donut covered in a bunch of tiny, crunchy pieces.

LOCATION: 501 CAMBRIDGE STREET CUISINE: Breakfast SIGNATURE DISH: Donuts ATMOSPHERE: 8/10 AVERAGE DONUT: $1 OVERALL EXPERIENCE: A The first of the hot food was a special with the usual fixings. The French toast wasn’t anything too great, but any BC student would enjoy it more than that which is in Mac or Lower. The eggs, cooked over easy, had a similar story. The bacon was a little chewy, but it came out still bubbling and the fat melted in your mouth, making it a very satisfying side.

The home fries were of high quality based on the fact that the potatoes had a firm texture and were seasoned nicely.

The sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich was splendid. It came out hot with the cheese nicely melted. The eggs and sausage tasted good, and the English muffin was evenly toasted. Most people who eat this will not regret the decision.

Twin Do-Nut is a staple in the local community that will probably be around for a while, and it’s easy to see why. The surroundings are cozy, the hot food is enjoyable, but most importantly, the donuts are great. 

The Heights

C8

Bookish Bostonian

Always something to see Ryan Towey

When I made my way out of South Station, I was in the mood for Boston.

Having awoken at six in the morning to catch a bus from New York, I was tired but had some time before I needed to be at BC for an afternoon class. I thought I might grab a burrito at Boloco and eat it in the Common, a trusted meal.

But then Chinatown caught my eye, a paifang—an arch of Chinese design—marking the unofficial entrance of the neighborhood.

Nearly a year before this, I had been standing on the Green Line and looking at the T map when I saw the Chinatown stop along the Orange Line. I turned to a friend with me on the T and said that I had yet to visit Boston’s Chinatown. He laughed when I said this, saying that no one would expect me to have visited Chinatown, given that I had only lived around Boston for about three months at the time.

Besides, he argued, there was not much to see.

Despite his assertion, I walked away from South Station and through the paifang, making my way down Beach St. through the heart of the neighborhood. Surrounded by Chinese cuisine and storefronts, it was easy to forget that I was still in Boston.

I was quickly reminded, however, when I saw campaign signs for both John Connolly and Marty Walsh, which had words written on them in Chinese. It was a clashing of worlds in a way—the standard politics of Boston in this most exotic of neighborhoods, a reminder that Boston is a place richer in its culture and diversity than many believe. I was impressed by the mayoral candidates’ efforts to reach out to the population of Chinatown.

It is fitting, here, to extend my congratulations to mayor-elect Marty Walsh. While it will be strange no longer reading Menino’s name in what feels like every article for the Metro section, I look forward to seeing where Walsh leads this city in the coming years. The son of Irish immigrants, it is to be hoped that Walsh will be particularly sensitive to those of different cultures or origins, as is the case with many of those who live in neighborhoods like Chinatown.

Unlike the candidates, however, I had been woefully ignorant of the dynamic culture that exists just a short walk from the Boston Common.

The only neighborhood of its kind in New England since the destruction of Providence’s own Chinatown, it is a cultural enclave worth savoring.

I considered getting my lunch from one of the colorful Chinese food restaurants that lined the street, but I felt a tug for the familiar in my stomach. So I am embarrassed to admit that I travelled a few blocks and bought a burrito at Boloco instead.

Not my most adventurous food choice, certainly, but my ability to make that choice represents one of the perks of living in such a walkable city—you can be somewhere that you find unusual and exotic, but the taste of a familiar burrito is just a short walk away.

I will be certain to return to Chinatown one day to try out some authentic food of that culture, hopefully avoiding the goopy mess that America’s understanding of Chinese food has become.

Surely, I am more likely to buy a burrito from Boloco or even trek to the North End to eat some familiar Italian food. (I swear, a walk through the North End at night makes me feel more like I am back in New Jersey than anything else.) But it is valuable to know that there is something unusual to try in the city that I consider my home.

On the day that my friend had told me that there was nothing to see in Chinatown, I should have climbed off the T right then and there to check it out.

There is always something to see.

Ryan Towey is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Walsh closed gap of a close race in the final stretch Walsh, from C10 Yet numbers revealed in mid-October that Connolly held a steady lead over Walsh, reportedly by as much as seven to eight percentage points at times.

Ultimately, Walsh was able to close the gap in the final stretch, boosted by a successful ground game and endorsements from several high-profile local politicians. Among them were John Barros, Felix Arroyo, and Charlotte Golar Ritchie, three former mayoral candidates who threw their support behind Walsh, likely bringing their share of supporters’ votes with them.

Walsh’s late momentum came to fruition Tuesday, as he was able to garner votes from districts well beyond his native Dorchester on his way to a 52 percent to 48 percent win over Connolly.

The voting lines were, for the most part, clearly drawn between Walsh and Connolly, with Walsh taking most districts in the eastern half of the city, including Roxbury, Hyde Park, and parts of South Boston. Connolly prevailed in neighborhoods such as Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and most of Charlestown and Brighton.

The divide was to be anticipated based on the constituencies to which the candidates appealed throughout the campaign. The Harvard-educated Connolly continually called upon his experience as a teacher and expressed his desire to be an “education mayor,” winning the support of school parents and much of the business community.

Walsh, on the other hand, pointed to his upbringing as the son of Irish immigrants and recalled his struggles with cancer and, later, alcoholism, in his youth.

Walsh’s connection to the unions was a constant source of controversy, as Connolly repeatedly attacked him for being in the unions’ back pocket, and receiving millions of dollars worth of

support from outside labor interests.

His position as the champion of the working class and his personable, “everyman” demeanor, though, eventually worked to Walsh’s benefit as he built up a broad base of support.

In his victory speech at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel Tuesday night, Walsh expressed what he hopes to accomplish for that base of supporters. He promised to make Boston a “community of shared prosperity” and work for “opportunity—because every woman, man and child deserves a chance … [and] equality—because everybody gets ahead, not just some.”

Connolly, in conceding the election to Walsh, acknowledged his opponent’s potential to bring positive change to the city.

“I’ve known Marty Walsh [for] 18 years,” Connolly said. “I knew Marty Walsh 10 years before I ever ran for office. Marty Walsh is a good man. He wants to do good things for Boston and he will do good things for Boston. And he has my full support. Marty has my full support.”

Wal sh told supp or ters that he received congratulatory phone calls from both President Barack Obama and Menino. When Walsh is sworn in Jan. 6, it will mark the end of Menino’s twodecades in office, the longest tenure of any Boston mayor.

Walsh, 46, is 24 years younger than Menino and represents a new generation of Boston politicians that has, until now, been kept out of the top seat at City Hall during the Menino era.

While perpetuating Menino’s legacy as a hands-on, accessible mayor who goes into the neighborhoods to speak with the people directly, Walsh hopes to create a more transparent administration.

Other notable topics that Walsh brought to the forefront of his campaign were his desires to focus on s cho ols —Connolly ’s sig nature is sue—and diversifying the leadership

Walsh Connolly

2013 Boston Mayoral Election Results by Precinct of the B oston Police Department .

Furthermore, one of Menino’s central instruments of power—the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA)—might meet its end under the new mayor.

Walsh has said he plans to abolish the organization in favor of a reformed economic development agency that would work more efficiently under less direct control from the mayor’s office.

Fo l l o w i n g h i s v i c t o r y, Wa l s h

summed up what Bostonians should expect under his leadership.

“In January, Boston begins a new era,” he said. “We get to write a new chapter in its 400-year history. We know Boston is a strong city and a fortunate city. My mission is to make it better, to make Boston a hub of opportunity. If we set our sights high … I promise you the best is yet to come.” n

Daffodils project will plant flowers near BC campus Marathon Daffodils, from C10 “We are excited to participate,” Abbot said, “because we believe Marathon Daffodils represent spring and rebirth. This is a great community building opportunity.”

Teaming up with a national supplier, Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, Marathon Daffodils has engaged the Boston area in full force with eight “captains” for the eight different communities the race runs through. These “captains” are working with landowners, residents, and businesses to ensure that the marathon route will be as yellow as possible.

In an act of generosity and support, an additional 90,000 daffodils have been planted along the Marathon route by the public beyond the 100,000 already supplied by Marathon Daffodils.

Valle called Marathon Daffodils “a very small gesture to reach out to everybody, to help them understand that we are with them in spirit.”

Marathon Daffodils also does not intend on letting the city sidewalks stop them, as they are

working with local landscapers and nurseries to distribute potted versions of the flower in stores, restaurants, and along the streets.

Volunteers will also hand out cut daffodils the morning of the race, an act similar to that of a daytime candle lighting service.

The BC community has a chance to join the Marathon Daffodils project, as 3,500 of the 100,000 bulbs are going to be planted on the Brighton Campus along Commonwealth Ave. on Friday, Nov. 8.

All members of the University, especially students, are invited to plant for any time he or she is able to between 1 and 5 p.m. Gardening tools will be provided.

As BC is a prominent location on the Marathon route, Valle said that “having the students, staff, and faculty join us is a great community building event.

“The spirit of Boston College is also about giving, and it would be nice to engage them in the process,” she said.

Those who are interested in donating to Marathon Daffodils can do so at the Cooperative Bank in Charlestown. Volunteers are

still needed to distribute potted plants and cut flowers in April. For more information on volunteering outside of the BC planting session contact Diane Valle and Kathy Thomas at Marathondaffodils@gmail.com.

Though Valle and the entirety of Marathon Daffodils understand that there will be challenges—including the environment and the

limited availability of places to plant the flowers where they will not be crushed by spectators—she is confident that the bright symbols of hope will make it to April 15.

“We are hoping it will be a nice way to welcome people to Boston, and help to lift up peoples’ spirits for next year’s race,” she said. n

Photo Courtesy of Marathon Daffodils

The Marathon Daffodil project hopes to involve BC students on Friday at Brighton Campus.

Duck boats end Red Sox parade on Charles River Parade, from C10 mile parade route by homemade victory signs; red, white, and blue confetti; and the cheers of thousands of Fenway faithful who had streamed into the city to celebrate the team’s third World Series win in 10 years, and the team’s first World Series win in Boston since 1918.

Also present at the parade and the ceremony at Fenway were the Dropkick Murphys, who performed “Shipping Up to Boston” and “Tessie” as they traveled through the streets.

One of the most memorable and emotional moments of the parade came when the boats crossed the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street. Outfielder Johnny Gomes and catcher Jared Saltalamacchia placed the World Series trophy and a Boston Red Sox jersey numbered “617” onto the finish line to commemorate the three victims of the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, 2013. The crowd then joined singer Ronan Tynen in singing “God Bless America” and chanted “Boston Strong” in unity. The moment was for the most part unplanned, but was intensely emotional for a city that had endured so much in the past year.

The spirit on the streets was electric. Fans young and old packed the streets and climbed trees to catch a glimpse of their favorite players including designated hitter and first baseman David Ortiz, closer Koji Uehara, and pitcher Jon Lester.

After the stop at Boylston, the rolling rally continued past City Hall and into Government Center, where fans lined the Esplanade to watch

josh reynolds / ap photo

Red Sox players celebrated their title as champions of the 109th World Series on Saturday afternoon with a parade through Boston. the duck boats enter into the “Dirty Water” of the Charles River for a celebratory swim that concluded the parade.

Pitcher Jake Peavy wasn’t quite ready to leave his duck boat when the parade ended. The Boston Red Sox (@Red Sox) tweeted a picture of Peavy in front of the bright green duck boat with a caption that stated he had purchased the duck boat. Peavey later confirmed this assertion with a tweet of his own.

Though the players and duck boats alike were bearded during the parade, some of the players shaved off their signature playoff facial hair for charity. On Monday, Ortiz and Shane Victorino had their beards shaved off at Gillette

Headquarters. As part of the “shave-off,” Gillette donated $100,000 to the One Fund, which assists victims of the marathon bombings.

Joining the players in the “shave-off” was Boston Police Officer Steve Horgan, known as the “bullpen cop” who became an overnight celebrity after a photographer captured his celebration in the bullpen after Ortiz’s home run during Game 2 of the ALCS. Red Sox fan Michael Grant also got his beard shaved after being selected in a contest on Gillette’s twitter.

The beards became a staple for the Red Sox during the playoff season, especially after a bearded Mike Napoli was shown yanking on the beard of Jonny Gomes after his three-run

homerun in Game 4.

Many baseball experts are predicting that the Red Sox will make a number of significant trades during the offseason in an attempt to become World Series champions for a second year in a row. Many speculate that the Red Sox will not retain Jacoby Ellsbury, as his contract with the Red Sox is ending. It is predicted, however, that the Sox will sign Napoli, another free agent, due to his role in the Red Sox’s successful postseason. It is likely that the Red Sox will try to acquire more new and young talent like 21-year-old Xander Bogaerts to build a successful program that will lead to more World Series wins. n

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, November 7, 2013

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Menino brings focus to arts during holidays The Mayor’s Holiday Spectacular offers half-price tickets for performances in city B Y M AGGIE M ARETZ Heights Staff Halloween is over and November has begun, which can only mean one thing: the holiday season is upon us.

To celebrate, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced on Friday that Boston will be launching the 10th anniversary of the Mayor’s Holiday Spectacular, which is a series of over 25,000 half-price tickets offered for more than 120 holiday performances in the Boston area. The Spectacular, which is presented by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, was created a decade ago in partnership with the nonprofit organization ArtsBoston as well as the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau in order to cultivate

the arts community in Boston.

The event was known in its previous years as the “Mayor’s Holiday Special” but was renamed this year as the “Mayor’s Holiday Spectacular” in celebration of the 10th anniversary, which will run from Nov. 1 to Jan. 1.

“The holiday season is one of my favorite times of year to be Mayor of Boston,” Menino said. “Our cultural organizations make our neighborhoods sparkle, encourage communities to come together, and put smiling faces on millions of our residents and visitors.”

Menino recommends going out to see all the performances, but is especially excited about the original Broadway cast performing the Tony Awardnominated A Christmas Story, The Musical, presented by Citi Performing

Arts Center. He is also excited for the 160th annual performance of Handel Messiah by the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Boston premiere of A Little Princess, presented by Strand resident company Fiddlehead Theatre.

Other performances highlighted in the spectacular include The Nutcracker, presented as part of the 50th season of the Boston Ballet; It’s a Wonderful Life, a live radio play at the Wheelock Family Theatre; Anthony William’s Urban Nutcracker, and The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Holiday Pops Concert. Besides these performances, there are over 100 shows that will be put on at half the price for people in the Boston area.

Over the 10 years of its existence in Boston, the Holiday Spectacular has given more than 100,000 people access to holiday shows while saving them a total of $5 million on ticket sales, which is then reinvested into the art community.

“ArtsBoston is honored to have partnered on the Mayor ’s Holiday Special over the past 10 years,” said Catherine Peterson, executive director of ArtsBoston. “To celebrate, we are officially dedicating the Mayor’s Holiday Spectacular to Mayor Thomas Menino and his wife Angela in honor of their 20 years of service to the Boston arts community.”

In addition to all of the half-priced tickets that are being offered for many of the shows, the Holiday Spectacular will also feature a series of free and low-cost festivals and events, as well as $10-off vouchers to 21 restaurants in the area. Furthermore, Boston-area residents are encouraged to use #BostonHoliday on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a chance to receive free tickets to some of the events of the Spectacular, courtesy of ArtsBoston. A full list of events and ticket possibilities are available at www.mayorsholiday.com. 

Activists left jubiliant after striking down casino Casino, from B10 partner, Caesars Entertainment, would win a Greater Boston resort casino license in recent months. Lengthy negotiations with Boston officials, however, pushed the referendum into November and gave opponents more time to organize. Three weeks ago, Suffolk Downs suddenly dropped Caesars from the project due to worries that the gambling company would fail the state background check. Thus the track headed into Election Day without a casino operator, making the choice seem even riskier and confusing to some voters.

Chip Tuttle, the racetrack’s chief operating officer, disregarded the controversy in the weeks leading up to the vote. “We’ve had individual conversations with almost 10,000 East Boston registered voters,” he said, “and we feel really good about the support for this proposal to bring jobs and community investment to this neighborhood.”

Over the past two years, Suffolk Downs has spent $1.9 million to persuade voters in East Boston and Revere to accept a casino in their neighborhood, including $946,000 this year through late October. The venture,

PHOTO COURTESY OF WCVB.COM

Even after two years of campaigning by Suffolk Downs, plans for a casino were vehemently opposed by residents of East Boston. backed by multimillionaires, has enjoyed a roughly 86-1 spending advantage over “No Eastie Casino,” according to campaign finance reports on file. “No Eastie Casino” spent nothing in 2012 and $22,000 this year opposing the project through Oct. 18. The

group had about $12,000 available for the last several weeks of the campaign, according to reports.

The decision of East Boston to move against the casino construction is met with relief from those in opposition. “We’re com-

pletely elated and blown away by the loud resounding ‘no’ the folks of East Boston gave to the casino developers,” said Celeste Myers, a spokeswoman for “No Eastie Casino,” according to Masslive.com. “The victory is ours.” 

COLLEGIATE ROUND-UP

BY BENNET JOHNSON | FOR THE HEIGHTS

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF

Professor designs algorithm to decrease Boston traffic An MIT Professor has developed a solution to eliminating traffic jams throughout the city of Boston.

The new algorithm developed out of MIT is designed to fix “traffic flow instabilities.” Berthold Horn, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, created the algorithm in hopes of alleviating the burden of road congestion drivers face each day.

Horn said the algorithm “could be implemented by a variation of the adaptive cruise-control systems that are an option on many of today’s high-end cars.”

Horn proposed a cruise-control system that would not only monitor the cars in front of it, but also those behind it—looking in both directions at one time.

Additionally, Horn’s new algorithm is designed

EMERSON Emerson College recently announced that its students will be hosting a national cancer communication study. Officially known as the “Managing the Cancer Journey” study, anyone over the age of 18 is invited to participate. Specifically, individuals who have experienced cancer firsthand are encouraged to join. On Saturday Nov. 16, and Sunday Nov. 17, at Emerson’s Paramount Center, participants will discuss topics such as cancer diagnosis, nutrition, exercise, treatment, and life-ending issues. Two sets of questionnaires will be used to gauge the progress and feedback of the audience. A $1.6 million grant awarded from the National Cancer Institute funded the Boston project site headed by Emerson’s dean of the School of Communication, Phillip Glenn. “This is a compelling research study,” Glenn said. “It promises advances in understanding the roles that communication and social support play in helping individuals throughout their journey with cancer.” Participants will have the option to attend either session, and will receive $50 compensation for their time.

to keep one’s car at the midpoint between vehicles on the road. The system hopes to avoid slamming on the brakes by keeping a constant distance between vehicles, thus eliminating much of the congestion of traffic jams.

Horn’s new system, however, is not without its share of complications. It requires a great number of cars to operate under the system for it to work, and can end up being very expensive. The system also requires an arduous set up procedure that can create difficulties for any non-tech savvy driver. Although Horn’s system is still in the development phase, it has drawn interest from scientists across the country. If the algorithm proves to reduce the brutal Boston traffic jam, however, there may be many willing to pay the steep price to shorten their daily commutes.

HARVARD Hundreds of people packed Harvard’s Burden Auditorium last Saturday to hear Android founder and Google Ventures partner Rich Miner’s lecture at TechMedia Club’s 19th annual Cyberposium, an event recognized as the largest student-run MBA technology conference in the world. This year’s theme, “Techonomy 2.0,” was focused on how technology has transformed the economy. Miner was a highlight at the symposium, as Android recently surpassed one billion user activations earlier this year and has celebrated its fifth birthday.

“The availability of capital is quite good,” Miner said of today’s society. After addressing his company’s success, Miner moved to other topics, such as business startups, tablets, and the process of becoming an entrepreneur.

“Before you jump into building a startup, understand what it takes to build a product and deliver that product to a consumer,” Miner said. He addressed how all should gain this “real-world experience”. Other guests at Cyberposium included Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Upstart, Paul Gu, and CEO and co-founder of WePay, Bill Clerico, BC ’07.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIT

BERKLEE The prestigious music magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, recently named Berklee College of Music the No. 1 music school in the world. To this day, 100 Berklee alumni have accumulated a total of 231 Grammy Awards, making for little surprise that a school with such a reputation would reel in this ranking. The ranking was based on a survey from various academic and entertainment officials. “Berklee people are everywhere in LA,” said commercial music section expert Timothy Taylor. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “From the school’s Fenway neighborhood campus, studio musicians and composers have emerged to helm the sounds of such blockbusters as The Hunger Games, The Hobbit, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and The Avengers—that’s $4 billion worth of movies boasting 12 Berklee grads on their soundtracks.” In addition to Berklee, The Hollywood Reporter also listed The New England Conservatory of Music as the No. 8 college on the list.

THE HEART OF THE CITY

Discomfort in places most familiar

MAGGIE POWERS She had a doll in her bag.

This meant she either has a child somewhere waiting for her, or maybe it her was her way of hanging on to her childhood that I can only imagine was stolen from her.

He was hunched over her, stroking her cheek. I could hear him whispering about how he was going to cut her hair soon. There was nothing said that was explicitly incriminating, however, it was clear he owned her. The sense of control he exhibited over her created a barrier between them and the other 70 or so people on the T that none of us could seem to penetrate.

There, on the Green Line running through Copley Square, one of the nicest parts of Boston, I witnessed a sight so disturbing my stomach still turns thinking about it. It was a cold Thursday night and the T was packed with men in rumpled suits commuting home and glittery 20-somethings venturing out to explore the city after a cold, grey week of Boston weather. And right in the middle of it was a pimp and a woman being trafficked.

This statement is not rooted completely in fact. I jumped to it without any more information than what I could gain by simply witnessing this awful sight. That being said, even though I do not know the actuality of the situation, the tangible control he held over her was so powerful it could not be missed.

Maybe it was just an extremely abusive relationship, or maybe she had free will in the situation. I am not the one to judge. But as my boyfriend instinctively put his arm around me and pulled me closer toward him we exchanged a glance that said more than words ever could—we were bearing witness to a woman who had done unspeakable things against her will.

The Justice Department estimates nearly 20,000 victims are trafficked each year, much of it concentrated around metropolitan areas like Boston. Obviously, this is a major issue facing our generation and something that is discussed often. Until a Thursday on the T, however, to me, trafficking had only existed within the confines of National Geographic shows and news articles.

The juxtaposition of this victim and her abuser against the backdrop of Back Bay just a few feet above our heads was even more shocking than if I had just witnessed the horrific scene in isolation.

In some ways, this moment shattered my perception of the city. Of course, I conceptually understood there was crime and danger in Boston—it simply comes with the territory of a major city. Yet, this was the first time the ugly underbelly of Boston was shoved in my face. More than anything, I wanted to call someone or ask her if she was okay, but for fears of safety and causing a scene I kept my mouth shut and my eyes wide, staring at that doll imagining the dark narrative of this girl’s life.

Trafficking and abuse can really happen anytime, anywhere. Being a student in Boston, it’s easy to be lulled into a false comfort in the city. We think the city is simply our playground or a place we may find our eventual careers. We spend our days in academia learning the facts and the theory behind the systems of injustice in our world, but when it actually presents itself it seems so startling and out of place.

She looked cold and broken. She was too thin. Her translucent skin was stretched over the angular bones jutting out of her cheeks and collar bone. Even though she never raised her eyes above the waists of the passengers on the train, it was clear they were hollow and haunted.

I don’t know her name, much less her story. She is simply one face to probably thousands of victims affected in our city every day. All I know is that on a cold Thursday night, I witnessed something that still haunts me. I know he had an eerie, unnatural control over her, and I know she had a doll in her bag.

Maggie Powers is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com.

metro The Heights

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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Breaking Boundaries

A NEW BOSTON

Rustling of the leaves Tricia Tiedt

In the midst of midterms, our entire campus looked up one day to find sun streaming through the trees, the leaves brilliant shades of red.

And just like that, it was fall.

As November sweeps in, those same leaves are now crunching beneath our feet.

Their remains rustle on the ground. Soon, this will be the only indication that fall even happened.

And to some Bostonians, things are now falling apart.

There are 60 days left in Thomas M. Menino’s reign as mayor over the city of Boston. Menino is currently the longestseated mayor of this city. Over the course of the past 20 years, he has served six consecutive terms.

That’s longer than some of you reading this column have been alive.

To quote Globe columnist Shirley Leung, “Good morning, Bostonians, Marty Walsh will be your new mayor. For the first time in 20 years, it won’t be some guy named Menino. How does it feel? Don’t think about it for too long.”

Fact of the matter is, Bostonians are creatures of habit. In a city famous for its roots, traditions don’t die. Boston has made the history books since this country’s foundation: the Boston Tea Party, “The Shot Heard Round the World,” becoming the education hub of the world.

History was made yet again on Tuesday night. But that doesn’t mean everyone is happy about it.

With a new mayor comes new challenges. New people, new policies, new ways of doing things. A new face to project onto an old city. As of now, things don’t quite line up.

But a new mayor is exactly the breath of fresh air that Boston needs.

Things are about to change, and for the better.

Walsh won this election on his ability to connect with voters. This race was not a fight over policy, nor did it contain disputes over means to be taken moving forward. In fact, it hardly contained disputes at all—a very curious fact for the aggressive reputation Boston often receives. When (metaphorical) push came to shove, the question was not “What needs to be done?” but rather, “Who can do it?”

Cue Mayor Mah-ty.

And here’s what you can expect him to do come Jan. 6.

Extend the MBTA hours.

Extend the hours bars and restaurants are allowed to stay open (they currently close down at 2 a.m.).

Nix the Boston Redevelopment Authority, aka the BRA—aka, “the economic and development arm of the city, a popular punching bag on the campaign trail, a symbol of autocratic Menino rule.”

This final move is of particular interest to the Boston College community. For years, BC has struggled to get approval from the BRA for redevelopment projects on our own campus—namely, building more dorms to provide more students with on-campus housing.

(And let’s not breeze past all the benefits of having the bars open until 3 a.m.)

All in all, these proposed changes are a pretty good sign for college students. In fact, they’re a pretty good sign for everybody in Boston.

But that doesn’t make the change any easier.

Change is both the most obvious and most subtle phenomenon—day to day, it all seems the same.

Then, all at once, everything is different.

Soon, however, all that will be left is the rustling of the leaves. Come the turn of the calendar year, we’ll (hopefully) wonder how we ever lived without Walsh. The only sign that anything has changed will be the beginning of a legacy built by 1Mayor Mah-ty in his first few months of office.

The old Boston is becoming new.

Can you feel it?

Tricia Tiedt is the Metro Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

steven senne / ap photo

After a race none could call, Martin J. Walsh has been elected Boston’s first new mayor in 20 years B y J ulie O renstein Heights Editor

Fewer than 5,000 votes made the difference Tuesday in the vote to elect Boston’s next mayor, yet the margin was enough for State Representative Martin J. Walsh, BC ’09, to emerge victorious over City Councilor John R. Connolly, BC Law ’01.

The first Boston mayoral election not to feature longtime Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s name on the ballot in 20 years, the race for City Hall was neck-and-neck in the weeks leading up to the final election, with Walsh

and Connolly presenting similar policy views in their multiple debates. The candidates strove to differentiate themselves by appealing to their unique backgrounds: Walsh, as a former laborer and union leader, and Connolly, as a former teacher and lawyer.

Polling throughout the race showed just how close it was among potential voters.

Walsh won the Sept. 24 preliminary election, which propelled him and second place finisher Connolly into the final election over 10 other candidates.

See Walsh, C8

Election Results

Walsh: 51.55% Connolly: 48.06% Walsh Facts

Former union leader Dorchester native State rep. since 1997 BC WCAS ’09

Voters reject plans for a casino in East Boston

By Shannon Inglesby Heights Staff After a two-year effort, the controversy surrounding the construction of a casino in East Boston has reached a conclusion that will not satisfy the supporters of the casino’s construction.

A 56 percent majority of East Boston residents voted against the casino on Tuesday, denying any establishment permission to build a casino on the Suffolk Downs racetrack. With 100 percent of precincts in East Boston reporting for the vote, 4,281 people voted against the casino. The plans, however, were more successful in Revere, where the construction was favored by 61 percent of voters. The casino can still be built on the Revere side of Suffolk Downs and plans must be redrawn to meet this goal.

The casino plans have generated a source of controversy in past months.

Advocacy group “No Eastie Casino” campaigned substantially against allowing it to be built, claiming it would increase addiction, crime, and traffic in the area.

Some casino supporters claimed the proposal was the last chance to preserve racing at the last thoroughbred track in

New England, which probably will close if the vote fails. “It’s a historic track—it’s like Fenway Park,” a local resident said to The Boston Globe, recalling the times when races drew 15,000 spectators or more. “This is an opportunity to bring back the jobs.”

Suffolk Downs promised to create 4,000 permanent jobs if it won the license and signed agreements that would guarantee payments of at least $32 million annually to Boston and at least $9 million a year to Revere. The developers planned to add two hotels, restaurants, shops, and thousands of slot machines, table games, and a poker room.

Opponents maintain that the costs of introducing a casino to the urban neighborhood are simply too high. “We know it basically sucks the lifeblood out of a community,” another resident said. “While they’re promising jobs they’re also going to drain jobs from the existing businesses.

When your disposable income dollars go down there, that’s one less dollar spent in our community.”

The $1 billion proposal has declined in popularity over the past year. It was widely believed that Suffolk Downs and its casino

See Casino, C9

charles dharapak / ap photo

Keeping with Sox tradition, the duck boats decked out with beards for the victory parade.

Red Sox hit city streets to celebrate World Series win

By Brenna Cass Heights Staff The celebration for the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox just keeps rolling on. On Saturday, Nov. 2, the city of Boston celebrated the team with a rolling rally that traveled from Fenway to Copley to Government Center and ended with a duck boat dip in the Charles River.

The parade began at Fenway Park at 10

a.m., where Governor Deval Patrick addressed the players and fans inside the park, saying the victory of the team was a “tremendous source of pride and excitement.” The 25 duck boats, decorated with beards in honor of the Red Sox’s “Fear the Beard” campaign and filled with the players and executives hit the streets with the World Series trophy. The members of the Red Sox were met at every part of the 3.8-

See Parade, C8

Marathon Daffodils project seeks to raise morale The group will host an event at BC Friday to plant flowers along the marathon route

By Sarah Moore For The Heights On Friday, Boston College students will have the opportunity to get involved with Marathon Daffodils, a group dedicated to planting the cheerful yellow flowers along the entire 26.2-mile Boston Marathon route. The organization is holding a planting session along Commonwealth Ave. this week, as volunteers work to plant their way to the finish line.

i nside Metro this issue

The Marathon Daffodils project is a collaboration of the area’s top horticultural organizations, nonprofits, local florists, businesses, cities, towns, and volunteers led by president and organizer Diane Valle, of Charlestown, who are aiming both to preserve the spirit of the Boston Marathon and encourage the ideals of Boston Strong while celebrating the beauty of spring in New England.

To make this goal possible, the collaboration aims to raise $26,500 to plant hundreds of thousands of daffodils for 26.5 miles, not only

Collegiate Round-up

tracing the marathon route but the entire path from Hopkinton to Boston.

“We want to do something to lift the spirits of the community in support of Boston Marathon 2014 and Boston Strong,” said Valle, who was inspired to create Marathon Daffodils after the success of last spring’s Daffodil Day in the North End, just one day before last year’s Marathon attacks.

Last fall, Valle volunteered to help plant 13,000 bulbs with The Friends of North End Park as a simple project to bring life and a burst of color to their part of the city. The connection between the blooms and the marathon was made as she thought a symbol of vibrant rebirth would be encouraging to runners especially in

Highlights from other prestigious universities and colleges in the greater Boston area.........................................................................................C9

the aftermath of the 2013 attacks at the finish line. The daffodil is a fitting choice, as it not only blooms in early April, but the bright yellow of the flower mimics the iconic color of The One Fund and Boston Strong.

Organizations including the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, New England Wildflower Society, The Garden Club Federation, The Charles River Conservancy and multiple others have agreed to work toward Valle’s goal with Kathy Abbott, executive director of Tower Hill Botanic Garden closely involved as the project’s vice president.

See Marathon Daffodils, C8

Restaurant Review : Twin Do-Nuts .......................................C7 Mayor to Present Menino’s Holiday Spectacular..........................C9