The Heights 10/30/2014

ON THE DOWN

STARTUP SCENE

NO MAN IS AN ‘ISLAND’

SPORTS

METRO

Heights Editor Austin Tedesco evaluates Oliver Hanlan’s draft stack, A8

SCENE

The Maroon & Gold Fund is raising $2 million to invest in BC startups, B10

Dan Lyle establishes Chorduroy as BC’s record label, supporting independent musicians B1

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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Vol. XCV, No. 40

University opts out of city-requested payments

BY CONNOR FARLEY News Editor

The City of Boston annually requests that Boston-area nonprofits make voluntary payments as a result of their tax-exempt status.

In light of a recent report released by The Boston Globe, some of the largest educational nonprofit institutions across Boston, including Boston College, are opting not to submit these voluntary payments, which the city uses to fund municipality services.

The voluntary payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs) are recommended by City Hall through the relatively recent PILOT program—an initiative formed in 2011 under then-mayor of Boston Thomas M. Menino seeking contributions from Boston-area nonprofits that own more than $15 million in tax-exempt property.

The payments sought by the city would cover services such as snow removal, police protection, trash disposal, and fire department services, among other costs funded by taxpayer dollars, which would otherwise be accrued through private sector institutions in place of the nonprofits, the report stipulates.

Although city officials had privately met with nonprofits in search of voluntary payments for decades, the Menino administration aimed to structure the payment

process into a formalized annual request, the Globe reported.

By fiscal year 2016, the PILOT program is slated to increase the recommended donations to 25 percent of the property tax a nonprofit would owe if non-exempt.

According to the findings compiled by the Globe, BC, among other Boston-area colleges and universities, declined to pay the requested amount, while most hospitals met the fully suggested amounts.

This year, the City of Boston calculated that 25 percent of taxes made on BC’s property would be valued at $2,300,056.

According to the PILOT Task Force webpage, institutions are eligible to pay up to half of the calculated property tax value in “community benefits credit”—a monetary estimation of the services produced by the nonprofit to the city.

According to the Globe report, BC’s community benefit credits were valued at $1,150,028—the maximum allowable credit.

Of the remaining $1,150,028 in suggested contributions, the University paid $317,888 for municipalities outside of the PILOT program, the report shows.

The University’s dismissal of the calculated PILOT amount is, in part, due to it not receiving the municipal services the city cites as grounds for the suggested payment,

See PILOT Program, A3

ARTHUR BAILIN / HEIGHTS STAFF

On Tuesday evening, Holocaust survivor Rena Finder reflected on her experiences with Oskar Schindler during World War II.

Holocaust survivor talks Schindler’s list

BY CAROLYN FREEMAN Heights Staff In 1939, Rena Finder walked away from the home in Krakow, Poland where she had grown up alongside her mother and father with a suitcase and a cart. As she walked away, she saw her neighbors and former friends watching her through the windows. She had just knocked on their doors, but no one had answered—they did not want to say goodbye to her family as they were displaced to the ghetto.

Finder spoke at Boston College on Oct. 28 in the Murray Function Room. She said she was about to enter the fifth grade when World War II began, and that she was sent to a ghetto in Krakow. Oskar Schindler saved her and her mother several years later. The Shaw Leadership Program, BC Hillel, the Emerging Leader Program, and the Sankofa Leadership Program hosted Finder for the fifth consecutive year.

Despite 70 years having passed, Finder said she still finds it hard

to accept that ordinary German citizens could oppress her family in the country she had grown up in. Overnight, she said, she became an enemy of the state.

“They were fathers and husbands and sons and brothers,” she said.

“How could you ever imagine that all those millions of people, ordinary people, would join the Nazi party and become cold-blooded murderers?

It was impossible for me to accept then and it is almost impossible for me to accept now.”

After Finder left her home in Krakow, she lived in a nearby ghetto for several years. Her family was assigned a room in an apartment with three other people. To maintain some semblance of privacy, they hung a blanket to separate the room into two sections. The ghetto lacked consistent water and electricity, and there was no access to medical care.

“My father said, ‘Don’t worry,’” she said. “‘Don’t worry because

See Finder, A3

Former president of ESPN discusses corporate values

BY ARCHER PARQUETTE For The Heights At a talk sponsored by the Winston Center on Tuesday night, former president of ESPN George Bodenheimer told audience members that mission, brand and culture were the keys to ESPN’s success since the sports news outlet’s inception.

Bodenheimer oversaw ESPN from 1998 to 2011 as president and from 2012 to 2014 as executive chairman, alongside his positions as president of ABC Sports from 2003 to 2012 and executive for sports assets of the Walt Disney Company. His talk on leadership in Gasson 100 was delivered as part of the University’s Chambers Lecture Series.

He opened the dialogue on his approach to business by first speaking about the origins of ESPN, highlighting that the company began as a startup in 1979 that broadcasted University of Connecticut games to a small audience.

BC research team receives $19M grant

Over the decades, the 24-hour sports network expanded rapidly and achieved great success, Bodenheimer said, pointing to the company’s mission—“To Serve Sports Fans”—as a key part of its growth.

“Whether you’re running a company, or whether you’re running this college or any other organization, define your mission and drive it home,” he said.

The other facet of the company’s success, he said, was effective branding.

“A brand is what comes to mind when you mention a product, a company, or even a person,” Bodenheimer said, arguing that it is extremely important for a company to build and nurture its perception through branding.

He cited the popular “This is Sports Center” ad campaign as part of ESPN’s marketing effort to project the network as a sport authority with personality—which was preceded by

BY NATHAN MCGUIRE Asst. News Editor

In introducing the main speaker, Patrick, Kennedy said that he is “a friend, a mentor, [and] a leader … someone who, in my mind, embodies the very highest ideas and the very best of what it means to be truly a public servant.”

The government, Patrick said, should strive to help people help themselves.

Under Patrick’s leadership, Kennedy said, Massachusetts has ranked No. 1 in healthcare, student achievement, energy efficiency, and economic competitiveness.

Kennedy said that Patrick is honing in on the generational obligations that are left to the people and aiming to make the world a better place for generations to come.

Patrick noted that while he had previously worked in the private sector, he saw that state government exhibited an emphasis on short-term results. He said he believes that this ideal has begun to seep into the way people govern the nation as well.

A research team at Boston College will lead the development of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) as part of a five year, $19 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at diversifying the NIH workforce. The initiative will draw on the expertise of faculty members at four other universities to train and mentor underrepresented minorities in biomedical research.

David Burgess, a professor in the biology department who has had significant experience advocating for more equitable NIH funding, will lead the team at BC, which serves as the initiative’s administrative headquarters.

The NIH expects the NRMN to grow into a nationwide network of mentors who will work with mentees of diverse backgrounds to enhance their training and career development in biomedical research. The network currently consists of over 100 partner organizations, including private and public colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, historically black colleges and universities, organizations supporting tribal colleges, and a number of scientific societies.

“NRMN will work by developing culturally responsive mentor training programs, professional development activities and mentoring activities,” said Burgess, who has previously advised a congressional committee to address the issue of the disparity. “We will work with biomedical mentees [who] are undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty to help them make the transition successfully from each stage to the next.”

The NIH found in a 2011 study entitled Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards that Asian and black

See College Democrats, A3

See NIH Grant, A3

AMELIE TRIEU / HEIGHTS STAFF

See Bodenheimer, A3

On Tuesday night, the Winston Center featured former ESPN executive George Bodenheimer.

BC College Democrats host Massachusetts politicians On Monday night, Congressman Joe Kennedy and Governor Deval Patrick addressed election season

BY SOPHIE REARDON For The Heights There are currently more unregistered independents in the U.S. than Republicans and Democrats combined. Why? At an event hosted by the College Democrats of Massachusetts, the College Democrats of Boston College, and UGBC on Monday night, Governor Deval Patrick said that the reason may be poor party perceptions.

“The behavior down in Washington is so cartoonish,” he said.

Throughout the event, Congressman Joe Kennedy, who was also

a featured speaker, and Patrick encouraged students to vote in the upcoming elections and touched on issues existing in the current government.

Since being elected to the what he called the “least popular House of Representatives in histor y ” two years ago, Kennedy blamed the Republican majority for

the House’s lack of progress.

Republican leadership, he said, voted to appeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) about 50 times, shut down the government in 2013, refused to raise the minimum wage or act on climate change, and declined to repeal the defensive marriage act.

“This is an extraordinary challenge, then, for those of us who believe that government has to be a part of our society if we are going to take on major challenges that affect all of us,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy stressed the importance of voting to elect Democrats to Congress so that Democratic legislators can begin to have success.

Together, the people and the elected representatives can solve generational issues, such as climate change and minimum wage, he said.

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things to do on campus this week

The Heights This evening at 5:30 p.m., in the Heights Room the School of Theology and Ministry will sponosor a talk by Sr. Kathleen Hughes, R.S.C.J, in which she will discuss sacramental insights of Vatican II and will present on whether a new theology of sacrament has happened.

Embrace the mess Alex Gaynor Let’s face it: sometimes life just gets messy. Situations don’t always lean in our favor, relationships fail, and tough decisions always need to be made. For me, it could be the impending doom of graduation and thoughts of “the future” or the inherent fears of beginning a new life in a new place, but it is valid to recognize the chaotic nature of our lives.

The founder of the Catholic Worker movement, Dorothy Day, once remarked that the world she works in is really just a “haphazard, messy affair.” Nevertheless, she would always stress that while life can be disheartening and utterly insane, there is still a wonderful beauty that shines through, as long as one has the strength to pursue it and the eyes to see it.

I had the privilege to live in one of Day’s houses of hospitality this past summer. It was a regular night on the house shift. I had finished all of the chores, cleaned up the meal, begrudgingly took out the trash, fed the cats, and was just about to sit down to a steaming cup of tea and an hour of Law and Order, when a woman came knocking and asked if we had any food. The house policy was that dinner could only be served at dinnertime to house residents, but exceptions could always be made, so I told her “just this once.”

This supposedly one-time deal became a weekly, almost nightly occurrence, and she began to ask for more goods and services as the weeks went on. She eventually became standoffish and aggressive and after those in charge at the house banned her from the dining room, she took to calling us day after day and would say that, “you all hate poor people” or that “Jesus wouldn’t turn me away.” Each day became more draining than the last, and I began to wonder if the work that we were doing was worth anything. Life was messy, rules were haphazard, and I was utterly confused. However, Day also states in her book Loaves and Fishes, that the greatest challenge of the day is, “how to bring about a revolution of the heart,” or—in my interpretation—how to insert ourselves far enough into the fray and the mess to start to care enough to stand with those who are suffering. It is often then in those sacred moments when goodness can arise.

As I built relationships with the women who showed up on our doorstep every day this summer, I began to understand more about what Day meant. By placing ourselves directly into the chaotic mess that is life, we naturally gain a sense of the problematic and frustrating dimensions, but we also begin to see the inextricable link to the extreme joys and beauty of life. If we can find the courage to sit with the pain of others and of situations, perhaps we can find joy in doing that in itself. It is by acknowledging the chaos that we can hope to reach some peace or find the peace within it. So, embrace that mess. Embrace the chaos that is life. Find that balance of joy within, and one day maybe we can all bring about this revolution of heart that Day speaks of.

Alex Gaynor is a senior staff columnist for The Heights. She can be reached at news@bcheights.com.

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Center for Human Rights and International Justice is sponsoring a discussion tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. in the Newton Room about the recent Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and the challenges it creates regarding religious freedom.

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The University Wind Ensemble will host its annual fall concert on Saturday at 7 p.m., in Gasson 101. The ensemble, directed by Sebastian Bonaiuto, will perform works

by Edward Elgar, Ralph VaughanWilliams, William Walton, and Gordon Jacob.

Archbishop calls for reform in immigration laws

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

Emily Fahey / Heights Editor

Miami Archbishop Rev. Thomas Wenski spoke of a need for long-term, humane immigration reform at an event Monday. and violence, and he described many of the women and children fleeing countries such as Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador as resembling “people running out of a house that’s on fire.”

“Our response should not be to lock them in the burning house,” he said.

He also noted the importance of the economy’s role in immigration, as the estimated 11 million undocumented workers have distributed themselves across the country in pursuit of jobs.

Wenski stated that illegal immigration should not be tolerated, noting that it may lead to abuse and exploitation of the migrants themselves, and ultimately harms the businesses that rely on their labor. He also said, though, that current U.S. immigration law would benefit from revision.

“Our immigration laws need to be changed,” Wenski said. “They are antiquated and inadequate for the promotion and regulation of social

and economic relations of 21st century America.”

On calling for reform, Wenski said that any new legislation should incorporate three major components: First, any proposal should feature means for undocumented longterm residents to access permanent residency—such a remedy, he argued, would likely stabilize immigrant families and the labor force. Second, Wenski said that legislation should increase the legal avenues for migrants to work while protecting the rights of both foreign-born and U.S. workers.

Third, he maintained that a proposal should shorten waiting times under the family unification system. He asserts that family unity visas are currently scarce while waiting periods for families hoping to reunite can be as long as 10 years.

The Church has been struggling for a number of years to enact such reform, Wenski said. In 2001, bishops from both Mexico and the U.S. calling

for reform signed a pastoral letter entitled “Strangers No Longer.” This was soon sidelined, however, due in large part to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.

Wenski said that ever since, the Church has been pushing Congress to act on immigration reform.

Those who demonize immigrants, Wenski said, often ignore the tragedy and human dislocation caused by the status quo and also ignore the contributions immigrants make toward our nation.

Wenski later said that the U.S. is a nation that typically honors those who defy civil law in pursuit of justice, pointing to historical figures of such defiance like Rosa Parks or the Founding Fathers of the country.

In his closing words, Wenski said, “It all depends on who we’re going to listen to. Do we listen to Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Glenn Beck? Or do we listen to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?” n

Award-winning journalist talks story selection

By Jennifer Suh Heights Staff Will Hobson, BC ’06, was working as a police reporter at the Tampa Bay Times one night when he received a call from a homeless man who said that a local Republican fundraiser nicknamed William “Hoe” Brown was renting out squalid trailer homes. The next day, Hobson followed up on the tip and went to the trailer park to see the conditions for himself.

Brown, then the chairman of the Tampa Port Authority, was running the trailer park behind his office in a lower-middle class neighborhood in Tampa, said Hobson, who spoke to students and professors Monday afternoon.

“There was a flock house, a roach motel, right there, and behind his office, he had put a bunch of trailers—old, single, white trailers— split them in half, wired them—like pack wire for cable, electric, and water—and basically had a little crew of borderline-homeless employees that would put up signs around town, saying, ‘Do you have [Social Security Insurance]?’” Hobson said.

While reporting on the condi-

tions of the trailer park, Hobson said he heard a rumor that a public agency was sending people there and covering their rents with tax dollars. He then learned that it was Homeless Recovery, a government program launched in 1989 in Hillsborough County, Fla. “I think [Homeless Recovery] only paid six-something a month for a family of six or more,” Hobson said. “And if you only want to pay $600 a month, and you’re a family of six, there’s only a certain kind of landlord you’re going to end up dealing with.

“So, Homeless Recovery, basically for years had been subsidizing slumlords like ‘Hoe’ Brown across the city.”

Hobson reported on Homeless Recovery with fellow Times staff writer Michael LaForgia for six months, and they wrote a series of stories that were published from July to December last year. Both journalists were awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting this April for their reporting on the illegal housing operation.

Hobson graduated from BC with a B.A. in English and has also worked for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Sports Network wire service, the

Police Blotter Sunday, October 26 12:00 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility from College Rd. 1:21 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility from Fenwick Hall.

2:48 a.m. - A report was filed regarding assistance provided to another police agency.

A Guide to Your Newspaper The Heights Boston College – McElroy 113 140 Commonwealth Ave. Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02467

By Cam Harding For The Heights In a statement announced on Sept. 23, Pope Francis I declared that “all Christians must recognize Jesus Christ in migrants and refugees, and welcome them with respect and solidarity while avoiding suspicion and prejudice.”

On Monday, Archbishop of Miami Rev. Thomas Wenski arrived at Boston College to speak on the Catholic Church’s position on immigration reform at an event hosted

by BC’s Church in the 21st Century (C21).

Wenski, who is also the chairman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, began his presentation with the words of Francis. Wenski then said that the world has become increasingly globalized, with economies becoming more interdependent, information and money crossing continents in an instant, and an everexpanding amount of people traversing borders across the globe.

“Globalization has made us all neighbors, but it has not made us brothers,” Wenski said, citing Pope Benedict XVI, and stating that while God does not show partiality, human beings do.

According to Wenski, the Church recognizes the right of the U.S. to control its borders, but at the same time the church acknowledges that the rights of a human being take precedence over border regulation.

Wenski noted how a number of immigrants who travel to the U.S. do so to escape prejudice, poverty,

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Panama City News Herald, and the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Carlo Rotella, a professor within the English department who directs both the American Studies program and the Lowell Humanities Series, moderated the discussion. When asked by Rotella how he knew or recognized that there was a bigger story beyond the squalid trailer park, Hobson said that there were two factors: reading extensively and talking to other journalists about how they do their jobs.

“Story selection is one of the most important skill sets to develop eventually, because when you do try to do big investigative work or big magazine stories, you’re going to invest a lot of time in this thing,” Hobson said. “You want to know pretty early on that it’s going be a good story.

“If it’s not something that I would tell my friend at a bar about, I’m probably not going do a story about it,” he said. “You look for stories that engender outrage, stories that might piss people off—that’s something that I’ve gotten pretty good at.”

Rotella then opened the talk for questions from students and professors.

One student asked about the

future of journalism.

“Newspapers are obviously not in great financial shape,” Hobson said. “I’m reasonably happy now in my work, but I obviously have concerns about the future of newspapers. Companies are trying out new models for journalism.”

Students interested in careers in journalism, he noted, also have new and different options available to them.

“I think it’s a great time to be where you guys are sitting, because papers like my paper, which used to be really hard to get a job at out of college, now, money is tight, and they’re hiring younger and less experienced [interns],” Hobson said.

“Interns are coming to my paper everyday and writing front page stories on big, breaking news, and that never used to happen.”

Another student asked how young journalists with ambitious goals might be able to get past the general first step of entering into journalism working at small, local newspapers.

“You just need to accept that it’s not a 48-hour-a-week job,” he said.

“But, any kind of journalism that you’re going to be doing, that’s going be the case ... so, work hard.” n

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 Connor Farley, 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.

Sports Scores Want to report the results of a game?

Call Connor Mellas, Sports Editor, at (617) 552-0189, or email sports@ bcheights.com.

Arts Events For future arts events, email a detailed description of the event and contact information to the Arts Desk.Call John Wiley, Arts and Review Editor, at (617) 552-0515, or email arts@bcheights.com.

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 Eleanor Hildebrandt, Editor-inChief, at (617) 552-2223, or email eic@bcheights.com.

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

10/26/14 - 10/27/14

3:18 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance provided to a BC student who was transported to a medical facility from Gonzaga Hall.

Monday, October 27 4:36 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a larceny from Robsham Theatre.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

Whatisisyour the favorite best BC-related Halloween costume?

Who BC Dining employee?

“Vineyard Vines whale.”

—James DeAntonis, A&S ’18

“Gasson Tower.”

—Sean Casey, A&S ’17

“Doug Flutie.”

—Paulina Miller, A&S ’18

“Newton Bus.” —Caroline Dagher, CSOM ’18

The Heights

Thursday, October 30, 2014

A3

Nonprofits asked for funds PILOT Program, from A1

Arthur bailin / Heights staff

On Tuesday, Holocaust survivor Rena Finder discussed her and her mother’s placement onto Schindler’s list during the Second World War.

Finder reflects on WWII Poland Finder, from A1 someone will hear what is happening to us and they will save us.’ Every day the Germans were patrolling the city the ghetto and they would come into the buildings and if they didn’t like somebody they would take him away and we never saw him again.”

Around this time, Finder noted that she and her mother began to hear about Oskar Schindler, who had converted a factory that had once made pots and pans into one that manufactured ammunition. After they had been transported to Plaszow, a concentration camp near the ghetto, Finder and her mother heard that Schindler planned to hire more people for his factory.

Through a friend of the family, Finder and her mother were placed on his list. Schindler had them removed from Plaszow and they began work in his factory.

“He replaced my father as much as can be

possible,” she said. “I knew he would take care of us. In our small and horrible world this was all the sunshine that we had, knowing he was taking care of us.”

This respite, however, did not last very long. Finder and her mother were soon transferred to Auschwitz Birkenau, where they spent about three and a half weeks—this concentration camp, she said, was where the gas chambers and crematoriums were first built.

She noted that during her time in Auschwitz, she did not have access to enough food and the guards were incredibly cruel.

“I felt like I wasn’t me,” she said. “I was so totally dehumanized and terrorized and humiliated.”

Finder recounted that Schindler sent a secretary to bribe the head of Auschwitz to release the people on his list, and that he argued that they were his trained workers and he needed them. Finder also mentioned that the group went through sanitation before being placed

back into the boxcar that traveled on to reach the camp. This time, though, instead of being packed together into the car, they could actually sit, Finder said.

“The train stopped and the door opened and there in the station stood Oskar Schindler,” she said. “And that is a picture that will always stay in my mind.”

Finder urged the audience to stand up for those who are bullied and oppressed—to not be a bystander. Politicians that could help ignored the reality of what was going on, she said, while Schindler actually made a difference.

“He was the first one to show the world that there is always something that one can do,” Finder said. “All those people that could help sat in their offices with their windows down and their shades drawn … Oskar Schindler and Mrs. Schindler cared. We have to teach our children to stand up, to make a difference—to be an upstander, not to be a bystander.” n

Amelie Trieu / Heights staff

Former president of ESPN George Bodenheimer discussed company culture at the latest installment of the Chambers Lecture Series.

Winston Center hosts former ESPN exec Bodenheimer, from A1 the showing of an old blooper reel filled with ESPN on-air blunders.

“It taught us to have fun,” he said. “It taught us to laugh at ourselves. It taught us to take our sports seriously, but don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

What Bodenheimer said was the third component of ESPN’s success was company culture, stating that culture is arguably the most important of the three keys.

“There’s a lot of things in business that you cannot control, but one that you can control is your culture,” he said. Bodenheimer also expanded on the blue-collar work ethic he said he believes makes ESPN such a success—citing the story of The Little Engine That Could, he said that an underdog mentality generally makes people work harder and fight for what

they have.

Another aspect of a strong culture Bodenheimer referenced was passion, crediting it as the reason behind two of the biggest innovations of ESPN’s time: the first of these was using a yellow line to show football fans where the first down was during football games, and the second turning the NFL draft into a primetime event by televising it.

He recounted experiences of enacting his idea of a strong company culture at ESPN by describing his meetings with senior executives and determining company priorities for the year, covering topics ranging from ratings, college football playoffs, and diversity and inclusion. Following these meetings, a card would then be given out to each ESPN employee with this list of priorities, which Bodenheimer said he believed empowered employees to build a company

where employees would think innovatively for themselves.

“In my job as president, I thought of myself as a servant-leader,” Bodenheimer said.

Referencing a Vince Lombardi quote—“Develop a culture that breeds and feeds on success”—he discussed how running a company requires a combined effort, and that it can’t be done without the employees.

During the Q&A session that followed his talk, Bodenheimer spoke about his decision to work in the mailroom of ESPN for only $8,000 a year at the onset of his time with the company. According to Bodenheimer, the decision was a career decision, not a money decision. On the advice of his father, he said, he chose to take the job because he was interested in sports television and not just the pay—mentioning that it was the best advice he ever received. n

said University Spokesman Jack Dunn.

“This year, Boston College paid the City of Boston $317,887 and the City of Newton $123,212 in payments for municipal services for the one service we receive—fire protection service,” Dunn said. “The University has been making these payments for municipal services since the early 1990s, based on agreements established by Boston and Newton.”

Those payments, though, are made independently of the PILOT program, as the University holds that it typically only pays for services external to the institution itself, such as fire department services.

Snow removal services, a police department, and trash disposal are all coordinates internally by the University without direct city assistance.

While the Globe’s findings do not include the percentage of total property occupied by nonprofits, the costliest institution was Boston University, which the city asked pay $13,068,735 as part of the estimated 25 percent of the property tax it would generate if not tax exempt. The university qualified for half of the roughly $13 million in community benefit credits, and it paid approximately 92 percent of the remaining recommended amount, according to the Globe.

Dunn stated that instead of fulfilling the requested payments, BC chooses to allocate funds directly to neighborhood programs and local school organizations. He said that direct contributions to those organizations would likely have a more direct and immediate impact.

“As a Jesuit, Catholic University that is committed to service and volunteer outreach, we feel that the best way we can assist the City of Boston is through the more than $30 million in community benefits that we provide to the City and its residents each year through scholarships, jobs, volunteer outreach, community grants, and the public and private funding we procure for Boston’s public and parochial schools,” he said.

“Boston’s PILOT program is voluntary,” Dunn continued. “As a nonprofit educational institution and a religious affiliate, we choose not to participate in the PILOT program so as not to forego our nonprofit status.”

According to the PILOT Task Force, the city received an overall $24.9 million of the $34.6 million requested, or about 71.8 percent of the suggested payments.

The number of nonprofits solicited by the program totaled 49, up from 45 during the program’s first fiscal year in 2012. According to the Globe, the combined value of the 49 institutions’ annual property taxes would total about $425 million if not for their taxexempt status. n

Burgess to lead $19M grant NIH Grant, from A1 scientists were less likely to receive NIH funding than their white counterparts.

The study, which examined researchers who applied for grants between 2000 and 2006, found black scientists were about 13 percent less likely and Asian scientists were 5 percent less likely to receive grants than their white counterparts, when controlling for position and location of the applicant. Burgess said research suggests that implicit bias exists in the application process, and that it is likely the cause of the disparity.

Each year the NIH awards approximately $26 billion in biomedical research funding. Grants are awarded through a peer-review process, in which researchers submit proposals to a panel of field experts. According to Burgess, few underrepresented minority scientists participate in the peer-review process.

In response to the 2011 study, NIH director Francis Collins called for the formation of a Working Group on Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce, and charged it with developing concrete recommendations aimed at improving the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities.

Among other things, the group’s investigation found that “diversity is a key driver of achievement in the workforce, particularly when innovation is a critical goal,” according to its final report, released to the public in June 2012. The WGDBRW also found that only a small fraction of black applicants applied for grants in the basic sciences, and that similar funding disparities existed between 2006 and 2010. The working group made 13 recommendations that formed a comprehensive strategy to

increase diversity in the biomedical research workforce.

One effect of the report was the NIH’s establishment of the Enhancing Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce program, which aims to attract individuals from all population sectors and train and mentor them to succeed in biomedical research careers, including careers in behavioral, clinical, and social science research.

“The nation’s population continues to become increasingly diverse and there is an urgent need to ensure that the scientific talent which is key to our nation’s success is nurtured, recognized, and supported across all demographic groups,” the NIH’s website reads.

At BC, the administrative headquarters of the network, Burgess’ team will coordinate the nation-wide initiative, as well as coordinate interactions with two other programs funded by the initiative, the Coordination and Evaluation Center and the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity Imitative, and oversee the network’s fiscal situation.

Four other universities will serve as regional hubs, each overseeing a specific part of the initiative. According to the BC Chronicle, the University of Wisconsin will coordinate the mentor training; the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center will lead programs connecting mentors with mentees; the University of Minnesota will offer professional development services to mentees; and the Morehouse School of Medicine will coordinate the program at historically black colleges and universities. According the NIH’s website, the NRMN will develop best practices for mentoring, providing training opportunities for mentors, and providing networking and professional opportunities for mentees. n

Kennedy, Patrick featured at BC College Democrats event College Democrats, from A1 Patrick stated that today people are taught that they must leave the world a better place than they found it so that the generations to come can continue to thrive on earth. As governor, he said he will continue to look at the long-term results and to take care of all people, whether they are democrats or not.

Kennedy also touched on the issue of college tuition and soaring student loan interest rates. “[Washington] is not doing enough,” Kennedy said.

A proposal was created that would lower interest rates on student loans, but it failed to pass. Patrick understands that universities have been raising their tuitions to see which families can match the cost, and those who cannot afford to pay the tuition will receive more financial aid.

Patrick stated that local public universities have received more money from the government. This allows fees to decrease for students. But in Washington, a long battle still lies ahead.

The featured speakers also reflected the government’s role in domestic violence prevention. Patrick’s wife, Diane, a former victim of domestic violence herself, plays an active role in helping other victims. Patrick noted that she frequently gives speeches on the issue and informational materials on how to get help.

Under Patrick’s and his wife’s guidance, shelter services have expanded, but hotlines and shelters still need funding, Patrick said.

Kennedy added that he used to be a public prosecutor in domestic violence cases.

“The issue is much more widespread than we think,” he said.

He believes, however, that there are many bright spots, including organizations that can identify high-risk victims and prevent them from committing homicide—but he also stated that there are many ways that we all can get involved and help save lives.

“My predecessor Barney Frank said, ‘Government is the name we give the challenges we solve together,’” Kennedy said. n

Drew hoo / Heights staff

Joe Kennedy, alongside Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, discussed the election season and Democratic politics at Monday’s event.

THE HEIGHTS

A4

EDITORIALS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Voluntary payments to city are nonprofits’ prerogative In 2011, the city of Boston launched a new program to collect voluntary payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) from the city’s numerous universities, hospitals, and cultural institutions. As 501(c)(3) registered nonprofit organizations, those Boston landowners are exempt from paying property tax to the city. This new PILOT Task Force requested that all of those institutions contribute 25 percent of what they would have paid in property tax to the city with an allowance for half of that to be offset by community benefits credits. For the 2014 fiscal year, most of the colleges did not meet the requested contribution, according to a recent report

by The Boston Globe.

This discrepancy has caused some criticism by other tax-paying Boston residents who think that these institutions should contribute more to the city, voluntarily or otherwise. Boston derives the majority of its revenue from property taxes, and these organizations own a substantial amount of the city’s land, effectively blocking the city from collecting revenue that it could otherwise received.

Like for-profit businesses and residents of Boston, these nonprofits benefit from the services that the city offers—the police and fire departments and snow removal, for example.

These arguments, however, miss a crucial point. These organizations are exempt from taxes because, in the view of the government, they provide a valuable service to society and are not trying to make a profit for a group of shareholders. The positive cultural, educational, and social impact that these institutions have on the community justifies their tax-exempt status.

As nonprofits are nonetheless using services that the city provides, it is reasonable for Boston to request voluntary payments—especially as the city is already taxing the rest of Boston. While this specific program began in 2011, Boston has been operating a PILOT-like program for decades. Until 2011, each institution worked out a payment with the city behind closed doors. Although this new program offers a positive increase in transparency, its application of a onesize-fits-all methodology to the voluntary payments is troublesome.

Each of these nonprofit institutions contributes distinctly to the Boston community, and each of them also receives varying levels of services from the city.

Boston College, for example, plows its

own snow and has its own police department, but it does utilize the city’s fire protection services. The organizations each also have an ability to pay that might not be reflected in the value of property owned. These discrepancies demonstrate that an across-the-board 25 percent request is an illogical method for generating revenue from nonprofits for the city.

While keeping the new transparency, the city should incorporate the individual negotiation method of the old system, so that the amount requested of each institution reflects its unique circumstances.

BC owns approximately $500 million worth of land within Boston city limits, according to the Globe, and the city requested $2.3 million from the University. The community benefits credits can account for up to half of the requested amount, which in BC’s case did, leaving $1.15 million that the city requested. In the 2014 fiscal year, BC paid the city $317,888 for fire protection services, a payment that University Spokesman Jack Dunn stated was external to the PILOT program.

BC is one of many universities in the Boston area that does not meet the requested donation amount, attracting public shaming. City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, who helped devise the new PILOT program in 2011, is one such voice. “[The universities] were all in the room [when the new program was negotiated], and they all agreed to this,” Murphy told the Globe. “You made commitments; you gave your word. Is your word any good?”

Without knowing what each of these institutions actually provides to the community, however, these criticisms are unwarranted. Any stigmatization is unwarranted because it is impossible to quantify the exact benefit that these organizations bring to the city, whether it is through student volunteers, outreach programs, or community centers, and so it is impossible to know whether BC receives more in services from the city than it gives back.

In its current form, the PILOT program is not the most just method for the city to seek revenues from Boston’s nonprofits. These educational, medical, and cultural nonprofits are an integral part of city life and provide a great public service to its citizens. If it fits within their budgets and long-term plans, they should contribute to the city for the services they receive, but not under the cookie-cutter approach currently used. They should not be shamed if they do not.

Boston College will serve as the administrative headquarters for the implementation of a four-year, $19 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to create a network to train and support underrepresented minorities in biomedical research careers. The program—the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)—will bring together mentors and mentees to make important investments in individuals who will shape biomedical research. Receiving this designation is an impressive distinction, for which BC is deserving of commendation.

A 2011 study commissioned by the NIH found concerning disparities between the percentage of whites and minorities who received funding from the organization. According to the report, which examined Ph.D.-level applicants between 2000 and 2006, Asian scientists were 5 percent less likely and black scientists were 13 percent less likely to receive grants than their white counterparts. Research suggested that the disparity was largely due to implicit bias in the peer-reviewed application process—namely that minorities were often underrepresented on the peer-

review panels.

Following the study’s findings, the NIH immediately took steps to remedy the discrepancy, and it called for the creation of a working group to make recommendations about how best to address the disparity. Among other suggestions, the group called for the creation of a network that would train and nurture minority researchers, from which the NRMN developed.

The BC team overseeing the NRMN, led by biology professor David Burgess, will coordinate the national initiative and will provide fiscal oversight for the program. Four other universities across the country will serve as regional hubs, and each will contribute a different component to the program. The program is currently partnered with over 100 other organizations, including a number of scientific societies, Hispanic-serving institutions, and historically black colleges and universities.

Encouraging talented individuals who may have been previously discouraged from applying for NIH grants to contribute to biomedical research is a noble pursuit, and it is noteworthy that Burgess and BC were selected to lead this initiative.

The views expressed in the above editorials represent the official position of The Heights, as discussed and written by the

Editorial Board. A list of the members of the Editorial Board can be found at BCHeights. com/opinions.

BC leads NIH-funded group

HEIGHTS

THE

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT, Editor-in-Chief MARC FRANCIS, General Manager JOSEPH CASTLEN, Managing Editor

Thursday, October 30, 2014

EDITORIAL

KAYLA FAMOLARE, Copy Editor CONNOR FARLEY, News Editor CONNOR MELLAS, Sports Editor KENDRA KUMOR, Features Editor JOHN WILEY, Arts & Review Editor RYAN TOWEY, Metro Editor ANDREW SKARAS, Opinions Editor MARY ROSE FISSINGER, Special Projects Editor EMILY FAHEY, Photo Editor MAGGIE POWERS, Layout Editor

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

-Katharine Hepburn (1907 - 2003), four-time Oscar-winning actress

LETTER TO THE EDITOR The following letter is in response to “BCPD chief talks Clery crime figures” an article by Connor Farley, originally published on 10/9/14:

Addressing sexual violence As national attention remains focused on the issue of sexual violence occurring on college campus across the U.S., those of us responding to incidents at Boston College are grateful for and impressed by the remarkable efforts of faculty, staff and students in working to eradicate sexual assault in our own community. We have been encouraged by the amount of dialogue taking place across campus ranging from response to prevention, and also recognize that, when there are many voices participating in conversation about any issue of health and safety, it is important to ensure that we provide accurate information about the options and resources available to students who might be directly in need.

In particular, we at the Women’s Center have noted key areas where we might bring greater clarity to students who may seek resources following an episode of sexual violence. In response to the October 9 Heights article on BCPD’s response to reports sexual assault, we would like to note that students who seek assistance or the opportunity to report a sexual assault with BCPD are not required to be transported to University Health Services or any hospital; these services are certainly available and may be encouraged, but as with any resource that a student might seek here at BC surrounding sexual violence, the University’s priority is to honor the privacy and

safety of all students to the best of our ability.

Likewise, while BCPD or other resources may reach out to a survivor of sexual violence after their initial report in order to provide followup care or get more information, no student is required to participate in an investigation or complaint—students are ultimately free to choose their own paths in their healing journeys.

If you or someone you know would like to file a complaint with BCPD regarding a sexual assault, you can be confident that you’ll be treated with agency and respect in the process; however, if you’d like to talk to someone about other options and resources that do not require any investigation, you can call SANet anytime (24/7) to learn more about what’s available to you, including and apart from BCPD, in reporting incidents of sexual assault.

We thank every member of this community for doing its part in redressing sexual violence at the University. BC is making great strides in eliminating this intolerable form of violence, and in that process, we seek to advocate for, educate and empower every individual who has been affected.

R ACHEL D I B ELLA Assistant Director, Women’s Center GSSW ’14

THE ONLINE BUZZ Printing reader comments from www.bcheights.com, the Online Buzz draws on the online community to contribute to the ongoing discussion.

In response to “Looking Beyond The ‘BC Bro’ Illusion” by John Wiley, which ran on 10/23/14: First, the reasons for four or three years of housing are clearly written, and in fact minorities often always have four years because they cannot afford to life [sic] off campus and the school understands and accommodate that.

Why else would Stayer Hall, “The Gate,” be known as the AHANA hotel? Those that get four years are honors students, full scholarship athletes (men’s football, hockey, basketball, women’s hockey, women’s basketball. women’s volleyball, etc), and BC’s reach students (those above the traditional BC acceptance statistics which BC wants to encourage to attend our school) like myself.

You have provided an article with little research and no solutions. What ways do you suggest to “stretch the superfan shirt” so it fits all? Should BC give Shea tailgating spots to non-alum who don’t donate? Isn’t that unfair to the alum of 30 years that have given back to this school every year since graduation? Wiley if you’d like to share your privilege, go ahead and tailgate in the Mod Lot. As a white and non-affluent student (read: poor) but socially active and highly intelligent (waitlist to Harvard, Yale, and Columbia) I have not had any issues getting around the income gap. I am a great friend of the black community, Asian community, and other traditionally separated groups and have

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.

The Heights reserves the right to edit for clarity, brevity, accuracy, and to prevent libel. The Heights also reserves the right to write headlines and choose illustrations to accompany pieces submitted JORDAN PENTALERI, Graphics Editor NICOLE SUOZZO, Blog Editor AUSTIN TEDESCO, Online Manager CORINNE DUFFY, Assoc. Copy Editor EVAN D. GATTI, Asst. Copy Editor JULIE ORENSTEIN, Assoc. News Editor NATHAN MCGUIRE, Asst. News Editor MARLY MORGUS, Assoc. Sports Editor ALEX FAIRCHILD, Asst. Sports Editor SAMANTHA COSTANZO, Asst. Features Editor

partied with black and white brothers alike. BC has supported the poor students of its school through the Montserrat program, which gives free BC2Boston tickets, free gold passes, free books, free theatre tickets, exclusive job opportunities, and much much more. Many of my affluent friends are shocked at the benefits I told them I got from this program.

Though for the moment I cannot afford to buy a tailgating spot at Shea, I have many great friends whose parents can and always invite me. Moreover, freshman year I actually went to Shea and met alum without knowing anybody. I met seniors that invited me to their places to pregame. I met alum that became my friends and my hosts without me ever bringing a single beer to them. Most of BC is friendly if you stop thinking in the “privilege they are different” mindset. I had no privilege to get here; I still live in the projects of Brooklyn and went to a public school, though I worked hard to become ranked #1. I did not have a single Brooks Brothers shirt or Polo Ralph Lauren dress shirt, yet alone Ferragamo or some of the even nicer brands. I didn’t even have a suit. I didn’t know about the existence of many of the prep schools my colleagues attended.

Even if I did I wouldn’t have afforded tuition. Yet here I am, having the time of my life, with my poor black Bronx brothers and rich tailgate hosting white brothers as well. Get out there and see how accepting BC really is.

—A NONYMOUS

to the newspaper.

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.

ARIANA IGNERI, Assoc. Arts & Review Editor MICHELLE TOMASSI, Asst. Arts & Review Editor BENNET JOHNSON, Asst. Metro Editor EMILY SADEGHIAN, Asst. Photo Editor JT MINDLIN, Asst. Layout Editor BRECK WILLS, Asst. Graphics Editor ARIELLE CEDENO, Editorial Assistant SARAH MOORE, Executive Assistant

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The Heights

Thursday, October 30, 2014

A5

Eulogy for the CTRC

Nate Fisher

HALLOWEEN WEEKEND - Next in the holiday batting order is Halloween. Give it up for the one holiday during which it is not only okay but expected that we don absurd outfits and ask strangers for candy. (This does not end when you go to college. It’s just a different kind of sweets then. Hey, oh!) In all seriousness (well, as much seriousness as a TU/ TD column can muster—don’t expect too much of us), this is a great holiday.

There are two days (three, if you’re ambitious) coming up into which we can channel 12 months of pent-up costume creativity. We have been working on our costume line-up for months—Jay Gatsby, James Bond, the Godfather, Jordan Belfort, Don Draper, Gordon Gecko. There’s just not enough time to fit it all in. Maybe if we do multiple costumes per night….

DORM ROOM DECORATIONS - We haven’t had the time to decorate our room, but we really respect all of you out there who do so. We remember growing up and all the decorations our mothers would spread about the house. They had decorations for every major holiday and some minor ones. Decorations really bring an otherwise sterile space to life, and, while we aren’t making so bold a claim as to say that our dorm rooms are hygienic, they certainly are barren.

HUMAN CREATIVITY - It turns out that mankind has a remarkable ability to sexualize literally anything for the sake of Halloween. Although often this comes out tacky and/or ridiculous, we applaud the effort. Not everyone puts that forth.

We’ve seen sexy hamburgers, sharks, and traffic cones. Yes, traffic cones.

HUMAN CREATIVITY, PT. II - There is another creativity that is often at play on Halloween, and that is the clever/ pun approach to costumes. Although not gifted in the difficult art of devising these ideas, we tip our top hats and extend the utmost respect to those of you who do have this gift. We loved 50 shades of grey—paint samples taped on a grey shirt—last year. We’ve seen cereal killers (think those mini cereal boxes with plastic knives through them … and lots of ketchup) and Facebook (think writing the word ‘book’ on your face).

The best might have been a one-night stand. It is a lot of effort to lug around a nightstand all evening, and we respect you for that.

SEXY EBOLA NURSE COSTUMES - Apparently, this is a thing. I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised—the costume industry has an insatiable appetite for turning anything into a sexy Halloween costume (We actually mean anything.

See above), and this is the topical disease of the year. So, yeah, this is a thing. We just want to know what makes this any different from a regular sexy nurse.

MICE, CATS, AND BUNNIES - Show some creativity. These are so overplayed.

(Although we will say, we were very impressed freshman year with someone’s homemade helmet for a No. 5 deceased mouse costume, but that is the exception, not the rule.)

HAUNTED HOUSES - We aren’t sorry for this. We think they are not scary and just a waste of time.

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2014: “The grass sheets look particularly quilted today.”

She was right. The new grass—the eighth or 10th sodding of 2014—was doing a poor job of hiding the seams between each strip. Like many things at Boston College, the grass is always changing in incremental ways, usually for worse. I looked at the pizza I could no longer trust.

“The food’s getting worse, too.”

2015: “TH1515BC, present yourself!”

The voice flags me down, and I shuffle to their table. I had walked as far away from the donation module as BC’s new Grass De-walkification Policy allowed, but the Quad’s concrete path is narrow.

Two fellow TH1515BCs are asking for a donation to the senior gift.

I had done so well avoiding them all senior year, but there are so few legal places to walk these days. I fill out an absurdly lengthy donation form, which, according to the girl, will get me into the habit of donating early. If I practice filling out donation forms now, she reasons, I can do it in my sleep when I’m 40!

“Here, have a TH1515BC insignia.”

I accept the sticker. My contribution of $10 is greatly appreciated. The guy explains that donating 1/6000 of tuition is hardly a “drop in the bucket,” but will instead pay for accoutrements to keep BC a “top, top university.”

The two inform me that the idea to purchase 1000 square feet of Ol’ Kentucky Blue Sod for the Stokes lawn had just been nicked by the 14/4EVR senior gift. The TH1515BCs were

open to suggestions, the most popular ideas being a down payment on a University helicopter, something called “the million dollar escalator,” and a particularly expensive dog. I say “the escalator sounds fun” and leave.

2017: “Look at TransLoc. Look how close together these two buses are. It’s like that every day.”

“Oh no, that’s the new Eagle’s Beak.

It’s a super bus.” Thirty-two minutes would elapse before the Eagle’s Beak slowly lurched around the College Road bend. Per the official release— “With the wind at its back, the Eagle’s Beak reaches peak velocity at 19 knots!”—Eagle’s Beak is the largest student public transit vehicle in the region, even enjoying 7 percent more capacity than the famous Double Deckers Harvard just bought from England (for the color, presumably).

The Eagle’s Beak is indeed quite spacious. Crudely welding the front of one bus to the back of another doubles the space while cutting operating costs. Many students complain, though, that the Eagle’s Beak suffers from horrendous overcrowding.

Others complain that the noise of two busloads of drunk kids singing dueling renditions of “Sweet Caroline” is thoroughly unpleasant. But BC loves the Beak, planning to cut costs further and lower congestion during key hours by welding one of the other buses onto the Beak. Despite objections, BC believes its Bus Centipede, or “The BC,” is keeping with University Values.

2019: “Have your Student ID ready. Keep your arms up for the spraypaint.”

“I should probably just get the yellow shirt/salmon shorts paint, right?”

Freshmen are confused. For many, this is their first experience with the Gold Pass, along with the SuperFan SuperSuit, a sterilized full-body white spandex jumpsuit onto which students

could have any BC-related designs painted at the many paint stations where the concession stands used to be.

Alumni Stadium was a frontrunner in the race for Cleanest Stadium in the ACC, and BC wasn’t taking any chances. “Now everyone can ‘Protect This House!’” the slogan went. Many old enough to remember the halftime hot dog toss resented these changes, but most students agreed that those old rituals were barbaric and out of touch with University Values.

“Hurry, we’re gonna miss the national anthem!” No one missed the national anthem ever since BC started flying the singer in on its new helicopter. Although it had caused a few problems—namely the Turf Pellet Disaster of 2018, which forced BC into becoming the first ACC school to play on Ol’ Kentucky Blue Sod—the helicopter was a welcome addition. It was, however, currently nameless, in light of backlash over “Eaglechopper,” a name which for many evoked the image of a ghoulish avian guillotine. A committee was working on it.

2014: “It’s an assembly line, man.

These are all just factories.”

Boy was he impressed with the analogy he’d just made. His friend across the table wasn’t listening, but whatever. He saw smokestacks coming out of Stokes. The Fulton Factory Floor and its foremen and foremenin-training. Cramped factory boardinghouse dormitories. Administrators and authorities like strike-breakers, more impatient and restrictive every year.

“They don’t care about us. They treat us worse and worse every year.”

“I miss the CTRC,” his friend said.

Then they both ate lunch.

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

Death, taxes, and Facebook

Ryan Daly Facebook is an eccentric preacher hyped up on pure cocaine. It is a space in which to share novel ideation. It values transcendent and euphoric events. It is a nerve center for the scope and mystery of human relationships, between people in separate states, countries, spheres—a myriad of connections that bend over one another like infinite webbing.

Facebook is a character profile—a view of the breadth of interests, the depth of the personality, the complexity of the overall being, the balance of extroverted and introverted moments.

It is the rationale for substance. It is the rationale for getting laid. It allows for easily accessible and infinitesimal study breaks. Superfluous, infinitesimal study breaks.

Facebook is an outlet in which vulnerabilities can be annihilated. It is a device that can make presence nonessential. Facebook aggrandizes and romanticizes the most simple and the most complex human experience, and yet it still manages to be a window with a very narrow view.

Over a billion people buy into it every month. I was one of those billion. I was for a long time—Facebook swept over my middle school with a frenzy when I was in eighth grade, back when I couldn’t conceptualize something like social media.

Intoxicating—that’s the way I would describe my early time with it. Rapid, highly personal communication.

Satisfying a craving I didn’t even know

that I had.

There are two options when looking to get rid of Facebook: deactivation and deletion.

An account can be deactivated in a couple of clicks, requiring little from the individual, but it tries its very best to be a somber process. “Are you sure?” the top of the page reads. “Your [insert number of friends here] will no longer be able to keep in touch with you.” “Person A will miss you.” “Person B will miss you.” Profile pictures of Person A and B are included, both looking attractive and happy. You must provide a reason for deactivating, and if you click “Other,” you must type up a response. “Your account has been deactivated,” the final page reads. “To reactivate your account, log in using your old login email and password. You will be able to use the site like you used to. We hope you come back soon.”

The account will then sit—inaccessible, but still gathering dust—until you cave and decide to warm the engine up again.

When deleting Facebook, the process is more direct. You are informed that you should download a copy of your profile information, so that you can always have the goods if you ever decide to come back. You are also informed that everything will be gone in 14 days. After that, the webpage cordially tells you that it “can take care of this for you,” referring to deletion.

And this sparks the slightest bit of confusion. “Well, yes, you better take care of it, because I don’t know what else will.” The confusion balloons, and there’s the realization that hidden between the lines of text for either process—deactivating or deleting—is the abysmal idea that moving away from Facebook is an act of personal

sabotage. Delete Facebook, and you delete friendships, experiences, moments of joy, and opportunities for the future.

On a basic level, Facebook is a social media platform—a pedestal from which to propagate and a place on which to connect. It would be absurd to think that it could become any more intertwined with the life of an individual, to represent anything more than a space to share novel ideation.

But picture a college student. Guy or girl, freshman or senior, introspective or extroverted, it doesn’t matter. He or she is sitting and scrolling through Facebook in the library, in a dorm room, on the quad, in class, on a date, in the city, in the car, on the bus, on a computer, on a tablet, on a cellphone. You’ve seen this image close to a billion times—the individual’s search, subconsciously, between likes, lines of text, blues and whites.

I deleted my Facebook two months ago. My thoughts back then were plain: it is a waste of time, and I don’t want to waste time. But, stepping back, I’ve been able to get a more panoramic view of the presence and power that Facebook has.

Facebook is a farce. What sells itself as a tool for chatting seamlessly with friends, or keeping up with other lives as highly complex as your own, has become a solution to a question that doesn’t have an answer. I let Facebook run on autopilot in the back of my mind for so long that I didn’t even notice the transition.

“Come back soon,” that final Facebook page whispered. “Come back to exist again.”

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

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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.

Trashy dining hall behavior Diana Kim Do you know what bothers me? Leaves stuck in the windshield wiper while I’m driving. Even more than that, though, I hate when people leave their trash in a place that is NOT the trashcan. It’s common courtesy, people. Do you think your trash will magically disappear, spirited away by some friendly elves living under the floorboards?

I work at Addie’s in the evenings, and after we close at 9 p.m., we still have to clean up. One of our cleaning duties is to wipe down the empty tables upstairs in Lower.

The evening shift is always tiring and hectic and busy, even without having to throw away dirty plates, cups, utensils, napkins, and other random trash. One of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen, though, is when people take their trash and place it about two feet away from the trashcan. I feel personally offended when I see this. Are they doing this to spite me? How did they miss the trashcan? It is clearly marked. The worst thing about this laziness, though, is that if one person leaves his or her trash on a random countertop, other people think that it is a sign telling them to leave their trash there as well. Rather than picking up after the other person out of the goodness of his or her heart, one thinks that it is a green light to throw polite behavior out the metaphorical window. Apparently, if one sheep jumps off a cliff, all the other sheep must jump, too.

This is not the same as leaving trash lying about, but I bracket it under general dining etiquette. Spills. Why do people leave spills behind? Do they think that no one else will use that table after them? Do they want disposable tables, one use only? Once while cleaning after my shift, I saw a huge glob of tomato sauce on a table. When I say huge, I don’t mean the contents of a small to-go container. I mean that this glob of tomato sauce covered about half of the table. At that point, I was just questioning where someone got so much tomato sauce. For the record, it was disgusting and a pain to clean because some of it had dried onto the table. It would have been more manageable if he or she had at least attempted to clean it up. You can’t blame someone for failing, but you can blame someone for not even freaking trying.

I will confess: I, too, have felt the urge to leave my trash lying around because, as a member of the human race, I am also awful.

But, I’ve never done it, because my mom would kill me if I did. Nevertheless, I always try to come up with excuses in my head for people who do leave their trash outside of the trashcan. Maybe the trashcan was too far and he was busy. Maybe she was running late to a class or work. Maybe he forgot that they had a meeting or had to print something. On my more creative days, I wonder whether she was raised with house elves to clean up after him or her. I try to convince myself that, raised in a household that enslaves magical creatures, she probably never learned the concepts of cleaning up and manners. When I’m feeling generous, I say, maybe he didn’t have enough hands to carry the trash and is on his way back to get the rest. Or, maybe, she wandered away in a fit of fairy-induced amnesia and just forgot about the trash, as well as her identity. Maybe, he had no choice in the matter and left his trash when he was kidnapped by well-wishing friends to be dunked into a bathtub full of spaghetti. But, admit it. It probably was laziness and is laziness and will be laziness.

It is not my job, nor anyone else’s job (unless he or she happens to be his or her house-elf or mother or maybe someone he or she pays to clean up after him or her), to clean up your trash. Maybe trash cans should be marked on maps along with exits and fire extinguishers so that people would have no excuse for this kind of behavior.

Maybe there should be a mandatory online class to go with the alcohol safety programs at the beginning of the year. If you are one of those terrible human beings that let others do your work for you, I call you out. Here and now. Stop it. Haven’t you ever heard of the saying, “No trash left behind?” No, neither have I, but it should be a thing. Shh. Shh. I don’t want your excuses. Unless you are giving birth or spontaneously combusting, clean up after yourself.

Disclaimer: The writer’s views are not actually this extreme—she was just in a state of agitated excitement when she churned out this Public Service Announcement. Please don’t hate me.

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

The Heights

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Hokies trod a similar path to BC this season

By Michael Sullivan For The Heights An ACC team starts off its season in roaring fashion by crushing a weak instate opponent. It proceeds to take down a top-10 powerhouse from a superior conference, giving the team some legitimacy in the eyes of a widely impressed group of AP voters. The Top-25 dreams don’t last long, however, as the team gets stunned by a mid-major opponent, before losing to a couple of conference rivals, and is now struggling just to make a bowl game. Does this narrative ring a bell?

It should, as the Virginia Tech Hokies have, in many ways, paralleled the season of the Boston College Eagles. In its first two weeks, Virginia Tech crushed FCS-opponent William & Mary, 34-9 and convincingly defeated then-No. 8 Ohio State 35-21, a win reminiscent of the Eagles’ upset of then-No. 9 USC in week three. From this victory came a No. 17 ranking for head coach Frank Beamer’s team. Many even believed this would lead to the Hokies’ return to the national spotlight after dominating the ACC with 11 10-win seasons between 1999 and 2011.

The honeymoon ended as quickly as it began—Virginia Tech dropped four of its next six, three of which were to ACC Coastal Division opponents Georgia Tech, Miami, and, Pittsburgh. Now last in the Coastal, the Hokies (4-4, 1-3) will look to keep their slim bowl game dreams alive this Saturday as they host the Eagles (5-3, 2-2) at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, VA. Virginia Tech’s offense will need to step up this week against a solid BC defense. The Eagles have given up more than 30 points only twice this year, while holding five teams to under 20. Additionally, each opponent BC’s 13th ranked defense (in points given up per game) has played this season has a significantly higher scoring efficiency than the Hokies, which is ranked at 109th—the only ACC team worse than that is Wake Forest, according to ESPN. To keep the Hokies in the game, junior quarterback Michael Brewer must cut down on turnovers and regain his early season form. Brewer has thrown 11 interceptions to match his touchdown count. He also turned in a poor performance against Miami last week, throwing for merely 80 yards on 20 attempts as Virginia Tech put up just six points against the Miami Hurricanes. Relying on freshman running back Marshawn Williams, who last week turned in a 100 yard game against Miami and leads the Hokies in rushing, should balance their attack and keep the pressure off Brewer.

“Michael Brewer is a good play maker,” said BC head coach Steve Addazio in a teleconference on Wednesday. “Marshawn Williams is back. I think he’s a really great big back. A handful of receivers that are extremely talented.”

On the defensive front, Virginia Tech’s strong defense—ranked 28th in scoring defense and ninth in defensive efficiency—should provide a tough test for the Eagles. Although the Hokies have a middle of the road rushing defense, BC has slumped comparatively on offense, averaging merely 161 yards on the ground in its last two games against Clemson and Wake Forest, after averaging 315.7 in its first six contests.

If the Hokies can stymie the Eagles’ rushing attack, then BC quarterback Tyler Murphy should watch out. Virginia Tech ranks tied for sixth in the NCAA with 28 sacks—unlike other teams, which have high sack totals thanks to one standout defender, like Washington’s Hau’oli Kikaha and his 15 sacks, the Hokies’ defensive line has balance throughout.

Five linemen have over three sacks, led by sophomore Ken Ekanem’s five.

“They’re explosive as all get out on defense,” Addazio said. “Dadi Nicolas is such an unbelievable athlete. They have power and explosion with Corey Marshall and Nigel Williams inside, Chase Williams, a veteran player. I think their secondary is one of the finer secondaries in the country.”

The key to this game for Virginia Tech comes down to the turnover battle.

Although the Hokies have turned the ball over eight more times than their opponents, they have consistently capitalized on their opportunities. In each of its three FBS victories, Virginia Tech has had a defensive turnover directly lead to a touchdown—two interception returns of 40-plus yards and a fumble recovery.

While crucial its crucial to a victory, Virginia Tech will struggle to capitalize on this against BC—the Eagles protect the ball well, having only eight turnovers on the year.

Returning to a bowl game is not entirely out of the question, given Virginia Tech’s remaining schedule, which includes dismal opponents Wake Forest and Virginia, as well as a statement opportunity against defending the Coastal Champs, No. 24 Duke. This game, however, is a must win for the Hokies—a winning record will surely be needed to convince voters that they deserve a postseason berth. Otherwise, it looks like a rebuilding offseason full of questions for Beamer’s team, which promised so much at the start and has produced nothing since. n

Emily Fahey / Heights Editor

As always, BC will look to establish the run this Saturday and get as much pressure as possible on VTech’s quarterback, Michael Brewer.

Two roller coaster-riding teams will meet in Saturday’s conference clash From VTech, A8 do with an increased amount of pressure allowed by BC’s offensive line. BC head coach Steve Addazio put even more pressure on his line in his press conference Monday afternoon. “Virginia Tech’s defense is as good as anybody in the country … We’ll be up against it with a high-end, quality defense.”

Defensively, BC gave up 17 points in the second half, almost allowing Wake Forest to complete the massive comeback.

BC’s defense has lost multiple defensive starters over the first eight weeks of the season, including DL Mehdi Abdesmad, LB Sean Duggan for a game, and DBs Bryce Jones and John Johnson.

This has forced freshmen into prominent roles they wouldn’t otherwise be asked to fill. It also forced safety Justin Simmons into a starting cornerback role on just four days notice. In a microcosm of BC’s season, Simmons and the rest of the replacements allowed 242 yards, most in the second half, but rallied to intercept Wolford when the game was on the line.

Virginia Tech’s offense is ranked 77th in the nation, 61st in passing and 80th in rushing offense. BC will need to keep up the pressure it got on Wake Forest in the first half—when the defense gave Wolford time, he successful in finding holes to throw to. BC defensive end Kevin Kavalec isn’t worried about the two different defensive showings.

“We just have to come out every week with the same intensity and same effort,” Kavalec said. “I think it’s based on our tackling, when we tackle well we’re a really good defense.”

The Eagles have had an up-and-down season, but it hasn’t held them back from being one win short of bowl eligibility with four games to go in the year. Virginia Tech has faced a similar road, and Addazio sees that.

“They’re a young team, a building team, they’re on that roller coaster ride a lot like us, but there is a lot of talent on that team,” he said.

Where each team’s roller coaster happends to be on Saturday afternoon could decide the winner. n

A scattered consciousness discovers 15 life and sport lessons at Harvard From Field Hockey, A8 savannah. Not even a minute had ticked off the game-clock when Boston College stole the ball, slithered down the left side of the field unmolested, passed it into the semi, and snuck it in past the goalie.

They were moving onto the next thing, and, meanwhile, I couldn’t even tell who had scored. How does anyone read the numbers on the backs of their uniforms?

The press box is so far from the field … or I’m losing my vision.

Lesson No. 4: I am going blind. I should get that checked.

Thankfully, the announcer told both the audience (and your uninformed correspondent) that it was No. 19 who scored with an assist from No. 6. Then I understood what that sheet was for. It conveniently told me that it was junior forward Kelcie Hromsin from Larksville, Pa., graduate of Wyoming Valley West high school, who scored the goal, and sophomore midfielder Emily McCoy from Lancaster, Pa., graduate of Penn Manor High School—and the team leader in goals for the season—who assisted.

Lesson No. 5: Pay attention to the material they hand out to you in the press box. It can be useful.

Harvard came back strong after this and, although the Eagles had greater control over the ball when they possessed it, possession itself was tightly contested.

Not long after BC’s goal, Harvard stole the ball near the half, drove it downfield, and let one rip at BC’s goalie with a shot that looked suspiciously like my golf swing.

Lesson No. 6: I need to work on my golf game.

Thinking about golf, my mind drifted to the equipment used in this game. I found it odd—it was more like an extrawide wooden golf club than a ice hockey stick. They were hitting the ball, “not with a straight stick, with a little f—ked up stick,” as the late Robin Williams would say. While I was considering that,

the game continued its forward march, and possession likely changed back and forth several times, leading to my next lesson.

Lesson No. 7: The game moves fast—if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.

For the rest of the half, BC and Harvard exchanged possessions like upper class ’20s co-eds traded dance cards … liberally. Harvard made a couple of forays into BC territory and was quickly rebuffed. I wondered whether it had plays … you know, the Wildcat offense, the Flying V formation, s—t like that. I was thinking that they should have tried the Schlieffen plan, a pincer maneuver (I’m not even sure how that could apply here, but, hey, it might work), a Blitzkrieg, a feint-left-attack-right, shock-and-awe tactics, and the like. Perhaps even pull an Operation Mercury (where I thought they would have gotten the parachutes … and the helicopters … and the island to land on I have no idea). Maybe use some scorched earth tactics on defense (At this point, I really have no idea how I thought any of this would work—my free association was running wild. Plus, I am sure that Harvard would have been none too pleased to find their pitch on fire).

Lesson No. 8: I need to keep my free association in check.

The half wound down uneventfully with BC sending the ball out of bounds at the far end of the field in what I supposed was an intentional-grounding, kneeling-the-ball, running-out-the-shot-clock sort of maneuver. And it was halftime.

I decided that it would be best to walk around before I sat glued to my seat for another 35 minutes (sidebar: what is the deal with that? One hour, a half hour, a quarter hour, even three-quarters hour, these were all reasonable divisions of time employed in other sports.

I could not figure out how they got to 35 minutes. I also could not figure out what the deal was with the skirts. It seemed like gender-normative repression to me. After all, the men don’t wear skirts.

I thought we had gotten rid of that in sports).

Lesson No. 9: Gender-normative dress for sports is not dead.

By the time the second half started, the temperature had dropped noticeably since the start of the game, and the wind was biting at your underdressed correspondent. Now familiar with the pace and flow of the game, I tried to acquaint myself with some of the nuances. I still could not decipher the mysterious hand signals and body signs made by the referees/umpires/officials/whatever-youcall-the-game-overseers. I had to base my understanding of who committed the foul on which side groaned and which side cheered. I thought they could really have used an interpreter out there—a Roland Barthes-esque reader of signs.

Lesson No. 10: Bring a cheat sheet to officials’ motions to future sporting events.

Harvard was showing real improvement in its control of the ball and made some serious jousts into BC territory, but BC quickly parried them and executed clever ripostes that put them deep into Harvard territory. About 10 minutes into the second half, BC had the opportunity for a penalty of some sort. I had seen these in the first half and wondered what they were (I later found out that they were called penalty corners. Fitting). Before play resumed, each team had a little conference. I wondered what they were discussing. Well, Smith, you go right and I’ll go left. And, Jones, you need to secure the right corner of the goal. Guard it like a snow cone on a hot summer day. They really packed people into that goal—it was as crowded as a Hillside elevator five minutes before classes start. From my vantage point, it looked like BC scored, but it wasn’t so.

Lesson No. 11: Remember Lesson No. 4. Bring binoculars.

One thing that was most notably not like soccer was what happened when a player hit the ground. After watching a World Cup in which it was expected that

players be actors and make a scene for the smallest touch, it was encouraging to see that there was no funny business on that field. When a girl went down, it wasn’t but a few seconds before she was back on her feet and in the game.

Lesson No. 12: Soccer players— wimps. Field hockey players—resilient. ’Nuff said.

The rest of the half saw a couple of good plays, but nothing too exciting.

Some good drives by Harvard, a close miss by BC. There seemed to be a lot of little skirmishes over the ball on the far side of the field, reminiscent of the minor dogfights of the gentlemen-pilots of World War I. As the clock wound down (and I was starting to concern myself with what on earth I was going to ask the coach after the game), Harvard made a couple last thrusts into BC territory, controlling the ball all the way into the semi, but BC was able to deflect it from the goal until the clock hit zero, winning the game one-nil.

Lesson No. 13: Fencing terminology is applicable in almost any sport.

As the players left the field, I shoved my computer into my bag and shimmied down the ladder back into the press box, looking for the sports information director so I could talk to the coach. I still wasn’t really sure what I was going to ask her, but I figured with the ACC championship next week and BC’s lackluster performance against an inferior team, there was something to work with there.

Waiting for the coach, I chatted with the SID, who gave me some additional background on the team’s performance throughout the season. After everyone else had cleared the field and another five minutes had passed after that (which gave me much-needed time to formulate some questions), BC head coach Ainslee Lamb made her way over toward us, probably somewhat surprised to find a Heights correspondent at an away game.

“I think the kudos goes to Harvard tonight,” Lamb said. “I thought they

played a tremendous game … I think, tonight, Harvard had more desire to win that game … The great thing about that is that’s all controllables … I know that one of the strengths of our program is our work rate, how aggressive we are, how the will to win, those are all intangibles I know we have—we just have to get back to allowing them to come on the field a little bit more.”

Looking ahead to the ACC tournament, Lamb noted that the conference has been very strong this year and predicted that every game would be decided by one goal. BC will face No. 7 Syracuse in the first round next week, which could pose a challenge for a team that has yet to win a single tournament victory.

Lesson No. 14: Controllables.

In field hockey and in life, it’s about controllables.

Cramming my phone back into my jacket pocket, I thanked them both for their time and made my way off the field. Walking past Harvard’s timeworn football stadium, my mind flitted back to those earlier days. As those footballers played a game still feeling the growing pains of youth, I wondered if they felt that most of it was out of their control—levers of change pulled by the country’s blue-bloods. I think that allowed for a certain kind of liberty, adaptability, though—the unbridled potential for the children of a nation still in its youth, one not present in sports that have solidified in their senescence. Now we talk about controllables. We don’t have conferences at the White House to change the rules of our games. But what do I know about sports?

Lesson No. 15: Maybe there are some lessons I can learn about the human condition in the drive toward athletic achievement, even if it is not my own drive.

Andrew Skaras is an Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@ bcheights.com

THE HEIGHTS

EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS

Thursday, October 30, 2014 The Week Ahead

Standings

The men’s hockey team heads to Denver to play the No. 11 team in the country in a two-game series. Football travels to Virginia Tech in a bid to continue its unbeaten run in road games this season. Women’s soccer hosts Notre Dame in a Saturday night match. The Manchester Derby takes place on Sunday morning between eternal rivals United and City.

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Recap from Last Picks

MARLY MORGUS

22-12

HEIGHTS STAFF

21-13

ALEX FAIRCHILD

20-14

CONNOR MELLAS

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Game of the Week

Field hockey knocked off Virginia on Newton Campus for its fourth consecutive victory. Men’s soccer’s ACC tourney hopes were all but ended when North Carolina beat the team 2-0. Football held on against Wake Forest for the conference victory.

The New Orleans Saints crushed the Packers in an NFC matchup.

Women’s Soccer

Boston vs. Notre College Dame

Guest Editor: Julie Orenstein Assoc. News Editor

“You’ll never walk alone.”

CONNOR MELLAS

This Week’s Games

Sports Editor

MARLY MORGUS Assoc. Sports Editor

ALEX FAIRCHILD

JULIE ORENSTEIN Assoc. News Editor

Asst. Sports Editor

M. Hockey: No. 5 BC vs. No. 11 Denver (Series)

BC

Split

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Football: BC vs. Virginia Tech

BC

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Draw

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

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United

City

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W. Soccer: BC vs. No. 9 Notre Dame EPL: Manchester United vs. Manchester City

Women’s soccer will close out its regular season with a match against conference foe Notre Dame on Saturday evening. Alison Foley’s team has had a lot of downs in conference play, after it got off to a strong start to the season. The team is coming off road defeats to Wake Forest and Duke. Despite BC’s struggles, Hayley Dowd’s dominance has continued, as the sophomore has struck an ACC-leading 14 times this season. The Eagles will face a Fighting Irish squad that is on a tear of its own. Notre Dame has won seven of its last eight games. Lauren Bohaboy has spurred the team’s offense, scoring seven goals.

Saturday, 7 p.m.

After playing days end, the next step is thinking From Column A8 the 2002 World Cup. “People said, ‘Why do Brazil, Brazil, play five at the back,’” he said. “But they do not. They play with two wing-backs.”

His red dry erase marker streaked across the board with forward arrows coming off the two Xs he had drawn.

“You see, the full backs get forward.”

I looked out the window, bored out of my mind. Waiting for the rain to stop.

When my shins blew out after my sophomore year, I struggled, because I knew that was pretty much it for soccer. At 15, I was getting out of bed each morning and not being able to do what I loved. I was in a bad place for awhile, but I thought about soccer a lot. I read blogs and wanted to read a book. So, after searching through the depths of the Internet, I decided to read Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. It’s a book on the history of soccer tactics. It changed the way I watched the game and thought about it. That book gave me hope that there’s life in soccer beyond playing, or even writing about it. So, I did what any rational person would do—look for examples of people who had gotten beyond their playing careers to do something in the game.

Marcelo Bielsa manages French Ligue 1 side Marseille.

Here’s his brief history. After a forgettable playing career in Argentina, he experimented with soccer teams that only those who play Football Manager know about, before taking over the Argentinian national team for the 2002 World Cup. He won the Olympics with it two years later, before Chile hired him. He introduced a national style to the South American nation. Then he took over Athletic Bilbao and in 2012 led the team on a run to the Europa League and Copa Del Rey finals.

His teams are known for his philosophy of pressing in an orderly way. Bielsa’s strategy has inspired many of the world’s best young managers to play in the same style.

The Argentine didn’t just come up with these strategies over night though, as he spent years thinking about them, because for him a new idea is crazy until it works. Bielsa lives for soccer. When he

took Athletic Bilbao over, he watched each of its 38 league games from the previous season and took notes, but not just any notes—notes on color-coded spreadsheets.

He tracks player movements and decisions to journal each new movement. In training, his players learn his intensive pressing style by chasing poles.

He’s called El Loco, “crazy,” for a reason.

Growing up, I was told that soccer was boring and not physical enough. I’ve been told that I should cover a real sport that people care about. The problem is, soccer is a real sport, and it is one that people, even Americans, care about.

What sets soccer apart is its fluidity.

The ball is constantly moving. Players are set up in a certain way and have to maintain their shape in a free-flowing game. In addition, there are certain strategies you can devise with different players—whether that’s using a False Nine or a deep-lying playmaker that splits the two center backs in the build up. Players habits have to change, as you can be bred to play one form of soccer, but then move to another club and not fit, because you don’t fit the brand.

Everything is changing all the time, yet there’s a plan. There are different styles in which you can play the game, and they mix with other systems in weird ways. If a team plays 4-2-3-1 one week against a team that plays a diamond 4-4-2, but the next week, plays the same shape against a different team that also uses the diamond, the team is going to get two different results. Also, no two tactical systems are the same. A 4-2-3-1 from Chelsea is different from the 4-2-31 of Liverpool.

In soccer, there’s 22 moving pieces trying to carry out a game plan, style, and make their own individual decisions all at the same time. But I can’t be a part of that anymore. A couple of years ago Italian midfielder Andrea Pirlo wrote I Think, Therefore I Play. Perhaps when people like me and Bielsa think, it makes us believe that we’re still playing.

Alex Fairchild is the Asst. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com

DREW HOO / HEIGHTS STAFF

Cole DeNormandie struggled as the lone striker in BC’s loss, which served as preparation for its final match against No. 3 Syracuse.

Late Dartmouth strike finishes Eagles

BY ALEX FAIRCHILD Asst. Sports Editor Sports can be really boring. Even when they’re boring, though, there’s usually something that can be labeled interesting, as a certain tactic negated a play or turned one player loose. Other times, the game is just bad. Passes are poorly placed, play gets disjointed and movement stops.

That’s what happened in Boston College men’s soccer’s snooze fest against Dartmouth, in which the Big Green set the Eagles’ season back even further with a 1-0 triumph on a winner from Alex Adelabu 33 seconds from the death.

The senior forward slipped behind BC’s defense to get on the end of a cross at the far post for a tap in to beat BC goalkeeper Keady Segel.

Adelabu tortured BC’s back line during the match by pressing and using his large frame to hold up play.

“They were physical and the No. 14 [Adelabu] runs things down and has a turn of pace, and is an honest player,” said associate head coach John Murphy. “They had good energy and cohesion. If only for Keady Segel, it would have been much, much worse, so that was one of the better performances from a goalkeeper that I’ve seen in a long, long time.”

Segel was superb. The senior saw the field for the first time since last season, due to his status as the back up to the team’s starter, junior Alex Kapp. The keeper was called on immediately to

make a kick save before five minutes of the match had elapsed. It was the first of many tests Segel would face. Segel started the second half with a double kick save, and with BC playing a higher line, he also had to come out to sweep up a long ball on 59 minutes.

He used his feet again 17 minutes from time, before getting on the floor to stuff a cross that was being cut back to a Dartmouth player on the top of the box.

“The unfortunate part about being a goalkeeper is the second best midfielder plays, second best defender plays, second best goalkeeper sits,” Murphy said. “I’ve spent my life working with goalkeepers and Keady’s professionalism, his attitude and his work rate throughout the year put him in the position to play as well as he did tonight, because I’ve seen guys in similar situations kind of go in the dumper a little bit, psychologically, and then when their chance comes they’re not ready to perform.”

Segel saved the Eagles on a night when the midfield was disjointed. BC tried to play probing soccer and wanted to work the ball out of the back, which is something it has done all season. None of that worked on Tuesday night. Henry Balf and Nick Butler were put into the center of midfield to work the ball around, but could not get it forward.

“We’ve been trying to put our marker down this year as a team that keeps the ball in passing, so it was disappointing from our perspective, but games this

time of year, they get very, very tight and you’re playing cohesive teams,” Murphy said.

Playing as the lone striker, Cole DeNormandie tried to work the angles in front of the rearguard, as the Big Green used a well-organized 4-1-4-1 to stop BC. DeNormandie wanted to get into the space to the left and right of the defensive midfielder, but his team could not get the ball to him.

“It’s very difficult to play well as a lone striker and I think he got crowded out quite well by Dartmouth,” said Murphy.

Once BC’s attack became stagnant, it was easier for Dartmouth’s defenders to track the senior, and Eagles were locked into their own half.

The defeat might set back the team’s confidence, but its ACC Tournament hopes were not affected by the result, as the Eagles must beat No. 3 Syracuse on the road in their final match of the year to have a shot at entry into the postseason. Even if BC wins, its future hinges on Clemson beating NC State.

“You just would’ve liked us to have a better performance going into such a game, and give some confidence as well, but soccer’s a funny game,” Murphy said.

Against the Orange, the Eagles will need to play the game of their lives and get a bit of luck, so that maybe they’ll get the chance to play in their conference tournament. 

Hanlan could establish himself as a reliable backup, or more From Hanlan, A8 handle, a great jumper that works both from mid-range and from distance, and an attractive ability to get to the rim and finish. He knows how to attack off the pick-and-roll, quickly bursting past the screener and into space for either a pullup or a lane to the basket.

His defense has been below average in two years at BC. He can get beat off the dribble by smaller, quicker guards and overpowered by bigger ones. Off the ball he can also lose track of his man or his help responsibilities. These are all things that new head coach Jim Christian will harp on, and in preseason practices it looks like Hanlan has embraced that increased defensive focus.

Pro teams could be scared off by his unproven ability to create for his teammates. Hanlan’s assist rate jumped from 16 percent his freshman year to 20 percent his sophomore year, the 19th best mark in the ACC, per KenPom.com. His 3.3 pace-adjusted assists per 40 minutes were low for NCAA point guards last year, per DraftExpress.com.

Hanlan’s weaknesses keep him from being a team’s answer as a starting point guard, but there’s no reason he can’t establish himself as a reliable backup who can score for second units. Although his ceiling could be higher than that role, it’s his best chance to catch on with a team considering his age and his fallen stock.

Competition And Team Needs

W. Soccer

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W. HOCKEY BC CU

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DraftExpress has 12 point guards listed in its two-round 2015 mock draft.

There are the guys like Emmanuel Mudiay, who will spend the year balling in China, and Duke’s Tyus Jones—complete point guards sure to go in the first round unless something crazy happens. North Carolina’s Marcus Paige is another older guy who scouts are higher on, and Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison is basically a bigger, much more proven version of Hanlan’s best-case scenario come June. They’ll all be off the board before teams start giving Hanlan a look.

Then there are guys like Utah’s Delon Wright, West Virginia’s Juwan Staten, and Indiana’s Yogi Ferrell. All three will be 22 or older before the draft, like Hanlan, and are also scoring point

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DOWD 2 G BC TEEGARDEN 2 G UNC

CHESTNUT HILL, MA 10/23

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TRIVIGNO 2 G BC FULTON 1 G UNC

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guards. This is his real competition. If Hanlan can up his scoring, show more efficiency from the field, and become an above-average defender, then he can play his way into the conversation with those players.

A decent amount of playoff or borderline-playoff teams could be looking for an option at backup point guard in the 2015 Draft. The Rockets, Nets, Grizzlies, Raptors, Bulls, Thunder, Blazers, Clippers, Hornets, and Wizards are all in play. They’ll have other needs and will likely target veterans in free agency, but second round picks don’t get guaranteed contracts. One of them could like Hanlan’s game enough to take a chance and let him prove himself in camp. Also, as a worstcase scenario for Hanlan, the 76ers will

CHAPEL HILL, NC 10/24 FIELD HOCKEY WORKMAN 8 K TREACY 9 K

BC UVA

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NEWTON, MA 10/24 M. HOCKEY KAPP 7 SVS VALIMAA 2 G

BC CC

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NEWTON, MA 10/24 MCCOY 1 G 1 A FOUST 2 G

CHESTNUT HILL, MA 10/25 SPIRO 2 G BRADLEY 1 G

put pretty much anyone on their roster.

Only six players 22 or older were drafted in the first round last year. One of them broke NCAA scoring records (Doug McDermott), one was an NCAA champion reportedly hand-picked by LeBron James (Shabazz Napier), two were established stars on NCAA Tournament teams (Adreian Payne and Mitch McGary), and one negotiated his way out of a guaranteed contract (Josh Huestis). C.J. Wilcox, who went No. 28 to the Clippers, was the only one to crack the first round without starring on a successful team.

History says it’ll be difficult for Hanlan to join that club, even if he has a resurgent year, but if he plays up to his potential he should join the second-round debate this spring. 

WINSTON-SALEM, 10/25 Boston, MaNC11/11

FOOTBALL

HILLIMAN 103 YDS 2 TD WOLFORD 242 YDS (P)

BC 23 WAKE 17

M. SOCCER BC DART

Newton, NEWTON,MA MA11/09 10/28 0 1

SEGEL 7 SVS ADELABU 1 G

SPORTS

A8

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014

I can’t play, therefore I think

Searching for six

ALEX FAIRCHILD Sophomores signing leases for offcampus houses should be stressed out. It’s a pretty tough situation, when you and a group of six or seven other people have to figure out who will bear responsibility when that Halloween party gets too wild, and who gets the boot when some official shows up at your house and is shocked to find that more than four people are living in it, because that’s never happened before anywhere ever.

But there’s something more important going on for me when about I’m 30 minutes away from signing a pretty lengthy legal document with lots of really tiny words and places for me to initial and sign.

“Fairy,” said one of my friends.

“What?” I said in the midst of a really awkward pause. “Oh, right ... So … who’s gonna be on the lease?”

Bobby Zamora has just chested down a long ball out of the Queens Park Rangers back four for Charlie Austin to slam past Aston Villa’s American goalkeeper Brad Guzan, and I’m entranced, because I just learned something.

The thing is, I watch a lot of soccer.

Like, a lot. Say it’s a Saturday morning.

My alarm goes off at 7:43 a.m., because mid-table English Premier League team A is playing five-straight loss-plagued Merseyside team B, or Liverpool, at 7:45.

Then at 10:00, I can pick from any of the five meaningless games to watch before the 12:30 kickoff, which holds mild significance. All of that is in the build-up to Sunday’s game and the occasional Monday kick-off. After that, I have two options: Watch a random Spanish, Italian, German, or French game, or go to a college football game … because society.

By the weekend, I’ll have watched seven or eight professional matches, in addition to the two men’s soccer games I cover per week, and at least one match of the team BC is playing if tape is available.

Add on the time I put into these articles, which ranges from two to three hours and I put another four hours away on my tactics column for WorldSoccerTalk.com.

But why do all this? What’s the point of getting up really early, hopping the Newton bus, and begging for rides from media relations personnel?

“Fairchild! Get wider,” Coach said.

I gingerly backpedaled to the sideline so that the bottom of my Adidas Predator studs blended with the white paint on the turf.

“You’re supposed to have chalk on your boots,” he said. “If you’re going to play on this team, you’re going to have to play the way we want you to.”

It was hot and the end of August. I was just a sophomore in high school. It had been a long day. I had an hour and half ride from tryouts to home ahead of me, and the last thing I wanted to do was drag myself out wide, and farther away from the ball, which is the last thing you want to do in a tryout where you have to impress on the ball. But I pulled out of the center and ran up and down the touchline for the rest of the afternoon.

The thing that bothered me most was that when I took by boots off in the car, I looked at the studs and there wasn’t chalk on them.

One week later, and I’m a wide-eyed sophomore starting a varsity soccer game against a rival on a Friday night.

All I remember about that night was hearing those three words, “Get out wide!”

After not getting out wide, and continuously, “getting sucked in,” I stood on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

I thought tactics were stupid. I didn’t get it. My only memory of being taught about tactics was the previous summer when I went to a soccer camp that had a coach sit in front of 60 kids in a classroom during a massive thunderstorm and talk about how Brazil played five at the back in

See Column, A7

BC HEADS SOUTH, THIS TIME LOOKING FOR BOWL ELIGIBILITY AT THE EXPENSE OF VIRGINIA TECH

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

BY TOMMY MELORO Heights Staff By the end of the week, it won’t be hard to imagine that the Boston College Eagles will be sick of hearing the gobbling of turkeys. In addition to the normal crowd noise pumped into Alumni Stadium, the coaching staff is also using the gobbling pump-up sound used by the Virginia Tech Hokies at Lane Stadium. While the post-Halloween hangover will just be winding down by kickoff on Saturday afternoon, the Eagles are hoping to roast some turkey a few weeks before Thanksgiving. To do so, however, they’ll have to beat a team that’s almost been a mirror image of themselves thus far this year.

The Hokies opened up their season 2-0, following an opening-weekend

beatdown of William and Mary up lutely helpless against lesser opponents. with a 14-point win at Ohio State, at On the days where the Eagles and Hokwhich point the Hokies became the ies put together a complete game, they 17th-ranked team in the nation. The are nigh unbeatable. On the other days, next week, however, VT tied East they induce heart attacks, indigestion, Carolina with less than and downright frusa minute and a half tration for their fan remaining before albases. BC showed lowing East Carolina to a little of each last score with 16 seconds weekend against left on the clock. The Wake Forest.

Hokies also lost close The first half congames to Georgia Tech tained everything BC NOV. 1. 2014 and Pittsburgh and prides itself on—a BC vs. Virginia Tech. beat Western Michistrong rushing attack 12:30 p.m. ET ESPN3 gan and UNC, before and stifling defense. they got clobbered against the Miami Freshman Jon Hilliman continues to Hurricanes last Thursday night. prove himself as a consistent rushing BC and VT have each shown the un- threat, as he found the end zone twice, canny ability to look dominant against once from 33 yards out, and once on a a tough opponent, and then look abso- goal line carry from a single yard out.

The Eagles’ defense shut down Wake Forest in the half, getting gashed for a total of six yards of offense. They got to QB John Wolford three times, twice

by Kevin Kavalec and once from Mike Strizak. Wake’s anemic rushing offense didn’t get solidly into positive numbers until the third quarter, and was at negative yards at halftime.

As the game wore on, however, it was clear that neither side of the ball was having the success it did early on.

BC’s offense managed just 15 yards in the third quarter, and just six points in the half. While they were able to move the ball in the most critical of situations, they couldn’t do so with consistency in the half. Part of that was Wake Forest’s defense stepping up, but it also had to

See VTech, A6

Reevaluating Olivier Hanlan’s NBA draft stock

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Can Hanlan improve his stock in the eyes of NBA scouts after a tough 2013-14 season?

Olivier Hanlan was projected as a sure second-round pick before the 201314 season, with the potential to play his way into the first round by improving his defense, playmaking, and getting Boston College into tourney contention. The BC point guard struck out on all three of those things and chose to come back to Chestnut Hill for one more season rather than risk going unselected in 2014 NBA Draft.

Hanlan’s stock is not nearly as good going into this year. He’ll be 22 on draft night. Combine that with what many experts considered a disappointing regression or stagnation last year and it’s led to him being left off many draft

boards—even as a second-rounder. He’s fallen out of DraftExpress’ top-100 prospect list despite making it last season, and he’s slid from the No. 6 prospect in the ACC last year to the No. 20 prospect this year.

He’s fighting an uphill battle, but just because he’s dropped off the radar a bit doesn’t mean that Hanlan can’t work his way into at least the second round over the course of the year. Here’s a breakdown of his stock before the season tips off in two week.

On-Court Strengths & Weaknesses Hanlan’s biggest asset is his scoring ability, especially because it should translate well to the NBA. He has a good

See Hanlan, A7

One man’s search for the secrets of life and field hockey ANDREW SKARAS The Uber driver dropped me off next to the Harvard Coliseum with 40 minutes until the game started. I was early, so I walked around that monument to the hubris of a different era—a time when Teddy Roosevelt made the rules and the Ivy League school was a perennial contender for the national championship. Looking at the stone arches and the rickety metal gates, I imagined what it would have been like to watch the ol’

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

boys take the field against rivals Yale or Princeton.

But I was there for a different sport in a different age. I wandered around the Harvard athletics complex for about 15 minutes before a kind Harvard athlete took pity on my lost soul and directed me to the field hockey pitch. For a school that places so little emphasis on sports, they sure do have a lot of fields, tracks, and buildings.

With about 20 minutes until the game, I walked up the stands, past a handful of parents, to the press box.

Climbing the ladder onto the roof, I set up a forgotten table and dew-covered chair to create a perch from which I could survey the field. In 15 minutes, I needed to learn something about field hockey. Until assigned this story, I am

not sure that I knew there was a version of hockey that was played on land. I had certainly had never witnessed it.

Lesson No. 1 of the evening: There is, and it takes more time than I had to understand. Oh, well. I like to learn on the go.

Both teams were still warming up, and those warm ups were surprisingly reminiscent of soccer. Feed the ball, make a run, receive the ball, shoot. Rotate through the lineup. Repeat.

Lesson No. 2: Field hockey is kind of like soccer.

With the game about to start, I sat down, opened my laptop, and tried to make some sense of the sheet I was handed upon walking into the press box.

I put it aside—it probably wasn’t that important. Rather, I thought I should try to

Men’s Soccer: Segel shines in loss to Dartmouth BC’s disappointing season continued with a 1-0 loss to the Big Green on Tuesday night, but senior keeper Segel excelled................................A7

understand some of the markings on the field. It looked mostly like a soccer pitch with a couple of extra lines and an odd semi-circle at the each end of the field.

Perhaps it was a penalty box of sorts, except in a semi-circle? I was presented with a dilemma—how to reference the thing. I couldn’t call it “the box,” as one would in soccer, so I settled on “the semi.”

Made sense to me.

Lesson No. 3: When you don’t know what the markings on the field are, the best course of action is to make something up.

The tip-off/kick-off/whatever-youcall-the-start-of-a-field-hockey-game-off occurred and the players were off like a pack of gazelles, weaving through the

See Field Hockey, A6

Scoreboard...........................................................................................................A7 Editors’ Picks.........................................................................................................A7

COLUMN

Living Life Uncut

Learning from director alejandro gonzales’ ‘birdman,’ Page B2 column

The Silver Age of TV

There’s just too much to watch and not enough time, Page B4

ALBUM REVIEW

‘1989’

tAYLOR sWIFT AND COUNTRY ARE NEVER, EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER, b4

thursday, October 30, 2014

the

n o i t e l p m o ‘’C ’ s s e r g o r in p S TO RESHAPE bc’S

K R O W e l E y P l A n C S a D D N r A L o i n C I S Ju U M T N E D N E P INDE

B2 e g a p see

Jordan Pentaleri / Heights Photo Illustration | John Wiley / Heights Editor

The Heights

B2

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Wiley’s follies

Why Superfans don’t show up

John Wiley It requires remarkably little to show your support at Boston College.

Supporting the football team is easy as sticking on a Superfan shirt. Supporting the University is easy as sharing a video on Facebook. Supporting social justice is easy as swiping away five dollars at a dining hall. Supporting your friend’s a cappella group is easy as showing up for her concert, and at least staying till her solo.

And for how simple it is, we’re exceptionally bad at it. There are tables literally covered in free food and apparel in the Superfan Zone before home football games, left there with the thought that maybe, just maybe, some downtrodden freshman—excluded from the entirety of tailgating festivities—will wander aimlessly into the stadium and pick up a free t-shirt and chicken tenders, and listen to some live music. Said freshman is still hard to find, and if he does show up, good luck getting him to stay for kickoff.

Perhaps if the parties responsible for getting students to games in a timely fashion were to walk around Alumni with a bucket of dollar bills, paying anyone in the student section on time for the National Anthem, things would be a little different, but then again, maybe they wouldn’t.

If you don’t have the luxury of bribery, finding “support” at BC grows into even more gargantuan an undertaking.

The fact that the University incentivizes so many activities makes it all the harder to persuade friends to come to an open mic night, for example, when there’s no free t-shirt on the table.

There’s no point system for visiting that Impressionist exhibit at the McMullen, no photo opportunities with Jerry York at your friend’s murder mystery comedy night.

The shortage of support at BC, at first, appears to be an issue of quantity: when everyone has a cause, there’s not necessarily enough support to go around. And with not enough people to care about whatever your thing is that needs caring, the result is a more dodgy, quick strategy for drawing people in, whether it’s candy or costumes. Not to fully discredit the dancing banana man who offered to give me candy in Mac last week if I helped finance his solidarity trip, but at some point, it’s worth asking whether “supporting” a cause out of coercion is really supporting it at all.

At its heart, the lack of support at BC is an issue of quality. I’ve grown distrustful of that fateful swiping machine at the entrance to dining halls, if only for the reason that I’ve seldom felt that my support meant all too much to anyone after swiping.

People become donations, numbers. A big audience might not be better than a dedicated small one, but it looks better. It makes for better photos, and if you care enough about something, you find reason to hope that superficial support can be converted to something real, even if the crowd only showed up for the free pizza.

To actually find support is an extraordinary task, because there honestly isn’t enough of it to go around.

The first step toward it is to give up on the numbers, which is perhaps easier said if you’re playing music rather than collecting donations—and this is especially tough if part of the reason you cared about what you were doing was the competitive side of it.

Until the culture of promotion at BC shifts away from the numbers game, there’s little room for improvement in how students support each other. It requires remarkably little to show your support at BC, and that’s most likely our problem. To actually care should be a challenge. It should be rare, uncommon.

Because there are some convictions you can’t swipe away.

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

John Wiley / heights Editor

The president of Chordury, BC’s independent music label, Dan Lyle, A&S ’16, hopes to build the orgainzation into a pre-professional network for independent musicians on campus.

Junior Dan Lyle rebrands Chorduroy as BC’s music label

By John Wiley Arts & Review Editor Sometimes he will catch one of her songs playing back in his head. Dan Lyle, A&S ’16, grew up with his mother’s gospel music. The same stations, the same CDs, the same songs would cycle, on repeat, at his family’s home, off the corner of Bergen St. and Clinton Ave. in Newark, N.J. Lyle’s aspirations as a music producer started with his church, and more specifically, an old keyboard: he would tinker with it on Sundays at Refuge of Hope Mission, writing his first song there, learning to play. His mother’s love of church music was the start of it all. “She’s a Christian, I’m a Christian,” Lyle said. “I’m religiously invested in the music that I like, just like she is—but it isn’t gospel.”

Lyle began as president of Chorduroy in September of his sophomore year, coming into the position with experience as a music producer, sound designer, and instrumentalist. Chorduroy is Boston College’s only studentrun record label, and at the time that he took charge, the organization’s sole purpose was to create a compilation CD at the end of every year. It was a simple model, and ultimately, Lyle found it quite problematic.

“We released it, and people listened to it on Soundcloud, but I felt like afterwards that it’s the same thing as throwing BC events,” Lyle said. “Only your friends are going to come to it.”

Lyle’s vision is for Chorduroy to produce and market the work of independent artists at BC, rather than package their music onto a CD. He hopes to refashion the organization into a pre-professional group for musicians.

Within the next week, Lyle will releases his own EP through the Chorduroy label, a project he started the summer of 2013. This move, according to Lyle, is the first in a plan to rebrand Chorduroy into a fully functioning record label.

“I haven’t found the musical culture here that I wanted—I don’t think it’s exactly what I hoped it was, and I’m trying to figure out ways I can fix it,” Lyle said.

“I think that putting out my project is going to be my first step toward it.”

Lyle took his first job at age 15.

As a high school student, he joined the facility maintenance crew at St.

Benedict’s Prep, with his particular job requiring that he mop and sweep the floor. Although he did not care much for the work itself, Lyle used the money to buy a keyboard and audio interface to use with his Pro Tools sound-editing software.

The youngest of four children, Lyle discovered hip-hop while looking through his older brothers’ iTunes libraries. The first album he listened to seriously as a musicians was Kanye West’s Graduation, and ever since then, hip-hop has melded into his style.

Lyle’s foray into songwriting began with an assignment. Under the supervision of his band director as St. Benedict, he penned and recorded “Completion in Progress,” a track bringing together his personal tastes in hip-hop and rock, as well as his experience as a keyboardist in the school’s jazz band.

“For me and music, it’s never really done,” Lyle said, who now laughs at the title of this first project.

Outside of Chorduroy, Lyle works sound for the Music Guild and plays as a keyboardist for William Bolton, CSOM ’16, a neo-soul singer here at BC. Outside of Bolton’s band, the two have been close friends since freshman year, and they often advise each other on projects.

“Dan just thinks on certain wavelengths that I don’t normally think of,” Bolton said.

Most recently, the two performed to-

gether live at the University’s Homecoming Concert, opening for Miami rapper Shwayze. Working with Chorduroy and the Music Guild, Lyle and Bolton have been part of a broader movement at BC to open up venues for independent artists.

Last semester, for example, Chorduroy tested the concept of “Mod concerts,” an idea first happened upon accidentally.

The organization has scheduled a concert of around a dozen BC bands to perform in O’Neill Plaza.

“Visibility is important,” Lyle said.

“Kids won’t realize it’s cool to do until it’s out in front of them.”

The event was ultimately cancelled, however, as it started late in the afternoon and began to rain heavily. Thinking on the spot, Lyle and several performers pushed to have a small concert in the Mods—an idea to be continued by Chorduroy and the Music Guild in the weeks to follow.

Soon after gaining popularity, however, these Mod concerts were shot down by administrators, concerned about the implications of live music in the Mods.

This weekend, the first University-sanctioned Mod concert will take place, with a limited number of attendees given the opportunity to see BC rock band Lucid Soul perform in the popular housing units.

This movement toward a more active music culture is precisely what Lyle’s shift in Chorduroy is about. He’s hoping that by increasing exposure for inde-

pendent artists, Chorduroy can begin to reinvent how BC students interact with artists.

“The culture at BC is geared toward pre-professional stuff—work you do need a degree for,” Lyle said. “Music is not one of those things, by any means.”

Lyle’s EP is divided into three independent concepts: “I loved you,” “I hated you,” and “I miss you.” It’s a record about relationships, and according to Lyle, it’s not particularly flowery.

“I really like sad songs—that’s my s—t,” said Lyle. “I have a playlist on Spotify called ‘The Saddest Songs of All Time,’ and it’s my favorite one.”

Inspired by Brian Eno, the inventor of the ambient music genre, the EP finds itself musically at the crossroads of hip-hop, electric, jazz, and alternative.

Lyle plans to release the project under the moniker “theisland”—a title derived from his last name, which is old English for “of the isle.”

Looking forward, Lyle plans to continue to expand Chorduroy’s membership, marking the organization a go-to for artists at every step of the recording and promotion process.

“There’s a marketing club, there’s an entrepreneur’s society,” Lyle said. “There are all of these clubs for people who want to go into these fields: Chorduroy can be that club for musicians.” n

John Wiley / Heights Editor

Lyle’s EP includes six tracks he has recorded since the summer of 2013, mixing together the hip-hop, alternative, and electric genres.

Life is not cinema: what we can learn from ‘Birdman’ Emily Sadeghian How much of our life is staged? Where do we hang our curtains? Who is our audience? The movie Birdman was filmed so that the cuts would be invisible, a series of long shots stringed together seamlessly. The boundaries between mental and physical, public and private disappear, as the characters move from the stage, to their rooms, to the streets.

Going to see Birdman last week was meant to untangle the knotted mess that midterms had created in my brain. Far from a sunny escape, the film brought on a series of existential questions. It got me thinking about our tendency to compartmentalize life into isolated units and environments, ignoring how these “compartments” all belong to a single thread of reality. Instead of striving to be consistent and coherent, we create binaries and false choices. We separate social spaces from work spaces, work spaces from virtual spaces, and we do not

realize how trying to live in these separate worlds makes us inconsistent people.

Birdman follows the story of Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton), a down-on-hisluck Hollywood actor hoping to transition his career to plays. Riggan is arguing with his ex-wife after a show when she point out he confuses admiration with love. He derives value from the audiences and reviews, she says. By basing his private image on his public persona, he is valuing an anonymous mass of people over those individuals closest to him (his family and colleagues).

How often are our actions driven and justified by an invisible audience? Which space do we actually live in? Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are stages where we broadcast edited projections of ourselves—these projections often have remarkably little to do with what we claim to be our core beliefs. These platforms can be used to document reality, but more and more we find ourselves manufacturing a reality instead, making the world an audience for the persona we create.

Edward Norton’s character in Birdman, Mike Shiner, is a pretentious Broadway actor who can only feel authentic and real on stage, displaying nearly sociopathic tendencies outside of the spotlight. His ability to improvise and create emotions is what makes him so good at what he does. In one scene, the audience gets some laughs when Shiner gets out of bed on stage with a boner.

Shiner later jokes about not being able to get one when he’s actually going to have sex.

He is an example of an individual who inhabits this public sphere and a staged reality before his own. This happens when we don’t spend enough time by ourselves and with ourselves. When we are always connected with and accessible to others—whether it be virtually or physically—it is hard to reflect on and distinguish between other peoples’ expectations and our own. It scares me to admit that the other day when a friend asked me for movie recommendations, I immediately went on Facebook to look at my list of movies that I had “liked.”

It’s almost as if I trust this projection of

myself more than my own brain. My staged reality was more real and reliable.

It took me a while to realize that what had gotten to me about the movie had less to do with the characters, their arcs and aspirations, and more to do with the editing and structure of the film. When I think about memories, I think in terms of fragments, montages of images, and nostalgia.

But when I think about what I am feeling and living at the moment, it is a lot like director Alejandro Gonzales’ long shots. I am living through a sequence of emotions, thoughts, and spaces, with real and imaginary elements in constant movement. It is scary because there are no cuts. There are no transitions. There are no ellipses. We carry the same load from one space to the next, and when we find ourselves inauthentic in one take, it’s bound to carry over.

Emily Sadeghian is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

THE HEIGHTS

B3

Thursday, October 30, 2014

OUTSIDE THE LINES

Life lessons from ‘Boyhood’

MICHELLE TOMASSI

BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

So much to watch, so little time: the Silver Age of television RYAN DOWD When Walter White bowed out last spring—despite unfounded and malicious rumors that Breaking Bad could be headed for a sixth season—it was a momentous occasion for television. Breaking Bad is a really, really good show. It’s up there with Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men, and a couple others plastered onto the Mount Rushmore of television (Note: if I’m found lying battered and broken in an alley, it’ll most likely be Community fans who did it over the above slight).

Anyway, the Golden Age had ended. The shift from whatever television was in the ’50s, to Knight Rider (’80s show about crime fighting car, yes it starred David Hasselhoff ), to West Wing (Andrew Sorkin before going full Sorkin on The Newsroom), to finally the Breaking Bad premiere when critics and regular old viewers embraced in “a holy s—t television is awesome” bro hug. TV is cool.

But here’s the thing. Breaking Bad isn’t even AMC’s most popular show. That title goes to the occasionally contemplative zombie slasher The Walking Dead. And it’s not even AMC’s most stylized series. That goes to the eternally suave Mad Men. What

I’m trying to do, by name dropping shows and opinions on them—is bring you, gently, into the world of modern television, and perhaps make you feel slightly uncomfortable about all the series you haven’t found time to watch.

Welcome to the Silver Age of Television. No, I didn’t come up with that. Yes, it’s from the Internet. Aren’t you glad there are people who think about these things so you don’t have to? Basically, it’s the dilemma of the 21st century, 14 years late. There’s too much watch. There’s too little time.

It’s all so confusing, and the pressure’s on to keep up with an impossible long list of shows.

The Golden Age was about event television—those carefree Sunday nights when it was just you and a tragic story. Think of Lost. (Now forget about Lost, I never meant to upset you.) The Silver Age is about reclining dangerously in your family room as you queue up 11 straight episodes of American Horror Story, Orange Is the New Black, if you’re into tights, Arrow, or if you’re into animated tights, Young Justice.

We’ve reached the point where FOMO has crept into the virtual world. No one wants to miss out on the next great show. I can’t even finish

The Office because I’m afraid of missing out on the next Office. The time to watch these shows is relatively scarce, so we’re forced to live with the guilt of never fully understanding what the Silver Age is about.

It’s like being at a party with too much food, too many drinks, too many pretty people. This isn’t a battle over the last drops of watermelon vodka at totally fun, totally clean “party” in Walsh. This is a party with too much fun to be had—a party where any decision you make must be judged against the decisions of others and those you might have made. I’ve spent more time flipping through my Netflix queue this week than I have actually watching anything.

All right, that’s probably not true.

I’m also aware that comparing watching Netflix to going to a party is an ironic analogy, but that’s a discussion for another day. Ironic analogies aside, I feel obligated to warn you.

The self-righteous TV Police are everywhere. They might be in your classroom. You might pass them in the quad. You might wait an hour next to them on the Lower steak and cheese line. Maybe they’re even in your dorm.

Maybe they live in the bunk below you. Maybe you’re dating one (just kidding, dating isn’t real). On Friday

night and all nights henceforth, they’ll be dressed up as vampires, Mario and Luigi, maybe even … Batman. They’ll act cool, channeling the inner Tao of Walter White, a fictional murderer.

You’ll say, “yeah, maybe I did watch the second season of Arrow a couple weekends ago.” They’ll give you a cautionary glance. They’ll say, “you got to check out True Detective. It’s so deep, man.” “Yeah, kind of like How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days deep?” They’ll look like they’ve seen a ghost. “But yeah dude you got to check out House of Cards it’s so good.” Sure, but are you sure it’s not just a mediocre show without any semblance of narrative pace that you watched in one day so it all blurs together like old chowder?

But I know them for who they really are—a sick pervasion of the Thought Police. They’re out there, always watching what you’re watching, trying to get you to watch what they watch. The Television Police stand for nothing but their own self-gratification. I know them, because often I’m one of them.

Welcome to television. Let’s check your pretension at the door.

Ryan Dowd is a staff writer for The Heights. He can be reached at arts@ bcheights.com.

THIS WEEKEND in arts

BY: ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOCIATE ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

CLARE KIM / HEIGHTS STAFF

1. AARON CARTER CONCERT (SUNDAY 11/2, 5:30 P.M.)

The “I Want Candy” ’90s star Aaron Carter is making this Hallo-weekend even sweeter with a concert at Brighton Music Hall. General admission tickets are $22, and meet and greet passes are $74 through Ticketmaster.

2. BRATTLE THEATRE HALLOWEEN (THROUGH WEDNESDAY 11/5, 5:30 P.M.)

Cambridge’s Brattle Theatre is screening a special lineup of Halloween themed films, including Richard Kelly’s 2001 hit Donnie Darko and Horns, starring Daniel Radcliffe and exclusively premiering in the Boston area on Friday. Tickets are available at brattlefilm.org.

3. COLLEGE NIGHT: MFA AFTER DARK (THURSDAY 10/30, 7 P.M.)

Van Gogh to the MFA on Thursday night for gelato, a Halloween themed photo booth, a concert by local indie rockers Grey Season, and the chance to explore the museum’s collections with other New England college students. Admission is free with a BC ID.

4. INTERNATIONAL CAT VIDEO FILM FESTIVAL (THURSDAY 10/30, 6:30 P.M.)

Whether you’re feline fanatic or a casual cat person, Berklee Performance Center’s International Cat Video Festival is the “purrfect” way to end the week. The live event will feature a curated collection of kitty clips, vines, and shorts. Tickets are $12 at berklee.edu.

5. LUCID SOUL’S INAUGURAL PAJAMA PARTY (SATURDAY 11/1, 8 P.M.)

Lucid Soul—the funk-rock band that opened for Macklemore at Modstock—is going to be ‘pajammin’ in Mod 3B for BC’s first ever university-sanctioned live music event in an on-campus residence hall.

Fuzzy robes, slippers, and onesies are recommended.

The show is free, but concertgoers must RSVP on Facebook by noon on the day of the performance.

6. ‘SWAN LAKE’ BLACK & WHITE MASQUERADE (FRIDAY 10/31, 7:30 P.M.)

Join the Boston Ballet for a special presentation of Swan Lake—ticket holders to Friday night’s show will receive a free mask and are encouraged to wear their finest black and white attire for the event, where they will be able to take photos in front of two commemorative backdrops. Tickets start at $58 at bostonballet.com.

7. THE BOSTONIANS OF BOSTON COLLEGE HALLOWEEN INVITATIONAL (FRIDAY 10/31, 7 P.M.) The Bostonians of Boston College invite you to trick-or-treat yo’ self to an evening of a cappella—featuring The Heightsmen as well as the Treblemakers from Boston University.

The performance will take place in McGuinn 121, and admission is free.

8. ‘TIGERS BE STILL’ (THURSDAY 10/30 THROUGH SATURDAY, 11/1, 7:30 P.M.) Audiences in the Bonn Studio Theater are sure to be roaring with laughter this weekend, as The Dramatics Society presents playwright Kim Rosenstock’s offbeat comedy Tigers Be Still—a play about an unemployed art therapist and an escaped zoo animal. Tickets are $12 through Robsham.

9. ZOMBIE PROM (THURSDAY 10/30, 5:30 P.M.)

Zombie Prom at The Beehive will be anything but dead—with an ’80s cover band, a costume contest, and a special food and drink menu, the South Boston club’s event promises to be one of the liveliest Halloween happenings in the city this weekend. See beehiveboston.com for more information.

I’m a 20-something member of Generation Y, and I am awful at wasting time on the Internet.

Sometimes it feels like I’m in some sort of club with all the other young technology users, and I missed the first general meeting. If I have 10 minutes before class starts, I’m usually not scrolling through my Twitter feed or surfing the web. Normally, I like to just stare ahead of me and think about life, but I prefer when the classroom is arranged in a circle—so I can stare at other people and wonder what they’re thinking. I’m sorry if that sounds strange, but I’m much more interested in the student stirring yogurt directly across from me than whatever is being hashtagged at the moment.

Recently, the University of Pennsylvania released a new course that will be offered for the spring semester: “Wasting Time on the Internet.” The premise of the course is to take everyday time-wasting activities— “clicking, SMSing, status-updating, and random surfing”—and use them as material to create “compelling and emotional works of literature.” Course requirements for students include staring at their screens for three hours, while only interacting through social media and chatrooms. “Distraction, multi-tasking, and aimless drifting” is mandatory for the course.

Yes, Ivy-League students will be able to fulfill English major credit by aimlessly wandering the Internet—something that’s usually considered a distraction from actual coursework. My initial response? Sign me up—not because I love to waste time on the Internet, but because I don’t know how.

My idea of “wasting time” is compulsively checking my email and deleting old messages from my inbox—not exactly the basis for a creative piece of literature. I pretend that I know how to multi-task, but to be honest, even painting my nails while watching last week’s Project Runway gives me anxiety.

What if I miss something important while fixing the smudged polish on my pinky nail?

Multitasking is something we all have to do, but I’d much rather focus my attention on one thing at a time.

This week, I made one of my worst attempts at multi-tasking: watching Boyhood while doing thesis research at the same time. This was my second time seeing the film, so I didn’t feel quite as guilty—and how else would I justify watching a threehour movie on a Tuesday night, when there was so much that needed to be done? My friends and I were huddled in an Ignacio common room, drinking milkshakes while watching one of the best films that I’ve seen in recent memory. I tried to leave my laptop closed at first, but some people around me had the same idea to do homework—and I soon joined them. The UPenn course description claims, “we spend our lives in front of screens,” and in that moment, this statement had never felt so accurate. Trying to watch the television screen was impossible when the glow of my laptop screen was more powerful, urging me to get more sources and bookmark more pages. Maybe I was making some progress on my thesis, but the whole time I felt rude and selfish for not giving Mason and his family my full attention. I knew Mason was trying to tell me something, but I was too busy to listen.

It wasn’t until Mason graduated high school that we had finally closed our laptops, ready to accompany him on the next stage in his life: college. We listened to his mother cry when he was leaving, describing it as the worst moment of her life. We watched Mason move into his dorm—taking “packing light” to a new level when he only carried in a duffle bag, a suitcase, and a single box. We watched as he had a philosophical conversation with a girl he just met. “You know how everyone’s always saying, ‘seize the moment’?” she asked. “I don’t know, I’m kind of thinking it’s the other way around, you know, like the moment seizes us.” After the exchange, they both fall silent, with slight smiles on their faces. We couldn’t help but smile, too.

In that instant—surrounded by friends, watching the scene unfold with no glowing screens to distract us—I felt as though the moment had seized us. I wasn’t trying to multitask, or make better use of my time. In effect, I wasn’t trying to seize the moment for myself. The characters of Boyhood may not be a real-life family, but they have lessons to teach me that I won’t get from clicks and searches on the Internet. Those UPenn students can try to make literature out of multi-tasking and browsing social media, but I will always be more inclined to tell stories from experiences—from moments such as Tuesday night, when I allowed myself to be seized in the best way possible.

We live our lives in front of screens, but sometimes it’s best not to hide behind them. Just absorb the experience of being present. And don’t just live in the moment—listen to what the moment is telling you.

Michelle Tomassi is the Asst. Arts & Review Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at arts@bcheights.com.

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

Swift shakes off her country persona with pop album ‘1989’

BY MARIAN WYMAN Heights Staff

Taylor Swift built her career on a country persona—pleasant, unique, and beloved by many. This image of Swift is entirely missing from her latest album. Swift was born in 1989, coincidentally a year when some of the most heavily produced pop-rock music was created. Swift’s fifth studio album takes the year as its title—1989 harkens back to the pop music era in pop and aims for an aesthetic completely different than that of Swift’s past work: 1989 is unapologetically pop.

That said, maybe Swift should be a little more apologetic, because pop is not her expertise. Although it’s admirable that she stepped into a new dimension of music, the results are unfortunate. 1989 is not pop enough to make much sense in the context of the Top 40, and it’s nothing like the music of Swift’s past.

Her former strengths—poignant lyrics, vulnerable vocals, and soft instrumentation—are exactly what this attempt at ’80s-inspired pop lacks. With 1989, Swift set all her most prized skills aside to create a product that can better appeal to the masses—and it does not.

In an attempt to capture the anthemic, powerhouse nature of songs from the 1980s, Swift employs frenzied instrumentation and repetitive lyrics. Where her former work

incorporated storytelling, Swift’s new songs are far more repetitive, focusing on a moment or phrase for the song entire. Whether in the album’s opening track, “Welcome to New York,” or later on in “All You Had To Do Was Stay” and “Out of the Woods,” a clear pattern emerges. She takes short lines, usually a variant of the song’s title, and forces them—to a fault. It appears Swift thinks that if she repeats the same thing with aggressive, electronic music supporting her, it will make her point heroic. In the end, it’s just lame.

On Monday, the day of 1989’s release, the album was the highestselling album on iTunes, with its tracks making up seven of iTunes’s top 10 songs. People love Swift even in her missteps, and fortunately for Swift, her appeal as an artist outshines the shortcoming of this particular work.

Swift is still her upbeat, positive self in a few tracks of 1989. “How You Get The Girl” brings out Swift’s cheesy, bubbly image in the same way “Shake It Off ” did when released months ago. While the track does not seem to fit well with the album, it does fits well with Swift’s image.

The content itself will polarize fans and casual audiences: it’s a cute, young love story set to an upbeat pop background. Longtime Swift supporters will love this track, and those who dislike her will hate her all the more for it. “How You Get The

Girl” is obnoxiously cute, and then teeters toward downright annoying—it’s Swift embodied in a song, and it is a pain.

The strongest tracks on the heavily produced pop album are ironically the most stripped down, focusing on Swift’s artistry and lyrics rather than manufactured ’80s overtones. “Wildest Dream,” for example, has more modern-pop flare than most songs, and it shows the potential that Swift could have reached if she approached her record in the right way. Instead of trying to be a theatrical throwback anthem, “Wildest Dream” adopts the smooth, computer-enhanced sound popularized in today’s mainstream.

“This Love” is another track that shows off a side of Swift we can actually appreciate. A subtle, melodic pop background highlights Swift’s vulnerability as a vocals. It’s a story of heartbreak—the subject of many of Swift’s best music—and shapes up to be a powerful, relatable ballad. It doesn’t use harsh, overdone instrumentation as a crutch, and instead features Swift’s vocals at the center of all production.

In general, though, a majority of 1989’s songs are mediocre.

When Swift ventures into the already-exhausted world of pop, she falters. “I Wish You Would” and “I Know Places,” for example,

feel so unnecessary that the final product is nothing more than amateur. They take on cheap, overly manufactured beats, blending into the oblivion, and ultimately lacking any dimensionality. The two songs are virtually the same, and neither is particularly enjoyable.

Looking at 1989 as a legitimate pop record will result in pure disappointment. The album is more about Swift than it is about music—she has created a product that fans will enjoy, if only for the reason she created it. In the context of her career, however, 1989 poses real questions of how long Swift can stay relevant in a saturated pop landscape. 

It’s something that all rock fans have experienced at one point or another. The somber, slowly picked strings of acoustic guitar; the medieval crooning of distant flutes; that iconic voice’s cautionary tale of a lady who was sure all that glittered was gold. In the entire history of rock music, perhaps no song has had the legendary impact of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”

In the decades after its original 1971

release on Led Zeppelin IV, it has slowly become the most omnipresent rock song of all time, prompting millions of eager teenagers around the world to pick up guitars for the first time and begin their own rock ’n’ roll fantasies.

Now more than 40 years later, as part of the band’s campaign to reissue all of its studio material, Led Zeppelin has reimagined “Stairway to Heaven,” along with the rest of Led Zeppelin IV, as well as the group’s 1973 album Houses of the Holy. The newly released deluxe editions of these classics each

1989 TAYLOR SWIFT PRODUCED BY BIG MACHINE RECORDS RELEASED OCT. 27, 2014 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF BIG MACHINE RECORDS

Swift’s ’80s pop-inspired ‘1989’ suggests that everything has changed for the former country star—and not for the better.

contain a full CD’s worth of previously unreleased mixes of songs well known

by Zeppelin fans. It’s best not to look at these releases as new and exciting rewrites. Rather, it’s like Led Zeppelin has quietly shifted from one corner of the room to the other after years of playing in the same spot. Sometimes, a different perspective, no matter how small a difference, can be refreshing.

Indeed, for both casual listeners and longtime fans, the differences between these new versions and the originals may not even be noticeable.

HOUSES OF THE HOLY & LED ZEPPELIN IV (DELUXE EDITIONS) LED ZEPPELIN PRODUCED BY ATLANTIC RECORDS RELEASED OCT. 27, 2014 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF ATLANTIC RECORDS

Classic rock band Led Zeppelin releases remastered editions of ‘IV’ and ‘Houses of the Holy,’ both featuring new tracks.

In some cases, however, they are very welcome. The reissue of “Stairway to Heaven” is labeled as the “Sunset Sound Mix.” It is softer, the guitar part is less crisp and faded with a deeper echo, and the flutes are quieter and in the background. When the song reaches its epic bridge, the electric guitar part is muddier. Without reference to the original, these changes don’t really stand out, yet they cast the song in a reserved light. It’s not life changing, but it is interesting to see a different interpretation of a song that has been so solidly embedded in musical consciousness for decades.

Another standout track is “The Crunge,” the funky and frantic fourth track from Houses of the Holy. The original song was meant to play on the soul music of James Brown, and this is made much more evident in the reissue. The already miniscule echo on the vocals is now completely gone, creating a much more raw vocal sound more evocative of a Brown-style vocal track. This subtle change is the difference between Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and the Godfather of Soul.

Some of the biggest departures from the original versions occur in the reissues of “The Song Remains The Same,” from Houses of the Holy, “The Battle of Evermore,” from Zeppelin IV, and “Going to California,” also

from IV. All three of these reissues are missing the vocal parts. While it might seem blasphemous to listen to any Led Zeppelin song without Plant’s characteristic “baby”s and unfairly high range, these songs offer something special. “The Song Remains the Same” features Jimmy Page’s guitar work in place of Plant’s singing. It’s not the tightest playing (then again, Page isn’t the tightest guitarist), but it is filled with a different energy that isn’t there on the original.

This is even truer with the softer songs from Zeppelin IV, “The Battle of Evermore” and “Going to California.”

These acoustic numbers, featuring both guitar and mandolin, actually seem like they are unfinished. There is something amazingly reflective about hearing the scaffoldings of two incredible folk-rock songs, knowing that at this phase of their production they still only existed somewhere in the band’s notebooks and imagination.

These two Zeppelin reissues do not have things to offer for everyone.

Some may see the acquisition of slightly different, and in some cases unfinished, versions of already great music as a worthless act—that is fair.

But the hardcore Zeppelin fans hoping to buy the fancy deluxe editions to display in their shrines will view it as a new adventure. 

‘Monster’ doesn’t give Future fans much to scream about

BY HARRY MITCHELL For The Heights

Just in time for Halloween, Atlanta’s hottest hip-hop/R&B act drops a 16-track mixtape packed with ridiculous beats guaranteed to supplement any of one’s raucous weekend festivities. Whether it’s because of his recent break up with the mother of his new child, R&B artist Ciara, or he’s looking to fit the theme of the upcoming weekend, Future’s new project, Monster, certainly comes from a dark place. The heavily autotuned artist delivers a record radiating a significantly different tone than his sophomore project, released in April.

The successful, Honest offered a balance between emotionally intelligent tracks, and hard-hitting bangers, while Monster is almost entirely focused on the latter. The project is executive produced by Metro Boomin with help from DJ Spinz, TM-88, Nard & B, and Southside. While it is not the most polished project, Monster outdoes his previous mixtapes (2011’s Streetz Calling, 2012’s Astronaut Status, and 2013’s F.B.G.: The Movie and Black Woodstock), offering a number of speaker shattering tracks.

Future kicks off the mixtape with “Intro,” an eerie, minute-long track featuring the voices of various radio

personalities. Sway Calloway, best known for his program “Sway’s Universe,” opens up the track praising Future’s ability to have an immediate impact on the music industry, explaining that “a lot of other artists are trying to do exactly what he does and trying to sound just like him.” An unnerving, loud array of synths play in the background as another personality explains his disbelief that MTV placed Future on their list of top-10 rappers in the game. The track finishes with a voice protruding from the background mentioning Future and Ciara’s break up, as the pounding sound of a heartbeat takes over, eventually building into a vicious growl. This track sets the tone, solidifying Future as a monster.

Future starts off the second track, “Radical,” by exclaiming “monster!” in his erratic, yet magnetic voice. The viscous, bass heavy beat drops in after, adding the repetitive chorus, “f—k all your attitudes, f—k all your gratitude, all this s—t radical, all this s—t radical.” With the exception of the chorus, the rest of Future’s lyrics are almost incoherent through his deep slurring speech and auto-tune, yet he is still able to get his point across: he doesn’t really give a s—t about what you think, he knows he’s radical.

The title track “Monster,” follows “Radical,” with a calm, yet menacing

TOP SINGLES

1 All About That Bass Meghan Trainor 2 Shake It Off Taylor Swift 3 Habits (Stay High) Tove Lo 3 Bang Bang Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj 5 Animals Maroon 5 6 Black Widow Iggy Azalea feat.

Rita Ora

TOP ALBUMS

Zeppelin keeps climbing with deluxe reissues of ’70s records

BY JAMES FARRELL Heights Staff

CHART TOPPERS

beat produced by Metro Boomin and Southside. Future abandons the heavy auto-tune for this track, turning some straight street rhyming about women and riches. While it is the mixtape’s only single and title track, “Monster” is not the most successful song on the project. The lone feature on Monster comes on the seventh track, “After That,” where Lil’ Wayne adds a verse over a classic Future beat. Earlier this week, Lil’ Wayne announced that his highly anticipated Carter V album, expected to be released Tuesday, would be delayed until Dec. 9. While

this sparked a great deal of disappointment among all Tunechi fans, Lil Wayne builds even more excitement for his upcoming project with his verse on “After That,” bringing vintage Weezy punch lines and a steady, traditional flow.

With the exception of “After That,” “Hardly,” is an absolute standout and arguably best song. It goes against the overall tone of the album, evoking emotion and pain, as he employs a whiny, yet powerful voice through a captivating chorus. He repeats the word “hardly,” over the best produc-

tion the mixtape offers. A soft piano melody plays beneath a layer of stiff snares and discreet, ambient synths.

Future raps about dealing with his pain through drug use, and the potential of his legacy. On “Hardly,” Future reveals a more reflective side.

While his new project is not as sophisticated as Honest or his other studio albums, Future manages to find success though notable tracks and production. The record is not necessarily a “monstrous” achievement, but it does give his fans something to be excited about for his next project. 

MONSTER FUTURE PRODUCED BY FREEBANDZ RECORDS RELEASED OCT. 28, 2014 OUR RATING

PHOTO COURTESY OF FREEBANDZ RECORDS

Future’s ‘Monster’ mixtape successfully explores dark themes, but ultimately hides behind the rapper’s past LPs.

1 .5: The Gray Chapter Slipknot 2 Paperwork T.I. 3 Melody Road Neil Diamond 4 Under Pressure Logic 5 Anything Goes Florida Georgia Line 6 Old Boots, New Dirt Jason Aldean Source: Billboard.com

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE WEEK

BY CHRIS FULLER

“I WON’T LET YOU DOWN” OK GO

This week, OK Go unleashed its brand new music video for “I Won’t Let You Down,” a celebrated track coming off the alternative band’s recently released album Hungry Ghosts.

Famous for its elaborate and ingenious music videos, OK Go keeps in style with “I Won’t Let You Down.” Combining an intricate dynamic with intricate visuals, “I Won’t Let You Down” offers a delightfully playful and unique experience with a level of thoughtfulness rarely found in today’s music videos.

OK Go goes to great lengths to keep with its popular aesthetic, with most frames in the video composed with perfect symmetry.

Placing two-dimensional figures in three-dimensional landscapes, the video creates intrigue, building on the Chicago band’s long history in cinematography.

Scooters take center stage in the video. Seeming to defy the laws of physics, the members of OK Go set out on the small, wheeled vehicles. The video brings in elements of drone photography, panning over terrifically vivacious landscapes, in keeping with the eccentric spirit of the band.

Although it might lack masterfully crafted lyrics—or much meaning at all, for that matter—“I Won’t Let You Down” provides a level of visual prowess uncommon among the musicians of today.

The grandeur of the music would be enough, and paired with ambitious visuals, “I Won’t Let You Down” certainly lives up to its title, and builds upon OK Go’s music video legacy. 

SINGLE REVIEWS BY LIZ HOLMAN FOO FIGHTERS “The Feast Of The Famine” You cannot go wrong with the Foo Fighters and this song is all the better as it features one of the band’s classic riffs. “The Feast and The Famine” is reminiscent of the group’s heavier days, and it’s a welcome return. Fans and firsttimers will be happy about this one.

RUN THE JEWELS FEAT. ZACH DE LA ROCHA “Close Your Eyes (And Count To F—k)” Listen to this. Right now. El-P and Killer Mike team up with Rage Against the Machine’s Zack De La Rocha (remember him?) and it’s the best.

De La Rocha’s vocals are peppered throughout the track as El-P and Mike joke about “conjugal visits.” What could be better?

RADICAL FACE “Sisters” Do not let the lengthy intro deter from listening on—this song is great. Radical Face, also known as Ben Cooper, is an alternative artist with a fantastic voice and thoughtful lyrics. Expect to hear this song at Starbucks, playing as the backdrop to one’s hipster lifestyle.

Thursday, January 17, 2014 Thursday, October 30, 2014

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Thursday, October 30, 2014

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JUST FOR YOU. CHECK IT OUT. BCHEIGHTS.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.

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The Heights

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Bennet’s Banter

A chance to eat without your phone

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Two protests send message against police brutality

Bennet Johnson You can’t help it. The instinct is gnawing at you. Maybe you can just take one quick peek. What’s the harm anyway? The person across the table is boring you—prating on and on about her sister’s friend’s cousin’s connection to Ryan Reynolds. You can’t take it anymore. So, you give in. You take out your iPhone from your pocket and open your Twitter page—hoping to find greater entertainment than you can from the person sitting across from you.

In doing so, you are unknowingly participating in a movement that is circulating Boston and around the world—engaging more with your smartphone than with your dinner partner.

Salvatore’s restaurants across Boston are looking to fight this trend.

The popular restaurants are typically known for offering fine Italian dining with the quality and ambiance of the North End. Now, Salvatore’s is offering a special called “Off the Grid Mondays,” which gives customers the chance to enjoy a free lunch if they turn in their smartphones at the door.

Salvatore’s offer is oriented to promote people returning to the basic concept of sharing a meal untethered to emails, texts, and calls. The idea came from the general manager of the restaurant noticing people literally not speaking to each other while dining.

Salvatore’s offer seems like a great idea to test your cell phone addiction.

Perhaps there is such thing as a free lunch.

The question that follows is, can we do it? Can people part with their smartphones long enough to enjoy a free meal?

Last weekend, I ventured downtown to the Boston Public Library to do some studying and reading in the famous McKim building. The large space features a structure similar to Bapst library on campus—long tables with ancient artwork and a sea of green lights—creating a scene that looks like it taken out of a Harry Potter movie.

As I walked through the jampacked library searching for an open seat, I was surprised that many of these people were not studying or reading. Instead, blue-and-whitecolored phone screens illuminated the library, as dozens of people were clicking through their Facebook news feeds. The action was contagious, because like everyone else, I gave in.

I was inclined to pull out my iPhone and scour anything relevant to prevent me from studying.

I don’t like to admit it, but I am addicted to my cell phone. And I am not alone—especially in Boston. Our city ranks at the top of a list of U.S. cities whose residents are most dependent on their cell phones, and nine out of 10 Bostonians reported that their phones are more important to them than their cars or laptops, according to a survey by Bank of America. Another study by the Journal of Behavioral Sciences found that 60 percent of college students are addicted to their phones, and female students spend an average of 10 hours a day on their phones—which amounts to more time than most people get of sleep each night.

The truth is, I can skip my daily coffee fix. I can do without eating chicken tenders at late night. I’ll even pass on missing an episode of my favorite TV show on Netflix. But regretfully, I don’t think I can part with my phone. It is something that I am working to change.

Maybe it’s time that we all take a break from our phones. It might be as simple as putting the device away for a meal and enjoying a conversation with someone devoid of any distractions.

Salvatore’s offer is a small step in the right direction to become less inclined to whip out our phones at every free moment.

They say it takes 21 days to truly break a habit, but why not start with an hour and a free lunch?

Bennet Johnson is the Asst. Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@bcheights.com

Alex Gaynor / Heights Senior Staff

Two protests, one called the Newbury Street Shutdown and another the Intercollegiate March Against Police Brutality, marched the city’s streets to bring attention to racial profiling issues.

From Protests, B10 Lives Matter National Week of Action, which ran from Oct. 20 to Sunday.

Daunasia Yancey, one of the event’s organizers, called the crowd together with a megaphone. The faces on the picket signs gathered together as the crowd coalesced, and the girl in the pink skirt was nudged in by her father. Yancey told the crowd that the demonstrators should stay out of the street and march only on the sidewalk, should not enter any stores along Newbury, and should keep interactions with pedestrians brief and absolutely nonviolent.

On the corner of Newbury and Arlington, officers from the Boston Police Department had gathered, shiny motorcycles in a neat line, bicycles prepped to ride alongside the protest.

After the demonstration, Nina Coakley, a spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department, told Boston.com that the crowd had remained orderly.

“There were about 150 people,” she said. “They stayed on the sidewalk the whole time.”

Yancey divided the crowd into two groups—one for each side of Newbury Street. The girl in pink let her father pull her onto his shoulders, and the chanting began: “Back up, back up, we want freedom, freedom all these racist ass cops, we don’t need ’em, need ’em!”

Further downtown, a different march with the same goal was also unfolding.

Dubbed the Intercollegiate March Against Police Brutality in a Facebook event, BC’s Black Student Forum had been invited by leaders of Northeastern University’s Black Student Association to join the march.

According to Elyse Bush, A&S ’16 and director of community outreach for the Black Student Forum, Boston University students and people who were not college

students also joined the march from the Boylston T stop to City Hall.

“We even had some people joining in as we kept on walking,” Bush said. When they reached Faneuil Hall, a number of the demonstrators climbed the stairs leading to City Hall Plaza, putting their hands up—which, according to witnesses, was Michael Brown’s final action in Ferguson—and facing the droves of people spending the afternoon at one of the city’s most famous tourist attractions. When much of the crowd stopped and turned to look at the demonstrators, Bush said that she felt an impact had been made.

On Newbury Street, the little girl on her father’s shoulders had joined in the chants as the demonstrators made their way through one of Boston’s most prominent commercial centers and police officers rode their bicycles on the street, keeping pace with the protesters. The sidewalk’s usual pedestrians were relegated to the curb, at least if

they wanted to move in the opposite direction. The managers of some of the city’s most high-end retail watched the protest from storefront windows.

People eating lunch outdoors lost focus on their food, reaching for phones to take photographs and videos.

The girl chanted on, nodding with the drummers and trumpeters who lent their music to the protest.

“I want a world where she looks at everyone she meets as maybe having a different skin color, but still having the same basic humanity,” said her father, Abe Lateiner, a white man from Cambridge.

“Where she doesn’t learn to be silent, or become more of the oppressor than she already is by virtue of me being her father.”

The girl and her father marched on, their chants fading as the demonstrators continued down Newbury Street. As the girl’s skirt became a distant pink dot above the crowd, pedestrians returned unimpeded to the sidewalk, selectively perusing clothes on outdoor racks. n

Fund gives BC startups competitive edge in city From Fund, B10 is a definite affinity for BC alumni, and there are a lot of BC alumni who want to invest in BC-based companies.”

All companies led by BC students and alumni will be considered for a potential investment. Each month, the fund investigates three to five early-stage companies. At the end of the month, the Advisory Investment Committee—a team comprised of BC alumni with experience in early-stage investing and entrepreneurship— makes a recommendation to various investors. Beyond financing, the fund is offering mentorship in the field, as well as office space and investment support.

“In recent years, universities have been placing a strong emphasis on their entrepreneurial departments,” said Launch Angels CEO Shereen Shermak in a statement. “While this has led to a substantial increase in the number of university-based startups and an explosion of new entrepreneurs, funding has remained a challenge. Our goal is to make funding more accessible.”

The Maroon & Gold Fund is the first major investment fund tailored specifically for BC ventures. Earlier this year, another group of BC alumni founded the Soaring Startup Circle, a summer program designed to accelerate student-led startups. These BC companies received funding and the ability to work in offices of Boston companies with similar paths from universities.

Neither the Soaring Startup Circle nor The Maroon & Gold Fund are

affiliated or sanctioned by the University—both organizations highlight the willingness of alumni to establish a prominent startup community in Boston, however.

Over the past year, BC-based companies such as Jebbit, NBD Nano, and Vsnap have caught the attention of investors across New England. In an area previously dominated by universities in Cambridge, Cook believes that BC’s emergence into the Boston startup scene is something that Harvard and MIT cannot ignore.

“This year, many of the companies coming out of the University received a lot of money,” Cook said. “There is definitely a contingent of investable companies here, and I’m looking to build up that subculture of entrepreneurship at Boston College.”

Despite being the first of its kind for BC, the Maroon & Gold Fund is the second university-based fund through the venture capital firm Launch Angels.

The Dartmouth University alumnifocused Green D Fund was the first to offer students investor support as part of Launch Angels’ University Funds.

With an increasing number of university-affiliated startups, Cook expects hundreds of other universities to follow in the steps of BC and Dartmouth in the near future.

“More and more colleges are trying to differentiate themselves through startups—supporting them and encouraging a culture of innovation,” Cook said. “My goal for this fund is to cultivate this idea and make BC e ven more well known across the country.” n

Elise amendola / AP Photo

As the election approaches on Nov. 4, polls show that the gubernatorial race is still close.

‘Globe’ endorses Baker as candidate most ready to lead From Election, B10 on the issues of same-sex marriage and abortion rights. The most fundamental disagreement the candidates have is in their vision of the state government’s current condition.

Coakley has indicated that, if elected, she would stay on a track similar to that laid out by her predecessor, current governor Deval Patrick. Patrick’s widespread popularity allowed him to seek reform in healthcare, renewable energy, and transportation bureaucracy. He defeated Baker in 2010 when he ran for reelection, a defeat from which Baker is trying to come back. While Coakley believes that the government would operate best if kept on the same track, Baker claims that this is a sign that Democrats do not have new ideas.

“We have a detailed plan to create jobs from one end of the commonwealth to the other. They don’t,” Baker said after winning the primary in early September with 74 percent of the vote. “We have a plan to restore fiscal discipline and keep taxes low, they don’t.”

In early April, Baker was 16.8 points behind Coakley. After securing the nomination in the primary, Baker closed the five point gap between the two. He finally passed Coakley in early October by only 0.2 points, only to dive two points behind her once again. The race has been back and forth all through the month, with Baker currently standing with a three point lead, making it difficult to predict who might leave Nov. 4 victorious. n

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, October 30, 2014

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It’s finally Halloween, and here’s how to spend it

BY SARAH MOORE Heights Editor Halloween used to be a favorite holiday for students. It guaranteed that for one half-day in late October everyone could hang up their stiff, plaid jumpers or khaki pants in exchange for a poodle skirt or a Power Ranger mask.

It prompted multiple readings of The Headless Horseman and a trip to the pumpkin patch. Now, the fear of ghosts and goblins is replaced by econ grades and Spanish presentations. Coming up in the middle of the endless Boston College midterm season, Halloween can either become a weekend of drinking away academic sorrows or a FOMO-inducing study marathon. This year, instead of pathetically writing essays while wearing cat ears in O’Neill on Thursday night or pregaming with spiked cider, students should take advantage of the Halloween happenings in Boston this weekend.

HAUNTED TOURS Take a break from Latin American History notes this weekend and instead learn some spookier facts about Boston’s history with a city ghost tour. These 90minute walks will not only take patrons through some of Boston’s best spots by night, but will also highlight the city’s haunted history from the witches of its colonial beginnings to the ghosts who still supposedly roam the highway tunnels. Definitely holiday-appropriate, these lantern-lit expeditions are held all weekend and begin around sundown.

FENWAY FESTIVITIES Residents of the Mods and Foster Street aren’t the only ones preparing for a Halloween party. On Thursday, the Red Sox are hosting a two-part celebration at Fenway Park that is free and open to the public. “Halloween at Fenway Park” will begin on Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. with trick-or-treating around the track. Costume wearers of all ages are invited to fill pillowcases with candy handed out by Red Sox staff and Wally the Green Monster. If one’s candy basket is at risk of overflowing, one can take a break to get one’s face painted or see one of the team’s three recent World Series trophies. At 6 p.m., the decorated field will turn into an outdoor movie theatre as Ghostbusters is screened on the main video board.

Although both events are free, tickets

BRECK WILLS / HEIGHTS GRAPHIC

are required for the movie portion of the evening and can be claimed on the Red Sox’s website.

HALLOWEEN BIKE RIDE Skip running around the Reservoir this weekend for a more festive form of exercise. The Boston Halloween Bike Ride will be held this year on Friday night as participants travel about 12 miles through Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline in costume. The celebration has been an October tradition since 2000, and, from witches to Miley Cyrus, costumed riders from all over the city are registered for this year’s community bike ride. On Halloween night, the event will begin at Copley Square at 8 p.m. and end at Allston’s Wonderbar for a post-ride party. While the after party is restricted to those 21 and older, anyone in costume can register to ride.

BEACON HILL For a less spooky Saturday afternoon, take a self-guided walking tour of Beacon Hill. The picturesque streets

of one of Boston’s oldest neighborhoods become even more enchanted during this time of year. Jack-o-lanterns of all shapes and sizes grace the cobblestone sidewalks that snake past the area’s historic houses. The quaint Chestnut and Mt. Vernon Sts. just a short walk from the Common, are home to some of the city’s most extravagant decorations, a festive tradition that has continued since the early 1970s. If students want to experience the decorations in the dark, many of Beacon Hill’s most adorned streets will be closed to traffic from 4:30 to 8:00 p.m. on Halloween night for safe trick-or-treating and touring.

FALL FOOD Step out of the Pumpkin Spice comfort zone this weekend and embrace some more holiday-inspired eats. Restaurants, bars, and bakeries across the city are serving menu items that reflect both the holiday and the season, ranging from Pumpkin Risotto at Pier 6 to Georgetown Cupcake’s Halloween Bat dessert. If anyone is feeling especially

adventurous in light of the holiday, head to The Hampshire House in Beacon Hill on the 31st for Dining in the Dark’s sensory Halloween dinner experience.

BC GHOSTS If students cannot make it into the city this year, the possibilities for your Halloweekend still do not end with an off-campus party. Head back to Upper where they can not only relive the horrors of a forced triple, but also visit an on-campus haunted house.

Throughout the University’s history, multiple accounts have been reported of a supernatural presence that lurks in the O’Connell House. Rumors have been neither confirmed nor denied, but surround the possibility of a ghost dog that haunts the house by night and a spirit who died on the second floor. Freshmen are not the only ones on campus with an eerie, unwelcomed guest. The Hovey House, now home to the Office of International Programs, is also said to be frequented by the distressed spirit of one of Mr. Hovey’s daughters. 

After some delay, MAST’ finally opens in Boston MAST’ offers wood-fired pizzas and Italian fare

BY GRACE GODVIN For The Heights

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAST’

pizza, using a 12-hour process to allow the dough to raise.

The fresh ingredients combined with the tasty crust are a rare treat for Boston pizzaphiles, especially given that Boston is a city in which the market for Neapolitan-style pizza is practically nonexistent. “Nothing is frozen,” general manager Nicholas Garoufalis said. “Everything we use is completely from scratch.” He added, “To me, this pizza is the perfect pizza.”

Pizza is not the only thing MAST’ has to offer. With chef Celio Pereira, formerly of Mamma Maria in the North End, on board, the menu features dishes such as King Oyster mushrooms and pappardelle topped with wild boar ragu. While admirable attempts, these dishes pale in comparison to the pizza.

LOCATION: 45 Province St. CUISINE: Italian

Inside the social side of dining

MAGGIE POWERS

BOSTON FOODIE

Downtown Crossing’s newest spot to eat and drink, MAST’, opened to the public this Saturday. Offering wood-fired pizzas and Neapolitan fare, MAST’’s two-story location at 45 Province St. is the lovechild of owners Anthony DePinto, John DeSimone, and Marco Caputo. The name MAST’ comes from a play on the Neapolitan slang word for maestro, “o’mast,” which denotes one as the master of his or her craft.

Originally slated to open at the beginning of this year, the introduction of MAST’ has been hindered repeatedly by downtown Boston’s strict regulations.

This has not hampered the owners’ spirits in the slightest, however.

Something they’re most excited to share with patrons is their pizza oven, straight from Napoli. Using a crane, the 7,000-pound oven was brought in through a side of the restaurant where a floor-to-ceiling window now stands. The pizza dough itself has been meticulously crafted to feel like authentic Neapolitan

T FOR TWO

Even without the food, the Downtown Crossing location is noteworthy. Its two floors are designed to differentiate the restaurant into an eatery upstairs and a lounge below. The top floor is where the pizza oven resides, and it is lined in copper. The downstairs, in contrast, is lined in zinc. The two floors have two entirely different atmospheres, as the downstairs feels much more intimate, complete with cozy couches and late-night fare. “The word ‘lounge’ denotes a different feeling: it’ll be open late with an entirely different menu,” Garoufalis said.

Indeed, the late-night menu features items such as deep-fried pizza.

The downstairs floor also holds the liquor lockers, a place where people who have bought entire bottles of liquor can store them for their next visit to the lounge.

It’s part of the MAST’ team’s effort to make the restaurant neighborhood-friendly and foster an environment for regulars.

MAST’ hopes its staff will be reason enough to come back. “We’re a family, not a corporation,” Garoufalis said. Coming from an Italian owner, MAST’ also places a large

emphasis on ensuring authenticity. From the pizza oven to the espresso machine, everything has been brought in from Italy.

The wine list is also heavily weighted toward Italian reds.

With its relatively inexpensive prices and high quality, MAST’ hopes to attract college students. Its hard-to-reach location in Downtown Crossing will be a barrier, especially with the area’s notoriously expensive parking. Its space is conducive to large parties, however, which may be a draw for young people, and the late-night hours might also attract a younger crowd.

With its combination between daytime and nightlife atmospheres—both characterized by a stellar pizza menu—MAST’ will almost certainly find itself welcome in Boston’s food scene.

According to its Facebook page, MAST’ aspires to bring “a modern twist to Neapolitan street food.” And with the restaurant’s unique combination of daylife and nightlife atmospheres, MAST’ definitely brings something new to the Boston food scene. 

I blinked expectantly while she chewed, waiting for some emotion to register on her face. My mom nodded, the delicate skin around her eyes crinkling to allow the delight in her green eyes to radiate outward to the rest of her face. “Mmm, Mags, it’s so good!”

I smirked, pleased with the affirmation. But why? It’s not like I had cooked the delicious flank steak on the sturdy restaurant plate in front of us. Still, I wanted the validation from my mother that I had ordered well, so we could have the appropriate conversation that always follows good wine and better food.

Our dialogue lazily meandered between my mother, my father, and I. We wandered from the present flavors on our palate to past memories of humble gatherings around the kitchen table and grand culinary adventures abroad to those glittery future gatherings like Thanksgiving and birthday dinners and then wandered back again, crossing past, present, and future within the span of minutes.

Going out to eat is social event— food is an easy excuse to gather those you love veiled in the excuse of sustenance. Certain meals transcend that, though. Certain meals allow the food itself to become the event.

My Saturday night dinner with my parents was one of these events, the food-centric conversations commencing long before my mom tasted my steak. Beginning with the appetizers, this was not just an experience we were sharing together—it was quite literally a shared meal.

Any culinary flair our starting cheese board lacked was quickly pushed aside by the dueling knifes and ensuing scrutiny of the appetizer before us. I giggled when my dad thought grapes were olives—humor that was only funny in the palatable moment.

Words fell to the side as we simply started to point excitedly with cutlery to the cheeses we got to first, like explorers on a savory voyage, a weird sense of pride developing when we discovered the current favorite cheese of the night.

Nights like my Saturday with my parents explain the rise in popularity of small-plate style restaurants.

Restaurant owners across the city are exploring the social style of eating that was previously confined to tapas. It allows diners to have a food experience, not just a meal.

To borrow a term from South End restaurant owner Seth Yaffe, we all have food ADD. It’s hard to settle on one dish on a well-conceptualized menu.

But I think the popularity of small plate restaurants is more than just a simple indecisiveness.

Yaffe and another local restaurant owner, Jakob White of Newton’s Comedor, both expressed how small plates make going out to eat feel like a family dinner, whether this recalls past memories for diners or is only something they’ve seen idealized. Reaching hands and shared forks are okay when the formal barriers of the individual meals are broken down.

But more important than the shared food is the shared experience. When the confines of individual plates are gone, so is the stilted, scripted conversation of “How is yours?” “Good, how is yours?” “Delicious.” (Often followed by an obligatory “do you want to try some?” when everyone at the table is very aware that this is a pleasantry only.)

The conversation begins to mirror a real, family-style meal—fluid, loose, and maybe a little messy. When small plates begin to arrive at a table there is a sudden flurry conversation, the expected navigation of making sure everyone gets to try some but secretly trying to sneak a tiny bit extra for yourself, and then … silence. Well, chewing and quiet “mmm”s, but relative silence, the satisfied quiet that comes when the mind has been filled by chatter other than your own running monologue and your belly will soon be just as satisfied.

The best kind of quiet.

Maggie Powers is an editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

METRO

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014

On learning exuberance

RYAN TOWEY She wanted the people in the crowd to sing back. They essentially issued a collective mutter.

To the credit of Wambura Mitaru—a singer-songwriter from Kenya who began studying at the Berklee College of Music in 2011—her stellar, breezy voice remained as steady as her smile as she performed on the stage at the Boston Book Festival in Copley Square on Saturday.

Impressive stage presence aside, however, I have to think she was disappointed by the lackluster call and response—a potent tradition in Sub-Saharan African music—in which she tried to engage the crowd.

A melody rolled off her tongue, and she beckoned for the crowd to echo her.

A few of the braver souls in attendance complied, others just breathed out a melody that vaguely resembled the one that she had just weaved, and a few clapped their hands. It was enough to keep her going, and she repeated the exercise a few more times.

Mitaru’s performance was brilliant, but it was hard to watch her struggle for a hearty reaction. The call and response lost all sense of spontaneity, and became something to sit through, rather than the exulting musical expression that she clearly hoped it to be.

Don’t get me wrong—I hate crowd participation just as much as the next person. I dread the moment during concerts when a band’s frontman claps his hands in the air, an implied direction for the crowd to do the same. It almost physically hurts me when the crowd inevitably loses the proper rhythm, and I cringe watching the last person in the crowd still clapping his hands who slowly realizes that the moment has passed, forcing him to pretend that he meant to keep clapping that whole time before finally dropping his hands to his sides again.

I pretty much just nodded my head during Mitaru’s performance, looking around to see how others reacted to her efforts to create some musical relationship between herself and her audience.

I am not proud of this. Instead, I am rather ashamed of my fear of organized exuberance. You could argue, of course, that being directed to echo a singer’s melody or clap along to music is an inauthentic expression of how you are feeling at a given moment—if you just clap along as directed, then you are ignoring how the music is actually making you feel in a given moment.

But that, I would argue, is the point of organized exuberance that I have formerly missed. When Mitaru directed the crowd to echo her melody at the Boston Book Festival, she was not trying to tell the crowd how they were feeling; she was trying to get them outside of themselves, to give them a break from the constant concern about how they are feeling. Clapping along to music with a crowd or participating in a musical call and response should prevent people from worrying too much about how they appear, because they can just do what the crowd is doing in a healthy and revitalizing way.

I wish I had been in tune to this while watching Mitaru perform—I probably would have left the Boston Book Festival feeling a lot better had I wholeheartedly participated in the music she was trying to create instead of looking around at what others were doing to determine how they would feel about what I was doing.

Behind me, a woman in her 20s loudly sang along with Mitaru. At the time, I wondered if there was something wrong with someone who would let her or her voice be so loudly heard before the rest of the people in attendance. I forestalled my own chance to be a part of something outside myself when I shuffled past this bizarrely confident woman to be elsewhere.

But when I think about it now, she was the coolest person at the festival.

Ryan Towey is the Metro Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at metro@ bcheights.com

The Maroon & Gold Fund is raising $2 million to invest in BC student and alum ventures B Y B ENNET J OHNSON Asst. Metro Editor At least for the moment, Kevin Cook was in the hot seat.

Just over 10 years ago, Cook, BC ’04, was near the front of a room in Fulton Hall as a cluster of budding MBA candidates critiqued his every move throughout his presentation.

The criticism and feedback were a daily occurrence in Wally Coyle’s business communications class—a reminder of how important presentation and the clear communication of ideas can be in the entrepreneurial field.

As Cook stood in front of the group, he embraced the criticism, and by the end of the

program he was able to hone one of the most important skills to thrive in the startup field—the craft of the pitch.

“One of the things that students who are looking to start a company absolutely need is the ability to communicate a pitch to investors,” Cook said. “This is one skill I know BC provides to set its students up for success in the entrepreneurial community, and over the past year we’ve noticed more and more of these motivated students take on the Boston startup scene.”

Now, Cook is giving early-stage ventures with ties to BC a new form of funding to kick-start their entry into the Boston startup scene. He is managing director of the Maroon & Gold Fund, the latest affinity venture fund designed to support

early-stage startups by Boston College students and alumni searching for funding.

“BC has an understated reputation for entrepreneurship,” Cook said. “There has been an impressive number of startups coming out of the university in the last year alone.”

The Maroon & Gold Fund is currently raising $2 million in funding, and aims to make 12 to 18 investments over the next year. Under Cook’s leadership, the venture capital firm Launch Angels is creating funds for specific groups that want to invest in BC-based companies.

“People are really proud of where you worked and where you went to school,” Cook said. “There

See Fund, B8

Gubernatorial candidates face last campaign stretch

BY MAGGIE SULLIVAN Heights Staff

ALEX GAYNOR / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

At the Intercollegiate March Against Police Brutality, students protested at City Hall.

Protests against police brutality hit city streets

BY RYAN TOWEY Metro Editor At least for the moment, the girl wants nothing to do with the crowd congregating in Boston’s Public Garden.

In a pink skirt with white polka dots, she walks toward a pile of leaves—her father follows, but the two are not here to play on this early Saturday afternoon.

Out of the father’s backpack juts a picket sign, featuring a black woman’s face.

“Renisha McBride,” the sign reads. “You are not forgotten.”

Dozens of signs like his rise above the gathering crowd. Rekia Boyd, you are not forgotten. John Crawford, you are not forgotten. Burrell RamseyWhite. Denis Reynoso. Michael Brown.

All, at one time, victims of alleged racial profiling and police brutality.

I NSIDE METRO THIS ISSUE

With mild temperatures and blue skies, last Saturday was an October afternoon ripe for the city’s consumers to descend on Newbury St.—but the crowd gathered in the Public Garden, led by Black Lives Matter Boston, wanted to disrupt exactly that.

“We need to get the word out about racial profiling,” said demonstrator Ahalia Persaud, a student at Simmons College. Marching on a high-profile street like Newbury, she added, would likely bring strong attention to the issue.

According to the event’s Facebook page, titled “Newbury Street Shutdown,” the event was organized in solidarity with Ferguson October, a direct response to Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Mo., in August, and the Black

See Protests, B8

Here’s What To Do For Halloween

During the final Governor’s Debate before the Massachusetts gubernatorial election, Democratic nominee Martha Coakley was asked why her Republican counterpart Charlie Baker was leading by three points in the polls in a predominantly liberal state. She preferred to keep it optimistic.

“I’m confident we’re going to win on Nov. 4,” she said.

A recent Boston Globe endorsement of Baker, however, may suggest otherwise.

The Globe based its endorsement on Coakley’s reluctance “to spell out an issue agenda—raising the possibility that, if she is elected, the public discussion might drift toward whichever priorities legislative leaders decided to emphasize.”

In its endorsement, The Globe highlighted Coakley’s ambiguous position on education in comparison with Baker’s, which it said “would provide full-throated support for the kind of high standards, accountability, and innovation that will give all children in Massachusetts the opportunities they deserve.” The idea is that Baker would serve as a conservative balance to the strong Democratic majorities in both houses.

Although The Globe was friendly to Baker, he did not leave Monday night’s debate in Worcester unscathed. Both the moderator, Latoyia Edwards of NECN, and Coakley asked him about his potentially unethical behavior while working in the private sector. Edwards inquired about Baker’s alleged pay-to-play scheme with the New Jersey Republican Party in 2011, which Democrats have tried to connect to the Cambridge-based firm at which he worked. The suspicion originates from a $15 million deal the New Jersey pension fund entered into with Baker’s firm, General Catalyst, after Baker’s $10,000 donation to the

The Metro section breaks down the best things to do in the area for Halloween this weekend...............................................................................B9

Republican Governor’s Association, which New Jersey Governor Chris Christie chairs.

“I’ve been completely transparent about this issue since the beginning,” Baker said, and when asked if he regretted making the donation, he said, “Well, yeah.”

When Coakley asked about his $1.7 million salary raise at Harvard Pilgrim while the company was losing jobs, he grew more aggressive.

“You bring this issue up all the time,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why people do not go into public service, because of this sort of nonsense.”

Baker is referring to Coakley’s similar question in the previous debate, in Chicopee on Thursday, Oct. 23, in which she used his handling of employment at Harvard Pilgrim to suggest that he is a candidate who puts the bottom line before the people. “[The company] went into receivership and we had to make some tough decisions to rescue it,” he responded at the time, asking Coakley what she would have done to save the company in their next debate. Coakley asserted that not taking a salary increase would have been a good start, but Baker remained steadfast. “So you don’t have any suggestions on how you would have dealt with the problems?” he asked.

While Baker insists he is the candidate who will help state government work more efficiently, Coakley’s ethos has been based mostly in assertions that she is on the side of the people. Despite differences, the two candidates agree on a wide range of issues, including the need to construct new transmission lines to import electricity, devote at least 1 percent of the state’s operating budget to environmental issues, the rolling back of the income tax to 5 percent, and longer school days. Baker has also broken from party lines

See Election, B8

Boston Foodie: MAST’ ..........................................................................B9 Column: Bennet’s Banter......................................................................................B8