The Heights 09/05/2013

SCENE

2013 FOOTBALL PREVIEW

Of Monsters and Men is one of many bands coming to Boston this fall, C3

Junior Spiffy Evans strives for consistency, the secondary continues to improve, five seniors lead a final bowl charge, and more as the Eagles kick off the 2013 season under new head coach Steve Addazio.

FALL ARTS GUIDE

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The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College

established

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

Vol. XCIV, No. 25

Athletics works on Gold Pass kinks

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Heights Editor

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

While the stands were packed on Saturday, some students had trouble with the Gold Pass.

The first thing the members of the Boston College athletic department did on Tuesday morning after the long weekend was meet with athletic director Brad Bates to debrief on the season-opening football game against Villanova. Although plenty of things worked as planned, like the new Eagle Walk and the return of the live eagle, the new Gold Pass for student season tickets needed fixing.

“This was definitely on top of the priority list,” said Associate Athletics Director of Media Relations Chris Cameron.

On Saturday, 30 percent of the students

that entered Alumni Stadium arrived before 11:45 a.m., but 70 percent of them arrived after, forming long lines at Gate A. More than 500 Gold Passes were sold on Saturday, with 200 of them coming between 10 a.m. and noon, according to Cameron. The department did not immediately respond to questions about the total number of students at the game or the total number of Gold Passes sold.

Some students who arrived after 11:45 a.m. did not make it into Alumni Stadium until the end of the first quarter. Gold Passes for a small number of students were not activated on IDs yet, while others would not register right away when swiped. Sorting out these issues caused the lines to back up.

Students whose IDs were not scanning were sent to a side table where they gave their information to a BC staff member working a computer. Eventually, students were told to just give their Eagle ID numbers and were allowed to enter the stadium.

While the athletic department is encouraging students to arrive earlier for Friday’s 8 p.m. kickoff, they have also made changes around Gate A to speed up the process.

The physical set up around Gate A where the lines form will be altered for game day.

There were 10 access points and 10 scanners for the Villanova game, but there will be 16 access points and 16 scanners tomorrow

See Gold Pass, A3

Alcohol and drug matrix discontinued

Case around Belfast tapes continues

More discretion will be afforded to RDs

BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor Editor’s Note: This story is part of an ongoing series about the subpoenas of the Belfast Project.

BY DEVON SANFORD Assoc. News Editor Beginning this fall, the Dean of Students Office (DSO) will be implementing a revised student conduct system for alcohol and behavioral policies.

The DSO has removed the previously used drug and alcohol matrix, in which students were held to a rigid structure of sanctions for policy violations. The new student conduct process will follow a mutual resolution process based largely on the discretion of students’ Residential Directors (RDs).

“There was a fair amount of dissatisfaction with the way the conduct policy was operating,” said Dean of Students Paul Chebator. “Some of that dissatisfaction was centered on the ‘matrix,’ which was the strict guideline for sanctioning. Students were unhappy about it because they thought the sanctions were too rigid. I don’t think the staff was any happier than the students.

[The matrix] eliminated the possibility of allowing hearing officers to make judgment calls around personal circumstances.”

The new student conduct process, which will be considered a “transitional change,” uses sanctioning guidelines.

This change in conduct allows residential life staff members to resolve a reported incident or complaint based on the specific circumstance, rather than a community standards matrix.

Students who would have previously faced disciplinary probation for minor violations will now be facing less severe sanctions.

“There is consistency within the new policy,” Chebator said. “Everyone is being addressed. How that matter is resolved, however, is based on each circumstance.”

The changes in the student conduct system began last fall.

“The dissatisfaction seen within students and staff seemed to coincide with an administrative review we did last fall and spring,” Chebator said. “The review consisted of a self-study. The office gathered a number of students, faculty, and administrators to obtain feedback on the system. We wrote a report.

Then we had three external experts on student conduct come to campus and interview everyone involved—from students all the way up to the vice presidents of the University.”

During the administrative assessment, Christine Davis, Boston College’s former assistant dean of student conduct and head of the review, left her position. Davis’ absence disrupted the review process and as a result, the DSO chose to implement only certain features of the new conduct system.

“One of the things we wanted to implement this fall was the elimination of the matrix and the development of a

See Sanctions Update, A3

IMAGE COURTESY OF THE OFFICE OF NEWS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

GASSON QUAD ADOPTS NEW LOOK

EMILY FAHEY / HEIGHTS STAFF

Architectual rendering of proposed changes to the Quad (above); the current view looking across the Quad toward Fulton and Lyons (below).

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor After students left campus to go their myriad ways for the summer, construction teams geared up to work on several different parts of the campus. The most noticeable changes for students returning to the Heights this fall are the massive renovations to the Academic Quad in Middle Campus.

“The work started right after Commencement,” said Vice President of Facilities Management Daniel Bourque. “They moved trees, excavated sites, brought [the Quad] down to grade, and located the utilities.”

This work went on all summer and was the culmination of the campus landscaping renovations that began with the lawn in front of Stokes Hall and O’Neill Plaza. “[The Quad renovations] serve as a

connection between Stokes and O’Neill Plaza,” Bourque said. “It is a link to create a unified campus.”

As a part of the renovations, Bourque said that they removed trees that were “ill or diseased” and brought in new red oak and crab apple trees. They were able to save the linden tree in front of Lyons Hall.

In addition to the horticultural

See Construction, A3

On Friday, May 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston issued a ruling with regard to interviews from the Belfast Project, Boston College’s oral history project on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The interviews in question were subpoenaed in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Justice in pursuance with the Treaty Between the Government of the United States and the Government of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters, or Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (U.S.-UK MLAT). UK authorities requested the tapes in connection with an investigation by the Police Services of Northern Ireland (PSNI) into the 1972 death of Jean McConville.

U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young, who originally reviewed the tapes to determine their relevancy to the McConville investigation, ordered that 85 of the interviews, conducted with seven former members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), be turned over to the UK authorities. The University contested the decision, and Judge Juan R. Torruella of the First Circuit Court reexamined the subpoenas. Torruella determined that only 11 segments of the 85 interviews were relevant and needed to be released. “[The district court] abused its discretion in ordering the production of a significant number of interviews that only contain information that is in

See Belfast Project, A3

Barbara Jones begins work as University’s new VPSA

BY ELEANOR HILDEBRANDT News Editor

After seven months without a vice president for student affairs (VPSA) on Boston College’s campus, Barbara Jones arrived on July 1 to begin work in her new position.

“I was looking for something different, and when I got the call about BC and started doing some research on it,” Jones said. “I was really attracted to the fact that it was the student affairs work that I loved doing, but with this extra system of values on top of it that goes even deeper than we would normally go in student affairs at a public university.”

Jones earned her masters degree from Indiana University and then moved on to work in student affairs at the University of Memphis. She then worked as the director of student activities for eight years at Minnesota State University-Mankato, concurrently earning her Ph.D. in educa-

tional administration from the University of Minnesota. Jones spent 10 years at Ball State University in Indiana, and then took on a broader range of responsibilities—including working with adaptive athletics for students with disabilities—as

the assistant chancellor of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Most recently, she finished the 2012-13 academic year at Miami University of Ohio, where she had worked as the vice president of the division of student affairs since 2008.

Jones is not the only administrator at BC with ties to Miami University—athletic director Brad Bates served as Miami University’s athletic director from 2002 to 2012. According to Bates, he and Jones interacted regularly at Miami University, as they both reported straight to the university president and worked directly with students. Although Bates, who joined the University last October, was not initially aware that Jones was considering the VPSA position at BC, he said that he found it easy to speak highly of the school, and was pleased when she took the position.

“She’s been trying to develop relationships with as many people as possible, so she’s been very busy,” Bates said. He added that they have spoken fairly frequently since Jones began at BC, and anticipates that the two will continue to work closely together, calling her knowledge of stu-

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Barbara Jones, pictured in her Moloney Hall office, joined the BC administration in July.

See Jones, A3

TopTHREE

THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

things to do on campus this week

1 2 3 Student Activities Fair

Football Game

Friday Time: all day Location: Linden Lane

Boston College organizations and offices will line Linden Lane on Friday to inform students about the numerous opportunities for extracurricular involvement on campus. The Class of 2017 is encouraged to come see what BC has to offer outside the classroom.

Courbet Exhibit Opening

Friday Time: 8 p.m.

Location: Alumni Stadium

The BC Eagles will take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the second home game this year in Alumni Stadium. One of BC’s rivals in the ACC, Wake Forest is also 1-0. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Sunday Time: 7 p.m.

Location: McMullen Museum

The official opening for the new McMullen exhibit on Gustave Courbet will take place from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday evening. The exhibit expands on an exhibit at the Royal Museums in Belgium and adds Courbet works from American collections.

FEATURED STORY

Maureen Kenny appointed Dean of Lynch School

BY ARIANA IGNERI Heights Editor A member of the Boston College faculty since 1988, Maureen E. Kenny was recently appointed the ninth Dean of the Lynch School of Education (LSOE)

by University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J. Kenny has served BC in a number of different roles over the years. She began as an assistant professor in counseling psychology and was eventually promoted, first to associate professor and then to fulltime professor, teaching both undergraduate and graduate students.

In 2007, Kenny became Associate Dean for Faculty and Academics of the Lynch School, and beginning in 2011, she acted as interim dean for two years. Her involvement at BC does not end there, though—Kenny also served as dissertation liaison, chair of the Department of Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology, and program director for M.A. and Ph.D. programs in counseling.

Considering her extensive history with BC, Kenny said her past has prepared her to successfully fulfill her new role as dean.

“I believe that I know the Lynch School and Boston College very well, and I am deeply committed to the mission of the school and the University,” she said.

Kenny said that her time at BC has enabled her to foster a diverse range of connections, both inside and outside of LSOE, which will prove beneficial

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN GILLOOLY

After two years as interim dean, Kenny has been appointed to the position permanently. to the job.

“I know the Lynch School students, their aspirations and concerns, and also, I know the faculty well and the strengths and perspectives that they bring to their work,” she said.

She discussed the advantages of her relationships with faculty in other disciplines, too, calling them “very important collaborators in advancing the work of our school.”

Kenny is not only well acquainted with the BC community and its concerns—her sense of awareness extends to local, national, and international issues in education and applied psychology, which provide the context for her work in LSOE.

Even with her comprehensive experience, though, Kenny recognizes that there will be certain obstacles to overcome in her position. “The challenge for the next two years will be to advance short-term goals and begin long range planning,” Kenny said, mentioning the current “process of strategic visioning” for the school.

“I am working with department chairs and faculty subcommittees and task forces on moving this forward,” she said when asked how she intended to achieve the goals for the Lynch School.

According to U.S. News & World Report, the Lynch School is currently ranked 19th in the United States, and Kenny said that continually innovating is of imperative

POLICE BLOTTER

8/30/13-9/4/13

Friday, August 30

Sunday, September 1

4:15 p.m. - A report was filed regarding alcohol confiscated from the More Hall lot.

1:56 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Hardey Hall.

Saturday, August 31 1:22 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an underage intoxicated BC student at Keyes Hall.

2:06 a.m. - A report was filed regarding vandalism in Fitzpatrick Hall.

11:26 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a party that reportedly violated a 209A restraining order in Shea Field.

1:24 p.m. - A report was filed regarding a subject who was ejected from Alumni Stadium for urinating in public.

3:31 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical assistance to a BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility from Ignacio Hall.

6:26 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an intoxicated BC student who was transported by cruiser to a medical facility from McElroy Commons.

8:34 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a protective custody in Cushing Hall.

Monday, September 2 12:16 a.m. - A report was filed regarding medical

College Corner NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY

BY ANDREW SKARAS Asst. News Editor Last week, the otherwise sleepy world of academia was shook up by President Barack Obama’s speech outlining his vision for higher education in America. Seeking a way to contain the exploding costs of college education, he outlined a plan to tie federal aid to college and student performance, according to The Chronicle for Higher Education.

His plan includes methods to prevent student loan debt from becoming overwhelming and to make repayment easier. In addition, Obama wants to advance new methods of learning, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs).

There has been, however, contention by congressional Republicans on the consequences of Obama’s plan.

There is uncertainty about whether or not his plan will actually make a college education more affordable.

The Chairman of the House of Rep-

importance to keeping the Lynch School at the forefront when it comes to both education and rankings.

“We are a great school and will continue to stay at the top,” Kenny said. “We are driven by a strong mission.”

In order to maintain the school’s impressive status, Kenny references several solutions, including “continuing to admit exceptionally talented students, hiring strong faculty, and providing students, staff, and faculty with the resources that they need to excel.”

Expounding further on the Lynch School’s standing among its peers, Kenny again alluded to the importance of generating strong and lasting relationships.

“Our relationships with school and community partners locally, nationally, and internationally are also a dimension of our strength,” she said. “These relationships will continue to be strong and will grow, as we build on our partnerships for educational purposes and seek to change the role of faculty scholarship in informing educational and social policy.”

Kenny also hopes to strengthen relationships with undergraduate and graduate LSOE alumni. As she works to encourage people to work together, she hopes that LSOE will make persistent progress under her guidance.

“We are in very good hands as we move forward,” said Diana Pullin, Lynch School professor of education law and public policy and LSOE dean from 198794, in a press release regarding Kenny’s new role. 

resentatives Education Committee, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), issued a statement after the President’s remarks with concerns that his plan could stifle and lead to price controls.

The highest ranking Republican on the Senate education committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), was worried about Washington becoming a kind of national school board, according to The Chronicle for Higher Education. In addition, budgetary concerns are a concern as well, as Obama’s plan has requested $1.25 billion in incentive grants.

As a part of his plan, Obama wants to create a system of college ratings to help students make enrollment decisions and to determine which schools receive federal aid. Some college lobbyists, however, have expressed concern over the imperfect data available for this rating system.

Another concern that some have expressed is that the system would encourage colleges to lower their standards. 

assistance provided to a BC student who was transported by ambulance to a medical facility.

1:14 a.m. - A report was filed regarding a suspicious circumstance in Vancerslice Hall.

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, September 3 3:23 a.m. - A report was filed regarding an incident of harassment.

Wednesday, September 4 3:23 a.m. - A report was filed regarding the arrest of a non-BC party for Criminal Tresspassing.

—Source: The Boston College Police Department

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

VOICES FROM THE DUSTBOWL “What was the funniest thing that happened on the first day of classes?”

“Someone came in late and Prof.

Duket just stared at him for five minutes.”

—Emily Lu, A&S ’17

“I ran into someone and dropped my books.”

—Klara Henry, A&S ’17

“A kid spilled water in front of everyone in Micro.”

—Laurence Brent, CSOM ’17

“Prof. McGowan chose his person to pick on for the rest of the year.”

—Andrew Xuan, CSOM ’17

The Heights

Thursday, September 5, 2013

A3

Controversy continues around Belfast Project recordings, interviewees Belfast Project, from A1 fact irrelevant to the subject matter of the subpoena,” Torruella said in the 29-page decision. He also stated that it was the duty of the courts, and not the federal government, to enforce, delay, or narrow the scope of subpoenas issued under MLAT. “We are pleased with the appeals court ruling which affirms our contention that the district court erred in ordering the production of 74 interviews that were not relevant to the subpoena,” said University Spokesman Jack Dunn in a statement. “This ruling represents a significant victory for Boston College in its defense of these oral history materials.”

After fighting the original subpoenas, BC has already handed over Belfast Project interviews from former IRA members Brendan Hughes and Dolours Price, both of whom are deceased.

Belfast Project director Ed Moloney, alongside Belfast Project researcher and former IRA member Anthony McIntyre, issued a joint statement shortly afterward in support of the ruling. “From the very

outset of the serving of these subpoenas over two years ago we have striven to resist completely the efforts by the PSNI, the British Home Office and the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain any and all interviews from the Belfast Project archive at Boston College,” the statement read. “The [First Circuit Court] said that only interviews that deal directly with the disappearance of Jean McConville can be handed over as opposed to the indiscriminate consignment of the entire contents of interviews with eight of our interviewees. We see this judgement as at least a partial indictment of the whole process.”

Following the First Circuit Court’s decision, the U.S. Department of Justice was given until early August to decide whether or not to accept the ruling.

Ultimately, a petition was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals to rehear the decision. “On August 22 Boston College filed an opposition to the government’s petition to revise the appeals court decision,” Dunn said. “This is where the case stands now.”

The Department of Justice’s contesta-

tion of the appeals court decision was not the only issue that Belfast Project faced over the summer. On July 29, The Belfast Telegraph reported that BC was unable to locate a coded key identifying three of the seven interviewees whose tapes are still the subject of the ongoing subpoena case. Moloney, who had been interviewed for the piece, asserted that the coded keys had been delivered to BC’s archivists while the project was underway, suggesting that BC historians were to blame for losing the key. He stated that after moving to New York in 2001, partway through the project’s duration, he was no longer in contact with either interviewee contracts or identification keys. Moloney further said that the transport of those documents from Ireland to the U.S.—a transaction which, by virtue of its sensitivity, had to be carried out in person rather than via post or the Internet—was the responsibility of University personnel.

Two days later, Burns Librarian Robert O’Neill responded to Moloney’s allegation in a letter that was also published

by The Belfast Telegraph. “As Ed Moloney

well knows, the materials were not lost; rather, they were never received, in clear violation of his contractual obligation,” O’Neill said in the letter. “Ed Moloney has consistently deflected any blame from himself onto me and Professor Thomas Hachey at Boston College. He has made several false allegations against me. The Belfast Project was an opportunity to record the stories of paramilitaries, which otherwise would have been lost to posterity. It was a noble effort.

It involved a great deal of work and risk for all concerned and it is sad to witness it devolve into a character assassination in which Ed Moloney refuses to accept responsibility for a project he himself was entrusted to manage.”

Moloney rejoined in an August 5 piece printed in the Telegraph, reiterating his statement that he was never in possession of the donor forms—the contracts that all Belfast Project participants were required to sign before being interviewed.

“Dr. O’Neill now accuses me of ‘a clear contractual violation’ by not providing the donor forms,” Moloney said in the piece. “But, if Boston College was in any

way concerned about any contractual violation, it failed to either raise the issue with me, or to take any action before the time limits expired for enforcing any obligations in 2012 … [BC] had the opportunity to complain of contractual breach as late as 2011 when the subpoenas were issued and it realised it did not have several donor agreements, but never once did so.” Moloney continued, repeating that as he was living in New York, O’Neill would have been responsible for handling the documents, and concluding that, “Since I never handled the forms, I could not lose them.”

The University maintains that Moloney is still obligated to identify the three participants in question, however. “Project Director Ed Moloney was contractually obligated to supply a key to Burns Librarian Robert O’Neill that identifies the interviewees,” Dunn said.

“Boston College’s Attorney Jeff Swope contacted Mr. Moloney’s attorney after the May 31 court ruling to request that he fulfill his contractual obligation.

Mr. Moloney has thus far declined the request.” n

Gold Pass begins inaugural year at BC Gold Pass, from A1 night. There will also be additional staff members on hand at the gate, as well as more technical support.

The rewards website for the Gold Pass is expected to launch today or tomorrow.

When the website is up, students will be able to track their rewards points online and see where they rank among the rest of the students with Gold Passes.

The Villanova football game was worth three points, and one point was given for arriving 30 minutes early. One point is also available for attending field hockey and women’s soccer tonight on Newton.

The Wake Forest game tomorrow is worth two points.

Rewards points will be used to determine which students get first access to tickets to high priority games. The first game when reward points will be used

to determine entrance is planned to be BC men’s hockey vs. Wisconsin on Friday Oct. 18.

The students with the most points up to when Conte Forum fills to capacity will be notified that they qualify for the game and can register their pass for entry. If there are still seats available, the point total will be lowered to include more students.

Gold Passes will remain on sale throughout the season. n

Matrix replaced with sanction guidelines Sanctions Update, from A1

alex gaynor / heights editor

Fume hoods were added along the walls of the rooms of the Merkert Chemistry Center and lab benches were redone as part of the building’s summer renovations.

Summer saw numerous on-campus renovations Construction, from A1 changes to the Quad, they also added granite sea walls and benches for students to use.

“We brought the same language of plantings, seating, and lighting to the Quad,” Bourque said. “It was important to have the campus architecture unified.”

“When we hired Sasaki & Associates, the nation’s foremost campus planner, they worked with us on the concept on planning a campus around linked quadrangles with pedestrian walkways that would enable free access from one end of the campus to the other,” said University Spokesman Jack Dunn. “The improvements with pedestrian access from the middle campus past Stokes, through the Quad, through O’Neill Plaza, is reflective of that architectural principle. When we revise the Lower Campus in the coming years, that same principle of linked quadrangles, with green grass and trees , and access through pedestrian walkways, will continue to hold true.”

In addition to the work on the Quad, a number of other projects on campus were completed over the summer. The two-year renovation project on St. Mary’s continued on schedule, as well, and is still slated for completion in December of 2014.

Conte Forum was one of the buildings that received construction attention over the summer. Prior to this summer, Kelley Rink, the lobby, and the associated side rooms were not airconditioned. Over the summer, air-conditioning and dehumidification equipment were added to the building.

“Before, we had to rent a dehumidi-

fier for the hockey games to eliminate fogging during the hockey games,” Bourque said. “We put a new 400-ton chiller on the roof above the band storage. It won’t be cost-cutting, but will give us better operational control.”

Major changes were made in the teaching labs within the Merkert Chemistry Center. Last semester, several of the lab classes ended in April, so that the construction could be finished by the start of this semester. Bourque said that three teaching labs on the first floor for general and analytical chemistry were renovated. The labs were completely reconfigured to give better sight lines for teaching and add new fume hoods above all of the lab stations.

Work was also done on the first floor of McElroy Commons. The lobby area outside of the bookstore was renovated and new couches and lamps, as well as wood paneling, were installed. Vending machines formerly in this area were moved to stand next to the Women’s Resource Center.

Other, smaller projects were also undertaken over the summer. Fire sprinkler upgrades took place in Rubenstein Hall and one half of the Mods, with the other half to be upgraded next summer.

Elevator upgrades took place in O’Neill Library and Gabelli Hall. The lounges in Williams Hall and Rubenstein Hall were also renovated. The roofing on the Shaw House, Duschesne Hall, and the former Alumni House was also repaired.

During the semester, Bourque said that work would be limited to non-disruptive back-end repairs and upgrades in the mechanical rooms. The facilities department is currently scoping out projects for Christmas break and next summer. n

series of sanctioning guidelines,” Chebator said. “Those sanction guidelines give the Resident Directors some flexibility in terms of how they respond to a situation.”

This summer, DSO held a fourhour training session for the campus RDs. The residential staff members were trained to mitigate incidents and avoid aggregating situations through a series of roleplaying and peer-to-peer exercises.

“The sanctions will be based on the RDs’ discretion,” Chebator said. “They are all adults; most of them have or are in the process of getting their masters’ degrees. I think a combination of their understanding of the mission of Boston College, their training, and their professional judgment will allow them to make good decisions.”

Students will now be granted a “mutual resolution process.” This process allows first-violation students to informally address an incident through conversation and mutual agreement, rather than a formal conduct process.

Students will, however, still have the right to refuse an informal hearing if they feel they are being treated unfairly.

In such cases, students will then attend a formal hearing led by a different RD, an assistant director, a dean, or a Stu-

dent Conduct Board.

“With the changes in the student conduct system, it will now be an entirely different situation if a group of kids are caught drinking a six pack of beers versus someone who has four

“We’re hoping to ... give students— through the opportunity to have informal decisions—the chance to really better understand why their behavior is being called on the table. ” - Paul Chebator Dean of Students or five cases of beers and a handle of vodka,” Chebator said. “A student’s punishment could now be an administrative warning and a conversation

with the RD … Hearing officers will also have the opportunity to refer students to mentors in a new ‘conversation partner’ program. Students will be able to have conversations with a faculty mentor, who will ask how they are doing, how they are adjusting to BC, what issues they are facing, and how they can help.”

Chebator plans to appoint a new associate dean of student conduct by October. In the meantime, the dean will oversee this year’s transitional changes. By next fall, Chebator hopes to have an established Office of Student Conduct, which will work to educate students and faculty on student policy and rewrite policies when changes are needed.

Chebator feels confident in the Student Conduct System changes.

“I think there is a culture of fear in the residence halls,” Chebator said. “So we’re hoping to lessen that fear and give students—through the opportunity to have informal decisions—the chance to really better understand why their behavior is being called on the table.

“We also hope to give them some strategies so they do not wind up in that position again … It’s really about making good decisions. And I think if we can help students make good decisions we have really succeeded in what we’re trying to do.” n

New VPSA outlines goals for University Jones, from A1 dent affairs and education “a tremendous resource” of which he plans to take advantage. “Barb Jones genuinely cares about students and is in the profession for very noble reasons,” Bates said. “I just think she’s a terrific addition to Boston College.”

University Spokesman Jack Dunn joined Bates in praise of Jones. “Barb Jones is a student-centered administrator with great energy, experience, and vision in student affairs that has energized her division,” Dunn said. “We are delighted to have her leading our student outreach and look forward to our students having an opportunity to work with her.”

Although Jones finished out the last academic year at Miami University, she accepted the position at BC at the end of April. “With the Jesuit, Catholic value system on top of what we were already doing, it really was attractive to me,” Jones said. “The scope of what I would be doing here, the reputation of the school, lots of good things about the students—I called Brad Bates and said, ‘Tell me about Boston College’ … he loves it here and was very complimentary. That was what interested me initially.” Jones said that as she got to meet people at the University, she saw things happening at BC that she thought were exciting, as well as areas in which she saw ways to improve.

One area Jones plans to begin work on right away is career services. The director’s position is currently open, and she would like to tailor the ser-

vices so that they both complement the University’s philosophy and suit student needs.

“We want to take a real hard look at what career services is doing, how we’re providing services to students,” Jones said. “Can we find better ways to relate to alumni and get them more engaged with our current students as they start looking for jobs? Can we increase the number of internships that we’re offering? Career services, in the last five to 10 years, nationally, has become a really important element of what colleges are doing.”

Jones’ work in the coming years will also include addressing the issue of women’s low self-confidence that was highlighted by a study the Office of Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment carried out last year.

“We’re looking at Kostka, because it’s our only all-female hall, to see what kind of programming things we can do there, but we need to find out more information from that study as to why the women feel less confident going out,” Jones said. “I have been talking to the Women’s [Resource] Center folks some, and I’ve been talking to Kelli Armstrong, the vice president of planning and assessment, who did the study. We’re definitely interested in that, and looking at what we can do to promote women in more leadership positions.”

In terms of diversity issues on campus, Jones has also met with the staff of the Office of AHANA Student Programs (OASP)—she mentioned that a new program on cultural competency will

be launched in residence halls this year, and said that she plans to build on that going forward.

Over the summer, Jones also met with students from different groups on campus. She spoke with the RAs during their training, and also met with the sophomore facilitators of the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP). Additionally, she will be meeting with UGBC President Matt Nacier, A&S ’14, every other week during the school year, and plans to continue former VPSA Patrick Rombalski’s tradition of having dinner with students from various groups.

Students who are already highly involved, however, are not Jones’ only focus. She will not only be holding open office hours on Fridays, but also has plans to form a vice president’s advisory council, drawing from students with whom she would not normally interact.

“I get a lot of opportunity to interact with student leaders on campus, but what about the students who are members?” Jones said. “What about the students that may not be as engaged as leaders? I would love to be able to pull from that group of students and hear what their perceptions are.”

Overall, Jones is looking forward to interacting with students, and learning what changes at the University are most needed. “I’m interested in learning from [the students] how formation takes place, as they look at it, from the Jesuit, Catholic tradition, and how we can do more with that,” she said. n

The Heights

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Monday, September 5, 2013

Foreign New interdisciplinary minor offered in medical humanities relations

By Eleanor Hilderbrandt News Editor

Daniel Lee Since I was 16, I’ve been abroad alone in the U.S. Previously, my parents dropped me and my little brother alone in Australia and New Zealand for a couple of months so that we could gain some global perspectives when we were only 12 and 11. Clearly different from the local perspectives, my point of view on the world as a Korean was unique for quite a long time.

After six and half years of studying in the U.S., the 178 days of my abroad experience in Germany last semester reminded me how Americanized I had become. Since I speak languages with an American accent, a good number of Europeans and Latin Americans thought I was an American before I told them I am a South Korean citizen. I had mixed feelings about that after the years of trying to get rid of foreign accents and blend into American communities. Having experienced American racism at high schools and even at Boston College, such efforts to hide my national identity were necessary for survival, and I lost an objective filter that used to differentiate myself from the rest of my American friends. And, until I landed in Munich, I almost believed the perspective that the U.S. was the best in everything in the world.

Germany is a country many U.S. citizens would find comfortable, with American music, movies, and products everywhere in public. Most of the Germans I met also could speak in English along with other foreign languages. Looking at posters of President Barack Obama in Berlin, I kept the perception that Germans love everything about America, even its president, until I regained my international perspective.

To generalize, I got the impression that Germans love America, but they dislike Americans. The aversion is not only limited to Germans, but also widely shared with Brazilians, Chinese, Croatians, Czechs, English, French, Irish, Italians, Koreans, Macedonians, Polish, Slovakians, Spanish, Swedish, etc. Just as many Americans and Europeans make fun of Asian tourist stereotypes, many non-U.S. citizens do see the stereotyped American attitude as the norm.

Most common American attitudes—if you didn’t know—include: “America is the best” and “I don’t care.”

Based on my observations, many Americans keep their “best” status among their European friends. Then they begin to say “I don’t care” when Europeans start asking “why” about American behaviors and thinking.

For instance, friends from Brazil and Mexico told me: “Americans think that they are the only Americans.” Regardless of the political and historical usage of “America” for the U.S.A., the South Americans’ perspective was quite refreshing. And, I couldn’t agree more to the complaints of many Europeans and Latin Americans.

Don’t get me wrong. I like my American friends, who I will have to leave when I graduate from BC, because I now understand them.

What those Europeans don’t have is more detailed knowledge about the way Americans are. Just as many Americans are ignorant of foreign cultures, many Europeans and Asians are ignorant of the detailed backstories of the U.S. The source of anti-Americanism often comes from the realpolitik of the U.S. foreign policy that has overwhelmed the sovereignties of numerous countries in the name of international justice or international constructivism. Regardless of American interest or peaceful purpose, American interventions around the world have expanded the anti-American sentiments. And, such U.S. foreign policy has shaped the behaviors of Americans abroad. Numerous American students disregard the fact that America’s current dominance doesn’t mean they can act as if they conquered the whole world.

I hope more students go abroad and understand why much of the rest of the world dislikes Americans The quality of citizens of the world’s most powerful country must be learned through education and real experience.

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

Medical Humanities, Health, and Culture (MHHC), the University’s newest interdisciplinary minor, launches its two-year pilot program this semester after the Education Policy Council (EPC) approved the pilot last spring.

Amy Boesky, a professor in the English department, is directing the minor.

Boesky spent the summer setting up the minor’s website and coordinating further with faculty in order to set up a list of courses which will count toward the minor. During the 2013-14 school year, students can choose from select courses in biology, communications, economics, English, philosophy, psychology, and sociology, as well as a few courses in the School of Theology and Ministry. In order to complete the minor, students must take courses from at least three different departments, including two that are outside their major.

Boesky is not the only professor with a central role in the MHHC minor.

Four other faculty members—Rev. James Keenan, S.J., in the theology department; Clare O’Connor, in the biology department; Martin Summers, in the history department; and Sara Moorman, in the sociology department—join her to make up the curriculum committee.

“In addition to our core and affiliated faculty, we have a smaller Curriculum Committee that works together to select courses from different departments for the new minor,” Boesksy said.

“We collaborate on decisions about curricular design, with representation from the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities.”

Beyond those five, a number of other faculty members are also associated with the minor. Thirteen core faculty and 14 affiliated faculty from a variety of departments are listed on the MHHC website as teaching relevant courses. Two graduate assistants are also supporting the minor this year.

The MHHC minor is 18 credits, with two of six courses taken up by an introductory class and a senior elec-

Students launch first Make-A-Wish club

By Jennifer Heine Heights Staff Boston College will become the first institution in Massachusetts to boast a self-sustaining program of the Make-A-Wish foundation as Wishmakers on Campus BC makes its debut at the Student Activities Fair on Friday. The club, founded by Lauren Gray, A&S ’14, and Chelsea Healey, CSOM ’14, hopes to kick off its first year as a Registered Student Organization (RSO) with a series of fundraisers and other programs to support the Make-A-Wish branch of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The Make-A-Wish foundation, established in 1980 after an Arizona 7-year-old diagnosed with terminal leukemia expressed the wish to be a police officer, describes its mission simply: “Wishes make life better for kids with life-threatening medical conditions.”

With the help of volunteers, donors, and fundraisers, the organization seeks to grant the wishes of young people diagnosed with such conditions. Inspired both by this mission and by their own experiences with Make-A-Wish, the seniors decided to do more to support the foundation here at BC. “I interned in the summer of 2011 with one of the chapters of Make-A-Wish in the Hudson Valley, and I saw that BC didn’t have a branch,” Gray said. “I was put in touch with Chelsea, and we’ve been working together ever since to start one.” Healey’s experience with the foundation. “In high school, one of my friends was involved in Make-A-Wish, which is how I got involved,” she said.

Once back at school, the pair worked to turn their ambition into a reality, although the process has been a long one. “We are a service organization, so we started the organization through the Volunteer Service Learning Center,” Gray said. “They really helped us to get off the ground. The organization was just approved this summer, but we’ve been working on it for two years. So this project has been a long time coming.”

Right now, the club consists only of a seven-member editorial board, but Gray and Healey hope to expand. “At the Student Activi-

ties Fair, we’ll have a fountain for people to make a wish into,” Gray said. “It’s a cute way to publicize the organization, and hopefully get some spare change. All of it will be sent to the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Make-A-Wish foundation.”

The Wishmakers hope especially to recruit freshmen, even reserving an E-board position for one. “We want to make sure that the club continues after we graduate,” Healey said.

“Aside from fundraising, we want to raise awareness of the Make-AWish foundation at BC.” According to Gray, they already have a busy year planned. “We have several events planned for this year,” she said. “We’ll have a speaker, a BC alum, and we’re hoping to have a Make-A-Wish family come. We’ll also have a powder puff game in November—that will be our big fundraiser. We’re also hoping to participate in the Walk for Wishes, which is one of the biggest fundraisers of the MakeA-Wish foundation. We would need transportation, since there isn’t one right in our area, but if enough people were interested in attending, that would be really exciting.”

Gray and Healey emphasized that all of their work will support not only the Make-A-Wish foundation, but specifically young people in the area. “We’re connected with the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Massachusetts/Rhode Island, so we need to work with them to get approval for our fundraising ideas and other projects,” Gray said.

“I want to stress that the MakeA-Wish foundation that we are connected to is the Massachusetts/Rhode Island branch,” Healey said. “So all of the kids we help are in Massachusetts or Rhode Island. Right now we’re looking to sponsor a Newton kid.” She said that the goal of the club is to raise $7,500, which is the average cost of a child’s wish.

“Usually how it works is a fraternity or sorority, or some other pre-existing organization, contacts the Make-A-Wish foundation and puts on specific events to support a wish. We are a little different in that we are a self-sustaining club—all of our programs go toward Make-A-Wish,” Healey said. n

tive, which will be accompanied by a 25-page final paper. Students are encouraged to group their four remaining electives around one of five thematic clusters: global/public health; values and ethics; mind and body; health care delivery; or medical narrative, writing, and representation.

According to Boesky, students from a variety of majors have been contacting her about the minor throughout the summer, and about 20 students have already signed on to the minor or are in the process of talking with her to figure out a course plan. As the minor is still in its pilot phase, Boesky said that the number of students would likely be capped around 60. She noted, though, that not all those spots will be taken this semester, as she intends to reserve some spaces for second-semester freshmen.

The introductory course will be taught for the first time in the spring.

“The Intro course will include guest faculty from a number of departments, including Psychology, Theology, Communications, Sociology, and

the Law School,” Boeksy said. “We’ll consider what medical humanities is. Through a range of texts, we’ll treat topics such as the medical gaze, conceptions of illness and health, pain and representation. We’ll read texts by social scientists and accounts by health care practitioners (nurses and CNAs as well as hospice workers and doctors) in all phases of their training.

We’ll also read memoirs and essays by individuals who have experienced chronic illness or significant disease, families dealing with illness or death, etc. I’m very much looking forward to teaching this course.”

Alongside the courses that are available to those in the minor, Boesky and her colleagues are also planning several events that will be open to the general student population. Alongside Cathy Reed, associate dean in the Connell School of Nursing (CSON), she set up a reading group, which will be held on three Mondays this semester. Each session will deal with short narrative pieces related to medical and health issues. Additionally,

the minor will co-host a symposium on narrative, genetics, and identity with the Institute for the Liberal Arts (ILA) on Nov. 21-22, with Columbia University’s Rita Charon giving the keynote address. Boesky also mentioned that MHHC would look into inviting speakers and co-sponsoring a number of talks, on issues such as food nutrition, addiction, global health, and grief and depression. “We’re going to hold some introductory meetings, and we talked about the minors forming a planning and programming committee,” Boesky said. “The hope is that the minors can help to decide who they want to bring to campus, and that since they’re getting in on the ground floor of the minor, they can be part of thinking about experiences they’d like to have.”

Boesky will be holding meetings with interested students every Monday. More information about the minor, including contact details and event schedules, can be found at http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/ schools/cas/medhumanities.html. n

CLASSIFIEDS Thursday, January 17, 2013

THE HEIGHTS THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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

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

Takeout can eat up your savings.

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

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

A5 A5

The Heights

A6

Gold Pass is a welcome and long-awaited change

Thursday, September 5, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

-Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The ease of using IDs as tickets will increase attendance and improve the BC athletics experience Among numerous changes made by the athletic department over the summer—including increased parking for football games, the return of a live eagle mascot, and the revamping of the traditional Eagle Walk—the addition of the Gold Pass has garnered perhaps the most attention.

Marketed by the department as an “all-access pass to Boston College Athletics,” the Gold Pass was on sale all summer, and its results were clearly visible last weekend during the football home opener against Villanova.

For the first time in recent memory, the student section was packed full of students for more than just a quarter or two. Even with the onset of rain and a seven-point BC deficit during half time, students remained in the section for the majority of the game, and were rewarded with a win—giving BC its first winning record in more than two and a half years.

While some of this might be attributed to the annual popularity of the first football game, the convenience of the Gold Pass, which allows students to swipe their Eagle ID to enter Alumni Stadium, and the affordability of the pass—only $175 for the chance at tickets to all BC sports—likely played a role, as well.

The convenience of the Gold Pass is certainly a welcome change from the archaic paper tickets of years past. BC has lagged behind the nation’s leaders in creating an electronic form of ticketing for many years, and credit should go to new athletic director Brad Bates for envisioning change in the department, and to the many supporting athletic department employees who were willing to work hard to make that change a reality.

The self-professed goal of the athletic department in creating the Gold Pass was to create true “Superfans”—stu-

dents who attend a variety of sports, not just the most popular or the ones they like the most. If the Gold Pass is successful in one area, it will likely be in encouraging students to go to a variety of sporting events, simply by making it much easier for them to do so.

Students who traditionally only attend one sport, many of whom were upset by the elimination of individual sport season tickets, should make an effort to attend at least a few games of other sports—they might find the experience more enjoyable than they expected.

The newly introduced rewards system also encourages a variety of attendance. Points are awarded for games in each sport—for example, the Villanova game was three points, with an additional point awarded for arriving 30 minutes early. The number of points each student has will give them priority in selecting tickets for big games, like basketball against Duke or ice hockey in the Beanpot. If the goal is to encourage attendance at sporting events, putting Beanpot tickets on the line will likely be an effective, though perhaps controversial, way to do so.

While the Gold Pass is a welcome addition to student culture at BC, it does not come without new challenges.

The transition to electronic tickets this past weekend was not perfect. Many students’ Eagle IDs failed to swipe properly, even if they had purchased Gold Passes over the summer, making lines—especially right around kickoff—prohibitively long. It is imperative that the swiping issues be resolved to ensure sustained attendance at games.

Despite some controversy, the Gold Pass is undoubtedly a step in the right direction for BC athletics that points to a much more hopeful and exciting future than the experience to which BC’s students and alumni have become accustomed.

New conduct system could allow for fairer sanctions The new guidelines no longer outline minimum sanctions, giving RDs greater discretion After undergoing an administrative review process that spanned the 2012-13 school year, the Dean of Students Office (DSO) began this academic calendar with an important change in policy: the alcohol matrix has been replaced with a set of sanctioning guidelines, which the DSO has called “transitional changes.”

The matrix, which received much criticism, particularly at the end of last semester, dictated minimum sanctions for a variety of different conduct offenses, such as underage possession and consumption of alcohol. Due to the broad descriptions of punishable offenses, students in vastly different situations were frequently issued nearly identical sanctions. The matrix did not adequately take into account degrees of cooperation demonstrated by students, or the amount of alcohol present at their documentation. The new guidelines grant Resident Directors (RDs) far greater discretion, allowing for a much fairer implementation of sanctions.

For example, under the guidelines, RDs have the option to assign students who commit a very minor offense no sanction other than a required conversation with the RD and an administrative warning. The freedom granted to RDs to determine the seriousness of the offense can serve to make sanctions more about education than punishment, which has long been the goal of the DSO. In addition, a frequent criticism of the matrix was that it did not distinguish between the consumption of different types and quantities of alcohol. If, under the new policy, those who consume alcohol in a safer manner receive a correspondingly less severe sanction than those who binge drink, the guidelines will have served to emphasize the importance of safe drinking—a message communicated to freshmen so frequently in their first

few days at Boston College during RD meetings and through AlcoholEdu. In addition, the new Conversation Partners Program pairs certain students who have been issued sanctions with a volunteer member of the faculty or administration with whom to talk. The program promises to provide continued mentorship to students, if those students so choose, and stresses the educational goals of the DSO. Another positive development is the ongoing formation of an Office of Student Conduct, which the DSO hopes to have in place by next fall. This department, which would be within the DSO and would be headed by an Associate Dean of Student Conduct, demonstrates the DSO’s willingness to continue hearing the voices of students and revising the conduct system if problems arise.

One potential problem with the guidelines is the extensive power they grant RDs. In order to create a conduct system that can better respond to each student’s individual case, the policy had to place more power in the hands of those whose job it is to assess each situation. The DSO has sought to temper this almost unrestricted jurisdiction, however, with several hours of training for each RD, including role playing and lists of talking points, and the implementation of a more accessible appeals process for students who feel they have received unfair consequences.

For the new guidelines system to work as planned, students must be aware of their right to appeal and do so when they feel it is justified. Dean of Students Paul Chebator has stressed that he does not want the alcohol policy to be a fight between students and their RDs, and this can be realized if both sides feel that their voice is being heard during disciplinary hearings.

Heights

The

The Independent Student Newspaper of Boston College Established 1919 David Cote, Editor-in-Chief Jamie Ciocon, General Manager Joseph Castlen, Managing Editor

Editorial

Kendra Kumor, Copy Editor Eleanor Hildebrandt, News Editor Austin Tedesco, Sports Editor Michelle Tomassi, Features Editor Sean Keeley, Arts & Review Editor Tricia Tiedt, Metro Editor Mary Rose Fissinger, Opinions Editor Samantha Costanzo, Special Projects Editor Graham Beck, Photo Editor Lindsay Grossman, Layout Editor

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Letters to the Editor UGBC welcomes, encourages greater student involvement The Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) has long been criticized for being an opaque organization—fixated with maintaining its own agenda—contrary to the purported needs of the student body. If anything, the most recent general meeting of the Student Assembly demonstrates that a new student government is open for business—rededicated to actually listening to student concerns. Rather than acting as a rubber stamp (no small feat considering that previous legislatures regarded “nay” votes as anathema), the Student Assembly spent a full two hours in heated deliberation—regarding matters as weighty as alcohol and conduct policy to inducing greater transparency in UGBC expenditures.

This is unprecedented. Never before has there been such a diversity of opinion or debate regarding these matters. UGBC is beginning to slough off its reputation as a byzantine behemoth and incrementally become the premier forum for what is rapidly becoming the premier Jesuit, Catholic university. The open-door that will be available to any member of the community means that

the future of this government is in many ways an open-book—requiring the input of many student authors.

This open-door policy allows for more spirited debate between different parties, due deliberation and interaction among members of the executive and legislative branches, and an opportunity for the entire student body (including The Heights) to take a more active role in shaping student policy advocacy. Rightfully so, the extended debate schedule of two weeks allows for interested parties such as The Heights to also shape legislation. Such behavior is not only allowed, but I highly encourage it. This UGBC is eager to listen to the diverse opinions of many—for it is from this community that we gain our legitimacy and purpose. Help us become better servant leaders by pressuring us and becoming more active in lobbying your government.

Matt Alonsozana Executive Vice President of UGBC A&S ’14

Former editors celebrate BC’s new live mascot

For the first time in nearly a half-century, Boston College’s football stadium will play host to a live carnivorous raptor on game days this season, and we four former Heights editors think this should be cause for great and raucous celebration. We solemnly hope that Mods are positively shuddering with ornithologic glee. Apparently there’s going to be some sort of competition on Twitter to name the 9-year-old eagle that will preside over Alumni Stadium, driving the cold shiv of fear into the hearts of our foes. Let’s make the name good.

The Heights knows something of the glory of the eagle as mascot, having sponsored the idea from the beginning. While a scribbling Heightsman by the name of J. Robert ‘Bo’ Brawley, BC ’20, would claim to have done up the first drawing of the eagle, it was Rev. Edward J. McLaughlin, way back in the second year of the paper’s existence, who suggested the bird as a symbol of school spirit. As Father Ed explained in the pages of this

newspaper, the eagle symbolized “majesty, power, and freedom.”

Now that we have our eagle back, a few other suggestions for traditions in need of institutional or student support: the dressing of the St. Ignatius statue in a hula skirt, the purchase of a large bell to hang in Alumni and ring after touchdowns, and the reinstatement of unrestricted access to the upper levels of the O’Connell House during Fleabag shows.

Ever to excel,

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

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.

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Matthew DeLuca BC ’11 David Givler BC ’11 John O’Reilly BC ’11 Joseph Zaleski BC ’10

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The Heights

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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No place like CoRo

Eleanor Sciannella Welcome Back! - As we embark on this third day of classes, and you all have most likely safely emerged from the period of endless recitation of name, year (a word whose usage in association with yourself undoubtedly still brings with it a tinge of disbelief and, for sophomores new found coolness but for seniors early onset nostalgia), major, and hometown, we wish you the best of luck with the forthcoming days as actual lectures take the place of light syllabus reading and early dismissal. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we’d like to comment on some of the new changes that awaited us upon our return to the Heights.

School Pet - First and foremost, a warm welcome to the newest member of our community: the live eagle. We’re not sure if we are quite as excited about this development as the good folks at BC Interruption, but we certainly understand the sentiment, and we expect massive numbers of profile pictures featuring the yet unnamed eagle to grace our news feeds in the near future.

Miracle in Alumni - Congrats to the football team for kicking off the season with an actual win! Although it took us awhile to remember what seeing our football team win looked like, once it dawned upon us what was happening, there was nothing but jubilation in the stands of Alumni.

Which leads us to our second congratulations: all the Superfans who turned out for the game. Maybe the combined powers of Addazio, good attendance, and the power of Jesus Christ instilled in the team at their pre-game masses will help us win a game or two this season.

Questionable Quad - Now for the not so great surprises: First, the new quad, which looks suspiciously identical to both O’Neill Plaza and Stokes Green. It’s becoming difficult to distinguish one triangle of grass from another. Sure, it seems bigger now and yes, it probably reduces traffic when what seems like the entire student body migrates at once from Lower Campus to the Chocolate Bar, but we liked the gnarled and bent over trees, smell and all. The bizarre boulders peeking out of the earth charmed us. Plus, how will we find out which Acapella groups are having their concerts any given weekend?

The Lengthy Lines in Lower - Lower dining hall has decided to reduce the number of options they have for dinner. We do feel a little bad putting this in the Thumbs Down section of this column because we’re sure that it is saving a lot of food that would have otherwise been wasted, and the whole thing is probably another step in BC’s quest for the elusive “green” institution. But the lines for grilled chicken are literally encroaching upon the dining area, driving us night after night to the comparably empty salad bar. And that is no kind of life. #PlexProblems - Finally, one last gripe: the new mats that have been used recently for the Yoga and Pilates and other fitness classes in that same vein seem to have been produced for a large hoard of athletically-minded 7-year-olds. There is no way that someone of college age could fit his or her entire body on that small piece of squishy material. We can only hope that this is just temporary and the plex will soon return to us our beloved mats of time past, each infused with its own special combination of a decade of past yoga-ers’ sweat.

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I remember the moment I found out we didn’t get an eight-man. My statistics class was about to start and everyone was buzzing with his or her housing status. My friend had simply texted us a frowny-face, and I refused to believe that it meant anything other than we had gotten a pick time. But alas it was not to be, and I was heartbroken. I didn’t know how much I had wanted one until the opportunity had slipped through our fingers. I wanted a common room where my friends could watch New Girl, Law and Order: SVU, and Love Actually without having to pile on top of each other in one of our doubles, like we had been doing.

I wanted to eat breakfast in my minikitchen in my pajamas. But my dreams were dashed day after day until we finally gathered around my friend’s laptop scrounging for the last four adjacent doubles in Williams. Our biggest disappointment at that point was that we didn’t get Welch (at least it sort of sounds like “Walsh,” so someone might think we had an eight-man, right?).

And then there was the enduring “Oh, you got CoRo? That sucks,” comments and the oh-so-generous invitations to come over to our friends’ eight-mans, “Anytime!” And to be honest, the first couple months of sophomore year were a little rough—there was the freshman

in Mac who started chatting about how she “heard there used to be milkshake machines only on Newton,” to which I could only respond “Yeah, there was,” because I was caught between my desire to establish that I was not a freshman and save the poor soul from any potential embarrassment. And then there was the mortification of watching your fellow sophomores get off at the Lower bus stop while you traveled on to Mac, the utter disappointment that no one was going to keep up the whiteboard in the windows of Roncalli, and the horrendously long walks down to Lower for meetings and practices because “that’s just where everyone else lived.” But as the year progressed and each break in the semester ended I would come back to BC feeling like I was coming home, and my little double in the farthest back, practically unheard of building on CoRo had become my sanctuary.

And Lower, to me, just became a symbol of status. Lower was simply “cooler,” and that kind of value is extremely superficial. Last year my friends and I still crammed into one double to watch New Girl, and we ate all three meals in Mac (sometimes still in pajamas), but in no way was that a downside. I cherish the memories of cuddle-sessions with four of us to a bed, and when I walked into Mac for the first time this semester I got that feeling I imagine most BC kids get when looking at Gasson at sunset. Each year someone gets the shorter end of the stick housing-wise, whether it’s Upper vs. Newton, Lower vs. CoRo, houses on Foster Street vs. apartments on South Street, or the Mods vs. Edmond’s. There is always the “best” housing (with more

social status) and the “worst” housing.

And people lose friends trying to get that higher status.

I loved CoRo because it was my home for the year. And what makes a home? Not parties, not proximity to better food, football games, upperclassmen, and all those other things that make Lower “cool.” Living on Lower feels wrong to me somehow—like I’m not actually back at BC. It’s not a real workout if you don’t have the million dollar stairs to cap off a trip to the plex.

Game day just isn’t the same when you have to mill through BC alumni (it’s unnerving how much they just look like overgrown BC kids) to get to the stadium. And leaving my dorm to see some of my best friends? There is definitely something wrong with that. Most of them now live together off campus, in a beautiful house with a big kitchen, common room, and even a basement for parties. I decided to live on campus, and my biggest regret so far has not been missing out on a great living space but missing out on living with great people.

I didn’t love CoRo because it was closer to classes, or because I got to meet new people, or because no one cared what we did back there (although those were definite perks), I loved CoRo because that’s where my best friends and I lived.

And that’s why when I meet sophomores who tell me they live on CoRo my eyes light up and I get that feeling I get when I meet people from my home state—because CoRo will always feel like home to me.

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

Same old party: GOP’s failed rebrand Evan Goldstein Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much. But basically everyone who took a fair look at the 2012 elections agreed that the GOP got crushed. Mitt Romney lost in a landslide and Republicans lost seats in both the House and the Senate. Long story short, it was a bad day to be on a ballot if you had an R next to your name.

And to their credit, it looked at first like the GOP would learn from their epic loss. RNC chair Reince Priebus announced a major party initiative, a “rebrand,” wherein the Republican Party would take an honest look at how they communicated with voters and determine what steps they could take to be more inclusionary. Their fatal mistake in 2012 was assuming that the coalition that elected President Obama in 2008—a coalition of young, minority, and women voters—would stay home in 2012. They were horribly wrong. The voters said loud and clear that they wouldn’t tolerate the party of “legitimate rape,” the party of “47 percent,” and it seemed, for a time, like the RNC got the message.

Until they totally didn’t. No, Republicans quickly reverted back to the womenbashing, minority vote-suppressing ideologues we’ve come to know and love.

It turns out that the “rebrand” was nothing more than a bad coat of paint, and the GOP remains the same old party that voters roundly rejected in 2012. Let us recap.

In 2012, the GOP was anti-choice and anti-woman. The RNC platform opposed all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, and threats to the life of the mother. Republicans were infamously awful at talking about women’s issues (so much so that a conservative group ordered lawmakers to undergo a postelection seminar on how to talk about rape without being a jerk about it), and in response, women turned out in historic numbers to vote against them.

But that was all before the GOP rebrand. After the rebrand, state legislatures have passed over 40 anti-choice laws already this year, with Republican-controlled bodies in Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas,

Lecture Hall

and North Carolina passing brutal restrictions that would close nearly every clinic in their state. These laws leave millions of women without any access to health care of any kind, with particularly harsh consequences for low-income women and communities of color. Even “moderate” Chris Christie in New Jersey vetoed funding for women’s health clinics five times, cutting many women off from access to basic care.

When it comes to women, Republicans are still the party of Todd Akin.

In 2012, the GOP passed laws across the country that required voters to present certain forms of government ID before they could vote. Republicans claimed we needed tighter restrictions to cut down on voter fraud. But when the state of Pennsylvania tried to defend its voter ID law in court, it admitted that no cases of voter fraud had occurred in Pennsylvania, and a leading Republican lawmaker admitted that its purpose was “to allow Governor Romney to win the state.”

This is what the Republican party is: anti-woman, antiminority, anti-equality.

They can talk all they want about rebranding ... I’ll believe it when I see it.

Before the GOP rebrand, Republican state legislatures across the country passed strict voter ID laws. After the rebrand, Republican state legislatures across the country started passing strict voter ID laws. In North Carolina, Republicans passed a law that would shorten early voting, end pre-registration for 16- and 17year-olds, end same-day registration, and enact burdensome voter ID requirements.

Keep in mind that there’s no evidence to suggest that voter fraud is actually a problem in North Carolina, but something else is a problem for Republicans in the state: all of the measures—early voting, same-day registration, pre-registration—that North Carolina Republicans restricted encourage people to vote. And when more people vote, those new voters are disproportionately likely to be young, poor, or racial minorities. And those are

three demographics that vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, and that’s a problem for Republicans in North Carolina. The North Carolina law doesn’t count a stateissued student ID as valid for voting. Since the law’s passage, North Carolina Republicans have launched a concerted effort to close precincts on college campuses, leading to overcrowding of preexisting precincts and long lines at the polls. We already saw unconscionably long lines in Florida in 2012, with minorities waiting on average twice as long as white voters.

The aim of Republican voter ID laws is to disenfranchise the very voters who came out in droves to reelect Obama in 2012. In other words, when it comes to minority and youth outreach, the GOP is the same old party.

As we approach the 2014 midterm elections, Republicans will keep trying to change the subject. They’ll talk about reaching out to new constituencies, they’ll talk about shutting down the government, but what they won’t talk about is their policies. Because when you look past the talk, the GOP you’ll see in 2014 will be the same GOP of 2012.

The party of Todd Akin, the party of “47 percent,” the party of disenfranchising minorities and denying women health care. Don’t believe me? Look at the candidates Republicans are running for governor in Virginia and New Jersey this year. In Virginia, the GOP candidate once called gay people “self-destructive” and has adamantly defended a law that would ban oral and anal sex (seriously). In New Jersey, faux-moderate Chris Christie has vetoed equal pay for equal work, vetoed marriage equality, and supports a candidate who said that gay men aren’t real men. This is what the Republican Party is: anti-woman, anti-minority, anti-equality. They can talk all they want about rebranding, and they can talk all they want about reaching out. I’ll believe it when I see it. For now, all I see is a party that continues to push relentlessly for restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, and a party that would prefer students and minorities not be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

They can keep talking, but until they take meaningful steps toward progress, they’ll just keep being the same old party.

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

BY PAT HUGHES

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

Commercial wisdom Benjamin Olcott I was inspired by a car commercial this summer. As most do, this car commercial spends the first 20 of its 30 seconds setting up a phrase carefully crafted at a boardroom table, focus-grouped ad infinitum, sent to marketing, who wants a star, who gets a star, who then speaks softly into a silver mic in a recording space tucked into a golden LA hillside—it sets up a phrase shaped and re-shaped by all involved departments until it becomes a statement representative of an ideology the car company represents, and inextricably linked to the car company’s identity per consumers. Kia works hard to come up with “Impossible to Ignore,” its statement for the Cadenza, a new luxury vehicle. What’s true of and really odd about this statement and most other company’s comparable statements is that it’s simplistic and entirely forgettable. Until you’re in front of the TV watching the commercial again, they’re difficult to recall. You can think of the car, maybe even the shots in the commercial itself, but not the words. It’s like the statement diffuses into viewers’ heads and bypasses the conscious facilitated by its simple language and structure. It just seeps into our skulls, and is wrung out when a product name recurs in life. This is obviously intentional. It’s also, quite clearly, a very effective marketing tactic. But this commercial didn’t do that. The set-up cinematography was largely the same (it was a luxury vehicle): night-time shot of car burning rubber down a highway backgrounded in the distance by what could be any big U.S. city lit to impress, low bumper shot of car burning through a harshly lit tunnel, slow-mo streak shots through swanky interior and dash, not forgetting to include beautiful model in each pass while car ostensibly speeds down highway, etc. Someone was speaking. Male, voice finished smooth. He intoned Car and Driver accolades, vehicle specifications, and suggestive description. The statement pause arrived on cue, sign of a commercial well-built, and then I heard the satin voice say in statement voice, “Control is the essence of power.”

Which is simple, but not as simple as “Built Ford Tough,” and is not a sparkler, but not as spark-less as “Impossible to Ignore.” For some reason it resisted seepage, and found a home in my conscious thought. Much to the detriment of the car company, I’ll add—I have absolutely no idea which created the commercial. Any and all sensory associations I’ve formed I outlined above. I also don’t really know how to assess the work of the mysterious car company.

Is the fact that I know it came from a car commercial enough? I think not. For some reason, I only vaguely recall Mercedes when I hear “Control is the essence of power,” but if it were from an Infiniti commercial, I wouldn’t be shocked—it could easily be. I doubt Infiniti’s intentions were to send me flashing wallet to a Mercedes dealership. In any case, I hardly thought about buying anything afterward. I actually stopped and thought about the phrase in itself, independent of the car. You might say they lost me then. I thought so much about it, I decided to build an opinions piece around it.

It failed, I guess, because their statement was actually pretty smart.

So I’m an English major, a creative writing concentrator at that, and I understand there’s a good chance I’ve overstated everything thus far. My thought on that is: whatever.

“Control is the essence of power” is basically a perfectly distilled version of everything I’ve learned about writing. What we crazy creative-types desperately want is to evoke something from those who experience what we create, from you. We work toward the “ability to act or affect something strongly,” which is the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “power.” We work to gain powers, of a sort—to move you in some way of our design. And look: the OED’s definition of “control” is “the fact of controlling (my opinion: stupid), or of checking and directing action.” Because words are a writer’s vehicle of evocation, of “directing action,” a writer learns that each one matters tremendously, and so monitors their direction with extreme precaution. It requires knowing each one’s definition, common and uncommon usages, their connotations, and also, crucially, though it’s not a very rigorous concept, how they feel (which oddly has a lot to do with sound).

Then all those things apply again to the sentence, then to the paragraph, and so on and so forth. It requires laser-like focus 100 percent of the time. And you have to care a lot. You have to want to put in the effort.

But that’s just writing—that’s just what I know. I’m convinced it’s applicable to anything. We go to Boston College because we want a lot from this world. When it’s all said and done, we want to be able to say we made something happen out there. I think it’s safe to say that’s true of everyone here. I also say we can all do it. Control is the way.

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

A8

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

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THE HEIGHTS

EDITORS’ EDITORS’PICKS PICKS

Thursday, September 5, 2013 The Week Ahead

Standings

Women’s soccer takes on Ohio State tonight. At the same time, field hockey hopes to stay undefeated against Quinnipiac. Football does the same against Wake Forest tomorrow night.

Men’ s soccer is headed to Hanover on Monday to face Dartmouth. On Saturday, Notre Dame and Michigan meet in a top 20 matchup.

Aunstin Tedesco

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Chris Grimaldi

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Marly Morgus

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Heights Staff

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Recap from Last Week

Game of the Week

Last spring, baseball went 1-2 in its series against Virginia Tech.

Softball mercy-ruled Bryant by a score of 11-2 in the fifth inning. The Heat topped the Spurs in the NBA Finals. The Blackhawks beat the Bruins in 6 to win the Stanley Cup. Tiger Woods failed to win a major title this year.

Field Hockey

vs.

Guest Editor: Lindsay Grossman

Quinnipiac

Layout Editor

“It’s my birthday and I can cry if I want to.”

Marly Morgus Asst. Sports Editor

Lindsay Grossman Layout Editor

Austin Tedesco Sports Editor

Chris Grimaldi Assoc. Sports Editor

Field Hockey: No. 19 BC vs. Quinnipiac

Quinnipiac

BC

BC

BC

Football: BC vs. Wake Forest

Wake Forest

BC

BC

BC

Women’s Soccer: BC vs. No. 21 Ohio State

Ohio State

Ohio State

Ohio State

Ohio State

Men’s Soccer: BC at Dartmouth

Dartmouth

BC

Dartmouth

BC

Michigan

Michigan

Notre Dame

Michigan

This Week’s Games

NCAA Football: No.14 Notre Dame at No. 17 Michigan

Boston College

Tonight, the undefeated Eagles field hockey team takes on Quinnipiac at home. BC started its schedule of play with wins over Boston University and Toronto in exhibitions, then defeated Vermont, Rutgers, and Maine in its first three regular season matchups. BC is currently ranked No. 19 in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Coaches’ Poll. So far this season, Quinnipiac is 1-1 after being handled by Syracuse in a 5-1 loss and topping La Salle 6-4. The last meeting between the two was last August when the Eagles shut out the Bobcats 2-0. Both will be fighting to keep momentum in the early stages of their seasons.

Tonight, 7 p.m., Newton Campus

BC promises complete effort in search of improved ACC record

BY CHRIS GRIMALDI Assoc. Sports Editor

If the Boston College football team is looking to gauge early-season progress, it’ll have a prime opportunity on Friday night in a home matchup against Wake Forest.

The Eagles will have their first encounter with an ACC rival since finishing 1-7 within the conference last season.

Although the Demon Deacons are coming off a week during which 10 of their true freshmen saw playing time, they still pose a formidable threat to what has the potential to be BC’s first 2-0 start since 2010.

“We’re playing a fine football team,” said head coach Steve Addazio, “a great coach, a great staff. We know this is going to be a great challenge for us.”

Entering his 13th season at the helm of Wake Forest’s football program, head coach Jim Grobe sports a 2013 squad with a versatile offense.

Its strateg y contains numerous option components, which presents a motion-oriented test for BC’s new aggressive defense. Despite containing a similar approach against Villanova last week, Addazio still recognized that Wake Forest’s style of attack is unique.

“They run an interesting scheme,” Addazio said, “different from what we’ve seen.”

The crux behind Wake Forest’s option-friendly offense is its veteran personnel, anchored by senior quarterback Tanner Price and senior receiver Michael Campanaro.

Both players were pivotal in Wake

Forest’s 28-14 victory over the Eagles last year, as Price passed for three touchdowns and Campanaro tied an ACC single-game record with a total of 16 receptions.

Price will be the second dual-threat quarterback to make his way to Chestnut Hill in just as many weeks. The Austin, Tex. native broke out onto the ACC scene in 2011 with an impressive

sophomore campaign, throwing for 20 touchdowns and over 3,000 yards.

After a less productive junior campaign, he rebounded with a complete performance against Presbyterian in week one with scores from the air and on the ground.

“He’s an experienced, veteran guy,” Addazio said of Price. “He’s a good player.”

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

After losing seven of eight conference games last season, the Eagles will be looking for ACC redemption against Wake Forest at home.

No decision in 2 OT soccer game

Column, from A10

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

A new route for the football team’s Eagle walk is another sign of changing times in BC sports.

Assistant Sports Editor

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS PHOTO

to battle through the growing pains felt by a rebuilding program. In the blink of an eye, that same squad has grown into a veteran contender with legitimate aspirations to “go dancing” in March.

What was a pipedream just one year ago is now a realistic goal—darkness has given way to a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Like the uneasy freshmen wandering the halls of a new school for the first time, however, the BC men’s hockey team will be heading into uncharted territory without a senior class that reeled in two national titles and a Beanpot trophy every season.

Even under the watch of head coach Jerry York, there are voids to be filled and work to be done after taking an early exit from the playoffs last season.

For these teams and their respec-

tive transitions, there is a world of new possibilities as they’re called to meet new challenges under different circumstances. Their ceilings of potential remain endless under an athletic director who has worked to steer the ship away from troubled waters and toward new beginnings.

As with everything in life, time in the world of college sports passes too quickly. Years of patient transition can culminate in a golden moment that comes and goes in an instant. Then we’re left with memories.

Embrace the bus chase and take change in stride, but don’t let it pass you by. When upset victory is won or a title is clinched, take a snapshot and frame it like a mother’s picture on the first day of school.

Chris Grimaldi is the Assoc. Sports Editor for The Heights. He can be reached at sports@bcheights.com.

Goals from freshman sisters boost field hockey to 3-0 start

BY MARLY MORGUS

DeNormandie scored two in the overtime tie.

Stadium tomorrow night.

Wake Forest’s leading receiver has caught Addazio’s attention with a long list of credentials and his abilities as a playmaker. Ironically, the Eagles’ head coach drew parallels between Campanaro and another elite target in the conference—BC’s own veteran Alex Amidon.

“I think the commonality there is they’re both really intense, competitive guys,” Addazio said. “It struck me that they’ve got that look in their eye, both of them. They’re competitors.”

Seeing first-hand what the tandem of Price and Campanaro can do to an opposing defense, BC’s own defensive unit will need to find a median between aggressiveness and composure to avoid missed reads and blown coverage.

While rushing to the ball can squelch the option, it also includes the risk of allowing big plays—evidenced by last week’s sluggish start against Villanova.

Addazio knows that a quick start in the conference will require his team to play two complete halves.

“We need a higher level of execution quicker,” Addazio said. “You don’t want to get yourself behind an ACC opponent. It’s harder to get back.”

Wake Forest’s offensive explosiveness and sound coaching won’t be easy to beat, regardless of how many true freshmen are out on the field. Yet Addazio believes that a big-game atmosphere under the lights of Alumni Stadium will add an extra jolt of motivation to a hungry BC squad.

“We’re certainly looking forward to getting this thing going on Friday night.” 

BC seeks change of pace

Men’s Soccer, from A10 box to no avail, until Normesinu sent in a low cross from the right wing for DeNormandie to tap in.

The junior forward scored another three minutes later with a diving header, once more assisted by the foot of Normesinu. DeNormandie almost made it three, but his header was saved by Quinnipiac goalkeeper Borja Angoitia.

The match was forced into overtime at 2-2, but two scrappy 10-minute halves proved unfruitful in deciding a winner.

Kelly was complimentary of the team and the way in which this year’s starters are playing together, but he did say that it was a fair result.

“We’re starting to get pieces together,” he said. “Like Cole [DeNormandie] scoring two with Isaac [Normesinu] … we’re starting to get to know each other.” 

A n o t h e r Wa k e Fo r e s t w e ap o n Addazio’s defense will have to contend with is one of Price’s favorite targets, Campanaro. Among the ACC’s best in catches per game and receiving yards a year ago, he earned a nod as a first-team All-ACC selection.

A hamstring injury kept Campanaro sidelined in week one, but he’s expected to debut under the lights at Alumni

Already 2-0 to start the regular season, the Boston College field hockey team hosted the University of Maine in their home opener on Tuesday afternoon. Despite an early Black Bear lead, the Eagles staged a comeback to maintain their undefeated season with the help of a duo of fresh faces and a two-goal performance from junior Emma Plasteras.

Maine came right off the sidelines on the offensive, slipping a shot past sophomore goalie Leah Settipane within the first two minutes to gain an early lead after intercepting a BC pass. Minutes

later, the Black Bears struck again to take an early two-goal lead.

It wasn’t until the 10th minute of play that the Eagles managed to get on board as Plasteras tallied her first point of the game by tipping in a shot from teammate Romee Stiekema.

The goal cut BC’s deficit to one, and the Eagles kept the offensive pressure high as the half continued. Nine minutes later, the first of two goals from BC freshmen came when firstyear Emily McCoy tied the game off of a corner from Plasteras and senior Paige Norris.

Neither team slipped any more shots past the goalkeepers during the final 16 minutes of the half, and they entered the

short break in a 2-2 tie. The Eagles had all of the scoring momentum as the half wound down, but they lost it during the intermission and it was the Black Bears that broke the tie less than four minutes into the second frame.

The Eagles were not about to let the game slip away from them, however, and a quick response from sophomore Kelcie Mromisin for her first goal of the year restored the game to a dead heat three minutes later. Another goal, this one coming from McCoy’s sister Eryn, cemented the Eagles’ lead 10 minutes later.

The Black Bears were not done playing yet and made another strike just a minute later to cut the Eagles’ lead in

half. After their lead was cut to one, however, the Eagles managed to hold on through the remainder of play. Much of BC’s success can be attributed to its defense, as the Eagles held Maine to just nine shots versus their own 23, and Seppitaine tallied four saves.

This 3-0 start is a reapeat from last season when the Eagles defeated Michigan State, Maine, and Quinnipiac to start their 2012 season. It was a solid start, but a 2-1 overtime loss to the University of Massachusetts in the fourth game of the regular season cut their winning streak short. Tonight, BC will hope to improve on last year’s start and make it 4-0 with a win over Quinnipiac. 

SPORTS

A10

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

It’s time to face the changes

Triple Threat ANDRE WILLIAMS Even though he sat out the fourth quarter, Williams still managed to rush for 114 yards on five yards per carry.

CHRIS GRIMALDI When you’re a kid, the first day of school is the day you’ve spent all summer dreading.

The serene afternoons of summer instantaneously pass over into a blank slate of uncertainty. Leaves that were a lush green a day earlier suddenly appear bronzed by the looming arrival of autumn. Laughs shared with your buddies on the beach and at the ball fields become ghostly echoes.

Each first day brings a cyclical set of changes that are profound—that is, through the eyes of a grade-schooler. There’s the new backpack, a fresh pair of kicks, and the apprehension of finding an open seat on the bus.

Before you leave, Mom snaps a photo of you with your new gear and uneasy first-day smile like she does every year for posterity. And then you put those new sneakers to the test in a sprint for the bus that begins another nine-month odyssey.

After a while (or at least by junior year), you’d think the first-day jitters would disappear.

But despite the annual routine of embracing the new, one can’t help but feel that a seemingly predictable routine has changed—that somewhere along the line, you too have changed.

No matter how old you get, there’s an excitement to it.

Like a kid on his first day of school, the teams at Boston College are embarking on another yearly journey with hopes to write a winning script.

One year leads to the next, with similar predictions filled with optimism and apprehension. There are the team photos, preseason outlooks, and the uncertain comfort of a clean slate.

When the season starts, the teams are thrust into action and take flight to chase a dream.

The yearly sprint to the proverbial bus begins.

But this year in BC sports is poised to disrupt a routine of repetitive expectations and going through the motions—in most cases for the better, and in some cases for the unknown.

On the gridiron at Alumni Stadium, there’s a football team with new leadership, nameless jerseys, and a renewed intolerance for losing. Even down to the finest details of its pregame Eagle walk, the start of the 2013 season has marked more than the turning of a calendar. Yet a revitalized defense and a driven group of veterans do not want the first-week excitement around the program to quickly erode as it had in two consecutive losing seasons.

If there’s anything we’ve learned from our school days, it’s that precious days fly by too fast. BC fans look ahead to late autumn and see a men’s basketball team that just yesterday looked like a group of freshmen trying

CHASE RETTIG The quarterback threw two touchdowns last week, missing just seven of his 30 attempts.

ALEX AMIDON Amidon was the only receiver with more than one reception, hauling in 13 for 146 yards.

Head coach Steve Addazio knows it would be helpful if there were more productive options in the backfield and at wide receiver, but he also knows that he has to take advantage of the playmakers he has at his disposal right now. “Wherever we can, one of our legitimate guys has got their hands on the ball—however we do that—while we develop other guys. That’s the fear. I can’t change that right away. It’s hard. But we’ve got some good young guys coming.”

The triple threat of quarterback Chase Rettig, wide receiver Alex Amidon, and running back Andre Williams were key to the Eagles’ victory against Villanova in week one, and unless one of those young players makes a significant leap, the trio will have to carry the team tomorrow night against Wake Forest also. Amidon accounted for half of the receiving yards and Williams made up 90 percent of the rushing yards last week. They both added touchdowns, along with Rettig. The Deacon gameplan starts and ends with finding ways to get the ball out of the hands of these three playmakers and forcing anyone else to find ways to produce.

SEE WAKE FOREST PREVIEW, A9

BOSTON COLLEGE

WAKE FOREST

vs. Villanova

vs. Presbyterian

SCORE

SCORE

24-14

31-7

TOTAL YDS

TOTAL YDS

413

408

YDS ALLOWED

YDS ALLOWED

355

151

TO DIFF.

TO DIFF.

3

4

3RD DOWN %

3RD DOWN %

45

28

See Column, A9

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Quinnipiac forces a draw with BC

BY ALEX STANLEY Heights Staff

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Transfer forward Cole DeNormandie scored both of the Eagles goals on Monday night.

I NSIDE SPORTS THIS ISSUE

Cole DeNormandie scored twice for the Eagles in the second half, both times assisted by crosses from freshman Isaac Normesinu, as the the Boston College men’s soccer team drew 2-2 against the Quinnipiac Bobcats at Newton Campus Field on Monday.

The game went into overtime, but remained scoreless after two overtime periods.

At the start of the game, Quinnipiac looked the better side. The team controlled play from the start of the whistle, passing it well in their half and sending cutting passes through the Eagle’s midfield. They managed to take advantage of the gap between attacking

Football hosts Demon Deacons

After a win last week, the Eagles are ready for a battle against Wake Forest...A9

midfield and defense, and had the ball with numerous chances.

“They really did a great job in the first half … they had us running like crazy,” said Eagles head coach Ed Kelly.

Quinnipiac’s striker, Machel Baker, was heavily involved with both first half goals. He managed to get on the receiving end of a through-ball, and slotted it past goalkeeper Keady Segel from the right. He was brought down in the box around seven minutes later, allowing teammate Simon Hinde to convert a penalty kick hard and fast into the lower right-hand corner of the goal. “ We could have done better on both [Quinnipiac goals],” Kelly said.

“Especially the one that was a penalty kick because we got caught watching the ball.”

Game Of The Week: Field Hockey

BC hopes to maintain its ranking and undefeated record against Quinnipiac..A9

BC began to create a few more chances with around 10 minutes left in the half, however. Substitute Atobra Ampadu fit in well in central midfield, and added a strong holding presence to the side. Perhaps the Eagles best chance of the half came from sophomore Derrick Boateng, who volleyed the ball to himself and forced the goalkeeper to make an acrobatic save after a longdistance shot.

The second half began much as the first half ended, with BC passing the ball better and creating more goal-scoring opportunities. The team began to press higher up the field, and did not allow Quinnipiac much time on the ball. Multiple crosses were sent into the

See Men’s Soccer, A9

Editors’ Picks........................A9 Last Week’s Recap...............A9

THE HEIGHTS 2013 FOOTBALL PREVIEW THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

ALEX AMIDON The senior wide receiver, along with the rest of his class, have one goal in mind—get back to a bowl.

LEAVING ON THEIR OWN TERMS As a new era of BC football begins, the leaders in the senior class try to go out in style

2 THE HEIGHTS SEPT. 5, 2013

FOOTBALL PREVIEW FEATURE

Welcome to ‘The Good Life’ Return man and wide receiver Spiffy Evans has a flare for flashy play, but now he has to do it consistently in his junior year

Evans averaged more than 25 yards per kick return and 19 yards per punt

“T

BY MARLY MORGUS | ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

he life he lives and swag he has…has took the world without warning,” flashes across the screen between clips in a montage that features Spiff y Evans speaking and holding up highlights from his shoe collection in his dorm room over swooshing, soaring sounds, glimmering lights, and fade-outs. This is “The Good Life Trailer,” a video that you are likely to come across while searching for Evans’ highlights as a wide receiver and kick and punt returner for Boston College, which teases a series of video diaries.

A first glance down the name column of a BC roster may cause some confusion when one comes to the listing next to number seven. When publishing Evans’s name, the athletic department doesn’t use any sort of quotations or other stylization to denote that “Spiff y” is a name that was given to Evans long ago when his family noticed a confidence and sense of style in their young child that stays with him to this day.

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

“When I was a younger kid I never wanted to be dressed by my parents,” Evans said. “I dressed myself. I bought a bunch of shoes when I was younger. I saved money up, so around the age of seven my grandfather gave me the name and it just stuck because they always said I was a spiffy kid.”

Evans’s closet quickly justifies the nickname.

Boxes and boxes of sneakers contain around 680 different pairs of shoes. On campus at BC, he keeps about 90 of those close at hand. These aren’t just sneakers. The collection that Evans has put together includes retro styles, special editions, and commemorative editions. At the moment there is no single pair that he could come up with that stands apart from others.

“For my favorite I would say anything from Nike—Jordans, mostly the classics,” he said. “I have a lot from like 2000, I have a lot from ’88, so I have a wide variety.”

Evans came to BC from Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory in Hollywood, Fla., where he led the Lions to the Florida state title game during his junior year and was awarded All-State Class 2B first team honors the following season.

When it came to choosing the next step in his journey, even though he was recruited to Florida by his now head coach Steve Addazio who was, at the time, the Gators’ offensive coordinator, BC became a clear choice because of his interaction with future teammates.

“When I came here I remember [Alex] Amidon and I hung around with Andre Williams, Steven Daniels, the list goes on, and just being around the guys.” he said. “And my mom loved the school, so if my momma likes it, I got to do it.”

Though there is an edge of humor in Evan’s words, the core of it is true. He is always quick to emphasize the importance that he places in family. Evans grew up with three siblings: two older brothers and one younger. Although he was long treated as the baby of the family, he is very aware of the impact that he has on the life of his younger brother as a role model. On and off the field, he uses his family as motivation.

“I just keep them on my mind on every play—what am I doing it for, you know? And my motto that I always tell myself is ‘who you do it for,’” he said.

During his 2011 freshman season, Evans made his way into the lineup as a kick returner.

In 23 attempts he managed a total of 485 yards putting up an impressive average of 21.1 yards per return, but he didn’t have a breakout performance to shoot him into the spotlight during his first season in maroon and gold.

During his sophomore season, Evans’ kick return average actually dropped slightly to 18.6 yards per return, but his performance in another area—punt returns—earned him more recognition as a contributor to the Eagles’ effort. It was in this other area that Evans gained widespread attention after a breakout performance against the University of Maine during the second game of his sophomore season.

Two minutes and 45 seconds remained on the clock in the third quarter when the punt left Maine’s Jeffrey Ondish’s foot. BC had a comfortable 20-3 lead, but as the kick soared over his head, Evans back-pedaled about 15 yards in order to get a solid stance under the ball. When it reached him at the 17 yard line, he was off.

The long 62-yard punt was well beyond the Black Bears’ coverage, and by the time Evans was level with any sort of defender, the Eagles had created

an almost clear lane for him to sprint through.

Only touched by one hand, 83 yards later Evans was running straight through the end zone to acknowledge the cheering student section.

“It landed in the right spot … and once I caught it I just stuck a foot in the ground and ran as fast as I could,” Evans said after the game.

His words characterize him. He is not loud or flashy when he speaks and his 5-11, 190-pound frame is not a particularly daunting one, but he carries a tone of confidence that mixes with humility to form a player with much more than just himelf and his personal progress on his mind.

In the previous game, Evans had made his first reception. Against Maine, he had his second, third, fourth, and fifth, one of them being for a touchdown. It was his breakout moment. It seemed as though Evans had clicked and was ready to start contributing to the Eagle offense regularly.

He put up three more solid performances at wide receiver against Northwestern, Clemson, and Army during the successive weeks with multiple receptions in each game. A sole catch at Florida State in the sixth week of the season, however, foreshadowed a struggle that he would cope with through the end of the season.

No catches at Georgia Tech. One at Maryland. A more substantial three at Wake Forest.

Four against Notre Dame in what was perhaps the most pressure-packed game of the season.

No catches in the overtime loss against Virginia Tech. One at NC State.

His inconsistency as a receiver became clear.

His averages looked decent with 22 receptions for 257 yards in 11 games played for an average of

11.7 yards per reception, but there were several games in which he failed to make an impact on offense. Much of this can be attributed to trouble that Evans had sticking to his routes, but when the ball did reach his hands, he also had trouble holding on to it.

Evans knows not to dwell on inconsistencies.

Rather, he lives play by play, knowing that once one play is over—whether it was a successful 82-yard punt return or a dropped pass—there is another one to come during which he can get the job done.

During a season that was so full of ups and downs as a receiver, Evans was making more of a steady impact as a punt and kick returner and the area emerged as his true specialty. His averages of 25.3 yards per kick return and 19.6 yards per punt return were high and he earned national recognition as a kick returner with Phil Steele All-American third-team honors during the 2013 offseason.

In the home opener, Evans did not do much to dismiss the notions of inconsistency. He had one reception for nine yards, and stepped back away from the ball, waving off multiple punts and kicks. First game jitters seemed to be showing, and Evans was ready to admit it.

“It wasn’t game plan—it was a bad decision on my part,” he said. “The first game you’re trying to decipher how you’re going to approach kicking the ball to you, especially after the year I had last year, so I was especially trying to feel out the

“Ups and downs with losses and my personal stats, I can’t really focus on it because we have one goal and that’s to get a bowl game.”

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

punter and I was misreading him a bit.”

Addazio was well aware of Evans’s below-par performance returning the ball on Saturday and stressed the importance of those plays as the Eagles move forward.

“He’s got to go field those balls. We can’t give away that many yards, and he knows that,” he said. “Running kick off returns and punt returns—I would say those have to be dynamic plays, and they were not, and I would say that they can and should be.”

Despite the faulty performance against Villanova, Evans is not one to act defeated or angry—even as a form of motivation. Rather, he knows that the first game is the first game and to focuses on improvement, knowing that the biggest changes come between the first and third weeks. For Evans, it’s not about his personal highs and lows or his performance from play to play.

His focus is entirely on his team on what he can do to make the entire unit more successful.

“I feel like ups and downs with losses and my personal stats, I can’t really focus on it because we have one goal,” he said, “and that’s to get a bowl game because we already made the first one.”

The first one—which Addazio made clear early on—was to win the home opener, something that the team has already managed.

Evans acknowledged the success, and despite his smaller impact during the game, he put his challenges in the context of the team, instead of himself, explaining that all he is on the field to do is his job—whether it be returning a punt or kick, catching a pass from quarterback Chase Rettig, or simply providing motivation and support to his teammates—and in the context of a lesser performance, he speaks not of a drop in his personal stats, but of what he did or didn’t do—and will do in the future—in order to help his team.

With the pressure of a night game against Wake Forest that will be broadcasted nationwide on ESPN weighing on the team during an abbreviated week, Evans’s calm confidence will be vital as he takes his self-explained role of “giving a spark” to his team to heart.

On a personal level, Evans’s expectations for the game speak true to his constant display of a team-oriented attitude.

“If I do my job, whether that’s catching the ball or making a block or doing a kick return in general, I get my chance to give my team a better chance to win,” he said.

Evans knows that the nation will be watching.

He knows that he has a reputation for inconsistency. He knows that the late start will bring crowds to Alumni, and he knows that his team has a lot to prove, but he doesn’t let it bother him.

“Pressure is good,” he said. “Pressure makes diamonds.”

Click through to the next video on the “Good Life” channel, and seekers of Spiffy highlights come across a video diary in which he talks of his hard work and of how accomplishments don’t come easily.

He quotes Lord Byron for his “motivation of the day,” then he uses a line from a Kanye West song. He talks about his tendency to hold grudges, then encourages people to find forgiveness in their hearts. He preaches confidence then advises against forwardness and forcefulness.

Some of this is the Spiffy that we see on the field. He’s adamant and confident in his speech and he stresses the importance of “swag.” The other side of Evans’s essence is made equally clear: humility, care for his teammates, friends, and family, and an internal motivation to contribute to the success of his team. 

Sept. 5, 2013 THE HEIGHTS 3

football preview stats

2013 season

opponent outlook A Scouting Report for the Eagles’ eleven regular season games

2012 season Opponents

rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

2012 season Opponents

rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

clemson

2012 season Opponents

rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

virginia tech

2012 season Opponents

rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

2012 season Opponents

Rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

syracuse

2012 season Opponents

rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

YPC 3.0 4.1

TD 15 22

FUM 21 22

Points/G 18.5 31.8

Sacks 25 27

3rd % 32.3 45.4

RZ % 92.0 84.0

Yards/G 264.9 161.9

TD 24 13

INT 10 11

% 67.3 48.8

Yards/G 205.9 91.9

YPC 5.6 2.7

TD 40 10

FUM 24 19

Points/G 39.3 14.7

Sacks 36 26

3rd % 42.3 27.1

RZ % 91.6 87.1

Yards/G 321.2 240.3

TD 40 23

INT 14 13

% 67.1 58.1

Yards/G 191.1 155.9

YPC 4.2 4.2

TD 26 16

FUM 19 29

Points/G 41.0 24.8

Sacks 34 31

3rd % 57.5 34.0

RZ % 94.9 75.0

Yards/G 230.9 199.1

TD 18 17

INT 17 13

% 51.3 50.1

Yards/G 145.9 134.1

YPC 3.7 3.6

TD 18 13

FUM 29 19

Points/G 25.1 22.8

Sacks 35 25

3rd % 38.2 28.2

RZ % 87.8 80.5

Yards/G 310.1 249.9

TD 31 20

INT 17 16

% 58.5 55.0

Yards/G 111.1 154.8

YPC 3.1 4.1

TDs 12 20

FUM 32 12

Points/G 28.1 25.6

Sacks 33 39

3rd % 41.3 26.8

RZ % 81.8 81.0

Yards/G 289.3 234.2

TD 26 23

INT 10 9

% 62.4 63.4

rUSHing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

passing 2012 season Opponents

rUSHing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

passing 2012 season Opponents

rUSHing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

passing 2012 season Opponents

rUSHing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

passing 2012 season Opponents

rushing 2012 season Opponents

other 2012 season Opponents

TD 39 20

INT 20 19

% 61.6 60.4

Yards/G 150.6 167.0

YPC 5.0 4.1

TD 12 17

FUM 24 21

Points/G 32.1 24.3

Sacks 45 17

3rd % 34.2 38.0

RZ % 74.6 81.1

Yards/G 66.4 195.0

TD 3 19

INT 2 7

% 44.3 63.8

Yards/G 369.8 232.3

YPC 5.5 5.5

TD 32 35

FUM 35 10

Points/G 24.2 35.3

Sacks 15 11

3rd % 46.7 47.6

RZ % 71.4 87.5

Yards/G 291.8 246.9

TD 29 15

INT 7 16

% 65.1 58.0

Yards/G 193.8 142.7

YPC 5.1 3.6

TD 28 20

FUM 16 18

Points/G 40.6 25.7

Sacks 29 11

3rd % 41.2 36.7

RZ % 81.0 85.7

Yards/G 237.8 254.8

TD 19 28

INT 11 4

% 53.5 61.2

Yards/G 97.6 221.4

YPC 3.0 5.7

TD 11 27

FUM 20 17

Points/G 18.7 39.4

Sacks 11 42

3rd % 33.1 42.0

RZ % 79.2 75.5

Yards/G 181.8 207.5

TD 17 24

INT 12 4

% 54.3 55.7

Yards/G 103.0 129.3

YPC 2.6 3.5

TD 11 13

FUM 31 23

Points/G 20.1 27.2

Sacks 27 38

3rd % 29.9 37.8

RZ % 71.9 85.7

military bowl Date Place Dec. 27 Annapolis, Md.

Match up ACC vs. C-USA

Opponent UAB

Match up ACC vs. SEC

Opponent Tennessee

music city bowl Yards/G 187.0 143.5

YPC 4.4 4.0

TD 21 13

FUM 21 20

Date Place Dec. 30 Nashville, Tn.

Points/G 30.0 24.8

Sacks 26 16

3rd % 49.3 36.9

RZ % 81.4 84.2

Date Place Match up Dec. 31 Shreveport, La. ACC vs. SEC/MAC

Advocare v100 bowl

*if applicable

Opponent Ball State

bowl projections

passing

Yards/G 100.5 166.1

2012 season Opponents

Yards/G 282.3 227.0

maryland

nc state

passing

% 56.0 62.0

new mexico state

passing

INT 7 11

north carolina

passing

TD 13 22

army

florida state

passing

Yards/G 200.8 266.8

Usc

wake forest

passing

*

4 THE HEIGHTS SEPT. 5, 2013

SEPT. 5, 2013 THE HEIGHTS 5

FOOTBALL PREVIEW FEATURE

Side by side

OFFENSE CHASE RETTIG QUARTERBACK

Passing yards per game 138 163 258

Victory Formation

Touchdowns 6

Addazio implemented a new tradition of singing the fight song, “For Boston,” in the locker room after victories. These seniors haven’t had much on-field success to celebrate the past three years, but 2013 started differently. The student section was still packed after the game, and the players raised their helmets in acknowledgement.

12 17

Interceptions 7 7 13

ANDRE WILLIAMS RUNNING BACK Rushing yards per game 38.4 51.7 67.1

Yards per carry 4.9

SINK OR SWIM: The five most important, and most talented, playmakers in Boston College’s rebuilding effort this season were all introduced on Feb. 3, 2010 at

10:00 a.m. Quarterback Chase Rettig, running back Andre Williams, receiver Alex Amidon, and linebackers Steele Divitto and Kevin Pierre-Louis were brought in as a part of former head coach Frank Spaziani’s first full recruiting class. They were thrust into the action immediately. Some, like Pierre-Louis, have consistently produced since their first time on the field. Others, like Amidon, weren’t on the radar until last season. All of them, though, either had redshirts burned quickly or those shirts were never even considered. Two players from the class before them, Ian White and Kasim Edebali, will be the captains in 2013, but make no mistake— the season depends on these five. Their first year ended with a bowl loss. They haven’t been close to returning to the postseason since. Their third year ended with their head coach getting fired. New coach Steve Addazio is already implementing new traditions and new systems as these players begin the end, but he’ll need them to jettison the program out of the cellar. Thirteen games, not 12. That’s the goal. So, how did they get here? BY AUSTIN TEDESCO | SPORTS EDITOR

MUTUAL RESPECT

4.2 4.6

Touchdowns 2

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

UTTER CHAOS, YET TOTAL CONTROL

4 4

ALEX AMIDON WIDE RECEIVER Receiving yards per game 33.8 20.0 101.3

Touchdowns 2 1 7

Yards per catch 21.1 11 15.6 2010

2011

2012

BREAKOUT GAME RETTIG

NOV. 25, 2011 - MIAMI, FLA.

After an up-and-down start to his career, Rettig closed his sophomore season at Miami with an efficient twotouchdown, 196-yard game, missing just four of his 17 throws in a 24-17 BC victory.

WILLIAMS

NOV. 27, 2010 - SYRACUSE, N.Y.

Williams followed up 108-yard game against Virginia with a 42-yard carry, 185-yard outing against Syracuse in the regular-season finale. He set a school record for rushing attempts.

AMIDON

SEPT. 1, 2012 - CHESTNUT HILL, MA.

In the first game of his junior year, Amidon erupted for 10 catches and 149 receiving yards. He wouldn’t look back, setting school records for receptions and yards in 2012.

BY THE NUMBERS The total combined production of the three most potent weapons on the BC offense, going back to freshman year:

Total Yards

9,648 55 6.7 97 70 Touchdowns

Yards Per Play

Games Played Games Started

2013 GOALS WIN THE OPENER

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

OLD RELIABLE: Rettig found Amidon for 13 of his 23 attempts on Saturday against Villanova in the season-opener.

Addazio wants more balance than that down the road, but he also sees production from this duo as necessary for wins.

Whether it’s fair or not, Chase Rettig will inevitably be the player most easily associated with the Spaziani era.

Rettig’s first serious live action came on Apr. 24, 2010, before hardly anyone else in his class, football players or students, had even stepped foot on campus as an undergrad. He enrolled early, competing for the starting quarterback job right away. He threw for 48 yards, completing four of his 12 attempts, and was intercepted twice in the spring game. He hardly stood out in the competition for the job with incumbent starter Dave Shinskie, Mike Marscovetra, and even fellow freshman Josh Bordner.

All of that changed in the fall. Rettig impressed coaches throughout the summer and continued that play going into training camp. Then Shinksie lost his job, and Rettig was thrust into a one-week QB battle with Marscovetra, readying for Notre Dame. Rettig won the job, but lost the game and was knocked out with an ankle injury His first touchdown pass came on a 58-yard throw to Bobby Swigert against the Irish, and the duo would develop a strong connection over the next two seasons before Swigert went down during the 2012 training camp, but one of his overlooked classmates filled the role.

Alex Amidon played in 10 games during his freshman season and then 11 in his sophomore year, and although the receiver showed potential, especially in practice, he couldn’t break through as a consistent target in games. All of that changed after Swigert’s injury.

Rettig might be the best remembered player for this era, but Amidon will be the biggest and brightest standout. His game is machine-like, and he showed it immediately as a starter in his junior year.

He caught 10 balls for 149 yards against the Hurricanes in the first game, with he and Rettig making it look like the two had been playing catch since peewee. Almost every time Amidon turned around on a comeback route, the ball would be right there. He didn’t even have to throw his hands up on routes—the ball was already there.

Amidon is fast, but he uses his speed in unique ways. Some receivers burn secondaries with quick bursts of unmatched running. That’s not Amidon’s game. In first quarters, he’ll rely on crisp routes to get open for short to medium gains, with Rettig usually delivering right on the money.

“

Then as the game progresses, he wears down his defenders to set up longer gains. He doesn’t run absurdly fast for a few key plays. He runs very fast for every single one, and opponents find it annoying as hell. This style goes well with his quarterback.

The quarterback and receiver have a mutual respect for each other, one that comes out as a total lack of surprise at the other’s success. Whenever Amidon has a big game, Rettig will say things such as, “He was just being Alex, he never stops,” like he did after Amidon had 193 yards and two touchdowns against Clemson. Then there’s Amidon, always insisting his numbers are nothing more than a result of a smart offensive coordinator and an extremely talented quarterback. His father, Stephen, has said he appreciates his son’s humility, but wishes that, even for a little bit, he could enjoy some of this individual success that so much work has gone into.

Both of these players are NFL prospects. There’s already a model for players like Amidon who have found their way onto pro rosters. For Rettig, his relative passing success in broken systems under five different coordinators, with no running game and shaky pass protection, has in some ways actually helped him as an intriguing guy to take a flier one. He’s built in the prototypical pro-style—less gunslinger and more game-manager.

They’ll have time to worry about all of that in December, but they both insist that hasn’t been on their minds at all. No one has echoed the two goals—an opening victory and a bowl game—more than the leaders in the passing game.

They started off 2013 right where they left off in 2012, with Amidon catching 13 of Rettig’s 23 completions for 146 yards. Some things were different too, though. No sacks on Rettig, as Addazio, a former offensive line coach, might have found a cure for that position’s issues. Also, there was no desperate need in the second half to abandon a flailing ground game. Williams ran for more than 100 yards, and it helped set up the third quarter bomb that Rettig got off to his favorite target, as Amidon snuck past man coverage for a wide-open touchdown.

This duo will go down as two out of a few memorable players in the Spaziani regime. They can’t avoid that, but they also have the opportunity to be the players to start off Addazio’s reign with a bang.

”

“They haven’t had a ton of things to be excited about. They worked really hard. They had total belief in what we were doing. It was total buy in.”

- Steve Addazio on his team’s attitude early in the season

DEFENSE 2010

2011

KEVIN PIERRE-LOUIS Tackles per game

STEELE DEVITO Tackles per game

KEVIN PIERRE-LOUIS Tackles per game

Total tackles for loss

Total tackles for loss

Total tackles for loss

GET TO A BOWL GAME

Deflections

Deflections

Deflections

BC needs five more wins to accomplish its second goal. These seniors were freshmen in the loss to Nevada in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. That game was the last time BC had a winning record, until Saturday.

Sacks

Sacks

Sacks

FUM forced/rec

FUM forced/rec

FUM forced/rec

The Eagles got to cross this mark off the list early. BC has just two goals this season, and defeating Villanova was the first. All five of the seniors played a key role in the victory, and they also showed steady improvement from last season.

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

ON THEIR BACKS: The BC defense in relying on Divitto and Pierre-Louis to make up for

Consider Steele Divitto the rock for the BC defense, and that makes Kevin Pierre-Louis its own personal avalanche. That’s not to take away from Divitto. Defenses need their rock, especially at middle linebacker. Run stopping, pass coverage, reliable tackling, solid decision-making—Divitto brings all those things on most snaps. The Eagles need that steady play from him.

But if Luke Kuechly was the eraser, making all of the mistakes in front of him disappear, Pierre-Louis is the shredder. Make a mistake on offense, and he’ll tear you apart. Watching defensive coordinator Don Brown rearrange Pierre-Louis around the field against Villanova, it resembled a toddler who had just grabbed hold of an Xbox controller and refused to let go.

There’s a method to the chaos, though.

“A lot of energy,” Pierre-Louis said of Brown. “That guy brings a lot of energy. If you’re not bringing energy, he’s going to make you bring energy and that’s definitely something that we need from the defensive side of the ball.”

He was creeping up alongside the defensive line, then he took a step back, then he jolted forward again, all before the snap. He calmly stood back at his linebacker spot, and then immediately after the play began he was racing through a gap his defensive tackles had created. He faked a blitz and then sprinted back into coverage.

He did all of these things within the span of 10 minutes against the Wildcats, and he’s going to be asked to do them consistently throughout his final year as an Eagle.

His speed and his ability to make plays was hampered as the Will linebacker on the weak side and in the old, bend-don’t-break system, but now Pierre-Louis has been moved to Sam as Brown tries to get the most out of him on a defensive unit that is short on difference makers.

Pierre-Louis had two of the team’s six sacks last season.

Eventually, offenses figured out that he was the main pass rushing threat for BC and found ways to slow him down. Now, he’s much more difficult to find. It also helps that he’s not the only one coming. Brown is sending more rushers from the secondary and getting creative with how his defensive line attacks as well. It worked against Villanova, with the Eagles racking up 11 tackles for a loss and four sacks.

“Coach Brown always tells us, ‘Never let the defense cross

that magic line,’” Pierre-Louis said after the win on Saturday.

“And even though on a couple gimmick plays they were able to do that twice, we got back to the fundamentals and they didn’t cross that line again.”

Brown asks for a very demanding balance from his players.

They need to be fundamental and disciplined, while also going 100 miles an hour in multiple formations and causing as much pressure as possible.

Divitto and Pierre-Louis represent both ends of the new system—Divitto in the middle as the steady hand and PierreLouis on the strong side as the hair-on-fire hammer. Both couldn’t have asked for better mentors when they first arrived in Chestnut Hill.

They lined up with Mark Herzlich and then Kuechly and then Nick Clancy. As the tough power of the Eagle defense has faded over the last few years, the linebacker spot has remained strong.

The three men in the middle of the defense have simultaneously been relied on to make up for poor pass rushing and run stopping up front, as well as suspect coverage behind them.

They’ve also been asked to do it in a conservative system.

Now it’s their turn to lead a group of young linebackers, once again as the defense’s strongest unit. The secondary showed significant improvement against Villanova, and the defensive line actually got to the quarterback, which is a good start, but those positional groups are still playing catch-up with the linebackers.

Addazio has been complimentary of the players lining up behind Divitto and Pierre-Louis. Josh Keyes could be a perfect fit for Brown, and his style of play is modeled after Pierre-Louis in many ways.

When Keyes blew up Villanova quarterback John Robertson, forcing a fumble and sealing a victory, he attacked almost as viciously as the strong-side starter. Players like Mike Strizak could prove as dependable as Divitto down the line.

All of this is on the periphery. As much as these defensive leaders will set the stage for the future with their words and their mentorship, the best way to springboard this program into something better is to win, and punish as many offenses as possible along the way.

mistakes in an aggressive, blitzing scheme under new defensive coordinator Don Brown.

SHIFTING UP A GEAR

DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

RUNAWAY: Halfback is the position on the BC roster with the least amount of depth.

After Williams remains uncertainty, and the senior will be called on often this season.

2012

It doesn’t really matter when Andre Williams first saw the field for the Eagles, or when he bulldozed his first defender, or scored his first touchdown. Williams’ college career officially began in Syracuse, N.Y., on Nov. 28, 2010—and it’s been stalled in neutral up in the Carrier Dome ever since.

185 yards. 42 carries. A 16-7 victory. A winning record. It all came in just his 11th game. Starting running back Montel Harris was out and Williams was in.

“He just runs with no fear,” left tackle Anthony Castonzo said after the game. “It was impressive. He was running like a man possessed.”

As possessed as he was against the Orange, Williams has stumbled through a spellbound ground game since. He rushed for 517 yards in his sophomore season and then just 584 last year.

Never great, but never bad either. Just stuck in neutral, waiting to finally break free.

Williams is intelligent, thoughtful, and well spoken. He’ll open up about the reservations he had about his new coach, and then explain in detail how conversations between the two have formed a solid relationship. He’ll smile wide when his offensive line comes up—the same offensive line that has left him without gaps to run through for two seasons—and say with complete sincerity that he has “blind faith” in the five men up front. He’ll look you in the eye and thank you, very politely, for talking.

And then he gets out onto the field and runs angry as hell.

There’s fighting for every yard, and then there’s a senior back willing to put Villanova defenders through any amount of physical pain imaginable so that his team can have a third and two rather than a third and two and a half. Williams waits until defenders get close and then, unfortunately for them, he decides to get faster.

RECORD

QUOTED

STEELE DEVITO Tackles per game

KEVIN PIERRE-LOUIS Tackles per game

STEELE DEVITO Tackles per game

Although this group of five has had some individual success, the wins haven’t come to go along with the stats. In the 23 games when all five players have seen the field, BC has just eight wins.

Total tackles for loss

Total tackles for loss

Total tackles for loss

CAREER RECORD

Deflections

Deflections

Deflections

Sacks

Sacks

Sacks

FUM forced/rec

FUM forced/rec

FUM forced/rec

8-15

WINNING PERCENTAGE when all five players see the field.

In his sophomore and junior seasons, Williams tried to complement the bruising, power-run game that overtook the Orange with more finesse and agility. But that’s not his game. Williams is meant to run through, and only through. Not around, not over, not past—just through.

He went through the Wildcats for 114 yards on 23 carries to start the 2013 season. Almost everything came right up the middle, right where he belongs. He didn’t stutter, he didn’t get fancy, he just put his head down and forced himself in only one direction: forward.

Williams took eight carries on BC’s first drive. On his third carry, a third and two, he pushed a hand-off up the left for 17 yards, powering his legs to keep moving Villanova defenders that just expected him to go down. The play was called back after a dead ball, personal foul from Bobby Vardaro. It looked like Williams and his offensive line were once again hurting each other like last season, but then they made up for it.

Five more runs from Williams, including a strong fourth-down conversion, helped set up the pass for Rettig, leading to an opening score. It was what Rettig, Amidon, and the rest of the Eagles had hoped the offense would be for the last two years.

Williams returns to Syracuse for the final game of the regular season. If he can keep up the momentum he created against the Wildcats, he may slide out of neutral and into a bowl game again.

It’s what all of these seniors want. After four years of significant playing time, some groups of core players might ask for more, but these five know where the bar is set. Play 13 games instead of 12, and the three-year downfall will be history. The new era can either start next year, or it can start now, with them. 

34.8

“Almost in a weird way, the way they had to come back to win this to me, probably helped us from the standpoint of building our program. I am really happy for our players.”

- Steve Addazio On BC’s win over Villanova

6 THE HEIGHTS SEPT. 5, 2013

FOOTBALL PREVIEW RECAP

BOSTON COLLEGE 24

VILLANOVA 14

BENT AND BROKEN A rejuvenated defense helped BC secure an opening win against Villanova

BY AUSTIN TEDESCO Sports Editor

John Robertson bent the Boston College defense until it eventually turned around and broke him, taking the rest of the Villanova offense down with the Wildcats quarterback. To start off the 2013 season, the Eagles defense that often snapped last year smashed its way into a second half turnaround and a 24-14 victory.

Head coach Steve Addazio said the hype of the game got to his defensive players. Running a new, hyper-aggressive scheme, they started off by lining up in the wrong spots, missing their reads, and allowing Robertson to scamper through, around, and across the field during the first half. After being fooled by an elaborate fake punt and blowing coverage on a key 3rdand-14, the Eagles entered halftime down 14-7.

Defensive coordinator Don Brown entered the locker room frustrated, but he only need to tell his players to settle down. The 2-10 finish in 2012 was still fresh in their minds, and they were channeling their desire to turn around the football program in the wrong ways.

An aggressive attack takes controlled discipline, and that finally came together in the second half.

After accumulating 234 yards in the first half, the Wildcats were held to only 121 in the second. The Eagles forced three key turnovers in the fourth quarter, preventing any attempts by Villanova to comeback.

Trailing 21-14 with less than 10 minutes left in the game, Robertson took a 3rd-and-5 snap out of the shotgun, trying to mount a late comeback. Senior defensive end Kasim Edebali came flying up the middle

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Josh Keyes’ forced fumble on Villanova quarterback John Robertson sealed the win for the Eagles, 24-14. untouched, having just swung across the front of the line past the Villanova center, and launched himself at the quarterback. Robertson was forced into a bad throw, and BC took advantage.

As the ball was released, BC defensive back Manny Asprilla took one step to his right, but the ball was sailing the opposite direction. He quickly pushed off his right foot and jumped back to the ball, snatching

it into his hands for a pick while Edebali chased after him in celebration. Nate Freese followed the interception up with a 39-yard field goal, giving the Eagles a two-possession lead.

But Robertson wasn’t done. He passed for 39 yards and ran for another 17 on the next drive to bring the Wildcats to the BC 19-yard line. He dropped back in the shotgun again, and again a BC defender laid him

out. Junior linebacker Josh Keyes pressed up against the left side of the line before rushing through the middle and drilling Robertson, making Edebali’s hit look weak in comparison. The ball flew out of Robertson’s hands and Edebali scooped it up, essentially sealing the BC victory.

“We have to pressure,” Addazio said. “We’re not going to be able to stand up in our conference if we don’t continue to bring it.”

The Eagle defense brought it against a talented FCS opponent last Saturday. After a lull in the middle of the game, the offense started to bring it too.

Andre Williams ran for an angry 114 yards, Chase Rettig threw for an efficient 285 yards, completing 23 of his 30 attempts, and Alex Amidon notched his eighth 100-yard game. In 2012, they passed to set up worse passing. In the second half, they ran to set up successful play actions and counter plays. Amidon got past the defense for a wide-open, 49-yard touchdown early in the third quarter to tie the game, and Andre Williams punched in a 26-yard score on the ground to take the lead.

It wasn’t perfect offensive balance, but it was a step forward from the completely off-kilter attack last year.

A much better team in Wake Forest comes to Alumni Stadium tomorrow to challenge how well this new balance can hold up, and how effective Brown’s hairon-fire defensive scheme can be.

Until then, this team can enjoy that it’s accomplished half its goals by just winning the opener. Now it’s time to work out the kinks to get to the second goal—bowl eligibility.

“We had to win the game in the second half and that was what was preached all week,” Rettig said. “We went out and did that. That was part of our goals—was win the opener—and now we’ve got to do everything in our power to prepare to get to the amount of wins it takes to get bowl eligible.” 

Wolford stands out, Amidon picks up where he left off against Wildcats

BY CHRIS GRIMALDI Assoc. Sports Editor

While much attention has been paid to the Boston College football team’s new-look defensive approach, the squad’s second-half comeback against Villanova on Saturday was spurred by a breakout performance and veteran consistency on offense.

WOLFORD STEPS UP After watching his rookie season from the sidelines in 2012 and changing positions during training camp, redshirt-freshman Bobby Wolford immediately made his presence known in the BC backfield. The converted linebacker catalyzed the Eagle offense by catching his first career touchdown reception as a fullback in the first quarter to cap a 70-yard BC drive.

“He’s been a great camp surprise for us,” said head coach Steve Addazio. “He’s done a wonderful job.”

Wolford answered the call on offense all afternoon, tallying six total catches for 84 receiving yards. The Jacksonville, Fla. native added a pivotal 36-yard reception in the third quarter that set the stage for a go-ahead touchdown run from senior Andre Williams.

Though leaving his spot on defense to switch was a challenging adjustment, Wolford seized the chance to step up when senior fullback Jake Sinkovec went down with an injury during camp. He credited Addazio for recognizing his ability to fill a void in the backfield.

“He’s been around the game for a long time,” Wolford said, “and he knows what’s best. Give the credit to him for making the change for me.”

Wolford appeared to make the transition to his new position with ease, and his head coach attributed some of the redshirt-

freshman’s success to BC’s effective use of the play-action.

Considering the role he played in the Eagles’ play-action prowess on Saturday, Wolford may offer BC a long-term weapon in the backfield and a reliable target for senior quarterback Chase Rettig. He sees his participation in the passing game as an evolutionary feature of the squad’s offense rather than a formal part of its game plan.

“If you only run the ball and you don’t really have any play-action pass, you can’t be successful,” Wolford said. “So I think it just advanced out of the natural workings of our offense.”

AMIDON CONTINUES SUCCESS Continuing right where he left off at the end of last season, senior receiver Alex Amidon tied the program’s all-time record for 100-yard receiving games with his eighth as an Eagle. The veteran wideout tallied 146 yards on a careerhigh 13 grabs, including a 49-yard touchdown snag that tied Saturday’s contest up at 14. Like his teammate Wolford, Amidon credited his first week success to BC’s coaching staff.

“We’ve got a great OC, coach Ryan Day,” Amidon said, “and he just put us in the right places.”

Amidon now ranks 10th on BC’s all-time career receptions list and 11th in career receiving yards, but he saw the Eagle offense’s rejuvenation in the second half as a more important turning point for the team’s future in 2013.

“It’s amazing what momentum can do for you,” Amidon said. “We just played a lot better.

We can’t stall like that after one drive. We just have to continue to play hard and execute.”

ADDAZIO TALKS FUNDAMENTALS Despite the Eagles’ comeback win to open the regular season, Addazio identified

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS PHOTO

Although BC came away with a victory in the season-opener, Addazio still says his team has fundamental work to do to improve.

some points in the game at which his team strayed from the fundamental soundness he preached throughout camp—particularly on special teams.

BC immediately found itself in a firstquarter deficit after the Wildcats executed a deceptive punt fake on their first possession of the game. Following a fake snap that baffled the Eagles’ punt protection, Villanova’s Jamal Abdul-Rahman glided into the end zone with a 47-yard touchdown run. The fake-out might have been highlight-reel worthy, but Addazio admitted that lapses in concentration allow the opposition to record big plays.

“That’s unacceptable,” Addazio said. “That’s a score there that didn’t need to be a score.”

The Eagles also struggled to capitalize on the punt return for all 60 minutes of play, as they returned only two of the five punts Villanova sent their way for a mere total of 25 return yards.

“We’ve got to get back to work at attacking the returns,” Addazio said. “We’ve got to field the balls, and we’ve got to get more out of the return game.”

For a rebuilding team clawing for every point, its head coach acknowledged that field position becomes a crucial factor in deciding a game’s outcome. Addazio said the team might even have to try using two returners, if necessary.

“That was a critical deal when we had a field position tilt that was incredible there,” he said, “and we started playing on the long field.”

Yet a win in the opener provides a foundation upon which the Eagles can prepare for their first ACC test of the season—a home showdown against Wake Forest on Friday night.

“Finding a way to win, you saw,” Addazio said. “Sloppy? Yes. Things to be cleaned up?

Yes. We’ll move from here.” 

EAGLE WALK New Traditions Under new athletic director Brad Bates and head coach Steve Addazio, the athletic department and the football program have installed plenty of changes to the gameday experience. There’s a new student ticketing system, the return of the live eagle mascot, and a restructured, more cohesive Eagle Walk. The team now leaves Mass at Gasson Hall two hours prior to kickoff, heads down the Million Dollar Stairs, and walks through a crowd of fans to the locker room while dressed up in coats and tiess.

“This is just a start, we are nowhere close to achieving our full potential, and we will not rest until we have the best gameday atmosphere in the ACC.” - BRAD BATES

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR DANIEL LEE / HEIGHTS SENIOR STAFF

Sept. 5, 2013 THE HEIGHTS 7

football preview feature

Rolling in the deep After struggling in the Spaziani bend-don’t-break, cushion-filled system early in their careers, the starters in the new Boston College secondary are itching to be let loose under new defensive coordinator Don Brown BY CHRIS GRIMALDI

Bryce Jones (17) Manny Asprilla (21) At cornerback, the Eagles start sophomore Bryce Jones and junior Manny Asprilla. Both players flourished in Brown’s attacking system in the season-opener.

While they can drop back in coverage and defend receivers, Jones and Asprilla both displayed an affinity for ball-hawking in run defense and pass rushing as well.

(47) Spenser Rositano (19) Sean Sylvia Juniors Spenser Rositano and Sean Sylvia control the safety spots in the defense. Rather than in previous years when the safeties have almost exclusively been a blanketed, last line of defense for the Eagles, these two are now moving all over the field to confuse the offense.

4Q 10:00 2nd and 9 Sylvia

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For the past few seasons, the Eagles have had their cornerbacks and safeties line-up backed away from the line of scrimmage. Now, they’re scrambling all over the field on defense. Shown above are play diagrams from the Villanova game. The dotted lines show motion before the snap, and the straight lines show motion when the play begins. Brown has found creative ways to make, and to fake, pressure with the secondary.

A

s in everyday life, there’s an apprehension on the gridiron of having to grow up too fast.

Youth atop a depth chart is quickly perceived as a lack of veteran leadership, vulnerability to error, or simply a wealth of inexperience with the speed and physicality of college football. True freshmen can survive, but doubters wonder if they ever thrive after being immediately thrown into the lion’s den.

On paper, the Boston College football team’s defensive secondary falls into this stereotype. A starting unit that has suffered through two losing seasons still does not feature a single senior. Yet this tightly knit group on BC’s roster has played side by side for the better part of two seasons, as each player was thrust into the spotlight early in his college career when a void needed to be filled.

Fighting together through campaigns full of growing pains and adjustments has rendered the secondary one of the Eagles’ most potent weapons. In the eyes of new defensive coordinator Don Brown, the starting four of BC’s defensive backfield—juniors Sean Sylvia, Manny Asprilla, Spenser Rositano, and sophomore Bryce Jones—are survivors.

“In some respects, you can stay out there and get your nose bloodied down the field,” Brown said, “or you can make something happen.”

Through 42 combined career starts, the defensive backs have clawed their way to survival alongside each other and—in the eyes of their coaching staff—grown into the leaders that a potent defense requires.

Now they’re ready to win.

While he enters the year sporting a new look without his trademark locks, nothing else about the high-energy, hard-hitting persona of Sylvia has changed since his breakout performance in 2012.

“Sean Sylvia is Sean Sylvia,” Brown said. “It’s who he is—tough, physical, good coverage skills.”

The junior safety is coming off an 86-tackle season in which he tallied a highlight-reel performance against ACC foe Clemson, picking off quarterback Tajh Boyd with a diving interception. His statistical credentials and the animated on-field antics he uses to motivate teammates have earned Sylvia the image of defensive anchor in the secondary. Yet the Dartmouth, Mass. native attributes an increased leadership role to his status as elder statesman in a group of young veterans.

“I’m one of the older guys as far as age goes,” Sylvia said, as he enters his fourth year at BC after redshirting as a freshman. “I think just by default I’m taking a little bit more of a leadership role.”

As much as Sylvia has established himself as a playmaker on defense, he’s still on a quest to elevate his game.

The time he’s dedicated to mastering pass coverage in camp can help erase memories of Notre Dame’s John Goodman beating him to the corner of the end zone for a momentous score on a cold Saturday night last November. If Sylvia reaches the apex of his potential, BC will be spending more

time rallying around his own signature on-field celebrations than watching opponents’ touchdown dances.

Yet a potent defense is no one-man show, so the success of BC’s secondary unit also rides on the shoulders of Sylvia’s lieutenants.

Alongside Sylvia in the BC defensive alignment stands junior safety Spenser Rositano. Since appearing in 11 games as a true freshman, the Ashburn, Va. native and former high school baseball standout has quietly set the tone for BC’s defense through his unwavering work ethic and accountability. He’s set a positive example for his teammates that head coach Steve Addazio hopes to replicate as he builds a winning program at BC. “He’s a very serious guy,” Addazio said of Rositano.

“He’s a smart guy. So I just think you’d consider him as a guy that’s trustworthy in terms of doing his job.”

Rositano’s emphasis isn’t on glitz or style points, but he has often asserted himself in the right place at the right time. Three interceptions, a blocked field goal on special teams, and a momentous fumble recovery against Notre Dame last season reinforced his image as a game-changer.

Admittedly, the safety has had a penchant for big games and squaring off against high-powered ACC offenses early on his career.

The experience has paid off.

“Playing them has helped me develop more as a player,” Rositano said, “just getting my reads, communicating with the whole secondary. It’s obviously helped me a little bit.”

The steadiness that Rositano provides is complemented by athleticism provided at the corners by his classmate Asprilla and the sophomore Jones. Although he is the

game plan.

Plays like his interception against Villanova are reasons for praise from the Eagle coaching staff. Whenever a corner can anticipate the decisions of a dual-threat quarterback, switch directions on the fly, and hit the turf with a tumbling grab secured in his hands, a head coach knows he’s working with a special player.

“When we came out of the spring, I thought he was a good football player,” Addazio said of Asprilla. “When we came out of camp, I said, ‘He really is a good football player.’

“I think he has the chance to be a standout.”

In Brown’s eyes, Asprilla’s attack of the opponent’s running game is a testament to his grit.

“He’s quick,” Brown said. “He’s tough—he’s Everett tough.”

No matter how well the starting four’s different strengths complement each other, the players have been tasked with a challenge from within—adjusting to their coordinator’s aggressive brand of defense.

In his 32nd year as a coach and his 17th as a defensive coordinator, Brown has brought a defensive scheme to BC that fueled his prior success with Connecticut. The strategy sends more defenders in to attack the ball, cutting off an opponent’s access to short throws while providing the line with more support against the run—a far cry from the conservative approach used by the BC defense in seasons past.

With a more explosive defense comes a steeper learning

“I want us to be known nationally....I don’t want anybody talking about that we never changed.” youngest member of BC’s defensive back corps, Jones has entered the year with more experience than many sophomore cornerbacks thanks to playing in all 12 games during his freshman year.

His time as Most Valuable Player of the Lake Erie League back in high school hadn’t prepared him for the speed of collegiate opponents, but learning from his veteran teammates on the field has.

“They’ve been here longer so I feed off of them,” Jones said. “I just keep my mouth shut and listen, pay attention, watch, and learn from them.”

At the corner position, Jones has found a role model in Asprilla. The Everett, Mass. native is a season removed from being only one of three Eagles to compete in over 1,000 plays on the gridiron. While that statistic is evidence of Asprilla’s durability, his style of play on the field reflects a natural athletic gift that wasn’t as apparent in last year’s defensive scheme. An impressive showing in week one offered a glimpse at the junior’s potential within a new

curve for the players, and less room for error.

“It sounds good and it is good,” Addazio said of Brown’s game plan, “but when you run that kind of scheme and someone makes a mistake, you’re real vulnerable. It’s the good news, bad news. You’ve got to be accountable.”

For a team looking to reclaim its past eminence in college football, Addazio and Brown recognize that rewards demand calculated risks. If the new blueprint succeeds in BC’s defensive backfield, it will be thanks in part to the camaraderie that the secondary’s starting four have forged through times of struggle—a relationship built on trust, communication, and respect.

“We know what our strengths and weaknesses are,” Rositano said, “so it helps to balance everything out.”

Familiarity builds trust, and trust allows an athlete to play with confidence when he knows a teammate has his back if something goes wrong. A secondary unit that cohesively thinks and functions as one is a lot tougher to beat than four individuals acting on their own. Perhaps the past curse of having to start true freshmen before their time

has bloomed into a blessing.

“We have connections on the field,” Asprilla said. “If it’s your first time playing with a certain unit, there’s not a lot of trust. Being able to play with the same unit year after year, it builds a lot of trust.”

Sylvia noted that teammates who are on the same page will be more honest with each other when improvements need to be made, paving the way for progress.

“We’re pretty good at taking criticism because we all know that we love each other and we all care about each other off the field,” he said. “So if we get a little bit of criticism, we know that it’s in our best interest to elevate our play a little bit more.”

Each player wants his comrades to succeed, but just as badly wants to succeed for his comrades.

“If you get beat deep or miss your assignment, you’ve got to come back and say, ‘I’m going to do twice as better as the mistake I just made,”’ Asprilla said.

Yet the two halves of Saturday’s opener against Villanova proved that the starting four will still experience some highs and lows with Brown’s new system. As quickly as added aggressiveness can lead to blown one-on-one coverage and a big play, it can just as easily crush an opponent’s ability to move the chains and force turnovers.

There’s no expectation for immediate perfection, but the Eagle defensive backs will not fear of making a mistake lower the ceiling above their potential. A unit that watched its 2012 opponents light up the scoreboard with 30 or more points on seven different occasions is willing to gamble. After forcing three turnovers in the second half of last weekend’s game, the Eagles’ payoff can be rebirth in a new system.

“When you fall down, you’ve just got to get back up,” Asprilla said. “You can’t cry over a mistake because if you mourn over a mistake it’s going to ruin the next play.”

Though their camaraderie has been a constant, the members of BC’s secondary have embraced the challenges placed before them with the hope that it will fade the memory of a 2-10 campaign. They detest losing, and they are part of a program that hadn’t suffered consecutive losing seasons in over a decade.

“After coming off of two wins in a year, you want to come back out there and prove that that’s never going to happen again,” Jones said.

Improvement might come in increments, starting with Sylvia’s observation of the defense’s early success with man coverage during camp and the second half of Saturday’s game, a skill that few believed the Eagles could implement so soon. The next step was the team’s first opening day victory at Alumni Stadium in three years.

As for the next milestone in BC’s reclamation project, the script remains unwritten. Yet the Eagle defensive backs will not stray from the ultimate goal—resurrecting the reputation of a storied program.

“I want us to be known nationally,” Asprilla said, “like, ‘Boston College went from that and now they’re this.’ I don’t want anybody talking about that we never changed.” n

8 THE HEIGHTS SEPT. 5, 2013

FOOTBALL PREVIEW COACHING HISTORY

Tim Tebow

Mike Pouncey

Maurkice Pouncey

Tebow helped the Gators to two national titles in 2006 and 2008, earning a Heisman Trophy for himself along the way. During that time, Addazio served as tackles and tight ends coach, offensive line coach, and offensive assistant head coach. In 2010, Tebow was drafted in the first round by the Denver Broncos.

An injury during his 2007 freshman year relegated Pouncey to the Florida defensive line, but he was back on Addazio’s side of the ball in 2008 when he started all 14 games as a right guard for the Gators, including the national title game against the Oaklahoma Sooners. An honorable mention All-SEC selection in 2009, he moved to center for his senior year and was selected by the Miami Dolphins at 15th overall in the first round of the 2011 draft.

Pouncey played right guard and center for the Gators. He and his twin brother, Mike, were both recruited by Addazio to Florida. The 18th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, Pouncey decided to skip his senior year in Gainesville after being named All-SEC, winning a BCS National Championship, and earning the Rimington Trophy for the nation’s best center.

QB Florida 2006-09

HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER: 2007

C Florida 2007-10

Adrian Robinson

C Florida 2007-09

DE Temple 2008-11

RIMINGTON TROPHY WINNER: 2009

2011: Miami Dolphins first round draft pick

2009: MAC Defensive Player of the Year

Marcus Gilbert

RT Florida 2006-10 Gilbert didn’t truly emerge as a force on the Gators’ offensive line until 2009 when he started all 14 games. This emergence corresponded with Addazio’s rise to offensive coordinator. Gilbert also started each game for Florida during the 2010 season, Addazio’s last at Florida, and was drafted by the Steelers in the second round of the 2011 draft.

2011: Pittsburgh Steelers Rookie of the Year

Addazio coached Robinson during his final season with the Owls. Robinson was a team captain, the MAC Defensive Player of the Year in his sophomore season, and a regular on the All-MAC end of the season list. He wasn’t selected in the 2012 draft, but played for the Steelers after being picked up as a free agent and is now a member of the Denver Broncos where he plays linebacker.

Bernard Pierce

“This is my dream job...I’m here for the long haul. And I’m here to win championships.”

- Steve Addazio, during his introductory press conference at Boston College, Dec. 5, 2012

RB Temple 2009-11 Pierce was also coached by Addazio in his last year at Temple. He was named an All-MAC running back for three straight seasons, and left to go pro after his junior year. The Baltimore Ravens selected Pierce with the 84th pick in the third round. As a rookie last season, he accumualted 532 yards on 5 yards per carry.

2009-2011: First team All-MAC Running Back

HOME COMING A Connecticut native and New England man at heart, first-year head coach Steve Addazio says he’s found his dream job in Chestnut Hill after a long journey

GRAHAM BECK / HEIGHTS EDITOR

Western Connecticut State University After graduating from Central Connecticut State with a physical education degree and as a four-year starter for the Blue Devils in 1981, Addazio tried out for the New England Patriots, the USFL’s Jacksonville Bulls, and the CFL’s Ottawa Roughriders. He played on both the offensive and defensive lines. Then, he joined Western Connecticut State as an offensive line coach and a recruiting coordinator in 1984.

He stayed until 1987, coaching under Paul Pasqualoni as the team accumulated a record of 17-14-1. In 1985, the Colonials won the New England Football Conference championship and appeared in the DIII playoffs.

Boston College

Dude, where’s my car?

Addazio has traveled across the Northeast and Midwest, while also adding a stop in SEC country, on his way to becoming BC’s head coach.

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BOSTON COLLEGE HEAD COACH

1. 1985-87

Western Connecticut State Offensive Line

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RECORD: Led Eagles to winning record for the first time since Jan. 9, 2011.

2. 1988-94

Chesire High School Head Coach

RECORD: 15-24 as a player at CCSU

3. 1995-98

Syracuse Tight End/Offensive Line

NEW ENGLAND FOOTBALL CONFERENCE CHAMPION 1985

4. 1999-01

Cheshire High School

Notre Dame Offensive Line/Special Teams

Before making his DI coaching debut, Addazio led Cheshire High School in Cheshire, Conn., to three straight state titles. His teams racked up an overall record of 61-12-5 from 1988-95, including a stretch with 34 consecutive victories. The Rams were nationally ranked two times during Addazio’s tenure, in both 1992 and 1994.

On Dec. 4, 2012, five weeks after the firing of Frank Spaziani, Addazio was named the new head coach for the Eagles. Immediately, his intense, energetic demeanor set him apart from his predecessor in his attempt to rebuild the Eagles’ football program. Addazio has already met one goal—winning the home opener—but a season-long attempt for bowl eligibility and a heavy focus on improving the 2013 Rivals recruiting ranking of 87 are at the forefront as Addazio moves forward with the Eagles.

5. 2002-04

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Indiana Offensive Line/Offensive Coordinator 6. 2005-10

Florida Offensive Line/Offensive Coordinator 7. 2011-12

Temple University Head Coach

Temple University Addazio was first hired as a head coach

by Temple University for 2011. During his first season, he became the Owl’s winningest first-year head coach with a record of 9-4 and led the team to an appearance in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.

The offense set school records for both rushing yards and rushing touch downs. During the offseason, Addazio gained recognition for his recruiting prowess putting together the top recruiting class in the MAC. The 2012 season was not as successful for the Owls, as they finished with a record of 4-7 and failed to gain consecutive bowl appearances.

RECORD: Led Temple to first bowl victory in 32 years during 2011 season

RECORD: T-6th best winning percentage in Conn. high school football history with .813

Syracuse University

Notre Dame

University of Indiana

University of Florida

Addazio joined the Syracuse Orange in 1995 as a tight ends and assistant offensive line coach. He was promoted to the head offensive line position in 1997. The team played for the Fiesta Bowl and the Orange Bowl, respectively in his final two seasons, with Addazio running the front line. The Orange also earned the Big East title in 1996, ’97, and ‘98.

In 1999, the Irish hired Addazio as an assistant coach and he specialized in the offensive line and special teams, working under Bob Davie. He returned to the Fiesta Bowl in 2001 with Notre Dame, finishing the year with a 9-3 record. During his time in South Bend, Addazio coached nine future NFL players, including center and first-rounder Jeff Faine. He left Notre Dame after Davie was fired in 2001 following a 5-6 season and a loss to BC.

Addazio got his first chance to run an offense with Indiana in 2004 when he was promoted to Offensive Coordinator after coaching the Hoosiers’ offensive line in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, the team went 3-8, finishing last in the Big Ten. Addazio left Indiana with an overall record of 8-27 in three seasons. Future pros Enoch DeMar and Indiana’s all-time receptions and receiving yards leader Courtney Roby both played under Addazio.

From 2005-10, Addazio worked his way up from offensive line coach to Offensive Coordinator and Associate Head Coach under Urban Meyer for Florida. The Gators went 65-15 during Addazio’s six seasons in Gainesville. Led by Chris Leak and then Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow two years later, the team won the BCS National Championship game twice by defeating Ohio State in 2006 and Oklahoma in 2008.

THREE STRAIGHT CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1996-98

‘96 ‘97 ‘98

BOSTON CONNECTION: Addazio coached with shortlived, 2012 Boston College offensive coordinator Kevin Rogers at both Syracuse and Notre Dame.

RECORD: LT Enoch Demar earned 3-time All-Big Ten RECORD: Courtney Roby caught 170 balls for 2,524 yards

TWO BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2006 & 2008

The Heights

A2Column

Fashion Forward Choosing your outfits confidently, page c4

album review

‘Repave’

Critical Curmudgeon

Young Rebels

Thursday, January 17, 2013

FALL ARTS GUIDE

Youth in music is about more than just “edginess,” page c2

justin vernon’s volcano choir opens up a new avenue with hybrid electronicfolk sound, c5

SEPT. 7 8

BOSTON CALLING MIXFEST 2013

SEPT. 14

LIFE IS GOOD FESTIVAL

SEPT. 21 22

ALL THE WAY WITH BRYAN CRANSTON ARTWEEK BOSTON

SEPT. 13 OCT. 12

SEPT. 27 OCT. 6

BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL

OCT. 17 19

SEE SPOTLIGHT ON BOSTON, C3 MAGGIE BURDGE / Heights PHoto illustration

THE HEIGHTS

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WILEY’S FOLLIES

Hyperloops and the Millenium Falcon

Thursday, September 5, 2013

SCENE AND HEARD

BY: RYAN DOWD

JOHN WILEY Elon Husk, founder of SpaceX and co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors, recently proposed the “Hyperloop”—an invention he describes as the “fifth mode of transportation”—as an alternative proposal to the $68 billion high-speed rail currently in the works to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles. As laid out in Husk’s plans, the Hyperloop could complete the 354-mile route in 35 minutes, it’s construction costing a slight $7.5 billion. The concept of Hyperloop suggests by using linear induction motors—a technology frequently employed in the roller coaster industry—capsule-like vehicles, suspended on a cushion of air, could be propelled through elevated tubes at speeds up to 760 mph.

The proposal has received mild to harsh criticism—understandably so, the scientific claims hoisting the idea are ruffling many a feather in the academic world. Meanwhile, the proposed cost has a fine pool of business-types scrambling angrily to their calculators.

I don’t wholly blame these skeptics for my indignation. So it seems George Lucas raised me to believe—and wrongfully, I might add—that by 2013, the world could have squeezed out something a little more special than this cynicism. It also doesn’t help that the better part of my formative years was spent running between my kitchen and living room with a plastic Millennium Falcon, performing feats of derring-do. Han Solo and his wholesome Wookie companion Chewbacca weren’t even capable of imagining what a flip phone might do, and yet they together could travel through hyperspace in a hamburger-shaped spacecraft.

And how about William Shatner and his travels with the USS Enterprise? He literally navigated the Milky Way Galaxy using a series of panels with blinking lights as a primary interface. Yeah, I’m not buying any of this: it’s absolutely absurd we can’t get our Hyperloop.

I suppose I’ve always been captivated by the science fiction genre, and its fabricated tomorrow, and in time, that fabricated tomorrow seems to change. In 1927, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis showed us this dystopian vision, a world covered in massive cities, in which the poor live and die in the underbelly of the city, performing the manual labor to preserve the decadent lifestyles of the privileged few. And in the 1920s, with all talk of the “affluent” society, this version of tomorrow perhaps was certainly one of the most daunting, even quite plausible for the imaginative type of the time.

Flash forward to 1977, the year the original Star Wars trilogy began with what we now know as Episode IV: A New Hope.

The great threat of 1977 is no longer the extreme outcomes of capitalism depicted in Metropolis. Director George Lucas addressed suspicions of the great “other,” whether that be the Galactic Empire in a galaxy far, far away or the Soviet Union a bit closer to home.

By no accident, the Wachowskis’ Matrix trilogy (1999-2003) gave a portrait of a world cheated of its humanity by technological isolation, right as the Internet began to play a pervasive role in everyday life. A healthy chunk of science fiction films produced over the last decade have similarly taken on this theme of an intrusive cyber reality: Inception, Source Code, and Minority Report to name a few. The sci-fi genre, in its noblest functioning, does not predict a future, but prevents one.

Similarly playing into the fears of the last decade, even Pixar’s Wall-E gave us a dystopian vision. Not entirely unlike Metropolis, this film took us to the ruins of an unsustainable society, bringing environmentalism into the science fiction genre, with this adorable, yet heart-wrenching parable of a kind-souled robot, depicting man a threat to himself in ways Lang’s tomorrow could hardly have uncovered.

This summer, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim took on an entirely different fear of the 21st century. Alien forces are now a threat from within, not without, in films such as these, engaging themes of terrorism. The age-old alien invasion plot-line gains an emotional viscosity as it evokes images of a very real sort of violence.

So what is science fiction: the Hyperloop or the plastic Millennium Falcon? Or maybe we let little boys play with Millennium Falcons because the real tomorrow is too scary to imagine, and the imaginary tomorrow is too real to shoot down.

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

1. CASTING ‘50 SHADES’

In perhaps the most anticipated non-Batman casting announcement to date, E.L. James, author of Fifty Shades of Grey, revealed last Monday the leads for the upcoming film adaption of her best-selling novel. Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Pacific Rim) will play the seductive Christian Grey. Dakota Johnson (Ben and Kate, The Social Network) will play protagonist Anastasia Steele.

Fans are less than pleased and have filed a petition in favor of Matt Bomer (White Collar) and Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls).

2. ‘BUTLER’ TRIUMPHS Lee Daniel’s The Butler emerged victorious for the third straight weekend defeating young upstart One Direction: This Is Us. As of late Sunday it appeared as if the world’s favorite boy band would usurp the box office throne. Oprah would have none of that, as The Butler surged on Monday to beat One Direction by two million, graciously bowing with a weekend total of $20 million.

4. CHAPELLE WALKS OFF

Comedian Dave Chappelle’s comeback tour hit a snag in Hartford, Conn. last Thursday when in response to hecklers he walked off the stage after his contractually obligated 25 minutes had ended. According to reports, Chappelle became irritated when some particularly rambunctious patrons began to shout punch lines from old Chapelle bits and eventually obscenities.

Chappelle’s exact reason for walking off remains unclear, as he has yet to make a statement.

3. NEW ‘IDOL’ DOG POUND

5. JUST IN THE WRONG PLACE

Remember the knockout trio of Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and the ever cool Randy Jackson? Well, American Idol has marched on and in its 13th season must again shuffle its panel of judges. Mariah Carrey, Nicki Minaj, and Randy Jackson depart this year in favor of Harry Connick Jr. and Jennifer Lopez, who returns for her second stint. They join lone holdover Keith Urban. Idol will move back to a three-judge panel in hopes of recapturing its glory days.

Football coaches are notorious for the mantra that ‘nothing good ever happens after 2 a.m.’ Alas, Justin Bieber never had a football coach. At 3 a.m. last Saturday, Bieber was apparently attacked on the dance floor of a Toronto club. The attacker was soon subdued and sent packing. Up until the incident, Bieber and his pals were simply enjoying each other’s company in their VIP booth, taking in another night in good ol’ Canada.

THE CRITICAL CURMUDGEON

@THEELLENSHOW (ELLEN DEGENERES, TV HOST/COMEDIAN)

“IF KATY PERRY MARRIED RIP VAN WINKLE, THEIR KIDS WOULD BE PERRYWINKLE. THESE ARE THE THINGS I THINK ABOUT WHEN I CAN’T SLEEP.” PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke’s Twerkathon at the VMAs may have sparked brief controversy, but it was no history-making statement.

Young rebels without a musical cause MATT MAZZARI Another year! Welcome back to my former readers and former ignorers, as well as to the freshmen who picked up this newspaper to hide the fact that you are completely lost. Yes, the people in the Chocolate Bar bought your little charade, but you’ll have to keep reading now or they’ll begin to suspect. Screw up your eyes a bit, so you look like you’re absorbing the information.

Tremendous! Very convincing. You’re going to do fine here, I can already tell.

Seriously, though, welcome one and all.

I thought it would be fitting in these days of renewal and new beginnings that our theme should be the role of youth in music.

What exactly does it mean to be a young musician, to appeal to “young audiences,” to have a “young look?” While my column’s name, the “Critical Curmudgeon,” implies I’m an old fart who hates everything, I’m actually a rather young fart who only hates most things, and I honestly believe that young, dirt-broke folks across history have been responsible for some of the greatest music ever made. The trend continues today: young artists pretty consistently have the most energy, vitriol, and creativity in the studio and onstage. Limited resources force musicians to be inventive and sincere, so it’s frequently within a group’s first few albums (think Odelay, Weezer (Blue Album), and Nevermind) that it conveys its message most strikingly. Young people freaking rule, not just at making music but also at determining what becomes popular, and consequently what defines the sound of a generation.

If anything, I hate when gifted musicians who have gotten older capitalize on the brilliance of their early years with cheesy, over-produced, underwhelming, made-forradio junk that defies everything they used to be about when they were in their 20s and pissed-the-heck-off. While experience may be an older man’s forte, I’d personally take the scrappy, absolutist, arrogant, and madas-hell Pete Townshend from 1967 over the “experienced” schlub who wrote lackluster hit songs in the ’80s like Face Dances and “Let My Love Open the Door.” Part of it’s obviously an issue of shared perspective, but it runs deeper too: music made by young, talented people often has something very urgent to say.

Here’s where “young” music gets tricky, though: another element of its appeal is “edginess,” pushing the envelope to get those oh-so-valuable “parents hate this song” points. While edginess is a longstanding tradition in pop, it can go terribly wrong. Or worse: it can just not mean anything at all.

Take this year’s VMAs, for instance.

Just a couple of days ago, the first filmed interview with Miley Cyrus about her polarizing act was released. In it, she cheerfully explains that the negative reactions to her quote-unquote “controversial” performance with Robin “Beetlejuice” Thicke don’t bother her, because she knew all along they were “making history.” She also points out that her risque MTV appearance wasn’t really any different from Britney Spears’ or Madonna’s before her. However, she fails to note the delicious irony: how can something be groundbreaking, historic and, at the same time, not really any different from its

predecessors? How can something be young and hip and new and also just like Madonna, who is quite literally old enough to be Miley’s mother?

In my warped, desensitized, and backward young mind, twerking in a flesh-colored bikini on MTV isn’t really controversial at all. Sure, it’s dancey fun-time music that scares middle-aged people, but historic?

Shocking? Not really. Sexualized dancing as part of the pop-music generational gap is a tale as old as time. Young people do it, but the act itself is old as balls. Screw Madonna, just think of Elvis: all of that diabolical hip gyrating, surely he must be turning our children into card-carrying Communists!

What I’m saying is, having a “young” image in music shouldn’t just be about all of that sexy stuff (though that is a part of it). It should be more about rebelling in meaningful, unexpected ways, capsizing social norms to make people feel liberated and uncomfortable, rather than just horny and a little confused. There’s another dimension of youth in music, a frustrated, desperate, and breathtaking potential for greatness, which goofy trends like twerking can only distract from.

So don’t get distracted by what the media wants you to think “young people music” is. Youth in music has always been a driving force behind progressive music everywhere, from rock and roll to hip-hop and everything in between. Have a great first week of classes everybody!

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

@SENJOHNMCCAIN (JOHN MCCAIN, U.S. SENATOR)

“SCANDAL! CAUGHT PLAYING IPHONE GAME AT 3+ HOUR SENATE HEARING - WORST OF ALL I LOST!” @LENADUNHAM (LENA DUNHAM, ‘GIRLS’)

“DID YOU KNOW MEDIEVAL LEPERS HAD TO WEAR BELLS WHEN THEY WALKED AROUND? LET’S DO THE SAME THING TO PEOPLE WHO CALL MOVIES “CUTE.” @CONANOBRIEN (CONAN O’BRIEN, ‘THE COLBERT REPORT’)

“‘ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK’ IS PROOF THAT I WOULDN’T SURVIVE FIVE MINUTES IN A MINIMUM SECURITY WOMEN’S CORRECTIONAL FACILITY.” SUBMIT YOUR FAVORITE TWEETS OF THE WEEK FOR CONSIDERATION AT ARTS@ BCHEIGHTS.COM.

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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SPOTLIGHT ON BOSTON BY: SEAN KEELEY | ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR, ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOC. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR, AND JOHN WILEY | ASST. ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR All too often, coming back to school means a return to the BC Bubble, as resolutions to explore the city gradually fizz away over the course of a busy semester. And even though BC has plenty of artistic attractions of its own—take a stop by the McMullen Museum or a play in Robsham for evidence—the city of Boston is too artistically rich to be ignored. To help nudge you out of your dorm and into the city, we’ve assembled a list of 10 exciting arts events in the Boston area this fall. Free concerts, acclaimed museum exhibits, and first-rate theater await you—all you have to do is heed the call.

BOSTON CALLING

WICKED THE MUSICAL

MFA HIPPIE CHIC

MCMULLEN EXHIBIT

MIXFEST 2013 CONCERT

The outdoor music festival that took over City Hall Plaza in late May is back this weekend just in time for the start of the semester. Leading the lineup on Saturday is Vampire Weekend, the New York alternative rockers responsible for one of 2013’s most acclaimed albums, Modern Vampires of the City.

Saturday also features performances from Local Natives and The Gaslight Anthem, among others. Anchoring Sunday ’s roster is Boston’s own Passion Pit and stellar Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar, who recently told off half the rap world in his infamous verse for Big Sean’s “Control.” Day passes for Boston Calling are available for $75, while a weekend pass can be had for $130 at bostoncalling.com. – S.K.

Now through Sept. 15, Wicked will be playing at the Boston Opera House. The musical, written by Stephen Schwartz, won thre e Tony Awards in 2004, including Best Scenic Design and Best Costume Design.

Based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel, the musical follows young Glinda and Elphaba, as the two witches struggle with questions of good and evil, love, and friendship, serving as a prequel to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. A group of BC students will be attending the production Saturday night with BC to Boston. Tickets are otherwise available through Ticketmaster. –J.W.

The Museum of Fine Art’s fresh, groovy exhibit, Hippie Chic, celebrates the cultural fashion revolution of the Woodstock generation, showcasing the unique outfits that were characteristic of the colorful period.

With 54 ensembles on display, none of the ’60s vintage trends are forgotten—from fringe to tie-dye to patchwork and beads—it’s all there. Modern, young designers such as Betsey Johnson, and even classic, established ones like Yves Saint Laurent have contributed pieces to Hippie Chic, capturing and revealing the per vasive and adaptable influence of the vibrant spirit of the decade. The gallery even has a jukebox, shag rugs, spinning lights, and rotating platforms to create a fun mood for this truly immersive experience. –A.I.

A vanguard in the realist movement, French painter Gustave Courbet played an integral role in influencing artists both in Europe as well as in the United States. Boston College’s most recent exhibit, Courbet: Mapping Re ali sm, explores this impact, presenting pieces of Courbet’s alongside those of his American contemporaries, including Elizabeth Boott Duveneck, Martin Johnson Heade, Winslow Homer, William Morris Hunt, Eastman Johnson, and John La Farge. By featuring these American paintings, Mapping Re ali sm builds upon a past Belgian exhibit, which exclusively displayed Courbet’s work.

McMullen’s gallery, thus, offers viewers the unique opportunity to learn not only about one of France’s most renowned artists, but also about the work that he subsequently inspired. –A.I.

On Saturday, Sept. 14, Mix 104.1’s 20th annual MixFest Concert will be returning to Boston with a line-up that is sure to impress. Headlined by breakout indie-rock group Of Monsters and Men, and including performances by ’90s boy band favorite, Backstreet Boys, as well as by singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw, the show’s bill has a little something for everyone. The rain or shine event, to be held at the DCR Memorial Hatch Shell along the Charles River, is entirely free and begins at 4 p.m. –A.I.

SEPT. 7-8

THROUGH SEPT. 15

THROUGH NOV. 11

THROUGH DEC. 8

SEPT. 14

LIFE IS GOOD FESTIVAL

ALL THE WAY

ARTWEEK BOSTON

BRATTLE FILM SERIES

BOSTON BOOK FESTIVAL

The two-day celebration will be held at the Prowse Farm in Canton, Mass., on Sept. 21 and 22. The Life is good Festival will feature acts such as The Roots, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Jack Johnson, Dawes, Good Old War, Amos Lee, Yo Gabba Gabba!, and Trampled

by Turtles. The proceeds of the event will benefit the Life is good Children’s Foundation. Two-day adult passes are available for $120 and one-day passes for $65. –J.W.

While Bryan Cranston continues to captivate television audiences worldwide with the final season of Breaking Bad, the Emmywinner best known as Walter White will be tackling a decidedly different role for Boston theater audiences this fall. In the political drama All the Way, Cranston plays President Lyndon B. Johnson in a dramatization of LBJ’s tumultuous first year in office. Penned by PulitzerPrize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, All the Way will be running at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge through Oct. 12. Tickets, which range in price from $25 to $85, are still available for several performances, and can be purchased at the ART’s website. – S.K.

Presented by The Highland Street Foundation, ArtWeek Boston will run Sept. 27 through Oct. 6, and feature the work of Boston artists throughout city venues. Funded by a $150,000plus grant, the event will include a free “Magic of Mozart” family day at the Boston Public Librar y, pop- up theatre by Fiddlehead Theatre, and the “Play Me, I’m Yours” interactive piano festival happening through Boston streets. More information on acts involved with ArtWeek, as well as the launch of ArtWeek’s website, are expected this month. About half of the events are expected to be free and will be based around the Citi Performing Arts Center. –J.W.

Just across the river and a short ride on the 86 bus from BC’s campus, Harvard Square’s historic Brattle Theater continues to serve up a rich offering of big-screen film programming this fall. The Recent Raves series running from Sept. 8-19 gives moviegoers the chance to catch up on acclaimed summer releases that may have gone under their radar, like The Bling Ring and The Act of Killing.

A new restoration of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon is sure to thrill Kung-Fu fans, while a Humphrey Bogart series in October will showcase such classics as Casablanca and In a Lonely Place. Check out brattlefilm.org for a full calendar and ticket info. –S.K.

For the past four years, the Boston Book Festival has brought writers and readers together in Copley Square for a weekend of vibrant literary discussion. This October, from the 17th to the 19th, the street-fair style event is back for the fifth time, featuring renowned keynote speakers Salman Rushdie and children’s book illustrator Tomie dePaola.

In addition, a host of workshops, music performances, and activities will take place throughout the three days, most of which are free and open to the public. Although the schedule has not yet been released, this year’s chapter of the Boston Book Festival seems sure to be a page-turner. –A.I.

SEPT. 21-22

SEPT. 13-OCT. 12

SEPT. 27 - OCT. 6

ONGOING

OCT. 17 - OCT. 19

THE HEIGHTS

C4

Thursday, September 5, 2013

KEELEY’S CORNER

NETFLIX NEXUS BY LUIZA JUSTUS

Playing back Getting to the ‘Greek’ with ABC Family’s hidden gem those fragments of summertime TITLE: Greek

YEAR: 2007-11

CREATED BY: Patrick Sean Smith

STARRING: Jacob Zachar, Spencer Grammer WHY: This highly addictive Greek life-based comedy can help remedy any chronic backto-school blues.

Do you always wonder what it would be like to have a Greek system? Or do you love the Mods so much that the lack of frat parties doesn’t bother you at all?

Either way, it’s fun to live vicariously through others as they deal with the pleasures and pains of Greek life.

Follow the dramatic, hilarious, and absolutely crazy lives of a group of college kids in one of the most fun TV shows ever. Give your hectic brain a break and binge on endless episodes of fraternity dues and sorority blues. Love triangles, solo cups, unbearable hangovers, awkward encounters ... their lives could be more like ours than you may think. The main character, Casey Cartwright (Spencer Grammer), seems to have the perfect life. She is on her way to being president of the best house on campus, dates the guy that everybody wants, and has everything a sorority girl dreams of. When the new pledge class comes in, however, things start to get very complicated. Greek is an ABC family success that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. All seasons are available on Netflix, but beware: once you start, there is no way you will be able to stop.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ABC FAMILY

FASHION FORWARD

What am I wearing in that picture?!

Looking back at our boldness, there’s room for reflection

THERESE TULLY The picture surfaced recently as I was packing for college. I went instantly blind upon looking at it, and at this very moment as I am typing, I am still suffering its effects. I may never fully recover from this one painful image, but as Ernest Hemingway said, “Write hard and clear about what hurts,” so here I go. I will confront it, in all its horror.

The year was 2003, if I am correct, and that sounds entirely too recent for this picture to have been real. The photo was a picture of me and six other girls before we went out for a birthday dinner for my friend Betsy. It all sounds innocent enough, I know, but trust me, it wasn’t.

The offending outfit was as follows: a white polo shirt with popped pink collar, and accompanying green pony and player. It was paired so fabulously with a light blue and white seersucker, A-line, knee length skirt. I chose to accessorize this heinous combination with a bright blue sequined bag. And I surely thought that I was the picture of perfection. My newly curly hair was in some sort of unruly, frizzy coif, and my crooked teeth, not yet straightened, were screaming for attention through my bright, wide, jubilant, young smile. Who had let me out of the house looking as such? I wanted to scream as I stared at the offending photo blinding me.

What I took from this horrifying trip down memory lane, after I had recovered, that is, was not just that I will always look back on my past fashion choices and regret them, but that at least while I was making these tragic, young, early 2000s mistakes (I still hold that I was not the only one dressing this way), that I was being fearless. That turquoise sequined purse was in fact tacky as all hell, but was I the only one at the party with one? Yes. And did I receive so many preteen compliments on it? Also, a resounding hell yes.

Fearless is the name of the game, especially when you are wearing something a little out there. Taylor Swift says it best when she sings, “And I don’t know why but with you I’d dance in a storm in my best dress, fearless.” Although I think Taylor’s emphasis here is on the man and not the dress, I like her general sentiment.

Be fearless even if you aren’t flawless, because

who really is? That offbeat dress in your closet deserves some daylight, so take it out already!

And as my roommate pointed out to me, what’s old is new again, and a scan of the Internet will show that the ’90s fashions of our distant past are making a huge comeback. So fear not your high-necked dresses or your spaghetti strapped tops—beat the curve and rock them this weekend. You will be sure to grab some attention.

This semester, do not blend into the background—you never know when a great fashion choice will turn into a conversation, and even a new friendship. Be bold, be brave, and be fearless, because Taylor Swift says so, after all, and she has some amazing dresses for sure. I would love to pair one of those sequined numbers with my own sequined purse from the past, and just watch as everyone stares on in shock, and even envy too.

Maybe I was really ahead of the times? Or maybe I was just a little bit strange, but either way, I have to look back with pride, not horror, at these decisions, and I suggest that as you weed through old pictures from your own past to hang in decorative patterns or from vintage clothes pins in your own dorm room, that you embrace your own past choices. Because at one time or another, that was exactly what you wanted to be wearing, even if you can’t remember why.

A special note to Boston College freshmen: If you have somehow picked up your first issue of The Heights, first of all good for you, you are ahead of the curve already. And secondly, if you have somehow accidentally flipped to this column, and have read this far already, here is some unwarranted advice from me to you. No I will not tell you anything helpful about how to live with your first-ever roommate, or how to navigate the treacherous dating scene at BC, nor will I impart some wisdom about classes, majors, teachers, grad school, or grades. Merely, I will tell you to take risks, both sartorially and otherwise. You may look back with amazement, but you will always be glad you did. You don’t need Hunter rainboots, a North Face jacket, Jack Roger’s sandals, a Long Champ bag, and Tory Burch flats to make friends. You need a sense of humor and a sense of adventure. So wear that vintage jumpsuit, the weird dress with a picture of a girl on it, or even the galaxy print leggings.

You will surround yourself with interesting people, and be better off for it in the long run.

Trust me, I’ve been at this crazy fashion game for a long time.

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

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

An offending outfit might be the better option to compromising an identity over one’s four years at BC, and often times, it’s in daring to be strange that students help discover interesting people to surround themselves with.

THIS WEEKEND in arts

BY: ARIANA IGNERI | ASSOCIATE ARTS & REVIEW EDITOR

Friday

1. ICA FIRST FRIDAYS: PERFORMATHON (FRIDAY, 9/6 5:00PM) The Institute of Contemporary Art is hosting Performathon as part of their “First Fridays” series.

It will feature DJ sets, live musicians, and dance competitions. Admission to the 21+ event is $15 for nonmembers, but free with a BC ID.

2. YELLOWCARD CONCERT (FRIDAY 9/6 7:00PM) To celebrate the 10th anniversary of their hit album, Ocean Avenue, the punk-rock band Yellowcard has released a stripped-down version of the record. They’ll be touring and playing the acoustic songs this fall, stopping at the House of Blues this weekend. Tickets are $26 at the door.

Saturday

Sunday

3. MENDING BOSTON (ONGOING)

5. BOSTON CALLING (SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 9/7-9/8)

A 12 by 14 foot tapestry, “Mending Boston” is an impressionistic fabric map created by artists Clara Wainwright and Eve Perkins to represent the city collectively bonding together after the tragedy of the 2013 Boston Marathon. The piece will be on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum until 5 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free with a BC ID.

Music acts including Vampire Weekend, Passion Pit, Kendrick Lamar, and Local Natives (below), among many others, will be performing at City Hall Plaza for Boston Calling, a two-day music festival. Both single day and weekend passes can be purchased online for $75 and $130, respectively.

4. @FTER MIDNITE (FRIDAY-SUNDAY) The Coolidge Corner Theater will be screening late night showings of The Fast and Furious, The Room, and Hell Baby this Saturday. Movie tickets can be purchased both online and at the box office.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE DISKIN

SEAN KEELEY I suppose, first of all, I should report back on how well I did.

The last time I wrote a column for this paper, it was four months ago, and with the prospect of a seemingly endless summer stretching out before me, I laid out a series of summer artistic resolutions, all of which amounted to one basic principle: see a lot of art. Watch a lot of movies, catch up on TV, go to a lot of concerts, and read a lot of books. I can safely say that I did very well on the first two counts, and not nearly as well as I wanted on the latter two. (Though I did catch a free concert in Central Park with my fellow Arts editors, and I finally got around to reading Pride & Prejudice, so all is not lost.)

Of the multitude of films, TV shows, and music I explored this summer, though, a few were especially defining. I find that art and pop culture have a peculiar ability to lodge into our subconscious and mingle with our memories in ways we can’t understand.

We’ve all experienced how re-hearing a certain song can trigger sudden memories and long-buried feelings. Indeed, works of art can become fragments of time—as a certain French electronic duo suggested in one of my favorite songs of the summer. Consider this column my attempt to play back those fragments once more before summer is finally laid to rest.

Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories is the perfect place to begin, and not only because I just stole one of their lyrics.

Together with Kanye West’s Yeezus, Daft Punk’s latest quickly became the soundtrack to my summer. Both albums are startling in their ambition and sonic experimentation, and both are rife with contradictions that only add to their fascination. Daft Punk are pioneers of electronic house music, a genre most appreciated on aesthetic or theoretical terms, yet the opening track invokes an urge to “give life back to music.” And that is exactly what their album accomplishes, turning synthesizers, auto tune, robot voices, and a whole slew of electronic tricks to deeply personal ends—whether it’s paying tribute to their idol Giorgio Moroder or tackling heady topics of memories and love on tracks like “Touch” and “The Game of Love.” Although the radio play suggests otherwise, there’s a lot more to Daft Punk than “Get Lucky.”

As for Yeezus, it sounds to me unlike anything else Kanye has done and at the same time the ultimate culmination of his persona. Brash ego has never been the whole story with Kanye—it’s always been inseparable from self-effacing criticism. Yeezus, more than any other Kanye album, taps into this tension. It’s an album that finds Kanye grandstanding about being a God while confessing to sleeping with a night light, bragging about his sexual prowess while describing pathetic depths of impotency and emotional weakness on “Hold My Liquor.”

It’s a fascinating album, with a sound that is at once minimalist and aggressively overbearing as only Kanye can be.

In the realm of movies, few satisfied me more fully than Before Midnight and Pacific Rim. One of these is a talky, character-based drama about the difficulty of maintaining a marriage. The other is about alien monsters duking it out with giant robots. I can’t pretend to draw any valid point of comparison between these two movies, except to say that they are both fully committed to their conceits and brought to the screen by directors with a palpable love for their material.

On the TV side of things, my summer was bookended by two masterful shows, each representing distinct possibilities for long-form entertainment. The fourth season of Arrested Development has proved divisive, and it’s true that it doesn’t always attain the comedic heights of the first three seasons.

But I don’t think there’s been a more ambitious TV show in quite some time. Rather than sticking with a linear storyline or making each episode self-contained, creator Mitch Hurwitz assembled a bold new structure for the age of Netflix and bingewatching. Each episode, seeing the same events from a different character’s perspective, became a little piece of a fragmentary collage, in a season that was all about family ties falling apart.

And speaking of broken families— none has been more compelling than the White family of Negra Arroyo Lane. Yes, this was the summer when I finally caught up with Breaking Bad, a show whose dramatic cliffhangers and slow-burning character transformations epitomize the finest capabilities of dramatic television. There will be much more to say about Breaking Bad in the weeks to come, so for now I will sit back and enjoy whatever devious tricks Vince Gilligan has up his sleeve, watching one of the finest series I know unspool just as summer fades into memory.

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

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‘Repave’ is a moody masterpiece from Volcano Choir

BY JOHN WILEY

Asst. Arts & Review Editor Two and a half years in the making, Repave has made Volcano Choir into a bit of a musical anomaly: a dedicated supergroup.

Alright, to be fair “supergroup” is a bit of a misnomer in this case— I’d be remiss to pretend Collections of Colonies of Bees or All Tiny Creatures have found great commonplace in musical vernacular.

In truth, Justin Vernon, front man of Bon Iver, is the only member of the band with enough notoriety to help Volcano Choir snag the “supergroup” billing. The point here is that the group’s sophomore effort, following their 2009 debut Unmap, presents itself as something far from a side project. Repave is a carefully constructed, imaginative work benefitting from, and certainly not belittled by, the group’s conglomerate identity.

Volcano Choir’s second album works with a seemingly endless palette of sounds, stretching eclectic guitar riffs over an elaborate canvas of synthesized textures, explosively staged with a creative underlay of percussion. Vocally, Vernon adds a layer of brusque baritone to the expansive soundscape, generally deviating from the falsetto he made iconic with Bon Iver. The result is sonically spacious, a sound uncanny in its breadth and unexpectedly cohesive in its execution.

Lyrically, the album is decidedly cryptic, but manages to loosely

string themes of exploration and nature over the course of its nine tracks. At places, Repave claims for itself these cool, triumphant anthemic moments, reminiscent of early U2. But while “Acetate” and “Byegone” might give listeners something cohesive to sing along to, through most of the record the lyrics are fragmented, incoherent, seemingly grasping for something, searching, and wildly unformed.

Repave is pensive and poetic in quality, adding a heartbreaking color to Volcano Choir’s otherwise warm sound—there’s an important vein of nostalgia and remorse running through the album. “Alaskans” recounts the unrecognized plans of a past relationship (“We were gonna hit every port and every cape town / We were going to give a full report, of sorts / To your mother up in Cabo and in Newcourt”). “Dancepack” is an exploration of emptiness and an ode to healing (“Take note, there’s still a hole in your heart”). Repave is a series of arcane hymns—it dabbles in storytelling, but seldom opts for a linear presentation of its ideas, instead expressing itself in rambling verses that seem to illuminate each other in a way, but maintain an air of mystery.

An interesting comparison and counterpoint to Vernon’s recent collaboration with Kanye West on Yeezus, Repave is seemingly distant from West’s effected club ballads. It serves on front lines of an opposite theater, but perhaps in the same war. There’s a brilliant dichotomy

CHART TOPPERS TOP SINGLES

1 Blurred Lines Robin Thicke feat. T.I. & Pharrell 2 Roar Katy Perry 3 We Can’t Stop Miley Cyrus 4 Applause Lady Gaga 5 Radioactive Imagine Dragons 6 Holy Grail Jay-Z feat. Justin Timberlake 7 Wake Me Up Avicii

REPAVE VOLCANO CHOIR PRODUCED BY JAGJAGUWAR RELEASED SEP. 3, 2013 OUR RATING A

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAGJAGUWAR RECORDS

On ‘Repave,’ Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon continues to explore new sonic textures with his supergroup Volcano Choir. between Yeezus’ volatile, synthetic manifestos and Repave’s careful balance of synthesizer and earth tones. Perhaps more notable than the divergence in their approaches, however, is the solidarity in their aims. Both records are indicative of new, avant-garde musicians, willing to challenge and reconstruct genres with imaginative applications of electronic music production. With deeply decayed vocals and a manically pulsing synth, Repave’s “Comrade” even closes in on the club aes-

thetic of Yeezus, at points collapsing the notion of genre entirely.

“Almanac,” the final track on the album, begins with this arrhythmic guitar sequence, percussively bobbing as if floating atop a wave, succinct and calm. Beneath it, this distant-sounding synth pulse begins to build, mechanical in tempo, bottled with urgency. Above it, raspy vocal work from Vernon, evoking this riddling imagery of a man riding a sparrow (“On the Rio / Rode the sparrow / Drank the marrow /

Spade the clerics”). It’s strange, but the success of this musical moment is that it isn’t altogether absurd. If anything, the absurdity props up the truthfulness of the songwriting—it’s a balancing act of man and nature, musicality and technological prowess. Even in all the intimacy of its sound, Repave manages to elude the listener, its lyrics never fully accessible. Its influences are deeply layered, but often near impossible to discern. The sound seems strangely aware. It’s music with a secret. 

TOP ALBUMS

1 Crash My Party Luke Bryan 2 Paradise Valley John Mayer 3 Three Kings Taylor Swift 4 Songs from St. Somewhere Jimmy Buffett Source: Billboard.com

John Legend’s ‘Love in the Future’ is uneven but appealing

BY DAN LYLE For The Heights With the intro of “Love In The Future,” where John Legend sings those spacey vocals over subtle guitar strumming, the standard for this record is immediately set high.

And while the first proper track “The Beginning…” maintains the interest in the album, it does nothing to comment on this unique sound that the intro track gave off. In fact, before we get a track to be genuinely excited about listening to, John Legend makes his first major mistake by

covering Bobby Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes.” This seems to be one of the major happenings on this album. Legend’s constant attempts at creating the sound of love in the future ironically lead him to indulge in dated musical formats.

Fortunately, “Made To Love”

LOVE IN THE FUTURE JOHN LEGEND PRODUCED BY GOOD MUSIC RELEASED SEP. 3, 2013 OUR RATING B+

PHOTO COURTESY OF GOOD MUSIC

Though mostly successful, ‘Love in the Future’ is sometimes too content to revel in nostalgic and familiar sounds.

rescues us from this throwback sound, and tosses us into a world we have not really experienced before.

This track, released as the second single off of this album, is one of the album’s most expressive and interesting cuts. The concept of this track is nothing unexplored. He is commenting on a feeling that he and his lover are soul-mates and made for each other. However, it isn’t the lyrically gripping side of John Legend that still manages to move us. It is his expression of these few words, combined with a more interesting musical palette than we’ve seen him use on previous albums.

This is probably due in part to the Kanye West production style that bleeds out into the entire album. According to Legend, this was the most work he has ever done with Kanye on an album. And we can tell that there must have been serious chemistry in the studio between the two, as Kanye is credited on more than seven tracks on the album. One of them, “Who Do We Think We Are,” starts like the 2009 track “Live Fast, Die Young,” a track that West produced and rapped on for Rick

Ross. So it is fitting that the Teflon Don was contacted for providing a verse. Without being a terrible song, “All of Me” just feels a little out of place on what this album should be. Legend’s 2004 album Get Lifted would have served as a better-suited home for this single. This track could have easily been the B-Side or follow up single to “Ordinary People.” “Hold On Longer” could’ve been shelved right along with it.

Both don’t do much to take the album into any new territory.

Again, it is really the high standard set by the spacey intro and “Made To Love” that cause these tracks to feel unworthy. Tracks like “Save The Night” finally bring us back to where we should be—mixing an unidentifiable vocal sample with a bright piano sound, lush strings, and heavy organs makes for a great sound that we appreciate being able to explore. “Tomorrow” also utilizes a Kanye-esque vocal sample trick, creating a beat, (with a guitar riff that almost momentarily reminds us of 50 Cent’s “21 Questions”) but with surrounding instruments that are tailored to John

Legend’s sound. John Legend’s lyrics are especially ironic here. In an album called Love in the Future, he challenges his lover to desire him in the present, asking her not to wait until tomorrow. “Dreams” beautifully captures what dreaming would sound like in the last minute of the track. Moving forward, “Wanna Be Loved” along with “Asylum” seems to be the only place where he attains the same sonic quality of “Made to Love.” These songs bring futuristic elements to the forefront with processed drums, and lyrics that are decent enough to let us enjoy singing along to the track.

One thing about this album is that it’s cohesive, the production is wonderful even on tracks that play to a sound a bit too nostalgic.

Legend’s lyricism takes more of a backseat to the powerful production of the album, and this leads to the highest and lowest parts of the album. The worst songs on the album are those on which the production is unimpressive, only because they are competing with the more interesting sounds the production teams created. 

Revelatory ‘Another Self Portrait’ unearthed from Dylan vaults

BY SEAN KEELEY Arts & Review Editor “I change during the course of a day,” Bob Dylan once said. “I wake and I’m one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I’m somebody else. I don’t know who I am most of the time.”

The idea of Dylan as a series of changing personalities has long been a convenient way to look at his career, helping to explain his sudden pivots in style. Take, for instance, the muchmaligned 1970 album Self Portrait.

After a decade spent mastering and dramatically transforming both folk and rock music, Dylan retreated into hiding and released an album full of old country tunes, unlikely covers, and sloppy live cuts. What was he up to?

Forty-three years later, with the release of Another Self Portrait, we may finally have an answer. The new release is the 10th in the Bootleg Series, an ongoing project that assembles rare and unreleased tracks from Dylan’s extensive vaults. What is surprising about Another Self Portrait is how cohesive it is. Indeed,

the album feels more complete and assured than the original release. And it rehabilitates a period of Dylan’s career that has long been dismissed, showcasing an artist who withdrew from the spotlight to find comfort and inspiration in the musical genres that sustained him.

Another Self Portrait kicks off with a stripped-down demo of “Went to See the Gypsy,” a track that would later surface on the album New Morning.

The song is allegedly about Dylan’s meeting with Elvis Presley, but it’s bigger than that interpretation—cryptic in all the right ways. Over two intertwining guitar parts, Dylan tells of a hotel room meeting with a mysterious gypsy who “can rid you of your fears.”

The version presented here is lean, spare, and much more affecting than the one released in 1970.

For all its mystery, though, the song isn’t as arcane or wordy as much of Dylan’s output. For the most part, these songs are direct, simple, and earnest—and they’re matched with some of the finest vocals of Dylan’s career. Even a cursory listen to tracks like “Pretty Saro” or “Spanish Is the Loving Tongue” should dispel the

notion that Dylan was never a good singer. Singing here in a high country croon, then in a lower register, Dylan shows off the full extent of his range as a vocalist. He often sounds dramatically different from track to track, playing around with different voices to fit the material: compare the breezy “Little Sadie” (a murder ballad sung in a creepily carefree croon) with the rough-edged “House Carpenter,” a tragic love story sung with an ominous voice portending doom.

Many of the songs on Another Self Portrait, admittedly, are minor Dylan. The dominant mood of the album is one of laid-back playfulness, as exemplified by the country-rock grooves “Time Passes Slowly” and “Working On A Guru,” two enjoyably flighty tunes featuring George Harrison. Some of the album’s briefer cuts seem like toss-offs or fillers, while others remain head-scratchers: why, exactly, did Dylan decide to record “Wigwam,” a song where he simply croons variations of “La la la” for three minutes?

On balance, though, Another Self Portrait illuminates more than it obscures. The portrait that emerges

is that of an artist content to take a brief respite from a tumultuous decade, finding refuge in folk songs about family life and love—just as Dylan himself was settling down with his wife and kids. In “Sign on the Window,” Dylan sings of his desire to build a cabin in Utah and “have a bunch of kids who call me pa.” “That

must be what it’s all about,” he sings tenderly over an expansive string arrangement. It’s one of the album’s most telling—and touching—moments, a song that soars to euphoric heights in its depiction of domestic happiness.

Yet Dylan has never been content to stay in one place for too long. The

last track portends greater things to come: “Someday, everything is gonna be different,” he sings, “when I paint my masterpiece.” Ever-restless, always looking to the future, ready to wake up and be somebody else and strive to make another masterpiece—there is Bob Dylan’s true self portrait. 

ANOTHER SELF PORTRAIT (1969-1971) BOB DYLAN PRODUCED BY COLUMBIA RECORDS RELEASED AUG. 27, 2013 OUR RATING B+ PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA RECORDS

The boxset ‘Another Self Portrait’ shines a spotlight on an often-overlooked period of Bob Dylan’s career.

SINGLE REVIEWS BY DAN LYLE Lady Gaga “Applause”

Eminem “Berzerk” When classic Eminem gets on a classic hiphop beat, you should expect nothing less than ‘Berzerk.’ The underground hip-hop feel this beat plays with will cause contemporary hip-hop fans to find the sounds retro but fresh. More impressive, though, is Slim Shady’s lyricism. In typical Shady fashion he extensively pokes fun at everyone from new-school rappers to the “ugly Kardashian.”

Drake “Hold On, We’re Going Home” The “Little Monsters” salivating for their Lady’s new music have finally been acknowledged.

After two years, Gaga gives us all a taste of what she has in store with “Applause.” If you were craving anything different from the edgy electronic sound Gaga has been making bank off of, though, don’t expect her to satisfy.

Take Care was a success mainly because of the genre-blending production style employed that juxtaposed hip-hop raps with music that lent itself more to R&B and ambient feels. This track off of the upcoming album Nothing Was The Same presents itself to be reminiscent of that style—the lack of enough quality lyricism here, however, causes the track to plateau early.

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The Heights

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

The Heights

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THE HEIGHTS

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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THIS WEEK IN...

BY TRICIA TIEDT | METRO EDITOR

EDUCATION

ENTERTAINMENT

UMa ss Amherst celebrated Labor Day on campus with a record-breaking picnic.

As of Monday, the university has set the record for the world’s largest fruit salad, weighing in at over 15,000 pounds. The concoction was made using 150 varieties of fruit, in honor of the school’s 150th anniversary. Most prevalent in the salad were apples (over 3,600 pounds) and berries (almost 1,300 pounds). The fruit salad also contained currants, pears, oranges, papayas, mangoes, various types of melon, and mint. This is UMass Amherst’s fourth title in the Guinness Book of World Records, and the other accolades are equally as strange: they also hold the title for world’s largest stir fry and New England’s largest seafood stew. The fruit salad was distributed to dining halls across campus and other eateries in the city after the official weigh in occurred.

The 2013 Boston Comedy Arts Festival, hosted by Improv Boston, began on Tuesday and will run through Sunday, Sept. 8. The festival includes shows, workshops, and acts, and covers three types of comedy: sketch, improv, and stand-up. Along with popular local acts, the festival will draw comedians from around the nation to perform over the coming days at Improv Boston’s location in Central Square in Cambridge.

Local acts include: the troupe from North End hotspot the Improv Asylum, Chocolate Cake City, a sketch group that originated at Emerson College, and the main stage cast of Improv Boston. Tickets, schedules, and showtimes are available online via the Boston Comedy Arts Festival website. This is the festival’s fifth year in Boston—in past years, featured performers have traveled from as far as Mexico, Toronto, and Amsterdam.

POLITICS MBTA FREE STUFF Charlie Baker, the Republican candidate who attempted to unseat Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick in the 2010 gubernatorial election, announced Wednesday that he will run a second campaign to become governor of the state. The announcement comes after former U.S. Senator Scott Brown denied a bid for the election, hitting the GOP in Massachusetts with a blow from which the conservatives can only hope to recover. As Brown left the local political scene, he endorsed Baker for the Republican nominee.

Baker launched his campaign with a two-minute web video this morning, in which he stressed his ability to work with Democrats and that he has proven himself as a capable leader through multiple organizations. As of now, Baker is running unopposed in his party. Five Democrats are currently in the running to take the name on their party ballot.

Boston survives “Allston Christmas”

BY MAGGIE MARETZ For The Heights

As Sept. 1 rolled around this past weekend, the leases of thousands of apartments changed hands as the multitudes of Boston-area college students returned for another academic year on a day that has come to be known as “Allston Christmas.”

For both the citizens of Allston and the new residents of the neighborhood, it is a day filled with the gridlock of one way streets, U-Hauls on every corner, and dingy couches and mattresses stacked up on the sidewalk while sweaty college kids make trips back and forth to their cars for their belongings.

The unofficial holiday gets its name for the “gifts” left behind by previous owners, which are their belongings they have deemed unworthy of the moving process. The new tenants moving in thus have the chance to race the garbage collection crew to sift through the previous owner’s things and attempt to make treasure out of another man’s trash. The presents, which range from ancient microwaves to rain-soaked couches to cardboard cutouts of Robert Pattinson to miniature and half-broken foosball tables, are certainly not among the best things money can buy, but are in many cases just what a college student needs in a grimy apartment with all of their friends.

The “holiday” has even garnered such a reputation that, in 2011, it inspired a former resident of Ashford Street in Allston and Boston University graduate, known as a musician by the alias “Aviator,” to write a song to pay tribute to the occasion. In an interview with Boston.com, he said, “The song is about memories and it’s nostalgic, but it’s also gritty, which is important. There’s a bitter-sweetness to it.”

As thousands of new residents move in, there has been a certain degree of backlash from the community—aside from the friendly neighbors who put out coolers of water for parched people moving in on the sweltering day—coming from citizens who have used the app, Citizen’s Connect, to voice their complaints about the aftermath of the move-in process.

The app was designed by the City of Boston in

order to enable people to report potholes, trash pileups, graffiti, and damaged signs, and therefore allows the people of Allston to send in pictures of any issues they come across during the holiday, accompanied by a report and submitted under the headline “Student Move-In Issues.”

In addition to the attention these problems will receive from being reported to the app, they will also be addressed by a new ordinance placed in motion and passed by Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, which is essentially a crackdown on what he has deemed to be “problem properties” based on the dangerous and unsanitary conditions which he explains are not up to the standards of living he would like to hold. The ordinance is primarily directed at college students on a tight budget, who are more likely to feel comfortable in such conditions simply because they cannot afford to improve them.

In order to ensure that all properties attain a certain level of quality, Menino announced at a press conference in front of one such “problem property” in Allston that requires landlords to register their properties with the city annually, and submit them for inspection every five years. While some have criticized the policy for both the price of performing inspections as well as their intrusive nature, Menino held firm: “We’re serious and we’re going to make it work.” 

PHOTO COURTESY OF DIG BOSTON

HOUSE AD

Hollaback! Boston, an online group committed to fighting sexual harassment in the greater Boston area, filed a complaint with the MBTA over a “super sexualized” advertisement being displayed on trains. TapBooty is an application for mobile devices that advertises “earn cash and gift cards on the spot by trying free apps and winning free games.” The app’s artwork on the T included a cartoon drawing of a female with the phrase “Tapbooty” printed on her backside in multi-colored letters. As of Tuesday afternoon, an MBTA official reported to Boston Magazine that the advertising agency at Tapbooty requested the ads to be removed from trains on account of their crude nature. In their public apology, spokesmen at Tapbooty said “Our intention with these ads was simply to attract new users, not to impact anyone adversely.”

Did you miss the annual freshman Target run, or simply refuse to join the masses in back-to-school shopping? You’re in luck—this week, Poppin will bring all the supplies to you. Poppin is an office supply company known for spicing up the classic school supplies, such as composition books and pens, with vivid colors and signature designs. Their mission is to brighten your day by brightening your supplies—as told by their slogan, “Work Happy.” In order to spread the joy, Poppin has embarked on a tour of Boston-area college campuses this week in their mobile pop-up shop (think of a food truck, but with desk items instead of lunch items). Lucky for those in Chestnut Hill, the Poppin truck will deliver school supplies to campus on Friday morning, including a free gift with every purchase.

RESTAURANT REVIEW

Familiar foods with a twist

PHOTO COURTESY OF PARISH CAFE

BY RYAN TOWEY

Asst. Metro Editor The Parish Cafe and Bar has consistently proven itself to be a restaurant not content with production of the standard. Founded in 1992, owner Gordon Wilcox approached renowned chefs throughout Boston, encouraging them to design sandwiches to be featured at the restaurant. Given the homey, comfortable environment of the restaurant, one would not expect the dishes to be particularly adventurous. Upon a first taste, however, patrons will instantly find that they are eating at an establishment of true culinary excellence. The Parish Cafe has locations at both 361 Boylston St. and 493 Massachusetts Ave. This reporter dined at the location on Boylston Street in the Back Bay. For example, Sean’s Meatball Club ($13.25) was created by the Parish Cafe’s own executive chef Sean Simmons. An exciting take on a familiar comfort food, the tender chipotle meatloaf serves only as the sandwich’s base—the chipotle aioli and smoked bacon lead the dish to a very spicy flavor. While this may be for diners with a more adventurous palette, the sandwich menu is expansive and undoubtedly can supply the right taste regardless of one’s mood and comfort level.

For those interested in entrees that are not sandwiches, the menu is not quite as extensive, but this menu is going for an attention to detail for which one would be hard to find a rival. With meticulous descriptions of each dish on the menu, diners are given an easy grasp on what ingredients are involved in their dish, but simply cannot be prepared for the level on which those ingredients will work together. Sean’s Simple Chicken ($15) must have been titled by a fairly modest chef—the dish is anything but simple.

This time, the Parish Cafe provides a succulent version of the standard chicken cutlet, which, according to the menu, is “sauteed in chicken stock, olive oil, fresh lemon juice, parsley and garlic with diced tomatoes and capers.” The cutlets are satisfyingly juicy and are served over garlic mashed potatoes and baby spinach. Again, this dish brings a classic dish to new culinary levels.

Save for an allergy problem, it would be unwise to ask a waiter for a dish to come without certain ingredients. The chefs at the Parish Cafe are true masters of their craft, and every ingredient is

operating to make this dish work beautifully.

A dish that aligns itself with the more traditional, but is equally well-made, is the Peppered Tuna ($15). The perfectly seasoned tuna dish is cooked rare, with a side of sticky rice and grilled asparagus. While some diners may shy away from dishes typically cooked rare, it would be a shame to miss out on this dish.

For those with smaller appetites, all entrees can also come in half-orders that are usually about $8.

When it comes to appetizers and starters, there are plenty of options. While one of the Parish Cafe’s salads could serve as a meal, it’s not a bad idea to split one of the full-size salads with a fellow diner as a starter. The Harrington salad ($10.25), a Greek-style salad of romaine lettuce, LOCATION: 361 BOYLSTON STREET CUISINE: American SIGNATURE DISH: Sean’s Simple Chicken ATMOSPHERE: 8/10 AVERAGE ENTREE: $15 OVERALL EXPERIENCE: A features olives, feta cheese, and a lemon-olive oil dressing that does not overpower the salad’s natural ingredients. For those looking for stronger flavors in an appetizer, the Vegetable Potstickers ($10) are served with one sweet Asian dipping sauce and a spicy Chinese mustard. Both sauces are worth trying, and mix well.

If dessert is in order, diners should not miss the White Chocolate Bread Pudding ($7.75).

Served warm, the dish is topped by a light and sweet whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Adding to the comfortable environment, the Back Bay location of the Parish Cafe on Boylston Street offers outdoor seating in the fall, spring, and summer months. A friendly, engaging staff makes one feel as if every waiter and waitress is waiting on them. This is certainly an establishment at which diners should not be shy to ask any employee if they need something.

Rest assured, patrons will be more than satisfied—even exhilarated—by a dining experience at the Parish Cafe. 

The Heights

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Bookish Bostonian

Crossing the Tappan Zee Bridge

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Boston Calling co-founder hopes for large crowd, diverse acts Boston Calling, from C12 that organizers have done away with using the existing city hall stage, which is not conducive to the festival’s size and faces a direction that is not ideal.

Attendees can also expect a range of food vendors, including one run by Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, and a beer garden for those of legal drinking age.

When talks began between Boston Calling’s founders and Mayor Thomas M. Menino for the first festival, Appel said that

Menino’s first concern was “public safety.”

“Once we had built up the relationship with the mayor’s office, he became more and more receptive to making [the festival] a reality,” Appel said. Menino even made an appearance at the first Boston Calling festival.

“We were honored that he came out on stage

in May,” Appel said.

Appel, who moved to Boston from San Diego in 2003, found the transition away from the sunny beaches of California to a wintrier Boston to be jarring. “Now,” he said, “I can’t really picture myself living anywhere else.” n

Six of the acts coming to City Hall Plaza Ryan Towey For me, the trek back to Boston actually began as my parents and I crossed over the Tappan Zee Bridge out of New Jersey. Only then did I fully understand that I would not see my hometown again until Thanksgiving. The car was tightly packed, and I remember looking back at the bags of clothes and bedding and books that somehow added up to my life’s stuff, a humbling experience that always reminds me of how insubstantial the objects in one’s life feel when packaged all together.

And then you drive and watch the miles go by, and see the millions of unknowns between your home and Boston, realizing how little you know about the world that you live in.

Paul Harding, a writer who grew up in Wenham, Mass. and now lives near Boston with his family, captures this idea of the unknown in his 2009 novel Tinkers, winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Harding will make an appearance at the Coolidge Corner Theater regarding his new book Enon on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the event are only $5, and it seems a valuable way to spend one’s time.

The novel Tinkers bears witness to George Washington Crosby on his deathbed as he remembers his childhood and his father Howard, an epileptic. George remembers trying to run away from his New England home as a young boy. In his efforts to run away, he ends up at a friend’s house, but realizes that this is insufficient, that “to run away meant away. He had never been away. Away was the French Revolution or Fort Sumter or the Roman Empire. Maybe, Boston, three hundred miles south. He had no idea what was in the three hundred miles between here and Boston.”

This is only one of many brilliant moments in Tinkers, when a young boy remembers that he still knows so little.

By now, I know where I come from, and I know a thing or two about Boston. But in many ways, I still know little about the expanse between my home in New Jersey and this city. I know even less about the pathways that others take to arrive here. I do not know about the journey a classmate from California took to arrive in my economics class, or the journey from Georgia someone took to become my roommate, or the journey from the Midwest some woman might have taken so that one day she might pass me as she climbs off the T and I climb aboard. Our eyes might not even meet.

It is easy to forget that many others are engaging in very different journeys at the same time as you navigate your own way. That is the nature of cities, concentrated points of light that provide a destination along millions of literal and metaphorical journeys. When you meet someone new, remember that they too have journeyed across the miles that separated them from somewhere and Boston. Ask them about it. Ask them for a story.

And then tell yours.

When I was 13, and adults had already started asking questions about colleges when I barely even knew what college was, I always said that one day I wanted to go to Boston College.

At the time, I had no real reason for this, but I liked the ring of it, liked the way the word Boston sounded on my tongue.

Just as for George in Tinkers, Boston seemed distant enough to be foreign.

I like to think, however, that I traveled more than just the physical miles between my home and Boston. I like to believe that some other journey occurred. That somewhere between the age of 13 and now, I learned how to look at all of the stuff in the back of my car and know that it is a small matter compared to where I have been and where I am going.

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

The Gaslight Anthem

Flume

Kendrick Lamar

A New Jersey band formed in 2006, the Gaslight Anthem released their fourth studio album Handwritten in the summer of 2012. A rock band to its core, Gaslight Anthem will be one source of particularly beat-driven music at Boston Calling.

Although they have consistently received positive critical reviews, there is still more room for them to achieve mainstream success. Brian Appel, cofounder of Boston Calling, said, “I’m excited to see the Gaslight Anthem. I think a lot of people are going to discover them this weekend.”

Flume, Harley Streten’s electronic music project from Sydney, Australia, released its self-titled debut album last November. One of Flume’s tracks, “Sleepless,” gained significant popularity in the online community. Flume’s bass-heavy electronic tracks have been said to draw inspiration from a variety of sources. While Flume’s popularity has been largely enjoyed in Australia, Flume was named one of Fuse TV’s 30 must-see artists at SXSW last March.

After dropping a verse in August on Big Sean’s track “Control” that nearly stopped the rap world in its tracks, Kendrick Lamar is one of the most talked about rappers in the industry and will be a big draw for the festival. His provocative verse on “Control,” however, is only the most recent of his accomplishments. The 2012 release of good kid, mA.A.d city brought Lamar substantial mainstream success, securing his place as a rapper capable of using an empathetic eye to describe the harshness of his upbringing in Compton.

vampiRe weekend

Lucius

Passion Pit

Saturday – 2 p.m.

Sunday – 9 p.m.

This five-piece indie pop band from Brooklyn will be looking to excite the audience at Boston Calling in anticipation of the release of their first full-length album this fall. Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig share vocal duties for Lucius on the band’s self-titled EP, which combines their breezy vocals with the instrumental pop rock of their band mates.

With their EP released only this past June, Lucius is a young band still trying to find its place.

A band native to the Boston region will close out the festival, with Cambridge’s own Passion Pit the last act to take the stage at Boston Calling this weekend. All of the members of this indie pop band attended college in Boston at the the Berklee College of Music, except for lead singer Michael Angelakos, who attended Emerson. Passion Pit has released two full-length albums, the most recent of which is the 2012 Gossamer, named

by Rolling Stone as one of the 50 Best Albums of 2012, calling the album “high-end dance rock.”

Saturday 7:30 p.m.

Saturday – 9 p.m.

Vampire Weekend released their third album Modern Vampires of the City in May of this year, which is considered by lead singer Ezra Koenig to be the conclusion of an album trilogy. Less percussive than its predecessor Contra, this album broke the record for first week vinyl sales, moving 10,000 units on vinyl alone while also debuting at number one on the Billboard Charts. This band will bring the confidence of mainstream success and a thriving underground appeal to the festival stage.

Sunday – 7:45 p.m.

Sunday – 2:45 p.m.

Jebbit COO on success: ‘It’s been a dream come true’ Jebbit, from C12 Jebbit will be attending the competition to vie for the national title. During the month of August, people in Boston were invited to vote for their No. 1 choice out of the 15 participating companies.

“It’s been a dream come true,” said COO Jonathan Lacoste. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have built a great team of the hardest-working, smartest people I know, all who share a similar passion and determination.”

Jebbit has been up to a lot more than simple title-grabbing lately. During the month of August, the company raised $1.29 million in funding, with $750,000 coming from Boston’s Data Point Capital. The founder of Data Point Capital will now serve on Jebbit’s Board of Directors.

Without getting sidetracked by all

the recent success, Jebbit is continuing to push forward. “As excited as we are of what we’ve accomplished to date, we have a lot of work ahead of us to do and we have big plans,” Lacoste said.

After laying a foundation for Jebbit during their time as students at BC, the Jebbit team made a decision last spring to work full time. Several key individuals on the team took a leave of absence in order to pour all their time and energy into the future of Jebbit.

On what it is like to no longer be a student at BC, Lacoste said, “It’s very unique. Working a startup is not always as glamorous as the media or films like The Social Network, make it out to be.

It’s a roller coaster, with higher highs and lower lows than the average academic life. But overall, I felt it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass on and that I would always regret if I didn’t take

the leap.”

Lacoste also notes how supportive the BC administration has been of Jebbit and the students’ decisions.

“BC and CSOM have been overwhelmingly supportive and are helping us continue to chart out our future academic plans in hopes of returning to the Heights one day,” Lacoste said.

The Jebbit website has undergone some structural changes, improving their mission to engage consumers with advertisements. The pay-per-performance model unique to Jebbit sets them apart by rewarding consumers for engaging with brands they find interesting.

“The biggest thing I want people to know is what Jebbit is,” Lacoste said. “I feel that most students understand it started as some website where you could go on and make a few dollars, but our

mission with Jebbit is much larger than that. We started this company to fundamentally change the way consumers and brands engage online through ads.”

The g row th and change in the company since its creation in 2011 is remarkable. The team is always thinking of ways to improve.

“We don’t like the current format, we think the system is broken, and we want to change it,” Lacoste added. “Our biggest expansion of this to date has been the Jebbit Network, in which people can click on almost any ad online and interact with Jebbit’s technology and earn rewards for interacting—so keep your eyes peeled for the Jebbit logo.” n Editors Note: This reporter once worked for Jebbit as a student representative, before the company became an entity outside of Boston College.

BC has valuable connection to thriving district Seaport District, from C12 teristics mesh together to define exactly what the Seaport District has to offer as a place to eat, play, shop, and work.

The BCEC, though contained in one sprawling building, can be considered a neighborhood in and of itself. By drawing conference attendees from all over the world to the home of New England’s largest meetings, tradeshows, and conventions, the BCEC is one of the main impetuses for the economic prosperity of the district’s hotels, shops, and restaurants.

Fan Pier is a waterfront park for businesses, boat owners, and waterfront dining, with plans to soon be the address of a boutique hotel and luxury residences.

Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and the Bank of America Pavilion, both of which hold concerts, shows, and exhibitions, are also located on Fan Pier. The adjacent Fort Point Channel contains numerous artists’ studios, but also welcomes businesses and architects to set up shop in the former Boston Wharf Company warehouses.

Liberty Wharf, just a short distance down Seaport Blvd., is synonymous with top-notch dining, with a twist—almost

all of the restaurants here boast an al fresco dining experience, ranging from classic Legal Sea Foods to baseballthemed Jerry Remy’s, from high-end steakhouse Del Frisco’s to the more raucous Temazcal cantina.

Boston’s Economic and Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC) owns the 191-acre Marine Industrial Park, which, as the home to 200 business, is why Mayor Thomas M. Menino has deemed this area the “Innovation District.” Some of the most distinguished businesses here include world-famous seafood processing and wholesale companies, as well as the Boston Design Center and a handful of advertising agencies and tech companies. A hub for travel and entertainment, it is the site of the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal and of Harpoon Brewery.

Boston’s landmark Pier 4, nestled between Fan Pier Marina and the Seaport World Trade Center, was formerly famous for Anthony’s Pier 4 restaurant, which recently closed after 50 years in business. Providing a perfect example of how the Seaport District continually replaces the old with the new, a 21-story apartment and retail tower will soon stand in the spot of the once-popular

restaurant.

Seaport Place includes three hotels all within one neighborhood, including the Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel, the Seaport Hotel, and the Westin Boston Waterfront, but also integrates offices and meetings spaces that cater to the 25 companies located within the area.

Seaport Square and Waterside Place are slated to be the next new neighborhoods in the Seaport District, with the former being the larger of the two waterfront development projects. Land that was once 23 acres of surface parking lots will transform into five streets with 20 buildings, including apartments, condos, offices, hotels, a cinema, and a performing arts center. The first phase of construction for the very walkable and resident-friendly Seaport Square began in March 2012. By the spring of 2014, Waterside Place will be the site of luxury, harbor view apartments, fueled by the idea that its residents can easily hop on the Silver Line to head to work in the business areas of the Seaport District.

Boston College even finds a notable connection to the Seaport District among the hordes of up-and-coming companies and booming industries

moving into the area, having ties to the Suffolk Construction Company.

Although the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John Fish, is not a BC alumnus himself, he currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Boston College, making him the first non-alumnus to fulfill that role. The company, founded in 1982, is renowned as the largest building construction company to be based in Boston as well as one of the country’s largest privately held contractors.

Last April, Suffolk Construction Co. decided to leave its headquarters on Allerton Street in Roxbury, Mass. for a proposed new building on Harbor Street in the Seaport District. Fish reported his plans to The Boston Globe, which includes the construction of a 125,000 square-foot building in the Marine Industrial Park that would house 450 employees. The building is big enough for the company to merge its Roxbury headquarters with its Danvers, Mass. office.

Suffolk hopes to begin construction in the spring of 2014, simply doing its part in bringing prosperity to a part of Boston that was once considered to be less than ideal. n

THE HEIGHTS

Thursday, September 5, 2013

C11

Registration for 2014 Boston Marathon opens Monday

BY KELLY COLEMAN For The Heights Sept. 9 is bookmarked in the iCals of every avid runner at Boston College, because that day is registration day for the 2014 Boston Marathon. Just as the marathoners will be busily training in preparation for the day in April, the behind-the-scenes volunteers will be working around the clock to ensure the event is a success.

Boston Athletic Association’s media contact Marc Davis joked that planning the marathon and related events is a “14 months a year” job. Due to the expected increase in the number of marathoners in light of last year’s tragedy, the BAA has been presented with a few extra obstacles to overcome. The first challenge was establishing the maximum number of people allowed to register, oth-

erwise known as the “field size.” In the past, this number has consistently settled around 27,000 runners. This year, however,the BAA concluded that the number would be capped off at 36,000. This takes into account the 5,600 plus marathoners who were invited back after not being able to finish last year due to the bombings as well as qualified runners and newcomers inspired to run by last year’s tragedy. Cat Piper, CSON ’16, was rerouted to safety last year before being able to finish the race, and describes her experience as “surreal.”

“The marathon has taken on a new meaning for me because I know that I’ll never be able to watch or run the marathon again without reliving my experiences,” Piper said.

The BAA is expecting a large number of newcomers, inspired to run by last year’s tragedy. The association has decided, how-

ever, that this increase in the field size will be only for the 2014 marathon, regardless of any long-term heightened interest. Marc Davis of the BAA cited the centennial marathon in 1996 as an example of a spike in interest.

The 1996 marathon had 38,000 runners, but registration dropped the following year back to normal levels.

The next steps in organizing the marathon will begin after registration is complete. After that, the BAA begins managing a charity program, then coordinates volunteer staff, for which the organization is also expecting heightened interest. Next, the BAA slowly builds up to actual event plans throughout the year, such as VIP events, running events such as 5Ks, half-marathons, and kid’s races.

The process of coordinating and executing these events is a year-round job, culminating in the Boston Marathon.

The registration process for the Boston Marathon will be the same as in recent years.

Beginning on Sept. 9, marathoners who beat the qualifying time for their respective age group and gender by at least 20 minutes will register. Forty-eight hours later, runners who qualified 10 minutes faster than their qualifying time register, followed by runners who qualify by five minutes. The last spots, if there are any available, will be open to people who did not necessarily qualify. This registration process was installed several years ago, and has been used ever since.

Originally, people registered on a “first come, first served” basis. Due to the size of the event, many qualified runners were locked out of the marathon. Marc Davis claimed that one year, the marathon filled up in eight hours. The staggered registration process was instated to aid this problem. 

Connolly stays ahead but most still undecided Mayoral Election, from C12 contender has attracted more than 12 percent of support so far, according to a poll conducted by Boston political consulting firm Sage Systems.

That 12 percent was garnered by City Councilor John Connolly, BC Law ’01, who made his intention to run—whether Menino chose to seek re-election or not—clear from the start, announcing his bid for the mayoralty in February.

Second in the poll behind Connolly with 11 percent of voters is State Representative Martin Walsh, a lifelong resident of Dorchester who followed his father into the trades, working as a laborer at the Boston seaport. Walsh earned a degree from Boston College in 2009 after taking classes at night while serving in the legislature, where he was a leading advocate for workers.

Suffolk Countr y District Attorney Daniel Conley is polling third at 9 percent. Conley succeeded then newly-elected Menino as Boston City Councilor for Suffolk in 1994, serving until 2002 when he was appointed to his current position.

Other names receiving attention in the race are City Councilor Rob Consalvo and Boston housing chief Charlotte Golar Richie, who each earned 7 percent of voter support in the Sage Systems poll, and councilors Michael Ross and Felix Arroyo, who earned 6 percent each.

Thirty-five percent of voters, however, are said to remain undecided, according to The Wall Street Journal, leaving the race’s outcome uncertain in the final weeks before the preliminary election. The Boston Globe has reported that the “splintered” electorate indicates that a margin as slim as 25,000 votes could be decisive in determining the final two candidates who will face off in November.

The top three polling candidates— Connolly, Walsh, and Conley—also lead the race in campaign cash, with Conley sitting on the biggest war chest of over $1 million. Walsh raised the most in campaign contributions in the month of August with $383,000, though his cash on hand only stands at around $700,000.

Connolly brought in $245,000 in August, with his campaign reporting $589,000 remaining on hand.

Walsh is also set to receive support from outside interests, including the political action committee American Working Families, who plan on running television ads on his behalf, according to The Globe. Connolly, on the other hand, has made clear his wishes to reduce financial influence from outsider groups, reportedly stating that he did not want the educational advocacy group Stand for Children to spend $500,000 campaigning for him.

The most prominent political issues raised by many of the candidates thus far have included public safety, school reform, affordable housing, and economic development for a city that has made strides in these categories under Menino. In a survey conducted

by The Globe, every responding candidate agreed that the city should allow developers to build taller buildings and permit corporate sponsorships to fund improvements in the Boston Common. Also unanimous was support for extending operating hours for bars, restaurants, gyms, and other businesses, with many candidates advocating for extended MBTA service as well.

When asked how they plan to perpetuate—or perhaps, deviate from— Menino’s legacy, the top tier of candidates recognized the strong leadership the city’s longest-serving mayor has provided, yet also gave ways they will establish their own foundation for the future. Conley and Connolly both vowed to maintain fiscal stability, while Conley further acknowledged differences between his and Menino’s temperaments and management styles.

Connolly, a former teacher, proposed that he will bring renewed energy to positively transform Boston Public Schools, a central platform of his campaign, and Walsh pointed to maintaining quality services for the elderly as an issue of particular importance.

In announcing his plan to leave his post as mayor, Menino cited his inability to lead the city in his own way, on his own terms, due to his health struggles as cause for reevaluating his future. He has stated that he will not handpick his successor, yet made one request in his March speech before a crowd at Faneuil Hall, saying, “I just ask that you choose someone who loves this city as much as I do.” 

COLLEGIATE ROUND-UP

BY TRICIA TIEDT | METRO EDITOR

HARVARD

Kennedy School of Gov. asks Clinton to join faculty Harvard University seeks to add yet another prestigious name to their faculty. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been invited to join the university, becoming yet another prominent politician attached to the Crimson name. Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government has extended an invitation to Clinton, offering her the position of a visiting professor, or whatever other role in which she may be interested.

“We have extended an invitation to Secretary Clinton to consider engaging with the university and would of course welcome her interest in a range of roles,” Kennedy School spokesperson Doug Gavel wrote in an email to The Crimson.

Harvard, however, is just one of several universities vying for the former First Lady at the front of their classrooms. According to her spokesperson, Nick Merrill, Clinton has received offers from Yale University—where Clinton received her law

BOSTON UNIV. This September, the Boston Police Department will begin collaborations with the police force at Boston University to crack down on underage drinking—and their policies include severe consequences. At the start of this academic year, BU is implementing an “arrest first” policy for those students who violate alcohol laws and regulations. According to BU Today, Boston University Police Department Captain Robert Molloy received approval from Captain Wayne Lanchester, the Boston police commander for Allston and Brighton, for the arrest-first strategy.

While strict, the policy is not a sweeping declaration: officers have been told to use their discretion and handle each violation on a case-by-case basis. The move to a more stringent policy comes after Boston-area college students died during last year’s academic term—one of whom was a BU student who had reportedly been at an off-campus party hosted by a BU affiliated fraternity. In addition to the arrest-first policy, BU has required the incoming Class of 2017 to participate in the AlcoholEdu program, an online alcohol education program gaining popularity in college administrations throughout the country.

degree—and New York University—where her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, currently serves as the Assistant Vice Provost for the Global Network University and co-chair of the Of Many Institute for Multi-faith Leadership. Baruch College, a senior college of the City University of New York, has offered quite the incentive: should Clinton accept a faculty position, the public policy program at Baruch will be rewritten and renamed after Clinton.

The world of academia holds many benefits for Clinton, should she choose to accept the position.

Rumors are currently swirling about Clinton’s move for a presidential bid: accepting a position at a university would give her a public venue to publicize her campaign, as well as add to her already robust resume. If Clinton does not seek election in 2016, the academic realm would serve as a transition to retirement for the politician.

SUFFOLK Next Monday, Sept. 9, Suffolk University will host the first forum with all the candidates vying to be the next mayor of Boston. Suffolk teamed up with the Boston Herald and New England Cable News for the event, which will be held in their historic Modern Theatre. The event is scheduled as a 90minute sparring match between the contenders, to be televised by NECN and streamed online at Bostonherald.com, as well as broadcasted by Boston Herald Radio. This event will provide a rare opportunity for constituents to see all 12 candidates in one room before the preliminary election on Sept. 24. “The outcome of this race is critical to the future of Boston,” Suffolk University President Jim McCarthy told the Boston Herald. “As is the case with our wider mayoral race partnership with The Herald, the forum also provides an excellent opportunity for Suffolk students to participate.” Suffolk has already teamed up with The Herald to poll the citizens of Boston for their opinions in the early months of this election process.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GOOGLE IMAGES

MIT The research team at MIT’s Media Lab has invented a new computer program geared toward the socially awkward.

The computer program MACH, which stands for My Automated Conversation coacH (intentional capitalized letter here), seeks to improve the social skills of those who find themselves anxious when meeting new people through computerbased simulations. MACH generates faces on a screen that serve as conversation partners.

The program measures the amount of times the user says words such as “like,” “um,” and “yeah” in a conversation, as well as the user’s “average smile intensity.”

Finally, the automated personal coach provides feedback to its participants at the end of each conversation. Originally, the idea for MACH began at a workshop held by the Asperger’s Association, where chief researcher M. Eshan Hoque was approached to conceptualize an idea for sufferers of the disease. The program was developed over the past two years and tested on 90 MIT undergraduate students.

BOSTON UNCOMMON

An ode to the MBTA (really) SAMANTHA CONSTANZO It started out innocently enough: with an unlimited monthly pass for the T so I could get to work and back every day this summer. It was a necessity, a small way to save some money. It meant I didn’t have to keep track of how much money I had on my Charlie Card every day. I could just tap it and tear through the gates, and off I would go to my destination.

It was rather convenient.

It was also rather dangerous.

Questions like “Hey, what’s at the end of the Blue Line?” ceased to be things I would find out in the always-distant “eventually.” My fellow T pass-wielding explorer and I could find out as soon as the thought struck us, so off we went to discover a brave new world.

Actually, it wasn’t much of a brave new world. It was Wonderland (yes, that’s the actual name of the last station on the Blue Line) and Revere Beach instead.

I’ll be the first to admit that Revere Beach is nothing spectacular.

It’s kind of dirty, and the born and bred Bostonians I know tell me it’s not in the best of neighborhoods. But it’s a beach about an hour away from Boston College, and it has the biggest seashells I’ve ever seen still intact on the sand. Once we’d found the beach, we went back again later over the summer on a slightly more plannedout trip.

It became a part of my Boston.

Knowing where the beach was and how to get there expanded the city limits, and Boston became more than just the Public Gardens and Newbury Street. It became a city full of tuckedaway treasures that other people seemed to have forgotten about or simply never realized existed.

So we set out to discover as many of them as we could.

We could go anywhere the MBTA’s subways and busses wanted to take us—to the South End for salsa dancing in a park, to comedy shows in Cambridge, to a marina by the airport to watch the planes take off and land.

I admit to even taking the T just from my apartment on South Street to campus when the thought of walking over on suffocating, humid days was enough to tire me out. Yes, I know it’s just one stop. But I could take the T five times in one day and not have to spend $12.50 every time to do it. I had paid my dues, so to speak, when I bought the pass at the beginning of the month.

I’ve always been infatuated with the T, but trust me, I know that not everyone shares this adoration. The B line takes forever to get into the city. The whole green line in general looks like it hasn’t been repainted since the ’60s. The red line likes to break down, and the orange and blue lines are full of Boston’s more, shall we say, eclectic characters. The T is incredibly underfunded and staffed by sometimes-grumpy people. It’s absolutely nowhere near a perfect system.

I still think that’s all worth dealing with if it means I have a way to run wild around Boston like a kid on her first trip to Disneyland.

There are still pieces of this city that I haven’t seen yet, and there are pieces of it I think I know well that are still quietly keeping some secrets.

Now that I don’t have to go to work every day, however, it’s just not practical to pay for a monthly pass. My map of the T will have to wait before I circle any more stations on it or further annotate its margins.

Inevitably, though, there will be a Saturday in my near future when I wake up feeling like I just can’t stay on campus for another minute.

Maybe instead of revisiting a favorite haunt along the green line, I’ll bring along a map and a friend and invest in a one-day pass. Those can’t be just for tourists, right? Because I think we explorers can definitely make use of one.

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

METRO THE HEIGHTS

C10

C12

Thursday, September 5, 2013

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

BREAKING BOUNDARIES

Postcards from Paris

BOSTON CALLING

SEPTEMBER 7

SEPTEMBER 8

TRICIA TIEDT The plan was set. Passport copies turned in, insurance forms filled out, application accepted, parents appeased. I had repeatedly schlepped to Hovey House, dealt with the unhelpful front desk at the Office of International Programs, and met the professor leading the trip. After spearheading the idea of a summer in Europe, I bailed.

I turned down an all expenses paid trip to Paris with my four best friends. It is one of the best decisions I have made in my young adult life.

Instead of gallivanting around the Eiffel Tower, I cleaned treadmills at the Plex.

Instead of visiting the Louvre, I scoped out the best grocery stores within a five-mile radius of Chestnut Hill Avenue. While my girls were catching the metro cars home at dawn after spending their nights dancing at Parisian clubs, I was navigating the hourlong morning commute on the Green Line four days a week.

It was the most fulfilling way I have ever spent a summer.

What kept me from flying across the Atlantic come June was an offer I simply could not refuse. In the South Building of Faneuil Hall Marketplace stands the office of Boston Innovation, more commonly known as BostInno, a news/media startup company that has intertwined the worlds of digital media and journalism. Just three stories above the dazed tourists, unimpressive dance acts, and the overwhelming smell of Abercrombie cologne, I learned the inner workings of breaking news in the age of technology from some of the most talented young minds in the city. As an editorial intern, I produced content for the BostInno website each day, mostly covering local politics.

Needless to say, I learned a lot in that office.

I also could have learned a lot by staying in a hostel in Europe and learning to explore a country where I did not speak the native language. Nevertheless, the thought of turning down the internship hardly ever crossed my mind. For me, it was Boston or bust—as it has been since I first set foot in this city at the young age of eight.

My love for Boston and passion for BC have always been inevitably intertwined.

My first trip to Boston was also my first trip to Boston College, and the rest is history. The Heights was the first campus I ever set foot on, and therefore became my vision of what an ideal university should be.

I was finally living out my childhood dream to make a life in Boston. As finals ended and students made a mass exodus out of the city, I settled into my first apartment and braced myself for a taste of the real world.

The sparkle of the city faded.

For the first time since I shipped up to Boston just over two years ago, the love affair I had entertained for the past 12 years took a dramatic turn.

People on the T became nuisances instead of conversation partners. Streets that used to be full of mystery and wonder turned into various shades of gray. I could never figure out where to park my car without getting a ticket. The daily grind took its toll.

In other words, the honeymoon phase was over.

Now that the disillusionment has passed, I am more in love with this city than ever before.

Me and Boston, we weren’t just a summer fling. Three long, hot, humid months in the city reaffirmed what I’ve known all along: I belong here. I’m in for the long haul, and I’m here to stay.

Over the course of the summer, I received four post cards from Paris. While each one made me tear up as it arrived in my mailbox, the joy of having a Boston address never waned.

My friends got Paris, but I found home.

Tricia Tiedt is the Metro Editor for The Heights. She can be reached at metro@bcheights.com.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MIKE DISKIN

Matt and Kim (left) and The Wanted (right) performed at the Boston Calling Musical Festival last May in City Hall Plaza, which drew a crowd of about 19,000 fans.

MUSIC FESTIVAL RETURNS TO CITY HALL PLAZA AFTER INITIAL SUCCESS

BY RYAN TOWEY Asst. Metro Editor After its first successful run this past May, the Boston Calling Music Festival will return to City Hall Plaza this weekend in a continued effort to meet the demand for a festival in Boston. Boston Calling is a two-day festival that will launch at 12:50 p.m. on both Sept.

7 and 8. College students in Greater Boston will have a more readily available opportunity to attend the festival than during the festival’s inaugural outing, which took place in late May after many college students had already left the region. With college students present in droves this time around, the second installment of Boston Calling could top attendance

LOCAL NATIVES

at the first, which added up to around 19,000 people.

“We anticipate a great crowd this weekend,” said Brian Appel, co-founder of Crash Line Productions and the festival.

Organizers have drawn a total of 20 acts from a variety of genres.

“We never wanted to be pigeonholed or typecast as one specific genre of music,” Appel said. “We feel that this lineup is reflective of what’s current and important in music.”

Reflecting this sentiment, musical acts at the festival range from the indie alternative of Vampire Weekend to the rap of the much talked about Kendrick Lamar.

Appel and co-founder Mike Snow, who were colleagues

VAMPIRE WEEKEND

together at WFNX, had already begun booking acts for the upcoming Boston Calling before the first one occurred. “It was definitely the initial vision to do it twice a year,” Appel said.

With Boston having formerly lacked a music festival to match the likes of Chicago’s Lollapalooza or New York’s Governors Ball, a smaller festival occurring twice a year was considered to be within the city’s resources and a reasonable way to fill that void.

Aaron Dressner, guitarist of The National and one of the curators for Boston Calling, told The Boston Globe last February that when Appel and Snow reached out to him to be curator he found it “odd that there wasn’t a

HEADLINERS

KENDRICK LAMAR

Mayoral campaigns heating up

Heights Staff

Vegas to move further in Tech Cocktail’s search to find the hottest startup in the nation. On top of this huge success and the impressive $1.29 million in funding from Data Point Capital, the Jebbit team is adjusting to their new lifestyle of working full time.

By securing the popular vote, Jebbit was named “Boston’s Hottest Startup” in the category of Reader’s Choice. Tech Cocktail is searching for the most exciting and impressive startups in major cities nationwide and hosting a national competion in Las Vegas this October.

The transformation of Boston’s Seaport District begins with a long history.

This waterfront section of the city traces its origins from a swampy land in the 1800s, to a 20th century shipping area that received wool and leather for the nearby textile factories, to a wasteland of surface lots and abandoned warehouses in the mid-1900s, to, at long last, the flourishing urban neighborhood that it is today—one defined by new construction projects and overall innovation in what the city itself recognizes as “the new waterfront.”

The Seaport District spans the South Boston waterfront, with its main attractions located along the central Seaport Boulevard. Additionally, the Harborwalk rests along the coast for pedestrians who seek an unobstructed view of harbor activity and skyline beauty. In terms of landmarks, it roughly stretches from the impressive John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse to the 87-showroom Boston Design Center. The district is officially composed of nine “neighborhoods”: the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC), Fan Pier, Fort Point Channel, Liberty Wharf, Marine Industrial Park, Pier 4, Seaport Place, Seaport Square, and Waterside Place.

Each neighborhood’s distinctive charac-

See Jebbit, C10

See Seaport District, C10

Heights Editor

I NSIDE METRO THIS ISSUE

PASSION PIT

BY LAUREN TOTINO

BY JULIE ORENSTEIN

See Mayoral Election, C11

See Boston Calling, C10

District on waterfront makes waves as new hotspot

Without a Menino endorsement, the election is still open

For the first time in a generation, the people of Boston will not see a familiar name on the ballot in November’s mayoral election.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, plagued by lingering health issues in recent years, will not seek re-election for a sixth term, and the 70-year-old incumbent’s departure from City Hall paves the way for a new face to lead the city forward.

In the past months, 12 local political, business, and community leaders have entered a wide-open mayoral race, hoping to fill a position that has been defined over the last 20 years by Menino’s hands-on approach to governing and achievements in neighborhood revitalization and educational improvement.

Without the name-recognition that Menino has incurred during his tenure, voters will be forced to sort through a slew of comparatively unknown candidates. The Sept. 24 preliminary election will cut the field, which includes five current city councilors, to two ahead of the Nov. 5 general election, yet no

major annual festival in the Boston area, just because it is such a great music scene.”

Appel and Snow wanted to create a defining outlet for music in Boston. “It was our initiative from the get-go that local Boston artists were going to be included in Boston Calling,” Appel said.

With organizers bringing the festival to life for a second time, Appel said that production has gone smoothly, and noted that there will be some changes at the upcoming festival.

“We changed the entrance so that now it’s over on Congress Street,” he said, adding

PHOTO COURTESY OF JEBBIT

Tom Coburn, Jeb Thomas, and Chase McAleese won BCVC in 2011 with the startup.

Jebbit takes title as city’s hottest startup company

BY SHANNON INGLESBY Heights Staff Jebbit is at it again. Following their soaring success during the past year, the Boston College-based startup has recently secured the title of “Boston’s Hottest Startup.” This honor comes from the competition held by Tech Cocktail, a media organization for startups around the world. Jebbit, a pay-per-performance ad network based on guaranteed engagement, poses questions to consumers about the content of advertisements, thus improving market research.

Now the Jebbit team will head to Las

Collegiate Round-up

Highlights from other prestigious universities and colleges in the greater Boston area......................................................................................C11

Restaurant Review: Parish Cafe..........................................................C9 Boston Marathon Registration Opens on Monday..................................C11