Following a custom first observed in 1548 at the first Jesuit school in Messina, Italy, 1,000 members of the Boston College community gathered at O’Neill Plaza on September 19 for the annual Mass of the Holy Spirit. Delivering the general intercessions, director of Campus Ministry James Erps, SJ, said, “As we gather this afternoon and pray for the gift of the Spirit—the gift of wisdom—for our new academic year, we remember that wisdom has been highly prized in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions. As people of the book, today we seek and long for that wisdom.”

Excerpts from the day’s program appear below. Click on the title to view the excerpt. Former radio and television journalist Paula Lyons NC ’67, the day’s master of ceremonies, introduces each selection, provides narrative context, and identifies the readers.

Introductions

James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) portrays the odyssey of Leopold Bloom through the course of one day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin. Hundreds of locales around the world now commemorate this literary high holiday with activities ranging from theatrical events to road races. On June 16, 2007 more than 300 attended the first such event in Boston, presented by the New Center for Arts and Culture and Boston College. Faculty, students, performers, media personalities, authors, community leaders, and diplomats took part in exploring Ulysses in a daylong program that included films, readings, exhibits, food, music, and discussion.

@BC presents a sampling of activities that took place at Bapst Library: readings of excerpts from Ulysses; an introduction to the novel entitled “Ulysses for the Perplexed: Making Sense of the Novel for the Common Reader,” by Marjorie Howes, chair of the Irish Studies Program; a performance of a song mentioned in the text; a reading from the legal decision that permitted Ulysses to be published in the U.S.; and a panel conversation on the Irish and the Jews of Boston.

Participants in the readings from Ulysses:

Steven Barkhimer, actor
David Barry, Irish consul general to Boston
Jim Braude, political commentator, NECN-TV and 96.9 FM
Ciaran Crawford, actor
Margery Eagan, newspaper and radio political commentator
Andrew Glynn ’08, major in philosophy and theater arts
Dolores Handy, radio anchor, WBUR-FM
Vivien Li, Boston Harbor Association
Paula Lyons NC ’67, former radio and television journalist
Bill Littlefield, radio commentator, WBUR-FM
Elise Manning, actor
Annette Miller, actor
Stuart Mushlin MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Brian O’Donovan, radio host, WGBH-FM
Elizabeth Shannon, author
Elaine Theodore, actor
Jimmy Tingle, actor, writer, political humorist
Rony Yididia, Israeli consul to New England

The Boston College bands program—with its five instrumental ensembles, dance teams, full-time director, two assistant directors, vocal coach, instructional program, and scholarships—is a thriving institution whose more than 250 participating students contribute to campus cultural life at athletic events and in dozens of performances throughout the year. It wasn’t always this way. Only the marching and pep bands have had “consistent presence” since the turn of the 20th century, according to the Sebastian Bonaituto, the University’s current (and first) full-time director of bands, who was hired in 1989. His predecessor, Peter Siragusa, was a music teacher in the Boston Public Schools who devoted nights and weekends to University band rehearsals, preparing the ensemble for its appearances at athletic and ROTC events.

Despite the program’s lower level of institutional support, the University’s bands of yore played with verve and precision, as evidenced by a 1968 performance preserved on The Boston College Eagles Band and the Eagles of Sound Dance Band, an LP record by the Fleetwood Recording Company of Revere. @BC presents three selections of the band performing staples from its athletic event repertoire: “Burst of Trumpets,” “Medley of Boston College Fight Songs” (including an introduction based on the Alma Mater, “Sons of Maroon and Gold,” “All Up for Boston,” “Sweep Down the Field,” and “For Boston”), and “This Is My Country.”

The 1960s record also features a dance band under the leadership of John Trapani ’68. He remembers organizing the group, getting Siragusa’s permission to rehearse, and the first paying gig ($60) at ROTC’s 1964 spring “Military Ball.” Trapani recruited extra talent from the Berklee College of Music, including an alto sax player named Richie Cole (who went on to play with Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, and Doc Severinsen, and became a leading light on the American jazz scene), and, calling itself the “Eagles of Sound Dance Band,” the group performed at the Quinnipiac and MIT jazz festivals and at many campus functions.

@BC presents the Eagles of Sound from the Fleetwood LP, which highlights the budding genius of Richie Cole on the alto sax and the trumpet of John Trapani, who today leads the John Trapani Big Band—that is, when he’s not at his day job as a professor of philosophy at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio.
 

From the 1968 record of the Boston College Marching Band:

• Burst of Trumpets ( 2:13 )
  Broadband / Modem
• Medley of BC Fight Songs ( 3:31 )
  Broadband / Modem
• This Is My Country ( 1:10 )
  Broadband / Modem

From the 1968 record of the Eagles of Sound Dance Band:

• Swing Low ( 2:49 )
  Broadband / Modem
• Where Am I? ( 4:13 )
  Broadband / Modem
• More ( 1:59 )
  Broadband / Modem

BONUS TRACK!

But wait, there’s more! For your listening and dancing pleasure this football season, we present the most recent recording of the Boston College Marching Band, under the direction of David Healey, performing “Build Me Up Buttercup,” which is included in the just-released CD, Game Day.

• Build Me Up Buttercup ( 2:03 )
  Broadband / Modem

A pioneer in the field of organic chemistry, Peter Dervan ’67, Bren Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was honored at a White House ceremony on July 27 as one of eight recipients of the 2006 National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest recognition of scientific achievement. For Dervan, who began teaching at Caltech in 1973, the medal is the most recent of 28 major awards and fellowships (over and above his honorary Doctor of Science degree from Boston College in 1997). He was named a Guggenheim Fellow, received the Linus Pauling Medal, was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was three times voted by students to receive Caltech’s annual award for teaching excellence.

Throughout his career Dervan has focused on understanding the chemical principles for the sequence-specific recognition of DNA. “I became interested in creating novel molecular shapes with properties different from those found in nature shortly after arriving at Caltech in 1973,” Dervan wrote in the 2001 issue of Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. “I asked the question whether organic chemists could rationally create ‘four chemical keys’ which would distinguish each of the Watson-Crick base pairs and, when linked together, read any continuous predetermined sequence of DNA.” His accomplishments could have profound implications for human medicine, such as synthesizing new classes of anti-infectives and blocking the growth of cancer cells using “transcription therapy.”

Teaching and ongoing research as head of the Caltech’s “Dervan Group” provide “intellectual vitality and excitement,” he writes. “Synthetic organic chemistry is one of the most powerful tools in modern science and, in the post-genome world, organic chemists will continue to play a major role.”

• Home page of the Dervan Group
• Article by Peter Dervan in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 9 (2001), describing the development of his work
• News of Dervan’s award on the Chemistry Department’s web page
• Awards ceremony at the White House, including both text and video of the proceedings
• National Science Foundation web page for the National Medals of Science.”

Jeremy Zipple ’00, SJ, currently a producer at National Geographic Television, has been making making videos ever since his days on the Heights. His 2006 film, Xavier: Missionary and Saint, marking the 500th birthday of Francisco Javier—Saint Xavier—is narrated by Liam Neeson and has been called “a vivid and brilliant re-creation of his [Xavier’s] life and times” by California Bookwatch. @BC presents excerpts from this movie about a man whose approach to diverse cultures and foreign lands seems remarkably modern.

New England lobster was featured at the Freshmen Welcome Series picnic, attended by more than 1,600 students from this year’s entering class of 2,300. Organized by the Office of the Dean for Student Development (ODSD), the Series, which comprised a screening of the comedy Blades of Glory, a Boston Harbor boat cruise, an introduction to the University’s cultural clubs, and the lobsterbake, took place over ten days. “The activities introduce new students to some of Boston’s distinctive sights and customs,” says Matthew Webber of ODSD. “The main goal is to foster a sense of community within the very first weeks of school.”

From the tower of St. William’s Hall, a partial view of the property Boston College purchased from the Archdiocese of Boston $65 million on August 20. The 18.7-acre parcel includes the St. John’s Seminary library building (above), the Archdiocesan Chancery building, Bishop Peterson Hall— a four-story building that contains classrooms, offices, and a chapel— and the Creagh Research Library, which currently houses the Archdiocese’s archives.

The transaction adds to Boston College’s previous acquisition of 46 acres in Brighton from the Archdiocese in 2004 and 2006, which included the former Cardinal’s Residence, St. William’s Hall, St. Clement’s Hall, and the former Tribunal building at 3 Lake Street.

Several administrative offices have already moved to Brighton, and the University is studying plans to locate the new School of Theology and Ministry there. The school will comprise the Weston Jesuit School of Theology, the Institute of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry, and adult education components of C21 Online.

The McMullen Museum of Art’s Diana Larsen (left) and Kathryn Martini of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, inspect Jackson Pollock’s Red Composition following its move from Syracuse to Boston on August 6. The 19-by-24 inch oil on masonite painting is one of more than 150 works that will be on display in Boston College’s Pollock Matters exhibition from September 1 through December 9.

The 1946 painting by Pollock, the famed American Abstract Expressionist artist, is one of many in the exhibition that will be on loan from private collections and museums. It was delivered in a climate-controlled truck and then stored for twenty-four hours before Larsen and Martini opened the crate.

Consulting a report that chronicles the painting’s condition, Larsen and Martini examined the work for any new chips, cracks, or other signs of wear. The work was unaltered, they agreed.

Red Composition is considered one of Pollock’s transitional paintings, created with both a brushed and poured paint. It is one of several known Pollocks that will be part of the exhibition. The exhibition, which explores the personal and artistic interrelationship between Pollock and noted Swiss-born photographer and graphic designer Herbert Matter, will also feature works by Matter, Mercedes Matter, Lee Krasner, Hans Hofmann, and Alexander Calder.

Pollock Matters also puts on public view for the first time a group of small dripped paintings labeled “Jackson experimental works” by Herbert Matter. These were discovered in 2002 by Matter’s son in a storage facility belonging to his late father.

In a custom first observed in 1548 at the first Jesuit school in Messina, Italy, 1,000 members of the Boston College community came together for Mass on September 19, which was celebrated by President William P. Leahy, SJ. Delivering the general intercessions, director of Campus Ministry James Erps, SJ, said, “As we gather this afternoon and pray for the gift of the Spirit—the gift of wisdom—for our new academic year, we remember that wisdom has been highly prized in the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions. As people of the book, today we seek and long for that wisdom.”

June 16, 2007: Bloomsday at Boston College

Excerpts from the day’s program appear below. Click on the title to view the excerpt. Former radio and television journalist Paula Lyons NC ’67, the day’s master of ceremonies, introduces each selection, provides narrative context, and identifies the readers.

Introductions

James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) portrays the odyssey of Leopold Bloom through the course of one day, June 16, 1904, in Dublin. Hundreds of locales around the world now commemorate this literary high holiday with activities ranging from theatrical events to road races. On June 16, 2007 more than 300 attended the first such event in Boston, presented by the New Center for Arts and Culture and Boston College. Faculty, students, performers, media personalities, authors, community leaders, and diplomats took part in exploring Ulysses in a daylong program that included films, readings, exhibits, food, music, and discussion.

@BC presents a sampling of activities that took place at Bapst Library: readings of excerpts from Ulysses; an introduction to the novel entitled “Ulysses for the Perplexed: Making Sense of the Novel for the Common Reader,” by Marjorie Howes, chair of the Irish Studies Program; a performance of a song mentioned in the text; a reading from the legal decision that permitted Ulysses to be published in the U.S.; and a panel conversation on the Irish and the Jews of Boston.

Participants in the readings from Ulysses:

Steven Barkhimer, actor
David Barry, Irish consul general to Boston
Jim Braude, political commentator, NECN-TV and 96.9 FM
Ciaran Crawford, actor
Margery Eagan, newspaper and radio political commentator
Andrew Glynn ’08, major in philosophy and theater arts
Dolores Handy, radio anchor, WBUR-FM
Vivien Li, Boston Harbor Association
Paula Lyons NC ’67, former radio and television journalist
Bill Littlefield, radio commentator, WBUR-FM
Elise Manning, actor
Annette Miller, actor
Stuart Mushlin MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Brian O’Donovan, radio host, WGBH-FM
Elizabeth Shannon, author
Elaine Theodore, actor
Jimmy Tingle, actor, writer, political humorist
Rony Yididia, Israeli consul to New England

The Boston College bands program—with its five instrumental ensembles, dance teams, full-time director, two assistant directors, vocal coach, instructional program, and scholarships—is a thriving institution whose more than 250 participating students contribute to campus cultural life at athletic events and in dozens of performances throughout the year. It wasn’t always this way. Only the marching and pep bands have had “consistent presence” since the turn of the 20th century, according to the Sebastian Bonaituto, the University’s current (and first) full-time director of bands, who was hired in 1989. His predecessor, Peter Siragusa, was a music teacher in the Boston Public Schools who devoted nights and weekends to University band rehearsals, preparing the ensemble for its appearances at athletic and ROTC events.

Despite the program’s lower level of institutional support, the University’s bands of yore played with verve and precision, as evidenced by a 1968 performance preserved on The Boston College Eagles Band and the Eagles of Sound Dance Band, an LP record by the Fleetwood Recording Company of Revere. @BC presents three selections of the band performing staples from its athletic event repertoire: “Burst of Trumpets,” “Medley of Boston College Fight Songs” (including an introduction based on the Alma Mater, “Sons of Maroon and Gold,” “All Up for Boston,” “Sweep Down the Field,” and “For Boston”), and “This Is My Country.”

The 1960s record also features a dance band under the leadership of John Trapani ’68. He remembers organizing the group, getting Siragusa’s permission to rehearse, and the first paying gig ($60) at ROTC’s 1964 spring “Military Ball.” Trapani recruited extra talent from the Berklee College of Music, including an alto sax player named Richie Cole (who went on to play with Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, and Doc Severinsen, and became a leading light on the American jazz scene), and, calling itself the “Eagles of Sound Dance Band,” the group performed at the Quinnipiac and MIT jazz festivals and at many campus functions.

@BC presents the Eagles of Sound from the Fleetwood LP, which highlights the budding genius of Richie Cole on the alto sax and the trumpet of John Trapani, who today leads the John Trapani Big Band—that is, when he’s not at his day job as a professor of philosophy at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio.
 

From the 1968 record of the Boston College Marching Band:

• Burst of Trumpets ( 2:13 )
  Broadband / Modem
• Medley of BC Fight Songs ( 3:31 )
  Broadband / Modem
• This Is My Country ( 1:10 )
  Broadband / Modem

From the 1968 record of the Eagles of Sound Dance Band:

• Swing Low ( 2:49 )
  Broadband / Modem
• Where Am I? ( 4:13 )
  Broadband / Modem
• More ( 1:59 )
  Broadband / Modem

BONUS TRACK!

But wait, there’s more! For your listening and dancing pleasure this football season, we present the most recent recording of the Boston College Marching Band, under the direction of David Healey, performing “Build Me Up Buttercup,” which is included in the just-released CD, Game Day.

• Build Me Up Buttercup ( 2:03 )
  Broadband / Modem

A pioneer in the field of organic chemistry, Peter Dervan ’67, Bren Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, was honored at a White House ceremony on July 27 as one of eight recipients of the 2006 National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest recognition of scientific achievement. For Dervan, who began teaching at Caltech in 1973, the medal is the most recent of 28 major awards and fellowships (over and above his honorary Doctor of Science degree from Boston College in 1997). He was named a Guggenheim Fellow, received the Linus Pauling Medal, was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was three times voted by students to receive Caltech’s annual award for teaching excellence.

Throughout his career Dervan has focused on understanding the chemical principles for the sequence-specific recognition of DNA. “I became interested in creating novel molecular shapes with properties different from those found in nature shortly after arriving at Caltech in 1973,” Dervan wrote in the 2001 issue of Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry. “I asked the question whether organic chemists could rationally create ‘four chemical keys’ which would distinguish each of the Watson-Crick base pairs and, when linked together, read any continuous predetermined sequence of DNA.” His accomplishments could have profound implications for human medicine, such as synthesizing new classes of anti-infectives and blocking the growth of cancer cells using “transcription therapy.”

Teaching and ongoing research as head of the Caltech’s “Dervan Group” provide “intellectual vitality and excitement,” he writes. “Synthetic organic chemistry is one of the most powerful tools in modern science and, in the post-genome world, organic chemists will continue to play a major role.”

• Home page of the Dervan Group
• Article by Peter Dervan in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry 9 (2001), describing the development of his work
• News of Dervan’s award on the Chemistry Department’s web page
• Awards ceremony at the White House, including both text and video of the proceedings
• National Science Foundation web page for the National Medals of Science.”