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GOLackawanna
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Bride building tests student engineering, physics skills By GERARD HETMAN For Go Lackawanna
DICKSON CITY – The engineering and physics skills of the region’s high school students were put to the test for the 27th year in a row last weekend. Held at the Viewmont Mall in Dickson City on Saturday, Feb. 11, the 2012 Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Bridge Building Competition brought together students from across northeastern Pennsylvania to test their design skills in a unique way. “The event gives students a better in-depth understanding of what engineering involves,” said Donald Kiefier, a retired high school physics teacher who is in his 24th year as an organizer for the event. “It has changed career goals for many students.” “The competition is a chance for students to learn and apply engineering techniques to their physics classes,” added Tina Merli, a structural engineer from Penn State University, who is in her 15th year assisting with the contest. “They learn about trusses, triangulation, and how structures work. “They are given constraints and criteria to meet, and the bridges are judged based on efficiency. It’s not just strength, but also economics, physics, and a little bit of statistics.” Students lined up with their bridges to be judged for a chance to advance to national competition in Las Vegas, Nev. Judges positioned each bridge on a fulcrum mechanism that tested the designs to their limit. Many students said the process was a rewarding experience. “I won a competition like this at my school, and when our teacher told us about this contest, I decided to enter,” said Gianna Baldoni, a senior at Abington Heights. “I did research online until I came up with the Howe truss design, which just looked very efficient. I drew a template, and formed the bridge over a week-and-a-half.” “Both of my brothers entered the competition, so it was a natural move,” said Seneca Propst, a junior at Honesdale who finished second in this year’s competition. “I want to be a chemical engineer for a career, and this is related in the field of engineering.” Zach McNulty of Pocono Mountain West took home top honors in the contest. Joe DelSanto of Wyoming Valley West completed the top three finishers. Cole Surridge of Riverside was also honored with the Architectural Excellence Award.
COURTESY PHOTO
The Curse of Sorrow will release its second album, ‘The Uninvited,’ at Brews Brothers West in March.
Grave rockers sets album release By RICH HOWELLS rhowells@golackawanna.com
If heavy metal band Motley Crue and punk rock act The Misfits were thrown into a blender on high, front man Nick Necro believes the result would be Wilkes-Barre “grave rock” outfit The Curse of Sorrow. The band formed almost as quickly in 2006, starting out as two friends getting together and “jamming out while throwing down a couple beers” who soon realized they had something when they submitted their music online to the Bodog Battle of the Bands and were chosen to compete from thousands of entries. “From that point on, we knew we had to start a full band, so that’s what we did…The other members of the band we had to put together because we needed a band to go down and do the battle. So we put a band together in about 20 to 30 minutes and we just practiced our (expletive) off,” Necro recalled. “When we first started, it was known as Brother, but we went through some legal disputes because there was another band called Brother.” Their new moniker was also created on the spot during a two-hour brainstorm, choosing a name that the singer feels reflects his generation. “We’re the generation of
sorrow. A lot of us are not led in the right direction. There’re a lot of people in this world that are misguided and I think that they feel like they’re loners in this world. I think that’s what The Curse of Sorrow is,” he explained. “We speak to those people. We let them know that…you’re not alone in this world.” While Necro has always had fascination with horror movies and the supernatural, a penchant reflected in the band’s songs and its presentation, current events and real life occurrences inspire his lyrics much more. “We’re not horror rock. We’re not shock rock. We’re a new sound, and it goes together well and people dig it,” he said. “I think most of our songs speak and touch on realistic horror rather than fictional horror. It’s the real stuff that affects you the most.” Known for their raw energy onstage, the band has impressed local audiences and gained a following that ranges in age from 13 to 50, playing ballads and hard rock with equal enthusiasm, including a surprising heavy metal cover of Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind.” “Not everybody’s going to like your sound, but whoever goes out to your shows needs to be entertained. Nobody wants to go to a show and be bored to death by people just standing on a stage, so our
UPCOMING SHOWS AND NEPA MIXTAPE What: Curse of Sorrow, Ancient Wolves, Chaos, and Terry Chambers & Ray Novitsky Where: New Penny, 1827 N. Main Ave., Scranton When: Fri., Feb. 24 And What: Curse of Sorrow CD release party with Sinister Realm, Mobday, and Prosody Where: Brews Brothers West, 75 Main Street, Luzerne When: Sat., March 24 Download The Curse of Sorrow’s new song, “The Uninvited,” for free at www.golackawanna.com as part of the NEPA Mixtape series. “It’s for our friend Mike Brennan who had passed away in automobile accident this year. It’s pretty much a song for anybody who’s lost somebody that they care about,” singer Nick Necro said. “They wonder if after they passed on to the next life if their souls or their spirits still think about us or if they still linger around us.”
whole philosophy is we might as well rock our (expletive) off so then people can at least walk away and be like, ‘You know what, their sound may not have been good, but damn did they put on a great show.’ That’s what we’re about,” Necro emphasized. The group is eager to release its follow-up to their first record next month on Saturday, March 24 at Brews Brothers West, 75 Main Street, Luzerne, and will be performing this Friday, Feb. 24 at the New Penny, 1827 N. Main Ave., Scranton. Like “Only a Shadow Remains,” The Curse of Sorrow’s new 13-track album, “The Uninvited” was recorded at JL Studios in Wyoming with producer Joe Loftus and is dedicated to their friend Mike Brennan, known as “Brennan 13,” who died in an
auto accident earlier this year. “The first album was great, but it’s like taking it from like two to 10 on a volume dial. We’ve all come a long way in our musical careers. We’ve all become a lot more professional and learned how to fine tweak ourselves,” Necro said. Necro’s personal goal is to bring back ‘80s style stadium rock, and while he can’t speak for their aspirations, he knows that each of his fellow musicians want to “keep playing music until the day that we’re put in the ground.” “I hope that many, many people can hear our sound and hear our words and at least feel something…30 to 40 years after we’ve left this Earth, as long as our music is still played, we’re immortalized, you know? That’s cool to me.”