Marlborough Residence Held Halloween Event for a Good Cause

As cars ride down North Main street throughout the year, the Durel residence does not differ from the rest of the passing houses. During the time of Halloween, however, it is a completely different story. With a yard filled with hundreds of store-bought and homemade creations, the homestead goes above and beyond the traditional set-up of Halloween decorations.


David Durel, founder of the event titled "Lake Terror-Among-Us", has been making elaborate Halloween set-ups since 1997. Every year, he and his mother, Robbie Wilks, continue to add to their collection of items including witches, aliens, zombies, and ghosts. The house also features an electronic, talking mad scientist and a dummy in an electric chair who vibrates in sync with sounds of electricity. "We make the majority of the things," says David. He went on to say that 85-90% of the Halloween decorations featured in the display were either created from scratch or made from different store-bought items.


Admission to the Durel's and Wilks' decorated homestead was free, but donations to the Marlborough Food Bank were very appreciated. They said they wanted to make a difference in a tough economic time. The house was open on Friday the 30th and Saturday the 31st from 6-9pm.

Music Review: Atreyu Congregation Of The Damned

Atreyu is an orange county California metal-core band that was one of the first mainstream groups of their genre. Their newest album Congregation Of The Damned is a departure from the normal staples of the metal-core genre, if anything it resonates more with a classic rock sound then a metal or hardcore one. In my personal opinion the album is extremely close in its sound to Alexisonfire's Old Crow's Young Cardinals released earlier this year, the scratchy vocals and more rock oriented guitar tone match up almost perfectly. However while this could be seen as a positive comparison, this album simply made me want to listen to OCYC and not Atreyu. While I cannot deny the band's success and their groundbreaking career, I feel as if their newest album may show that if they really want to renew their popularity they may want to fall back and augment what they were good at, opposed to imitating a popular sound. The album is decent for what it is, however for a band as well received as Atreyu it is in my opinion a dissapointment.

Car Accident In Marlborough Center Thursday

Two cars collided outside of the Marlborough post office between 4 and five PM today. The accident has caused traffic to back up down route 66.

Sophomore wins Poetry Contest for Eli Wiesel's "Night"

Recently, Mrs. Coffey's sophomore classes finished reading the famous tale of Eli Wiesel and his experience through the Holocaust in the novel, "Night." At the close of the book, Mrs. Coffey asked her students to read his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. They were given the option of writing a poem to reflect on what they thought of the book. Out of the 85 students in the Sophomore class, 20 poems were submitted. Mrs. Coffey then posted the poems for students to see and had two voting rounds to determine whose showed the most understanding and creativity. Theresa Kowal and Nick Growalski were the two first place winners of the contest. Mrs. Coffey explains that her intention of the poetry contest was to create social awareness among the student body and convey a message to the faculty and alumni. This has certainly inspired kids to form their own opinions on certain ideas and express their thoughts vividly on paper.

Rabid Raccoon Scratches Girl In Enfield

According to courant.com, a girl was scratched by a wild raccoon on Elm Street. Police are advising the public not to go near any wildlife. Enfield Animal Control and police answered a report of a raccoon chasing people at the area of Kohl's and the Best Buy Plaza at 7 on Wednesday night. The girl bent down to take a picture of the raccoon when it scratched her leg, according to police. One of the officers killed the raccoon and it was brought to the state lab to be tested for rabies, which came back positive. Anyone, that had contact with the raccoon is asked to call the Enfield Police Department at 860-763-6400 and contact your doctor immediately.

Enfield EMS Vehicle Hits Truck

According to Courant.com, an Enfield EMS sport-utility vehicle was answering to a call with sirens when the vehicle was hit by a pickup truck at the corner of South Road and Phoenix Avenue around 12:10 pm. Chief Edward Richards of the Enfield Fire Department said the EMS vehicle was going east on South Road, responding to a medical call at Blair Manor on Hazard Avenuewhen it was hit. Richards also added that three people: an EMS supervisor, and the driver and passenger of the Ford pickup truck were taken by ambulence from the scene to the nearby hospitals.

Debris from the accident was scattered across the intersection. The pickup truck was hauling a small trailer that became detached during the accident. Chief Richards said that the passenger in the truck was the most seriously injured and the driver of the truck had a leg injury. The names of the people involved or their injuries were not available right away.

-picture taken by: courant.com

Concert Review: The Venetia Fair @ The Marlborough American Legion Hall

The Venetia Fair is a Massachusetts based experimental rock quintet that was recently signed to red blue records and is known for their energetic presence and chaotic song structure.



10/10
The Marlborough American Legion hall is considerably small and the sound quality is truly dependent on the technician working the night of the show, however I lucked out in the sense that the show wasn't too packed and the sound tech was excellent. The real headliner of the show was a local band now facing relative success called Fate Kills The Hero, however the band directly proceeding them (The Venetia Fair) quickly established themselves as the most impressive act of the night.

I can safely say after attending a number of shows, professional or otherwise, that TVF's performance topped them all. From the moment they began their set their energy could only be described as insane, every member leaping from equipment or running into the crowd or onto each other, all the while playing their songs at the same quality as their recordings.
My favorite moments included the guitarist holding his guitar up with only his teeth, and the keyboardist dancing on top of his instrument during the last song. On top of the set being phenomenal I had the chance to sit and talk with members of the band who all turned out to be exceedingly humble and complete gentlemen. The band is in the process of filming a music video for their single "The Ringleader" (From which the above picture is taken) which will be up on their myspace October 30th.

The Venetia Fair's musical skill is only rivaled by their energy and commitment to being entertainers above all else, despite the tiny venue and 10$ price TVF has set an incredibly high bar for any future shows I might see.

For streaming MP3's, Concert Dates and more check out The Venetia Fair's Myspace at
www.myspace.com/thevenetiafair