What do you think?

by | Mar 20, 2008 | News

First and foremost, let me congratulate the Valley Advocate for your continuing coverage of the burgeoning hip-hop community of the Pioneer Valley and for your coverage of the culture of hip-hop in general. In order for people to accept and appreciate a culture, they...

War of Choice: Five Years In

by | Mar 20, 2008 | News

Now that we're still stuck in Iraq after five long and bloody years, there are those, including Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, who insist that the tide is turning and that the "surge" in U.S. troop strength and improved tactics are...
Beware the Rat King

Beware the Rat King

by | Mar 20, 2008 | News

Trolling around online a few weeks ago, I discovered a creature so terrifyingly awful that as a devotee of monster movies, Grimm fairy tales and Lovecraft, I couldn't believe it had escaped my attention for so long. Now that I've glimpsed a Rat King, though,...

Long Time Coming

by | Mar 20, 2008 | News

Next month marks the fifth anniversary of the stealing—really, it's hard to think of it in any other terms—of the Mason Square Library. In April 2003, the Springfield Library and Museums Association, the private non-profit that ran the Quadrangle and...
Arch History

Arch History

by | Mar 20, 2008 | Music

In the early '80s, a new instrument was born. The brainchild of musician Peter Blanchette and the handiwork of luthier Walter Stanul, the archguitar has almost twice the number of strings of a standard guitar, and was inspired by Blanchette's need for a guitar...