by Amanda Drane | May 20, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Scene Here
Hampshire College’s commencement ceremony is a social justice rally. About 350 people pack the graduation tent on the campus commons. As president Jonathan Lash begins his speech, more guests arrive. They spill out into the lawn outside the tent. Few of the students...
by Amanda Drane | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
Max Shea had been a part of UMass Amherst radio station WMUA 91.1 starting in 1993 — when he was an undergraduate student at UMass — until April 21, when he was escorted from campus by UMass police, banned from returning, and his beloved show, Martian Gardens, was...
by Amanda Drane | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Blogs, Featured, News, The Uncanny Valley
On the evening of March 17, a driver in South Hadley reported seeing a strange triangular craft in the sky with lights on each of its three visible points. After following the craft for a couple of miles, the driver pulled into the Village Commons parking lot and...
by Amanda
Drane | Apr 28, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Free Sport, News
Summer is just around the bend and the Connecticut River — the region’s longest body of running water — remains largely unswimmable due to high levels of fecal bacteria in the water. The river has come a long way since its days nicknamed “America’s most beautiful...
by Amanda Drane | Apr 28, 2015 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Madame Barfly
After getting laid off, 32-year printing press veteran Scott Santaniello decided to move into an industry that always seems to stand the test of time: booze, baby. Two years ago, Santaniello, a 51-year-old life-long resident of Springfield, got a distiller’s license,...