Art in Paradise: A Working Model

Art in Paradise: A Working Model

by | Dec 30, 2010 | Arts

It’s particularly nice to know that, in a Valley known for its leftward leanings, there are businesses that employ progressive ideas not as mere ideals but as working methods. The Valley’s worker-owned, democratically run co-ops include Collective Copies,...
Art in Paradise: Who Needs Guffman?

Art in Paradise: Who Needs Guffman?

by | Feb 10, 2011 | Arts

Monson—hardly an urban center—is holding a talent show. “So what?”, you may say, visions of Waiting for Guffman, with its promise of a Broadway producer ready to bestow fame and fortune on small-town performers, dancing in your head. And...

Art in Paradise: Printing with Gravity

by | Feb 17, 2011 | Arts

Hitting the print button provokes a particularly quotidian set of phenomena: flashing lights, inexplicably long pauses, humming noises and vaguely unpleasant plasticky sounds. The results might look great, but the process holds few charms. When I watched Guy Pettit,...

Art in Paradise: A Personal Vision

by | Feb 24, 2011 | Arts

If you’ve lived in the Valley a decade or more, chances are you remember Fire & Water, a cafe in Northampton just off the main drag. The place had above-average vegetarian food, and a spacious yet subterranean vibe (it was situated partially below ground on...
Picture on the Cover

Picture on the Cover

by | Mar 3, 2011 | Arts

“We take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills/ but the thrill we’ve never known/ is the thrill that’ll getcha when you get your picture/ on the cover of the Rollin’ Stone.” —Dr. Hook & The Medicine...