Make your own dog food? Some local pet owners swear by it
A big yellow lab named Jack laid down on the couch while his black litter-mate, Sophie, slept stretched out on the floor. At 11 years old, both dogs are old for their breed but aside for some arthritis in Jack’s hips and a diagnosis of Lyme disease for Sophie, they are in remarkably good health. Their owner, Amy Ingalls, 45, of Ware, attributes this to their diet, a homemade mixture of pig and cow hearts and livers from the butcher,...
Local Calendar: Thursday 7/19 to Sunday 7/22
THURSDAY 7/19 MUSIC A Little Night Music: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church will present “A Little Night Music” every Thursday during the month of July at 6:00pm. Free. Free, donations accepted for all food items. Trinity United Methodist Church, 361 Sumner Ave, Springfield. 413-737-5311. Amherst Downtown Beats – Mister G and In The Nick of Time: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Grammy-award winning entertainer Mister G...
VIDEO: Christa Joy on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Christa Joy is a singer-songwriter who writes bittersweet country folk music with songs about everyday life and impermanence. Check out a short video teaser of Christa Joy’s upcoming Valley Advocate Sessions performance available online this...
Staff Picks: Jazz in July, Poetic Recovery, and Shakespeare Under the Stars
Jazz in July Week 2 All Star Faculty Concert // THURSDAY, July 19 It’s not truly July until UMass launches the Jazz in July program in Amherst. And The Jazz in July faculty concerts are always showstoppers. Greg Caputo, Steve Davis, Bob Ferrier, Catherine Jensen-Hole, Jeff Holmes, Steve Johns, Genevieve Rose, Felipe Salles, Christian Sands and Shigefumi “Fumi” Tomita are scheduled to take the stage at Bezanson Recital...
Podcast: Ashfield Resident Tom Leue Invents Heating System that Runs on Vegetable Oil
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Ashfield inventor Tom Leue. When making his own brand of biodiesel, an alternative fuel made from plant matter, he accidentally set fire to his workshop and burned it to the ground (hear about the fireball that ensued at minute 15). Still, his commitment to selling biodiesel (made by other people) has lasted 19 years. Now Leue has come up with an invention that will allow users to heat their...
Free Will Astrology: Advice from Kafka, Kahlo, and bodybuilder Kai Greene
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic.” Whenever that quote appears on the Internet, it’s falsely attributed to painter Frida Kahlo. In fact, it was originally composed by poet Marty McConnell. In any case, I’ll recommend that you heed it in the coming weeks. You really do need to focus on associating with allies who see the mysterious and lyrical best in you. I will also suggest that you...
House Sparrow on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
House Sparrow is an indie pop duo from the Berkshires that combines sleigh-bells and synth. Check out the band’s complete Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with House...
Staff Picks: Next Wave Stage, Artney Jackson, and violinist Kristin Lee
Next Wave Stage at Green River Fest // FRIDAY, July 13 Signature Sounds Recordings will continue its Next Wave Stage this year at the 2018 Green River Festival, highlighting up and coming teenage bands across the Pioneer Valley and northern Vermont. The lineup this year includes Amherst-based classic rock influenced band Glass House, indie pop/rock outfit Moxie from Brattleboro, VT, indie rock band Raspberry Jam from Greenfield, and...
VIDEO: House Sparrow on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
House Sparrow is an electronic indie pop duo with sleigh bells and synth. Check out a teaser of the group’s upcoming Advocate Sessions performance to be released on Friday.
Podcast: Beverly Ketch and Hannah Brookman talk about Greenfield art space Looky Here
Recently opened nonprofit artist space Looky Here in Greenfield is a place for workshops, art making, thrift shopping, and most things you can (or can’t) think of. Leaders Beverly Ketch and Hannah Brookman talk about how they got started, what to expect, and their new children’s TV...
Cinemadope: Mama Africa Miriam Makeba continues to inspire
When the world lost Miriam Makeba in 2008, we lost a great musical and political voice. The first African musician to become a solid international star, her powerful singing crossed national divides without ever losing touch with her South African roots — no mean feat, as she was banished from the country early in life, after starring in the 1959 documentary Come Back Africa, which turned a bright light on the harsh reality of...
Free Will Astrology: What’s the biggest lie in your life, Sagittarius?
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your key theme right now is growth. Let’s dig in and analyze its nuances. 1.) Not all growth is good for you. It may stretch you too far too fast — beyond your capacity to integrate and use it. 2.) Some growth that is good for you doesn’t feel good to you. It might force you to transcend comforts that are making you stagnant, and that can be painful. 3.) Some growth that’s good for you may...
Emma June on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Emma June is a singer-songwriter who performs folk opera songs on guitar with lush vocal duo harmonies. Check out her full Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Emma...
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: Rocky Horror, Twelfth Night, and Ashfield Lake House Anniversary Party
Rocky Horror Picture Show // SATURDAY, July 7 In 1975 something amazing happened: Rocky Horror Picture Show burst on the scene and life would never be the same again – especially for college kids who want to throw toast and toilet paper. On top it all, The Come Again Players present a shadow cast performance of the movie the first Saturday of every month! Audience participation makes this a spectacle not to be missed. South Hadley’s...
Valley Advocate Podcast: Artist Dara Herman Zierlein on cutting plastic out of her life
Dara Herman Zierlein made a choice to have an affect on the planet by eliminating plastic from her life. Even despite that decision, she sometimes does use plastic. But she holds onto it rather than throwing it away or recycling. She says that only about 9 percent of plastic that is sent to be recycled actually gets recycled. Zierlein is also an artist and her art tackles environmental issues, which was recently on display at the...
Free Will Astrology: Listen to your hives, Aquarius
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Twentieth-century French novelist Marcel Proust described nineteenth-century novelist Gustave Flaubert as a trottoire roulant, or “rolling sidewalk”: plodding, toneless, droning. Meanwhile, critic Roger Shattuck compared Proust’s writing to an “electric generator” from which flows a “powerful current always ready to shock not only our morality but our very sense of humanity.” In the coming weeks, I encourage...
Asia Mei on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Asia Mei is a Northampton-based singer-songwriter and virtuoso pianist with a dash of 1990s alt rock. Her complete Valley Advocate Sessions performance is available for viewing in the video below. Interview with Asia...
Bizarro Briefs: Keep your eyes off the road
A county coroner in Kentucky has been accused of working with at least two others — a retired police colonel and a current state police trooper — of illegally transporting a number of items. The most serious appeared to be $40,000 worth of illegally obtained weapons and ammunition, but the most eye-popping was a literal pair of eyeballs. Prosecutors allege the coroner, who is running to be re-elected as Coroner in Kentucky, took the...
VIDEO: Asia Mei on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Asia Mei is a Northampton-based singer-songwriter with virtuoso piano and a dash of 1990s alternative rock. Check out a teaser video for her Advocate Sessions video, which will be released this Friday.
Podcast: Undocumented immigrant Eduardo Samaniego discusses family separations
Eduardo Samaniego is an undocumented Hampshire College student turned immigrant rights activist at the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. Having arrived in Georgia at the age of 16, he graduated high school as student president, but was precluded from attending the University of Georgia because of his immigration status. Now in Massachusetts, Samaniego has been active in trying to get the state Legislature to pass an immigrant bill of...
Free Will Astrology: Even cigarette butts can be useful, Aquarius
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your best ideas and soundest decisions will materialize as if by magic while you’re lounging around doing nothing in a worry-free environment. So please make sure you have an abundance of relaxed slack and unhurried grace. Treat yourself to record-setting levels of comfort and self-care. Do whatever’s necessary for you to feel as safe as you have ever felt. I realize these prescriptions might...
Mamma’s Marmalade on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Mamma’s Marmalade is a jammy bluegrass group with old timey cheer. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Mamma’s...
VIDEO: Mamma’s Marmalade on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Mamma’s Marmalade is a a jammy bluegrass group with plenty of old timey cheer. Check out a teaser video of the band’s Advocate Sessions, which will be released this Friday.
Bizarro Briefs: Keep Your Eyes Off The Road
Keep your eyes off the road A county coroner in Kentucky has been accused of working with at least two others — a retired police colonel and a current state police trooper — of illegally transporting a number of items. The most serious appeared to be $40,000 worth of illegally obtained weapons and ammunition, but the most eye-popping was a literal pair of eyeballs. Prosecutors allege the coroner, who is running to be re-elected as...
Podcast: Beerhunter Hunter Styles and Beer Week co-founder Sally Noble talk beer
Advocate alumnus Hunter Styles, who still writes our Beerhunter column, and Sally Noble, co-founder of Western Mass Beer Week, tell us about the embarrassment of riches of beer we have in the Valley. Hear about Sally’s beer beginnings and the start of Western Mass Beer Week, of Hunter’s recent travels (and beer sampling) in Norway, and see whether the pair can convince Gina that beer is actually...
Free Will Astrology: Scorpio, Go play outside for a while!
ARIES (March 21-April 19): According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you have cosmic permission to enjoy extra helpings of waffles, crepes, pancakes, and blintzes. Eating additional pastries and doughnuts is also encouraged. Why? Because it’s high time for you to acquire more ballast. You need more gravitas and greater stability. You can’t afford to be top-heavy; you must be hard to knock over. If you would...
Lisa Marie Ellingsen on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Lisa Marie Ellingsen is a Northampton-based Americana singer-songwriter who’s a little bit folk, blues, rock, and country. Her full Advocate Sessions performance is now available to watch in the video below. Interview with Lisa Marie...
VIDEO: Lisa Marie Ellingsen on Advocate Sessions Friday
Check out a short teaser video of local Americana singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Ellingsen. Her full performance will be available...
Students ask the questions at Northampton High School event for state rep and senate candidates
“I am consistently inspired by the youth activists in this community,” said Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton in front of a room full of students, teachers, parents, and community members at the Northampton High School auditorium on June 13. Sabadosa, a candidate for the 1st Hampshire state Representative seat, was one of eight candidates to participate in a question-and-answer forum at the school where the questions were fielded by...
Podcast: Jennifer Levesque on music in the Valley and 10 years of Advocate cover designs
Jennifer Levesque brings the Valley’s music shows to life as the Advocate’s Valley Show Girl columnist. She’s also been designing the Advocate’s covers for more than 10 years. She tells us about her favorite Advocate issues and what’s going on in the Valley’s music scene, especially with new Valley Show Girl concerts starting this...
Free Will Astrology: Time to visit The Land of Sweet Nonsense, Pisces
ARIES (March 21-April 19): My Aries acquaintance Tatiana decided to eliminate sugar from her diet. She drew up a plan to avoid it completely for 30 days, hoping to permanently break its hold over her. I was surprised to learn that she began the project by making a Dessert Altar in her bedroom, where she placed a chocolate cake and five kinds of candy. She testified that it compelled her willpower to work even harder and become even...
Tundrastomper on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Tundrastomper is a DIY basement/ math rock band that excels at angular distorted experimental rock. Check out the band’s full Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with...
VIDEO: Tundrastomper on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions band is experimental math/basement rock group Tundrastomper. Check out a teaser video of the band’s upcoming Advocate Sessions video to be released this...
Northampton High School students to question candidates for state races
Northampton High School are organizing an event to put questions to students local candidates running for 1st Hampshire County state Representative and Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester state Senator. It will take place at the school’s auditorium at 380 Elm St. in Northampton on Wednesday, June 13, at 6 p.m. “In a year of high stakes midterms, people often forget about local races that also are immensely impactful,” said Tadea...
Bizarro Briefs: Lava S’mores Are Not Cool
Taking a break from posting about the volcanic doom on Hawaii, The U.S. Geological Survey’s Twitter account fielded this question: “Is it safe to roast marshmallows over volcanic vents? Assuming you had a long enough stick, that is? Or would the resulting marshmallows be poisonous?” The USGS replied, “Erm… we’re going to have to say no, that’s not safe. (Please don’t try!) If the vent is emitting a lot of SO2...