Articles
Basemental: Q&A with dance-pop musician, drag performer and punk rocker La Neve
Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, guitarist for acclaimed punk band Downtown Boys, also performs as La Neve. While La Neve is a project that certainly shares the political concerns of Downtown Boys, it is stylistically different all together. Drawing on house, industrial, and...
Stagestruck: Grand Openings – Summer theaters busting out all over
The summer season has been slowly gaining momentum, and this week it explodes, with 10 shows in the Valley and Berkshires opening or already up and running. Among these are a pair of classic musicals, two uncommon love stories set in Ireland, a satirical look at...
Valley Advocate Podcast – David Daley
Author of the book “Ratf**ked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America’s Democracy,” David Daley has also served as the editor of Salon.com. He now calls the Valley home and has written several pieces looking closely at the campaign...
The V-Spot: We’ve Got Different Love Languages
Hi Yana! My partner and I have been together for three years. In general we have a really great relationship with solid long-term goals in common and enjoy each other in many ways. However, it seems like occasionally we go through long stretches of poor communication,...
Free Will Astrology: Time for a spanking, Aquarius
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Orfield Laboratories is an architectural company that designs rooms for ultimate comfort. They sculpt the acoustic environment so that sounds are soft, clear, and pleasant to the human ear. They ensure that the temperature is just right and...
Introducing: The Bizarro Briefs Podcast
Since the retirement of longtime “News of the Weird” columnist Chuck Shepherd, the Advocate has done “Bizarro Briefs,” our own collection of weekly weird news we find. Thanks to a partnership with Trumpy from Hits 94.3, with a similar...
Letters to the Editor: Burn biomass for the sake of the forest
Burn biomass for the sake of the forest In response to “‘Biomass Isn’t Clean Energy’: Springfield activists blast state plan at hearing,” published June 6 at valleyadvocate.com (see page 6). I’m Mike Leonard, Consulting Forester, North Quabbin Forestry. I have a BS...
Big Sav on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is rapper Big Sav, who performs auto-biographical rap that turns the pains of life into music. Check out his performance in the video below. Advocate Sessions interview with Big Sav: This week also featured an audio...
Q&A: Amherst Rapper Big Sav turns pain and probation into music (with audio)
Twenty-one-year-old Amherst rapper Tyson Burnett, known as Big Sav, has turned his previous encounters with the law into a promising future. His catchy melodies over upbeat trap piano keys disguise the pain-filled lyrics like “I been lonely hoping that my light ain’t...
Is Drag Really Just a Drag?: A Q&A with local genderflux drag performer Hors D’oeuvres
The month of June means that it’s officially LGBTQ+ Pride Season, with pride marches moving across the country from the east to the west coasts of the U.S. Here in our humble rainbow Valley, we got started early with Northampton’s pride march and event on May 4,...
Staff Picks: Drag Brunch, Breastless, Hip Hop and ramen,
Drag Brunch with Hors and Friends for Franklin County Pride at Hawks & Reed // SATURDAY You can support Franklin County Pride and your local drag queens on Saturday morning in downtown Greenfield with a special drag brunch featuring the always magnificent and...
Summer Arts Preview 2019
Summer is a time for the arts, especially here in the Valley. From the myriad theater groups who put on their summer plays to the collection of music festivals and outside performances that grace our part of the world while the sun shines high in the sky. Without...
Editorial: A Focus on Some Good Political News
Often this space is used to chide lawmakers for cowardice, stupidity, greed, or cruelty … and rightly so. But every so often, politicians get it right, and it’s important that we celebrate those times as well as bring attention to when our leaders fall short. So below...
Bizarro Briefs: A Cervine Intruder
A cervine intruder It was a tense moment for an eastern Texas woman. She realized that her Lufkin home had been illegally entered when she heard glass breaking, so she went to hide in a closet and called police. Police decided to surround the house after learning the...
Valley Show Girl: Play That Trippy Noise
When I opened the press release for this upcoming album release that was accompanied by a live set at Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA, there was one word that caught my interest: Mellotron. The instrument is similar in artistry and the complicatedness of a...
The Beerhunter: Black Rabbit Farm Adds Wild Ales, Grows Ingredients On Site
Lauren Kendzierski had enough on her plate. By the time she decided to turn her homebrewing habit into something commercial, she was already managing a 10-acre farm with an orchard and vineyard, running the popular food truck and catering business Chanterelle To Go,...
Stagestruck: Hot Topics – Summer theaters reflect the times
Hamlet, we recall, reminded the players visiting Elsinore that the theater’s job is to reflect “the very age and body of the time.” Times being what they are, it’s no surprise that quite a number of shows this summer do just that. The schedule in the Valley and...
Valley Advocate Podcast: Growing your own cannabis and learning about dosing
Cannabis expert and O Cannabis! columnist Karima Rizk talks with editor Dave Eisenstadter about two of her most recent stories with the Valley Advocate, one about her own cannabis growing experience and the other about finding your perfect dose. Listen below: You can...
V-Spot: The Love is There But the Sex Isn’t
Hi Yana, Over the course of the last couple months my partner’s sex drive has slowly fallen off, and is now creating tension in our relationship. We’ve been together for nine months, and true to form, the beginning was full of passion, romance, and sexual exploration....
Cinemadope: Combat Obscura, a marine’s film, offers a peek behind the curtain of war
It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone that the military mights of the world have long been concerned with what we’ve come to call “optics” — the way in which a given political action is perceived by a public that is surrounded on all sides by an endless media...
Free Will Astrology: Alien life is closer than you think, Aries
ARIES (March 21-April 19): We may not have to travel to other planets to find alien life. Instead of launching expensive missions to other planets, we could look for exotic creatures here on earth. Astrobiologist Mary Beth Wilhelm is doing just that. Her search has...
Jon Carroll & BraveSoul on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is Jon Carroll & BraveSoul, who is a two-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter making R&B with soulful melodies and an inventive spirit. Interview with Jon Carroll:
Letters to the Editor: ‘Everyone should march for climate, for justice, and for women’s rights’
‘Everyone should march for climate, for justice, and for women’s rights’ In response to “Between the Lines: Looking to the Unexpected on Climate Change Solutions,” published May 30 – June 5, 2019. Here on the eve of my 65th birthday it seemed appropriate to send...
‘Biomass Isn’t Clean Energy’: Springfield activists blast state plan at hearing
Activists, elected officials, and concerned residents packed a June 5 Department of Energy Resources (DOER) hearing in Springfield on a state plan to open up state renewable energy subsidies to plants that burn biomass — mostly wood chips, wood pellets, and other wood...
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: Ona Canoa, Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, Urinetown, and Trash Talks
Ona Canoa’s “Resonate” show at Pushkin Gallery // SATURDAY Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center is starting a new “Resonate” series, which takes place in the three-story marble building at Pushkin Gallery in downtown Greenfield. Western Mass folk trio Ona Canoa is...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Belly laughs from Wine Country on Netflix, but no wine info
“This one’s good, what’s it called again?” “White wine.” “Freakin’ LOVE it.” Netflix and chill? Great. Netflix and wine and chill? Even better. Wine Country on Netflix and wine and chill? It makes for a nice evening. You may get a good laugh watching Wine Country, but...
Western Mass Beer Week is Back! Here’s what’s happening
In the Advocate’s monthly craft beer column The Beerhunter, I keep my finger on the pulse of local craft beer business. The column began in 2014. From day one, I had plenty of little dramas and lucky breaks to cover, from small-business zoning woes to creative...
Bizarro Briefs: Swooping to the Rescue
Swooping to the rescue The robot-controlled cameras that film us at all times waiting for us to mess up so we can be fined or arrested have spawned a new genre of Bizarro Brief: the bird photobomb as savior. One such 1984-like surveillance device in western Germany...
Review: ‘Daydreaming’ at the Elusie Gallery
The work of two artists are on display now through June 30 at Easthampton’s Elusie Gallery in an exhibit titled “Daydreaming,” which features surrealistic illustrated pieces by Samson E. King with images of nature and everyday objects colliding in a kaleidoscope...
O Cannabis: Finding Your Perfect Dose
On May 20, three adults collapsed in a Cape Cod restaurant after trying edibles for the first time and apparently took a relatively high dose. One woman fainted and her two companions were soon lying semi-conscious on the ground. While the unfortunate incident is not...
Basemental: DIY Dystopia — A tech start-up sees house shows as ‘the next big thing’
Imagine it’s the year 2020 and you get invited by a friend to a local house show. The catch: you don’t know who the performers will be and you don’t know where it will be located until the day of the show. You must apply in advance to even purchase a ticket and then...
‘Stupid and Irresponsible’: Activists speak out against burning biomass in Springfield
Around 2009, Palmer Renewable Energy planned to create a $150 million 42-megawatt biomass energy plant in East Springfield at 1000 Page Blvd., a project that local environmental activists thought was scrapped two years ago. Now, a decade since the plant was proposed,...
Stagestruck: Classics Revisited – Masterpieces coming to summer stages
In a season studded with world premieres (five at Williamstown Theatre Festival alone and three at Barrington Stage Company, for example), I’m equally struck by some of the revivals coming up in the Valley and Berkshires this summer. I don’t mean chestnuts from the...
Podcast: Maureen O’Reilly on the Holyoke Care Center college programs and trash buster John Coughlin
We’re relaunching the Valley Advocate Podcast! Last year, we had a good run partnering with Amherst Media to produce video podcasts. Now we’re back both with audio-only and video versions! Up first is guest Maureen O’Reilly, who talks about her...
V-Spot: How Do I Have Group Sex, Properly?
Hello! You’ve probably heard this question before, but how do you approach the topic of group sex with people who you think might be down? I have had a few scenarios happen organically, and been approached myself, but I’m scared of seeming like a creep (for example, a...
Free Will Astrology: Who needs credentials, Aquarius?
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I don’t think we were ever meant to hear the same song sung exactly the same way more than once in a lifetime,” says poet Linh Dinh. That’s an extreme statement that I can’t agree with. But I understand what he’s driving at. Repeating...
Cinemadope: Neither Wolf Nor Dog at the Bing
The Bing Arts Center building, down on Sumner Avenue in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, has had its share of ups and downs over the years. It started life as Kossaboom’s Service Station a century ago, and filled tanks for a few decades before a reconfiguration...
Lady Jane on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is folk-rock singer-songwriter Lady Jane, who combines melancholic melodies with lyrics that pull on your heart strings. Interview with Lady Jane:
Letters to the Editor: Abortion Should Not Be Law of the Land
Abortion Should Not Be Law of the Land In response to “If It’s Not Your Body, It’s Not Your Business,” published May 23-29, 2019. I have never responded to any of the numerous far left pieces I read in the Advocate but this one demands a rebuttal. Ms. Levesque states...
Valley Show Girl: STRONG & Pleasant This Way Comes
Festival season is among us! The Valley is chock full of them all summer long and into fall. There is a new one, however, that has hopes of becoming a bi-annual festival in Downtown Northampton, The STRONG and Pleasant Music Festival. Carla Racine, the woman behind...
Editorial: Just Impeach Him Already!!
Honestly, I was not among those who thought the Mueller report would ignite impeachment proceedings to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. I did follow along with sickening dismay at news reports of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation, but I doubted...
Stagestruck: The Flamingo Kid cruises into Hartford
I missed The Flamingo Kid when the Garry Marshall movie came out in 1984, but I recently caught up with it. It’s a coming-of-age story that takes place in the summer of 1963, the era of Marshall’s TV series Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Although it was...
Two Lyrical, Soulful Spitters: A Q&A with Springfield hip-hop artists T’Swan and Fabeyon
Rappers T’Swan and Fabeyon are hoping to mold a hip-hop music scene in their hometown of Springfield. Their sound — potent lyrics over soulful boom bap instrumentals — is more comparable to that of New York legends like Fat Joe than more simplistic trap artists...
Staff Picks: Global Groove Fest, Dissident Voices concert, Bee Fest
Global Groove Fest // FRIDAY Multi-instrumentalist Matthew King organized a mini festival celebrating the musical roots of Caribbean culture. King’s musical project, soulful fusion band TapRoots, are slated to perform. Also on board to perform, the Valley’s ska jazz...
Rising Above Expectations: Teen moms, struggling students get degrees through Holyoke’s Care Center
Julisa DeLeón, 26, has a love of learning and a long-term goal of becoming a therapist, but she’s faced obstacles. A lifelong Holyoke resident, she graduated Holyoke High School in the spring of 2010 and later that fall began as a 17-year-old freshman at Newbury...
Editorial: Looking beyond recycling for climate change solutions
Last week an item in the Advocate’s calendar was a “climate crisis grief-sharing gathering” in Northampton. The description read as follows: “Home gathering to share grief, fear, anxiety, despair, and anger about the climate crisis.” Participants were encouraged to...
Clueless Parent: Goodbye Wonderland, there’s a new ALICE around
Since childhood, any time I had heard “Alice,” I’d immediately go to Wonderland. The thought of curious Alice in her babydoll dress, black Mary Jane shoes, and matching headband falling into a rabbit hole sent happiness vibes straight to my brain. The memory of...
Bizarro Briefs: Woody, is That You?
Woody, is That You? The New York City Police Department recently used a photo of actor Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, HBO’s first season of True Detectives, Natural Born Killers) to catch a beer thief who happened to look a lot like the well-known actor. The police...
V-Spot: Am I Failing At Polyamory?
Dear Yana, My past two relationships have both been non-monogamous. In both, I felt open (even excited) to communicate about my other hookups and sweeties with my more settled partners. I always made clear with my settled partners my need for transparency in regards...
Cinemadope: The Real Story of Nureyev
It was a scene straight out of a paranoid thriller: 1961, a Paris airport, the KGB circling ever closer around a famous Russian, bent on closing the net around their prey. A waiting plane destined for Moscow. At the last moment, a dash for freedom — with the help of...
Free Will Astrology: Sing 1000-year-old songs, Pisces
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks it will make good sense for you to travel down winding paths replete with interesting twists and provocative turns. The zigzags you’ll be inspired to pursue won’t be inconvenient or inefficient, but rather will be...
Stagestruck: Summer Theater Preview – New & Different
I’m looking at my summer theater calendar and counting over 60 productions due up over the next three lively months in the Valley and beyond. Some dozen world premieres, along with even more regional premieres, stand alongside classics from Ibsen to Albee, not to...
Stagestruck on Broadway: Family Squabbles – the Clintons and the Lears
Two plays now on Broadway for limited runs, a world classic and a world premiere, revolve around fractured families whose dynastic dreams turn sour. One involves the ambitious daughters of an English king, the other the ambitious wife of a former U.S. president....
Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks, which combines classic country and roots rock n’ roll with a Cajun groove. Check out the band’s full performance in the video below. Interview with Wild Bill and the Flying...
UMass activists, Speaker DeLeo, accuse one another of ‘Trumpian tactics’ in exchange on education affordability
Activists with PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts), accused Massachusetts Speaker Robert DeLeo of “name calling and spreading misinformation” following a tweet from DeLeo stating that the activists had used “Trumpian...
Basemental: For the Love of Buskers
As the weather warms up and the sun comes out, musicians flock to Main Street, opening their cases to busk. I have lived many downtown Northampton lives — as a busker, in food service, as a journalist for The Shoestring reporting on Northampton politics, to name a...
Letters to the Editor: Support Refugee Resettlement Efforts in the Pioneer Valley
Support Refugee Resettlement Efforts in the Pioneer Valley In 2017 there were 68.5 million people that were forcibly displaced and since then that number has only been growing, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). Of that number of...
Northampton Commission Recommends Voting Age of 16 and Ranked Choice Voting
In future Northampton municipal elections anyone 16 years or older might be able to cast a vote for their top candidate and also rank their second or third choices, too. At its May 21 meeting, the city’s Charter Review Commission voted in favor of moving forward four...
Staff Picks: X, veteran poetry, Chris Goudreau, and free burgers
X at Gateway City Arts // SATURDAY Legendary punk band X is heading to Gateway City Arts in Holyoke this weekend. Never heard of X? Get ready to hear one of the most influential first wave punk bands of the late 1970s, which continues to play songs new and old to...E-Edition
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