Articles
by Jack Brown | Jul 9, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
We often consider our visual artists in terms of their medium — a watercolorist, a sculptor, a portrait painter. But whatever their chosen tools, almost all artists share one thing that is so fundamental that we often overlook it: the gift of vision. And here I’m not...
by Rob Brezsny | Jul 8, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’re in the Land of Green Magic. That’s potentially very good news, but you must also be cautious. Why? Because in the Land of Green Magic, the seeds of extraneous follies and the seeds of important necessities both grow extra fast. Unless...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 8, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
“Who knew?” is the question in the air these days at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. For example: Who knew that many of the great Duke Ellington’s compositions were written by someone else? And who knew that the pious religious community known as Shakers had...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is singer-songwriter Pamela Means, who writes politically conscious roots music and jazz. Check out her full performance in the video below. Interview with Pamela Means:
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Brazilian folk-pop with Sessa at Historic Northampton // SATURDAY Historic Northampton will kick off its Parsons Lawn Concert Series with Brazilian folk-pop artist Sessa this Saturday, who will be accompanied with three vocalists and a percussionist. Sessa is a...
by From Our Readers | Jul 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this? Email...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 4, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
More than any other summer theater festival in these parts, Williamstown thrives on stars. For the theater it’s a sure-fire audience and income generator, but for the stars it’s an opportunity. Here they can dig into roles they might not otherwise be offered, and...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 3, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Sharon Lehmann, 69, was watching the news on TV at her home in Granby more than a month ago and saw a story about militia groups aiming guns at migrant families. She turned to her partner, Audrey Walker, 66, and said, “I can’t watch this. I just can’t do this anymore....
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 3, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
UFO abduction memorialized There’s now a historical landmark in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where two men claimed to be abducted by aliens near a river in southern Mississippi in 1973. The two men were said to have been on the shores of the Pascagoula River when aliens...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 3, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Independence Day is here again — the 243rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But as we celebrate the foundation of this country, it is difficult to ignore the human rights abuses being perpetrated in its name on our southern border. The...
by Will Meyer | Jul 2, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
Deerhoof has been making topsy-turvy, explosive rock music for over 25 years. Founded in the ‘90s, the group is still at it. They have released 15 albums, collaborated with countless musicians, and have inspired many more (myself included). The band will play Hawks...
by Monte Belmonte | Jul 2, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
Her shirt read “Thunder Cunt” as she sallied up to her bar at The Ashfield Lake House. She had the shirt printed because she says it is her “lifestyle brand.” Dre Rawlings is a nasty woman, in the best most badass way. In the way that would piss off the Commander-in...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 2, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Last weekend, Strident Theatre strode confidently onto the Valley stage. The brand-new company debuted at Smith College with The Final Say, a dramedy by local playwright Meryl Cohn. According to founder Susanna Apgar, who co-directs the show with Shakespeare &...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 1, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
Jennifer Levesque, the Valley Advocate’s art director, also writes columns for us. Recently, she wrote two hard-hitting pieces: one about her personal experience with abortion, and the other about gun violence response programs at her son’s school....
by Jack Brown | Jul 1, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
Since its inception in 2007, the Ashfield Film Festival has become an annual gathering point for film lovers of the Valley. With an emphasis on local filmmaking, the fall festival — co-founded by Ashfield Cultural Council chair Tamsen Merrill and film editor Harry...
by Rob Brezsny | Jul 1, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When the universe began 13.8 billion years ago, there were only four elements: mostly hydrogen and helium, plus tiny amounts of lithium and beryllium. Now there are 118 elements, including five that are key components of your body: oxygen,...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 29, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
When I was in England recently, I saw two shows at the country’s flagship playhouse, the National Theatre. One is a new play, the other a timely revival, both of them responding to current hot topics. Small Island, the premiere, reflects the crisis of...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jun 28, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, The V-Spot
Editor’s note: Sex and relationship advice columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks is currently on maternity leave. While she’s gone, we’re reprinting some of her best columns of the past several years, and are looking forward to her return in September. In the mean time,...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 28, 2019 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Featured, Music
Lush Honey is a and that makes funky soul and progressive rock ‘n’ roll. The band performed live at the Summit View in Holyoke during the 2019 Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll party.
by Katie Gartner | Jun 28, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
When I was expecting my son, I started to watch YouTube channels about traveling with kids. I felt a little smug sometimes watching a young child run happily through a World Heritage Site during a polished montage set to an indie track. “Oh, please,” I scoffed. “This...
by Our Readers | Jun 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Three reasons not to put a biomass burning plant in Springfield, and what to do about it In response to “Biomass isn’t Clean Energy: Springfield activists blast state plan at hearing,” published June 13-19, 2019. The state Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has its...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra at Hawks & Reed // FRIDAY, June 28 The Valley’s own premier guitar orchestra extraordinaire will be performing a show in Greenfield this Friday at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center. The guitar orchestra is made up of 15...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 26, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Last week, New England Public Radio published a report quoting multiple former employees of the Iron Horse Entertainment Group (IHEG) alleging labor violations, including improper payroll deductions (also known as wage theft), late paychecks, and failure to post...
by Laura Holland | Jun 26, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured
Aptly named and thoughtfully installed, The Picture Book Odyssey of Peter Sís (at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art through October 27), lets us follow the artist’s footsteps on a pathway that is anchored in fact but also spins off into fantasy. Born in...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 26, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Seal Researchers in Scotland have taught three gray seals to sing songs like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and the theme to “Star Wars.” Scientists at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland raised the trio of seals from birth in order to...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 26, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
Dave and Trumpy talk about this week’s weird news — stories about disembodied toes, Bill Cosby’s prison lecture series, bringing your daughter to a crime spree, and multiple stories about poop. Listen here: You can hear previous episodes of the...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jun 25, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
“Hey Levesque,” I was greeted while walking up to the entrance. “Hey Levesque,” I replied. Not too many people share my last name, but it just so happens one of the bartenders at the Tank in my hometown of Agawam, does. The Cheers in Hampden County, where everyone...
by Blaise Majkowski | Jun 25, 2019 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Featured, Film
Looks like Godzilla, king of the monsters is falling on hard times. Our reptilian friend’s new movie is having a hard time wooing audiences away from a flick about another prehistoric beast, sir Elton John. Even appearances by fellow cohorts Mothra, Rodan, and King...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 25, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
The best thing about summer theater in this region is its variety. Last weekend, for instance, I saw an Irish drama, an American musical and a world premiere. The premiere, at Barrington Stage Company, is a metaphor within a satire that becomes an indictment. America...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 24, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
When I was in London this month, I saw two Shakespeare plays. No, make that two and a half: the Bard’s most popular comedy, one of his least performed, and a new play in which he’s a character – and a plagiarist. Just a stroll along Thameside from the National...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 24, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
Lauren Simonds recently wrote a cover story for the Advocate, “An Old Stoner’s Guide to Modern Cannabis.” Here she sits down with editor Dave Eisenstadter on what research for the story was like, and also lamenting the time when stoners knew how to...
by Rob Brezsny | Jun 24, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here are your fortune cookie-style horoscopes for the months ahead. JULY: Discipline your inner flame. Use your radiance constructively. Your theme is controlled fire. AUGUST: Release yourself from dwelling on what’s amiss or off-kilter....
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jun 24, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, The V-Spot
Content note: This column talks about nonconsensual relationship dynamics. Hi Yana! I’m a pansexual woman currently in college. I had a really bad relationship for about three months, and I ended it about nine months ago. I struggle with depression, anxiety, and PTSD,...
by Jack Brown | Jun 24, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
The trope of the working-class-hero has long had a place in American music, but particularly so since Bruce Springsteen’s career began to take off in the mid-1970s. Things only got more blue around the collar when his megahit album, “Born in the U.S.A.,” was released...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Ch’Chunk! blends together swing, gypsy jazz, and Americana to create its own modern take on jazz and roots music. The band performed live at the Summit View in Holyoke during the 2019 Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll party.
by Connolly Ryan | Jun 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Poetry by Connolly Ryan To an Unidentified Sunset Soloist I can’t see who it is singing her little heart out, perseverating her sweet head off, up in the attic of a red maple tree, but whoever it is belting it out like that, like there is no known limit to the...
by Monte Belmonte | Jun 20, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
It’s all the same. Only the names have changed. Everyday, it seems we’re drinking rosé. Sometimes you tell the day by the bottle that you drink. And times when you’re all alone, all you do is think. About rosé. Also, it’s not all the same. New Jersey’s second most...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 20, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
Sam’s Folk Club: 1967 // FRIDAY You won’t need a TARDIS or a Delorean to travel back in time to the 1960s on Friday. The Shea Theater in Turners Falls and Eggtooth Productions will be hosting its swingin’ 1960s folk club as part of its Sam’s Club series. It’s a...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
One of the first things I noticed about Norway when I was there earlier this month – along with the brisk air, the clean streets, and the tall blondes (and taller blonds) striding along those streets – was the 19 hours of daylight. Not quite “midnight sun,” but it...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Dori Digenti does not know the criminal histories of her yoga students at the Hampden County Pre-Release Center. “To me, they’re participants in a yoga class,” said the founder and owner of Breathing Space Yoga & Mindfulness Studio in Holyoke. “They’re just who...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured
I was on a hike with a friend and former colleague in 2012 when I first seriously considered the idea the Advocate is now undertaking. As we talked, it didn’t take us long to get to our frustrations that so many journalistic organizations were on shaky financial...
by Chris Goudreau | Jun 19, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Definitely not “Saved by the Bell” A man from Vermont learned that looking up clips from 1990s sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and driving on the open road don’t exactly mix. The man sideswiped a police car while trying to find an episode of the TV show on the internet....
by Jack Brown | Jun 18, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
Living in the age of Instagram has meant — for better or for worse — that everyone is a photographer, or thinks they are. Which in the end has been a great win, I think, and one that has opened the door to creativity for an untold number of people who otherwise might...
by Will Meyer | Jun 18, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
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...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 18, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
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...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 17, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
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...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jun 17, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
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,...
by Rob Brezsny | Jun 17, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
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...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 14, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
by Our Readers | Jun 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
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...
by Jonathan Kermah | Jun 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Review
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...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jun 13, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
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,...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 13, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
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...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 12, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured
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...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 12, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, 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...
by Chris Goudreau and Dave Eisenstadter | Jun 12, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jun 11, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
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...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 11, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
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,...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 11, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
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...
