Articles
Mini Bottles — MEGA MESS: Agawam man on a daily quest to get trash off the streets
A stream runs adjacent to a package store in Agawam. John Coughlin isn’t sure it’s legal for us to be there, but he wants to show me something. “Look at the nip bottles. Look at them. They’re everywhere,” Coughlin says. Small, smashed plastic bottles are mixed into...
Guest column: Richard Neal Auctioning Away Our Seat In Congress
Three weeks after U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, won his 16th term in Congress last November, he threw himself a giant weekend celebration. You probably didn’t get an invitation. Instead, according to the narrative that emerges from Neal’s Federal Election...
Data-focused presenters explain how numbers can be used to fight drugs
Bumped to the early hour of 7 a.m. because of scheduling rearrangements forced by President Trump’s mid-day keynote at the RX Drug & Heroin Summit, Hampshire HOPE’s Michele Farry’s presentation nevertheless drew a crowd of 75 people eager to hear about the...
Amherst Canvassing Director Says She Was Fired For Supporting Her Staff
The former director of the Amherst office of for-profit organization Grassroots Campaigns Inc., which raises money for progressive nonprofit organizations, says her employment was terminated earlier this month after she instituted policies she believed supported her...
Bizarro Briefs: Little League, Big Problems
Police in Dunedin, Florida, are looking for a man who stole $250 from a Little League concession stand who was wearing nothing but a ballcap and gloves when he was captured on video. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says the naked burglar also caused more than...
Clueless Parent: Surviving ‘It’s a Phase’
After his evening bath, my 2-year-old son entered the living room with a delighted smile on his face. My husband trailed cheerfully behind him, having successfully accessed our son’s figurative reset button. A bath is one of the few things that can put our child in an...
Q&A: Murder By Death Coming to Holyoke
Louisville, Kentucky’s Murder By Death are bringing their indie Americana rock to us here in Western Mass, and I’m super stoked! Their sound is strong and hearty, dark and transformative. There are hints of Nick Cave, Johnny Cash and Modest Mouse if you needed...
Local drug response program featured in national drug summit
At the opening plenary on the first day of the RX Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Hampshire County’s Drug Addiction Response Team program was among nine initiatives around the country spotlighted as promising community responses in the fight against...
Stagestruck: Community Colleges Get in on the Act
I often write in these pages about theater at the Five Colleges, all of which have robust degree programs and busy production seasons. But I don’t pay as much attention to the Valley’s other academic theaters as they deserve, and I’m going to partially correct that...
Local delegation hopes to learn — and teach — at nation drug abuse summit
The first time Northampton Police Officer Adam Van Buskirk participated in the RX Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit two years ago, he returned to NPD and kicked the city’s Drug Addiction and Recovery Team into high gear. Known as the DART program — and now replicated in...
The V-Spot: I’m Just Not Jealous and My Partner is Pissed
Hi Yana!! I’m 19 years old and I recently ended my first really serious relationship that lasted about a year. A big reason we ended it is that I felt a little restless and wanted to explore an open relationship. I did a lot of research and we both felt comfortable...
Cinemadope: A Woman’s World
There were always a lot of women in my family. When I think back to my childhood, to family cookouts and graduations, to birthdays and funerals, it is always the aunts and grandmothers that rule my remembered roosts. They made sure everyone was fed, slipped the...
Free Will Astrology: Learn from ‘Cards Against Humanity,’ Aries
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the U.S., the day after Thanksgiving typically features a spectacular shopping orgy. On “Black Friday,” stores sell their products at steep discounts and consumers spend their money extravagantly. But the creators of the game Cards...
Stagestruck: Angles and Aliens — Three productions take a slanted view of our world
These are precarious days, observes Peter Schumann, founder and director of Bread & Puppet Theater. The social order, the democratic contract and the earth itself are tottering from unprecedented stresses. Bread & Puppet’s Diagonal Life: Theory and Praxis,...
Jennifer Stuart on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is Jennifer Stuart who play talking folk music about love, life, and poetry. Interview with Jennifer Stuart:
Back Talk: Support Forestry in Massachusetts
Support Forestry in Massachusetts In response to “Hey! DCR! Leave Those Trees Alone,” published April 11-17. The extent of exaggeration and distortion by the anti-forestry protesters in Wendell is truly astounding. I have a degree in Forestry from UMass and over 30...
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: Christa Joy & Rosie Porter, Weege & the Wondertwins/ The Screaming Hearts, and Shakespeare’s Birthday Bash
Christa Joy & the Honeybees / Rosie Porter & the Neon Moons at the Ashfield Lake House // SATURDAY, 4/20 Two great local country-folk singers will be performing at the Ashfield Lake House this Saturday from 8 to 11 p.m. Both Christa Joy and Rosie Porter are...
The Human Tragedy of ‘Lost Girls’
The artwork of Zitong (Ann) Xu blends myth, magic, and the fantastical together to tell human stories about sorrow for “Lost Girls” at the Barnes Gallery at Leverett Crafts & Arts through the month of April. With lifelike haunting faces of women combined with...
Stagestruck: Shakespearean Trifecta
It’s the Bard’s birthday next week, and three shows on area stages are celebrating it. (Shakespeare’s actual birthdate is unknown, but it was sometime around April 23, 1564, and since he died on April 23, 1616, that symmetry has become traditional.) This weekend and...
An Old Stoner’s Guide to Modern Cannabis
I’m not sure I’m ready for modern cannabis. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for legal weed — for medical purposes and for grown-ass adult consumption (stay in school, kids, and just say no). As a young adult in my 20s and 30s, I indulged regularly. I inhaled frequently....
Editorial: Human Support for Striking Stop & Shop Workers
Since Thursday, April 11, Stop & Shop workers have been on strike, picketing what their union says is an unfair contract deal with owners of the grocery store chain. Hanging in the background of this dispute is one of the great demons of employment today — robots....
Bizarro Briefs: Turtle Power!
A man from Florida (yes, it’s one of those Bizarro Briefs) who calls himself “the saint” threatened to unleash the potent power of his turtle army to destroy people in the town of Indialantic, according to the town’s police department. The 61-year-old Florida...
O Cannabis: How To Grow Your Own Weed Outside
The legalization of adult-use cannabis in Massachusetts has ushered in a brave new world for adult past times, including a first for many of us — the opportunity to legally grow cannabis outdoors. Massachusetts state law allows for adults to cultivate up to six plants...
Valley Show Girl: The Valley’s Own Supergroup
A little bit country, a little bit psychedelic rock and a lot of heart and soul. Valley supergroup Opal Canyon debut their album Beauty and Loss this month. Valley veteran musicians Debra DeMuth, Dave Houghton, Ray Mason, Bob Hennessy, and Jason Smith joined forces to...
Monte Belmonte Wines: An Unscientific Blind Taste Test
“Why we can’t tell good wine from bad,” The Atlantic, published October 28, 2011 “Does all wine taste the same?” The New Yorker, published June 13, 2012 “Wine tasting: it’s junk science” The Guardian, published June 22, 2013 “The legendary study that embarrassed wine...
Extravaganja Organizers Seeking New 2020 Venue Due to Age Restriction
After a forced move from the Amherst Common to Northampton in 2016, this could be the last year that political rally/festival Extravaganja will be held at the Three County Fairgrounds. The reason: the student-led University of Massachusetts Amherst Cannabis Reform...
V-Spot: How Do I Help My Partner Without Being His Healer?
Dear Yana, My new reciprocated crush is terrified of and obsessed with sex. He hasn’t had many good experiences, and I’m excited to potentially be a part of his new, positive experiences. But I’m also nervous and feel a lot of pressure to navigate his sexual trauma....
Cinemadope: The Biggest Little Farm at Amherst Cinema
Spring in the Pioneer Valley always brings with it the sweet reminder of how lucky we are to be surrounded by so many working farms. Drive down just about any road that leads into or out of one of our bigger towns, and you’re sure to coast by a few coolers with “Fresh...
Free Will Astrology: You’ll Soon Transcend Jane Austen, Sagittarius
ARIES (March 21-April 19): French writer Simone de Beauvoir sent a letter to her lover, Aries author Nelson Algren. She wrote, “I like so much the way you are so greedy about life and yet so quiet, your eager greediness and your patience, and your way of not asking...
Dave Dersham on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Dave Dersham is a wordsmith who performs ambient folk and Americana songs. Check out his music on this week’s Advocate Sessions video. Interview with Dave Dersham:
Poetry: Gentleness on the Heartening Prowl
Some moss and meltwater flashing in the placid gulch. The delicate theatrics of any flower’s mouth. All the tranquil angles quilted into a female face. The hand that was made to touch the saddest parts of trees. Where does gentleness go when softness shuts...
Basemental: The Flywheel is an Idea Worth Celebrating
The Flywheel celebrates its 20th birthday this month. In 1999, the Flywheel launched in a former cabinet shop in Easthampton — hosting shows and rousing rabble. The thought that the all-volunteer collective show space would enter a second decade, let alone a third,...
Staff Picks: Kalliope Jones & Moving Day, Zines and Punk at Flywheel, Revolutionary re-enactors in Deerfield
Kalliope Jones & Moving Day at the Stone Church // FRIDAY, April 12 Two great local bands and past Advocate Sessions groups will be performing at the Stone Church in Brattleboro this Friday. Kalliope Jones is a teenage post-rock group with rich vocal harmonies and...
Bizarro Briefs: Don’t rob cars in jail parking lots
Don’t rob cars in jail parking lots After spending time in jail on grand theft charges, a Florida man found himself again in lockup only 15 minutes after being released. The 37-year-old man was seen “acting suspicious and checking vehicle doors” in the parking lot of...
Letters to the Editor: Peace through music
A message best received through music “The Okee Dokee Brothers” wrote and perform the song: Somos Amigos (we’re friends). The video accompanying the tune showcases the duo joined by four other Mexican musicians standing on a bridge in which one might assume that...
Stagestruck: ‘Death of a Salesman’ and ‘The Tattooed Man Tells All’
Two plays coming to area campuses this week and next have starkly different, but equally pessimistic takes on life and death. Death of a Salesman, at Springfield College, finds tragedy in an ordinary life, while The Tattooed Man Tells All, at Smith College, draws...
Hey! DCR! Leave Those Trees Alone!
The road into Wendell State Forest was frozen solid with six-inch ruts formed the week before by vehicles navigating what must have been a muddy slog caused by yet another change in the weather. It’s said if you don’t like the weather in New England just wait a...
Woman accuses Hadley Police of discrimination, mishandling her case
The first time Carmen Allison’s things were taken from a storage unit at Stuff-It Storage in Hadley was in the summer of 2015. She had recently lost her job as a caretaker in Amherst and was away for a few months to look for work in New Jersey. She reported the items...
Editorial: Half-baked Plan Not Good Enough for Hampshire
Although the future of Hampshire College still remains uncertain, there’s a lot to be said for the strong level of support for the experimental 1960s-established college among Valley residents, alumni, students, faculty, and staff in advocating for an independent...
The Beerhunter: The Gluten-Free Beer Problem
Billy had an innocent question, but he should have known what to expect when he posted in a local craft beer Facebook group in December. “My buddy is gluten free,” he wrote. “Need some good beers for him.” A few group members responded in good faith. More than a few...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: Ants
Flashback: Ten years ago, the morning after Christmas. True story. I am on the john at my sisters house when a car barreling down the road hits a utility pole, frying every appliance in the house, including a TV/DVD combo I just received as a present. The car then...
Stagestruck: New Kid on the Block
There’s a new theater company in the Valley, with a kick-ass name and no less a purpose than helping to “undo established hierarchical structures and their attendant damage.” It’s called Strident Theatre, and its vociferous founder is actor/director/playwright Susanna...
V-Spot: I Caught My BF on Grindr
Hi Yana! I’ll just dive right in — it’s come to my attention my boyfriend has Grindr on his phone. He was talking to multiple people, sending scandalous pictures, and making plans to have sex. We’ve talked about this and he says it’ll never happen again and he’s...
Cinemadope: Is Hellboy actually a Western?
The tropes of the American Western have had a surprisingly wide influence. Its heady mix of self-sufficiency and violence, often presented as a necessary but natural manifestation of a hero’s morality, has spread like seeping blood into nearly every kind of popular...
Free Will Astrology: Libra, take the advice of Ovid … and Pat Benatar
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Qing Dynasty controlled China from the mid-seventeenth century to the early twentieth century. It was the fifth biggest empire in world history. But eventually it faded, as all mighty regimes do. Revolution came in 1911, forcing the last...
Julian Sherwood on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Julian Sherwood performs jazzy acoustic indie folk-rock with psychedelic riffs. Check out his music on this week’s Advocate Sessions video. Interview with Julian Sherwood:
Stagestruck: Imperfect “Nonsense”
My brother is the world’s biggest P.G. Wodehouse fan. Well, maybe not the biggest — he’s got legions of competitors for that title — but big enough to have come up from his home in New Jersey to accompany me to the American premiere of a new Wodehouse-derived play....
Monte Belmonte Wines: Blue is NOT the New Pink
Amy McMahan, co-owner of Mesa Verde in Greenfield, is one of the most intellectually curious people I know. And her curiosity guides her passion for wine. The last time I wrote about Mesa Amy in this column, it was when she showed up to my house with four bottles of...
Back Talk: Non-violence belongs in schools more than military
Non-violence belongs in schools more than the military In response to “Is High School Too Young for Military Recruitment?” published March 28 – April 3, 2019: The Soviet Union had its Young Pioneers, Hitler’s Germany had its Hitler’s Youth, the U.S. has JrROTC....
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: DakhaBrakha at Gateway City Arts, Mini Golf and Cocktails, and Plants of the Bible Release Show
DakhaBrakha @ Gateway City Arts // TUESDAY, April 9 When I got the press release for this show a couple weeks ago, I was immediately intrigued by their name and their look. World music quartet, DakhaBrakha from Kiev, Ukraine, are bringing their unique style to Western...
Stagestruck: 25 Years on the Edge
In 1994, Stacy Klein moved her adventurous company, Double Edge Theatre, from Boston to a former dairy farm in rural Ashfield, and started milking the Muse. A quarter-century later, the 100-acre spread is home to a resident company of artists and a hub of visceral,...
Bringing Homeopathy Out of the Shadows
You’ve probably heard of homeopathy, a popular yet controversial alternative medicine practiced all over the world. But, besides being a hot button topic, what exactly is homeopathy and how does it work? Abby Beale, a professional classical homeopath practicing in...
Reading His Own CIA File‘Left, Gay & Green’ autobiography a coming-of-age story amid turbulence
Born a red diaper baby in, of all places, Liberty, N.Y., and raised on a hardscrabble poultry farm owned by his American Communist parents, Royalston resident Allen Young’s life as it’s portrayed in his new autobiography, Left, Gay & Green: A Writer’s Life, has...
Valley Advocate Spring Arts Preview 2019
Welcome to the Valley Advocate’s 2019 spring arts preview. Inside this collection of a dozen arts events happening across the Pioneer Valley, you’ll find poetry readings, dance performances, live local music shows, a DIY literary festival, important filmmaking, and...
Bizarro Briefs: Little Debbie Getaway
For the love of Debbie A man from Elmira, N.Y., has been charged with a felony crime after stealing a Little Debbie snack cakes delivery truck. Did he do it for the sweet, sweet chocolate cakes? No. He wanted to visit his friends. Twenty-minutes after allegedly...
Editorial: Policing the Police in Springfield
Last week, 14 Springfield police officers were indicted by a Worcester-based grand jury. It was in connection with a 2015 alleged assault on four people following a disagreement at a city bar. Some are charged with assault and battery, and others for covering it up....
Valley Show Girl: Soulful Euphoria
Eu·pho·ri·a – noun; a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. Westfield’s soulful rock quartet, The Screaming Hearts, are in the process of uniquely releasing a collection of songs that will eventually be compiled into an album. Conducting,...
Cinemadope: Dear Genre
Genre films are a bit like the snack food of the cinematic universe. Something of a guilty pleasure, often consumed late at night, and each with its own diehard fans. These are the films that almost never seek to be all things to all people, but instead deliver an...
Q&A with Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes: Dealing With a Dismantled Reality
For more than two decades Of Montreal frontman, songwriter, and singer Kevin Barnes, based in Athens, Georgia, has been a musical chameleon; starting out with psychedelic indie pop before moving on to a wide range of other genres such as synth-driven electronic pop...E-Edition
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