Articles
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 10, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
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...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 9, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
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...
by Blaise Majkowski | Apr 9, 2019 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Featured, Review
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...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 9, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
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...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 8, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, The V-Spot
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...
by Jack Brown | Apr 8, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
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...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 8, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
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...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
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:
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
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....
by Monte Belmonte | Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
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...
by Our Readers | Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
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....
by Advocate Staff | Apr 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
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...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 4, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
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,...
by Christin Howard | Apr 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Wellness
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...
by Roxann Wedegertner | Apr 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Review
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...
by Chris Goudreau & Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 3, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured
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...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 3, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 3, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
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....
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 2, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
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,...
by Jack Brown | Apr 2, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
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...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 1, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
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...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 1, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Two of the Five Colleges’ season-ending productions, both by award-winning women playwrights, hark back to moments in recent history that continue to reverberate. One takes place in a remote backwater, the other in the industrial heartland, but they share themes of...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 1, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I have a question I’ve been wondering about (okay, obsessing about!) and I do not think I am alone in this one: What does a man need to do about hair “down there”? I keep my pubic area trimmed but unsure what is the best and safest method for my scrotum. Any...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 1, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): A mushroom shaped like a horse’s hoof grows on birch trees in parts of Europe and the U.S. If you strip off its outer layer, you get amadou, spongy stuff that’s great for igniting fires. It’s not used much anymore, but it was a crucial...
by Will Meyer | Mar 29, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
One of the more difficult things about making music is the shape and form of the modern music industry. There are so many reasons why talented bands might develop a loyal and dedicated niche audience and never break through to larger success. At this point in time it...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 29, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Review
At first glance, Doris Madsen’s artwork seems to be a collection of slightly abstract paintings inspired by nature: a frigid island shore, an overhead bird’s eye view of Greenland, the stark Icelandic countryside, and a collection of pitcher plants. But on closer...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 29, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Plants of the Bible are a dream pop duo with synths and rich mellow vocal harmonies. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Plants of the Bible:
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured
Flat Earthers are arguably one of the easiest people to poke fun at. Raise your hand if the first time you heard about the group of people who still believe that the Earth is flat, you thought it was a joke. Well, those fine misinformed folks are planning a cruise...
by From Our Readers | Mar 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Welcome Back, Valley Advocate In response to “An Advocate History” and “Still at it After 45 Years,” published March 21 – 27, 2019: Thank you so much for becoming the Valley Advocate again. I had about given up on you as there was little of interest left, just...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
The NoHo Hoedown at the Iron Horse // FRIDAY The newly created Valley Twang Cooperative is bringing a night of local roots music to the Iron Horse Music Hall on Friday featuring three bands. There’s rockabilly/ country group Flathead Rodeo, Americana acoustic string...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Mar 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Each year, high school students across the country see uniformed members of the armed forces within school walls offering information on how to join up. But a local organization asks the question whether these soldiers are overselling a dangerous career path to an...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 27, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
I got an email from a PR firm this week with the subject line: “The Epidemic of Extreme Parenting: How to Self-Assess.” I would say it was an interesting coincidence that it appeared just before the launch of this column, but it isn’t really. When I became a dad early...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 27, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Following the Parkland shooting last year, I was inspired by the activism of many of the student survivors, who marched to their state capital and lobbied Washington for gun control. The Advocate did a story about how those students were inspiring students in our own...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 26, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I’m perplexed as to why, for the last 20 years, I start bawling like a baby when I masturbate and orgasm. It only happens when I envision my ex-lover, who I had a five-year extramarital affair with in the ‘90s. We were both musicians in a college town. We...
by Rob Brezsny | Mar 26, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Kermit the Frog from Sesame Street is the world’s most famous puppet. He has recorded songs, starred in films and TV shows, and written an autobiography. His image has appeared on postage stamps and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of...
by Jack Brown | Mar 26, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
With every March in the Valley comes a feeling of renewal — the Spring Bulb Show at Smith, that exquisite extra hour of daylight, a breeze that doesn’t slice through your very soul. And with that new sense of life comes the urge to get out and about, to emerge from...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 25, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Greetings from Toronto, where it’s still winter, the wind whipping in from Lake Ontario is keen and bracing, and so is the theater. I’ve seen two plays here, a one-man show and an eight-woman show, both of them the work of bi-cultural authors, performed in key venues...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is Americana, blues and jamming rock n’ roll band Rice: An American Band. Check out Rice’s performance in the video below. Interview with Rice: An American Band:
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 22, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Review
For the past year or so, the Deerfield Valley Art Association has had a gallery and gift shop at 105 Main Street in Northfield. Particularly at this time of year, downtown Northfield may offer more to those driving through than those who actually stop and walk around....
by Advocate Staff | Mar 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Get Out With Staff Picks, Staff Picks
Goblet and Jeopardy at The Perch // THURSDAY Mar. 21 Thrashy Thirsty Thursday! The top floor of the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield is a nice open spot for some pits. Western Mass bastard thrasher’s Goblet and Brattleboro’s thrash metalist’s...
by From Our Readers | Mar 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Hampshire College price tag comparable to most private institutions In response to: “Letters to the Editor: What’s missing from the Hampshire College discussion” (March 14-20, 2019): Hampshire College gives deep discounts and takes in diverse student pop. Hampshire...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
The first edition of the Valley Advocate was published on Sept. 19, 1973, with a cover story titled, “Prophet & Profit — ‘Spirit’ Dies,” about a large hippie commune in Leyden called “The Brotherhood of the Spirit,” which became defunct when more than half of them...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A new meaning for phone shield A 43-year-old Australian man may have his phone to thank for the fact that he was left with only a small cut on his chin after he came under attack by a man wielding a bow and arrow in rural New South Wales. Confronted with the bow and...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Astute readers will no doubt observe the “plus” sign after the number 45 on this week’s cover. That is us coming clean that, no, this is not exactly our 45th anniversary issue. We wanted to bring you something like Chris Goudreau’s vast history of the Advocate...
by Jennifer Levesque | Mar 19, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Review, Valley Show Girl
Adam Michael Kozak grew up in the ‘80s listening to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince and Aerosmith. When he was a child, his mother played the digital organ they had set up in their living room, which she mainly played Barbara Streisand and Andrew Lloyd Weber show...
by Monte Belmonte | Mar 19, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, Monte Belmonte Wines
“I think we’ve kind of created, like, a black barbershop type of community.” A black barbershop may not be one’s first impression when walking into the new wine shop, Shelburne Falls Cork, but that’s how renowned local chef and newly pinned sommelier, Michaelangelo...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 19, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Eight people are seated in a semi-circle at a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous. They are actually actors in a play, but though they’re not the recovering addicts they portray, each of them has a real-life connection to the nation’s — and the Valley’s — opioid crisis....
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 18, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hey Yana, A couple weeks ago my boyfriend and I decided we weren’t ready to have a baby just yet in our life, and we got an abortion. After previously going through one in an abusive relationship years ago, this time was much easier on me and he was very supportive...
by Jack Brown | Mar 18, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
Despite its proximity to the more famous haunts of Northampton, Franklin County has always had its own lively arts scene. The Green River Festival, celebrating 33 years in 2019, is perhaps the most recognizable name, but other area venues like the Montague Bookmill,...
by Rob Brezsny | Mar 18, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): During the coming weeks, everything that needs to happen will indeed happen only if you surprise yourself on a regular basis. So I hope you will place yourself in unpredictable situations where you won’t be able to rely on well-rehearsed...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 17, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Nick Payne’s time- and mind-bending play Constellations receives its local premiere this month at Gateway City Arts, a production of Ghost Light Theater, the Valley’s five-year-old purveyor of contemporary plays that speak to universal themes. The piece has made its...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 15, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer are The Green Sisters with their mix of old timey, folk, Celtic, and bluegrass music with lush four part harmonies. Interview with The Green Sisters:
by Will Meyer | Mar 15, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
Where have all the rock bands gone? Back in June, I wrote about multi-talented guitarist Wendy Eisenberg’s solo album Time Machine. Then she told me that she “just wants to be a good person and make very complicated music.” Still, since then, she’s been hitting the...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 14, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Staff Picks
Saturday, March 16 // The Mammals at Hinterland One of my favorite folk bands of all time, The Mammals, led by Ruth Ungar and Mike Merenda (Mike + Ruthy), will be playing at Valley View Farm in Haydenville this Saturday in collaboration with Laudable Productions. The...
by From Our Readers | Mar 14, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
What we are not talking about when we struggle over the possible loss of Hampshire College Everything I have read in the papers about the possible loss of Hampshire College has centered on the value of its creative approach to higher education, the progressive social...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
“One of my first memories of discrimination was when I was 10 or so,” said Gloria Graves Holmes, one of two co-facilitators of the Bridge 4 Unity project. “When I was standing on a corner, getting ready to cross the street, a white man drove by me and screamed ‘Go...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 13, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, Music, News
Last Saturday night after returning home from The Big Surf Dance, an indoor, 12-hour winter music fest supporting veterans transitioning into housing, at Hawks & Reed in Greenfield, I heard the sad news that Sam’s Pizzeria in Northampton was closing after 12 years...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 13, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
A year of free Taco Bell We have an update regarding the man and his dog featured in last week’s Bizarro Briefs who survived five days in a car in the snow on nothing but Taco Bell Fire Sauce packets. Taco Bell this week released an odd statement, both announcing that...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 12, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
The motto for the town of Dalton is “heaven in the heart of the Berkshires.” And much like heaven, a lot of people never make it there. With fewer than 7,000 residents, Dalton is a sort of transitional space in rural Massachusetts, cushioning quiet little towns like...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 11, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Scott Braidman is giving me a tour of his workplace, the Hadley headquarters of Happier Valley Comedy, of which he’s the artistic director. It’s a bright, welcoming space in the Mill Valley Commons, a mixed-purpose building fronted by Route 9 and backed by cornfields....
