Articles
by Chris Goudreau | Feb 19, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
For three years, since China instituted stricter purity standards in the recyclable materials they accept, a single piece of paper has shielded most Western Mass communities from the higher price of recycling experienced in much of the country: a multi-year contract...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 19, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Tactical forces are descending upon Massachusetts. What is the existential threat that brought this about? A hunt for the undocumented among us. WBUR reported last week that “SWAT-like immigration officers” are in Boston, and possibly will be coming to other parts of...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 18, 2020 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured
The Bite of a Yogi A 46-year-old Maryland woman is charged in court with second-degree assault after she allegedly bit a man’s neck for peeing on her yoga mat in late January. The story appeared in the Baltimore Sun last week. Although there are still details to come...
by Jennifer Levesque | Feb 18, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Arizona-based metal band Soulfly are coming back to our local music scene here in the Valley on their latest tour. They were here in 2014 when they played to a complete packed house at Maximum Capacity in Chicopee. The same venue under a different name, Poor Richards,...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 18, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
In 1981, Ota Shogo had a vision: “A broken faucet center stage. A thin line of water from the spout. The sound of water. A variety of people come by, approach, touch the water, and pass on. In this composition, silence breathes as living human time, not as form.” From...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 17, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Writer’s note: In this week’s column, we talk about childhood sexual abuse. Hi Yana, I’m a childhood sexual abuse survivor and I worked really hard to put my mental and emotional well-being back in order. I met my husband during the initial stages of my healing and he...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 14, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is gospel-tinged vintage soul and bluesy rock group Sister Jawbone. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Sister Jawbone:
by Advocate Staff | Feb 13, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Staff Picks
Shea Lobby Series Presents: Sweet Lightning, Wallace Field, and Hawthorn // SUNDAY Boston-based duo Hawthorn, made up by Heather Scott and Taylor Holland, blend their voices expertly in arrangements that tackle themes of maternity, divorce, parenting, and healing from...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 12, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Brian Stanton, an aspiring actor, is doing a class exercise based on Oedipus Rex, and he freezes. The story of the Greek king who’s tragically ignorant of his real parents strikes too close to home. Brian, like Oedipus, was adopted, and like Oedipus he’s both eager...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 12, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Democrats, and truly all Americans outside of the president’s devoted base, have now been spending years trying to think up who best to challenge Trump to vote him out of office. The editorial staff at the Valley Advocate is unanimous. Our choice is Vermont Senator...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 12, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
For better or worse, craft beer fans tend to think like tourists, with an eager eye toward the next brewery opening and a fondness for day-long taproom treks. I can understand the excitement, given how quickly the American craft beer map continues to grow. As I noted...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 11, 2020 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured
You’ve Got (lots of) Mail In what we can only imagine was a scene reminiscent of Harry Potter’s acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a couple from Ohio received 55,000 identical letters. But the contents of those letters — and the reason there...
by Jack Brown | Feb 11, 2020 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
I still remember that day, bright with promise, just after the new year had dawned, when my children finally had to go to school again. Don’t get me wrong, I love the little scamps more than I’ve ever loved anything on this earth, but two weeks of holidays, sugar, and...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 10, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
The Advocate took home four awards at this year’s New England Better Newspaper Competition, including a first place award for a front page design by Jennifer Levesque. The winning design of the March 28 Valley Advocate earlier this year featured the cover story...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 10, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I’m currently one year and six months deep into a heterosexual relationship with my boyfriend. I’ve long regretted not asking for an open relationship from the beginning. I’m bisexual and I’ve always been in monogamous relationships. For the past two to three...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 10, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
The name of the Performance Project’s youth program, First Generation, comes from its entrance requirement. All the participants identify as being a “first” in their family – the first to grow up in this country, to graduate high school or go to college, to be...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 7, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions artist is Caylin Lee, a singer-songwriter who writes modern country with slice of life pop wisdom. Check out her Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Caylin...
by From Our Readers | Feb 7, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we now living under the rule of an authoritarian style government? Do we have a supreme leader who rules as a dictator want-to-be? Has our government become subject to fascism? Have we sacrificed freedom for a...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 7, 2020 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured
A Drug Lord’s Zoo There likely wouldn’t be hippopotamuses living in Columbia if it weren’t for Pablo Escobar. After his death in 1993, the drug lord’s abandoned zoo was dismantled, and while African animals such as rhinos and giraffes were given new homes, there...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 6, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Left Hand Backwards, Lobotomobile, The Freqs, and Sciencefight at 13th Floor Music Lounge // SATURDAY Palmer-based punk and metal group Left Hand Backwards celebrates its 10th anniversary as a band this Saturday in Florence at the 13th Floor Music Lounge. Joining them...
by Jack Brown | Feb 6, 2020 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
Waiting is hard. Some of us skip ahead in our books, others sneak a peek at a bride before the ceremony. Some of us roar past a minivan going a perfectly reasonable 70 mph on 91 South — I’m looking at you, white Honda Civic. There’s just something about getting an...
by Jennifer Levesque | Feb 6, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
“There are stars, there is music, but where are you? I am calling you home tonight.” The beginning lyrics to opening track “Come On Home” from the latest release from Americana duo Ari & Mia welcomes you into their album as if it’s an intimate dinner party, with...
by Andy Castillo | Feb 5, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
A little over a decade ago, David Manning, 81, retired from Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech in Northampton, where he worked for 45 years as a teacher and administrator. In retirement, with additional time on his hands, Manning dove headlong into the many...
by Luis Fieldman | Feb 5, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
Bella Vendetta, who worked for Whately’s Club Castaway and planned to move forward with a line-up of queer and trans performers, said she left after three weeks following a dispute with ownership over those plans. “My original thoughts were sadness that it didn’t work...
by Sammy Croteau | Feb 5, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
Amherst Cinema’s original film series, Bellwether: New Directions in Cinema recently received a $15,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Amherst Cinema’s General Manager, George Myers, Pioneer Valley-based filmmaker Luke Meyer, and...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 4, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
In years past, there may have been times for me when the beginning of February was a time to look forward to the Super Bowl, or even the State of the Union with other presidents. This year, it was all about the Iowa caucus. After more than a year of anticipation, we...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 4, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
“I secretly believe that I am a goddess with very brief moments of incarnation,” Jennifer Johnson declares, robed in a long white shift, a pair of ram’s horns set on her head. She’s portraying – or perhaps channeling – Leonora Carrington, the free-spirited...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 3, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My partner and I are temporarily in a long-distance relationship and he’s expressed discomfort with video chat sex. It sounds like it’s mostly based in discomfort with being naked and vulnerable in front of a camera, feeling unsure about how to make...
by Rob Brezsny | Feb 3, 2020 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You now have the power to make connections that have not previously been possible. You can tap into an enhanced capacity to forge new alliances and strengthen your support system. I urge you to be on the lookout for a dynamic group effort...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 3, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
David Brule, president of the Nolumbeka Project, based in Greenfield, speaks about a series focusing on Native Americans in the Valley. The series, which will consist of about a dozen events, is in part a response to this year’s Plymouth 400 observance, which is...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 31, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Burrie Jenkins plays folk rock on 12 string guitars mixed with world music influences. Check out his full Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Burrie Jenkins:
by Dave Madeloni | Jan 31, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
For past 20-plus years I would head to downtown Northampton to run errands on Saturday mornings and smile at the small group holding anti-war signs in front of the courthouse on Main Street. A few weeks ago, I decided to join them. I have joined many a protest in the...
by Our Readers | Jan 31, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Gambling research already underway In response to “Between the Lines: Problem gambling data collection is coming too late,” published Jan. 16-22, 2020. On January 15, 2020, the Valley Advocate published an editorial about the importance of problem gambling-related...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 30, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
LAVA Center Grand Opening Weekend // FRIDAY to SUNDAY Greenfield welcomes a new performing space on Main Street this weekend. The LAVA Center, part black box theater, part art gallery, is opening with three days of activities to reflect the center’s community-oriented...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 30, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Hundreds of small flickering candles lighting paths to a live ice carving demo at sunset and a fire juggling event with acrobatics and a unicycle are just some of the things in store for this year’s Luminaria, which kicks off the week of Winter Fest Amherst on Feb. 1...
by Steve Pfarrer | Jan 29, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
Plymouth, Massachusetts, is gearing up for a big anniversary this year: It was in December 1620 that a group of English Puritans, who came to be known as the Pilgrims, landed on the shore of eastern Massachusetts and began to build a settlement that would eventually...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jan 29, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
With recent success in the expansion of North-South rail, in some ways it feels like there is momentum finally building for an East-West line. However, Gov. Charlie Baker seemed to throw some cold water on that last week during the opening of a handicapped-accessible...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 29, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
Writer Chris Goudreau wrote a recent piece on local independent record labels in the Valley. Those include Feeding Tube Records in Florence, Disques de Lapin in Brattleboro, and Rub Wrongways Records in Northampton. Listen here: You can hear more of the Valley...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 28, 2020 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured
Lost your thumb? Use your big toe A British cobbler was distraught after a freak accident last year — his thumb was caught in some machinery and severed completely. The man thought his work as a cobbler, which he is passionate about, was over. Instead, he agreed to an...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 28, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
The charred remains of a building smolder in patches of fire as gray smoke drifts over autumnal treetops. That image is cut, and layered multiple times on top of one another for the album cover art of Ghost Things, by Northampton-based Americana-infused indie rock...
by Jack Brown | Jan 27, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Featured, Film
Ever since I was first introduced to the tiny hot dog, I have been an appetizer man. Those delectable little morsels — a bite or two at most — can contain a density of flavor that many full meals can only wish to attain. And while many are served ahead of an...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 27, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I didn’t think this was a real problem or, that it was just me. I didn’t think about it until I got into an argument with my husband, when he said “Why don’t you have sex the way when you’re drunk, when you’re sober?!” I really never thought about it till...
by Rob Brezsny | Jan 27, 2020 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): My favorite ancient Greek philosopher was the rascal Diogenes. As a joke, he carried around a lantern during the daytime, proclaiming, “I am just looking for an honest man.” When Alexander the Great, the most powerful man in the world, came...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 24, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Zoe Lemos is a songwriter who plays punk charged indie rock with earworm melodies. You can find her Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Zoe Lemos:
by Our Readers | Jan 24, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
A note on gun terminology In response to “A Loaded Topic: Pioneer Valley firearms community is active, but often hidden,” published January 16 – 22, 2020. I just read this article. It is an interesting way to introduce the topic to your readership which, I...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 23, 2020 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured
Robber in the dark A man attempted to rob the Bank of Scotland last September armed with a meat cleaver and disguised by a pillowcase over his head — but he forgot to cut eye holes. The 47-year-old stormed into the bank and wielded the meat cleaver while wearing the...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 23, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music
‘We Shall Overcome: A Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. // TUESDAY Music was a key part of the civil rights movement — African-American music in particular. To celebrate that music and the spirit and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., the Fine Arts...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 22, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
The Valley is known for its rich array of musicians and bands, but as owners of the handful of local, independent record labels can tell you, there’s more to the local music scene. Labels in this area include Feeding Tube Records in Florence, Disques de Lapin in...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jan 22, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
It was probably inevitable that — with so much at stake — the tone of the Democratic primary would ratchet up. Supporters of various candidates who believe in the vision of those candidates can look at the world, at the conditions that brought us President Donald...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jan 22, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Valley Show Girl
John Joyce started booking local bands back in 1998 while he attended Westfield State. What started it all was his friends from college — who were in a band called The Infamous Shoeless Joe — had inquired if he could help get them shows in the area. He started booking...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jan 21, 2020 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
As I write this, it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and I’ve just finished reading Dr. King’s 6,800-word “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” published in 1963 and written after being arrested for participating in one of his many nonviolent actions to further the cause of...
by Jack Brown | Jan 21, 2020 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
There was a time, once, when British director Guy Ritchie was considered the across-the-pond reflection of Quentin Tarantino. The filmmaker who, four years after Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and six after Reservoir Dogs, started pumping out stylish if patchy tales...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 21, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
Writer Pete Redington talks about his recent article about gun owners in the Valley and about how people on opposite sides of the gun issue rarely speak to one another. Listen here: You can hear more of the Valley Advocate’s podcasts...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 20, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hey Yana, It’s looking like a threesome is on the (close) horizon for me and my partner. I feel extremely secure in the relationship. I absolutely trust him and he’s been nothing but supportive of me and my feelings when the subject of threesomes has come up in the...
by Rob Brezsny | Jan 20, 2020 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) declared that English writer Lord Byron (1788–1824) was the greatest genius of the 19th century. Here’s an interesting coincidence: Byron regarded Goethe as the greatest genius of the 19th...
by Advocate staff | Jan 17, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
In a statement Friday, Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer who made her reputation representing workers against large corporations like Uber and FedEx (and even her alma mater, Harvard), announced she would be dropping her candidacy for U.S. Senate. That leaves incumbent...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 17, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Rosie Porter and the Neon Moons play classic country and honky-tonk with a sentimental croon. Check out the band’s performance on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage. Interview with Rosie Porter:
by Our Readers | Jan 17, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Responses to ROE In response to “With majorities in both Houses, ROE Act could expand abortion rights in Mass,” published January 9 – 15. Mr. Fieldman’s article “With majorities in both Houses, ROE Act could expand abortion rights in Mass” is an excellent and...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 16, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Saturns Return: An Immersive Movement Experience // FRIDAY The Root Cellar in Greenfield is hosting an event titled “Saturns Return: An Immersive Movement Experience,” which, according to the Facebook event, includes a hero’s journey, dancing, live music, advice for...
by Chris Goudreau | Jan 16, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
An Amherst theater company named Queer & Now will be combining drag performances, lip syncing to contemporary pop music, as well as dance, theater, and mythology from around the world this weekend at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield. Queer...
