Articles
by Advocate Staff | Mar 5, 2020 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Gecko CPR A man from Australia might have saved a tiny gecko’s life after he fished the lizard out of his beer at a pub and then performed CPR on the animal when it seemingly stopped breathing. The man thought staff at the Amble Inn in Corindi Beach, New South Wales...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 5, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
Loundon Wainwright III at the Iron Horse // Saturday There are few songwriters who have raided their family history as much as Loudon Wainwright III — and even fewer who have done it as successfully. Like a guy on the proverbial psychiatrist’s couch, the veteran...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 4, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
It’s Opposite Day in the Democratic primary. Super Tuesday was forecast to be a major victory for the progressive movement, culminating in a possibly insurmountable delegate lead for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with moderates hopelessly divided. Instead, former Vice...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 4, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
With countries across the world responding to the threat of coronavirus outbreaks, here in Massachusetts and, more locally, in the Pioneer Valley, local hospitals and municipalities are working to prepare and plan for a potential outbreak of the new respiratory viral...
by Jennifer Levesque | Mar 4, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
“Our focus is equal parts towards experimental art and hosting great DJ nights,” Ten Forward owner Sarah Lanzillotta told me through an email. “We aim to serve as a home for artists in Western MA to grow creatively, to try out ideas with one another, and as a resource...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 3, 2020 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
I’ve watched with growing concern the reports about the coronavirus morphing from an outbreak local to a region of China into what health experts are warning could become a full-blown pandemic. It’s important to state up front that the risk of contracting the virus in...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 3, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
In baseball parlance, having “a cup of coffee” refers to a player who is called up from the minors for a brief stint with the major-league team – staying just long enough to have a figurative cuppa. Stan Freeman’s The Pitch is about a fictional ballplayer who barely...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 2, 2020 | Articles, Featured, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, I recently got out of a seven-year relationship and a five-year heterosexual marriage. Initially, we had a very regular and healthy sexual relationship but over time it disintegrated to an essentially sexless relationship. He had an affair and we divorced....
by Advocate Staff | Feb 28, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Americana/ folk singer-songwriter Brian Dickens who brings a contemporary feel to classic folk inspired songs. Check out his Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Brian...
by Luis Fieldman | Feb 27, 2020 | Articles, Featured, News
A local man concerned about new rules proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) affecting drone pilots is organizing a national protest in Washington, D.C., this weekend. Michael Duhl of Deerfield is the head organizer of “Help Save Our Hobby,” which will...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 27, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
Celseigh’s Album Release Party at the 413 // FRIDAY Doom ballad folk and outlaw country inspired artist (and Valley Advocate Sessions alumna) Celseigh will be releasing her debut album, “Ghosts’ Stories,” at the 413 in Easthampton this Friday. The show will also...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 27, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Jane Eyre may be the most-adapted of 19th-century English novels, and that’s saying something, in a field shared with Austen and Dickens. The Wikipedia entry for Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 gothic masterpiece lists over 50 film, radio and TV versions, together with dozens...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 26, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Spring is in the air. Sort of. In some ways, after a snowy start, it has felt that winter didn’t come at all. But with clocks about to change to Daylight Savings (on Sunday, March 8!) it’s time to come out of our shells and check out a good show or museum. Here is an...
by Jack Brown | Feb 26, 2020 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
In the run-up to the Oscars a few weeks ago, you might have seen a flurry of activity from local theaters as they featured the yearly roundup of animated short films that were vying for the golden statuette. It’s always a treat to see that collection of film on the...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 25, 2020 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
For the past three-plus years, I’ve been the parent of an amazing child. In a couple months time, I will be a parent of two. A friend who has two children recently told me that it would be impossible to describe to me the amount of work that will go into parenting...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 25, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
In these fake-news days, when fiction rules the cybersphere and truth is called a lie (and vice versa), the lifespan of a fact can be the length of a tweet (if it’s not stillborn). The play now running at TheaterWorks in Hartford (through March 8) can’t help but be...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 24, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
Since China has stopped accepting much of the United States’ recycling, many communities have had to pay to have their recyclables hauled away. Western Mass has been spared that up to now, but beginning July 1 that will change. Writer Chris Goudreau speaks about...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 24, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My partner and I get into the habit of not having sex. We have a bunch of kids, full-time jobs, and all of that. It causes emotional tension to build and then we use that as an excuse to not sexually connect. We fall into a very platonic state. However, I’m...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 23, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Two of the shows coming up on three Five College stages this week and next are family-friendly journeys into Neverland’s backstory. The other is a rock musical about a sensational axe murder. First up is Finding Neverland, the musical based on the 2004 film. It was...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 21, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Black Pyramid, a psychedelic war metal band with doom and stoner metal influences. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Black...
by Monte Belmonte | Feb 21, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
In my last column, I mentioned how my main motivations for writing this column are to justify my habit and to get free wine, and how I’ve succeeded on both counts. I also wrote about some rather good wines that just miraculously showed up on my doorstep, as if...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 20, 2020 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
Fundraiser for The Wet’suwet’en Nation at Majestic Saloon // FRIDAY The Majestic Saloon and Lupinewood, a trans sanctuary in Greenfield, are holding a fundraiser for the Wet’suwet’en Nation, an indigenous group in the British Columbia region. The Wet’suwet’en Nation...
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...
