Articles
by Gina Beavers | Apr 27, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Syracuse may be one of the dreariest cities in the union, but that doesn’t mean their music scene doesn’t have a few bright spots. Check out Salt City Shakedown, a three band tour featuring Sophistafunk, who combines spoken-word, old-school hip hop, and funky rhythms;...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 27, 2018 | Articles, Music
This pick is like a nesting doll: My buddy and co-worker Meg Bantle gave the green light for The Gaslight Tinkers performing tonight at Hawks and Reed as her Staff Pick. Her pick is based on our buddy and co-worker Chris Goudreau’s description. Here’s how...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 27, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
One of the brightest music stars in the Pioneer Valley and the world succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Saxophonist Charles Neville, age 79, passed away Thursday, April 26, at his home in Huntington. A member of the acclaimed Neville Brothers band, Charles...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 27, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico spoke to students, faculty, and staff at Mount Holyoke College on April 26 recounting the tragedies the occured after Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit the island seven months ago, while also being optimistic in Puerto...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 27, 2018 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Music
Izzy Heltai is an indie folk singer-songwriter with a penchant for storytelling. Check out his full Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Izzy Heltai:
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 27, 2018 | Articles, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
Charles Neville, Grammy award winning saxophonist and member of R&B, soul, and funk group, The Neville Brothers, died on Thursday at the age of 79. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for the past several months. Aaron Neville, Charles’ brother and...
by Meg Bantle | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter, Uncategorized
https://valleyadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/video-1524758618.mp4 “As far as we know we’re the only (team) that jumps in a bar,” said Jennifer Therkelsen, 31, of Shutesbury. Therkelson, who is the fundraising manager for the all-adult Pioneer Valley Jump Rope...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
Valley Advocate writer alum Tom Sturm has a new gig these days. Dressing like a pirate and singing the songs of pirate life for kids — but pleasantly appealing for adults as well. With the album glued in my CD player in my car for weeks, my 7-year-old son and I knew...
by Will Meyer | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Tucked away in an old house in Hadley live two musicians named Sal and Cooper, who collectively make up the rock duo The Taxidermists. The band has nurtured something of a cult following from DIY persistence and their 2015 record Honesty Box. One showgoer recently...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
As an artist, I know how important it is for folks to support local creatives. So tonight, you’ve got a great chance to do just that! Silenced, a film written and directed by local boy Julian Lowenthal, will have a world debut at the Greenfield Gardens. Colleen...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Daily Calendar, Newsletter
THURSDAY 4/26 MUSIC Big Woods Voices Benefit Concert: 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Brattleboro Music Center, 72 Blanche Moyse Way, Brattleboro. CLICK Music Presents Chris Haynes & Friends: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. $12, Door Sales: $15; service fees apply. Join...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Newsletter
Colleen Lyon is a busy woman in a club of one. The owner of Vermage Productions, a Western Mass movie production company, Lyon laments that she is the only female movie producer in the area. When asked if she gets lonely, she sighs and says, “It’s lonely. Very, very...
by Meg Bantle | Apr 25, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Over 20 municipal leaders from all over Western Mass attended an April 24 meeting with state environmental officials to discuss a state grant program that will help communities all over the Commonwealth to prepare for their unique climate change needs. Katie...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 25, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Valley Gives Day, the day in which Pioneer Valley residents are encouraged to support local nonprofit organizations, will likely be happening for the last time on Tuesday, May 1. Springfield-based nonprofit Community Foundation of Western Mass has run the event since...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Get Out With Staff Picks, Newsletter
Far Out Film Discussion: Donnie Darko // MONDAY, April 30 Forbes Library in Northampton hosts the Far Out Film Discussion, which is basically a book club for weird cult classic and art house films. The next meeting the group will be discussing 2001’s cult classic,...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 25, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
It’s the closing night of the Multicultural Film Festival at UMass. Tonight’s film is a special treat. 89-year old French New Wave pioneer Agnès Varda and acclaimed 33-year-old French photographer JR co-direct Faces Places/Visages Villages. This...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
Check out a teaser for video for Izzy Heltai, a North Adams-based indie folk songwriter with a penchant for storytelling. A full performance will be released this Friday.
by Meg Bantle | Apr 24, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter
Over the past 20 years, people have begun to care more and more about what goes into their bodies. Most think about this in terms of the food they eat, but for customers of Oh My Sensuality Shop in Northampton, the same can be said for sex toys. “Most companies have...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 24, 2018 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Smith College hosted a fascinating speaker earlier this month who addressed a topic that’s been on my mind for several months leading up to the 2018 midterms: communicating and collaborating with people in what’s called “Trump country.” Without their help, we’re all...
by From our readers | Apr 24, 2018 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
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 Gina Beavers | Apr 24, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
For the love trees! Call of the Forest is a 2017 documentary that sounds the alarm bells about deforestation around the globe. The brilliant scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger explores how our health and the health of the Earth depends on the state of our forests. She...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 23, 2018 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Stagestruck
The scene: desolation. The time: the aftermath of a cataclysm that has destroyed civilization and left only industrial scaffolding and piles of junk. Piles that include, let’s see, a bucketful of juggling clubs, a couple of unicycles, a teeter board and, oh yes, a...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 23, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Podcast
WRSI Morning Host Monte Belmonte was recently voted this year’s best radio personality in the Advocate’s Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll, and is probably best known for walking dozens of miles to raise money for the Food Bank of Western...
by Sarah Heinonen | Apr 23, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
When the hammer first punched through the drywall people flinched. The crowd was silent as Manuel Oliver began to destroy parts of the art he had just created, mirroring the destruction of his son’s life in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. Oliver, the father of...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 23, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, Okay. I gotta know. How does one flirt with an Aquarius? There’s an Aquarius male that I like … and I’m a really bad flirter. I don’t do well with flirting because I’m trying to overcompensate with my intelligence to offset my sexy social media...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 23, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
“Raw power,” “emotional complexity,” and “vibrant,” are words that have been used to describe Ana Popovic’s sound. She’s a singer and guitar slinger and she’ll be at the Iron Horse tonight. Big Blues Bender says,...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 23, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Daily Calendar, Newsletter
MONDAY 4/23 MUSIC Ana Popovic at The Iron Horse Music Hall: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Iron Horse Entertainment/IHEG, 20 Center St., Northampton. Music Mondays Cafe ~ Berkshire Hills Music Academy Troupe: 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Music Mondays return to Gaylord Library...
by Meg Bantle | Apr 20, 2018 | Articles, Cannabis!, Columns, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
If any day could be called National Marijuana Day, it’s 4/20. Cannabis consumers are celebrating an exciting year for cannabis in Massachusetts with the first recreational marijuana licenses already approved, but many people, particularly in communities of color, are...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 20, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Have you ever heard of “a weekend-long DIY/punk fest full of bands, workshops, and skill shares?” Well you have now; After the Gig is at the Flywheel in Easthampton, and 100% of what you pay will be split between the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 20, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
If you’ve followed the long strange trip that is Mickey Rourke’s life, The Ballad of Philip Andre will ring a bell. The Legible Bod(ies)’s The Ballad of Philip Andre, is loosely based on the life and career of Mickey Rourke. The troupe will explore...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 20, 2018 | Articles, Astrology, Newsletter, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Imagine you’re one of four porcupines caught in frigid weather. To keep warm, you all have the urge to huddle together and pool your body heat. But whenever you try to get close, you prick each other with your quills. The only solution to...
by Jack Brown | Apr 20, 2018 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
If you caught the 2016 screening of Khalik Allah’s Field Niggas at Amherst Cinema, you got an early look at the filmmaker’s meditative and searching vision. That film, an hour-long gaze at the faces and bodies of the men and women passing through an East Harlem...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 20, 2018 | Articles, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Anders Warringer performs eclectic acoustic originals with a side of absurdity. Interview with Anders Warringer:
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 19, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
For the past four and a half months, Rosa Ortiz has been living with her 14-year-old son at hotels in West Springfield after her home of Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, was devastated by Hurricane Maria nearly seven months ago. But now, their temporary housing is in jeopardy...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 19, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter
Ok. My two very best friends tease me about my love of the sci-fi movie Dune. So it’s not an Oscar winner but it is all kinds of fun and engaging. I mean, a young Kyle McLaughlin is always a good start. Throw in Sting, some space palace intrigue, the SPICE...
by Meg Bantle, Gina Beavers, Dave Eisenstadter, and Chris Goudreau | Apr 19, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News, Newsletter
Dutch residents formed a chorus of opposition to a newly installed “singing road” earlier this month, prompting the road to be shut down after only one day of use. Workers had installed strips that act like rumble strips on 490 feet of road near the village of Jelsum,...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 18, 2018 | Articles, Stagestruck
Three shows up and down the Valley this weekend put a modern and feminist spin on some classic tales from Shakespeare and the Bible – Wayward Home in Ashfield, The Annotated *Taming* in Turners Falls and Julius Caesar in Amherst. Wayward Home, weaving the Noah’s Ark...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 18, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Silverthorne Theater Company’s world-premiere production of TarT2f! An Irreverent Musical Comedy, by Jeff Olmsted is directed by the Advocate’s very own Stage Struck columnist, Chris Rohmann. Tart2f is described as a “light-hearted lampoon of...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 18, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Review, The CDs You Gave Me
Last year, I reviewed psychedelic bluesy rock band, Old Flame, with their debut extended play (EP) “Wolf in the Heather.” Now, a year later the band has released a new six-song EP called “Hush Money” continuing to create political charged art rock that takes an...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 18, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
Anders Warringer performs eclectic acoustic originals with a side of absurdity. Check out a teaser for Anders’ upcoming Advocate Sessions video to be released this Friday.
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 18, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The tattoo From the title, you might think The Tattooed Man Tells All is a memoir of life on the carnival circuit. It’s anything but. This man’s tat is a five-digit number that was etched into his forearm in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Peter Wortsman’s one-man...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 18, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Check out Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona. Amherst Cinema has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Swedish master’s birth. Hooray! Persona is another trippy Bergmanian piece wrought with WTFs. Liv Ullmann plays Elisabet, an actress who, without reason, has gone...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 17, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
HELP YANA! I’m addicted to my Hitachi! I’ve had a primary partner for just under a year. The sex is awesome, intimate, and fun. However, very rarely can I have sex and get off without using toys, and I think it’s starting to frustrate them. I don’t have a lot of...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 17, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Get Out With Staff Picks, Music, Newsletter
What Cheer? Brigade and Landowner at Hawks & Reed // SATURDAY, APRIL 21 Odds are you haven’t seen a band like What Cheer? Brigade. The 20-piece brass band from Providence, Rhode Island, is basically a dance party version of a marching band and returns to Hawks...
by Monte Belmonte | Apr 17, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Monte Belmonte Wines, Newsletter
I hate to write about the most boring grape in the wine world, Pinot Grigio, two columns in a row. But I threw down the gauntlet in my last wine column and challenged someone to convince me that Pinot Grigio is not the most boring of all wine grapes. “Part of me...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 17, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Hawktail, an exciting acoustic group, describes themselves this way: “Haas Kowert Tice brought on mandolinist Dominick Leslie to form Hawktail. Music fans will recognize them from their various other outfits (Punch Brothers, David Rawlings, Crooked Still, A...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Podcast
According to artist Barbara Hadden, you’re just as likely to see her painting a house as you are painting a portrait. Hadden’s approach to art is informed by her practical and thoughtful demeanor, as well as her experience in the outdoors. Discussing her...
by Jack Brown | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
American schools — and the teachers and students that fill their halls — have been in the news quite a bit lately. More and more, it seems that the reality of the classroom has become lost in a fog of “thoughts and prayers.” But it isn’t only during the...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Review
Going into Denise Beaudet’s exhibit Roots to Resistance at the New England Visionary Artists Museum, requires a bit of preparation. Beaudet, after all, has amassed a master’s course in global female activism. In her bountiful literature, her writings concerning...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Astrology, Newsletter
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the early history of the automobile, electric engines were more popular and common than gasoline-powered engines. They were less noisy, dirty, smelly, and difficult to operate. It’s too bad that thereafter the technology for...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
This PBS Frontline documentary is based on Atul Gawande’s best seller. The documentary explores the hopes of patients and families facing terminal illness and the physicians who treat them. There will be a discussion following the screening of the film. Being...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 16, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Daily Calendar, Newsletter
MONDAY 4/16 MUSIC Amherst Jazz Orchestra: 7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Free. With vocalist Ethel Lee. No cover, free parking and great food. Union Station Grand Ballroom, 125A Pleasant St., Northampton. 413 253 1607. info@amherstjazzorchestra.com. Julien Baker: 7:30 p.m....
by Meg Bantle | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
April 20 (4/20) can be an auspicious day for cannabis-related businesses. But this year, some of them will see their bank accounts abruptly closed. Citizens Bank, based in Providence, Rhode Island, informed an unknown number of customers with connections to the...
by Sarah Heinonen | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper will be honored on June 4, 2018, with the She Changes the World award from the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts (WFWM). “We are excited to spotlight Chief Kasper as a leader who is breaking barriers and who serves as a great...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
State legislators hope to create a “Student Bill of Rights,” which passed in the state Senate on April 11 and aims at granting better protections for students in disputes with loan service companies. There’s one catch though: the federal government...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Review
Barb Hadden walks about the white walled Oxbow Gallery on Pleasant Street, contemplating the placements in her show at the Northampton artist collective. With two galleries, artist-members have a show in the large front gallery and a show in the back gallery. Hadden’s...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
“I’m trying to represent who I am and the way I’m trying to be, making sure my art and my life are one,” says jazz saxophonist Matali Shaka Banda. “I think a lot of artists preach a certain way but don’t live that way. Or attempt to live a certain way, but their...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Fatai is a big deal. She’s sold-out multiple headline tours in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and is touring again internationally. She’s making stops at SXSW and The Parlor Room in Northampton! Check out this young phenom up close and personal tonight at...
by Gina Beavers | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film
It’s Friday the 13th and if you were a big humdrum, you’d watch Friday the 13th. But because you like to think outside the box, your best bet for horror tonight is Brain Damage! Here’s how Amherst Cinema describes this…uh…film. ...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 13, 2018 | Articles, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Fuzz Puddle is an alternative rock duo that mixes indie jazz influences with an experimental approach. Interview with Fuzz Puddle:
