Articles
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 12, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, In my post-big-breakup dating life, I’ve decided to start using Feeld [a dating app that’s basically Tinder for couples and singles seeking to be matched for threesome arrangements]. I’ve always been open to the idea of a three-way both sexually and as a...
by Rob Brezsny | Mar 12, 2018 | Articles, Astrology, Newsletter, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The British science fiction TV show Dr. Who has appeared on BBC in 40 of the last 54 years. Over that span, the titular character has been played by 13 different actors. From 2005 until 2010, Aries actor David Tennant was the magic,...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 9, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Review
Stacy Waldman loves Dick pics. “I’ve got big Dicks, little Dicks, Dick dates, Dick destinations, driving Dicks, friends play with Dick, lady Dicks….” Waldman lists a few other categories, but it’s abundantly clear that she’s sitting on a lot of Dicks. As a matter of...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 9, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
It’s the last day of the Homeward Vets Music Fest; it’s been a full weekend of local live music at the World War II Club in Northampton. Proceeds from this festival go to support previously homeless veterans transitioning into housing. Bands will wrap up...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 9, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The artistic nexus of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro Movement is remembered as a great flowering of black talent and a golden age in American cultural history. But at least one of its members, looking at it from the inside, saw it quite...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 9, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Stage
Susan B. Anthony, Alexander Graham Bell, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Helen Keller, Leonard Nimoy, Elizabeth Taylor, Sylvia Plath, Dr. Seuss, Sojourner Truth and Kurt Vonnegut have all impacted the Pioneer Valley in one way or another. Tonight,...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 9, 2018 | Articles, Music
Pioneer Valley sonic road warrior and Advocate Sessions alum Ray Mason takes the stage early this evening at the Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton. The man who is frequently referred to as, “the Godfather of the local music scene,” will have a plethora of songs to...
by Sarah Heinonen | Mar 9, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
“Come here, Bella,” called Roberto Bigio, 29, to a black lab across the room. The dog trotted over to Bigio, who stood in the corner of the common area in one of the pre-release/ minimum security units at the Hampden County Jail and House of Correction in...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 9, 2018 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Music
Check out energetic blues and classic rock group, The Wildcat O’Halloran Band. Wildcat has been a Massachusetts staple in the local blues and rock scene for more than two decades and the band’s Sessions performance mixes original blues rock songs with classic rock...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 8, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Review
There are so many settings in which you can find art exhibitions: Cafes, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, and of course college campuses. UMass Amherst, as a matter of fact, has four galleries under the auspices of the Fine Arts Center. The Student Union Gallery,...
by Blaise Majkowski | Mar 8, 2018 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Newsletter
A change of scenery is in store for this month’s column. We will leave the flickering screen of the cinema and head for the bright lights of Broadway. Yes, instead of a classically bad movie, I’m going to focus on a stage adaptation of a classic novel as captured live...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 8, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
What do you get when you take feel-good surfer boy vocal harmonies, Dick Dale-inspired guitar, some goodness and light, add a pinch of The Cure, fold in a lot of synth, and some bubble gum? You get the Sunshine Brothers Inc., an Amherst-grown trio of adorable young...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 7, 2018 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Music, Newsletter
Check out a teaser video for energetic blues and classic rock group, The Wildcat O’Halloran Band. Wildcat has been a Massachusetts staple in the local blues and rock scene for more than a decade and the band’s Sessions performance mixes original blues rock...
by Meg Bantle | Mar 7, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Food Booze and Beyond, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
Cannabis regulations were finally finalized on March 6 and Massachusetts marijuana enthusiasts have a lot to look forward to in 2018. Medical marijuana patients will be protected from shortages and applicants from communities worst affected by cannabis criminalization...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 7, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
In 2011, Anheuser-Busch InBev bought the Chicago craft brewery Goose Island. Today, the international conglomerate owns stake in a dozen formerly-craft American breweries. (Leah Kelley photo) I used to bartend at one of the oldest dive bars in Western Mass,...
by Jack Brown | Mar 7, 2018 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
Now in its 13th year, the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival has proven itself to be one of the area’s most popular cinematic traditions. And with good reason: the festival is a wide-reaching affair that brings its offerings not just to one theater, but to screens...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 7, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
The Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival will screen a special director’s cut of Adam Benzine’s 2015 documentary, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah. It took French journalist, philosopher, and filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, 12 years to make his...
by Monte Belmonte | Mar 7, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, Monte Belmonte Wines, Newsletter
“Weird. What the heck does it smell like? Roses? It tastes like Oil of Olay.” “It smells like…you know how, in spring, the buds are coming out on the trees? Like those trees that smell like sex?” “Like a ‘period’ tree.” “It smells like sex is about to happen. It...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, News, Newsletter
A limited edition craft beer called “the Farm to Trail Ale” was recently released on March 4 and celebrates the legacy of the Amherst-based Kestrel Land Trust, which has conserved more than 25,000 acres of forests and farmlands since the 1970s. The beer is a...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I’m no longer satisfied with the type of love I attract. After my most recent heartbreak, and having to face the thought of getting back on the online dating horse, I’m willing to admit that something isn’t working here, and it might be me....
by Gina Beavers | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Although March has come in like a lion, Smith College’s Lyman Conservatory is the perfect antidote to Western Massachusetts’ gray skies and chilled winds. Head to Smith today and take spring’s glorious promises which include an array of beauties like...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
After several weeks of negotiations, Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant owner Entergy, potential buyer NorthStar, state agencies, and citizen activists have come to an agreement on how the shut down plant could be transferred and decommissioned by NorthStar. One...
by Jennifer Levesque | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Review, Valley Show Girl
For over 25 years The Back Porch Radio Show has been airing Sunday mornings on The River 93.9 FM. Curated by radio host Jim Olsen, the selected sounds are a variation of American roots music including bluegrass, folk, classic country, blues, and more. Olsen is also...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 6, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
That wizard of wise foolery known as Avner the Eccentric is back. Avner Eisenberg is a genius of physical comedy and quick-witted clowning whose whimsical website states that “as a kid his passions were snakes and juggling. He wanted to be a doctor, but after a year...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 5, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
It’s been more than six months since President Trump announced an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children from deportation. March 5 was set as a deadline for...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 5, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Podcast
As chair of the Springfield Food Policy Council Steering Committee and board chair of Gardening the Community, Liz Wills-O’Gilvie thinks a lot about how growing up as a minority in an urban neighborhood affects your access to healthy food. She says there are 10...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 5, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Lady Bird Takes Flight at Amherst Cinema First time director and actress, Greta Gerwig delivers a brilliant film about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a mother and her teenaged daughter in Sacramento in the early aughts. Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 3, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
As I wrote in this space last year, “So much of what we see and create seems newly topical and timely” since the rise of Trump. “Everything is now filtered through a horrifying new prism, taking on fresh meaning and urgency.” A striking example of the “Trump Effect”...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 2, 2018 | Articles, News
It’s been nearly two years since voters across Massachusetts voted to legalize marijuana, which set state legislative officials on the long process of creating regulations for the budding legal weed retail industry. But starting July 1, the legal weed business will be...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 2, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Review
Sam’s Pizzeria and Cafe is nestled in the 200 block on Main Street in downtown Northampton. Like its owner, Sam Harbey, the eatery is down to earth and friendly. “We’ve been here for 11 years in the same spot,” Harbey says sitting in one of the glossy wood benches...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 2, 2018 | Articles, News
Has this winter seemed unseasonably warm to you? Or what about that shocking cold a couple months ago? It turns out that with one of the warmest Februarys on record and a record-breaking two-week cold snap around New Year’s, the winter itself averaged out to be...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 2, 2018 | Articles, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Wishbone Zoe performs bass-driven experimental indie pop on Valley Advocate Sessions. Check out Wishbone Zoe’s full performance in the video below. Advocate Sessions is filmed by Northampton Community Television and recorded by Signature Sounds Recording.
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 1, 2018 | Articles, News
For almost a year, the state of Massachusetts has been operating the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP), which reimburses SNAP customers buying fruits and vegetables from local farmers’ markets. But the program has proven so popular that it’s already almost...
by Gina Beavers, Chris Goudreau, Sarah Heinonen | Mar 2, 2018 | Articles, Arts
And The Kids at the Stone Church // SATURDAY, March 3 Northampton-based indie rock group And the Kids heads to Brattleboro on March 3 to play at the Stone Church, a former All Souls Unitarian Church renovated into a music venue. The band recently released its latest...
by Dave Eisenstadter, Sarah Heinonen, and Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, News
Born the same year of the Columbine High School Shooting in Colorado, 18-year-old Madison Pease of Southampton grew up hearing about school shootings. But it wasn’t until 17 people were killed in the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida, that she began thinking...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Review
There are three exhibitions on display at the Eric Carle Museum this month, but the one that will tug at the book lover’s heartstrings is Eighty Years of Caldecott Books. It’s a collection of first edition Caldecott medal-winning children’s books that date from 1938...
by Valley Advocate Readers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
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 | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Film
It’s kind of a bummer, but real life usually is. The 2010 documentary Countdown Zero (as part of the Forbes Library’s Resistance Film Series) traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs. It argues that the...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Music
Fiddles, cellos and their stringed cousins, can make a most desolate and longing sound — a sound that is distinctly American. The Brother Brothers of Brooklyn really know how to make desolation sound lovely. Identical twins, Adam and David Moss create harmonies...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Arts
Tonight is Arts Night Plus in Amherst from 5-8 p.m. Check out this free monthly cultural event in downtown Amherst. It’s a mixed bag every month but you can look forward to taking in some visual art, a little poetry, maybe a musical performance, or a...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
You know spring is coming when Old Deerfield says it is, and Old Deerfield has spoken. The Old Deerfield Spring Sampler Craft Fair is at the Big E this weekend. The fair features 150 juried artisans in all crafts media, including goodies for garden and Easter-themed...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Stage
American International College’s Theater Arts Program presents John Patrick Shanley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Doubt: A Parable. Described as a “brilliant play” that asks many questions but challenges you to find your own answers. Doubt: A...
by Chris Goudreau | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, News
Angel Rivera, a table games instructor and supervisor for MGM Springfield, held a stack of 20 chips, or as what they’re referred to in the gaming industry as, “checks.” and told more than half a dozen students on Feb. 26, the first ever day of classes at the...
by Chris Goudreau | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Music, News, Newsletter
Alternative rock band Deer Tick, known for its blend of influences from grungy alternative rock, to folk, punk, blues, and country, is heading to the Academy of Music Theatre this Friday, March 2, at 7 p.m. as part of Signature Sounds’ Back Porch Festival. Ahead of...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Valley Advocate Sessions
Wishbone Zoe performs bass-driven experimental indie pop with Advocate Sessions this week. Check out a teaser video of Wishbone Zoe’s full performance, which will be released this Friday.
by Chris Goudreau | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
More than two dozen workers and union rights activists rallied outside the campus entrance of Greenfield Community College (GCC) on Monday, Feb. 26, to stand in solidarity with thousands of workers from around the country during the Workers’ Day of Action. The rally,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Fifty years ago, in 1968, student protests rocked the Vietnam War debate, and were eventually credited with turning public sentiment against the war. For young people, particularly young men, their very lives were at stake with the instituted military draft sending...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
Indie rock and folk singer-songwriter Andrew Bird makes what he calls “three-dimensional music” – a mixture of violin, guitar, and virtuoso whistling, combined with intricate looping pedals. As a teen Bird became interested in a variety of styles including early jazz,...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 27, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
A troupe of high-spirited performers bound onstage and solicit goofy suggestions for characters and situations from the audience. Then they improvise short, snappy scenes based on those prompts. The comedy flows from the incongruities and the improvisers’ quick wits....
by Advocate Staff | Feb 26, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Podcast, The V-Spot
Yana Tallon-Hicks has been writing the Advocate’s sex and relationship column, The V-Spot, for seven years. It’s something she enjoys greatly, but she says it isn’t exactly the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle some people seem to think it is. She is also a...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 26, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Stage
The big band sound never gets old, so if you’re free at 7:30 tonight, check out the stylings of the Jeff Holmes Big Band featuring composer/lyricist Dawning Holmes on vocals. They’re swinging at the 121 Club and it’s free. Holmes has performed with legendary stars...
by Rob Brezny | Feb 26, 2018 | Articles, Astrology, Newsletter
ARIES (March 21-April 19): On September 1, 1666, a London baker named Thomas Farriner didn’t take proper precautions to douse the fire in his oven before he went to sleep. Consequences were serious. The conflagration that ignited in his little shop burned down large...
by Chris Goudreau | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The CDs You Gave Me
Welcome to the first of a new monthly column – The CDs You Gave Me – featuring reviews of new albums by Western Mass bands and solo artists. I’m a musician myself as a member of 10-piece theatrical and avant-garde pop ensemble, The Leafies You Gave Me (get it?), so I...
by Jack Brown | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
It’s always been a point of pride at Amherst Cinema that they are no mere movie house. Plunked down right in the heart of the town’s downtown, flanked by coffee spots and park greens, the theater has always been something of a community hub. Perhaps it would have been...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi there! I’m an early 30s, cis, brown, queer non-monogamous woman. My question is about a situation I find myself in with a lover and my best friend. This best friend is my Bestie, my chosen family. The lover is my first male lover in over a decade. (I was with...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
Hampshire College invites you to enjoy a few hours of action packed films from the Telluride Mountain Film Festival. Mountainfilm travels year round and worldwide with a selection of its best short films. This year, 13 films are screening at Franklin Patterson Hall...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
As the mighty Shakespeare (or the Martian) might say, “here’s the rub”: Anthony and Rosemary are two clueless, lovelorn neighbors. Anthony’s father Tony and Rosemary’s mother Aoife are locked in a bitter land feud. Rosemary has been...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Carolyn Walker is a singer-songwriter with a penchant for bittersweet folk melodies with a dash of alternative rock. Check out Carolyn Walker’s full Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the link below. Advocate Sessions, which features sets and interviews by...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 23, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Music
It’s Friday and who wouldn’t want to celebrate the legendary man in black: Johnny Cash. Flathead Rodeo plays an original blend of rockabilly and the music that influenced it. Flathead Radio is: Mistress Miriam on vocals, Theo Aronson on upright bass,...
by Gina Beavers | Feb 22, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Wellness
The Springfield Family Resource Center of Gandara is located in a modest building at 18 Gaucher Street in Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood, and upon arrival it’s clear that this social service agency is a community lifeline. Inside, the narrow reception area...
