Articles
by Gina Beavers | Mar 15, 2018 | Articles, Daily Calendar
Looking for something to do tonight? You may just find it below. We’ve taken our beloved print calendar and placed it online. We’ll post it everyday just for you. -Gina Beavers MUSIC The Big Takeover, Shokazoba: 9 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. $10 – $13....
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 15, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Local students want to meet with P. James Debney, CEO of Springfield-based gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson, in the next 30 days to create a dialogue about ways to end urban gun violence, not just mass shootings. Students from Springfield, Holyoke, and Boston...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 15, 2018 | Advocate Sessions, Articles, Music
Sunshine Brothers Inc plays funky psychedelic pop with waves of synth and surf. Check out a teaser video of the band’s upcoming Advocate Sessions video, which will be released this Friday.
by Gina Beavers | Mar 15, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
We made it! It’s Friday and it’s time to let it all hang out … in Holyoke. The Dust Bowl Revival is blowing into Gateway City Arts tonight. It’s a nine-piece juggernaut of super sonic jazz and folk-inspired music. You might be witness to a...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 15, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
Beware the Ides of March … or not. But you might want to head up to Greenfield to check out Brattleboro’s Pinedrop band. In staff writer Chris Goudreau’s Staff Pick this week, he describes them as “folk and jammy bluegrass quartet.” Lexi...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
About 200 students assembled in front of Amherst-Pelham Regional High School at 10 a.m. on the morning of March 14. Gathered together, huddled against the cold, young activists solemnly honored the memory of the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
At John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton, a police officer and administrator kept outsiders clear of hundreds of students gathered outside, but their words were audible in the cold, March morning. Students went up to a microphone one by one and gave the name...
by Meg Bantle | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
The Pioneer Valley has a rich agricultural history and is home to many famous products, including “Hadley grass” (asparagus grown in Hadley) and enough tobacco in the 1800s for the region to be known as the “tobacco valley.” The Valley now has the opportunity to take...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News, Newsletter
A 19-year-old Canadian went to catch an event at Toronto’s Rogers Centre but was forced to park his Nissan Versa in a garage several miles away from the venue and from there take a cab. But when the show was over, he couldn’t remember where the garage was....
by Gina Beavers, Chris Goudreau, and Meg Bantle | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Staff Picks
Smiles of a Summer Night // SUNDAY, March 18 It took Ingmar Bergman fifteen films to attract an international following, and it was his 1955 erotic comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens leende) that did it. The black and white film follows 8 Swedes (four...
by Naila Moreira | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, Newsletter
Two summers ago, I visited the grasslands of southwestern Brazil. I stayed at a fazenda, a farm property offering lodging for tourists on the side. Our pousada or lodge was especially tiny as these properties go – run by a woman and her partner who had rented space on...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 14, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Did you know the National Park Service hosts artists-in-residence? I didn’t! But Ben Cosgrove is that guy. Cosgrove is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Methuen whose “work mainly explores the intersection of sound and place.” Which means his...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 13, 2018 | Articles, News, Newsletter
It wasn’t always such a bucolic village. Turners Falls, a village in the town of Montague has undergone a renaissance during the past decade. Where there was once empty storefronts, there’s now a vibrant downtown with a plethora of restaurants, a thriving arts...
by Will Meyer | Mar 13, 2018 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Review, Review
Before writing this column, I stopped by Tundrastomper’s band house near the border of Easthampton and Southampton. Bassist Andrew Jones was getting surgical with a vacuum in the suburban home’s awkwardly large bathroom. He then offered me a bowl of black beans, which...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Mar 13, 2018 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
I’ll never forget the Open Meeting Law conference I covered a few years ago in Northampton. Then State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg held the conference in March 2015 for local civic leaders and venting about the Open Meeting Law, which is in place for all of us...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 13, 2018 | Articles, Film, Newsletter
If you haven’t noticed, winter and spring are in an epic battle for dominance; my money is on spring because nobody puts spring in a corner. Today, however, winter is landing another merciless flurry of punches and opening a great big can of whoop a**. And if...
by From our Readers | Mar 13, 2018 | Articles, 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 Advocate Staff | Mar 12, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Podcast
T.X. Watson, a transgender student at Hampshire College, feels grateful to the academic institution for the level of aid they received. However, upon graduation this spring, T.X. will still have more than $45,000 in debt between student loans and credit card debt for...
by Jack Brown | Mar 12, 2018 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
It couldn’t have been easy to be known as The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. But that was the way actress Hedy Lamarr was presented to American audiences by studio head Louis B. Mayer, who came across the star during a European jaunt in the late 1930s. By then,...
by Gina Beavers | Mar 12, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Well, we’re just about half way through March, which means in a couple of weeks being a woman will once again be out of fashion. But you still have time to celebrate Women’s History Month by checking out the Floyd Gallery’s 17th annual Women in...
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...
