Articles
by Advocate Staff | Sep 7, 2017 | Articles, Music
The Buddy McEarns Band is blue roots rock n’roll with a voice out of classic soul. The band performed on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on August 15 and their full performance will be released this Friday. Until then, here’s a teaser of the Buddy...
by Chris Goudreau | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
There’s no band quite like the Pixies with its blend of dissonant noise pop, psychedelic hard rock, surf-drenched reverb, punk rock-ish DIY leanings, and surreal lyrics that cover bizarre topics from extraterrestrials to biblical violence. Since the band’s 1986...
by Monte Belmonte | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, Monte Belmonte Wines, News
You are reading a wine column that was written by a non-expert: a rank novice who has never worked in the wine industry, or the restaurant industry; who has never been to France (outside of Charles de Gaulle) or to California (outside of L.A.); and who, frankly, has...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music
Unband bassist Michael Ruffino doesn’t bullshit. Outside on the deck at Northampton Brewery, I ask the rocker with a new memoir about music, the Valley, LA, the creative process, his book; and he’s refreshingly candid. How do you feel about the music in the ‘90s,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, News, Wellness
Northampton resident Bob Flaherty, a radio personality on WHMP, was practicing for a golf tournament earlier this year when he missed the ball and hit the dirt. Pain shot through his arm; he thought he broke it. “I couldn’t do anything,” he said. “I figure I’m not...
by Greenfield Recorder Editorial Board | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Between the Lines, News
Forty years ago, the Shea Theater building in downtown Turners Falls was a shell about to collapse in on itself. But Montague leaders saw the building’s potential to boost the village’s economic fortunes and acquired the Shea. With help from grants, Montague...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News, News of the Weird
Score One For The Peaceful Frog Dude White supremacists love Pepe the Frog, and have been using the cartoon character to promote their racist ideals, including through a children’s book. But the original creator of the frog, from whom white supremacists stole the...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Missed Connections, News, Newsletter
The Missed Connections forum on Craigslist is a wasteland of terrible poetry, dick pics, and whining, but among the detritus are some truly fascinating, funny, and occasionally sweet entries. The following are highlights from the Western Mass Missed Connections forum,...
by Chris Goudreau | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter, Review
Easthampton-based basement rock band Tundrastomper is an experimental psychedelia mutant grown from a vat of math rock that explodes into a storm with manic ferocity. There’s more than a glob of progressive rock stylings thrown into the mixer with the band’s new...
by Amanda Drane | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Third Eye Roaming
Google yoga images and you’ll find a sea of thin, white women who look as if the road rises to greet them. Their bodies are ideologically perfect. Their yoga attire and accessories are meticulous. They are serene and smiling. Gee — if they’re so perfect, then do they...
by Rob Brezsny | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You’re half-intoxicated by your puzzling adventures — and half-bewildered, as well. Sometimes you’re spinning out fancy moves, sweet tricks, and surprising gambits. On other occasions you’re stumbling and bumbling and mumbling. Are you...
by Jennifer Levesque | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Valley Show Girl
Sometimes you wanna make it out to a show, but let’s face it life happens. Maybe you’re sick, or you can’t find a babysitter, or that snowstorm that’s fast approaching cancels everything and you are stuck inside. Have no fear! Documentaries galore are here! If you’re...
by From Our Readers | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find comments from readers 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?...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot
I have a little bit of a problem that most people wouldn’t consider a problem, so there aren’t a lot of resources for me. I am extremely orgasmic. Now, of course, I’m grateful for this and all, but it’s to the point that I usually come like 10-plus times during...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter, Staff Picks
Lady Snowblood at Amherst Cinema // FRIDAY Ah, the classic story of bloody and brutal revenge. There’s nothing quite like it. Although many think Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films are the peak of stylized action in the sub-genre, there is another film...
by Jack Brown | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns
For all its ham-fistedness, the world of Star Trek has done an impressive job of putting important issues in front of its audience over the years. And while the first series was set sometime in the 2200s, it all began, in our world, during the late 1960s — and Star...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 1, 2017 | Articles, Music
Valley Advocate staff writer – Chris Goudreau – is this week’s Sessions performer. Goudreau sings with an operatic sounding voice and has plenty of 12-string guitar chops. Goudreau is also a member of 10-piece avant-garde pop/ experimental theatrical band, The Leafies...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 31, 2017 | Articles, Music
Our very own Valley Advocate staff writer – Chris Goudreau – is this week’s Sessions performer. Goudreau sings with an operatic sounding voice and has plenty of 12-string guitar chops. Goudreau is also a member of 10-piece avant-garde pop/...
by Will Meyer | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
I kept hearing that Ian (Thee Arcadians) and Androo (ex-Spirit Ghost, Nancy Drool) would disappear into different basements and jam on one chord for hours at a time. The roommates tolerated it (within reason), the neighbors were never “chill” to begin with. But that...
by Jack Brown | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
One of the more disturbing things about cinema is the establishment of who is a hero and who is a villain. Most often this looks like a white man taking down a non-white man. The specifics may change with the era — from the villain being African-American to South...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Stage
Come Play With Ghosts In Deus Ex Machina, audience members become part of the show — a vaudeville rehearsal at The Shea, the ghosts of the past, the costuming, the makeup —through dozens of disorienting and thrilling encounters, and reunite when the world resolves at...
by Blaise Majkowski | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns
Allll aboard! Welcome to the Trans-Siberian express. I hope your journey is a pleasant one. Try not to be bothered by the marauding yeti in the baggage department. A bit of background may be in order so you can properly appreciate your trip. Spanish director Eugenio...
by Lena Wilson | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Film, Newsletter, Stream Queen
In this ever-expanding world of streaming platforms, it can be difficult to look outside the Big Three: Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Viewers mainly feel constrained to these options because of their connections with major networks, their buying power for big-name...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Arts, News, Newsletter
What can you say about how much fun the Blandford Fair is that hasn’t been said 150 times before? The four-day agricultural fair has been going strong for a century and a half, tweaking the format a little every year to keep up with the times while staying...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Since the violence in Charlottesville (and Donald Trump’s equivocal response), much more attention is being paid to a topic that sparked the white supremacist August rally — taking down historical monuments and changing names that many people find offensive and...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Music, News, Newsletter
Crash, Mmm, Moo, Whee! Sounds Like a Fair to Me It’s a few days away, but I can already smell a unique blend of corn dogs, funnel cakes, old engines, smashed buses, and livestock that can only mean one thing: It’s fair time, baby! The Three County Fair is...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
Rolling papers and Rodney Dangerfield have long had a lot in common: they didn’t get no respect. But as marijuana’s cultural cachet has risen, so too have the quality and variety of smoking equipment. The humble rolling paper has been elevated to prestige level with...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My boyfriend refuses to go down on me. As a bisexual woman who has been in long term relationships with women, it’s something I miss. I bring it up and he gets defensive about it. I’m always down to give the blow jobs and don’t believe in not doing so just...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News
I have a friend, she’s a trip: She loves, LOVES, smoking marijuana where she isn’t supposed to. I call her a guerilla smoker, lighting up any time we’re in public no matter who’s around or what we’re doing. With recreational marijuana now being legal in Massachusetts,...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find comments from readers 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?...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Arts
Amherst Town Hall: Echoes of the Past — Photographs of Abandoned Places explores the beauty of decay and what’s been left behind. Through Sept. 4. Free. Amherst Town Hall, 4 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. (413) 222-4924. echoesofthepast2014@gmail.com. A.P.E. Gallery: The...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
THURSDAY 8/31 Buccaneer Lounge: DJ. 86 Maple St., Agawam. Christy’s Lounge: DJ. 278 Main St., Indian Orchard. Doc’s Place: Karaoke. 1264 Granby Road, Chicopee. Froggy’s Saloon: DJ karaoke. 846 Airport Industrial Park, Westfield. Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center:...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News, News of the Weird
Getting High Off Trump German police, during a random traffic stop, seized a stash of Donald Trump-shaped drugs. The drugs were ecstasy pills pressed into the shape of Trump’s head, and the word “Trump” was on the back. Police recovered 5,000 of the pills, worth about...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, News
Recreational and medical weed, now legal in a growing number of states, is putting an emphasis for law enforcement on pulling people over for driving-while-high. But the problem is that marijuana affects drivers differently than alcohol, is more difficult to detect,...
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, News
At age 45, marijuana-grower Anscomb says it’s time for him to go legit. He’s been illegally raising and harvesting weed for 13 years in an underground capacity (here’s a guide to how to grow your own), but now that recreational marijuana is legal, Anscomb is...
by Rob Brezsny | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems,” said businessman Lee Iacocca. You are currently wrestling with an example of this phenomenon, Aries. The camouflage is well-rendered. To expose...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 25, 2017 | Articles, Music
The Jeremy Turgeon Quintet from Springfield, MA, is a funky jazz band set to an R&B and neo-soul groove. The band performed on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on August 8. The group released its debut EP, New Journey, in 2015 and is planning to record a future...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 23, 2017 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
The Jeremy Turgeon Quintet is a Springfield-based funky jazz band with an R&B and neo-soul groove that performed on Valley Advocate Sessions on August 8. The band’s full performance will be released on Friday. Until then, here’s a teaser of the band in...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Arts, News
Print artist Leni Fried is standing over a silk-screen printer flipping through a stack of stencils of peace signs and words such as “nasty,” “peace,” and “freedom,” but she’s looking for the stencil she uses most often these days: “RESIST.” Fried, a printmaker and...
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Music, Review, Review, Valley Show Girl
The white supremacy horror show that happened earlier this month in Charlottesville really got to me. That Sunday, I barely left my bed. I mainly watched stupid chick flicks to occupy my mind with less meaningful things. After dinner however, I took my 6-year old son...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Missed Connections, Newsletter
The Missed Connections forum on Craigslist is a wasteland of terrible poetry, dick pics, and whining, but among the detritus are some truly fascinating, funny, and occasionally sweet entries. The following are highlights from the Western Mass Missed Connections forum,...
by Ilan Stavans | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Music
“Despacito” in Spanish means “slowly,” and the “ito” in “Despacito” adds a diminutive to the word that is impossible to translate. “Softly slowly,” perhaps? “Despacito” is the title of a record-breaking song by two Puerto Rican Reggaeton artists, Luis Fonsi and Daddy...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Don’t Disappoint Halle PAIN Yo; To the Derby We Must Go On Saturday what may be the most anticipated rematch of the roller derby season is going down in Wilbraham when the Western Mass Furies go head-to-head against the Hartford Wailers. Hailed as the “Superbowl” of...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Arts, News, Newsletter
A Fair-ly Long Run Celebrating its 149th year, the 2017 annual Cummington Fair will feature music, movement, agriculture, and competitions. Spanning four days, each date has a theme: Thursday is truck night, Friday is children’s night/cruise night, Saturday is...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Arts
Amherst Visitor’s Center: Pioneer Valley Perspectives II. Susan Dion will share art depicting local scenes in Western Mass. Portion of proceeds goes to Trustees of Reservations. Aug. 3-25. Free. 35 South Pleasant St., Amherst. sue1952us@yahoo.com. Anchor House of...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find comments from readers on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvcoate.com. Want to get in on this?...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Film, News
Northampton Community TV’s Crowdsourced Cinema project has spawned shot-for-shot remakes of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Princess Bride. But this year’s title — the time travel epic Back to the Future (aka my favorite movie OF ALL TIME) — meant the...
by Rob Brezsny | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Welcome to Swami Moonflower’s Psychic Hygiene Hints. Ready for some mystical cleansing? Hint #1: To remove stains on your attitude, use a blend of Chardonnay wine, tears from a cathartic crying session, and dew collected before dawn. Hint...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 19, 2017 | Articles, Music
Old Flame is rollicking bluesy garage rock mixed with folk protest music. The local band performed on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on July 18. The band released its debut EP – Wolf in the Heather – this year and are working on a follow-up EP. BONUS:...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 18, 2017 | Articles
Sorry about the mix up in this week’s Advocate, Aug. 17-23, 2017. Here are the answers to the crossword puzzle, if you’re looking for them. – Kristin Palpini, editor, editor@valleyadvocate.com
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 21, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
While interviewing organizers of student-led college activist groups at UMass Amherst, Smith College, and Amherst College, I learned about the Coalition to End Rape Culture (CERC) at UMass , a campus group founded by survivors of sexual assault that is calling on the...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 15, 2017 | Articles, News
Ernesto Cruz, one of 14 candidates for at-large seats on the Springfield City Council, is facing assault charges. The charges allegedly stem from an argument in which police say Cruz pushed his girlfriend up against a wall and grabbed her by the neck. Cruz was...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 18, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
If there is a genuine epic in American drama − its ideas as expansive as its scope − it is surely Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s two-part, eight-hour “gay fantasia on national themes.” And if there is a consummate example of cross-disciplinary provenance on the...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, I’m a single woman in my late twenties, with no relationships on the horizon. But that’s OK, because I have a super intense, cordless Hitachi that I’m in love with. Problem is, recently, whenever I have attempted to reach orgasm, it never comes. I get the...
by Gary Carra | Aug 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Nightcrawler
The Who certainly aren’t kids anymore, but the iconic British rockers proved more than alright as they absolutely tore through a 21-tune, hit-laden set before a capacity crowd at Mohegan Sun (mohegansun.com) late last month. Catalog spanning radio staples like “I...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
A pair of two-handers, playing through this month and just next weekend respectively, examine intimate, intricate relationships between women. Harbor Stage Company, one of the region’s most reliably stimulating summer theaters, premieres its adaption of a cinema...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
I first caught Nanny at the 13th Floor in Northampton this past March; one of my bands was sharing a bill with them. Earlier this summer, I saw them again and had that feeling I was starting to grasp the songs. It wasn’t long before I learned a debut EP was right...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Living hip-hop legend Masta Ace blends classic rap rhythms with modern beats and messages, and he’ll be performing in Greenfield this weekend. A major player on the underground hip-hop scene since the ‘90s. His most acclaimed release is Disposable Arts, a concept...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
The Millpond.Live Concert series is getting started in a big, booty-shakin’, celebratin’ kind of way this year by featuring a boogaloo bash. What’s boogaloo? A blend of mambo, doo-wop, R&B, and funk that was hot in the 1960s, but for some unthinkable reason (this...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 16, 2017 | Advocate Chat, Articles, News, Newsletter
The Advocate Chat is a recurring series where the Valley Advocate staff talks about a topic on their minds. The text below has been lightly edited. dave.eisen (Managing Editor Dave Eisenstadter): The past few weeks have had some shocking news. So we wanted to chat...
