Articles
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 28, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Following attacks on Muslims, refugees, immigrants, and the country of Cuba over the last several months, LGBTQ people became the latest group to be scapegoated by President Donald Trump and members of his administration this week. First came the announcement — by...
by Warren Johnston | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, The Pour Man
Don’t let the price of this wine put you off. It’s a bit expensive for my purse too, but it frequently goes on sale for much less, and it is an excellent and well-balanced New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that won’t drown you with overpowering grapefruit flavors or aromas...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, News
A federal grant is powering an effort to bring solar energy into more local low-income homes. Rays the Valley, a partnership between local organizations that aims on making solar array subscriptions affordable for everyone, received $60,000 from the federal Department...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
At the beginning of At Home at the Zoo, Ann appears from the kitchen and says to her husband Peter, “We have to talk.” Then they talk for an hour, and by the time Peter leaves their apartment to have a quiet read in Central Park, we know a lot more about him than we...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 27, 2017 | Articles, News
As the Adult Basic Education students walked before the podium in their caps and gowns on Wednesday, July 26, they put a seal on more than the usual 12 years of school. Some had waited for this moment for decades. There were 61 people who passed the High School...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 28, 2017 | Articles, Music
Outer Stylie is a head-banging heavy psychedelic rock band with plenty soul. The four-piece group played on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on July 12. Like what you’re listening to? Check out the Valley Advocate Sessions page for bands and artists, including The...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 28, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I’ll get right to the point: Hold These Truths, at New Century Theatre, is possibly the most important play of the summer, with certainly one of the season’s most exhilarating performances. It’s not only searingly suggestive of our current national crisis, but is a...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 27, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Intimate Apparel is all about fabrics. The silky fabrics draping the figures of elegant Gilded Age matrons and the coarser fabrics worn by their servants, delineating both economic and social standing. The deceptively comfortable fabrics covering the women’s corsets,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 27, 2017 | Articles, Music
Outer Stylie is a head-banging psychedelic rock band with plenty soul. The group played on the Valley Advocate Sesssions stage on July 12. Outer Stylie’s full performance will be available online this Friday. Until then, here’s a teaser showcasing the...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 27, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
News of the Weird is no more, but fear not. The Advocate is continuing the tradition of delivering weird news, now as Bizarro Briefs. Perfectly Preserved Surrealist ‘Stache If you thought Salvador Dali’s mustache could not have gotten any more legendary, you were...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 25, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The two mainstage programs at Jacob’s Pillow dance festival last week offered intriguing contrasts in modern dance envelope-pushing. And perhaps surprisingly, it was the simpler, solo show that delivered more variety and excitement. Aakash Odedra is an Englishman of...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Letters to the Editor In Defense of Iron Horse Entertainment Group Tiring to see all the IHEG (Iron Horse Entertainment Group) bashing [“Behind the Music: The People and Promoters Going Beyond IHEG,” July 13-19, 2017]! First, people don’t realize how fortunate we are...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Buddy McEarns Your Musical Respect Good time, blusey bar band Buddy McEarns rocks with driving, classical guitar riffs and just the tiniest dash of hippie jam. There’s something comforting about The Buddy McEarns Band, like looking at an old friend named...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, News, Newsletter, Stage
Charlie Brown Would Be So Emo If you’ve ever wondered what happened to Good ‘ol Chuck, from the Peanuts comics, Gateway City Arts can fill you in; A week-long run of Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead begins Friday. Satirizing...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter, Stage
Queen Margaret, Historical Bad-Ass Before there was Game of Thrones and Cersei, there was the War of the Roses and Queen Margaret of Anjou. In fact, many people believe the hit HBO show was based on the War of the Roses, a 30-year war (of which Margaret was a key...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music, Newsletter
200 Master Beaders, 1 Project — ALL WEEKEND This weekend maser beadwork artist Darcy Rosner and beaders from SweetBananberry will be at Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen adding another whimsical art installation to the outside gallery. They’ll be assembling a...
by Compiled By Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 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 Christin Howard | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Newsletter
In its heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s, roller derby was known for fierce females, fishnets, spiked hair and names like “Iron Maven.” After a lull in the ‘90s, roller derby was resurrected in the early 2000s as an all-female, athletic sport. But in the Pioneer Valley,...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Review
Lexi Weege is the type of performer who draws you in immediately. She’s a blues and jazz songstress with a voice that combines intimate and heartbreaking cabaret singing, in the vein of French chanteuse Edith Piaf, with 1960s boisterous rock n’ roll frontwoman...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Food Booze and Beyond, News, O Cannabis!
We’re no Nevada, but last week Massachusetts took two rippin’ steps toward weed legalization and protection in the state. First the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a business cannot fire an employee for being a medical marijuana patient — a decision...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts
Natural Fibers and Uncommon Weaves Cloth may seem like something you can find in nature, something that just is; but people do have to make it. And creating cloth by hand is becoming a lost art. See why textiles are glorious at The Crafted Cloth, an exhibit of...
by Jack Brown | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
My first exposure to Egon Schiele came via Deane G. Keller, an artist and professor whose figure drawing classes remain one of my most lasting memories of art school. We had been working on some hand studies when he suggested I might enjoy the Austrian artist’s work,...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Food + Booze, News
Nathan pulls his mother by the hand through the Springfield downtown farmers market stopping at none of the booths she wants to visit: the cookie stand, the hand-made jewlery display, the gourmet chips, and honey. The 2-year-old loves the farmers market, his mother...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
The cost of a University of Massachusetts Amherst education has increased on average by more than $1,000 each year for the past three years. This, in a world where most working people can expect a 2 -percent cost-of-living raise — if that. In the summer of 2015, the...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, News, Wellness
Why should the farmers have all the fun harvesting the fresh fruits and vegetables from their own farms? U-pick farms abound in the Pioneer Valley. Strawberry season has mostly gone by, but blueberries are ripe for the pickin’, and it won’t be long before apple season...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, News
MONDAYS PALMER — Three Rivers, Hryniewicz Park, 1-5 p.m. Through October SPRINGFIELD — Church in the Acres, 1383 Wilbraham Road, 2-6 p.m. Through first week of October TUESDAYS GREENFIELD — Between Green Fields Market and King’s Gym, Sears Avenue, 1:30-6:30 p.m....
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, The V-Spot
I love reading all of your stuff. I was wondering if you had any advice on getting back into a sexual relationship. My partner and I have been together for over four years and our sex has fizzled out a bit. I think now we feel really nervous about it and don’t know...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, News
When I first got a farm share several years ago, I had a dream of a bounty of tomatoes, carrots, and other recognizable vegetables. The reality was that yes, these vegetables were there, but there were also oddball veggies I’d never heard of or seen before; and...
by Rob Brezsny | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you feeling as daring about romance as I suspect? If so, I’ve composed a provocative note for you to give to anyone you have good reason to believe will be glad to receive it. Feel free to copy it word-for-word or edit it to suit your...
by Dave Eisenstader | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles
The Knightscope security robot, an R2D2-shaped rolling bot, can turn, beep, and whistle while on patrol. It can also self-destruct, as one proved while working outside the Georgetown Waterfront in Washington, D.C. It rolled into a decorative fountain and drowned....
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Review, Valley Show Girl
Ahead of their show at the Iron Horse, I plug my purple Skull Candies into my ears, and click play on the intro track to Eddie Japan’s Golden Age. The sound of static pulls me in, reminding me of vinyl, so I pretend I’m listening on a record player, not my computer at...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Chapatti, now playing at Silverthorne Theater Company, is one of the sweetest comedies about grief, loneliness and suicide I’ve ever seen. The title is unfortunate, even confusing, since Christian O’Reilly’s play takes place in Dublin, not Delhi, and the name has...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 21, 2017 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
We’re no Nevada, but last week Massachusetts took two rippin’ steps toward weed legalization and protection in the state. First the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a business cannot fire an employee for being a medical marijuana patient — a decision...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 21, 2017 | Articles
Alex Rohan & Joe Staf are half of Springfield-based acoustic jam rock band, Feel Good Drift. The duo performed for Valley Advocate Sessions LIVE on the front lawn of the Daily Hampshire Gazette on June 29. Like what you’re listening to? Check out the Valley...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 20, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music
by Christin Howard | Jul 20, 2017 | Articles, News, Wellness
In its heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s, roller derby was known for fierce females, fishnets, spiked hair and names like “Iron Maven.” After a lull in the ‘90s, roller derby was resurrected in the early 2000s as an all-female, athletic sport. But in the Pioneer Valley,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 20, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
A Suicidal Robot Our D.C. office building got a security robot. It drowned itself. We were promised flying cars, instead we got suicidal robots. pic.twitter.com/rGLTAWZMjn — Bilal Farooqui (@bilalfarooqui) July 17, 2017 The Knightscope security robot, an R2D2-shaped...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 20, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Reid Thompson’s setting for Speech & Debate, now receiving a near-perfect production at Barrington Stage Company, is a high school classroom. Maps and historical posters line the walls and headshots of famous Americans form a frieze above a pair of whiteboards –...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Newsletter
Draco and the Malfoys • Saturday I held out on Harry Potter mania for years, but finally succumbed when the last book came out in 2007. I read them all in a matter of months, but I didn’t go as far as these folks, who wrote albums of Harry Potter-inspired...
by Will Meyer | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns
I’ve played in about a half dozen bands over the past seven years here in the Valley. I’ve played on the steps of my beloved Goodwin Memorial Library in Hadley (for free) and I’ve played The Calvin (for $250); I’ve played countless basements (including “The...
by Jack Brown | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Music, Newsletter
“Wimps and Wanna-Be’s need not apply!” That was the tagline of a print ad announcing an open audition for “FIERCE Male Dancers” who wanted to earn a spot on Madonna’s controversial, ground-breaking Blond Ambition Tour in 1990. It would have been a dream job for any...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 18, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s “romances,” those late works in which comedy blends with tragedy and the endings are neither strewn with corpses nor aclang with wedding bells, but suffused with poignancy and forgiveness. The Tempest is the most popular...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Cinematic Pop Music Boston/Western Mass’ Eddie Japan combines that feel good ‘60s pop with a splash of ‘80s alternative new wave that’s a blast. In 2013, Eddie Japan won Boston’s ultra cool Rock ‘n’ Roll Rumble, and picked up a Boston Music Award for “Live...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 19, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
“Oh dear, the Wicked Witch is coming!” cried the Mayor of Munchkin City. “In that case,” responded Good Witch Glinda, “I’ve got to go.” “But why?” asked Dorothy, who was just starting to get used to not being in Kansas anymore. “Because she and I can’t be onstage at...
by Lena Wilson | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Film, Stream Queen
When Queen released their music video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” back in the ‘70s, it’s doubtful they thought the medium would ever become as quintessential as it has today. In this millennium of viral content and streaming video, music videos have become an artist’s...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Review, Wellness
Yes, I had cooked with herbs before, or I thought I had. But the first lesson that Conway author Brittany Wood Nickerson’s Recipes from the Herbalist’s Kitchen (just out from Storey Publishing in North Adams www.storey.com) taught me is that my prior forays in cooking...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My partner and I have different sex drives. I could have sex four to six times a week, while he feels more comfortable with about two. In the beginning, we had a lot of sex and I was ecstatic thinking that our sex drives were more matched. Now, not so much. I...
by Warren Johnston | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The Pour Man
Mont Gravet, a light, refreshing, low-alcohol white wine, is perfect for drinking on warm summer evenings. It also has the added enjoyment of being a wine of discovery, one from an unfamiliar region, made from a grape that gets little attention and that I know little...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Leisure, Newsletter, Wellness
The Harry Potter books and films have inspired many real world spillovers, including real-life wizarding schools and online quizzes that determine your magical house. But among the more surprisingly widespread are the leagues that have sprouted up to play the magical...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
A man and woman dressed as Batman characters were shot by police while having sex in an Australian nightclub. The man, dressed as the Joker, was shot in the stomach after police mistook his fake gun for a real one. The woman was dressed as Harley Quinn, and was shot...
by From Our Readers | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Iron Horse Entertainment Group Under Fire Several readers took issue with what they perceived as a lack of interest in the local music scene from IHEG in the comments section and on Facebook in last week’s cover story, “Behind the Music,” July 13-19, 2017. Here are a...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Western Massachusetts advocacy groups know that there are many in immigrant communities living in fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and arrests, and over the course of this year have been working to do something about it — particularly in light...
by Christin Howard | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, News
“Everyone thinks of Massachusetts as such a liberal place, but I don’t think they realize how big the stigma is even here.” Those words were spoken by Alice, who will begin her third year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst this fall. Now 21, Alice chose...
by Rob Brezsny | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Greek word philokalia is translated as the “love of the beautiful, the exalted, the excellent.” I propose that we make it your keyword for the next three weeks — the theme you keep at the forefront of your awareness everywhere you go....
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 15, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
In her “Detroit Trilogy” of plays, Dominique Morisseau looks at black lives in that once-vibrant city through the lens of three distinct eras and groups of people. Paradise Blue takes place in a 1949 jazz club in the city’s historic Black Bottom district, which is...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 14, 2017 | Articles
The Mary Jane Jones blends vintage soul, jazz, and blues together with heavy horns, intricate guitar-work, and vocals that transport you back in time to a dimly lit speakeasy. The group performed for Valley Advocate Sessions LIVE on the front lawn of the Daily...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 13, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Think of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as fan fiction – Tom Stoppard’s contribution to the “greatest-play-ever-written” phenomenon. That is, Hamlet. In fact, though they were written centuries apart (around 1599 and 1966, respectively), the two make a...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 13, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
The Harry Potter books and films have inspired many real world spillovers, including real-life wizarding schools and online quizzes that determine your magical house. But among the more surprisingly widespread are the leagues that have sprouted up to play the magical...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2017 | Articles
The Mary Jane Jones is vintage soul, blues, and jazz with heavy horns. The band played at LIVE set on the front lawn of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the full performance will be released this Friday on July 14. Until then, here’s a teaser for the The Mary...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 11, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
When he was 15 years old in 1976, Niberd Abdalla immigrated to the United States from Iraq fleeing persecution due to his family’s Kurdish heritage and democratic activism. He’s lived as an undocumented person in the United States for the past 41 years and has...
