Articles
by Advocate Staff | Apr 19, 2017 | Articles
The Valley Advocate would like to thank everyone that took time to vote in the 2017 Valley Advocate Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll. This year you will notice that we have changed how the winners are displayed on our new website. We hope that you will find our...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 25, 2017 | Articles, News
This spring, voters in eight towns in Western Massachusetts may pass resolutions requiring fossil fuel companies to pay fees to its citizens. The resolutions are non-binding, so the votes will be more about sending a message than actually leveraging the fees,...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 24, 2017 | Articles, Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I have misgivings when I witness bears riding bicycles or tigers dancing on their hind legs or Aries people wielding diplomatic phrases and making careful compromises at committee meetings. While I am impressed by the disciplined expression...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 19, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Democrat and political newcomer Jon Ossoff failed to capture Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District in the first round. But Tuesday’s special election results may give Democrats across the country hopes of recapturing the House in 2018 and thwarting the...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2017 | Articles, News
Amy Goodman, host of radio program Democracy Now!, will speak at Mount Holyoke College at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25. Goodman will speak at the Gamble Auditorium at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum about increased threats to freedom of the press and the...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 21, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration has been deemed mediocre – receiving a “C” for the second year in a row for its environmental policies and leadership, according to a report card from seven leading environmental organizations. “Unfortunately, once again we...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
If at first you don’t succeed… Samuel West announced in April that his Museum of Failure will open in Helsingborg, Sweden, in June, to commemorate innovation missteps that might serve as inspiration for future successes. Among the initial exhibits:...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 21, 2017 | Articles, News
The Internet has a problem, and that problem is that many of the people who use it are bullies and cowardly naysayers who hide behind their anonymity. On the other hand, Peter Tao, a junior and biochemistry major at UMass Amherst, is upbeat and positive to a fault. I...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 20, 2017 | Articles, News
In the age of President Trump, many people are stepping up to organize and counter the rising tide nationalism, xenophobia, racism and hate fueled far-right flirtations with Nazism. Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American Muslim civil rights and racial justice activist...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 19, 2017 | Articles, Music, News
Who is Hammydown? To see more come back Friday afternoon when we’ll post the full 20 minute concert and interview with Hammydown. Want more Sessions? Check out past performances from bands that include Mammal Dap, The Suitcase Junket, Mikey Sweet, Ray Mason, The...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
It was a terrible way to start the New Year. Three people died and nearly 50 were displaced as a fire consumed the five-story building at 106 North East Street on January 1, 2017. Looking for a quick way to respond, the City of Holyoke has expanded its federally...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, Film, Uncategorized
This week, our resident Stream Queen Lena Wilson offers a journey into some high-minded flicks beyond old Cheech and Chong movies (see pg. 18). But Advocate staff thought it equally important to share a blacklist of movies and TV shows to avoid when high — at...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, News
UMass Amherst is getting a School of Earth and Sustainability and it will launch Wednesday, April 19. The keynote speaker at Wednesday’s event, which will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., will be Yale law and psychology professor Dan Kahan. Other...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
From the outside, 5 Appleton St. in Holyoke looks like any number of towering, brick artifacts from a time when Holyoke earned its unofficial title “The Paper City.” But looks can be deceiving. New life is being breathed into the 200,000 square-foot facility and...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
A chemical weapons attack in Syria, a missile strike from the United States and worsening relations with Russia have made this month a serious pivot point in the protracted Syrian conflict. Is this the moment future historians will identify as the start to a new Cold...
by Lena Wilson | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Film, Newsletter, Stream Queen
It’s 4/20, and whether you consider today a national holiday or just a chance to gather some friends and smoke, you’ll probably end up watching something. Thankfully, now that it’s no longer the ’70s, stoners can open Netflix or YouTube and watch something unique and...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Over the past year, I’ve thought a lot about my sexuality. Recently, I came across the term “heteroflexible” and immediately, I felt like I identified with it more than any other sexual orientation I previously knew about. However, I continue to feel invalidated by my...
by Jack Brown | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
TED talks — the bite-sized presentations given at the organization’s annual Technology, Education, and Design conference — have become an oddly popular cultural phenomenon. At once elitist and public-spirited (a standard conference membership will run you 10 grand,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, News, Stage
Shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, April 17, Owen Wormser changed out of his flip-flops and donned work boots. Fitting pieces of stone together in the lot in front of Ghost Bread and across the street from the former Serio’s market, Wormser is polishing off a...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): After George Washington was elected as the first President of the United States, he had to move from his home in Virginia to New York City, which at the time was the center of the American government. But there was a problem: He didn’t have...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Hot Haikus In response to our call on our Facebook page “It is in the 80s today. Someone write a haiku about the weather in the comments”, here’s a few entries from the community: Massachusetts spring No rhyme or reason to it Roller coaster ride — Frank Giuliano Hot...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 19, 2017 | Articles, Food Booze and Beyond, Missed Connections
If you’ve never checked out Craigslist’s Missed Connection forum, you really should. The following is a sample from the Western Mass forum. Post dates have been added. Federal St, You were painting your house — m4w (Greenfield) About 3:45, I drove down federal...
by Warren Johnston | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, The Pour Man
In the world of wine, Domaine La Manarine is a relatively minor player — about 89 acres of vines, 60,000 bottles of wine a year — and that’s a good thing. Good, because the wines made there by owner Gilles Gasq are well-crafted and a great value, and they reflect the...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 18, 2017 | Articles, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, Taste-Off!
Cheesecake is one of the most decadent and delightful treats of all the sweets. A cheesecake should be fluffy and creamy, sugary and buttery, fresh and delicate. Because when it’s not, it’s a damn waste of calories slathered onto your hips. Being one of the best...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 16, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Dr. Jill Stein, activist and third party presidential candidate extraordinaire, will speak at Smith College on Wednesday, April 19. The talk will take place from 7 to 9 at the Weinstein Auditorium and is free and open to the public. Stein was the Green-Rainbow Party...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 14, 2017 | Articles, Blogs, News, Newsletter
I had never read Noam Chomsky before or seen him speak, but I’d definitely heard about him over the years. Most recently when watching the movie “Captain Fantastic,” when the main characters — a super smart, back-to-the-land family — all celebrate “Chomsky...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 13, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Music
Rick Murnane is a Northampton-based singer-songwriter who has played with more area bands than you can shake a drumstick at, but his guitar skills are equally impressive when he plays his powerful and tender songs solo. Whether you’re listening to “Last...
by Chance Viles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Machakos is a city and county in Kenya. It’s a beautiful place. The large palms, and safari grass are strong and bright, the blue sky dominates the flat and open landscape. But the beauty of Machakos can be deceiving: poverty is a struggle many people face. Because...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured
I love the idea of art galleries everywhere — in empty downtown storefronts, in the halls of hospitals and the community rooms of nonprofit agencies — but it’s always a bit awkward, at first, to enjoy them. There’s a buzzer to hit, or a camera to stare into, or a...
by Will Meyer | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music
On the road with The Sun Parade From the streets of Nashville I called Lynne Bertrand, who manages the Northampton band The Sun Parade. There was a problem.I had stopped by the venue earlier and noticed the sign outside said they were going first. This wasn’t going to...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Recently, in Dubai — the largest city in the United Arab Emirates — Dubai Civil Defense started using water jetpacks that lift firefighters off the ground to hover in advantageous positions as they work the hoses. Also, using jet skis, rescuers can avoid traffic...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Our Lady Laverne Laverne Cox grew up in Mobile, Alabama, raised by a single mother in a Christian family. Back then, it wasn’t at all clear that she would end up attending college in New York City and pursuing a career as an actress, let alone that she would become...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot
I started masturbating when I was in high school and there would be times where something would feel good, but then I would feel my muscles relax and suddenly my bed would be wet with pee — sometimes a lot of pee. It was like in certain positions I had no control over...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, The Beerhunter
Two worthwhile breweries off exit 9 The naturalist John Muir once observed that “when one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” I’m no bearded environmental philosopher, but I do like to kick back with a pint sometimes and...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Stage
We’re still a few months out from July’s annual Green River Festival in Greenfield, but we’re right on time to share a special early announcement from producers Signature Sounds. This year, the festival will add a new stage called the Next Wave Stage, which will host...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film
Strangers No More In the 1950s, Hampshire College professor Abraham Ravett relocated with his Polish Jewish family from Eastern Europe to the United States. Ravett was just three at the time of the move, but he carried with him a memory — and a single black-and-white...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts
Full Spectrum Painter Mary Witt (who composed the piece on the left) and multimedia artist Brianna Ashe (the piece on the right) are showing their new work in a playful exhibit called Colorplay, in the front room of Oxbow Gallery this month. They both love working and...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Close to Noam Leftist hero Noam Chomsky, now 88, has been around the block a few times, picking up new fields of expertise like normal people pick up groceries. He’s a world-renowned linguist, philosopher, author, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic,...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
It seems that lately, every time I go to a play — or a movie, for that matter — it gets me thinking about Donald Trump. Ever since he and his goon squad have taken over in Washington, I’ve noticed that so much of what we see and create seems newly topical and timely....
by Jack Brown | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
Maine Course Like so many of my middle-aged compatriots, I seem to have adopted food as a new hobby. Not cooking, necessarily — quite a bit of this particular enterprise is taken up simply by watching other people cook, it turns out — but eating, at least. And what...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Thanks to Republican dirty tricks, Trump-nominee Neil Gorsuch has been confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. But a little-known political maneuver from the 1930s might be the Democrat’s ticket to wresting back Court control. Gorsuch will be seated on the court with 54...
by Rob Brezsny | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Before visiting Sicily for the first time, American poet Billy Collins learned to speak Italian. In his poem “By a Swimming Pool Outside Siracusa,” he describes how the new language is changing his perspective. If he were thinking in...
by Compiled By Kristin Palpiniillustration By Catherine Gibbs | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Food Booze and Beyond, Missed Connections, Newsletter
If you’ve never checked out Craigslist’s Missed Connection forum, you really should. The following is a samples from the Western Mass forum. Post dates have been added. RR Restaurant 3/26 — m4w (Spfld) You are soooo attractive! We exchanged glances multiple times. I...
by Naila Moreira | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
We tell stories to know who we are. Speaking our own stories, we rediscover ourselves. And by hearing and identifying with one another’s journeys, we discover and reach each other, too. My world — my story — is one of science. I birdwatch. I teach students how to...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 6, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Movies are not my beat, but I often go to the theater at the Amherst Cinema. The ongoing National Theatre Live series of big-screen, high-def broadcasts from the London stage is a staple of my playgoing schedule. This month and next, the cinema screens encores of five...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Tweet Puppets for the People From its founding in New York’s Lower East Side in 1963 to its decades-long residence in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Bread & Puppet Theater remains one of the country’s most inventive and internationally recognized performing...
by Lena Wilson | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter, Stream Queen
In our world of studio filmmaking driven by franchises and sequels, creators looking to develop original ideas are often restricted to independent production. While indie filmmaking means working on a shoestring budget, it also often means the cast and crew are...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
A Woman Alive As I walked into Gateway City Arts in Holyoke for the first time, I came to a dead stop to admire the factory-style architecture. The ceilings are very high, with a huge industrial ceiling fan staring down. The large stage was lit up awaiting performers,...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Stage
War and Music Playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes has jumped onto our cultural radar many times over the years — she received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful, and she wrote the book for the musical In The Heights alongside future...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Stay Home From School Better questions for the article (“Breaking the School to Prison Pipeline: Springfield reduces in-school arrests, but is it enough?”, March 30-April 5, 2017) would have been: Why were the students arrested? Did anyone do the same thing and were...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Dynamic Duo Easthampton City Arts+ kicks off the third annual Easthampton Book Fest with the first installment of the new Grist for the Mill speaker series, with inaugural guests Michael Musto (a longtime writer at The Village Voice) and Mickey Boardman, the editorial...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
The Tribe That Quests In recent years, ensemble theater group Children of the Wild has managed something nifty: the full integration of the musical band dynamic into their touring acts. Music and theater fused completely in the show The Wastelands, an original...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
One of the Greats New Orleans native Terence Blanchard has become one of America’s most respected jazz musicians, working as a trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. He was an integral figure in the 1980s jazz resurgence, and his trumpet...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
History Hangs Overhead If you’re looking to get out this week and into an immersive installation inspired by Islamic architecture — we’ve got just the local exhibit for you (actually, it’s the only one). Soo Sunny Park created ”Luminous Muqarna” for the Islamic Arts...
by Jack Brown | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
One of my favorite discoveries from the last year was Documentary Now!, a wonderfully endearing mix of parody and love letter to the modern documentary genre. Originally created for the IFC channel — I first ran across it on Netflix, where you can still check out the...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
No one knows how many timber rattlesnakes there are in Massachusetts — and this is a sticking point for opponents of a plan to boost the endangered species population.Does this species of venomous snakes really need saving? Over the past few years, state scientists...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
The word “shrill” makes some people want to instinctively cover their ears, but Lindy West decided to make it the title to her 2016 book Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman. The self-identified fat feminist will be reading from her book Saturday, 7 p.m., at the Hooker...
by From Our Readers | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
You Can’t Make an Omelette …Poem and illustration by Mary L. Rice, maryl.rice@yahoo.com Is Boston Super Racist?Readers weigh in on the question posed in a Between the Lines of the same name in the March 30-April 5, 2017.Via FacebookEvan H Gregg: “Beloved...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Wellness
Every year billions of ticks creep through wooded areas across Massachusetts and New England, feeding vampirically off the blood of wildlife, pets, and humans. With ticks comes the most obvious fear: Lyme disease. But how much of what seems like common knowledge about...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
China’s public-park restrooms have for years suffered toilet-paper theft by local residents who raid dispensers for their own homes — a cultural habit, wrote Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, expressing taxpayer feelings of “owning” public facilities — but the...
