Articles
by Will Meyer | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
On Thursday, Dec. 1, I stood outside the TD Bank in downtown Northampton with about 30 other people to stand with the Sioux Nation and indigenous-led water protectors — not only to stop the pipeline, but to asphyxiate its funding. Local organizers answered an ask from...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 14, 2016 | Articles
We’re back with our weekly Advocate chats. Everyone was pretty busy, but we managed to say a few words about marijuana, weed, Mary Jane. This is the week that Massachusetts recreational pot law goes into effect. As always, the chat has been lightly edited....
by Hunter Styles | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles
Wow, Congrats — That’s Bad The past decade has seen a rise in fascination with that dumbest of American cultural artifacts: the ugly knit holiday sweater. The stray relative still cranks out a genuine one from time to time, but companies now mass produce them, and...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter
Let Us Now Praise Longer Days We can probably all agree that 2016 was an exhausting year. But it’s not too late to turn this planet around. Next Wednesday marks the winter solstice — the shortest day and the longest night of the year, at least in the northern...
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
The UMass Labor Center has a new lease on life after facing an uncertain future due to planned cuts to its operating budget and courses available.Last week, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy and members of the Labor Center Committee sent...
by Jack Brown | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
When my wife and I began seeing each other — a decade ago, now — one of our early big dates was an afternoon out for a December performance of The Nutcracker, put on by the Pioneer Valley Ballet at the Academy of Music in Northampton. It felt special and somehow...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Malls reached peak radicalness in the ’80s, but we still love them. Yes, the crowds, prices, and parking can get on your nerves, but where else can you buy a puppy, an apple pie, new underwear, and get your eyebrows threaded? That’s right, the mall! Here are five...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts
The New Country The Yiddish Book Center’s newest visiting exhibit captures the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Lower East Side of New York City, which hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants called home. It’s an urban landscape that tried,...
by Matt Burkhartt and Miranda Davis | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
When Mike McCusker and Polly Anderson finished sawing down their Christmas tree, McCusker held the saw up to his nose. The heavy scent of fresh pine from the just-cut tree was just part of the appeal for the two from Shelburne Falls, who had been coming to the...
by Peter Vancini | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Like many college students in the Valley, Ellen Brancart and Lupe Valle rely on Uber — a smartphone app that allows users to catch rides from local drivers — to get around the Five College area after the buses have stopped running at night. On average, the Smith...
by Chuck Shepherd | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
American gangsters traditionally use euphemisms and nicknames (“Chin,” “The Nose”) to disguise criminal activities, but among details revealed at a November murder trial in Sydney, Australia, was that members of the “Brothers 4 Life” gang might have used “pig latin.”...
by Alicia Fuhrman | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter
Make me something good. I used to get this request (and versions of it) often, and almost always from strangers. It was a high-turnover tourist town I worked in — most faces you’d only see for one night. But isn’t that so much of the bar experience: not knowing? The...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 13, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
The Big Sway at The Still • Saturday Funky jam band The Big Sway are headed back to The Still for a night two sets of psychedelic rock. So get rid of those holiday blues after your last minute shopping, and celebrate with some feel good music. The Still also has a...
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Good news, everyone! The U.S. just found $125 billion in surplus funds. Can you believe it? This money can help with education, scientific research, health insurance, elder care, space exploration, repairs on the nation’s crumbling bridges, improvements to our...
by Letters from our readers | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
US flag represents truths both inspiring and terrible We write to offer a veterans’ viewpoint different from those dominating the events at Hampshire College in Amherst. We are members of chapter 95, Veterans for Peace, an international veterans’ organization whose...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, I used to have a very toxic friendship with one of my female friends. She always made jokes at my expense, was very judgemental, temperamental, and didn’t show me much respect. I cut off ties with her, but she and my boyfriend of over two years are...
by Gary Carra | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Longtime radio personality Mike “Haze” DeJesus’s tale of his first meeting with Springfield-area rockers Hypnotic Kick smacks of a tacky joke set up. “Eighteen years ago, three Puerto Rican gents and an Irish lad walked into the radio station,” he recalled. “I was a...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
Filling a glass where Connecticut meets Mass Most night owls are easy when it comes to shifts in ambience, but I can’t say that many of us thrive under fluorescent light. That might have been why, on Wednesday afternoon, my editor found me sighing heavily at my desk....
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Musical Dinosaurs As much as we first loved the music of screamy, crunchy, blissfully tormented alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. — an act formed in Amherst in 1984 that quickly made it huge on the national grunge scene — we kind of thought, circa the turn of the millennium,...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 6, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, News
Pantera Tribute and more \m/ • Saturday Trendkill “the ultimate Pantera tribute” is gonna blow up The Tank with a tribute night to Dimebag Darrell. Also on the bill to make the night even more metal and heavy are locals As Misery Fades, NIM, An Unction In Braille,...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Visions of Sugarplums Why mess with a good thing? The Albany Berkshire Ballet presents its annual tour of the holiday classic The Nutcracker with an eye toward elegant design, great music, and heartfelt performances. Artistic director Madeline Cantarella Culpo...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Brass on the Tracks It seems Bob Dylan has a real pair of rolling stones on him. The guy wins this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature (dubious), then doesn’t plan on picking up the award in person at the prize ceremony the Swedish Academy is hosting in Stockholm on...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage
When I heard about Silverthorne Theater Company’s upcoming production of A Christmas Carol, set in a 1930s radio studio, I thought of the story Garrison Keillor tells about the early days of television, when flickering black-and-white images were luring audiences away...
by Jack Brown | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
It was about a year ago that I stole away for a late night screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the long-awaited “Episode VII” that returned fans to the world of droids, lightsabers, and The Force. It had been an especially anticipated film due to the terrible...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts
The Angel’s in the Details The only thing more astounding than writer and illustrator Ruth Sanderson’s young adult and children’s books — which are painstakingly rendered in watercolor and oil paints — is the fact that she’s published more than 75 of them. Or is it...
by Blaise Majkowski | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
Red Riding Hood I hadn’t flown on a plane in almost 30 years. So when my family and I took our first vacation trip to Florida, naturally I was a bit nervous. The flight down was fine. Once there, our activities ranged from watching the grand fireworks finale at...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Since the election of Donald Trump, anything seems possible. Pigs can fly, hell can freeze over, your parents will apologize for that thing they did a long time ago (you know the one), ravens are writing desks, and anyone can get any job no matter how utterly...
by Sarah Crosby | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
A rocky path led veteran Mary Wilson to the doorstep of the Soldier On Women’s Program. “The gift of desperation,” she calls it. A former U.S. Marine Corps private, Wilson in July moved into the transitional housing program located on the grounds of the VA medical...
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Columns, News, Newsletter
There is nothing more cynical than fake news. The entire concept is to play readers for suckers, manipulating the foundation of reality in exchange for cash or furthering of what is likely a heinous agenda.And the people hosting and spreading fake news online — the...
by Chuck Shepherd | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Almost all law enforcement agencies in America use the Scott Reagent field test when they discover powder that looks like cocaine, but the several agencies that have actually conducted tests for false positives say they happen up to half the time. In October, the...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
I got pregnant this past summer after my birth control failed — I got to be part of that lucky 0.04 percent of IUD users who this happens to. I got the pregnancy terminated and all is well. Or, I guess mostly well. The issue is my partner and I have both been having...
by From Our Readers | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Forced to Fly a Flag? Editor’s Note: This letter is in response to Hampshire College’s recent decision to stop flying the American flag on campus. Shortly after receiving this letter, threats made against students, faculty, and staff were part of a decision at the...
by Naila Moreira | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
I sometimes startle people by saying I don’t have much hope for the environment. “But you’re an environmentalist!” they stutter. “Surely, you must think we can prevent nature from being destroyed? That taking action is worth it?”The other day, for instance, I chatted...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Them, Verses, Us The Center for New Americans is a non-profit adult education center for the Valley’s immigrant, refugee, and migrant communities, with sites in Northampton, Amherst, Greenfield, and Turners Falls. Those resources are invaluable to many, which is why...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts
First Aid Knit To stare at the weavings by Jen Simms is to be drawn into a thicket of interpretations where color, texture, and landcape pull at each other, even as those forces work together to shape these little worlds. It’s part serene escape, part visual puzzle,...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 5, 2016 | Articles, Astrology
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Normally, I cheer you on when you devote single-minded attention to pressing concerns — even if you become a bit obsessive. But right now, in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to run wild and free as you sample lavish variety....
by Advocate Staff | Dec 1, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Continuing our weekly chats, the Advocate staff tackled the topic of fake news, that scourge to lovers of truth everywhere! The chat has been lightly edited. kristinpalpini (Kristin Palpini, editor): Let’s do this! So, Dave, wanna give a description of the...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Food + Booze, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Stage
A Spirited DebateOne of two things will happen to you when confronted with the bold and brassy acts of clairvoyance that Rebecca Anne LoCicero whips up onstage. One will be a sense of reluctant amazement. The other will be a deep, head-shaking skepticism. LoCicero has...
by Laura Holland | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter
They form an army you might meet in a nightmare. Nearly one thousand glazed white figurines dressed in symbols of hatred — such as swastikas or the hooded robes of the infamous Ku Klux Klan — mass together and press close. With the installation of “The Hate Project”...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
After kids, cancer, and commercial success, the band strips their tour down to two The Weepies: Completely Acoustic and Alone Thursday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. Calvin Theatre, Northampton $25-$35 Do you know the feeling of coming in from the cold, kicking off your snow-caked...
by Will Meyer | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter
We must harness the power of DIY to resist Influential music writer Jessica Hopper penned a piece earlier this month on MTV.com that sought to dispel “the silver-lining myth” that a Trump presidency would produce great art, specifically music.She argued that great...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
The Four Winds Although long distance commonly separates Christopher Elchico, Shane Rathburn, Steven Lawhon, and Justin Polyblank, the Barkada Sax Quartet seeks to remind its listeners that chamber music is known historically as “the music of friends.” Formed in 2011...
by Pete Vancini | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
A Tale of Two Cities: Murdertown and Safeville It’s a tale of two cities: one is the self-declared “Safest Large City in America” while right next door, the other has earned the dubious distinction of “Murder Capital of the World.” Director Ruben Polendo and Theater...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Everything Goes Calling all designers, makers, artists, stylists, fashionistas, tattooers, dandies, body painters, costumers, and retailers: next Thursday, Easthampton turns all of its fashion dials up to a fabulous 11. The first-ever STRUT is an all-inclusive,...
by Jack Brown | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Leisure, Newsletter
Whatever your thoughts are about the outcome of last month’s election, it seems fair to say that a Trump presidency will be less welcoming of — if not downright hostile to — many of the world’s cultures. As a film writer, that leaves me feeling both deflated (will...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 14, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
You wouldn’t expect to find close connections between the Sinai desert, urban Serbia and the Appalachian mountains, but a new play by University of Massachusetts theater professor Milan Dragicevich brings them tellingly together. Refugee takes an episode from...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
The Machine Performs Pink Floyd • Saturday What better way to start the holiday month off then with some Pink Floyd! World touring The Machine stops back at the Calvin for their amazing Floyd show that leaves the biggest of fans in awe. Joe Pascarell, founding member...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
I’ve been thinking about writing to you for a long time. My husband and I are about to celebrate 11 years as a couple and we’ve been married for six. It’s been amazing and so much fun to spend all of this time on planet Earth with such a soul-mate dreamboat of a life...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Protesters clumped together like Gore-Tex penguins on the North Dakota, bridge.On Nov. 18, hundreds of people congregated at Backwater Bridge, in the path of Dakota Access Pipeline construction, to pray — and if their prayers happened to get in the way of an oil...
by Peter Vancini | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
Reports of hate crimes have spiked across the nation in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, and dozens of people marched through Holyoke on the evening of Friday, Nov. 18, to protest the president elect’s campaign promises and policies that many...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Newsletter, Wellness
Chocolate is a treat, but when you add kava, chocolate is medicine. At least that’s what Rachael Gibney, a reiki healer from Shutesbury says. She is mixing a bowl of raw cacao with ground kava at a workshop at the Bower Studio in Pelham, showing people how to make...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Leaves of Gloss The natural world bends abstract, then comes sharply into detailed focus, only to recede away again in dreamlike shapes (like in Summer Song, pictured here). It’s an enjoyably surreal experience, stepping from canvas to canvas at Athol artist Susan...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage
Unfinished Business Noel Coward’s surprisingly durable stage comedy Blithe Spirit debuted in London in 1941 and still hasn’t give up the ghost. In fact, it’s one of the longest running non-musical plays ever, having come to Broadway and appeared in film, on...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, Newsletter, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
Studio owner Audrey Blaisdell says she fell for the yoga behind Bikram, not the “cultish belief system.” It became necessary to draw the line, she says, about a year ago. Prospective students came to fear the authoritarian reputation and mistrust the brand...
by From Our Readers | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Time to Unite? Was Peter Vancini’s Nov. 24-30, 2016 column “Between the Lines: One Nation Under Trump?” the kick in the pants you needed to get over your Clinton funk or the musings of a dreamer? Great thoughts on joining together at Thanksgiving instead of...
by Warren Johnston | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Leisure, The Pour Man
My first recollection of Chianti, as it is for many people, was the iconic straw-wrapped bottle, not the wine. Occasionally, an unopened bottle would show up at our house, usually a gift from a friend coming to dinner, and by the end of the adult evening, it would be...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 28, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Australian aviator David Mayman has promised investors that his personal jet packs will hit the market by mid-2017, though early adopters will pay about $250,000 for one, to fly a person at up to 60 mph for 10 minutes. The JB-10, developed by Mayman and designer...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 27, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I feel a kinship with the musical Once, because in a former life I did my own share of street-busking, like the bluejeaned lead in the 2007 film. It’s a simple, poignant tale that’s both heartrending and uplifting, filled with simple, tuneful songs that strike the...
by Gary Carra | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Thanksgiving Eve is roundly considered one of the busiest bar days of the year. True to form, this Wednesday, Nov. 23, finds the Valley circuit smattered with live entertainment offerings.Country rockers Trailer Trash will be holding court at Chicopee’s Maximum...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 21, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music, News, Newsletter
That slight scratching sound the needle makes when you gently place it on the record. The brief static that comes through the speakers before the music hits. Then: bam! Just like magic, music emerges from my vintage suitcase record player, sounding like nothing else....
