Articles
by Hunter Styles | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter
Pork it Over Don’t sit around and do nothing on Labor Day weekend — give your stomach (and heart, and arteries) some love to labor over. The Student Prince hosts a two-day pig roast and barbecue with pig-inspired food, bacon-infused drinks, games, and live...
by Jack Brown | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
A musician’s life is never easy. I’m not talking about those of us who pick up the guitar now and then, or even the many who, long after it becomes clear that they will likely not move beyond the coffee house or bar circuit, still pack up the Volvo to head out for a...
by Emet Marwell | Aug 30, 2016 | Articles, College Survival Guide
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Lip Bomb, the new Advocate feature that brings opinion pieces written by area college students that touch on the topics that move them most: higher education, politics, culture, campus life, arts and entertainment. We’re kicking things off...
by Jack Evans | Aug 30, 2016 | Articles, College Survival Guide
If you’re getting ready to start at a college this year — especially if it’s a four-year school that requires you to live in a dorm — odds are you’re about to get your first taste of semi-communal living. Dorm life means sharing a relatively tight space with several...
by Alexa Chryssovergis | Aug 30, 2016 | Articles, College Survival Guide
Though most dining commons food comes as pre-made cuisine, already distinctly seasoned, there’s no reason students can’t still mix things up when the norm gets old. I headed into Worcester Dining Commons at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to ask students about...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Roots Reggae Returns Everton Blender was one of the most prominent reggae musicians and producers in Jamaica in the ’90s, and his smooth tenor, up-tempo arrangements, and spiritually uplifting themes still resonate in 2016 at the crossroads of roots reggae and...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Scratching the Surface Greenfield artist and educator Karen Gaudette was trained as a printmaker, but she has always loved to draw. Scratchboard, it turns out, provides the perfect meeting point. For 20 years now, Gaudette has used the technique to achieve fine-line...
by Peter Vancini | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Wellness
If you caught much of the Rio Olympics this summer, you may have noticed a blitz of sports beverage commercials featuring Olympic athletes like boxer Shakur Stevenson swilling fluorescent blue Powerade, or Usain Bolt and Serena Williams pushing Gatorade. Aside from a...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana,I’m a straight 20-something lady and have been with my boyfriend for two years. We have a great sex life and we’re totally in love! He doesn’t seem to have much of an interest in my vagina — and my vagina, in my mind, is kinda the main thing...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, College Survival Guide, News
In the Valley, where you can’t throw a hacky sack without hitting a campus, September means back to college. Keep scrolling down for infographs.The value of a college degree can be debated — among people who have earned them, more than 80 percent say it was a great...
by Peter Vancini | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, News, Scene Here
It’s human nature to want to see just how far an idea can be pushed. Take Slide the City for instance, the 1,000-foot slip-and-slide that transformed Appleton Street into a lazy river for the Celebrate Holyoke festival this past weekend. It’s easy to imagine...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, College Survival Guide, News, Newsletter
The University of Chicago may have sent one of the most bizarre and shady freshmen welcome letters I’ve ever seen, when they mailed the missives to the class of 2020 last week.The main thrust of the letter isn’t to welcome but to put freshmen on notice that the...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Avoid GMOs; go organic Farmers have increased their pesticide use on GMO crops three-fold compared to standard conventional use; that’s enough reason to avoid GMOs (“Vermont’s Short-Lived GMO Experiment” Aug. 11-17, 2016). Most GMOs (genetically modified organisms)...
by Chuck Shepherd | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
The phenomenal Japanese singer Hatsune Miku — 100 million YouTube hits — is coming off of a sold-out, 10-city North American concert tour with high-energy audiences — blocks-long lines to get in; raucous crowd participation; hefty souvenir sales — except that “she”...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
Mindfulness, or the practice of being completely aware of everything happening in the present moment, can serve as the path to a peaceful world. That person in your life attacking you? Perhaps it is because they are threatened by you. That man who sexually harasses...
by Blaise Majkowski | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Film, Newsletter
Let’s take a trip in the Wayback Machine to the early 1960s. The British company Eon Productions has just been accorded the honor of producing a series of films based on the Ian Fleming James Bond novels, starting with Dr. No. But there’s a catch. The contract says...
by Warren Johnston | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Newsletter, The Pour Man
In the early 1970s when I was first widening my wine experience beyond the California jugs and the Portuguese roses, I discovered a French wine in a 2-liter plastic bottle. It cost about $1.50. It wasn’t very good. It had lots of strange residue in the bottom of the...
by Gary Carra | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
He is certainly a scene fixture, clocking more than his share of road miles and hours packed in vans. But let’s face it: the guy’s named after a luxury vehicle, not to mention immensely talented. So why wouldn’t a talent buyer tap the Valley’s...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Out Standing in Their Fields For 26 years now, the Advocate has awarded high marks to all of those Valley musicians willing to pack their muscle, humor, skill, and silly costume pieces out into the beautiful, grassy Look Park every year for Transperformance, the...
by Jack Brown | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter
No Kidding One of the great myths of cinema is that kids movies are for kids. Sure, they might be a bit more brightly colored than most, or hit most of their punch lines a little more on the nose, but never forget that these films are made by grown-ups. Peel back that...
by Will Meyer | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter
We Buffer, We Suffer Candace Clement has been a been a member of the Northampton band Bunny’s A Swine for eight years. On songs like “Greetings from the Bottom,” her Strat intertwines with Emerson Stevens’ 3-string guitar contraption like a ball of twine, which gets...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Dear Yana,I was recently discussing your column with some new friends I met through Pioneer Valley Aces, a local group of individuals who identify as aromantic and/or asexual. I wasn’t the only one of us who appreciated your witty way of reassuring those who...
by Gary Carra | Aug 26, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Seba-(no)-dough Show Eric Gaffney says sayonara to summer with free Florence show Sebadoh co-founder Eric Gaffney rounds out the Acoustic Saturday Summer Series at JJ’s Tavern in Florence this Saturday, Aug. 27. “I recorded two full-length records in a six...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
The Valley’s cheeriest new festival doubles in size for its second year The hip cats that comprise Lake Street Dive must be halfway through their nine lives by now. Since the four members met at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music in 2004, their sound has...
by Hunter Styles and Peter Vancini | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
CHRISTINA COURTIN Saturday, 3:00 – 3:40 The Brooklyn-based Courtin may not be the only Juilliard-trained classical violinist and composer on hand this weekend, but she is definitely the most colorful, bending genres as exuberantly as she can switch between...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Shake the Trees The woods of Western Mass promise to be rather loud this weekend for RPM Fest, which brings three days of rock, punk, and metal to Greenfield. As usual, this will be a totally awesome time: vendors, games, raffles, BYOB camping, and live sets by Lich...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter
Well-Groomed Do our canine companions understand what they’re playing for and whom they’re up against at dog shows? Hard to say. But surely they sense that all of the training, baths, treats, and commands imparted by adrenaline-scented humans mark a special occasion....
by Advocate Staff | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Get Out With Staff Picks, Leisure, Music
CT HorrorFest • Saturday My favorite time of the year is around the corner, and all these marvelous Halloween events keep popping up. This Saturday, feast your eyes upon some of horror’s finest. Meet and greet with the “Godfather of the Dead” George A. Romero. The...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter
It was so hot and humid inside Pearl Street Nightclub during a metal show earlier this month that the ceiling was beading up with condensation and raining sweat onto the crowd.The sweltering experience spurred nearly 200 people to voice outrage on social media, and...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
The old familiar smell of hundreds of people’s body odors mingles with the dust kicking up under our feet and the marijuana smoke hanging low in the air to form that perfect outdoor concert aroma at Mountain Park in Holyoke Saturday.Turkuaz, each member head to toe in...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
At a concert — years ago — I was dancing in the front row when the familiar aroma of bright piney buds wafted by. It didn’t take long to find the source; a friendly gorilla finger was passing down the line. A sweaty dude in the neon pink knit cap exhaled a big...
by Chuck Shepherd | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Featured, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
India has supposedly outlawed the “baby-tossing” religious test popular among Hindus and Muslims in rural villages in Maharashtra and Karnataka states, but a July New York Times report suggested that parents were still allowing surrogates to drop their...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
The Valley’s summer theaters have folded their figurative tents, but looking west, the season isn’t quite over. Out toward the Berkshires, five troupes are still up and running through this weekend and beyond. Chester Theatre Company’s season closer is The...
by Larry Parnass | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
In the American legal system, we trust citizens on juries to decide matters of life and death. But before jurors exercise that power, they put in the time, sitting through testimony and debating the merits of a case. Few jurors complain. Justice demands they sift...
by From Our Readers | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
We’re Back, Iraq Recent headlines announcing more U.S. troops to Iraq made me feel like the character in Bill Murray’s movie Groundhog Day, and with good reason … The politicians in Washington have been duped into believing that more violence will solve the problem...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Positivity As an artist, physician, and gay man, Dr. Eric Avery found himself at the epicenter of the AIDS public health crisis beginning in the early 1980s. At first, Avery focused on his personal experience with the disease. Over the next three decades, his artwork...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage
“You, minion, are too saucy!” The Two Gentlemen of Verona is widely believed to be Shakespeare’s first play. It’s also one of his best. The core elements are simple: two men, one woman, and the antics that result from being struck by Cupid’s arrow. Shakespeare...
by Andy Castillo | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles
The key ingredient: locally sourced, out back With beer lovers thirsty for experimental and fresh brews, a region that supports local agriculture, and a back-to-the-craft-beer movement sweeping New England, now is the perfect time to open a brewery in Western...
by Rob Brezsny | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Newsletter, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks, I hope you won’t scream curses at the rain, demanding that it stop falling on you. Similarly, I suggest you refrain from punching walls that seem to be hemming you in, and I beg you not to spit into the wind when...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
FRIDAY: Hello, Westfield! The sign FREE MUSIC doesn’t always promise a good time, but trust us, we vetted this one for you. Shenanigans hosts Easthampton’s James Alan Barry Jr., Haverhill alt-rockers Analog Heart, acoustic soul rocker Kelsey Veillette with a full...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 18, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Around the World in 60 Minutes It’s fitting that the choral group Roomful of Teeth is on tour during the 2016 Olympic Games. For one thing, the eight-person ensemble — founded by Williams College professor Brad Wells in 2009 — has set out to “mine the expressive...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter
Fair Play Family farms are as American as baseball, or a hot apple pie cooling on a breezy windowsill. And just like bases, or pies, farms get stolen. Large-scale agribusiness has helped to precipitate a decline in traditional and small-scale farming in this country...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter, Stage
Damn, Pam Choreographer Pam Tanowitz been garnering ever more attention over the past 15 years for creating new dance techniques and styles that spring from classical dance vocabulary but glitter with abstract shapes and postmodern ideas. Her show at Jacob’s Pillow...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 18, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music
TITANIS Farewell Show in Florence – Friday Springfield’s ambient, heavy doomers TITANIS are bidding farewell? Insert sad face here. Make sure to check them out before you can’t. It’s worth it. Also that night, rockers A Moment To Riot, Nim and...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
The Supergroup Next Door Mystics Anonymous is local singer-songwriter Jeff Steblea’s new musical project, best defined as eclectic independent rock. “With Mystics,” says Steblea, “the whole point was to establish a project where nothing is off-limits.” His bandmates...
by Gary Carra | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Thomas Delmer “Artimus” Pyle comes to the Valley this Saturday, Aug. 20. He’ll be performing with his Artimus Pyle Band and their “ultimate tribute to Ronnie Van Zandt’s Lynyrd Skynyrd” as part of the Rock The Boot Music Fest,...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Wade in the Water You can step into a peaceful art gallery from the streets of a bustling metropolis and still attain a bit of serenity (given a few minutes to de-stress from nearly being clipped by a speeding cab or two), but taking a deep breath and appreciating the...
by Jack Brown | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
Alien. Blade Runner. Black Hawk Down. The Martian. Over the decades, director Ridley Scott has built a career on making the kinds of films (often with a bit of a sci-fi bent) that combine quiet moments with explosive action. But for me, he will always be first...
by Pete Vancini | Aug 19, 2016 | Articles
SPRINGFIELD — Dakin Humane Society is reporting that two unidentified women entered the animal shelter at 171 Union Street at approximately 12:30 p.m. on Thursday and made off with an eight-week-old kitten. But now the cat’s out of the bag — the...
by Peter Vancini | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, News
Above a gray storefront on the corner of Sumner Avenue and Dickinson Street at the X in Springfield hangs a sign that reads, in leafy green letters, “Potco: Everything that goes in the POT…” Yes, “pot” is indeed written in all caps and followed by an ellipsis,...
by Peter Vancini | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Nerding Out, News
If you’ve ever done any birdwatching in the quaint pastoral landscapes of the Wilbraham-Monson area, you may have noticed a striking abundance of bright blue little thrushes with vibrant orange and white stomachs merrily chasing bugs and perching on nest boxes and...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles
I’m nervous going into the doctor’s office on King Street in Northampton — it feels like I’m doing something illegal.“That’s normal,” says the nurse practitioner when I sit down in the consultation room. “Everyone feels that way at first.”I’m at Canna Care, a national...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 9, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Using scissors, snip off a strand of your hair. As you do, sing a beloved song with uplifting lyrics. Seal the hair in an envelope on which you have written the following: “I am attracting divine prods and unpredictable nudges that will...
by Kristin Palpini & Chris Lindahl | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Jill Griffin, Western Mass’ top medical marijuana gatekeeper, is getting out of the game. On Aug. 1, Griffin posted an open letter to her patients and the Valley saying that she will no longer recommend medical marijuana to new or existing patients after Aug. 31. Her...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Columns, News, Newsletter
Another summer, another superintendent for Amherst public schools. Since 2000, the school district has been under the guidance of five superintendents — six if you double count the husband-wife team that ran the schools for under a year. This isn’t normal, and it...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The Beerhunter
Compass Pints Four hidden corners of the Valley’s craft beer map Some people have trouble leaving their work at the office. As the Beerhunter, I’ve never really had to contend with that. In fact, if my editor turned around in her swivel chair and saw me...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 16, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I don’t fish. To be frank, I don’t approve of fishing, especially “sport” fishing, since, like hunting, it’s not a sport in the accepted sense, that is, a contest between two equal adversaries playing by the same rules. I don’t understand the outsize thrill folks seem...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Heart of Stone We just spent 45 minutes aimlessly browsing WhereToFindRocks.com. We blame the website for Martin Zinn Expositions, which sent us there to learn more about how a whole lot of well-arranged molecules can make for some truly incredible feats of...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, Newsletter, Taste-Off!, Uncategorized
One classic question among lazy, hungry people goes like this: if you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? It’s a fun question — and, if the Trumpocalypse triggers the end of global food supply lines, possibly a relevant one. But...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Old-School Soul Revival Roll over, James Brown — soul singer Charles Bradley is coming to sweep the hearts of the MoCA masses gathered outdoors in the museum’s courtyard on Saturday night. Bradley has been hard at it since the mid-60s, when he spent years hitchhiking,...
