Articles
by Jack Brown | Jul 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
In this political season, there has been a lot of talk about the meaning — good and bad — of dynasties in our national discourse. The truth is that, for a country that prides itself on its history of flipping the bird to royalty all those years ago, we sure do love to...
by Peter Vancini | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Springfield’s Summer Concert Series at Stearns Square has undergone its fair share of transformations since it was founded in 1999. The latest happened last year when the concert series shed its title as the Stearns Square Concert Series and reclaiming its original...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 21, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
Two plays at Valley theaters, both running through Saturday, share a common source – the ongoing Middle East catastrophe – and a similar circumstance: two Americans caught up in it, one unwillingly, the other almost compulsively. Both plays are receiving strong...
by Peter Vancini, Kristin Palpini, Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, News
Western Mass has a reputation for being politically active, but at least in terms of voting, some communities are more engaged than others.An analysis of city and town voter turnout rates in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties for the 2012 presidential election...
by Rob Breszney | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Featured, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You now have more luxuriant access to divine luck than you’ve had in a long time. For the foreseeable future, you could be able to induce semi-miraculous twists of fate that might normally be beyond your capacities. But here’s a...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
More than 100 yards of industrial concrete waste along the Connecticut River along Route 47 in Hadley is going to be removed, thanks to an anonymous phone call.Earlier this month, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued an enforcement order against...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Food + Booze, News, Scene Here
Last Call, Franklin County This past Sunday’s inaugural Franklin County On Tap festival drew over 400 intrepid fans of craft beer, cider, and mead to Berkshire East Mountain Resort in Charlemont to sample brews from a dozen local operations, including the...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Member Login Username: Password: JULY 21 The Machine performs Pink FloydThis four-member tribute band has played theaters, casinos, and festivals across the country for 25 years. Plenty of needed time to practice, given Pink Floyd’s rather jaw-dropping 16-album...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 20, 2016 | Articles, Music, News, Newsletter, Uncategorized
1881 — Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon and congressman from Springfield, commissions renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a bronze statue of his ancestor and early city settler, Deacon Samuel Chapin. Springfield builds a small park, Stearns Square,...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 20, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
If dance is “the hidden language of the soul,” as Martha Graham put it, tap is its least bashful dialect. For the past few years Jacob’s Pillow, the country’s premier modern dance festival, has featured tap dancing in its eclectic roster of summertime performances....
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News
Last month, on a Sunday afternoon, I drove down to the Oxbow for an ultimate Frisbee pickup game. Clouds had been gathering all day and it began to rain as I drove, so when I arrived at the athletic fields, no one had turned up to play.I parked my car and decided...
by Chuck Shepherd | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Beautician Sarah Bryan, 28, of Wakefield, England, who garnered worldwide notoriety last year when she introduced a wearable dress made of 3,000 Skittles, returned this summer with a wearable skirt and bra made of donated human hair — a substantial amount of which,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, News, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, My wife is interested in exploring her sexuality a little further — things she might be interested in trying, etc. — but is hoping to do so in a way that is female- and feminist-friendly. Do you have any suggestions for things she can do or read either...
by Warren Johnston | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, The Pour Man
Nobilo, Sauvignon Blanc, 2015; Marlborough, New Zealand; $13.99 During the last couple of decades, some of the world’s top wine critics have declared that the best Sauvignon Blanc comes from New Zealand, and I would agree with them.However, I also realize, as with...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Shakespeare & Company doesn’t only do Shakespeare. This season, only three out of nine productions are by the company’s namesake, though several others play with Shakespearean themes, from a contemporary reflection on war to a political farce that resonates...
by Jack Brown | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
Conspiracy Theories “Challenger” will forever be one of those words whose meaning — or at least its history — is immediately known to anyone old enough to have lived through the 1986 space shuttle disaster. That tragic moment, witnessed live by so many American...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
Ramblin’ Woman In May 2014, Greenfield native Kristen Ford packed up her stuff, sold whatever wouldn’t fit in her van, parked her fiancée in the seat next to her, and set off on what she refers to as “the never-ending tour.” After two years on the road, playing...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
Taylor Made It’s just a hop, skip, and a flying leap from Manhattan to the Berkshires, at least for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The group has been trucking up shows to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center for nine years running now, but the good thing about a...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Uncategorized
SUNDAY: Build it YourselfSunday is for relaxing — and that includes a day of rest for the bartenders at Arkham at Harmony Place in Brattleboro. The quintessential hipster dive bar, complete with air hockey and arcade games, has a Build Your Own Bloody Mary party. It’s...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
The Doctor Is Out and AboutAnd to think that he grew up on Fairfield Street! Theodor Seuss Geisel — a.k.a. Dr. Seuss — was born in Springfield to German immigrants in 1904, and although he moved to California for much of his adult life, it is on these local blocks...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Creative InletsAya Yamasaki and Jason Brown know how to flow. Working as a creative duo called Operatura, the two artists create hand-drawn animation, illustrations, comics, and installations, drawing inspiration from the natural and magical worlds, the humorous and...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter
Dare to CompeteBrooklyn-based flex dance pioneer Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray, the co-creator of the show FLEXN, performs at Jacob’s Pillow Dance for four days in August. But first, he has a dream. Gray hosts a D.R.E.A.M. RING (Dance Rules Everything Around Me)...
by Gary Carra | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, Nightcrawler, Uncategorized
Musician and artist Wendell Rheinheimer, the owner of Moonlight Designs screenprinting in Easthampton, has been doing a little moonlighting of his own in recent months. The fruits of a new collaborative effort with his partner, organic vegetable farmer Shana Totino,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles
More Rohmann!I sincerely wish you published more of Stagestruck columnist Chris Rohmann’s theater reviews. They are so important to so many of us, because what to see and what to miss is something I’ve counted on from Rohmann’s fine reviews over the years. I suspect...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Swing and a HitSinger and guitarist Erin Harpe formed her Delta blues quintet in Jamaica Plain in 2010, and the group has been all over since then, winning the Boston Blues Challenge three times, playing the five-day International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2015,...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Magic on the MountainThe lower Valley has plenty of reasons to boast about its brews, but this weekend, it’s Franklin County’s turn. Hilltown pride and local products prevail at the first-ever On Tap festival at Berkshire East, featuring local beer, mead, cider, and...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Great ScotsYou thought your Independence Day was wild, food-stuffed fun? Just stop by the annual Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival to see how the brave of heart really get down. Highland dancers, pipers, and drummers (like Albannach, pictured here) cast a spell of sound...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Music and MemorySouthampton has many a quiet corner, but the grounds of Black Birch Vineyard will be lively on Saturday as the winery hosts a summer concert benefit to raise funds for the Northampton Survival Center. Local food trucks will help to keep visitors fed...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Leisure, Newsletter
Circus with a Smile No elephants were harmed in the making of this motion-filled picture. The only ASPCA likely to take notice of the new high-flying act by Circus Smirkus is the American Society for the Perpetuation of Cool Acrobatics — a group we just made up, but...
by Jack Brown | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
We all have a tendency, as we get on in years, to remember our better days and let the not-so-great times wash away in the river of time. It’s human, and while you might roll your eyes at your great-aunt launching into that same story about sneaking into a Beatles...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Triple Threat I tried to be open-minded as a young music lover, but despite the curious sonic wanderings of my teenage years, my ears could never quite latch onto songs with no vocals. As soon as I’d hit a track called “Instrumental,” I’d stubbornly skip it (the...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 14, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Here’s one thing the two very different Tennessee Williams plays now running in the Berkshires have in common: The sets have no walls. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, on the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Stockbridge mainstage, four white-and-pastel pillars frame the sparsely...
by Will Meyer | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Book It Yourself The Western Mass DIY music calendar does what Facebook can’t Amherst punk musician Will Killingsworth and Belchertown visual artist, musician, and show-booker Miranda Wiley have noticed a disconnect between subsets of the DIY music scene in...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Stage
Split Shift/Fear Nuttin Band – Saturday Split Shift and Fear Nuttin Band are clebrating their 15th anniversaries this weekend. iRockRadio presents Rock Fest featuring the two bands, along with other locals: Sakara, Sever The Drama, NoSho, Neon Fauna, Sanity is...
by Kristin Palpini, Hunter Styles, and Peter Vancini | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Film, News
Among the billions of videos on YouTube, drowned out by commercials for real estate and cars, dwells awesome local content that is nearly impossible to find — unless you know where to look.What’s got 40 pages and some entertaining and/or enlightening channels to...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, News
This election cycle is stirring up strong feelings left and right, but most of us confine our rants to social media and the comments sections of YouTube channels we love to hate-watch. That’s why we were surprised to find some political graffiti on Route 5 in...
by Chuck Shepherd | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
More and more churches — hundreds, according to a June Christianity Today report — offer hesitant parishioners a “money-back guarantee” if they tithe 10 percent, or more, of their income for 90 days, but then feel that God blesses them insufficiently in...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Dear Yana,I want to break up with my boyfriend of a few years. As we both near 30 I’m getting clearer that he’s just not the guy for me.But here’s the thing: We live together. We have a lease together. We share a car and a cat and just have so many logistical ties to...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Featured
The New Cornographers A 70-year-old stranger named Gregory Thorp sent me an email last week. “In Ashfield, I am photographer of corn,” he wrote, “and I have one in particular that might be useful to the Advocate.” This is far from the strangest submission we’ve...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Some topics are too rich to write about just once — and this column seeks to tackle a lot of them. For all the people wondering, “What ever happened to …?” this week’s column — part two in a two-part series — is full of updates on issues I’ve written about in this...
by From Our Readers | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Why Not Deport Criminals?The following is in reference to the article, “Between the Lines: Report a Crime, Risk Deportation” June 9-15, 2016. Why is it a bad thing to deport people who are here illegally who have committed not one, but two crimes? I’m not versed...
by Warren Johnston | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, The Pour Man
Dibon Brut Reserve Cava, of Penedes, Spain; $12.99 I’ve been thinking about sparkling wine lately because it’s well suited for steamy summer nights; just one glass will go a long way to ease the heat. Sparkling wine also came to mind because someone gave me a bottle...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
War-Torn Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies gives the trauma of battle, and the sting of accountability, a voice in Sarah Goodwin, the protagonist of Time Stands Still. An Iraq War photojournalist recovering in America from severe injuries suffered in...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, News, Scene Here
The 30th Green River Festival at Greenfield Community College was awash in music, good vibes, and rain — big time. Day two of the three-day festival, Saturday, saw some severe downpours, but a little rain wasn’t enough to dampen people’s spirits. — Kristin Palpini,...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Mini MoodsIf the inside of Ami Fagin’s head looks like the bright-hued watercolors she began painting last summer, we’d love to take a few trips on her train of thought. This series, called One Hundred and One Visual Haiku, started as a daily meditation. After about...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Upcoming adventures might make you more manly if you are a woman. If you are a man, the coming escapades could make you more womanly. How about if you’re trans? Odds are that you’ll become even more gender fluid. I am...
by Gary Carra | Jul 10, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Nightcrawler
Slip-not seeks new skin beater; Splitshift, FNB celebrate sonic milestone Local tribute band Slip-not will be marching to the beat of a different drummer — er, clown? — if they can find the right basher to fill the oversized shoes of departing Joshua Keller....
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Body of Work Living wage legislation seems like a flurry of statistics and economic reports until you focus in on the faces, voices, and lives of the millions of Americans affected by low-wage work. Pioneer Valley Workers — in collaboration with curators and artists...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
Back to the Mill New breweries tend to pop up in unlikely industrial spaces, and Bright Ideas Brewing in North Adams is no different. The small but ambitious operation is a new tenant of MASS MoCA, which means that finding the front door to the brewery involves some...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 7, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Two brief plays currently running in the area look at the power and value of art through quite different lenses, but ask similar questions: How does a work of art “speak to us” as individuals? How does its character affect our perception of it? How does its very...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Meals With WheelsWhat’s that delicious aroma wafting from the scenic grassy terraces of Hartford’s riverfront plaza? Probably some combination of Cheesesteakissimo, Maui Wowi, New Haven Pizza, Four Flours Baking Company, Taco Tequila, Ben & Jerry’s, Caribbean Food...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
In With a Bang Just in time for MASS MoCA’s welcome shift to summer hours, we’re jazzed to spread news of the return of the museum’s annual Bang on a Can festival, which ushers in three weeks of music all day, every day. Museum-goers and the general public can choose...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Evening Becomes Eclectic The 25th annual Ko Fest at Amherst College welcomes back many of its most treasured artists from previous years. This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, July 8-10, three evenings of special guests — from as far away as New Orleans and as close as...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, News
It was unfortunate, says director Danny Lichtenfeld, that the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center’s postcard for the new exhibit “Up In Arms: Taking Stock of Guns” hit many local mailboxes the morning after the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. I...
by Erykah Carter | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, News, Wellness
Editor’s Note: In October Erykah Carter will walk out of the Franklin County Jail and take her first free steps — ever. “To be able to say my name, my name is Erykah Carter, it means the world to me, it makes me feel right,” says Carter during our interview in...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Stage
This past Saturday at Diva’s Nightclub in Northampton, a tribute to KJ Morris was held. Under the name Daddy K, Morris was a dancer and drag performer at Diva’s and was a huge part of the LGBT community in the Valley. Drag queens and kings, close friends,...
by Peter Vancini | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, News
In our June 23 – 29, 2016 issue, the Advocate ran a piece called “Uncivil Discourse,” which was about the online backlash incurred by two local college students after they aggressively protested a panel discussion at UMass. The reader response surprised us and...
by Amanda Drane | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, News, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
While I was growing up, my dad was addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine. He still is, he’d say, although he’s been sober for more than six years. At times it wasn’t easy having a good relationship with my dad, but the thing that always got us through rough patches is...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
News writers are constantly looking for new topics, fresh angles, scoops, and shenanigans to expose — and once we’ve done that work, it’s on to the next new thing. Because there is always a new issue, catastrophe, trend, or serious question to analyze, journalists and...
by Peter Vancini and Kristin Palpini | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Leisure, Wellness
For most people, the closest they get to drowning is watching someone on TV or in the movies going through the motions: screaming, flailing arms, and lots of splashing. So, when someone actually drowns, you’d think it would be easy to spot. But not always.In real...
