Articles
by Advocate Staff | May 11, 2016 | Articles
Hi Yana, My wife loves her [Hitachi] Magic Wand I got her. I’d like something else to use together. I have been looking at the [NJoy] Pure Wand or [a vibrator] by JimmyJane. From some of the reviews I’ve read about the Pure Wand, it seems like this could...
by Peter Vancini | May 11, 2016 | Articles, News, Uncategorized
With winter gone and Earth Day a recent memory, it seems like a good time to check in on the local environment before we all head outside to play in the sun again. Area environmental specialists say the Valley is full of environmentally conscious folks, which is...
by Advocate Staff | May 9, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Russian writer Anton Chekhov was renowned for the crisp, succinct style of his short stories and plays. As he evolved, his pithiness grew. “I now have a mania for shortness,” he wrote. “Whatever I read — my own work, or...
by Advocate Staff | May 9, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
Pot is not harmlessIn March, I was invited by community members to speak to students at Mount Holyoke College about the current science of marijuana, an issue I have devoted much of my career to understanding. I was surprised and saddened that a letter writer from...
by By Kristin Palpini | May 9, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Hundreds of Springfield children spend seven hours a day, five days a week, nine months out of the year at German Gerena Community School, which may or may not have a severe mold problem, depending on who you ask.According to parents and community leaders, including...
by By Chuck Shepherd | May 9, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
The eye-catching Vietnamese model and Playboy, Venezuela edition, Playmate Angie Vu complained to the New York Daily News in April that her five-plus months in jail in Brooklyn have been “torture” and “cruel” because of her lack of access to...
by By Jack Brown | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
It must have been in 1989 or so that I first saw Colors, director Dennis Hopper’s story about police and gang violence in Los Angeles. Set mostly in South Central and East L.A., it starred Sean Penn and Robert Duvall as partnered cops — a rookie and his mentor —...
by Warren Johnston | May 4, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze
On separate occasions during the last six months, a couple of friends have recommended that I try Mark West Pinot Noir, and although I respect their taste in wines, for some reason I didn’t get around to drinking it until recently.Maybe it’s because I see Mark West on...
by Advocate Staff | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured
Western Mass arts cats can mewl all they want about that 45-minute drive to Brattleboro — sometimes the journey is damn well worth it. That’s never been more true than this month, when the ’boro and neighboring towns throughout Windham County, Vermont, play host to an...
by Will Meyer | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Music
Northampton self-proclaimed pop-punks Potty Mouth formed at Smith College in 2011. Their self-titled EP came out in August. The EP, produced by John Goodmanson in Seattle (Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill) delivers five tightly-packed, driving songs that are severely...
by Chris Rohmann | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Halloween is half a year away, but there are devilish doings in the Valley, foreshadowed by witchery in Lenox. A one-woman show at Amherst College this weekend puts a clown face on a 17th-century tale of demonic possession, and last month Shakespeare & Company...
by Peter Vancini | May 4, 2016 | Articles, News
Today is Luis Colon Castro’s 21st birthday and he’s been homeless twice in his life. The other five people sitting around the table at Out Now, a Springfield advocacy group that provides a safe space for queer youth, listen empathetically as Luis, a thin man in...
by Advocate Staff | May 4, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
By Chuck ShepherdOne notably hypersuccessful YouTube channel — 700,000 subscribers — features Lauri Vuohensilta of Finland pulverizing various objects such as a bowling ball, in a 100-ton hydraulic press. Said Vuohensilta, “I think it’s built into every...
by By Kristin Palpini | May 4, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Longmeadow residents have the opportunity this week to ban all assault-style weapons and large capacity magazines from their town. Residents at Town Meeting will vote on 31 articles Tuesday, May 10, including three that deal with gun ownership. The proposed measures...
by Hunter Styles | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Featured, News, Uncategorized
It was Northampton that held the first Pride march in the area, and those who participated walked down the Main Street of a very different America. The year was 1981. Non-heterosexual citizens held virtually no legal protections as employees, as tenants, as...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | May 4, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana,My boyfriend and I have been together for a year. Up until a couple of months ago, I was extremely satisfied with our sex life. He wanted me all the time and would initiate sex at least one to three times daily. Recently, we moved in together and it seems the...
by Amanda Drane | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, News, Scene Here
At Extravaganja 2016 at Northampton’s Three County Fairgrounds, the crowd is as high as the marijuana-leaf balloon floating overhead. About 24,000 red eyes look on as local musicians blast out funky jams and marijuana-tinged tunes. Police officers meander in pairs...
by Hunter Styles | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Trance Dance EvolutionIt takes an uncommon blend of bravado and skill to play “imagined hybrids from lost empires,” but that’s what Pakistani pop star Zeb Bangash and Brooklyn-based klezmer clarinetist Michael Winograd have set out to do. The dynamic musical duo has...
by Compiled by Kristin Palpini | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Leisure, Wellness
We couldn’t write about all the local races on the horizon this running season, but the following list is a head-start on where to get your legs pumping.For more information, visit the online event calendars at Runner’s World, the Western Mass Athletic Club, the...
by By Amanda Drane | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Third Eye Roaming
Michelle Ryan says she didn’t truly know yoga until she knew chronic pain. And that’s not because Ryan, founder of Ashtanga Yoga Northampton, hadn’t done yoga before — she’d done it for over 15 years — but because it took working around the spasms to show her the...
by By Kristin Palpini | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Wellness
Marathon runner and tri-athlete Chris Trotta started running because a guy at work wouldn’t shut up about doing the New York City Marathon. “He just kept talking about it and talking about it,” says Trotta a Longmeadow father of three. “Finally, he said, ‘I bet you...
by Gary Carra | May 2, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Sutherland swaps silver screen for six-string; Gartska jams with guitar gods… briefly He was a “Lost Boy.” A “Young Gun.” One of “A Few Good Men” to enjoy a three decade career on both the silver and small screens alike. But...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
When Matilda the Musical opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2010 – quickly moving to the West End, where it still resides – the British press greeted it as an “anarchically joyous, gleefully nasty” antidote to the sugary concoctions of other kid-centered musicals. (That...
by Will Meyer | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music
As a 24-year-old musician in the Valley, my world centers around Hadley basements and Easthampton community centers — the places where you can catch the best of the area’s DIY music scene. The what scene?Exhausted by the exploitative pay-to-play model often used by...
by Peter Vancini | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, News
When Melissa Lewis-Gentry walks into a comic book store, it’s not to shop for her boyfriend or her dad. Still, she’s sometimes received that way, despite being the manager of a comic book store herself.Once regarded exclusively as the fodder of wide-eyed grade-school...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
By Hunter Styles Welcome, reader, to Appleseed, Massachusetts. Never heard of it? On page one of his newly-released second novel Golden Delicious, Longmeadow native Christopher Boucher provides an off-kilter lay of this fictional land:“That afternoon I took the...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Turbine at Bishop’s LoungeNYC-based quintet band Turbine is one funky, rough, finely-tuned act. Full of big, brash rock lines and upbeat, soulful vocals, Turbine’s music is also surprisingly inventive, marked by shaken-up time signatures and unusual song structures....
by Hunter Styles | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
For ten years now, Opel has demonstrated the importance of being earnest. In the face of a modern music industry too often pockmarked by pretension, the seven-piece Springfield band’s hearty, fun-loving approach to making songs remains reassuringly down-to-earth.The...
by By Gary Carra | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Better call Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Looks like someone’s gotten a hold of the Wayback Machine.First stop: Foxwoods Resort Casino’s Grand Theater this Friday, April 29. Not only will female hip-hop heavyweights Salt-n-Pepa be there, but so will literal heavyweight Biz...
by Hey, Yana! | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
I know you do sex advice, but I need some relationship advice. My boyfriend and I have been dating for about half a year and he shows zero emotion. I want to bring it up to him, but not in a way that will make him clam up more, ya know? Any advice would be awesome....
by By Chuck Shepherd | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Japan’s Tenga toy company appears to be first on the market with a virtual reality bodysuit (for use with the Oculus Rift “Sexy Beach Premium Resort” 3-D game) containing a genital stimulator and the sensation of “groping” breasts —...
by From Our Readers | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
So, that’s what victory looks likeDivest UMass supporters are close to victory. [“Scene Here: #DivestTheRest,” April 21-27, 2016.] What kind of victory? Well, as you explained in last week’s issue, a $5 million divestment from “dirty-energy...
by Peter Vancini | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Food + Booze, News, Scene Here
A crisp smack of cold beer hits my palate; a dark, hearty rye. I’m engulfed by laughter and spirited conversation, lost in the dull roar, a wave washing over me. A sudden crash, a peaceful respite as it rolls back, redoubling its efforts at sweeping me away …...
by By Kristin Palpini | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, O Cannabis!
Governor Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, you’re wasting your time with your anti-marijuana legalization effort, the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts. So far, the campaign, which launched in late April,...
by By Kristin Palpini | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
One of the benefits of living in Massachusetts is enjoying a swell of liberal pride when one of our politicians takes a stand for the people. It’s why we elected Liz Warren and Ted Kennedy, Barney Frank and Silvio O. Conte (yes, he was a Republican, but with a soft...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The oracle I’m about to present may be controversial. It contains advice that most astrologers would never dare to offer an Aries. But I believe you are more receptive than usual to this challenge, and I am also convinced that you...
by By Jennifer Levesque | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
Last fall, Northampton-based singer-songwriter Mikey Sweet hitchhiked around the Northeast for two weeks, busking with a cardboard sign that read “Broke Musician Need Money to Finish Album w/Big Shot Producer and Hot Band! God Bless.” After paying an Albany outlaw a...
by Story by Kristin Palpini — Photos by Kevin Gutting | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, News, The V-Spot, Wellness
Climbing the stairs to V-Spot sex columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks’ apartment, I wasn’t sure what to expect.Would there be a lot of framed Georgia O’Keefes on the wall? A swing hanging in the bedroom? Penis-shaped drinking glasses? I was sort of right.There are no...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
The subtitle of the best-selling book and its 1995 Broadway adaptation — The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years — is no exaggeration. Both the memoir and the play cover more than a century of African-American history, seen from the centenary vantage point of two...
by Jack Brown | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles
I’ve often heard it said — mostly by people who don’t live here — that the Valley, and in particular the Northampton area, is something of a hot spot for restaurant life. And while I’m a far cry from a food writer (this column only covers popcorn and Milk Duds), I...
by Peter Vancini | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Traveling down Union Street, through the heart of the sprawling industrial section of West Springfield, an oasis appears on the horizon. Amid the landscape of parking lots and deteriorating buildings, Crepes Tea House is a spot of color: a small, unassuming building...
by By Louis F. Graham | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, News
By Louis F. Graham The LGBT community came out of 2015 feeling great for the many steps toward equality the nation had taken that year: the Supreme Court decision granting gay and lesbian couples the right to marry, the increasingly favorable national public opinion...
by By Advocate Staff | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, News
Millennials get a lot of criticism for being narcissistic, lazy, and entitled, but we think this is a misconception — just like it was when people said the same things about the last generation, and the generation before that, and the one before that. In fact,...
by Gary Carra | Apr 20, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
By Gary Carra There’s been a growing trend in tribute circles over the past decade. While the songs remain the same for bands like Zep-licators Get The Led Out (coming to Holyoke’s Mountain Park Aug. 5) and Billy Joel recreators Big Shot, the need to physically look...
by By Kristin Palpini | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
In this week’s Advocate, you’ll find the winners of our annual Best Of the Valley Readers’ Poll, a who’s who and what’s what of the top people, places, and businesses Western Mass and Southern Vermont have to offer. Thank you to everyone who voted. We can’t produce...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Divest UMass supporters hold hands before leaving the Whitmore Administration Building after staging a sit-in for the fifth consecutive day Friday, April 15, demanding that UMass officials divest from fossil fuel companies. Though UMass has divested from coal and less...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
Time for truth in cannabis scienceThe other night, I attended a lecture at Mount Holyoke College by Dr. Jodi Gilman, neuroscientist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Her talk was advertised as a broad overview of the science of marijuana, focusing on...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana!I started having sex with males this past summer. It’s fun and exciting, but I’ve yet to reach an earth-shattering orgasm. That may be too high of an expectation for myself, but it feels like I’ve never had an orgasm at all. I feel the build up, but...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze
It’s 3pm in the hilltowns. Bright sunshine warms the Ashfield Lake, and the reflected light bounces up through the windows of the three-story Lakehouse, into the quiet bar and dining room. I’ve caught the tail end of Friday lunch, and the mood at the bar is calm. A...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Have you heard about the Panama Papers? The largest leak to the media ever … that is getting little attention in the media. This is surprising because so far the Panama Papers have revealed a blueprint of how the wealthy and elite hide their money from taxation...
by Connolly Ryan | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts
A balmy early March afternoon on Smith College campus. The liberal conservatory Is holding its glorious annual Spring Bulb Show, which draws the usual droves of floral enthusiasts And sensual connoisseurs, as evidenced by The endless line of vehicles Parked on...
by Jack Brown | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
Any director worth their salt knows their strengths. Scorsese has New York and the mob; Allen has New York and neurosis; Tarantino has pop culture and cursing; Bergman had Sweden, bleakness, and death. To me, one of the marks of an interesting director — an...
by Naila Moreira | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, Featured, News
About 500. That’s smaller than Smith College’s first-year class by 100 and it’s a tenth of the entering class at UMass. It’s also the number of right whales known to be alive in the entire world. These huge creatures — second in size only to the blue whale...
by Peter Vancini | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, News
The Cottage Street Cultural District in Easthampton has long been known for its quaint New England setting at the base of Mount Tom and, in recent years, as a burgeoning arts community and a hotspot for unconventional artisanal businesses. As a result of the growth...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I have a seven-year-old son and I want to start teaching him about consent. Do you have any resources and tools for me as a parent to help him learn about consent as a kid? — Proactive Parent Dear PP, The brilliant Dutch sex education curriculum starts what...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Department of Veterans Affairs employee Elizabeth Rivera Rivera, 39, was fired after her arrest, followed by a February guilty plea, for armed robbery, but when she was sentenced only to probation, an arbitrator ordered the VA to rehire her — and give her back pay she...
by By Gary Carra | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
A little more than a month ago, the Valley’s own Jon Donais arrived in Chile, Santiago. He had flown in with his present band, hardcore heroes Anthrax, along with headliners Iron Maiden on “Ed Force One” — an aircraft infamous in aviational circles for both its “Book...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze
Highly Cultured Christian Elwell swings open a small, heavy door, and I glance in at the crib. The temperature inside this humid little room is about 90 degrees, and the wooden trays stacked in towers along the wall give off the smell of warm, steamed brown rice. In...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts
For a world-class cut-up, Adam Trent hates cutting people up. The 30-year-old magician never pulls those traditional tricks, like sawing beautiful women in half onstage. He’d prefer to leave you in stitches from the stand-up comedy that drives his shows from illusion...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts
It’s easy to overstate a film’s importance to the canon. But it’s hard to do that with Akira, the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed 1988 Japanese science fiction animated film that influenced action movies like The Matrix and brought on a tidal wave of...
