Articles
by Advocate Staff | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
By Tess Halpern, Daily Collegian I have only once cried in school that I can remember, and it wasn’t because I was hurt, heartbroken, or had just failed a test; it was because I was scared. Sept. 24, 2014, in the beginning of my senior year in high school, my...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
Ahh, yoga, you’re so good for us but you can be so downward-dog-darned expensive. If I had a ten-class card for every time someone’s asked me for tips on how to do yoga on the cheap, I’d be yoga-rich! Let’s face it, yoga classes at $15-$20 a pop can really add up,...
by Eric Goldscheider | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Wellness
A nne Marie Martineau of Florence enjoys making aromatherapy remedies for her friends. She keeps a small refrigerator in her bedroom with dozens of vials of essential oils that she mixes in different combinations. She especially likes making inhalers. She buys the...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 1, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Get Out With Staff Picks, Music, Stage
Amherst Art Walk • Thursday The first Thursday of every month is Art Walk night in Amherst. From 5 to 8 p.m. downtown galleries throw open their doors to art lovers. This Thursday, check out Stephen Gingold’s nature photography, Hillary Wilbur Ferro’s prints and...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hey Yana, Tis I, LL [from previous column “‘Butch’ Lost in Labialand”]. I’m back with another problem. The advice you gave me last time worked out great. Opening the lines of communication between my partner and I really helped. However, my girlfriend and I have run...
by Jack Brown | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
You don’t have to be a music nerd to know Marvin Hamlisch. Or a theater nerd. Or a film nerd. Or a television nerd. Because even if you don’t know him by name, Hamlisch’s work will have seeped into the soul of anyone who was alive in the latter half of the 20th...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
LET’S GET IT STARTED: MGM had been waiting on approval from the Springfield City Council for proposed changes to the casino site plan, but also on something even more important: the council’s permission for the city to amend the host community agreement with the...
by Kristin Palpini | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
The Valley Advocate recently conducted a reader poll and the results are in. Thank you to the hundreds of readers who took the time to fill out or mail in feedback about the paper’s past, present, and future. We also learned a bit more about who Advocate readers are...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Actress Blythe Baird writes about the problem that arises when her dog sees her eating a peanut butter and chocolate chip bagel. Her beloved pet begs for a piece and becomes miserable when it’s not forthcoming. Baird is merely demonstrating...
by Chuck Shepherd | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Longtime National Symphony cellist David Teie announced in November that his crowdfunding project was hugely successful, freeing him to produce an album of music meaningful to cats. Cats, for example, relax in response to the earliest sound of their mother’s purring,...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles
When asked to count how many minimum-wage jobs he has worked, Frank Cincotta flips open a notepad, taps his pen, and takes a deep breath. “I’ve been working a lot,” he says. It’s a long list: he has had more than 20 jobs since 2009, nearly all of which paid less than...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles
Free recording studio opens in Northampton Valley creatives have differing reasons to utilize the new, free-to-use David S. Dow Community Recording Studio, which laid down its inaugural tracks Saturday. For his part, 9-year-old Darren Chraplak plans to use it to edit...
by Blaise Majkowski | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide The Giant Claw, Columbia Pictures 1950s creature-feature clunker My household watched the live version of Grease on TV recently (I can sing “Summer Nights” as off-key as the next joker), and it put me in a 1950s frame of mind. So I decided to...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana! My fiancée and I just realized that we have sex, sure, but we’ve never talked about what we really wanted in sex. Toys came up and we tried my Mini Rabbit vibrator and we love it. We’ve both tried strap-ons before and neither she nor I really like them, but...
by Gary Carra | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
The future of Holyoke’s Waterfront Tavern seemed murky at best a few months ago. Just when it appeared the historic venue would be pulling the plug altogether, rumors of a strategic alliance began to swirl. Last week, however, Donald Robert of Maximum Capacity...
by Kristin Palpini | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
D rug testing people before providing them with food assistance has nothing to do with saving states money and everything to do with humiliating illegal substance users. Massachusetts is not among the seven or so states that require some or all low-income residents to...
by Kristin Palpini | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
Slavery study would be divisive Your expectation that HR 40 has no chance is valid (Between the Lines: Congress Keeps Killing Conversation on Race” Feb. 18-24, 2016). The concern is that after the conclusion of the investigation there will be a louder call and greater...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles
In Goshen, salvaging cast-iron stoves isn’t just a business — it’s an art. I spent my childhood in the backseat of a car driving Route 112 from Ashfield to Northampton. At the Goshen border, I would always gaze out my window at the cluttered and colorful...
by Story and photos by Amanda Drane | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Leisure, Music
Jim Eagan of Shelburne Falls may not have started songwriting until his late 60s, but the second song he ever wrote got scooped up by Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane. That was last year, and now Kaukonen is touring with Eagan’s song, “Ain’t In No Hurry,” as the...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles
For his newest production, theater director Josh Moyse has been shopping online for costume pieces. Finally, he found what he needed. “The dog collar just came in the mail today,” he tells me by phone, “and I’m really excited about it.” That leather dog collar will go...
by Luis Feliz | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, News
Before Cornel West concluded his remarks to a crowd of 2,000 people at Smith College during a lecture last week, he trained his critical eye on the very institution hosting him, and Amherst College, as places for “ruling class formation.” He challenged the schools to...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 17, 2016 | Articles, Get Out With Staff Picks, Music
June Millington Retrospective • Sunday The good thing about celebrating the godmother of rock is that audience members be graced with not only her majesty’s music but that of all her successors. Members from Millington’s legendary band Fanny will perform at this...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, I’m a relatively young woman who enjoyed an active, above-average sex life for my entire adult life, even after the birth of my first two children. However, I found that after my last son was born, my desire for sex suddenly vanished to the degree that I can...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The Beerhunter
Beer has been good to Mike Yates, the head brewer at Building 8 in Florence and at White Lion Brewing in Springfield. His 16 years of experience in Western Mass and Connecticut have made him a trusted and well-respected name in the local craft beer scene. Since he...
by Kristin Palpini | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
Every congressional session U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) files H.R. 40, a bill to study the impact of slavery on the nation. And every congressional session it dies in committee. That’s where the tenth submission of this bill, filed in January of last year, is...
by Chuck Shepherd | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Wired.com’s most recent “Absurd Creature” feature shows a toad devouring a larva of a much-smaller beetle, but the “absurdity” is that the larva is in charge and that the toad will soon be beetle food. The larva’s Darwinian advantage is that, inside the toad, it bites...
by Jennifer Levesque | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Music
A couple weekends ago, I went and saw Springfield-based Gaiah perform at Maximum Capacity to support their recent release, Perfect Disaster. The performance was far from a disaster. I mean, these guys have been around the Valley music scene for some time. They are far...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles
In the opening minutes of I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story, a puppeteer walks onto the set of Sesame Street. He wears a small TV monitor harnessed to his chest. The legs of his bright orange pants, held up by suspenders, terminate in big, soft bird feet. He...
by Jeff Good | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Music, Scene Here
So, yeah. I’m obsessed. I began following Bruce Springsteen as a schoolboy coming of age in mid-1970s Omaha. A few seconds after graduation, I loaded up my Mercury Bobcat (creamsicle orange paint, white vinyl top) and headed east. Crossing the Jersey state line, I...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, News, Wellness
Sex has been around since day one, and it’s still evolving. Just over the past 50 or 60 years, getting down has changed significantly. Influenced by popular culture and social mores, sex has become a more liberated and experimental experience since the 1950s. With a...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Yana, I’m a single hetero guy in my 60s. Since my divorce some years ago, I haven’t dated much. What I truly want is a loving, long-term relationship with a partner and to be a loving, giving partner in return. Here’s my problem: I’m short and not terribly...
by Warren Johnston | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, The Pour Man
During a recent visit to the North Carolina mountains, my wife and I were lucky enough to be part of a small dinner party with friends who make their living in the food and wine industry. It was one of those evenings, full of laughter and great stories, with a...
by Kristin Palpini | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines
Mike Albano is Western Mass’ perennial candidate. A member of the Governor’s Council — but more famously the mayor of Springfield, from 1995 to 2004 — Albano has amassed a following and developed a political acumen that has kept him on the short list most years for a...
by Chuck Shepherd | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
Even though concealed-carry gun permit-holders in Texas can now “open carry,” pistol-packing women concerned with fashion are not limited to traditional firearms in ordinary cowboy holsters. An online company, The Well Armed Woman, offers such carry options as stylish...
by From Our Readers | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
WTF WMUA? UMass Amherst radio station WMUA’s draconian reduction of community programming warrants focusing the spotlight of public scrutiny on this newly minted, institutionalized contempt for the community. In one instance, the student leadership of WMUA, acting...
by Jack Brown | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
As I sit here in my shirtsleeves, typing away near a slightly open window, I really must insist that readers of this column remember this minor detail: it is February. This is the time when we’re all supposed to be calling all the hardware stores, asking about roof...
by Gary Carra | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Between corporate takeovers, format changes and, quite literally, the omnipresent threat of satellites looming overhead, the average life expectancy of local radio stations these days seems to only slightly exceed that of say, a Betta fish. Set that gloomy backdrop to...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Much of what’s written about climate change tends to be either oversimplified, chock full of bias, or too jargony for most of us to read. Elizabeth Kolbert — staff writer for the New Yorker, Williamstown resident, and professor at Williams College — however,...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze
There’s something unnatural about strolling downtown in the dead of winter wearing a spring jacket and feeling a warm breeze on your face. Still, snuggling by the fire is a thing enjoyed in spring. So, whatever the weather feels like when these words reach you, dear...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, News, Scene Here
The man is 74 years old. For half a century of tilting at the bone-grinding windmills of Darwinian capitalism, you’d think he’d be weary, wised-up, aching for retirement. But no, here he is in New Hampshire, on short sleep caught on a night flight halfway across the...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Love is a fire,” declared Aries actress Joan Crawford. “But whether it’s going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” I disagree with her conclusion. There are practical steps you can take to ensure that love’s...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News
Most restaurants rely on liquor sales for survival, which is why the city of Holyoke acquired 13 additional all-alcohol licenses to sell on the cheap as part of an urban renewal plan. But that was over a year ago and no one’s biting yet. At least one of the former...
by Naila Moreira | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News
A friend of mine recently forgot his reusable bags when he dropped in at Stop & Shop. To make matters worse, he’d also forgotten about Northampton’s new plastic bag ban, which started Jan. 1. Then the person in line behind him lectured him on the merits of the...
by Kristin Palpini | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Film
Bad sex scenes can be anything from corny to cringeworthy, and some of them really stick. But bad scenes don’t always ruin whole movies. So when it comes to these, just get up, make some popcorn, and come back to the couch in a few minutes. It’ll be over soon. Worst...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, News
Rupert the pit bull stands at the feet of his 2-year-old owner, calmly snorting up popcorn while the toddler yanks forcefully at the dog’s collar. Tai Wickline is pulling hard enough to elicit bulldog-like breathing from his 3-year-old canine. “You trying to pull...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Dear Yana, As of last year, I love my body hair. I especially like my pubic hair because I can style it, usually depending on my mood: totally unshaven, as a strip, but rarely fully shaven. However, I’ve noticed that when I have the chance to get intimate with...
by Advocate Staff | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Film, Get Out With Staff Picks, Music
Lexi Weege at Fort Hill Brewery • Friday Westfield native Lexi Weege has been making waves in recent years, sharing her enchanting vocals and unashamed lyrics throughout the region, but this weekend she plays at “her favorite place in all of the Valley” — Fort Hill...
by Chuck Shepherd | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
In January, the upscale Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana introduced stylish hijabs and abayas aimed at Muslim women unafraid to call attention to themselves as they exercise their obliged modesty. D&G’s marketing effort even accessorized models’...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Music
Citizen Sanders sees a groundswell of support from sea to shining sea, and the Valley is no different (just last week, the Springfield office for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign officially opened its doors). Bernie has pledged to fuel his run for the White...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
I have a confession to make, people — I own a pit bull. Phew! I’ve been hemming and hawing over whether or not to outright say that for weeks. Because the consequences are indeed scary. As a disclaimer: if anyone tries to take my dog-son away we’ll go on the run...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
If you had the opportunity to work as a designer for Law & Order and Gossip Girl, would you quit and teach yoga instead? That’s exactly what Jocelyn O’Shea did, and she has no regrets about it. The Cambridge native recently moved back to Massachusetts after...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, Leisure, Madame Barfly, The Beerhunter
Naturally, I was really excited about the whole beer cocktail thing. Beer is good, and cocktails are good, so how can we go wrong, right? As it turns out, some beer cocktails are good and others are downright disgusting. The Beerhunter and I put our booze brains...
by Amanda Drane | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, Music
Attending a Veruca Salt concert as a teenager in the ’90s, Tanya Pearson never imagined that 20 years later she’d be asking lead vocalist-guitarists Nina Gordon and Louise Post about sexism in the industry. A photo documenting Pearson’s reunion with the two band...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, Scene Here
The creaky floorboards cry out when Tom Matherly shifts his weight. He rocks from one heel to the other in his tan boots, staring down at the frayed red rug while he twists the tuning keys on his vintage electric guitar. He’s pausing his set list to play “The Man Who...
by Blaise Majkowski | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, Music
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide Rock ‘n’ Roll High School It’s a literal blast when The Ramones show up The holidays are over and the kids are back in school, though it’s my guess that no one ever attended a school quite like Vince Lombardi High, aka “Rock ’n’ Roll High...
by Chuck Shepherd | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, News of the Weird
The “public art” statues unveiled in January by Fort Myers, Florida, Mayor Randy Henderson included a metal structure by sculptor Edugardo Carmona of a man walking a dog, with the dog “lifting his leg” beside a pole. Only after inspecting the piece more closely did...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure
Sun Parade with The Congress • Thursday Feb. 4 Ahhh, Sun Parade. You make feel-good happy music that makes me want to take a drive (and I don’t even like driving). Even though you’re singing — soothingly, I’ll add — about breakups, ham sandwiches,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles
Hi Yana, I’ve been exploring a bit and I’ve realized I’m realllly into oral sex with partners of whatever gender. This is exciting but I’m kind of afraid to do it as I’m new to this. I’m not sure if it’s safe without protection and I don’t know the right way to ask...
by Amanda Drane and Hunter Styles | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles
Too many conversations about Holyoke are riddled with preconceptions. Many Valley dwellers dismiss the idea of spending more time in Holyoke, thinking it unsafe (perhaps new data released by the state this month, which shows the city’s crime rate down by 33...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 25, 2016 | Articles
The best new food truck in the Valley has no truck. It has no storefront and only a few staff. But for a relative small fry, its food is delicious, and its future looks bright — as long as enough curious diners discover where it is. It’s Tiny Kitchen Food and Drink,...
