Articles
by Advocate Staff | Nov 18, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Film, Get Out With Staff Picks, Leisure, Music, Stage
Rhythm Inc With Total Collision • Saturday This Thanksgiving week, Rhythm Inc and Total Collision — featuring members of the Springfield-based Fear Nuttin Band — will remind the Valley we have some awesome reggae-hip-hop fusion to be grateful for. The two groups will...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Food + Booze, News, The Beerhunter
Two years ago, Kate Telman started making beer at her home in Easthampton. She planned to perfect a few brews, then shop her skills around to area breweries in the hope of getting a job. “I knew there weren’t really any job postings for what I wanted to do,” said...
by Gary Carra | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Myelodysplastic syndrome — commonly referred to as MDS — is literally bad to the bone. It affects bone marrow resulting in an inadequate supply of healthy white and red blood cells in the process. Scene stalwart Ed Vadas is presently combatting said condition....
by Micky Bedell | Nov 18, 2015 | Articles, Food + Booze
Thirsty? Check out all the local breweries, wineries, cideries, distilleries and more across the Pioneer Valley. All the listed businesses are open for tastings and/or tours, so make a trip out of it! For reviews on local beers and beyond, check out The Beerhunter,...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News, News of the Weird
Fort Bragg, North Carolina, declared an emergency on Oct. 30, when one of its soldiers had the bright idea to arrive for a Halloween party on base dressed as a suicide bomber, with realistic-looking canisters in a wired vest. Gates to the post, headquarters of Army...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, News
Belly dancers can be generous people. The performers have banded together across the world to raise funds to help Syrian refugees. In the Valley, on Sunday, there will be a Hafla for Humanity — Belly Dancers Unite for Syrian Refugees event at First Churches in...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts
Hail to the Chief Jazz and hip-hop go together like the sun and moon; working together in their distinct methods to make something vast and great. Khalif “Big Chief” Neville and the DefrenAstrators work this musical relationship into a cohesive melody that blends an...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Featured, MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
Here are our greatest hits on the casino playlist this week: Writing’s on the Wall: If you drive fast down I-91 and squint, you can see construction crews hard at work at the casino site. Take a second look, though, and you’ll notice that the giant workers, posed...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, News
Leaving Our Mark: In Celebration of the Pencil is the new exhibit at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield that shines a spotlight on a ubiquitous and unassuming tool. Wielded by three-year-olds and CEOs alike, the pencil’s versatility makes it an interesting...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, News
If you think raw fish ruins sushi, then perhaps you should try making candy sushi? On Friday, Sunderland Library is holding a candy sushi workshop for tweens and teens. Sunderland Candy Sushi Making, Friday, 6-7 p.m. Free. Sunderland Public Library, 20 School St.,...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Music, News
These are the best kind of neighbors — the kind that don’t actually live next door. And The Neighbors is a little Appalachia mixed with the grit of the Lower East Side. On Saturday the acoustic duo, with Dave Houghton of Fancy Trash and Debra DeMuth, is holding a...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Food + Booze, News
When Caroline McDaniel opened ConVino ten months ago, she says she was still waiting on her beverage manager to arrive from California. A month and a half later, it became clear they weren’t coming. In a day wrought with stress over her wine bar’s management hole, she...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 17, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I’m not a prude,” says Mark Swanson, “but it does feel strange telling the singers to be sure to enunciate fuck-ing.” He’s the music director for Donny Johns, a new musical opening at UMass Amherst this weekend. It’s a way-updated riff on the Don Juan story, set...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts
Sarah Sousa The Diary of Esther Small (Small Batch Books) The poem “Independence Day, 1886” is about the life of a woman Sarah Sousa first met in a faded 1886 pocket diary in an antiques store. Sousa — an award-winning poet and writing teacher, who has received...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 18, 2015 | Articles, Food + Booze, Taste-Off!
Cheese, glorious cheese. Many thanks to you, oh creamy fromage, for always being there when we need a snack, a spread turned meal, or simply a tasty addition to a dish otherwise lacking. You complete us. Of course, we Advocate staffers jumped at the chance to eat...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, News, Scene Here
AMANDA DRANE PHOTO The holiday spirit arrives a bit early at Easthampton’s Keep Cottage Street Lit event at the Brass Cat. On this recent Wednesday night, the packed pub is a unified wall of happy noise as revelers clutch stemless, child-sized glasses and mill around...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Music, News
Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead cover band that plays the Dead’s concerts instead of their albums will be in Northampton Tuesday. Dark Star, Nov. 24, 8 p.m. $27.50. Calvin Theatre, 19 King St., Northampton, (413) 586-8686.
by Hunter Styles | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, News, The Beerhunter
As the Advocate’s resident Beerhunter, my reportage on the art of the local craft brew has taken me up and down the Pioneer Valley, with the occasional stop in Brattleboro, Boston, and beyond. But there’s one big region on the Western Mass beer map that I’d been...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Urbandictionary.com defines the English word “balter” as follows: “to dance without particular skill or grace, but with extreme joy.” It’s related to the Danish term baltre, which means “to romp, tumble, roll, cavort.” I nominate this...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Local Elections 2015, News
In the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election, the Advocate asked the mayoral candidates of Holyoke, Chicopee, Springfield, West Springfield, Westfield, and Greenfield to share their thoughts on schools, the budget, taxes, and the environment. This week, we called...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music
Donald Sonn strums his acoustic guitar and taps his microphone. “Can people hear me?” he asks. I can, but I’m 10 feet away. Toward the back of the room, three dozen people are looking around and talking to each other, beers in hand. A few audience members are watching...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 13, 2015 | Articles, Arts
The Chrysanthemum has been around — and impacting cultures around the world — for centuries. The flower is believed to have gotten its start in China in the 15th century B.C. It was used as an herb to promote long life. In the 8th century A.D. the flower made its way...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Leisure
My tattoo reminds me “Life’s not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” And I’ve danced in a lot of rain in my life. Done by Tim Senecal at Off the Map Tattoo in Easthampton. — Patti Fradette, Chicopee The lotus flower grows in...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 16, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Leisure, Stage, Stagestruck
The first time I saw Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller about a wheelchair-bound photographer who solves a murder while gazing out his window, I was so scared by the gripping climax that I couldn’t shut my eyes in bed for fear of intruders in the dark. Mind...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Wellness
Ashley Christian makes one trip to the grocery store every month; it’s a carefully coordinated and premeditated affair. She needs to buy foods that will still be edible at the end of the month, which means fresh fruits and vegetables are mostly out and frozen or...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, With previous girlfriends it’s been easier over time to bring them to orgasm as I get to know their preferences and bodies, however my current girlfriend owns a Hitachi Magic Wand that she has been using for nine months. It’s significantly more difficult now...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Food + Booze, Leisure
Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato pie — we all know the traditional Thanksgiving meal, and some of us are sick of it. But invariably, whenever a host attempts to tweak the feast someone at the table is going to hate...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, News
Imo Nse Imeh Ten Little Nigger Girls Art for the Soul Gallery, Tower Square, 1500 Main St., Springfield Imo Nse Imeh’s exhibit takes the wind out of visitors before they even enter the gallery. Most people will likely have a difficult time uttering the exhibit’s name....
by Advocate Staff | Nov 11, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Get Out With Staff Picks, Leisure, Music, News
Bo Burnham at the Calvin • Sunday Bo Burnham turned heads five years ago when, at 20 (he looked 16) he cracked up crowds of all ages with his self-deprecating, oft-dirty, and clever music-based comedy. On Sunday, he makes his way to his native Massachusetts for an 8...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Between the Lines, News
So far in 2015, 965 people have been killed by U.S. police. A disproportionate number of those people are black, Hispanic or Latino; almost all are male. The causes of the deaths range from being shot by police to being hit by a police vehicle to dying — somehow — in...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I have a friend who’s an Episcopal priest. When we first met, I asked him if his was a High Church or Low Church, referring to the degree of formality in the service. He replied, “We’re a Whatever Works Church.” That’s pretty much the strategy adopted by Abigail, the...
by From Our Readers | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News
Drowning in craft beer Dear well-intentioned, creatively-spirited, entrepreneurial-minded, mechanically-gifted, young white men, Please refrain from moving forward with your impending craft brewery project, as we here in the Valley have gone well beyond the number of...
by Jack Brown | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
When a movie theater closes up shop, it often catches us by surprise. It isn’t that we don’t see it coming; we all know by now about Netflix, Hulu, and Redbox, and how the ever-expanding options of cable television and the Internet have siphoned off some of the...
by Chuck Shepherd | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, News, News of the Weird
A 2015 decision of the Georgia Supreme Court has created a puzzle for drunk driver enforcement. In Georgia, and other states, blood alcohol tests are “voluntary” to bypass; meaning drivers can’t be forced, or even pressured, to endure a test that ultimately helps to...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I demand unconditional love and complete freedom,” wrote Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun. “That is why I am terrible.” In accordance with the astrological omens, I’m offering you the chance, at least temporarily, to join Šalamun in demanding...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Madame Barfly, News
Nothing tastes like fall more than a pumpkin martini, unless it’s a pumpkin martini with a bone marrow bar snack. The Federal fine dining restaurant and pub in Agawam serves such tasty treats, but with an $11 price tag on the cocktail “Son of a Pumpkin” I was...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
Laura Radwell began to paint in the late ’80s and over the years has continued to explore various media: traditional oil painting, sculpture, calligraphy, and photography. The origin of her photo-based art is digital, a result of a familiarity and understanding of...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, News
This exhibit presents unique works of art from traditional Mayan villages in Guatemala. These paintings depict scenes such as harvesting crops, food markets, ceremonies and nature that are an integral part of the daily life and culture of these communities. Mayan Art,...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, News, Stage
John Sheldon is tired. Tired, he says, “of seeing how we treat each other, how we treat ourselves, how we treat our planet.” He’s embarked on a Journey to the Center of the Earth — “the place where everything intersects, where life really comes from.” His vehicle for...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Film, News
A night of short films from local independent filmmakers, including the world premiere of horror short Girl In The Basement by Jared Skolnick. Here’s the line up: The Answer also by Skolnick — One of the oldest questions is settled. Protesters by Marty Lang — An...
by Gary Carra | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Oklahoma-based singer-songwriter John Moreland stops by Noho’s Parlor Room this Friday, Nov. 13, in support of his latest sonic labor of love. The new disc is called High on Tulsa Heat, and its arrival earlier this year was eagerly anticipated thanks in great part to...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 9, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News, Scene Here
Photo by Greg Saulmon Motivated by hunger and a bit of sport, the peregrine falcon searches for a high perch from which she can keep a sharp lookout for prey. Her favorite meals are pigeons, ducks, and shorebirds, but in the lush Pioneer Valley any kind of medium-size...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 6, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Mark St. Germain is a founding member of Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield and its practically-resident playwright, having debuted eight scripts there over the years. His best-known works are fictional peeks into the lives of real people, including Sigmund Freud...
by Jack Brown | Nov 3, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
Movie fans can be a pasty bunch. Ducking out of the sun to catch a sparsely attended matinee is par for the course — those nearly empty mid-week shows are a welcome respite from the cellphones and chatter of weekend opening nights. Netflix, Vimeo, and the local...
by Gary Carra | Nov 3, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Springfield-based metal-meisters Shadows Fall have had the hardcore community scratching its collective, shoulder-length locks-laden heads in recent months. Shortly after announcing an “indefinite hiatus,” frontman Brian Fair clarified that the sonic suspension may...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 3, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Erving Police Chief Chris Blair said that during his first day with a new body camera and a new policy making them mandatory for on-duty officers, an incident arose during which he was stoked to be so equipped. While out on a call, Blair said he was trying to wrangle...
by Amanda Drane | Nov 3, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
In front of a full crowd and three-piece band, a woman in a 1950s party dress, with her bangs curled and wearing bright red lipstick, wails on the mic. She’s like a Stepford wife gone rogue. This is Mandy Pachios, frontwoman and founding member of jazzy, funky...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 3, 2015 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hey Yana, Does penis size matter? I’m a 20-year-old male and a tall guy who gyms a lot and has fairly good genetics … all but in the penis department. I’m 6 feet tall and I literally have a 4-incher. I’ve found that a lot of girls are size queens and the girls I...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 26, 2015 | Articles, Featured
Some trends are stranger than fiction. When Amazon released the Kindle in 2007 – an immediate bestseller – e-readers looked like the thing of the future. Between 2008 and 2010, digital book sales increased by more than 1,200 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2010,...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 27, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
Double Edge Theatre may call their Ashfield farmstead home, but they are a world-class, and world-traveling, company. In addition to their annual farm-spanning summer spectacle and small-scale shows in their barn-theater, for the past couple of years they’ve been...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 3, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
The Valley is full of good Asian noodle soups, so we tried three. I’m a child of chilly New England, where steaming cups of soup are most often consumed under blankets while the snow flurries outside. But last year, in Thailand, I tried a piping hot bowl of rice soup...
by Jack Brown | Oct 26, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, News
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the upcoming reboot to the Ghostbusters franchise. Director Paul Feig’s (Bridesmaids) 2016 release is a female-centered take on the story that stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy as a pair of old friends who are thrown...
by Gary Carra | Oct 26, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, News, Nightcrawler
While new wave icon Howard Jones’ Nov. 4 Iron Horse show will be engaging, it will not be Engage, the crowd-funded multimedia project he recently performed in London, LA, and New York that includes interactive smartphone apps for audience members, specially...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 26, 2015 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, I’m a 17-year-old virgin. My partner and I tried having sex, but we couldn’t get it in. I went to the doctor for contraception and I asked her why we couldn’t get it in. She said that I needed to relax; how the hell do I relax?! During sex (or trying to) I...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 26, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Local Elections 2015, News
This year, the Advocate is covering the Valley’s mayoral races a little differently. We’ve asked each candidate the same four questions, which we hope will provoke thoughtful and illuminating answers — with a little editing for length and clarity. This week we quizzed...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 26, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Local Elections 2015, News
This year’s mayoral race in Springfield is between incumbent Domenic Sarno, 52, who took office in 2008 and is currently in his third term, and Salvatore “Sal” Circosta, 30, the former owner of Sal’s Bakery and Cafe, who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2013....
by Hunter Styles | Oct 21, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film
Evil Dead: the Musical Ghost Light Theater, Turners Falls For the first 45 minutes, the crowd clapped for the songs and laugh-groaned at the corny jokes. It wasn’t until Ash, our zombie-fighting hero (played by Joe Van Allen) grabbed a chainsaw and severed his own...
by Amanda Drane | Oct 19, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Scene Here, Uncategorized
AMANDA DRANE PHOTO The Mary Jane Jones kicks off the night of comedy and lingerie at One Bar and Grill in Northampton with several soulful love songs. Eyes closed, lead singer Mandy Pachios growls a velvet reverie. A shot girl in a form-fitting, black nightgown with a...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 19, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
This year, the Advocate is covering the Valley’s mayoral races a little differently. We’ve asked each candidate the same four questions, which we hope will provoke thoughtful and illuminating answers — with a little editing for length and clarity. This week we quizzed...
by Gary Carra | Oct 19, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
She’s spent many a Saturday night in New York City. Kinda comes with the turf when you sing lead vocals in the Saturday Night Live Band as Christine Ohlman did in the ’90s — an honor that literally gave her a front row seat to Sinead O’Connor’s papal paper rip and...
