Arts
by Blaise Majkowski | Oct 31, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Film, Newsletter
The old adage “you can’t tell a book by its cover” still rings true. However, does this advice apply to movies and their titles? Let’s partake in a little quiz and see if you can guess the film’s plot by its moniker. Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Hands...
by Jack Brown | Nov 7, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Leisure, Newsletter
Strike up a conversation about foreign film with most American film buffs, and the discussion will almost certainly travel East, over the Atlantic, on a European course. Those buffs with enough wind in them might even reach the Middle East and parts of Asia, but few...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Stage
The host/ess with the most/est turns the business of drag on its pretty little head If Drag Brunch strikes your fancy, don’t think twice — get yourself to Sláinte, the hilltop restaurant in Holyoke, as soon as possible. Just don’t do what I did last Sunday.I showed up...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Get Out With Staff Picks, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Calling All Hallows Admit it: we’re a happy Valley because we’re all a bunch of freaks. And Halloween seems to be the time of year we most like to let those flags fly. The night is a dark, blank canvas for creative expression and demonic possession. That’s why it...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
FRIENDS SHARE LOVERS And The Kids Signature Sounds Northampton-based indie pop heroes And the Kids released their sophomore album this past June. It’s the same kind of dreamy, melodic rock they delivered on their first album, but this time everything feels a little...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Day Screaming Ghosts are scary. Zombies are scary. Being surrounded by too many kids in Disney princess costumes is scary. If you’d rather run into any of these frightening folks in the daytime rather than in the late night hours, check out the Springfield...
by Gary Carra | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Most people get paid on it. A few don’t eat meat on it. Ice Cube makes movies about it. Some thank God for it. Others create restaurant chains derived from that acronym … But that’s the last Friday reference, promise. And speaking of last Fridays:...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Mourning Becomes Acrylic The Brattleboro Museum and Art Center opens five new exhibits on Friday. All look interesting, but one is a beautiful heartbreaker: From Luminous Shade gives three artists room to mourn the untimely passing of their sons — painter Margaret...
by Jack Brown | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
We in the Valley may have an above-average awareness of food co-ops. Take a Sunday drive around Western Mass, and you’ll find co-ops dotting the landscape, serving local communities and offering an alternative to the big box grocery chains that might not find it...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Stage
Hold Onto Your Wigs Local troupe Ghost Light Theater staged a killer Evil Dead: The Musical last year, but now these players are washing the fake blood out of their costumes in favor of a more earnest — but still outrageous — show: the award-winning rock and roll...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
This Saturday night: put on your best look, darling, and hit the dance floor at the Iron Horse for HalloKween, a queer twist on a costume dance party. Beats fueled by DJ LeFox and his eclectic collection of soulful house, nu disco, indie, and monster-inspired...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Film, Music
Hell Night at The Quarters • Sunday Hell Night returns to The Quarters on what many people consider “Devil’s Night,” the night before Halloween. There will be horror movies viewed on a projector all night as well as five hours of DJs spinning the best of all metal...
by Rob Breszny | Oct 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Astrology, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I invite you to fantasize about what your four great-grandmothers and four great-grandfathers may have been doing on Nov. 1, 1930. What? You have no idea how to begin? You don’t even know their names? If that’s the case, I hope...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 21, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I didn’t attend my hometown college, but I grew up just down the street from the campus. I biked along its crisscrossed paths as a kid, DJ’d at the college radio station in high school and, most important, acquired my passion for theater from its plays. Antioch...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 17, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Take a Page from Greenfield’s Book Got something to say? Sitting on a heretofore untold story, just biding your time for the right moment? Now’s your opportunity to stand up and share. The Greenfield Annual Word Festival has come back around again, providing visitors...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 17, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Rolling with the Punchlines A football team needs a good offensive line. So, too, does the lone, lowly comedian. That’s what Mike Birbiglia has been seeking, and perhaps has nailed down — depending on whom you ask, and how touchy they are. The mission of his new show...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Last week Maya Lin, architect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, came to the Smith College campus to unveil her vision for the renovation of the venerable Neilson Library. Coincidentally, in Boston a new play was unveiled which recalls Lin’s uphill battle to fulfill...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 17, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Halloween Thrash Bash 3 • Friday Maximum Capacity’s 3rd Halloween costume party is among us. Come dressed as anything but yourself! I may be in attendance sporting a blue wig. Drink specials all night and not to mention a killer line-up who may appear on stage in...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 18, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
It starts November 2016. And we’re calling it: In partnership with Northampton Community Television and Signature Sounds. Local acts, established and upcoming, in a casual coffeehouse setting. All online, all the time. Keep your eyes peeled… We’ll...
by Will Meyer | Oct 17, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
A few years ago, Valley musician Mike Parham came back from South by Southwest (SXSW), a music festival in Austin, Texas, and described it to me like the Wild West —somewhere between an underground music festival and a business convention.Some see SXSW as their ticket...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 17, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
BLOOMING THROUGH THE BLACK Parsonsfield Signature Sounds Leverett has fewer than 2,000 residents, so it’s kind of a miracle that it has launched a young bluegrass folk band as well-toured and nationally recognized as Parsonsfield. Then again, the cute, quiet town has...
by Jack Brown | Oct 17, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
Yankee No How Live in the Valley for any length of time, and you’ll soon know of Frances Crowe. The diminutive white-haired woman is something of a local celebrity, thanks to a life spent in activism, where her infectious cheer is matched by her uncompromising (and...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Send in the Frogs Now we come fully into October, when the autumn breeze skims through the changing leaves, and the sun’s cold sheen casts the hills of the Valley in a light we’ll miss come winter. You’d be nuts, in other words, to miss taking a few long walks. The...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
“Consider Lucifer,” says Han van Meegeren, huddled against the grimy wall of his prison cell in postwar Holland. He’s awaiting a summary trial and probable execution for allegedly having sold a previously unknown Vermeer to a Nazi officer during the occupation. The...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
In Sickness and in Health On June 5, 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report describing cases of a rare lung infection, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), in five gay men in Los Angeles — all of whom were young and previously...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Stage
Rock and Shock • Friday to Sunday Rock and Shock is like Disneyland for horror film buffs who love their music heavy. It’s a horror convention by day at the DCU Center. Then starting in the late afternoon and going all night: a concert at the Palladium down the...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Marley and We Reggae legend Bob Marley’s prolific career is hard to quantify, brimming as it is with huge-hearted songs and a diaspora of music fans, inspired musicians, and lifelong revolutionaries. The Hartford-based band Ras Spectiv celebrates the music of Bob...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
In Othello in the Seraglio, Shakespeare’s Moor finds an ironic mirror. Not the proud Venetian general, but a proud eunuch in the harem of the Ottoman sultan. Subtitled “The Tragedy of Sümbül the Black Eunuch,” it’s a “coffeehouse opera” conceived by Mehmet Ali...
by Gary Carra | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
He has played multiple instruments, in multiple bands, for multiple decades. The sum total of all these multiples? Scene stalwart Henning Ohlenbusch has played with or supported acts of almost every genre in his prolific career. Rock, pop, surf, psychedelic… You...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Do I Really Look Like That? The contemporary art gallery at Historic Northampton shows an artist each month who draws on local history or artifacts for inspiration. Enter Jenni Sussman, townie abstract painter and sculptor whose series Mask riffs on the faces and...
by Jack Brown | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
A lifetime ago — maybe two lifetimes now — I was an art school student. I was a hard worker but probably too concerned with what others thought of my work, and even then I knew that was a problem. That feeling seemed confirmed by the work being done by a classmate of...
by Ken Maiuri | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
Pugwash plays the Iron Horse Dubliner Thomas Walsh is a real pro with a catchy tune — and also with a particular four-letter word that begins with F. His expertise in both Beatlesque pop music and colorful language was on full display when his band Pugwash played the...
by Warren Johnston | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Food + Booze, Newsletter, The Pour Man
Sometimes finding the right name for a child, a pet or even a wine can be difficult.Naming can take long, grueling hours of trotting out candidates only to have them dismissed by others for lacking originality or humor, or being downright dumb. The process can take...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
In some ways, the two plays I saw last week in New York couldn’t be more different. One is a big, boisterous romantic comedy of English manners, the other a small, quiet meditation drawn from Hindu scripture. Bedlam’s Sense & Sensibility, now playing Off-Broadway...
by Hunter Styles and Kristin Palpini | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Film, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Olive’s Indie Sound GardenEvery time the electronic looping pedal wings back around and resets, some new element enters the songs played by Olive Tiger: maybe cello, or violin, or a hooky new techno beat. This inventive band, based in New Haven and Brooklyn, calls...
by Hunter Styles | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Newsletter
Dar Williams came to the Valley in 1992 to put down roots and start a career. Between then and when she left in 2000, she became a bonafide folk rocker, touring on a wave of good gigs that carried her to a breakout moment in 1996 with Mortal City, an LP that became an...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
Spoilers ahead!In this newest installment of the Advocate’s Scary Movie Club, two staffers — horror movie buff Jennifer Levesque and total wimp Hunter Styles — made the trek back into the proverbial woods for Blair Witch, the new sequel to 1999’s The Blair Witch...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
J’ome On! This Friday night: The whole Northampton/ Has to answer right then/ Just to tell you once again/ Who’s bad Did MJ just moonwalk into your heart? Do “the kick” right through your eardrum? Or crotch grab into your … Never mind. The point is Michael...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Temper Anthems So many buildings are missing their 13th floors, who knows what’s knocking around inside that metaphysical space? The 13th Floor in Florence, for its part, seems committed to capitalizing on that mystery by packing multiple acts — often new bands...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music, Newsletter
If anyone can lay claim to writing the neo American classic drinking songbook, it’s George Thorogood and The Destroyers. The band’s hits include “I Drink Alone,” “If You Don’t Start Drinkin’,” “Bad to the Bone” (that’s pronounced “B-b-b-b-bad to the Bone”), “Move it...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Food + Booze, Leisure, Music, Newsletter
Here’s the Beef It’s hard to believe that Greenfield’s Riverside Blues, Brews, and BBQ Festival is already in its sixth season. We’ve barely finished the heaping pile of brisket on our plate from last year. But it shouldn’t be too hard for us to get back into the...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Walking Through Time “In Scene 13, Leontes mourning his wife, things get a little more dialog-y. That needs to be run and worked on today,” says John Bechtold, creator of the immersive production of The Winter’s Tale that performs in downtown Greenfield this weekend....
by Kyle Olsen | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, News, Newsletter
Jeff Kelley, a Northampton post officer and owner of the Instagram account @postaljeff, scrolls through months of his posts, reaching a series featuring a red phone. He stops at a post with the phone dangling off a tree by the cord, it was photoshopped by another...
by Kyle Olsen | Oct 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music
Monster Arts Project II Opening Gala • Saturday Do you like monsters? Do you like art? Do you like the era of the 1920s? Well this may be the place to spend a nice fall evening. Professor S.N. Tomlinson is back at it for another year of bringing you an array of...
by Gary Carra | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Any calendar will tell you Sept. 22, is the official date of the fall equinox — which is fine, for those astronomically-correct types. But this year, I prefer to think of the solstice as happening on Oct. 2 when the Big E in West Springfield hosts an EDM concert...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
T’were Well it Were Done Quickly Any back-row slackers in the house? Remember wishing your high school humanities professor would just get on with it and fast-forward to Act V of whichever godforsaken Shakespeare text you were all reading out loud, line by line? It’s...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter, Stage
It sounds like the beginning of a joke: So, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis walk into a recording studio …. But in December of 1956, this foursome just happened to all be in the same recording studio — Sam Phillips’ Sun Records in...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 4, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
“If this be magic,” says Shakespeare’s King Leontes, “let it be an art lawful as eating.” On the Valley menu this week are two events that brought that quote to mind. At the Broadside Bookshop tomorrow (Wednesday), the multitalented Andrea Hairston unveils Will Do...
by Jack Brown | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
When the world lost Gene Wilder a month ago, it was a bit of a surprise to many — he hadn’t appeared onscreen in quite a few years, preferring to devote himself to the books he wrote later in life. But if it was a surprise, it also stung. For myself, and I suspect for...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Full Scream Ahead “If you want to be scared half to death, Rails to the Darkside is for you,” boast the organizers at the Connecticut Trolley Museum. And they’re not kidding around — this event, geared toward adults, is not recommended for young children. We can see...
by Will Meyer | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
20-Something Vision It’s an amazing feeling to bear witness to art you feel moved by — especially when that art is ephemeral. And it’s no less amazing to see a side of someone that you didn’t even realize existed. This is what happened when I first heard Pussy, a self...
by Hunter Styles | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts
Families Lost Eileen Claveloux’s new UMass exhibit features a captivating array of faces, all connected through trauma and loss. Each of Claveloux’s subjects is descended from a family with one or more ancestors among the 1.5 million who perished in the Armenian...
by Peter Vancini | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Film, News, Scene Here
More than 100 people stake out a plot of land at Pulaski Park in Northampton on this crisp Wednesday night for an outdoor screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. At the event kicking off this year’s Northampton Film Festival, people dress as Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy,...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
Fall in Love Now that I spend a good five minutes a day sweeping dry leaves out of our back entry, I think it’s safe to finally say it: autumn is upon us. And I’ll take it, dry leaves and all. Nestled between the smothering humidity of our summer and the desiccating...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Newsletter
Lyle Kleinhans focuses his work on abstract representations of people that highlight the conflicts, questions, and confidences behind their exteriors. Jagged and strict lines are offset by wildly brooding color that sucks the viewer in and haunts them long after....
by Advocate Staff | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Newsletter
The Wobblies in Their Heyday: The Rise and Destruction of the Indistrial Workers of the World During the WWI Era, by Eric Thomas ChesterLevellers Press, levellerspress.comIn the early 20th century, when unions in the United States were fighting pitched battles with...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
As it happens, two different productions of the same show open on area stages on the same day this week. On Wednesday, Million Dollar Quartet premieres in the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, and the Majestic Theater in West Springield...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 21, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
I was intrigued by the description of The Water Project in the press release I received: “Live theater joins forces with the Pioneer Valley’s thriving independent music scene in this original immersive production. … Immerse yourself in the currents of time in this...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, News, Newsletter
Northampton Film FestivalSept. 28 – Oct. 2For four days, at locations across Northampton, the modern film festival will be redefined with free public screenings of films, virtual reality experiences, games, and participatory film projects.Tickets are $10 for a...
by Will Meyer | Sep 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Leisure, Music, Newsletter
This Friday night, Sept. 23, there are at least six shows I want to attend. It wouldn’t be surprising if some touring band squeezes in a last-minute basement show. There are other bars and venues, too — Ben Folds is playing the Calvin, for one — and maybe a festival...
