Arts
Pick of the Day 5/12: Mudbound at Mass MoCA
Netflix jumped into the Academy Awards this year with Mudbound, a magnificent film set in the Mississippi Delta during the years surrounding World War II. It’s all about southern race relations and that’s the only thing that ain’t pretty in this masterpiece. Lush and...
Pick of the Day 5/11: The Wailers
The legendary Wailers band is at Hawks and Reed tonight. Yep, Bob Marley’s bandmates Aston “Familyman” Barrett, Julian Junior Marvin and Donald Kinsey are in Greenfield to carry on what Spin Magazine listed as #4 in the “50 Greatest Bands of All...
Calendar: Thursday 5/10 – Sunday 5/13
THURSDAY 5/10 MUSIC Bellwether: Milford Graves Full Mantis w/ Director Jake Meginsky: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., Amherst. Live Music! Galvanizer: 8:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery, 36 Bridge St.,...
Pick of the Day 5/10: The Glass Menagerie
If you want a little Tennessee Williams with a twist, check out Shoot The Moon Theater Company’s production of The Glass Menagerie, Williams’ signature 1944 stage play. Let’s go over the plot before we get to the good stuff. Domineering Amanda Wingfield, has two adult...
Staff Picks: The Invisibles, Mudbound, and Christa Joy and Scott Meyers
Mudbound MASS MoCA // SATURDAY, MAY 12 Mudbound has been on my list of things to see since it first started making waves at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. While it is available to watch online, MASS MoCA is bringing in the director of the film Dee Rees for a...
Pick of the Day 5/9: Brand X at the Iron Horse
Brand X has been on the music circuit off and on since 1975, and they’re coming to the Iron Horse tonight. They’re “a multi-national jazz fusion band formed in London by the great Phil Collins and a couple of other blokes. They’ve recently...
The Soaring Beauty of Paul Goodnight’s Imagination
Given Paul Goodnight’s international stature, it’s difficult to understand the lack of fanfare and the dearth of coverage he receives when his work is exhibited at Rosemary Tracy Woods’ Art for The Soul Gallery in Springfield. Since 1984, Goodnight’s work has been...
Pick of the Day 5/8: You Were Never Really Here
It’s hard not to admire Jaoquin Phoenix’s work; he doesn’t just pop up any and everywhere and he actually acts. More importantly, he hasn’t morphed into a Marvel Comics hero … yet. So let’s celebrate him while he’s still free...
Pick of the Day 5/7: Bob Schneider at the Iron Horse
Bob Schneider is a bona fide artist. Not only is this guy an award winning singer/songwriter, he’s a terrific visual artist, as well. The Dallas Morning News says of his musical stylings: Bob Schneider is “a musical omnivore eager to devour any genre that...
Pick of the Day 5/6: The 16th Annual Anti-Racism Film Festival
Few will argue that there’s a real need for folks to bridge the racial gap that is yawning across the U.S. To do their part, the All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church will be hosting an anti-racism film festival. At 1:30 Whose Streets? directed by Sabaah...
Pick of the Day 5/5: The Great Gatsby
Want a little drama on your Saturday? The Great Gatsby remains one of America’s greatest works of fiction, and it’s going to be staged by the National Players at the Wisteriahurst Museum in Holyoke today at 1:30. The Jazz Age never looked so beautiful and glamorous...
Pick of the Day 5/4: The Tattooed Man Tells All
The weekend has begun and you can take your pick of great events happening this weekend. My recommendation? The Tattooed Man Tells All. This solo stage piece was written by Peter Wortsman. Wortsman interviewed Holocaust survivors in the 1970s and distilled them into...
Calendar: Thursday 5/3 – Sunday 5/6
THURSDAY 5/3 MUSIC Honeysuckle: 7 p.m. $12 – $15. The Parlor Room, 32 Masonic St., Northampton. Live Music!: The Moores: 8:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery, 36 Bridge St., Brattleboro. Professor Louie And The Crowmatix: 7 p.m....
Pick of the Day 5/3: The Head & The Load by William Kentridge
My buddy Meg Bantle chose The Head and the Load as one of her Staff Picks. So I will defer to her for my Pick of the Day: “Check out William Kentridge as he and his 50 person theater troop end their two week residency at MASS MoCA with this work-in-progress...
Pick of the Day 5/2: Neither Wolf Nor Dog at Tower Theaters
It’s so beautiful today and you’ve probably completely lost your mind; it’s hard to think about being indoors when there’s no guarantee that winter has really gone into hiberation. But we’ve got a suggestion for you after you settle down...
Expanded ArtWeek a big opportunity for small galleries and emerging artists
Only five years ago, ArtWeek was a series of 25 events in Boston. This year, ArtWeek, which started on April 27 and runs until May 6, expanded to Central and Western Massachusetts and includes over 525 events, making it the only statewide art festival in...
Pick of the Day 5/1: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams knew how to create drama. And his Pulitzer Prize winning 1955 masterpiece Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the perfect example. Brick, Maggie, Big Daddy and the gang are gathered for Big Daddy’s birthday. Simply put, these people are the worst. Greedy,...
Local Calendar: Monday 4/30- Thursday 5/3
MONDAY 4/30 MUSIC UMass Symphony Band & Percussion Ensemble: 7:30 p.m. Joint concert. $5 – $10. Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, UMass, Amherst. 413-545-2511. music@music.umass.edu. STAGE/FILM/DANCE Conversations With Nick Cave at Academy of Music Theatre: 8...
Pick of the Day 4/30: Patagonia Treasure Trail at the Forbes
Patagonia Treasure Trail is about a mother/daughter’s road trip on horseback into “the environmentally delicate and politically volatile territory of southern Arizona. A large commercial mining company has claimed the Patagonia Mountains, and the...
Cinemadope: The kaleidoscopic philosophy of jazz percussionist Milford Graves
So few of us follow our deepest drives — it’s a path that leads along high wires and narrow ledges, and for many, the fear of failing big keeps us dreaming small. On the other end of human experience is a man like Milford Graves. Graves is a renowned percussionist who...
Pick of the Day 4/28: OroborO, John Trudeau, Rebel Base, and Joy on Fire
Chris Goudreau is a music aficionado; he thinks this show at Hawks and Reed is a must see. He says, “It’s a night of awe inspiring, shredding, progressive bands this Saturday at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield, including Amherst-based math...
Pick of the Day 4/29: Salt City Shakedown at the Stone Church in Brattleboro
Syracuse may be one of the dreariest cities in the union, but that doesn’t mean their music scene doesn’t have a few bright spots. Check out Salt City Shakedown, a three band tour featuring Sophistafunk, who combines spoken-word, old-school hip hop, and funky rhythms;...
World Renowned Saxophonist and Valley resident Charles Neville dies at age 79
One of the brightest music stars in the Pioneer Valley and the world succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Saxophonist Charles Neville, age 79, passed away Thursday, April 26, at his home in Huntington. A member of the acclaimed Neville Brothers band, Charles...
Basemental: Attention to detail sets new Taxidermists’ record ‘Tax’ apart
Tucked away in an old house in Hadley live two musicians named Sal and Cooper, who collectively make up the rock duo The Taxidermists. The band has nurtured something of a cult following from DIY persistence and their 2015 record Honesty Box. One showgoer recently...
Pick of the Day 4/26: Silenced at the Greenfield Gardens
As an artist, I know how important it is for folks to support local creatives. So tonight, you’ve got a great chance to do just that! Silenced, a film written and directed by local boy Julian Lowenthal, will have a world debut at the Greenfield Gardens. Colleen...
Local Calendar: Thursday 4/26 – Sunday 4/29
THURSDAY 4/26 MUSIC Big Woods Voices Benefit Concert: 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Brattleboro Music Center, 72 Blanche Moyse Way, Brattleboro. CLICK Music Presents Chris Haynes & Friends: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. $12, Door Sales: $15; service fees apply. Join...
Local female film producer Colleen Lyon talks about new horror film ‘Silenced’
Colleen Lyon is a busy woman in a club of one. The owner of Vermage Productions, a Western Mass movie production company, Lyon laments that she is the only female movie producer in the area. When asked if she gets lonely, she sighs and says, “It’s lonely. Very, very...
Staff Picks: Donnie Darko, The Gaslight Tinkers, OroborO, John Trudeau, Rebel Base, and Joy on Fire
Far Out Film Discussion: Donnie Darko // MONDAY, April 30 Forbes Library in Northampton hosts the Far Out Film Discussion, which is basically a book club for weird cult classic and art house films. The next meeting the group will be discussing 2001’s cult classic,...
Pick of the Day 4/25: Faces Places/Visages Villages
It’s the closing night of the Multicultural Film Festival at UMass. Tonight’s film is a special treat. 89-year old French New Wave pioneer Agnès Varda and acclaimed 33-year-old French photographer JR co-direct Faces Places/Visages Villages. This...
Valley made sex toys fill gaps in the market
Over the past 20 years, people have begun to care more and more about what goes into their bodies. Most think about this in terms of the food they eat, but for customers of Oh My Sensuality Shop in Northampton, the same can be said for sex toys. “Most companies have...
Pick of the Day 2/24: Call of the Forest at Amherst Cinema
For the love trees! Call of the Forest is a 2017 documentary that sounds the alarm bells about deforestation around the globe. The brilliant scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger explores how our health and the health of the Earth depends on the state of our forests. She...
Calendar Monday 4/23- Thursday 4/26
MONDAY 4/23 MUSIC Ana Popovic at The Iron Horse Music Hall: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Iron Horse Entertainment/IHEG, 20 Center St., Northampton. Music Mondays Cafe ~ Berkshire Hills Music Academy Troupe: 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Music Mondays return to Gaylord Library...
Pick of the Day 4/22: After the Gig Fest in Easthampton
Have you ever heard of “a weekend-long DIY/punk fest full of bands, workshops, and skill shares?” Well you have now; After the Gig is at the Flywheel in Easthampton, and 100% of what you pay will be split between the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and...
Pick of the Day 4/21: The Ballad of Philip Andre…
If you’ve followed the long strange trip that is Mickey Rourke’s life, The Ballad of Philip Andre will ring a bell. The Legible Bod(ies)’s The Ballad of Philip Andre, is loosely based on the life and career of Mickey Rourke. The troupe will explore...
Pick of the Day 4/19: Tart2f at Hawks and Reed
Silverthorne Theater Company’s world-premiere production of TarT2f! An Irreverent Musical Comedy, by Jeff Olmsted is directed by the Advocate’s very own Stage Struck columnist, Chris Rohmann. Tart2f is described as a “light-hearted lampoon of...
Stagestruck: In the Valley and New York, history becomes personal
The tattoo From the title, you might think The Tattooed Man Tells All is a memoir of life on the carnival circuit. It’s anything but. This man’s tat is a five-digit number that was etched into his forearm in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Peter Wortsman’s one-man...
Pick of the Day 4/18: Persona at Amherst Cinema
Check out Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona. Amherst Cinema has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Swedish master’s birth. Hooray! Persona is another trippy Bergmanian piece wrought with WTFs. Liv Ullmann plays Elisabet, an actress who, without reason, has gone...
Staff Picks: What Cheer? Brigade, Holyoke Innovation Week, Poor People’s Campaign
What Cheer? Brigade and Landowner at Hawks & Reed // SATURDAY, APRIL 21 Odds are you haven’t seen a band like What Cheer? Brigade. The 20-piece brass band from Providence, Rhode Island, is basically a dance party version of a marching band and returns to Hawks...
Pick of the Day 4/17: Hawktail at the Parlor Room
Hawktail, an exciting acoustic group, describes themselves this way: “Haas Kowert Tice brought on mandolinist Dominick Leslie to form Hawktail. Music fans will recognize them from their various other outfits (Punch Brothers, David Rawlings, Crooked Still, A...
Valley Advocate Podcast: Artist Barbara Hadden on women, men, lesbianism, and becoming an artist
According to artist Barbara Hadden, you’re just as likely to see her painting a house as you are painting a portrait. Hadden’s approach to art is informed by her practical and thoughtful demeanor, as well as her experience in the outdoors. Discussing her...
Review – Doing Justice: Denise Beaudet’s Roots to Resistance
Going into Denise Beaudet’s exhibit Roots to Resistance at the New England Visionary Artists Museum, requires a bit of preparation. Beaudet, after all, has amassed a master’s course in global female activism. In her bountiful literature, her writings concerning...
Pick of the Day 4/16: Being Mortal
This PBS Frontline documentary is based on Atul Gawande’s best seller. The documentary explores the hopes of patients and families facing terminal illness and the physicians who treat them. There will be a discussion following the screening of the film. Being...
Local Calendar: Monday 4/16- Thursday 4/19
MONDAY 4/16 MUSIC Amherst Jazz Orchestra: 7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Free. With vocalist Ethel Lee. No cover, free parking and great food. Union Station Grand Ballroom, 125A Pleasant St., Northampton. 413 253 1607. info@amherstjazzorchestra.com. Julien Baker: 7:30 p.m....
Thoughts on Barb Hadden’s Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
Barb Hadden walks about the white walled Oxbow Gallery on Pleasant Street, contemplating the placements in her show at the Northampton artist collective. With two galleries, artist-members have a show in the large front gallery and a show in the back gallery. Hadden’s...
Pick of the Day 4/14: Matali Shaka Banda Oneness Project
“I’m trying to represent who I am and the way I’m trying to be, making sure my art and my life are one,” says jazz saxophonist Matali Shaka Banda. “I think a lot of artists preach a certain way but don’t live that way. Or attempt to live a certain way, but their...
Pick of the Day 4/15: Fatai at the Parlor Room
Fatai is a big deal. She’s sold-out multiple headline tours in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and is touring again internationally. She’s making stops at SXSW and The Parlor Room in Northampton! Check out this young phenom up close and personal tonight at...
Pick of the Day 4/13: Brain Damage at Amherst Cinema
It’s Friday the 13th and if you were a big humdrum, you’d watch Friday the 13th. But because you like to think outside the box, your best bet for horror tonight is Brain Damage! Here’s how Amherst Cinema describes this…uh…film. ...
Pick of the Day 4/12: Irin Ajo at Mount Holyoke College
Ìrìn Àjò is a world premiere opera by Bode Omojola. It’s about Káyò̩dé, a Nigerian engineer who immigrates to the United States in search of a better life. His parents in Nigeria now look up to him to take care of them and other members of his family back home....
Events Calendar: Thursday 4/12- Sunday 4/15
THURSDAY 4/12 MUSIC Live Music!: Wyld Nightz: 8:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery, 36 Bridge St., Brattleboro. Luke Baillargeon: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Live Italian music with Luke Baillargeon in The Mick. Free. The Mick, 3 Country...
Spring Arts Preview in Western Mass
When spring blooms burst forth, you’ll want to rove the Pioneer Valley looking for fantastic things to see and do. We’ve pulled together some of the best events happening in the area April through June. 4/14: Radically interconnected There’s a plethora of arts events...
Pick of the Day 4/11: Jesse Cook at the Academy of Music
Guitarist Jesse Cook says, “I want to take people to places they haven’t been,” and he’s traveled the world looking for and mastering sounds that speak to him. His new album, Beyond Borders, is an expression of that world music combination his...
Pick of the Day 4/10: A Better Chance Gospel Choir Concert in Amherst
Tonight, Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst will host the Better Chance Gospel Choir Concert. Choirs include the Amherst Area Gospel Choir, the Amherst Regional High School Chorale, the Hampshire Young People’s Chorus, and the Resurrect Gospel Choir at Amherst...
Pick of the Day: Foxtrot at Amherst Cinema
Michael and Dafna’s son Jonathan is killed while serving in the Israeli Defense Forces; they experience gut-wrenching grief when army officials show up at their home to announce his death. The family’s overzealous mourning, as well as the army’s...
Calendar: Monday 4/9 – Wednesday 4/11
MONDAY 4/9 MUSIC Tommy Castro and The Painkillers: The Iron Horse: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St., Northampton. STAGE/FILM/DANCE Facing the Surge: 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Free. A 25-min. film showing the costs of sea level rise for the...
Pick of the Day 4/7: The Local Vocal Chord Bowl at Amherst Regional High
Who doesn’t want to support the arts in public schools? On Saturday, April 7, you can. Watch nine great a cappella groups sing for music and arts enrichment in the Amherst and Northampton public school systems. Proceeds will be divided between the two and will be...
Pick of the Day 4/8: Isle of Dogs at Amherst Cinema
Something terrible has happened in Megasaki City! An executive decree has exiled all pets to a vast garbage dump called Trash Island. Well, no young boy worth his salt would let that stand, and 12-year-old Atari sets off alone in a little prop plane to find his...
Calendar: Saturday 4/7 and Sunday 4/8
SATURDAY 4/7 MUSIC AEIOUkes: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. A community ukulele club who meets regularly to sing together and to improve our playing. For uke enthusiasts of all levels and experiences. Forbes Library, 20 West St., Northampton. 413-587-1012....
Pick of the Day 4/6: The Eagle Huntress
It’s Friday and you’re free as a bird, or as Steve Miller might say, “I wanna fly like an eagle!” If that’s the case, you might want to head up to Shelburne Falls tonight and catch The Eagle Huntress to get inspired. It’s a...
Pick of the Day: Valley Voices
Do you have a story to tell? Do you want to tell it in front of a bunch of people you don’t know? You’re in luck! Season 4 of Valley Voices is the place to do it. Tonight “The Silver Lining” is the theme. Listen to all sorts of stories told in five minutes...E-Edition
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