Columns
O, Cannabis! Craft marijuana co-ops in the Valley?
The Pioneer Valley has a rich agricultural history and is home to many famous products, including “Hadley grass” (asparagus grown in Hadley) and enough tobacco in the 1800s for the region to be known as the “tobacco valley.” The Valley now has the opportunity to take...
Down to Earth: The Land Through Native Eyes
Two summers ago, I visited the grasslands of southwestern Brazil. I stayed at a fazenda, a farm property offering lodging for tourists on the side. Our pousada or lodge was especially tiny as these properties go – run by a woman and her partner who had rented space on...
Basemental: Tundrastomper Cleans It Up
Before writing this column, I stopped by Tundrastomper’s band house near the border of Easthampton and Southampton. Bassist Andrew Jones was getting surgical with a vacuum in the suburban home’s awkwardly large bathroom. He then offered me a bowl of black beans, which...
Cinemadope: Hedy Times
It couldn’t have been easy to be known as The Most Beautiful Woman in the World. But that was the way actress Hedy Lamarr was presented to American audiences by studio head Louis B. Mayer, who came across the star during a European jaunt in the late 1930s. By then,...
V-Spot: I’m Feeld-ing Threesomes
Dear Yana, In my post-big-breakup dating life, I’ve decided to start using Feeld [a dating app that’s basically Tinder for couples and singles seeking to be matched for threesome arrangements]. I’ve always been open to the idea of a three-way both sexually and as a...
Infants of the Spring: A new play views the Harlem Renaissance with a jaundiced eye
The artistic nexus of the 1920s known as the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro Movement is remembered as a great flowering of black talent and a golden age in American cultural history. But at least one of its members, looking at it from the inside, saw it quite...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: David Hasselhoff in Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical
A change of scenery is in store for this month’s column. We will leave the flickering screen of the cinema and head for the bright lights of Broadway. Yes, instead of a classically bad movie, I’m going to focus on a stage adaptation of a classic novel as captured live...
O Cannabis: CCC finalizes cannabis regulations, weed cafes don’t make the cut
Cannabis regulations were finally finalized on March 6 and Massachusetts marijuana enthusiasts have a lot to look forward to in 2018. Medical marijuana patients will be protected from shortages and applicants from communities worst affected by cannabis criminalization...
How to Fight Big Beer
In 2011, Anheuser-Busch InBev bought the Chicago craft brewery Goose Island. Today, the international conglomerate owns stake in a dozen formerly-craft American breweries. (Leah Kelley photo) I used to bartend at one of the oldest dive bars in Western Mass,...
Cinemadope: The Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival Returns
Now in its 13th year, the Pioneer Valley Jewish Film Festival has proven itself to be one of the area’s most popular cinematic traditions. And with good reason: the festival is a wide-reaching affair that brings its offerings not just to one theater, but to screens...
Monte Belmonte Wines: The Gewürzfather Part II
“Weird. What the heck does it smell like? Roses? It tastes like Oil of Olay.” “It smells like…you know how, in spring, the buds are coming out on the trees? Like those trees that smell like sex?” “Like a ‘period’ tree.” “It smells like sex is about to happen. It...
The V-Spot: How Do I Find Someone Who’s Got Their Shit Together?
Hi Yana, I’m no longer satisfied with the type of love I attract. After my most recent heartbreak, and having to face the thought of getting back on the online dating horse, I’m willing to admit that something isn’t working here, and it might be me....
Valley Showgirl: Say Darling took me to Patsy-ville at Back Porch Festival
For over 25 years The Back Porch Radio Show has been airing Sunday mornings on The River 93.9 FM. Curated by radio host Jim Olsen, the selected sounds are a variation of American roots music including bluegrass, folk, classic country, blues, and more. Olsen is also...
Stagestruck: Defying Gravity, Again
That wizard of wise foolery known as Avner the Eccentric is back. Avner Eisenberg is a genius of physical comedy and quick-witted clowning whose whimsical website states that “as a kid his passions were snakes and juggling. He wanted to be a doctor, but after a year...
Stagestruck: Willkommen to “Cabaret”
As I wrote in this space last year, “So much of what we see and create seems newly topical and timely” since the rise of Trump. “Everything is now filtered through a horrifying new prism, taking on fresh meaning and urgency.” A striking example of the “Trump Effect”...
Stagestruck: Happier Valley Comedy expanding on improv
A troupe of high-spirited performers bound onstage and solicit goofy suggestions for characters and situations from the audience. Then they improvise short, snappy scenes based on those prompts. The comedy flows from the incongruities and the improvisers’ quick wits....
Valley Advocate Podcast: The Lifestyle of a Sex Columnist
Yana Tallon-Hicks has been writing the Advocate’s sex and relationship column, The V-Spot, for seven years. It’s something she enjoys greatly, but she says it isn’t exactly the Carrie Bradshaw lifestyle some people seem to think it is. She is also a...
Introducing the Valley Advocate Album Review Column: The CDs You Gave Me
Welcome to the first of a new monthly column – The CDs You Gave Me – featuring reviews of new albums by Western Mass bands and solo artists. I’m a musician myself as a member of 10-piece theatrical and avant-garde pop ensemble, The Leafies You Gave Me (get it?), so I...
Cinemadope: A Horror Film Stitched Together from Horror Films at Amherst
It’s always been a point of pride at Amherst Cinema that they are no mere movie house. Plunked down right in the heart of the town’s downtown, flanked by coffee spots and park greens, the theater has always been something of a community hub. Perhaps it would have been...
The V-Spot: My Lover and My Bestie Are Dating
Hi there! I’m an early 30s, cis, brown, queer non-monogamous woman. My question is about a situation I find myself in with a lover and my best friend. This best friend is my Bestie, my chosen family. The lover is my first male lover in over a decade. (I was with...
O: Cannabis: ‘Little pieces of art’ — the magic of making professional edibles
Algebra and edibles do not usually mix, but for Mark Wikar one is absolutely essential for creating the other. Even though his background is as a pastry chef, Wikar now uses a lot of math to create perfectly dosed edibles at INSA, a medical cannabis dispensary that...
The V-Spot: Friends with Bad Benefits
Hi Yana, I have a conundrum! I recently started going on dates with a friend of a friend, and it wasn’t until our third date last week that I realized that, as much as I like them, I don’t think I’m sexually attracted to them. We’ve known each other for about a year...
Cinemadope: Oscar Shorts at the Berkshire Museum
The dust may finally be settling on the latest Super Bowl — at least outside of Philly — but for film fans, it’s the coming weeks that are the lead-up to the biggest contest of all: the Oscars. The 90th Academy Awards ceremony is set to go off on the first Sunday of...
V-Spot: How Do I Tell Someone I Have a Sexually Transmitted Infection?
Hi Yana, I recently found out after my 21-year pap smear that I carry HPV (human papillomavirus). It’s incredibly annoying that even though I’ve been tested all my life, a very common STI can still be transferred to me. It was also troubling that after...
Valley Show Girl: The Brian and Vicky Show at 7B’s in Westfield
With that typical New England ice storm still fresh in the air, I had Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby in my head all day. Walking into 7B’s Bar and Grill in Westfield to hear the classic Johnny Cash tune The Ballad of Jesse James was all it took … poof! be gone Ice...
Stagestruck: Marx and Sparks
If, like me, you thought the National Theatre’s production of One Man, Two Guv’nors, either on NT Live or Broadway, was the funniest, wittiest farce you’ve ever seen (with Noises Off a close second), chances are you’ll enjoy Young Marx. It’s on this weekend at Amherst...
Beerhunter: Veteran-owned Arcpoint Brewing Company takes root in Belchertown
Chris Peterson tweaks his craft beer recipes the same way he works on multimillion-dollar military aircraft: very, very carefully. Peterson is a tech sergeant in the 439th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. As a technician and...
Down To Earth: Artistically collaborating with unicellular slime molds
The other day, wandering the back alleys of social media, I discovered a Facebook group to fall instantly in love with: “Slime Mold Identification & Appreciation.” Joining the group, I was amazed to discover that it boasted 5,422 members (today, it’s cracked...
Basemental: The World According to Moggie
On January 20th, 2017, I attended (and also played) an anti-inauguration “bash” at the Flywheel in Eastampton. Everyone was reeling and processing — the whole day was harrowing and bleak. That night, for the first time, I heard Diana Davies (who goes by Moggie to...
O Cannabis: Questions at Greenfield Cannabis Control Commission Meeting Run the Gamut
Franklin County has a rich agricultural history, so it was no surprise that several different farmers spoke at the public forum hosted by the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) in Greenfield. The forum, which was hosted on Tuesday, is one of 10 public forums happening...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: “Son of The Pink Panther” falls far from the tree
It may come as a surprise to my faithful readers that I actually own a few classy movies — notably, the well-regarded “Pink Panther” series starring the great Peter Sellers as Detective Inspector Clouseau. After Sellers’ death, the producers unwisely decided to try to...
O Cannabis: How to use marijuana at home without smoking it
As recreational and medical marijuana legalization laws continue to pass state by state, more and more people are curious about cannabis. As different people are willing to try cannabis for recreation or medicine, the image from That ’70s Show of a group of people in...
Stream Queen: Essential Picks for Black History Month
The year is already sailing by. I was celebrating Christmas, then I blinked, and now it’s February. I couldn’t be happier, though, as this is one of my favorite months! Valentine’s Day turns everything gooey next week, and we’re at peak Oscar season. Perhaps most...
The magical ménage à trois: Wine, chocolate, and Valentine’s Day
Roses are red. Wine is red. Violets are violet. Let’s try some chocolate. Valentine’s Day, wine, and chocolate are like a magical ménage à trois. And like that other ménage à trois I was part of, you don’t want to realize in the middle of it all that you have made a...
Cinemadope: Playing yourself in an Iranian film on a real crime
Review movies long enough, and you’ll hear the tale of Taste of Cherry. The 1997 film from Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami won the Palme d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival, and was hailed by many as a masterpiece. But when it hit theaters in the U.S., there...
The V-Spot: Oceans Apart
Hi Yana, We met when we were 15 years old on the other side of the world. We were instantly attracted to each other and even made out on the first night. Saw each other over the years randomly on vacations, weddings etc. Tried to stay in touch and hang on to something...
Cinemadope: KidsBestFest a February Tradition
We parents of the Pioneer Valley have a pretty sweet deal. You might not realize it if you don’t have kids in your life, but once you’re clued into it you begin to discover that there is a near-endless list of things to do with your little ones. Hayrides, science...
Stagestruck: In the Not-So-Bleak Midwinter
It’s Black History Month — or as African-American actors I know like to call it, “Black Employment Month” — the time of year when many theaters make a point of programming shows by and about people of color. Some scoff at the perceived tokenism, and it does point up...
Stagestruck: Something Rotten! — a tasty musical dish
I grew up on Shakespeare and musicals, so what was I to make of Something Rotten!, the hit musical that mercilessly lampoons both? Love it for its origins or hate it for its irreverence? Having missed it on Broadway, where it earned a double handful of Tony...
Basemental: A country album for the 21st Century
Elliot Hartmann-Russell, a local musician who has quite a big appetite for releasing lots of albums under different aliases and bands—including Sweat Enzo, Thee Arcadians, and Full Grown Cats—and Caleb Rosazza, who plays guitar in Lux Deluxe, have teamed up for a...
Stagestruck: Love in the Multiverse
Constellations, playing at TheaterWorks in Hartford through Feb. 18, looks at love and second chances through a prism of reflecting and refracting fun-house mirrors – or more accurately, through a spectrum of infinite chances. Nick Payne’s two-hander isn’t exactly a...
The V-Spot: My Coitus is Interruptus by Chronic Pain
Hello Yana, I’m a college student and I feel like I’m emotionally ready to seek out romantic and sexual relationships. The problem is, I feel like I have a lot stacked against me physically. I’m living with a pelvic floor disorder that requires me to do daily physical...
Monte Belmonte Wines: An AFC Championship 5-Bottle Wine Snob Quiz with Mesa Amy
I go to Mesa Verde, a burrito bar in Greenfield, pretty much every week and order take-out for the Belmonte family: blackened-chicken burrito with chipotle sour cream, Mesa salad, cheese quesadilla, large chips and guac and an unsalted margarita while I wait. A...
Cinemadope: One Saturday, Many Films
A few years back, I spent most of my weekends running around Western Mass as part of an acoustic jazz band. We played parties, weddings, and a lot of restaurant gigs, but the place I was always happiest to see was the welcoming porch of Elmer’s Store in Ashfield....
Stream Queen: Feed Your Inner Freak With these Campy Picks
What’s the connecting thread between old jukebox music videos and Carly Rae Jepsen? What ties Swan Lake to My Strange Addiction? One word: camp. I’m talking about the particular aesthetic that marries high-brow and low-brow, producing art too grave to be serious. The...
Valley Show Girl: A Night of Funky R&B for Jane Doe Inc.
I love it when music collides with a charitable fundraiser event, especially when that event involves human rights. The happenings at The O’s Music Bar in Sunderland last week were just that. Rise Up Productions, a liberal activist group of musicians and actors based...
Too High to Drive? New App Allows Marijuana Users to Test Their Impairment Level
Despite the legalization of recreational cannabis use for adults in Massachusetts over a year ago, there is still no standard of measure or device to test people behind the wheel for marijuana intoxication. This presents a problem for law enforcement officers who...
Stagestruck: High Drama in the Library
You wouldn’t think a library would be a likely setting for high drama, but here we are with two playing at once. In Hartford, Sharon Washington is telling the story of her girlhood, when she lived, not virtually but literally, in a library. And in West Springfield,...
Cinemadope: Alone/Together
One of the stranger aspects of moviegoing is that it is at once a grand communal act and an intensely private experience. We gather together in dark rooms as if in secret churches, and when the crowd is right it can feel as if we’ve all been through something together...
The V-Spot: Where’s My Bleepin’ Orgasm??
Dear Yana, I’ve been with my boyfriend for a couple years now. We’re just now starting to experiment in our sex life. I’ve known how to make myself vaginally orgasm for a few years now. And he knows what positions I need to do to make this happen. But it’s gotten to...
The V-Spot: We’ve Got Different Sex Drives
Hi Yana, My partner and I seem to be in different places when it comes to sex. We have fabulous sex when he’s up to it, but in general I have a higher sex drive and want to be more adventurous. We both have histories of trauma and deal with it in different ways. I’m...
So … Is Pot Legal or Not in Massachusetts?
Despite the support for the legalization of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent out a federal memo this month that makes the future of cannabis in Massachusetts even more unsure. According to a Gallup poll from 2017, 64 percent...
Basemental: Songs about Surveillance
The fight to prevent additional police operated surveillance cameras in downtown Northampton has dragged on since September — over four months, two calendar years, and even through a municipal election. The Northampton City Council has voted 7-2 passing first a...
Cinemadope: Different Strokes
Few artists have captured the public’s fancy like Vincent Van Gogh. His richly textured landscapes, interiors, and portraits, built up with a painterly impasto as inviting as a rich ganache, seem to grow in popularity with every passing year. And while the calendar...
Stagestruck: When 90 Minutes is Enough
Time was, going to the theater took up the whole evening, with built-in pee and bar breaks. That’s been changing recently, as more and more plays clock in at an intermissionless 90 minutes or so. Back in Shakespeare’s day, of course, the show went on all afternoon,...
Monte Belmonte Wines: You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Wine
All natural. The kind of buzz words that make my extremely savvy, health-conscious wife cringe. When you see “natural flavors” on raspberry flavored items, it might as well read “flavors expressed from a beaver anus.” It’s true. Or at least it used to be. Google it....
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy
It’s New Year’s Day. With no idea what to watch, I thought I’d go through one of my leaning towers of DVDs and see what I might come up with. Down at the musty bottom of one of the stacks, I found a trove of movies I’d never watched. My candidate for viewing: The...
Stream Queen: Looking to Defrost This January?
I just returned from a holiday vacation in the Sunshine State, where I grew up among palm trees, dolphins, and hair-perming humidity. Now, as I chisel my car with all the ferocity of a hunter-gatherer, my fingers and toes quietly preparing to fall off of my body...
O Cannabis: Time to Get Growing
Bay Staters are still waiting for finalized regulations for the commercial recreational marijuana industry in Massachusetts, but the regulations around adult recreational use for individuals were established in December 2016. After voters passed Question 4 on the 2016...E-Edition
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