Columns
Stagestruck: Lives on the Line
In her “Detroit Trilogy” of plays, Dominique Morisseau looks at black lives in that once-vibrant city through the lens of three distinct eras and groups of people. Paradise Blue takes place in a 1949 jazz club in the city’s historic Black Bottom district, which is...
Stagestruck: Shakespearean Double Act
Think of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as fan fiction – Tom Stoppard’s contribution to the “greatest-play-ever-written” phenomenon. That is, Hamlet. In fact, though they were written centuries apart (around 1599 and 1966, respectively), the two make a...
Stagestruck: Art as Activism – Creative tactics at KO Festival
The KO Festival of Performance opened last weekend, kicking off a diverse five-week season clustered around the theme “Tactics for Trying Times.” First up was Jimmy & Lorraine, written by Talvin Wilks and developed with Hartford’s HartBeat Ensemble. The playwright...
Cinemadope: A ‘Damned Dirty’ Future Classic
At the risk of sounding impossibly out-of-touch, let me tell you something: I sure do miss Dialing for Dollars. That syndicated TV program — in which an afternoon movie was chopped into a few hundred pieces, allowing host George Allen to pick a number out of the area...
Stagestruck: The Foreigner Hits Close To Home
There’s a disclaimer of sorts in Jack Neary’s director’s note for The Foreigner, New Century Theatre’s season opener, playing through this weekend in its temporary digs at PVPA, the area’s performing arts high school in South Hadley. In it, Neary acknowledges that...
The Beerhunter: From Homebrew to Hotspot
Don’t let the name of their new Westfield brewery fool you — Mark Avery and Rich DeSousa aren’t preparing to quit their day jobs. But the two friends and business partners are still opening up every spare hour, every day they can, to get Two Weeks Notice Brewing...
Down to Earth: No, The Car Is Not King
We’re in the middle of a national crisis of public life. The idea that we can make life better by sharing our collective wealth (money and natural resources) and brainpower (science, engineering, literature and the arts) is under threat. In a recent article for Salon,...
Valley Show Girl: Khalif Neville and Ian Haas Are Musical Chameleons
I hear the sound of jazz in the parking lot as I walk towards New City Brewery in Easthampton last Thursday night. People are gathered in the patio area enjoying the music while also enjoying the summer night air. Inside, the old factory building with exposed beams,...
The V-Spot: Do I Talk Too Much in Bed?
I recently started going out with this girl, but it already feels like we are magnets to one another (both inside and outside of the bedroom). But the last time we had sex an issue came up that broke up that magnet-like feeling for me. I’m someone who really wants to...
Tundrastomper Are Good Musical Neighbors in Western Mass
Tundrastomper, an explosive, chaotic, and notey rock band, formed about 10 years ago when Skyler Lloyd, Sam Brivic, Andrew Jones, and Max Goldstein were teenagers — about 13 years old each. They grew up in a town in Westchester, New York, called Ardsley. I looked it...
Cinemadope: I Like Mike, Michael Keaton doesn’t get enough credit
In film, there have always been levels of stardom. There are those stars whose wattage is measured in tooth whiteness, and whose films are expected to earn many millions based more or less on their mere presence — your Pitts, your Cruises, your Lawrences. Then there...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: Wonder Woman’s Got Nothing on Feline Empowerment
For Father’s Day, I was treated to a screening of the new Wonder Woman movie. My daughter summed it up well: It was better than good, but not great. What I cannot understand is the fever this movie has generated. Women-only showings? Were there any women-only showings...
How Does a Shy Girl Ask for the Sex She Wants?
Check out a video of Yana’s Q&A with the Valley Advocate. Hi Yana, I’m a bisexual woman in a LTR with another woman. My issue is that I’m super bashful when it comes to asking for what I want during sex. I’ve been partnered for a while now and even though...
The Pour Man: Wine That Took 2,600 Years To Perfect
Vintners have been making dry, pink wine in Provence since 600 B.C., and they have gotten pretty good at it. In fact, the region’s winemakers would say that Cotes de Provence makes the best rosé in the world, and I agree that the crisp, bright wines are awfully good....
Stagestruck: Stellar Casts Overcome Awkward Plot Points at Chester and Williamstown Theatres
Are we finally breaking through the color bar in American theater? Is the tokenism represented by theaters programming one “diverse” play during Black History Month giving way to broader representation and bolder casting choices? Judging from the area’s summer theater...
Stagestruck: Song & Dance
Two shows now running in the Berkshires are rooted in the past but right up to the minute. Both Tireless, playing this week at Jacob’s Pillow, and Ragtime, at Barrington Stage through July 15, take their inspiration from the music of a bygone era while inviting us,...
Stagestruck: Brother/Sister Act — The New Theresa Rebeck Play Gets World Debut in VT
The publicity for Downstairs, which opened at the Dorset (VT) Theatre Festival last week, gives rather short shrift to the fact that it’s a world premiere by the prolific Theresa Rebeck, whose plays Bad Dates and Mauritius are also being produced in the region this...
Cinemadope: Better Than Finding A 45-Year-Old Porno
Many years ago, I found myself deep in the basement of the old Pleasant Street Theater (now the location of McLadden’s pub in Northampton), cleaning out some old storage lockers. From one of them, I pulled out a dented, dusty, film can, a flat circle of metal about 15...
Stream Queen: Butch Lesbians, Streaming, and Straight Clubs
Filmmaker Michelle Ehlen practically invented multitasking. Her IMdB profile stretches on with credits that range from editing and production to cinematography and soundtrack. Though she’s had a hand in other LGBT films, like the popular Eating Out series, Ehlen is...
The V-Spot: He’s Monogamous, I’m Polyamorous — Can This Work?
Hi Yana! I’m currently in a mono-poly relationship. My primary partner is monogamous and has no interest in being with other people. He is reading More Than Two by Franklin Veaux and Eve Rickert and is searching for resources when feelings of jealousy or envy come up....
Valley Show Girl: Pick It Up! Pick It Up!
After drinking sangria and picking at BBQ all day at a bridal shower this weekend, I shrugged off the floral shackles of proper wedding etiquette and hit The Cove in Southwick for the first time. Danny Pease and The Regulators put together a one-day summer bash at The...
O Cannabis!: Mass. Politicians Want to Charge How Much For An Eighth?
The battle over how recreational marijuana will be taxed and managed in Massachusetts will come to a head Friday. Gov. Charlie Baker has said he wants a bill on his desk by June 30 in order to allow enough time for retailers to apply for marijuana sales licenses and...
Stagestruck: Fowl Play(s)
“Birds of a feather flock together,” as the saying goes, but that’s no excuse for these two avian-themed plays to be running at the same time in this area. They are entirely different species. The Birds, at Barrington Stage Company, is a claustrophobic thriller, while...
Stream Queen: The ‘F’ Word
Feminism is a word that has puzzled/infuriated/strengthened so many people in this country. Debates over the goals of feminism rage on, while popular media outlets inject the word into their headlines for maximum clicks. Are selfies feminist? Is makeup feminist? Am I...
Basemental: The Leafies are a Guerilla Band
Some might describe The Leafies You Gave Me as a “band,” but that would be an understatement. At least in the musical sense. Yes, they are musicians. And yes, they make music. But they are a band more like New Oxford American Dictionary’s second definition of the word...
Cinemadope: Musical Evolution
There have been many eulogies given over the years for the American Movie Musical. And while the popularity of the form is certainly not what it was during its heyday — superhero movies, with their own kinds of acrobatics and wish-fulfillment scenarios, seem to have...
Should I Date Someone I’m Not Attracted To?
I met a girl on a dating app. It was sort of an accidental swipe, but we started chatting and met up. She was really cool to hang out with, but physically, I didn’t find her very attractive. We kept talking and started spending time together. Now it has been a...
Stagestruck: Mayflies and “Mill Girls”
It has been described as “theatrical mayhem” and “controlled madness,” “extreme theater” and “a mayfly” — the latter because it’s here and gone in a day. The popular annual event is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying for the dozens of theater folk who take part...
Cinemadope: Pedaling Up a Mountain While Playing the Keyboard
This week, bicyclists (okay, you power walkers can come, too) get a film festival devoted to that sense of freedom when the Ciclismo Classico Bike Travel Film Festival comes to the Academy of Music in Northampton for a Thursday evening screening. Now in its eighth...
Valley Show Girl: Stoned to Death II
I walked into the entrance of The Arts Block Ballroom on Main Street in Greenfield to soundchecking and friendly, familiar faces. With a couple of hellos’ and hugs, I paid the $20 for the 2nd Annual Stoned To Death fest, put on by Promotorhead Entertainment, and...
The Pour Man: One Wine To Lure Them All
The Original Dark Horse is a gateway wine, according to a recently published article in Forbes magazine. The brand is designed to gradually wean inexperienced millennials from beer, cider and stuff that comes in jugs and hook them into pricier wine offerings. Once...
The V-Spot: How To Be Curvy And Confident
Hi Yana! I’m a chubby cis-woman in my late 20s. I lately worked through struggling with my body image and relationship to food while healing from years of disordered eating. I’ve been doing really well lately, but sadly one of the things that used to trigger my eating...
Stagestruck: “Million Dollar” Duo
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...
The Beerhunter: The Eight-Day Cheers
Any out-of-towner who would guess Western Mass has a quiet craft beer scene is bound for a rude, brewed awakening. But even locals may be surprised at the scope of the second annual Western Mass Beer Week, which runs June 10-17. Last year’s series of events at...
Basemental: Dump Him’s New Record Is Really Freaking Good
Editor’s note: Jaclyn Walsh uses they/them pronouns. Valley musician, student, and DIY booker Jaclyn Walsh wants you to dump your boyfriend so much that they named their band Dump Him. On the surface such a statement might charm the misandrists and queercore punks...
Cinemadope: City Mouse, Rat Film exposes who the rodents really are in Baltimore
Fans of filmmaker John Waters might be familiar with the director’s odd fascination with rats. They crop up with some regularity in his life and work — from the original poster for 1977’s Desperate Living, which featured a cooked rat on a restaurant dinner plate, to...
V-Spot: How Do I Ask Him to Rim?
I’ve been with my husband for a long time and there’s one thing in the bed we did kind of once that I’d like to do again, but I feel weird about asking for it. Basically, I want to be rimmed, but as this is something I would not want to do for him, I feel like I can’t...
Down To Earth: The Valley’s Own Dinosaur Tracker
As we struggle with tough questions surrounding science today, we could do worse than look for guidance to the great figures of the past. One such figure, it turns out, belongs to our own Pioneer Valley, and many argue he’s received too little attention: Edward...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: ‘Destory All Monsters’
Sometimes the best laid plans go awry. First case in point: The just-released King Arthur was carefully groomed to be a blockbuster but flopped spectacularly at the box office. Second case in point: After I decided to review another movie of this ilk — Gods of Egypt —...
Stagestruck: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Alive! and Playing in Amherst – Times Two
“We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.” That line, spoken by a traveling player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, could well be the elevator pitch...
Stagestruck: Radical Notions, ‘Kunstler’ and ‘Heartbreak House’
In my column in last week’s Advocate, a preview of the Valley’s summer-theater season, I reported that many of the area’s upcoming shows reflect, indirectly or explicitly, “the political landscape we are all traversing these days.” Sure enough, the first two summer...
Cinemadope: Mad Max ‘Black & Chrome’ Escapes Hollywood’s Color Crutch
There has been a trend in Hollywood filmmaking that, for the last decade or so, has steadily changed the look of our blockbusters. It’s a pervasive change, but one that has happened gradually enough that many people aren’t even aware that it has been happening, quite...
Valley Show Girl: Queer Punk Rocks at Flywheel in Easthampton
One of my all-time favorite venues to see local bands will always be Flywheel’s first location. The alternative performing arts space first opened in 1999 on Holyoke Street in downtown Easthampton. During the early 2000’s, it was my sanctuary. I met so many people in...
Easthampton ‘Acroyoga’: A Fun, Interactive Path To Inner Peace
My shoulders and arms stretched backward like wings, I couldn’t help feeling like Rose from Titanic, and a grin spread across my face as I said: “I’m flying!” On a recent Friday I gave acroyoga a shot and it was the most fun I’ve had in while. Live music played beside...
The Pour Man: Purple Heart Won My Heart
Generally, I’m reluctant to get overly excited about wines with a cause. They often seem like gimmicky marketing ploys to promote less than stellar wines by pulling on your philanthropic heart strings. But every rule has a few exceptions: A couple of years ago I...
V-Spot: How To Make Your Own Lube
Editor’s Note: While V-Spot sex pert Yana Tallon-Hicks is away on vacation, the Advocate is re-running one of her most popular columns ever, a 2013 story on how to make sexual lubrication, “Farmers Lube,” using household items. On my kitchen counter is a glass jar...
Stream Queen: Move over, ‘The Breakfast Club’ Titles for all of life’s graduations (w/vid)
Graduation season is upon us, as high schoolers gear up for the next vein of adulthood and university students steel themselves for the real world, whatever that is. Fresh from a weekend of back-to-back college graduations myself, I can’t help but contemplate the...
Summer Stage Preview, Part II: Theaters on the Move
Editor’s Note: Here’s the Summer Stage Preview Part I, about the Berkshires. These days, Sam Rush often finds himself using the punning phrase “Home is where the art is.” That’s because his company, New Century Theatre, having lost its longtime home at...
Cinemadope: Northampton Movie Night
An evening in Northampton has never been boring. Meet your date for a cocktail or a glass of wine, move on to dinner at any number of downtown bites, catch a concert, go to an art opening. Stroll the streets, duck into the renovated Pulaski Park, circle Paradise Pond...
Growing Your Own Weed In Massachusetts: A How-To Guide
With Memorial Day weekend on the horizon, many people with green thumbs are preparing to put their saplings and seeds into the ground — the beginnings of this season’s garden. It’s usually the same old stuff: tomatoes, green beans, peppers, berries, carrots. But this...
The V-Spot: Does That Guy Ask Everyone Out?
Where is the line between “If you like someone, ask them out!” and “Oh, that guy asks everyone out”??? — Master Dater From your question, it sounds like you like a lot of people. Maybe you’re getting some flack for that from friends or foes? True, you don’t want to...
Summer Stage Preview — Part I: The Berkshires
Most theaters in this region have only two seasons: summer and the rest of the year. None of the area’s professional companies are truly year-round. Some focus on intensive summer repertories of multiple shows with two- and three-week runs, while others produce only...
Cinemadope: It’s Going to Be a Damn Fine Reboot, and FREE Streaming Movies )w/vid)
Amherst Cinema is gearing up for the return of Special Agent Dale Cooper. Kyle MacLachlan returns to TV this week in his early role as Cooper, the FBI man who got tied up in the death of Laura Palmer and the mysteries of Twin Peaks when the show of the same name first...
Valley Show Girl: Alt Jazz With The Greys at The Still in Agawam (w/vid)
A couple of weeks ago on The Still’s Instagram page they posted a beautiful picture of a mint julep. I’ve never had one, but always wanted to try the drink simply because that’s what they drank in The Great Gatsby. So, when I saw that The Greys were playing at The...
The V-Spot: Should I Dump My Triad?
I’m a bisexual woman and I’m the third wheel to a married bisexual male couple. We’ve been dating for about a year-and-a-half and so far things have been running pretty smoothly. We see each other two or three times a week for dates, group sex, and just regular...
The Pour Man: Summer is for Rosé
The rosé season is upon us, and a glass of Laurent Miquel’s Pere et Fils pale-pink wine is an excellent choice for welcoming warmer weather or enjoying while sitting on the porch and watching the sunset. Although Provence is France’s premier region for rosé, this dry,...
Cinemadope: Would You Take a Bullet for Art? Documentary on full-throttle artist Chris Burden (w/vid)
For such a rich subject, films about art and the people that make it all too often feel either forced and flat or ridiculously over the top. Better, usually, to take the documentary route, and let the art speak for itself. That’s the course taken by directors Timothy...
Basemental: You Know Amber Wolfe Now See Her Arresting Video for ‘No Thorn’
You may know Amber Wolfe. She fronted the “speakeasy, post-apocalyptic band,” O You Villain, books shows at Amherst Coffee, and is a veteran of the Institute for Musical Arts, where she found “some of the foremothers of local music.” Despite strong roots here in the...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: ‘Bad Channels’ Tune Into 666 … if you dare (w/vid)
I was saddened when I heard the news that Paul O’Neil, the founder of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, had died. It seems my favorite bands have either passed away (the Ramones, the Cramps), or are eligible for AARP but continue to stumble on. In addition to Sparks and...E-Edition
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