Columns
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 Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana,I’ve been on the Depo shot for two months now and I have no sex drive. No desire whatsoever. I Googled it and it’s normal for women on the shot to feel this way.Do you have any tips or sex hacks to help me and my BF out? I’m sure he’s tired of coming home to...
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 Naila Moreira | Oct 10, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
Our natural environment needs us now, and the stakes have never been so stark. I’ve been frustrated this election season at how little attention the environment has gotten. In the first presidential debate, moderator Lester Holt didn’t ask a single question about...
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 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 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 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 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 Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 26, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
I’m a 38 yo male currently involved with three women. One is a long distance relationship. We met at a concert and had one night together and stayed in touch. We speak regularly on various chat and texts. Two is a nonsexual relationship. She spends the night and...
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 Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 3, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Yana, I need your expertise!I’m a 19-year-old guy in a hetero relationship. I was pleasuring my partner last night and I realized I stopped being present and could not become present again. She picked up on it and, well, I really wanted to be present for it but I...
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 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...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
I usually find Double Edge Theatre on their home turf — at The Farm in rural Ashfield — where they live and work and, every summer, perform a “traveling spectacle” that takes audiences on an episodic journey around the spread. But last week I encountered...
by Naila Moreira | Sep 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, Featured, News, Newsletter
I arrive at Book and Plow Farm to find production farmer Tobin Porter-Brown on a tractor, forking a pallet of canvas sacks off a pickup truck. He’s wearing a Book and Plow shirt, khaki shorts and thick boots that will later serve him in better stead than my sandals...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Editor’s Note: Sexual trauma addressed in this week’s column.Hi Yana,I really appreciate your column and the work that you do. I have a really embarrassing sex problem. I was sexually abused throughout various parts of my life, starting in my childhood and going into...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Thank you, Barrington Stage Company, for reviving this past summer’s hit play American Son. Thanks because I missed it in July and was glad of the opportunity to catch up with it during its brief return engagement. And thanks, too, because this run (through Sept. 25)...
by Gary Carra | Sep 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Could you be… won’t you be… my neighbor? It’s an indelible marriage of image and song performed daily by Fred Rogers on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood as he shed his business casual attire and slipped into his favorite sweater and sneaks. He was an...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
For the six members of the Northampton Playwrights Lab whose plays are having staged readings this weekend and next, the performances represent the first public airings of new scripts and newly revised older work. Some are brand new, having received feedback and...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 14, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
If you’re like me, you studied William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” in high school English class, and haven’t given it or its 19th-century author a thought since then. Well, I paid the man and his work a return visit the other day at his hillside homestead,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
So, I was masturbating last night and set a timer. It took me under two minutes to orgasm. However, when someone else in involved, it takes forever or doesn’t happen at all. I can count the times it’s happened on two hands.Every time I masturbate it’s like...
by Jack Brown | Sep 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
When your life seems fairly well set in its ways, change can be hard. Actually, change can be terrifying. You might have a family that you love and a job that you look forward to, and something can still seem not right. Accepting that — in other words, accepting our...
by Michael Agnello | Sep 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter
A new column by area students on the topics that matter to them most. Want in on this? Email editor Kristin Palpini at editor@valleyadvocate.com. A national flag is a symbol of a country’s history. In the United States, the 13 red and white stripes represent the...
by Warren Johnston | Sep 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Leisure, Newsletter, The Pour Man
When someone suggested that I try MAN Family Wines’ Chenin Blanc, my first reaction was that I don’t like sweet wines. Although Chenin Blanc grapes are often used to make excellent sweet wines in France and elsewhere, I was assured I’d find this South African offering...
by Jack Brown | Sep 6, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
There’s a famous scene in Network, Sidney Lumet’s 1976 film about the state of the television industry, in which veteran newsman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), bitter about his impending dismissal in the face of declining ratings, announces to his audience that instead...
by Will Meyer | Sep 6, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Spotty Results I learned some shocking things about Spotify recently. The average employee rakes in $166,000 a year, and the highest executive compensation has increased over 300 percent since 2014, reaching as much as $18.9 million. Despite that, Spotify has never...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 6, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Thankfully, consent is becoming a big topic on college campuses. However, most conversations about consent overfocus on the damaging outcomes of the failure to ask for consent rather than engaging students in learning the benefits of ongoing conversations about...
by Hunter Styles | Sep 6, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
Three Cheers for the Woo The local craft beer movement has taken off in every nook and cranny of Massachusetts, and Worcester is no exception. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since the city is the second largest in New England, and it sits along pretty much...
by Jack Brown | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
A musician’s life is never easy. I’m not talking about those of us who pick up the guitar now and then, or even the many who, long after it becomes clear that they will likely not move beyond the coffee house or bar circuit, still pack up the Volvo to head out for a...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana,I’m a straight 20-something lady and have been with my boyfriend for two years. We have a great sex life and we’re totally in love! He doesn’t seem to have much of an interest in my vagina — and my vagina, in my mind, is kinda the main thing...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
Mindfulness, or the practice of being completely aware of everything happening in the present moment, can serve as the path to a peaceful world. That person in your life attacking you? Perhaps it is because they are threatened by you. That man who sexually harasses...
by Blaise Majkowski | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Film, Newsletter
Let’s take a trip in the Wayback Machine to the early 1960s. The British company Eon Productions has just been accorded the honor of producing a series of films based on the Ian Fleming James Bond novels, starting with Dr. No. But there’s a catch. The contract says...
by Warren Johnston | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, Newsletter, The Pour Man
In the early 1970s when I was first widening my wine experience beyond the California jugs and the Portuguese roses, I discovered a French wine in a 2-liter plastic bottle. It cost about $1.50. It wasn’t very good. It had lots of strange residue in the bottom of the...
by Gary Carra | Aug 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
He is certainly a scene fixture, clocking more than his share of road miles and hours packed in vans. But let’s face it: the guy’s named after a luxury vehicle, not to mention immensely talented. So why wouldn’t a talent buyer tap the Valley’s...
by Jack Brown | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter
No Kidding One of the great myths of cinema is that kids movies are for kids. Sure, they might be a bit more brightly colored than most, or hit most of their punch lines a little more on the nose, but never forget that these films are made by grown-ups. Peel back that...
by Will Meyer | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter
We Buffer, We Suffer Candace Clement has been a been a member of the Northampton band Bunny’s A Swine for eight years. On songs like “Greetings from the Bottom,” her Strat intertwines with Emerson Stevens’ 3-string guitar contraption like a ball of twine, which gets...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Leisure, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Dear Yana,I was recently discussing your column with some new friends I met through Pioneer Valley Aces, a local group of individuals who identify as aromantic and/or asexual. I wasn’t the only one of us who appreciated your witty way of reassuring those who...
by Gary Carra | Aug 26, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Seba-(no)-dough Show Eric Gaffney says sayonara to summer with free Florence show Sebadoh co-founder Eric Gaffney rounds out the Acoustic Saturday Summer Series at JJ’s Tavern in Florence this Saturday, Aug. 27. “I recorded two full-length records in a six...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
At a concert — years ago — I was dancing in the front row when the familiar aroma of bright piney buds wafted by. It didn’t take long to find the source; a friendly gorilla finger was passing down the line. A sweaty dude in the neon pink knit cap exhaled a big...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
The Valley’s summer theaters have folded their figurative tents, but looking west, the season isn’t quite over. Out toward the Berkshires, five troupes are still up and running through this weekend and beyond. Chester Theatre Company’s season closer is The...
by Gary Carra | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Thomas Delmer “Artimus” Pyle comes to the Valley this Saturday, Aug. 20. He’ll be performing with his Artimus Pyle Band and their “ultimate tribute to Ronnie Van Zandt’s Lynyrd Skynyrd” as part of the Rock The Boot Music Fest,...
by Jack Brown | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
Alien. Blade Runner. Black Hawk Down. The Martian. Over the decades, director Ridley Scott has built a career on making the kinds of films (often with a bit of a sci-fi bent) that combine quiet moments with explosive action. But for me, he will always be first...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, Columns, News, Newsletter
Another summer, another superintendent for Amherst public schools. Since 2000, the school district has been under the guidance of five superintendents — six if you double count the husband-wife team that ran the schools for under a year. This isn’t normal, and it...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The Beerhunter
Compass Pints Four hidden corners of the Valley’s craft beer map Some people have trouble leaving their work at the office. As the Beerhunter, I’ve never really had to contend with that. In fact, if my editor turned around in her swivel chair and saw me...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 16, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
I don’t fish. To be frank, I don’t approve of fishing, especially “sport” fishing, since, like hunting, it’s not a sport in the accepted sense, that is, a contest between two equal adversaries playing by the same rules. I don’t understand the outsize thrill folks seem...
by Naila Moreira | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News
Very little seems more like a frivolous waste of time than watching cute animal videos on Facebook.But the more I’ve watched them, the more I’ve thought there’s something important, something vital even, that we’re communicating through critter videos — a shift in...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana,I’m a young undergraduate student and yet I’ve been having issues with bladder control. I’ve been wanting to explore doing more Kegels and have heard of these kegel balls you can get. Do you know anything about that? I want to get a good brand/the right...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 15, 2016 | Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Uncategorized
Hi Yana! I saw your TEDx talk in Vienna and was copiously taking notes. The content was an eye-opener for me. I had never thought that both of our basic information sources about sex [school-sanctioned sex education and online pornography] are running their very own...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 11, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Stage, Stagestruck
So often, music makes all the difference. It not only has those famous savage-breast-soothing charms, it can turn a so-so script into a winner. Take Unexpected Joy, playing through August 20th at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (WHAT). This world-premiere musical...
by Will Meyer | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter
One of the pitfalls of writing a bi-monthly column is the fact that I can barely scratch the surface of all of the cool stuff that’s happening around the Pioneer Valley. There is so much! This week’s column will serve as an informal catch-up on some new(ish) releases....
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
It’s such a pleasure to see a play in which language is as important as plot – a play whose dialogue doesn’t simply move the story forward but enriches it. Sister Play, at Chester Theatre Company, is such a gem – an absorbing, what’s-really-going-on narrative powered...
by Jack Brown | Aug 9, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
A quiet world, invaded Sometimes it seems like we have always been at war. Whether on a small scale or a world stage, we as a species seem never to tire of hurting each other, and of finding inventive new ways to do it. But perhaps even more depressing than that...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 1, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
In Vienna Once Quick, name this film: stylish, black and white, set overseas in or around the Second World War, but not about the ground fight in Europe.If you guessed Casablanca, you’re in good company. Michael Curtiz’s 1942 romantic drama, pairing Bogart and Bergman...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
“Theater is so subjective!” said my friend as we left the Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company. She was in tears, but I was relatively unmoved. Ugly Lies the Bone, by Lindsey Ferrentino, takes an unflinching look at a searingly dramatic subject that’s too...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 2, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The Valley’s oldest and newest professional summer theaters end their seasons this week with two very different plays. New Century Theatre closes its 26th season with Jar the Floor, a multigenerational family drama that furthers the company’s reputation for putting...
