Columns
by Chris Rohmann | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
Halloween is half a year away, but there are devilish doings in the Valley, foreshadowed by witchery in Lenox. A one-woman show at Amherst College this weekend puts a clown face on a 17th-century tale of demonic possession, and last month Shakespeare & Company...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | May 4, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana,My boyfriend and I have been together for a year. Up until a couple of months ago, I was extremely satisfied with our sex life. He wanted me all the time and would initiate sex at least one to three times daily. Recently, we moved in together and it seems the...
by Gary Carra | May 2, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Sutherland swaps silver screen for six-string; Gartska jams with guitar gods… briefly He was a “Lost Boy.” A “Young Gun.” One of “A Few Good Men” to enjoy a three decade career on both the silver and small screens alike. But...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 28, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
When Matilda the Musical opened in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2010 – quickly moving to the West End, where it still resides – the British press greeted it as an “anarchically joyous, gleefully nasty” antidote to the sugary concoctions of other kid-centered musicals. (That...
by Will Meyer | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music
As a 24-year-old musician in the Valley, my world centers around Hadley basements and Easthampton community centers — the places where you can catch the best of the area’s DIY music scene. The what scene?Exhausted by the exploitative pay-to-play model often used by...
by By Gary Carra | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Better call Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Looks like someone’s gotten a hold of the Wayback Machine.First stop: Foxwoods Resort Casino’s Grand Theater this Friday, April 29. Not only will female hip-hop heavyweights Salt-n-Pepa be there, but so will literal heavyweight Biz...
by Hey, Yana! | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
I know you do sex advice, but I need some relationship advice. My boyfriend and I have been dating for about half a year and he shows zero emotion. I want to bring it up to him, but not in a way that will make him clam up more, ya know? Any advice would be awesome....
by By Kristin Palpini | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, O Cannabis!
Governor Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh of Boston, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, you’re wasting your time with your anti-marijuana legalization effort, the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts. So far, the campaign, which launched in late April,...
by Story by Kristin Palpini — Photos by Kevin Gutting | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, News, The V-Spot, Wellness
Climbing the stairs to V-Spot sex columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks’ apartment, I wasn’t sure what to expect.Would there be a lot of framed Georgia O’Keefes on the wall? A swing hanging in the bedroom? Penis-shaped drinking glasses? I was sort of right.There are no...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
The subtitle of the best-selling book and its 1995 Broadway adaptation — The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years — is no exaggeration. Both the memoir and the play cover more than a century of African-American history, seen from the centenary vantage point of two...
by Gary Carra | Apr 20, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
By Gary Carra There’s been a growing trend in tribute circles over the past decade. While the songs remain the same for bands like Zep-licators Get The Led Out (coming to Holyoke’s Mountain Park Aug. 5) and Billy Joel recreators Big Shot, the need to physically look...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana!I started having sex with males this past summer. It’s fun and exciting, but I’ve yet to reach an earth-shattering orgasm. That may be too high of an expectation for myself, but it feels like I’ve never had an orgasm at all. I feel the build up, but...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 14, 2016 | Stagestruck
In some ways, the vigilante shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012 can feel like the first in a series, soon followed by more headline-grabbing murders of young African Americans — as if Trayvon’s death, and George Zimmerman’s acquittal, launched and licensed the police...
by Jack Brown | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
Any director worth their salt knows their strengths. Scorsese has New York and the mob; Allen has New York and neurosis; Tarantino has pop culture and cursing; Bergman had Sweden, bleakness, and death. To me, one of the marks of an interesting director — an...
by Naila Moreira | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, Featured, News
About 500. That’s smaller than Smith College’s first-year class by 100 and it’s a tenth of the entering class at UMass. It’s also the number of right whales known to be alive in the entire world. These huge creatures — second in size only to the blue whale...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I have a seven-year-old son and I want to start teaching him about consent. Do you have any resources and tools for me as a parent to help him learn about consent as a kid? — Proactive Parent Dear PP, The brilliant Dutch sex education curriculum starts what...
by By Gary Carra | Apr 12, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
A little more than a month ago, the Valley’s own Jon Donais arrived in Chile, Santiago. He had flown in with his present band, hardcore heroes Anthrax, along with headliners Iron Maiden on “Ed Force One” — an aircraft infamous in aviational circles for both its “Book...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 12, 2016 | Columns, The Beerhunter
Flavor Savers For my birthday this year, can someone pick me up an organoleptic hop transducer module? I know that sounds like a piece of equipment that Doc Brown would install under the hood of his DeLorean. But really, I’m a simple man. This module, also known as a...
by By Gary Carra | Apr 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Everyone wants to be a Renaissance man, in a Renaissance band … or at very least, ensconced in a scene or city that has been awarded the “Renaissance” brand.But Matthew Larsen is kicking it old school — back to the “dark” ages, one could say.Back in 2006 while still...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana,I have been using flavored lube for mostly oral, but recently this has been causing tonsillitis for me. I forgot to read the fine print, “Use within 3 months,” so now I must chuck out a full bottle (I hate wastage!).What brands of flavored lube...
by By Jack Brown | Apr 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
I’m sure that any first-year film major could tell you more than I can about what makes films tick, but for me, the best of them have always come down to the story of relationships — much like our own lives. Whether it’s He Said/She Said, Axis against Allies, or Harry...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 1, 2016 | Stagestruck
At the end of Act One in Shakespeare’s play, Othello is dispatched from Venice to command the garrison on the island of Cyprus, a strategic outpost on the eastern rim of the Mediterranean that is under attack from the Turkish fleet. So although he’s “the Moor of...
by Jack Brown | Mar 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Film
Religion and art have a complicated history. Together they’ve been responsible for some of the great masterworks of history — the Sistine Chapel, Chagall’s stained glass, the Dome of the Rock — but they’ve also produced their fair share of eye-poppingly...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Leisure, News, Wellness
With an estimated 800,000 weed smokers living and toking in Massachusetts and a likely heading for the November ballot question that could bring recreational marijuana to the state, we figured there’s a demand for some pot talk in the Valley. Enter “O, Cannabis,” a...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana!I’m a lady in a happy, healthy, committed relationship with a man. We have a good sex life but my sex drive is much higher than his. I’m also really into girls and have wanted to ask him for a long time how he would feel if I was Friends With Benefits with...
by By Gary Carra | Mar 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
By all accounts, regional college rockers Miracle Legion had a miraculous 13-year run, scoring rave reviews and even regular rotation flirtations with MTV back in the heyday. In 1996, however, they released a disc the band now affectionately refers to as their “swan...
by By Warren Johnston | Mar 22, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, The Pour Man
My mother raised me right, schooled in the proper Southern custom of not wearing white from after Labor Day ’til the dogwoods bloomed in March.Until a couple of years ago, I held to the standard and applied its rigorous dictum to wine: white would not cross my lips...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 22, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hey Yana,I would like to buy either a dildo or vibrator for me but I have no experience on what to buy in terms of brand or what type for my first sex toy. What would you suggest to be the best sex toy to purchase to start with?— Fretting Over My First Vibrator Dear...
by By Gary Carra | Mar 22, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Eclectic sextet Bella’s Bartok reports that they drastically changed up their recording style for the new full-length Change Yer Life, the completion of which they will celebrate this Saturday, March 26 at Pearl Street.They’ve cut out the middle men and,...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 14, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, The Beerhunter
The dumbest thing I ever did on a date was to invite my lucky lady off-campus for an Indian dinner of vindaloo. The dish was so spicy that I spent half an hour struggling to force small talk out through my seized-up throat (luckily, the chili peppers hit her just as...
by Gary Carra | Mar 14, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
A “Perfect Storm” is slated to touch down at Chicopee’s Maximum Capacity this Saturday, March 19. Sorry, Walmart, but there will be no need for folks to stock up on water, batteries, flashlights,Vaseline or whatever else all those alarmist types go scurrying around...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 15, 2016 | Stagestruck
There’s a lot of testosterone flowing in this week’s two picks: Butler, an all-male dramedy set during the Civil War, at the Theater Project, and Hangmen, a black comedy-cum-tantalizing whodunit from Britain’s National Theatre. In both of them, men use rank,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 14, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Dear Yana, I’m a 61-year-old woman dating two men. One of them is a retired, 75-year-old secure man who knows who he is. The other is in his 50s and is still trying to figure it all out. Neither of them knows about the other one and live at a distance from each...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 21, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck
The story goes that Samuel Beckett was walking through a London park with a friend on a glorious spring morning when his companion exclaimed, “Isn’t this just the kind of day that makes you glad to be alive?” To which Beckett replied, “Oh, I don’t think I’d go that...
by Gary Carra | Mar 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
The Hysteria On The High Seas luxury liner had already left port when Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott came up mute — a case of laryngitis leaving him unable to take the mic for his boatload of fans. Luckily, crewmate Andrew Freeman was equal to the task. The Valley...
by Naila Moreira | Mar 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News
By Naila Moreira The Meadows are one of my favorite places to walk, daydream, write, and watch nature change in its numberless daily ways. A swath of agricultural land between Northampton’s downtown and the Connecticut River, they’re within easy walking distance of my...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Mar 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hello Yana, I’ve been curious for a while about anal play while I’m pleasuring myself. I’ve heard it generates a more intense orgasm. I can take fingers, but I’d like to try something more (on the smaller side of course). Being a guy, is there a position or toy that...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 3, 2016 | Stagestruck
These days it’s almost impossible to do Shakespeare in Elizabethan costumes. Every new production on a professional stage seems obliged to locate the play in some historical or metaphorical setting which – it is hoped – casts a new and relevant light on the...
by Gary Carra | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Tom Mahnken never performed with noted bluesman Ed Vadas & his Fabulous Heavyweights. And, truth be told, he ended up doing just fine with his own Trailer Park band. But on the eve of Vadas’ passing Feb. 18, the Trailer Park frontman fondly recalls his brief...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
Ahh, yoga, you’re so good for us but you can be so downward-dog-darned expensive. If I had a ten-class card for every time someone’s asked me for tips on how to do yoga on the cheap, I’d be yoga-rich! Let’s face it, yoga classes at $15-$20 a pop can really add up,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hey Yana, Tis I, LL [from previous column “‘Butch’ Lost in Labialand”]. I’m back with another problem. The advice you gave me last time worked out great. Opening the lines of communication between my partner and I really helped. However, my girlfriend and I have run...
by Jack Brown | Feb 29, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
You don’t have to be a music nerd to know Marvin Hamlisch. Or a theater nerd. Or a film nerd. Or a television nerd. Because even if you don’t know him by name, Hamlisch’s work will have seeped into the soul of anyone who was alive in the latter half of the 20th...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 29, 2016 | Stagestruck
The irony of Anton Chekhov referring to his plays as “comedies” is often remarked. Most of his characters are bored to death and/or deeply unhappy, frustrated by love or circumstance or both, and his plays generally end with a bleak sense of hopelessness. But Linda...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana! My fiancée and I just realized that we have sex, sure, but we’ve never talked about what we really wanted in sex. Toys came up and we tried my Mini Rabbit vibrator and we love it. We’ve both tried strap-ons before and neither she nor I really like them, but...
by Gary Carra | Feb 24, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
The future of Holyoke’s Waterfront Tavern seemed murky at best a few months ago. Just when it appeared the historic venue would be pulling the plug altogether, rumors of a strategic alliance began to swirl. Last week, however, Donald Robert of Maximum Capacity...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 18, 2016 | Stagestruck
Caryl Churchill’s plays have always toyed with the form and tested its limits. Her two most celebrated early works, Cloud Nine and Top Girls, folded historical fantasias into modern explorations of gender, sexuality and power. More recently, A Number imagined a...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, I’m a relatively young woman who enjoyed an active, above-average sex life for my entire adult life, even after the birth of my first two children. However, I found that after my last son was born, my desire for sex suddenly vanished to the degree that I can...
by Hunter Styles | Feb 16, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The Beerhunter
Beer has been good to Mike Yates, the head brewer at Building 8 in Florence and at White Lion Brewing in Springfield. His 16 years of experience in Western Mass and Connecticut have made him a trusted and well-respected name in the local craft beer scene. Since he...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 11, 2016 | Stagestruck
Two classics come to the Amherst Cinema this month via the National Theatre’s NT Live series. One is a courtly game of wicked wagers and voluptuous pleasures, the other a comically romantic repudiation of courtly artifice. Les Liaisons Dangereuses, playing this...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 4, 2016 | Columns, Stage, Stagestruck
An Inspector Calls starts off like a good old-fashioned drawing-room whodunit, proceeds through a roller-coaster of revelations that incriminate just about everyone, and ends with a Twilight Zone-worthy surprise. J.B. Priestley’s play, written during the Second World...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Yana, I’m a single hetero guy in my 60s. Since my divorce some years ago, I haven’t dated much. What I truly want is a loving, long-term relationship with a partner and to be a loving, giving partner in return. Here’s my problem: I’m short and not terribly...
by Warren Johnston | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Food + Booze, The Pour Man
During a recent visit to the North Carolina mountains, my wife and I were lucky enough to be part of a small dinner party with friends who make their living in the food and wine industry. It was one of those evenings, full of laughter and great stories, with a...
by Jack Brown | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film
As I sit here in my shirtsleeves, typing away near a slightly open window, I really must insist that readers of this column remember this minor detail: it is February. This is the time when we’re all supposed to be calling all the hardware stores, asking about roof...
by Gary Carra | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
Between corporate takeovers, format changes and, quite literally, the omnipresent threat of satellites looming overhead, the average life expectancy of local radio stations these days seems to only slightly exceed that of say, a Betta fish. Set that gloomy backdrop to...
by Naila Moreira | Feb 8, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News
A friend of mine recently forgot his reusable bags when he dropped in at Stop & Shop. To make matters worse, he’d also forgotten about Northampton’s new plastic bag ban, which started Jan. 1. Then the person in line behind him lectured him on the merits of the...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Wellness
Dear Yana, As of last year, I love my body hair. I especially like my pubic hair because I can style it, usually depending on my mood: totally unshaven, as a strip, but rarely fully shaven. However, I’ve noticed that when I have the chance to get intimate with...
by Amanda Drane | Feb 3, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, Leisure, Madame Barfly, The Beerhunter
Naturally, I was really excited about the whole beer cocktail thing. Beer is good, and cocktails are good, so how can we go wrong, right? As it turns out, some beer cocktails are good and others are downright disgusting. The Beerhunter and I put our booze brains...
by Chris Rohmann | Feb 1, 2016 | Stagestruck
Mark Rylance has been widely hailed as “the greatest stage actor of his generation,” but he’s only recently become familiar to screen audiences – first as the quietly devious Thomas Cromwell in the BBC miniseries Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel’s two-volume...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 22, 2016 | Stagestruck
In a Valley theater scene that’s rich in talent and energy but less fortunate in more tangible resources like performance spaces and money, it’s good to see asset-sharing examples of collaboration among folks with complementary goals. Two companies are sharing the...
by Gary Carra | Jan 18, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Music, Nightcrawler
As evidenced by the recent, massive outpouring by fans and contemporaries alike, David Robert Jones — better known as David Bowie — touched generations the world over. In fact, some would go so far to say that the Starman may have even possessed intergalactic...
