Columns
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 14, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I’ve been on Prozac since I was 15 (I’m 22 now), and never really realized how much it fucks with your sex drive until recently. My boyfriend and I had a lot of sex during the honeymoon phase of our relationship (who doesn’t?), but now it’s been 18 months and...
by Jack Brown | Oct 10, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
There are so many stories that never get the audience they deserve. Whether overshadowed by events of their era or lost to the circumstances of their creators lives, there will always be those narratives that — if they are ever recorded at all — deserve a better fate....
by Hunter Styles | Oct 8, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, The Beerhunter
When the staff at Hitchcock Brewing Company unlocked the front door of their new taproom on South Street in Bernardston on Sunday morning at 11 a.m., customers were already waiting outside. The first pair to arrive at the bar ordered a crisp Columbus-hopped pale ale...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 8, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
“Speciecide,” the debut album by local Valley indie electronic/progressive rock duo Fuzz Puddle takes the existential dread of man made climate change induced mass extinction, throws in a smattering of Radiohead-influenced paranoia, and stirs that finely while adding...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 8, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Stagestruck
Anne Frank, who died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 at age 15, is the enduring image of innocence broken by the forces of hate. Thanks to the diary she kept in the Amsterdam attic where her family hid from the Gestapo, she’s also an inspiring symbol of...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 7, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana! So, my partner and I have started dabbling in threesomes and it looks like it may become sort of a trend. Specifically, we’re looking at having threesomes with cis dudes, and I just need a little assurance that condoms are a good form of contraception. I...
by Monte Belmonte | Oct 3, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
I have never been to wine country. At least never to any of the famous wine countries. Not Napa. Not Bordeaux. Not Piedmont. Nowhere. This is yet another one of the many reasons why it could be considered a lapse in judgment every time the Advocate prints one of my...
by Jennifer Levesque | Oct 1, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
I recently met up with Valley country frontman Brian Chicoine to chat about some cool future projects he’s been working on. A unique benefit show, a solo album and, most importantly, working on bettering his health are just a few things keeping Mr. Chicoine busy these...
by Jack Brown | Oct 1, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Stagestruck
When it comes to superheroes, it’s pretty clear that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has claimed the throne in Hollywood. Picture a big-budget blockbuster from the last decade, and there’s a good chance it starred at least a couple of Avengers. DC Comics — their main...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 1, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Two Latinx plays in the area revolve around themes of dislocation — displaced neighborhoods, populations, and minds. Quixote Nuevo, at Hartford Stage, transplants Cervantes’ demented knight errant to a Texas border town, and Not for Sale, in Holyoke, puts the gente in...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 30, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, I’ve noticed that quite often in your column you point people in the direction of clear, direct communication in relationships; establishing boundaries, asking for what you need, and so on, which is great advice that always feels so simple and elegant when...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 27, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
What I’ve learned about parenting in my short two-plus-year tenure, is that everything is a phase, and some last longer than others. When my son was still an infant, laying still was a nice phase — he stayed where we put him. But that was replaced by rolling, and we...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 24, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, My attachment style is avoidant Scorpio but my partner is a totally secure Gemini. He says anal sex will fix all of my avoidance problems, but I think we should just bring in a third and be polyamorous instead. What do you think we should do? Sincerely,...
by Blaise Majkowski | Sep 24, 2019 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Featured
Have you ever done something that you knew was a bad idea but against all judgment you did it anyway? That’s what I did when I bought a copy of Puppy Swap, Love Unleashed. First a bit of background. Our family has been blessed with Sasha, a two-and-a-half-year-old...
by Jack Brown | Sep 23, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
One of the most magical things about great storytelling is the ability of the storyteller to transform a seemingly simple thing into a grand or heart-pounding adventure. A guy chases a whale (or a shark chases some people). Two teenagers fall in love, but their...
by Monte Belmonte | Sep 20, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
“Write drunk, edit sober,” said someone who is not Ernest Hemingway, although the quote is often attributed to him. It’s bad writing advice. Worse advice is “write drunk, edit drunk.” And I wish I could blame my own editing mistake in my last column on either of those...
by Jack Brown | Sep 19, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
My two oldest children started kindergarten a few weeks back. New school, new friends (one hopes), new experiences. It’s been an adjustment — maybe more for me than for them, I sometimes think — and it has had me thinking a lot of how much has changed in the 40 years...
by Jennifer Levesque | Sep 17, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Valley Show Girl
“Yo Jenny!!!!” I saw on my phone screen a couple months ago from Easthampton musician Robert Ives. “Want to do a review of new unreleased PWD album?” “Um, duh!” I responded. I’ve been a fan of the doom, stoner metal band Problem With Dragons for years. Listening to...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 17, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
These days it seems you can’t put on a play without your publicity assuring the public it’s going to be funny – no matter what play it is. (“Hamlet, a timeless tragedy with doses of wacky humor.”) So it might be a little suspect to report that Silverthorne Theater...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 16, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana! My partner and I are people who were raised in households where sex was not discussed; indeed, in my house all questions and curiosity about sex were avoided and suppressed. As such, as adults and now parents of a young child, I feel we need support and tools...
by Hunter Styles | Sep 12, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
When Amherst Brewing Company opened it doors in 1997, Caleb Hiliadis was just five years old. Now, at 27, he’s running the joint. Well, not the whole joint — just the brewhouse. But that brewhouse has evolved through many twists and turns over the years. And the beers...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Two shows coming to this area have Mexican echoes. One is a children’s-story allegory of the current border crisis, the other a Mexican dramedy with an international range. Ropes, by Bárbara Colio, has been performed extensively in Spanish-speaking countries,...
by Will Meyer | Sep 10, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured
Editor’s note: This is Will Meyer’s last column as the author of Basemental. A music critic is something I’d never thought I’d be. I hardly knew anything about music, I certainly was no authority. I was a little surprised when former Adovcate editors...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 9, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My husband just started letting me put a finger up his anus for stimulation and he’s loving it. Now, how do I make sure I’m pleasuring him in the best way possible? —Derriere Digiter Dear Digiter, My two main pieces of advice for making sure your partner is...
by Jack Brown | Sep 9, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
One of the great pleasures of movie-going, in my experience, is going alone. Even when surrounded by strangers in the dark, there is something wonderfully personal about being blanketed by the sound and image of a big screen projection; a show just for you, where you...
by Monte Belmonte | Sep 6, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
It’s getting to be the end of summer. I admit, while I’m trying to drink dry the last vestiges of the season, coming up with an idea for a late summer wine column has been like drawing wine from a stone. I should be drinking wine on vacation, not worrying about...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My fiancé is sick and was just like “I’m gonna call my mom for soup” and he (LOL) has done shit like this since we moved out on our own. Like, I’m here – ready, willing, and able to take care of you. Get off the tit. I feel like I’m crazy, but at the same...
by Jack Brown | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
It is sometimes difficult to believe that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — ICE — is only 16 years old. Created in 2003 under George W. Bush in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks, the new agency merged the two previously separate...
by Jennifer Levesque | Sep 3, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
I walked down the forest path of the Millers Falls Rod & Gun Club for the opening night of the 5th annual RPM Fest. Once I got to the clearing, the field was open with people playing yard games, groups of others gathered in small huddles chatting and enjoying...
by Chris Rohmann | Sep 2, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Thinking back over the summer theater season just ended, images from memorable shows are passing before my mind’s eye, and ear — from striking moments in performances to sets and soundscapes. Here are some Valley snapshots. Chester Theatre Company celebrated its 30th...
by Will Meyer | Aug 27, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured
Brattleboro singer-songwriter Ruth Garbus strikes a deep place in the human psyche. Her strange earworm melodies and narrative lyrics have a way of lodging deep. This is especially true for Garbus’s new album, Kleinmeister — German for “small master,” which is set to...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 27, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Editor’s note: Sex and relationship advice columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks is currently on maternity leave. While she’s gone, we’re reprinting some of her best columns of the past several years, and are looking forward to her return in September. This article was...
by Jack Brown | Aug 26, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
When the writer Toni Morrison passed away in early August, she left behind worlds. Her own, certainly, brought so vividly to life in works like The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved — carefully crafted and filled with a vitality that carried a sometimes brutal truth about...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 23, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Editor’s note: Sex and relationship advice columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks is currently on maternity leave. While she’s gone, we’re reprinting some of her best columns of the past several years, and are looking forward to her return in September. This column was...
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 20, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Valley Show Girl
RPM Fest, the largest camp-out metal music festival in New England and something that many people in the Valley look forward to each year, is back and coming up quick. Friday, August 30, through Sunday, September 1, are jam-packed with over 50 bands spreading out...
by Dusty Christensen | Aug 20, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
I hate every activity I have to do pre-coffee. I’m admittedly a bit of a grump before I’ve had my morning caffeine bump, so when an egg flew through the air and smashed on the kitchen floor on a recent morning, I wasn’t amused. My 21-month-old daughter — my beloved...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 20, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
It wasn’t intentional, but thinking back on the programs I’ve seen at Jacob’s Pillow this summer, and forward to one that’s on this week, I realized that every concert on my dance card this year is by African-American-led companies. Unintentional, perhaps, but not...
by Jack Brown | Aug 19, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
I could hardly have imagined, back when I was a gangly middle schooler, how far into my adulthood one of my favorite stories would reach. But here it is some three-plus decades later, and it seems that every year there is some new tale that bears the influence of...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 16, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Editor’s note: Sex and relationship advice columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks is currently on maternity leave. While she’s gone, we’re reprinting some of her best columns of the past several years, and are looking forward to her return in September. This column was...
by Will Meyer | Aug 15, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured
Jesus Vio’s new album Dutch Science kicks off with the mother of all questions: “Do You Believe?”: The vamping, minimalist, proto-acoustic track wryly asks “Do you believe in Halloween?” before declaring that “P.U.M.K.S. is not dead,” introducing the irreverently...
by Monte Belmonte | Aug 13, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
It was a dark and stormy night. Meaning a night where I could use a rum and ginger beer over ice with a slice of lime. But also, there was a thunderstorm looming. My children had taken over the inside and outside of my house in order to transform it into an immersive...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 13, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Shakespeare & Company’s name has threefold associations. It’s a theater that works in the company, as it were, of its eponym. It shares the name of the legendary bookshop on Paris’s Left Bank, lending an air of bohemian audacity and camaraderie to the enterprise...
by Jack Brown | Aug 12, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
As I was getting ready to write this column, the news came over the radio that filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker had died. Never really a household name, Pennebaker nevertheless contributed to our shared cultural vocabulary in ways that nearly anyone will recognize: if you...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 9, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Editor’s note: Sex and relationship advice columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks is currently on maternity leave. While she’s gone, we’re reprinting some of her best columns of the past several years, and are looking forward to her return in September. Hi Yana, I started...
by Blaise Majkowski | Aug 8, 2019 | Articles, Blaise's Bad Movie Guide, Columns, Featured
What do you do when you have a dead-end job, a nagging wife, and no respect from the people in your neighborhood? Most of us would go to Las Vegas and hope for the best. But not Mr. Sycamore — his keen idea to escape the rigors of life is to undergo metamorphoses into...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 6, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
The news is the water we swim in. But what does our modern media do for you each day? What kind of imprint does it leave on you, as you fall asleep at night? The 24-hour outrage cycle prompts some of us to disengage, numbed by each horrific headline. Others stay...
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 6, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
The end of Summer is near, but there are still more opportunities to rock out at a music fest this month. From jazz to reggae, Woodstock to metal, I guarantee you there’s at least one you’ll wanna attend. Or all of them! They are evenly spread out over the course of...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 6, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Summertime is winding down, and so is the Valley’s theater season – but not quite yet. Chester Theatre Company opens its final show this week (see below), Double Edge Theatre continues the month-long run of its perambulating epic I Am the Baron (reviewed here), and...
by Jack Brown | Aug 5, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
Like so many others, I spent a short but richly rewarding stretch of my July binge-watching the third season of the Netflix series Stranger Things. If you don’t know it — and to my surprise, I found at least a couple of people this month who still hadn’t heard of Matt...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 2, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Originally published February 20, 2017 Hi Yana, I recently began “dating” my best guy friend over this winter break. He’s told me that he was raised by a super religious mom and that when he was younger he “rebelled,” and experimented with other men, which he blamed...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 1, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Both of the longstanding children’s theaters that enliven the Valley’s summer schedule tickle the funnybone while feeding the imagination, but they go about it in quite different ways. Tom McCabe’s PaintBox Theatre specializes in twisted takes on treasured tales, with...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 30, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
In the final week of this year’s Ko Festival of Performance, Sabrina Hamilton is looking forward to this weekend’s performance by the Ugandan musician-humanitarian Samite (see below) while musing on the season-so-far. Attendance is high and season subscriptions are...
by Monte Belmonte | Jul 30, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
My day job, or rather my MORNING job, is to wake up frightfully early and spend time inside a little box in certain Valley people’s kitchens or cars. I am the morning host at 93.9 The River/WRSI. Back in 1986, WRSI celebrated its fifth birthday party with music from...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 30, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Three plays now on area stages were inspired by real-life events: a superpower scrimmage, a mass shooting, and a nuclear disaster. These timely dramas humanize the headlines and highlight the power of theater to hold a mirror up to our best and worst natures. ...
by Jack Brown | Jul 29, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film
All of us have those sounds that touch some deep part of our souls, triggering memories and emotions that might otherwise lay dormant. Like scents tied to childhood — the smell of a censer for lapsed Catholics, or the perfume of a grandmother gone too soon — sounds...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 26, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, The V-Spot
Editor’s note: Sex and relationship advice columnist Yana Tallon-Hicks is currently on maternity leave. While she’s gone, we’re reprinting some of her best columns of the past several years, and are looking forward to her return in September. This column was...
by Will Meyer | Jul 25, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music
When The New York Times profiled Kurt Vile in the fall, they titled their piece “Kurt Vile, Indie Rock’s Charming Riddle.” The implication, of course, was that the long-haired indie rocker had a Rubik’s Cube to decode, something to latch onto underneath the...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 25, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Two shows now playing on the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Stockbridge stages look at who we are as humans. One goes up close to delve into folks’ working lives, the other takes a long view – very long, from the dawn of time to the day after tomorrow. Working, subtitled...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 23, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Two timely dramas are playing in the Valley this week and next, while a timeless tragedy is prequelled in the Berkshires, all of them grappling with essential questions of life and death. New Century Theatre’s comeback season, which opened with a riveting performance...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 23, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
It’s not easy getting out of the house and out to events with a toddler, but my wife and I have been doing our best to nurture a budding interest in music for our 2½-year-old. One of our greatest successes to date was a free youth orchestra concert we found listed in...
