Columns
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 7, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
You’d think things would slow down after the hectic holidays, but no. The Cratchits are still picking at the Christmas leftovers and the Sugar Plum Fairy has barely taken off her toe shoes, when January blows onstage full of New Year promise. This month I’m looking...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 6, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Note: In this column, we talk about gender-exotifying porn. Hi There, I have a major problem and don’t know how to proceed here. I’ve been married for 15 years and the last 10 have been sexless. To be clear, I’m the woman and he’s the man who chooses not to have sex....
by Monte Belmonte | Jan 3, 2020 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
Northampton’s soon-to-be-sworn in Ward 1 Councilor also happens to be one of the biggest players in wine in Massachusetts, and I meet with him for lunch over wine at Northampton’s Filo’s Greek Taverna. It’s BYOB. He doesn’t let me pay. Ethics-schmethics. Michael...
by Jack Brown | Jan 2, 2020 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
Fans of the horror genre, and specifically the subset of films that have come out of Asia, will recall the mid-2000s as a heady time. With the success of the 2002 Gore Verbinski film The Ring — a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ring, in which watching a cursed...
by Chris Goudreau | Dec 30, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Music lovers in the Pioneer Valley were blessed by a plethora of great local music this year, whether that was the hauntingly beautiful folk rock of Philip B. Price’s new solo record “Bone Almanac” or what I named as one of the best local albums of the year —...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 30, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana! I’ve been practicing polyamory for three years. Right now I have two serious partners. Both of them have sex with other people occasionally, but not with any regularity. My jealousy isn’t nonexistent, but it’s manageable. My big problem is that once my...
by Jennifer Levesque | Dec 24, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
“He’ll eventually grow out of it, you have to give it some time,” my son’s pediatrician told his father and me at his physical when he was maybe about 5 years old. When my son transitioned from diapers to pull-ups at bedtime, it seemed that we would never transition...
by Jennifer Levesque | Dec 24, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
Editor’s note: Advocate Associate Editor Chris Goudreau is a member of Leafies. The opening track to debut album Off Off Off Broadway from The Leafies You Gave Me tells a tale of a man who tends to the elephants and their dirty business at the circus. It is spoken...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 23, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, Often when speaking of sexual comfort and consent, people focus on the stages of intimacy that involve contact with the areas of our bodies we normally keep clothed. Kissing and intimate touch are viewed more often as foreplay and I seldom encounter guides to...
by Jack Brown | Dec 23, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
Back in the Blockbuster era of movie consumption it was hard not to think of movies in terms of genre first: walk into one of those big box shrines to moviemaking and you couldn’t take a step without first charting a course by the signs hanging from the ceiling....
by Jack Brown | Dec 19, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
You may or may not have heard, but this thing called Christmas is happening on Wednesday. Turns out it’s kind of a big deal, and while a lot of the movie-going crowd will be busy elsewhere on the 25th, local cinemas are getting in the spirit in the days leading up to...
by Monte Belmonte | Dec 17, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
We are entering into the year 2020. That year sounds fake. Like a future I never imagined myself seeing. Where is my jetpack? Where is my visiphone? Oh, I have that? Nice! 2020 is, of course, an election year. If you are anything like me, you will be doing a lot of...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 17, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Every year in this column I make an equity survey of area theaters – not Equity the actors’ union, but the representation of women and people of color. And every year the outlook, once deeply depressing, gets a little better. Of the 45 full productions I saw this year...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 16, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, I’ve been dating my current partner for almost two years now and our relationship has been great with the exception of our dwindling to now nonexistent sex life. It was amazing for the first six months until he starting having some health problems. His sex...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 14, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
The past, as they say, is prologue. We look back to ground our present and see ahead more clearly. And in these murky times, that’s more necessary than ever. At least, that’s the impression I drew from the sheer number of shows I saw this year that have their roots in...
by Jennifer Levesque | Dec 11, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Valley Show Girl
Life and music partners Gina Andia and Brendan Clark aren’t new to the Valley music scene, but their latest project Alice Loves Alien is fresh to our ears. I don’t mean to judge a book (or album) by its cover but when I received an early copy of the self titled debut...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 10, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
After 10 years together, Rich and Liz DeSousa are trying to find a way to spend more time in the same room. That’s the kind of marriage you’re supposed to study for pointers — or maybe for the reveal of some secret ingredient. In my most recent visit with the couple:...
by Jack Brown | Dec 10, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
When well-known activist Frances Crowe died this August at her home in Northampton, the loss rippled through the town in a way few passings do. One hundred years old at the time of her death, Crowe had touched generations of Valley residents — changing some minds,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 9, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hello, I’m nervous to write in and feel like I’m the only person who has this problem: I’ve been on-and-off dating someone for about three years. We fight nonstop and basically it’s just not a good relationship for either of us. Recently, I’ve been trying to move on...
by Monte Belmonte | Dec 5, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
Dear Santa, It has been one year since my last confession. I have been a fair to moderately good boy. There has only been the occasional quid pro quo. And even when wine companies have shipped me free wine, I have been unafraid to damn them with faint praise in this...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 3, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Last week I previewed some area productions of those holiday stalwarts A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker. But it’s not all ghosts and sugarplums this Yuletide. Here are some alternatives for your seasonal theatergoing, tracking north to south, then making a curve...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 2, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I’m a cis-woman in college and I’m in a new relationship with a girl I really like! We have sex a lot and it’s wonderful but there’s one big problem: she can’t make me come. We have tried everything we could think of, but it always ends up as me taking over...
by Jack Brown | Dec 2, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
If you talked much politics over the Thanksgiving table this year, you probably noticed that very few of those involved knew what they were talking about. Which is to say that most of us, however passionate we might be about a particular issue, often lack a true...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 27, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Valley Show Girl
Valley musician Eric Cunha started playing drums when he was a baby. For one of his first Christmases he got a Muppet’s drumkit that initiated it all. He would end up getting other toy drum sets throughout the years until he got his first real kit when he was 10. In...
by Dusty Christensen | Nov 26, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
I’ve thrown out my back. I’m constantly see-sawing between excessively caffeinated and impossibly tired. My old clothes don’t fit anymore. And I’m convinced that the tune to “Elmo’s Song” will forever crowd out more important thoughts from my brain. Some of the...
by Jack Brown | Nov 26, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
If you’re out and about in Franklin County this weekend, you might want to make some room in your Saturday calendar. In an area that is often on the quiet side for film events, this weekend is shaping up to be a busy one for film lovers in the northern half of the...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 26, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Charles Dickens’ classic tale of the mean old miser who gets the Scrooge scared out of him by midnight spirits is likely the second-most often retold Christmas story, after the one about Jesus. The Russian fairy tale about the little girl and the nutcracker is...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 25, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Writer’s note: This is a two-part question that I got via my Instagram DMs! Editor’s note: As reported by our friends at urbandictionary.com, mtc often translates to “massive throbbing cock.” Part #1 — 1:46 p.m.: So, my case is strange. I’m wondering if sex therapy is...
by Monte Belmonte | Nov 21, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
At age 2, my grandfather emigrated from Bonito, Italy, on the good ship Colombo and docked in Ellis Island in 1922. He became a U.S. citizen the old fashioned way — by waiting in a relatively short line, getting deloused and having his name changed from Crescenzo to...
by Jack Brown | Nov 19, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
The mob movie is the shadowy reflection of the American Dream. Stories of success despite humble beginnings, of hardscrabble times and strong work ethics, of family bonds and the desire for a better life — all the usual tropes apply. What makes it work so well in the...
by Chris Goudreau | Nov 19, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Best Mann is the art rock and indie folk alter-ego of Nate Mondschein, who produced, composed, and performed all the instruments on his debut album, …And the Sky, released Oct. 25. …And the Sky by Best Mann There are so many musical layers on this 12-song...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 19, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Nilaja Sun is, quite simply, the most exciting solo performer I’ve ever seen. She’s a small, wiry woman whose expansive presence fills a stage. Drawing on an astonishing talent for physical and vocal mimicry, her pieces are fully formed plays that bring to life a...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 18, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Good Morning, I’m a straight 30-year-old man with six kids. My wife and I only drink when my mother-in-law is watching the kids for the night. However there’s something we noticed when we’re drunk. I absolutely love everything about sex — it’s almost a passion of...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 14, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
A couple months ago, I was going through the Fall/Winter Fine Arts Center booklet, checking out the upcoming events at UMass. When I started reading the description to the Jen Shyu: Nine Doors performance, I was highly intrigued. I soon after acquired tickets for the...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 12, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
This weekend and next, Valley colleges present a fall cornucopia of performances – a culture clash at Amherst, a gamer fantasy at Mount Holyoke, and the Valley premiere of a national dance piece at Smith. First up is Peace in the Home, this Thursday to Saturday...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 12, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The Beerhunter
You never see the best things coming. In 1998, economist Paul Krugman predicted that by 2005, it would “become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” Today I am happy to report, from the supercomputer in my pocket,...
by Jack Brown | Nov 12, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
The Twilight Zone was always a show that got better after it ended. At its best, the science fiction/fantasy/horror of the series did its strongest work in the minds of viewers left dumbstruck by a twist ending or unexpected detail that upended everything that had...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 11, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I’m a 32-year-old straight cis man and I was recently involved in a nasty bike accident resulting in injury and permanent erectile dysfunction. I can no longer get or maintain an erection even with the aid of injections, Viagra, pumps, etc. I enjoy giving...
by Monte Belmonte | Nov 7, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
I don’t know much about the real Johnny Appleseed but his mythology precedes him. I know he was born in Leominster, Mass., near the time of the American Revolution. And I know he was less interested in planting Macintosh to give to teachers as gifts as he was in...
by Jack Brown | Nov 5, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
The sequel is a strange and fickle beast. For people on both sides of the box office, there is a great desire to see them do well; those studio bigwigs in their top hats and monocles love the allure of a built-in audience, and all the dollars they carry; we mere...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Sometimes, in your darkest fantasies, when you’re struggling to process the latest outrage from this trumped-up president — you might just entertain visions of the regicides that feature in two Valley productions. One of them is about presidential assassins, the other...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 4, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, Do you have any advice for still having awesome sex while pregnant? I’m currently in my sixth month of my pregnancy so I’m not carrying super huge yet but I know that could change so I’d like to be prepared. —Sexy at Six Months Dear Sexy at Six Months, Around...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 31, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, The CDs You Gave Me
Winterpills frontman Philip B. Price is set to release his next solo album on Nov. 8 titled “Bone Almanac,” which fuses haunting psychedelic-tinged folk rock and pop with lyrics that punch you in the gut when they’re not soothing what ails you across 14 songs. Drawing...
by Jennifer Levesque | Oct 29, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Valley Show Girl
The 5th Queer Punk Drag night is just a week-ish away and it’s the biggest one yet says Tanya Pearson, the curator of these unique shows. I went to the first show back in February and it was one of the most satisfying shows I’ve been to in a while. “For me,” Pearson...
by Jack Brown | Oct 29, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
As this issue of the Advocate hits the streets, October will just be starting to fold up its skeletons and plastic spiders to make way for the inflatable Santas. (Thanksgiving fan? Sorry, enjoy your single Thursday afternoon.) For many horror fans, it’s the end of...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 28, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Hi Yana! Long time listener, first time caller! I’ve been following your advice column and Instagram (@the_vspot) for a looooong time and I super appreciate everything you write about regarding communication, mindfulness, exploration, and everything in-between —...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Oct 22, 2019 | Articles, Clueless Parent, Columns, Featured
There’s no getting around it. Halloween is a strange holiday, and it gets stranger the older you get. As a kid, it’s all about heaping an enormous haul of candy any way you can, and hopefully not getting stuck with a dorky costume. Getting slightly older, the prospect...
by Jack Brown | Oct 22, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
People in the Valley are a creative bunch. At my day job, one woman I work with is a talented seamstress who creates wonderful clothes and stuffed toys; another works with local potters to decorate clay vessels and cups. My old Advocate editor — a published poet —...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 22, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
Three productions by women-led theaters are playing in the Valley this weekend, and another opens in the Berkshires. They echo themes around gender – from activities women aren’t “supposed” to engage in, to a trans transition, to young men of color in the...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Oct 21, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, The V-Spot
Dear Yana, I had an affair and I feel like the worst person ever and I don’t know what to do. The guy is married with kids and says he’s basically living as roommates with his wife. I think she’s catching on and I want to end it because I feel like the worst person in...
by Monte Belmonte | Oct 18, 2019 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines
Cristián Aliaga thought he wanted to be a dentist. Maybe it was the future prospect of uncovering leftover tuna fish under someone’s dental bridge that made him reconsider. But when it came time to make a decision as to what to study at university in Chile, he...
by Jack Brown | Oct 17, 2019 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured
When I first moved to Northampton a couple of decades ago, my partner at the time took a job as a chambermaid at a local hotel. I can’t recall now exactly how long it lasted, but I know it wasn’t long — the hours, the amount of labor involved, the indifference (or...
by Jennifer Levesque | Oct 16, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, News, Valley Show Girl
Editor’s note: Julia Clark is transgender, and asked the Advocate to refer to her using she/her pronouns for the time both before and after her transition from male to female gender identity. Chris Clark was about 8 or 9 years old when she heard the classic song “Wild...
by Chris Rohmann | Oct 15, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck
National Theatre Live began its eleventh season this month and the Amherst Cinema has been there from the start, screening live-capture HD broadcasts from the London stage. First up is a transgressive, immersive Shakespeare (Oct. 19 & 30). That’s followed by...
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...