Columns
Valley Show Girl: Life of Brian
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...
Cinemadope: Wild Card
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...
Stagestruck: Forced to the Border
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...
V Spot: How Do I Talk To My Partner Directly?
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...
Clueless Parent: My son is ready for potty training. I may not be.
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...
V-Spot: Actually, I will answer this fake question
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,...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: Puppy Swap, Love Unleashed
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...
Cinemadope: Abbas Kiarostami’s ‘Where is the Friend’s House?’ comes to Amherst Cinema
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...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Remembering wine minutiae
“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...
Cinemadope: Control/Shift
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...
Valley Show Girl: Ascendant, the Latest Release from Easthampton’s Problem With Dragons
“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...
Stagestruck: Badass Women
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...
V-Spot: How Do I Raise a Sex-Positive Kid?
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...
The Beerhunter: Caleb Hiliadis Takes the Lead at Amherst Brewing
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...
Stagestruck: On the Border, and Beyond
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,...
Basemental Farewell: Was I a Music Critic?
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...
The V-Spot: Yana’s short-and-sweet anal education
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...
Cinemadope: Mystery Science Theater 3000 Live at the Academy of Music
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...
Monte Belmonte Wines: New Hampshire’s tax-free liquor lie
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...
The V-Spot: Get Off the Metaphorical Tit
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...
Cinemadope: Inside Man
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...
Valley Show Girl: Opening Night at the 5th Annual RPM Fest
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...
Stagestruck: Summer Snapshots
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...
Basemental: Ruth Garbus sets Earth-loving lyrics to earthy chords
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...
Best of V-Spot: Too Many Orgasms, Too Many Leg Cramps
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...
Cinemadope: Remembering Toni Morrison
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...
Best of V-Spot: Should I Date Someone I’m Not Attracted To?
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...
Valley Show Girl: RPM FEST
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...
Clueless Parent: Making your kid feel helpful, even when they throw eggs
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...
Stagestruck: Dancing While Black
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...
Cinemadope: Ready or Not a cunning twist on The Most Dangerous Game
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...
Best of V-Spot: Prostate Power — The Not So Dirty Truth
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...
Basemental: P.U.M.K.S. Is Not Dead
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...
Monte Belmonte Wines: A Case for a Mixed Case
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...
Stagestruck: In Company with Shakespeare + a truly Bazaar production
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...
Cinemadope: Keeping Time — Our lives in music
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...
Best of V-Spot: Pee or ‘squirt’? Understanding vaginal ejaculation
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...
Blaises’s Bad Movie Guide: Mr. Sycamore
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...
The Beerhunter Abroad: Calling London’s Craft Beer Mile
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...
Valley Show Girl: End of Summer Music Festivals
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...
Stagestruck: Curve of the Season
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...
Cinemadope: Those Meddling Kids — Stories of pint-sized heroes
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...
Best of the V-Spot: My Boyfriend Might Be Gay. Should I Care?
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...
Stagestruck: Child’s Plays
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...
Stagestruck: Getting Sticky
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...
Monte Belmonte Wines: The Wines Traveling Musicians Want For Free
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...
Stagestruck: Ripped from the Headlines
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. ...
Cinemadope: Musical journeys small and large
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...
Best of V-Spot: Help! My boyfriend hates my vagina
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...
Basemental: No need to dig beyond Kurt Vile’s riffs to enjoy
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...
Stagestruck: All the Livelong Eons
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...
Stagestruck: Past, Present and Prologue
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...
Clueless Parent: Kicked Out a Few Minutes In
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...
Cinemadope: The gift of gifts
It can be interesting to track how new editions of popular books change with the times. Even the titles, sometimes, can reflect the state of the era. When Lewis Hyde’s now-classic book The Gift was first published in 1983, it carried the wonderfully evocative subtitle...
Stagestruck: The Shrew Problem
The Taming of the Shrew is Shakespeare’s trickiest play to perform these days – a thoroughly misogynistic tale in which daughters are auctioned to the highest bidder and the “shrew” of the title is “tamed” by a cunning fortune hunter. He (of course, he) is Petruchio,...
Best of the V-Spot: Dry humping better than sex
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...
Monte Belmonte Wines: The Western Mass Wine World’s Involvement in the Pan Mass Challenge
Champagne has long been a celebratory beverage hoisted during the world’s most famous bicycling event — The Tour de France. It makes sense. France is where Champagne comes from. But closer to home, our Western Mass wine world is also strangely connected to the world...
Cinemadope: Reel to Wheel
Everyone has their own idea of what really makes it summer in New England. For some, it’s getting that first soft serve, melting in the after-dinner sun. Another might mark it with the first visit to a favorite swimming hole, when the water is still just a little too...
Valley Show Girl: The Art Mecca of Hampden County
From concerts to theatrical plays, from art galleries to a bistro and even co-working spaces and drag queen bingo. Holyoke’s Gateway City Arts has something for everyone. Located on Race Street in a beautiful old industrial building, it has been reinvented into an...E-Edition
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