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Longtime Northampton activist Frances Crowe dies at 100
Frances Crowe, a lifelong activist, peace advocate, and leader in the anti-nuclear movement, died Tuesday at the age of 100. Crowe’s daughter, Caltha Crowe, confirmed Tuesday that her mother had died. Crowe had recently written pieces for the Advocate and the...
Bizarro Briefs: Swedish seagull swipes stash
Swedish seagull swipes stash Sweden has among the toughest marijuana laws in the world, with no allowance for recreational or medical use, and a punishment of a large fine and up to six months in prison. That would have been bad news for a Gothenburg man, who had a...
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...
Podcast: Chris Goudreau on Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno’s absence from marginalized communities
In a piece looking at the upcoming mayoral election in Springfield, writer Chris Goudreau interviewed Mayor Domenic Sarno’s challengers as well as leaders in the activist community. Sarno himself declined an interview. Goudreau speaks about what he learned...
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...
Free Will Astrology: Relax and recharge, Gemini
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Here are examples of activities I recommend you try in the coming days. 1.) Build a campfire on the beach with friends and regale each other with stories of your most interesting successes. 2.) Buy eccentric treasures at a flea market and...
Bizarro Briefs Podcast: Peed on peas, moose meat solicitation, and a dirty diaper assault
Valley Advocate editor Dave Eisenstadter and Hits 94.3 host Trumpy talk about the week’s weird news in a podcast version of the Valley Advocate’s Bizarro Briefs section. Hear about peed on peas, moose meat solicitation, and a dirty diaper assault. Listen here: You can...
Jake Kulak & The Lowdown on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is Jake Kulak & The Lowdown, which brings blues rock with soulful virtuoso guitar and electrifying jams to the Sessions stage. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Jake Kulak & The...
Letters to the Editor: Rest in Peace and Power, Michaelann Bewsee
Rest in Peace and Power In response to “Michaelann Bewsee would not stand for injustice,” published on valleyadvocate.com on August 16, 2019. See opposite page. Who will keep nudging the warming shelters to open before it reaches zero? We will! I held her in high...
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...
Staff Picks: The Mary Jane Jones, Toni Morrison film, Millpond Live, and Food Truck Festival
The Mary Jane Jones at Theodore’s // THURSDAY Vintage-influenced jazzy soul band The Mary Jane Jones returns to Springfield’s iconic blues club, Theodore’s, this Thursday. If you’ve never seen the Mary Jane Jones’ live performance before, now would be the time. The...
Introducing the Valley Advocate Sessions Podcast – Home Body
Home Body is an electro fever-pop, new wave and experimental pop duo. They recently released their new record, Spiritus, which can be found on their website. For the video version of this performance, go to sessions.valleyadvocate.com. Listen here: You can hear more...
Sarno a No Show: As election looms, critics say Springfield’s mayor not there for all
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno has defined his 12-plus years as the city’s leader as “the people’s mayor,” but for 19-year-old Trevaughn Smith, that description of Sarno, which can be found on the city’s website, is a “loaded title.” Smith, campaign director for...
Bizarro Briefs: The wedding crasher
The wedding crasher Police in Texas are asking the public for help in finding a thief they are calling “The Wedding Crasher.” The Comal County Sheriff’s Office has described the suspect as arriving uninvited to weddings, posing as a guest and then stealing gifts,...
Longmeadow voters say no to gas pipeline project in residential neighborhood
Town Meeting voters in Longmeadow overwhelmingly approved a change to to the town’s zoning bylaws Tuesday, which would prohibit a proposed Tennessee Gas Company meter station project in a residentially zoned neighborhood at the Longmeadow Country Club. More than 200...
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...
Podcast: Lauren Simonds on small business in the world of big cannabis
Lauren Simonds returns to the Valley Advocate podcast to talk about the challenges small businesses face now that big companies have become operational in the Massachusetts cannabis market. Read her full article here. Listen: You can hear more of the Valley Advocate’s...
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...
Free Will Astrology: Let Frederick Douglass be your guide, Taurus
ARIES (March 21-April 19): It’s not cost-efficient to recycle plastic. Sorting and processing the used materials to make them available for fresh stuff is at least as expensive as creating new plastic items from scratch. On the other hand, sending used plastic to a...
Activist leader Michaelann Bewsee would not stand for injustice
The city of Springfield and the activism community reaching much further lost a committed champion this week as former Arise for Social Justice executive director (and former Valley Advocate staffer) Michaelann Bewsee died from complications of lung cancer. She was...
Among The Acres on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
Among The Acres combine folk-rock, pop, and Americana with lush vocal harmonies. Check out the band’s Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Among The Acres:
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...
Letters to the Editor: Truman made the right decision to use nuclear weapons
Truman made the right decision to use nuclear weapons In response to “Now is the time to stop building nuclear weapons,” “Walking for a nuclear free future — for 40 years,” and “Paying homage to the nuclear resistance,” published August 8-14. There are many good...
Staff Picks: Lookstock, Have a Seat Cabrito, Ashfield Lakehouse, and The Waifs
The True Jacqueline, Hot Dirt, and Brief Irmen // SATURDAY Some of the Valley’s best local bands are set to play the Ashfield Lakehouse this Saturday. There’s alternative/ noise rock band The True Jacqueline as well as Hot Dirt, which combines progressive and math...
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...
Can Small Business Survive in the World of Big Cannabis?
If you can say one thing about the Pioneer Valley, it’s that we love local. We champion and support small business, artists, makers, musicians, farmers, organic food, craft beer and pretty much artisanal anything. My recent expedition to INSA — the adult recreational...
Bizarro Briefs Podcast: Falling bears, dumb beverages, and a septic tank lightning strike
Valley Advocate editor Dave Eisenstadter and Hits 94.3 host Trumpy talk about the week’s weird news in a podcast version of the Valley Advocate’s Bizarro Briefs section. Hear about falling bears, dumb beverages, and a septic tank lightning strike. You can hear more of...
Editorial: Conspiracy theories or not, prison reform is needed
The suicide death in jail of billionaire and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has sparked confusion and outrage across the nation, and many ill-founded conspiracy theories online. Many are rightly worried that Epstein’s rich and powerful associates who may have...
‘I hope I’m never satisfied’: UMass rapper Chris Focus on finding hip-hop by accident
Twenty-one-year-old Shutesbury rapper and University of Massachusetts Amherst student Christopher Franklin, known as Chris Focus, sprouted his love for hip-hop by accident. At the age of 11, behind the back of his parents, Focus covertly scrolled through YouTube until...
Bizarro Briefs: Ketchup Karma
Ketchup Karma Someone stole a bottle of ketchup from a New Jersey restaurant, and claims to have been immediately wracked by guilt — and bad karma. A few hours after the condiment thief purloined the tomato-y diner staple, someone crashed into their car. In the weeks...
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...
Podcast: Shutesbury rapper Chris Focus on finding hip-hop by accident
Audio intern Jonathan Kermah interviews 21-year-old Shutesbury rapper Chris Focus about his start as an artist, his evolution, Rosebud Creatives, and more. Listen here: You can hear more of the Valley Advocate’s podcasts at https://anchor.fm/valley-advocate, on Apple...
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...
Free Will Astrology: You’re a grown up person, Pisces
ARIES (March 21-April 19): How did sound technicians create the signature roar of the fictional monster Godzilla? They slathered pine-tar resin on a leather glove and stroked it against the strings of a double bass. How about the famous howl of the fictional character...
Quincy on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is North Adams-based band Quincy, which combines Americana with bluesy roots rock, and indie folk. Check out the band’s full performance in the video below. Interview with Quincy:
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...
Letters to the Editor: A straw ban could hurt the disabled community
A straw ban could hurt the disabled community In response to “Eliminating the Plastic Straw: Woman gathers support for Northampton ban,” published August 1-7, 2019. I read the article just now and want to say, while I support reducing plastic waste (the effects it...
Bizarro Briefs: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Eat ‘Em
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Eat ‘Em Recently, swarms of grasshoppers have invaded Las Vegas, and videos have been posted of the winged creatures flocking around neon lights. One Las Vegas pizzeria is unfazed by the biblical-level calamity, and is serving the little...
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...
Staff Picks: The Goonies, Adrian Belew, and From Gentrification to Reparations
Free Millside Movies: The Goonies // SATURDAY Everyone knows the best things in life are free, and movies are no exception. Why spend your money at the theater when you could get this dose of nostalgia for free? Take your kids to experience the Goonies’ treasure hunt...
Frances Crowe: Now is the time to stop building nuclear weapons
So many lives changed on August 6, 1945, including mine. I was a 26-year-old American married to an aspiring radiologist. I listened to the radio as I ironed our clothes and learned that my country, the United States, had destroyed Hiroshima, Japan, by dropping an...
Walking for a nuclear-free future — for 40 years
Jun Yasuda, known to many as Jun San, has been actively opposing nuclear weapons and nuclear energy for decades, having walked across the country eight times in protest. Born in Japan, Yasuda, 70, now lives in New York State, near the Grafton Peace Pagoda, a Buddhist...
Editorial: Paying Homage to the Nuclear Resistance
Seventy-four years ago this week, the United States did the unconscionable: we dropped nuclear weapons on two cities — Hiroshima and Nagasaki — killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of people, and vastly increasing the rates of cancer and other radiation-linked...
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...
Podcast: Alula Shields talks about banning plastic straws in Northampton
Alula Shields has been collecting signatures to establish a plastic straw ban in Northampton by canvassing and through an online petition. Following a story about her efforts in the Advocate by Jonathan Kermah, editor Dave Eisenstadter sits down with her and discusses...
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...
Free Will Astrology: You’re in for natural highs, Sagittarius
ARIES (March 21-April 19): When it came time to write your horoscope, I was feeling unusually lazy. I could barely summon enough energy to draw up the planetary charts. I said a weak prayer to the astrological muses, pleading, “Please don’t make me work too hard to...
Perennial on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is explosively high-energy post-hardcore art punk Perennial. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Perennial:
Letters to the Editor: Undocumented Immigrants Should be Eligible for Driver’s Licenses
Undocumented Immigrants Should be Eligible for Driver’s Licenses At CISA, we are committed to strengthening local farms and to building a fair and just local food economy that serves everyone, including the people who work on farms. The Pew Research Center estimated...
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...
Bizarro Briefs Podcast: Loose yaks, stolen dentures, and hair farms for rich people
Valley Advocate editor Dave Eisenstadter and Hits 94.3 host Trumpy talk about the week’s weird news in a podcast version of the Valley Advocate’s Bizarro Briefs section. Hear about loose yaks, stolen dentures and hair farms for rich people. You can hear more of the...
Staff Picks: Ray Mason and Ants on a Log
Ray Mason at the Whately Public Library // TUESDAY The Pioneer Valley’s own local legend, Ray Mason, who is also an Advocate Sessions alum, will be performing this upcoming Tuesday at the Whately Public Library as part of its summer concert series. The outdoor show is...E-Edition
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