Featured
by Advocate Staff | Sep 16, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
Gena Mangiaratti speaks about her Advocate cover story in which she spoke with Gina Rose Napolitano, a young woman who says she engaged in a sexual relationship with a teacher at her school. The relationship had consequences that affected her mental health, she said....
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 Rob Brezsny | Sep 16, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): We’re in the equinoctial season. During this pregnant pause, the sun seems to hover directly over the equator; the lengths of night and day are equal. For all of us, but especially for you, it’s a favorable phase to conjure and cultivate...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Ona Canoa combines three-part folk harmonies with baritone uke, flute, and guitar. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Ona Canoa:
by Advocate Staff | Sep 13, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
A lifetime of suffering for a moment’s diversion? It’s time for the Big E to stop featuring animal abuse as a cheap diversion. Times have changed since the early days of this festival, and most folks do not enjoy seeing wild animals living such unnatural and horrific...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 13, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Praying with Robot Priests Religion, that opiate of the masses, has found a new way to spread dystopia — robot priests. A robot named Mindar is operating at a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, and is programmed to give sermons. Right now it only knows one...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 12, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Podcast
OroborO combines experimental rock with punk, metal, and mathy riffs. For the video recording of this session, as well as over 100 other sessions performances, go to sessions.valleyadvocate.com.
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 Advocate Staff | Sep 12, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Staff Picks
Millpond.Live & Easthampton Irish Festival // SATURDAY This Saturday marks the return of Easthampton’s Irish Fest to close out this season of Millpond.Live. The free outdoor music series at Millside Park will bring a blend of Irish, Scottish, and French Canadian...
by Gena Mangiaratti | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
When Gina Rose Napolitano was a freshman in college, she received an unexpected call from the Granby police. An officer asked if a teacher at her high school had sexual contact with her. She said no. That was in early 2017, and she was still communicating with the man...
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 Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Massachusetts Senator and presidential Front-Runner-To-Be Elizabeth Warren made waves this week by endorsing two progressive Democratic challengers to sitting conservative Democrats in districts in Illinois and Texas. These insurgent candidates — immigration lawyer...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 11, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
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 awful gun testing, robot priests, and a poop knife. Listen here: You can hear more of...
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 Rob Brezsny | Sep 10, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Hi, I’m your sales representative for UnTherapy, a free program designed to provide healing strategies for people who are trying too hard. Forgive me for being blunt, but I think you could benefit from our services. I don’t have space here...
by Luis Fieldman | Sep 10, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In mid-August, an online petition calling for touring bands to boycott Iron Horse Entertainment Group venues began collecting signatures of musicians, performers, and community members. Less than three weeks later, an organizer of the boycott lost her job at Gateway...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 9, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
Editorial intern Jonathan Kermah talks about the night shift, both from his own perspective working nights at a local gas station as well as speaking with first responders and a sleep expert. His article on the topic can be found here. Listen here: You can hear more...
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 Advocate Staff | Sep 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Born IV Blues is a teenage soulful blues band from the Berkshires. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Born IV Blues:
by From Our Readers | Sep 6, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers
RIP Frances Crowe In response to “‘An organizer to the very end’: Northampton activist Frances Crowe dies at age 100,” on Page 6. How sad to learn that we’ve lost Frances Crowe. But she had a good run, 100 years. When I heard of her death my thought was, “She lives on...
by Rob Brezsny | Sep 6, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
ARIES (March 21-April 19): John Muir (1838–1914) was skilled at creating and using machinery. In his twenties, he diligently expressed those aptitudes. But at age 27, while working in a carriage parts factory, he suffered an accident that blinded him. For several...
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 Chris Goudreau | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
The lush pastoral sounds of acoustic guitar, flute, fiddle, and upright bass echoed in slow motion through the Pushkin Gallery in Greenfield, before returning to normal time in an effect that’s much akin to rewinding an old VHS tape and hitting play. From there, the...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Podcast
Blame Cadence is a one woman chorus of looped soulful a cappella pop. For the video version of this performance, go to sessions.valleyadvocate.com.
by Advocate Staff | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Staff Picks
Midsommar: Director’s Cut at Amherst Cinema // THURSDAY My favorite film of the summer is director Ari Aster’s sophomore film, “Midsommar,” a folk-horror movie in the vein of classic 1973 British horror flick, “The Wickerman.” Without spoiling too much, this is a...
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 Luis Fieldman | Sep 5, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Rick Paiva, of Northampton, said he smoked cigarettes before switching over to vaping, but “it wasn’t helping my health any better.” He quit vaping two-and-a-half years ago because he said it worsened his asthma, caused bronchitis, made his chest tight and caused him...
by Jonathan Kermah | Sep 4, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Whether it be for a late night snack after a long night of partying or studying, or calling the police to handle an emergency in the wee hours of the morning, you’ve probably interacted with a third shift (loosely defined as work between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.) worker at...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Sep 4, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
As all the world knows, Frances Crowe is an activist institution in the Valley, and well beyond. And that’s why, even having lived the full life she did, the community still feels her passing deeply. But in her 100 years, we can all find some inspiration. I’m proud to...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 4, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
Naked lunch … er … dinner A family from Fortuna, California, came home to unexpected — and unwanted — visitors. After returning from dinner last week, the family found two naked strangers that had broken into the household and made themselves a little too comfortable....
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 Advocate Staff | Sep 3, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Podcast
Longmeadow resident and activist Michele Marantz was interviewed in the Advocate story “Longmeadow voters say no to gas pipeline project in residential neighborhood,” about her community group, which managed to get a zoning bylaw passed that could halt a...
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 Advocate Staff | Aug 30, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is Cars Go West, which combines psychedelic jams with catchy indie rock. Check out the band’s performance in the video below. Interview with Cars Go West:
by From Our Readers | Aug 29, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
A mayor that makes blood boil In response to “Sarno a No Show: As election looms, critics say Springfield’s mayor not there for all,” published August 22 – 28, 2019. The mayor led the charge and marched onto the Hampshire College campus to protest the decision...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 29, 2019 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Smith College Museum of Art // TUESDAY-SATURDAY The Smith College Museum of Art has just opened a new exhibit on the late Japanese-Amercan poet and printmaker Munio Makuuch, who with his family spent much of World War II in an internment camp in Idaho for Japanese...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
Lush Honey is a group that makes funky soul and progressive rock ‘n’ roll. The band performed live at the Summit View in Holyoke during the 2019 Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll party this past June. Listen to Lush Honey’s extended, 40-plus minute set,...
by John-Manuel Andriote | Aug 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
In this summer of half-century look-backs to the “Summer of ’69,” it’s natural to wonder: What will the summer of 2019 be remembered for 50 years from now? Will the grandchildren of today’s Millennials wonder what took us so long to do something about the mass murders...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 28, 2019 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
Perhaps the two most visceral issues of our modern political era collided last week in the words of Greenfield City Council President Karen “Rudy” Renaud — immigration and gun violence. While defending her Safe City Ordinance, which essentially prohibits local law...
by Dusty Christensen | Aug 28, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
Legendary anti-war activist and longtime city resident Frances Crowe died Tuesday morning at the age of 100. “She lived an amazing life and had a beautiful death at home surrounded by her children,” Crowe’s 72-year-old daughter, Caltha, said. She said Crowe died after...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 27, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
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...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 27, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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...
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 Advocate Staff | Aug 26, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News, Podcast
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...
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 Rob Brezsny | Aug 26, 2019 | Articles, Astrology, Featured
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...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 23, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, Podcast
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...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Valley Advocate Sessions
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...
by Our Readers | Aug 23, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
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...
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 Advocate Staff | Aug 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music
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...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 22, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Podcast
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...
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
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...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 21, 2019 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, Featured, News
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,...
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 21, 2019 | Articles, Featured, News
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...
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...
