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Free Will Astrology: Alien life is closer than you think, Aries
ARIES (March 21-April 19): We may not have to travel to other planets to find alien life. Instead of launching expensive missions to other planets, we could look for exotic creatures here on earth. Astrobiologist Mary Beth Wilhelm is doing just that. Her search has...
Jon Carroll & BraveSoul on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is Jon Carroll & BraveSoul, who is a two-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter making R&B with soulful melodies and an inventive spirit. Interview with Jon Carroll:
Letters to the Editor: ‘Everyone should march for climate, for justice, and for women’s rights’
‘Everyone should march for climate, for justice, and for women’s rights’ In response to “Between the Lines: Looking to the Unexpected on Climate Change Solutions,” published May 30 – June 5, 2019. Here on the eve of my 65th birthday it seemed appropriate to send...
‘Biomass Isn’t Clean Energy’: Springfield activists blast state plan at hearing
Activists, elected officials, and concerned residents packed a June 5 Department of Energy Resources (DOER) hearing in Springfield on a state plan to open up state renewable energy subsidies to plants that burn biomass — mostly wood chips, wood pellets, and other wood...
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: Ona Canoa, Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, Urinetown, and Trash Talks
Ona Canoa’s “Resonate” show at Pushkin Gallery // SATURDAY Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center is starting a new “Resonate” series, which takes place in the three-story marble building at Pushkin Gallery in downtown Greenfield. Western Mass folk trio Ona Canoa is...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Belly laughs from Wine Country on Netflix, but no wine info
“This one’s good, what’s it called again?” “White wine.” “Freakin’ LOVE it.” Netflix and chill? Great. Netflix and wine and chill? Even better. Wine Country on Netflix and wine and chill? It makes for a nice evening. You may get a good laugh watching Wine Country, but...
Western Mass Beer Week is Back! Here’s what’s happening
In the Advocate’s monthly craft beer column The Beerhunter, I keep my finger on the pulse of local craft beer business. The column began in 2014. From day one, I had plenty of little dramas and lucky breaks to cover, from small-business zoning woes to creative...
Bizarro Briefs: Swooping to the Rescue
Swooping to the rescue The robot-controlled cameras that film us at all times waiting for us to mess up so we can be fined or arrested have spawned a new genre of Bizarro Brief: the bird photobomb as savior. One such 1984-like surveillance device in western Germany...
Review: ‘Daydreaming’ at the Elusie Gallery
The work of two artists are on display now through June 30 at Easthampton’s Elusie Gallery in an exhibit titled “Daydreaming,” which features surrealistic illustrated pieces by Samson E. King with images of nature and everyday objects colliding in a kaleidoscope...
O Cannabis: Finding Your Perfect Dose
On May 20, three adults collapsed in a Cape Cod restaurant after trying edibles for the first time and apparently took a relatively high dose. One woman fainted and her two companions were soon lying semi-conscious on the ground. While the unfortunate incident is not...
Basemental: DIY Dystopia — A tech start-up sees house shows as ‘the next big thing’
Imagine it’s the year 2020 and you get invited by a friend to a local house show. The catch: you don’t know who the performers will be and you don’t know where it will be located until the day of the show. You must apply in advance to even purchase a ticket and then...
‘Stupid and Irresponsible’: Activists speak out against burning biomass in Springfield
Around 2009, Palmer Renewable Energy planned to create a $150 million 42-megawatt biomass energy plant in East Springfield at 1000 Page Blvd., a project that local environmental activists thought was scrapped two years ago. Now, a decade since the plant was proposed,...
Stagestruck: Classics Revisited – Masterpieces coming to summer stages
In a season studded with world premieres (five at Williamstown Theatre Festival alone and three at Barrington Stage Company, for example), I’m equally struck by some of the revivals coming up in the Valley and Berkshires this summer. I don’t mean chestnuts from the...
Podcast: Maureen O’Reilly on the Holyoke Care Center college programs and trash buster John Coughlin
We’re relaunching the Valley Advocate Podcast! Last year, we had a good run partnering with Amherst Media to produce video podcasts. Now we’re back both with audio-only and video versions! Up first is guest Maureen O’Reilly, who talks about her...
V-Spot: How Do I Have Group Sex, Properly?
Hello! You’ve probably heard this question before, but how do you approach the topic of group sex with people who you think might be down? I have had a few scenarios happen organically, and been approached myself, but I’m scared of seeming like a creep (for example, a...
Free Will Astrology: Who needs credentials, Aquarius?
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “I don’t think we were ever meant to hear the same song sung exactly the same way more than once in a lifetime,” says poet Linh Dinh. That’s an extreme statement that I can’t agree with. But I understand what he’s driving at. Repeating...
Cinemadope: Neither Wolf Nor Dog at the Bing
The Bing Arts Center building, down on Sumner Avenue in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, has had its share of ups and downs over the years. It started life as Kossaboom’s Service Station a century ago, and filled tanks for a few decades before a reconfiguration...
Lady Jane on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions performer is folk-rock singer-songwriter Lady Jane, who combines melancholic melodies with lyrics that pull on your heart strings. Interview with Lady Jane:
Letters to the Editor: Abortion Should Not Be Law of the Land
Abortion Should Not Be Law of the Land In response to “If It’s Not Your Body, It’s Not Your Business,” published May 23-29, 2019. I have never responded to any of the numerous far left pieces I read in the Advocate but this one demands a rebuttal. Ms. Levesque states...
Valley Show Girl: STRONG & Pleasant This Way Comes
Festival season is among us! The Valley is chock full of them all summer long and into fall. There is a new one, however, that has hopes of becoming a bi-annual festival in Downtown Northampton, The STRONG and Pleasant Music Festival. Carla Racine, the woman behind...
Editorial: Just Impeach Him Already!!
Honestly, I was not among those who thought the Mueller report would ignite impeachment proceedings to remove Donald Trump from the presidency. I did follow along with sickening dismay at news reports of Trump’s efforts to obstruct the investigation, but I doubted...
Stagestruck: The Flamingo Kid cruises into Hartford
I missed The Flamingo Kid when the Garry Marshall movie came out in 1984, but I recently caught up with it. It’s a coming-of-age story that takes place in the summer of 1963, the era of Marshall’s TV series Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Although it was...
Two Lyrical, Soulful Spitters: A Q&A with Springfield hip-hop artists T’Swan and Fabeyon
Rappers T’Swan and Fabeyon are hoping to mold a hip-hop music scene in their hometown of Springfield. Their sound — potent lyrics over soulful boom bap instrumentals — is more comparable to that of New York legends like Fat Joe than more simplistic trap artists...
Staff Picks: Global Groove Fest, Dissident Voices concert, Bee Fest
Global Groove Fest // FRIDAY Multi-instrumentalist Matthew King organized a mini festival celebrating the musical roots of Caribbean culture. King’s musical project, soulful fusion band TapRoots, are slated to perform. Also on board to perform, the Valley’s ska jazz...
Rising Above Expectations: Teen moms, struggling students get degrees through Holyoke’s Care Center
Julisa DeLeón, 26, has a love of learning and a long-term goal of becoming a therapist, but she’s faced obstacles. A lifelong Holyoke resident, she graduated Holyoke High School in the spring of 2010 and later that fall began as a 17-year-old freshman at Newbury...
Editorial: Looking beyond recycling for climate change solutions
Last week an item in the Advocate’s calendar was a “climate crisis grief-sharing gathering” in Northampton. The description read as follows: “Home gathering to share grief, fear, anxiety, despair, and anger about the climate crisis.” Participants were encouraged to...
Clueless Parent: Goodbye Wonderland, there’s a new ALICE around
Since childhood, any time I had heard “Alice,” I’d immediately go to Wonderland. The thought of curious Alice in her babydoll dress, black Mary Jane shoes, and matching headband falling into a rabbit hole sent happiness vibes straight to my brain. The memory of...
Bizarro Briefs: Woody, is That You?
Woody, is That You? The New York City Police Department recently used a photo of actor Woody Harrelson (Zombieland, HBO’s first season of True Detectives, Natural Born Killers) to catch a beer thief who happened to look a lot like the well-known actor. The police...
V-Spot: Am I Failing At Polyamory?
Dear Yana, My past two relationships have both been non-monogamous. In both, I felt open (even excited) to communicate about my other hookups and sweeties with my more settled partners. I always made clear with my settled partners my need for transparency in regards...
Cinemadope: The Real Story of Nureyev
It was a scene straight out of a paranoid thriller: 1961, a Paris airport, the KGB circling ever closer around a famous Russian, bent on closing the net around their prey. A waiting plane destined for Moscow. At the last moment, a dash for freedom — with the help of...
Free Will Astrology: Sing 1000-year-old songs, Pisces
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks it will make good sense for you to travel down winding paths replete with interesting twists and provocative turns. The zigzags you’ll be inspired to pursue won’t be inconvenient or inefficient, but rather will be...
Stagestruck: Summer Theater Preview – New & Different
I’m looking at my summer theater calendar and counting over 60 productions due up over the next three lively months in the Valley and beyond. Some dozen world premieres, along with even more regional premieres, stand alongside classics from Ibsen to Albee, not to...
Stagestruck on Broadway: Family Squabbles – the Clintons and the Lears
Two plays now on Broadway for limited runs, a world classic and a world premiere, revolve around fractured families whose dynastic dreams turn sour. One involves the ambitious daughters of an English king, the other the ambitious wife of a former U.S. president....
Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions band is Wild Bill and the Flying Sparks, which combines classic country and roots rock n’ roll with a Cajun groove. Check out the band’s full performance in the video below. Interview with Wild Bill and the Flying...
UMass activists, Speaker DeLeo, accuse one another of ‘Trumpian tactics’ in exchange on education affordability
Activists with PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts), accused Massachusetts Speaker Robert DeLeo of “name calling and spreading misinformation” following a tweet from DeLeo stating that the activists had used “Trumpian...
Basemental: For the Love of Buskers
As the weather warms up and the sun comes out, musicians flock to Main Street, opening their cases to busk. I have lived many downtown Northampton lives — as a busker, in food service, as a journalist for The Shoestring reporting on Northampton politics, to name a...
Letters to the Editor: Support Refugee Resettlement Efforts in the Pioneer Valley
Support Refugee Resettlement Efforts in the Pioneer Valley In 2017 there were 68.5 million people that were forcibly displaced and since then that number has only been growing, according to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR). Of that number of...
Northampton Commission Recommends Voting Age of 16 and Ranked Choice Voting
In future Northampton municipal elections anyone 16 years or older might be able to cast a vote for their top candidate and also rank their second or third choices, too. At its May 21 meeting, the city’s Charter Review Commission voted in favor of moving forward four...
Staff Picks: X, veteran poetry, Chris Goudreau, and free burgers
X at Gateway City Arts // SATURDAY Legendary punk band X is heading to Gateway City Arts in Holyoke this weekend. Never heard of X? Get ready to hear one of the most influential first wave punk bands of the late 1970s, which continues to play songs new and old to...
New Holyoke Art Space PULP Kicks Off With Pop Art Exhibit
Along the canal district in Holyoke on Race Street is a new art gallery, PULP Art + Object, which held its grand opening on May 4. The gallery’s inaugural exhibit is by self-taught artist Dave Laro, whose work is inspired by Andy Warhol’s pop art aesthetic. Laro’s...
Fighting for a Springfield Bike Park: Safety concerns, frustrations with Mayor Sarno spurring advocates to act
Dallas Anderson, 14, rides his bike about six hours a day, mostly through the streets of his hometown of Springfield. He has fun doing it, and has met friends while riding in groups downtown, but he does worry about his safety, and he said he doesn’t get support from...
Editorial: If It’s Not Your Body, It’s Not Your Business
I was 17 when I had my first abortion. I was not ready to become a mother. I was still in high school, no money in the bank, and admittedly still a child myself. I know if I didn’t have that choice, my life would be 100 percent different than it is today. Sometimes I...
Advocates speak out against abortion bans at Northampton rally
It was near the end of a Northampton rally in support of abortion rights on Tuesday that Shirley Jackson Whitaker took the stage. She spoke to more than 200 people who had gathered at Pulaski Park following the passage of restrictive abortion laws in states including...
O Cannabis: Bedtime weed to treat insomnia and sleep apnea
Patrick Baker, 29, works as a desktop support contractor for a health insurance company in a skyscraper in Springfield. During his lunch break, he slips away, heads down the stairwell straight for an empty closet on an empty floor. Still wearing his buttoned down...
Bizarro Briefs: RIP Grumpy Cat
RIP Grumpy Cat A generational meme icon is no more. At the age of seven, the beloved feline known to the internet as “Grumpy Cat” has been taken from us, but left us with her always grumpy face, which will surely delight generations of internet browsers in the years...
Stagestruck: Pre-Season Previews – Summer begins, spring continues
There’s usually a bit of a lull between the end of one theater season and the start of the next – the spring pause before the summer rush. But the pause keeps getting briefer and the seasons are starting to overlap. Take this week, when three Berkshire theaters open...
V-Spot: How Can I Let My Partner Touch Me?
Yana, I’m a trans male and my partner is non-binary. While I identify as asexual, I love pleasuring my partner so much! But I don’t let them touch me. I want to but I’m so self conscious about not having “male anatomy” (gender/sex am I right?) that them touching me...
Free Will Astrology: Ally Yourself With Pirates, Leo
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the coming weeks, I suspect you will have the wisdom to criticize yourself in constructive ways that will at least partially solve a long-standing problem. Hallelujah! I bet you will also understand what to do to eliminate a bad habit by...
Cinemadope: Summer season means outdoor movies
All of us have our seasonal touchstones. As New Englanders, especially, we seem to have a compulsion to carve up our years (maple season, mud season, mosquito season) and mark the moment that one quarter melts into another. For many, the spring-to-summer transition...
Guest columnist David Daley: Everybody does it? Not by a long shot, Rep. Neal
Everybody does it. That’s essentially Rep. Richard Neal’s response to my criticism in The Boston Globe of his pay-for-play fundraising and lavish galas where he’s wooed Washington lobbyists and stuffed his pockets with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash...
Jake Klar on the Valley Advocate Sessions Stage
This week’s Advocate Sessions performer is singer-songwriter Jake Klar, who plays poetic folk and blues that stirs the soul. Check out his performance in the video below.
Letters to the Editor: Forget the wall; plant a hedge
Forget the Wall; Plant a Hedge I think that instead of building a wall along our southern border, we should plant a hedge. And granted the cooperation of the Mexican people, finance the planting of food trees and vegetable gardens that will provide some respite to...
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: Acid Dad, Majestic Open Mic, and Santo Taco
Acid Dad, Receivers, Phenomena 256, and Hot Flakes at Hawks & Reed // SATURDAY It’s a night of psychedelic rock n’ roll, experimental music, and a little bit of emo thrown in for good measure at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield this Saturday....
Pioneer Valley Workers Center to establish worker-owned farm
The Pioneer Valley Workers Center (PVWC) plans on breaking ground this week on its planned four-acre worker-run cooperative farm on the border of Hatfield and Northampton. Lorena Moreno, a member of the PVWC and the seven-member farm cooperative, said the hope is that...
A Street Fair Named Desire: Valley festivals you can find downtown
It can be hard to remember it based on the cold, rainy weather we’ve had recently, but the middle of May is here. That means being outside, enjoying the flowers, and looking ahead to months more of being out and about before the temperature inevitably drops again and...
Editorial: Even Politicians Are Beginning to Support Medicare For All in Mass
Earlier this week, both Holyoke and South Hadley overwhelmingly passed municipal resolutions in support of Medicare for All legislation. A few weeks earlier, Boston’s City Council did the same. They join Northampton, Cambridge, Williamsburg, and assorted other...
Bizarro Briefs: A daring escape (with cat)
A daring escape In what could easily be a scene from an action movie (starring an elderly woman and her cat), a Massachusetts woman managed to save herself and her feline companion from drowning when the car they were driving crashed into a river and sank. The woman,...
Q&A: ‘Rafiki’ film hopes to spark change in Kenya
The 2018 film, Rafiki, by co-writer/director Wanuri Kahiu, follows Kena and Ziki, two friends who encourage one another to follow their dreams by going to college and starting careers as young women in Kenya. Their friendship blossoms into love, but in their home city...
Valley Show Girl: Weege & The Wondertwins
Western Mass’s Weege and The Wondertwins turn it to 11 on the jazzometer and when listening to them, they send you to the nearest time machine. You emerge in a time where jazz was all around you and the speakeasy lounges were a dime a dozen. Do I Seem Weird Lately? is...E-Edition
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