Featured
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 4, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
Hi Yana, I’m with a guy with an uncircumcised penis for the first time in my 16 years of being sexually active. I love how he looks, and it feels great when we can have sex. But, after three years, we haven’t been able to get into a good rhythm, sex-wise. I’m not...
by Chris Goudreau | Nov 27, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
It’s been more than two years, since former Valley Advocate staff writer Amanda Drane wrote an article about residents in the Mason Square neighborhood of Springfield who rallied together, collecting 1,300 grocery receipts totaling more than $50,000, to entice...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 27, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Each year, Gateway Regional High School in Huntington holds an event welcoming back alumni to share their experiences about college and post-graduate life. This year, however, the event was closed to one graduate: Marcelle LaBrecque, who spent 12 years in the Gateway...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 27, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Review, Valley Show Girl
A couple weeks ago I wrote my column based on the fiasco that is Wikipedia Vs. Women, where locally and nationally non-male musicians are getting edited out of the popular DIY online encyclopedia due to male editors not accepting articles from certain publications...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Nov 27, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana! I am a 21-year-old cisgender female living with my partner of 1.5 years. I’ll make it simple: a partner has never been able to make me orgasm. Either I do it solo or I do all the work for myself during sex with a partner. My partner and I communicate about...
by Chris Goudreau and Meg Bantle | Nov 20, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter
The Pioneer Valley is home not only to a bountiful music scene, but to dozens of open mics where artistic communities blossom. Open mics are places where the generational lines between artists blur while they’re jamming out to a bluesy ballad or talking about their...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 20, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Gun control. It’s a topic that rarely gets any traction at the federal level, even after the most devastating and horrific mass shootings. After the Sandy Hook shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children: nothing. After Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, the...
by Meg Bantle | Nov 20, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Two painted planks of wood covered one of the main display windows in front of Shop Therapy in Northampton on Monday morning. The smashed pane, which looked like someone’s elbow or head was pushed through it from the outside, was covered with a message in red...
by Chris Goudreau | Nov 20, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze, Newsletter
A flaky crust, delicious filling, and a bite of nostalgia make pie the dessert of choice for many. Whether it’s pie with a damn fine cup of coffee or a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, you’ll instantly be transported to sweet comfort heaven with just a bite … if it’s...
by Dave Eisenstadter, Meg Bantle, and Chris Goudreau | Nov 15, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News
In front of Northampton Market, employee Rilshad Azez shoos away potential customers as they pull into the lot. “No power,” he says. The mailman he welcomes, but he asks a question: “You didn’t bring the power?” “Sorry, not...
by Dave Eisenstadter, Chris Goudreau, and Meg Bantle | Nov 13, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Progressives had reasons to celebrate the morning of Nov. 8 more than at any point in the past year. Not only did the Democrats capture the big prizes of Election Day on Nov. 7 — the governors races in New Jersey and Virginia — but Democratic and progressive...
by Jennifer Levesque | Nov 13, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
Tanya Pearson has been accumulating a continuous list of female musicians for her Women in Rock Oral History Project which she started at Smith College in December 2014. Accompanied by 29 video interviews (so far!) with some of them available on www.womenofrock.org,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 13, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Last week featured two news stories that rocked the political landscape in this country. The first was that Democrats and progressive candidates all but swept the Nov. 7 elections from coast to coast, and the second was that Republican Alabama U.S. Senate candidate...
by Monte Belmonte | Nov 13, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines, Newsletter
Thanksgiving: when (non-Native) Americans celebrate their favorite (made up) moments from (revisionist) history. A time when you will sit down to enjoy a feast (with historically incorrect menu), lovingly seated around the table next to your (mouth-breathing)...
by Seth Kershner | Nov 6, 2017 | Featured, News, Newsletter
This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and is the first installment in a series about SWAT deployment and police militarization in Massachusetts. For a police department of only 40 officers, the April 23, 2015...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 8, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, News, The Beerhunter
Family-run business is the city’s first visitable craft brewery As the Valley’s local craft beer bubble continues to grow, Westfield looks primed for business. Downtown on Elm Street, Skyline Trading Company — a craft beer bar and homebrew shop — has proven a welcome...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 6, 2017 | Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched the #metoo tweets and posts make their way through my social media feeds, and I’ve read the articles and stories, mostly from women, about how they have been subjected to sexual abuse and harassment. They bring about mixed...
by Meg Bantle | Nov 6, 2017 | Featured, News, Newsletter
Berkshire Brewing Company in South Deerfield is celebrating its 23rd year this fall. Despite the company’s success, president and owner Gary Bogoff still feels limited by the strain of state and federal taxes and regulations. If federal excise taxes were reduced,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Nov 6, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Film, Music, News, Newsletter
Ted Neeley is not the second coming of Jesus Christ. But he does play one in the extremely popular show and accompanying 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar. The show went from being protested in the streets to one of the biggest Broadway sensations, touring around the...
by Chris Goudreau and Dave Eisenstadter | Oct 9, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
These weren’t the circumstances in which Holyoke resident Israel Rivera had imagined he would be meeting his nieces — ages 13 and 17 — for the first time. Rivera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, recently agreed to house his sister’s children after his sister Amarilis...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 9, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
It’s been real, but it’s time for me to be moving on. I’ve stepped down as editor to pursue other writing opportunities and I’m looking forward to getting back into reporting on, rather than assigning, stories. Reporting is how I got my start in the business back in...
by Advocate Staff | Oct 2, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
For many New Englanders, fall is a special time that people living in the sun year-round don’t get to experience. The air gets crisp; the leaves blaze bright orange, yellow, and red; apples reach their peak of juicy, crunchy goodness; the smell of harvest is all...
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 2, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter
Fall 2017 in the Valley is stuffed with anticipated moments of cultural and artistic profundity; below is just a taste of all the amazing events taking place October into early-December across the three counties, and southern Vermont. Fragile Freedom After the U.S....
by Kristin Palpini | Oct 2, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Ripped apart by Hurricane Maria about two weeks ago, Puerto Rico is suffering from a severe lack of food, water, medicine, and shelter. Only 5 percent of the nation has electricity, according to the Associated Press. Federal aid is slow to arrive, people on the island...
by Chris Goudreau | Oct 2, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Wellness
Armené Margosian, 52, of Greenfield, sat waiting in a medical chair at Achieve TMS East’s Northampton office on Pleasant Street, her hands holding a pillow alongside her car keys. Her head was covered in a dark blue cap, while strapped into a metal, robotic-looking...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter
Songs From the Rodeo Flathead Rodeo is Northampton-based roots rockabilly band recently won Mark Sherry’s Valley Musical Showcase in July, a regular, judged competition at New City Brewery in Easthampton. So, now they have the honor of opening and closing this week’s...
by Will Meyer | Sep 11, 2017 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Newsletter
I used to think touring was excessive, stupid, and generally felt existentially conflicted about it. Why should I leave the house and use fossil fuels to do anything that’s trivial? Why should we impose our music on these seemingly nice people when there’s so much...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter
No one gives Picasso shit for all the self portraits he’s painted. And I’m yet to hear someone call Frida Kahlo’s self portraits “navel gazing.” But right now, the self portrait is under fire. People like to heap a lot of scorn on selfie-takers, folks who have read up...
by Lena Wilson | Sep 11, 2017 | Columns, Featured, Leisure, Stream Queen
Some documentaries exist to tackle big-picture issues, while others hone in on life’s finer details. The Breast Archives, by local director Meagan Murphy, attempts both tasks at once, as the film delves into the world of feminist body politics vis-a-vis the breasts....
by Chris Goudreau | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
There’s no band quite like the Pixies with its blend of dissonant noise pop, psychedelic hard rock, surf-drenched reverb, punk rock-ish DIY leanings, and surreal lyrics that cover bizarre topics from extraterrestrials to biblical violence. Since the band’s 1986...
by From Our Readers | Sep 5, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find comments from readers on Advocate articles and other news. We collect readers’ opinions from emails, letters, Facebook comments, and comments to valleyadvocate.com. Want to get in on this?...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 28, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News
I have a friend, she’s a trip: She loves, LOVES, smoking marijuana where she isn’t supposed to. I call her a guerilla smoker, lighting up any time we’re in public no matter who’s around or what we’re doing. With recreational marijuana now being legal in Massachusetts,...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 21, 2017 | Featured, Music, Newsletter
THURSDAY // Old Crow Medicine Show The originators of the open mic sing-a-long phenomenon “Wagon Wheel” are upbeat bluegrass band Old Crow Medicine Show. Although the band’s single is well known, there’s more to Old Crow Medicine Show than just...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 21, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Newsletter
2050 and Beyond Christina Gusek is a futurist. She looks to what will be instead of what is. Her exhibit at Holyoke Hummus Company, Year 2050 and Beyond, is a vividly terrifying vision of people distorted with machines on a psychedelic event horizon. This exploration...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 21, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
Chicopee’s Downtown GetDown The Downtown GetDown is funneling people in this weekend to check out all the cool stuff going on in The Pee. This year’s GetDown will feature a Bike Rodeo, an event usually for kids under age 13 that teaches them good ridership...
by Jack Brown | Aug 21, 2017 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Newsletter
Shelburne Falls Pothole Pictures continues its summer movie series with something frosty: a screening of Frozen River. This 2008 film, written and directed by Courtney Hunt, was the hit of the festival circuit when it debuted, winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 14, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Top events of the coming week chosen by Advocate Staff: TUESDAY // This Must Be Heaven On Tuesday at Look Park you may be able to catch a glimpse of Cher, Kurt Cobain, a Beatle, Sharon Jones, Chris Cornell, Johnny Cash, or Amy Winehouse as this year’s Transperformance...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 26, 2017 | Arts, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The classic sex farce is set in a large room with about half a dozen doors, in and out of which pop guilty lovers, jealous spouses and other staples of the genre, and behind which most of the shenanigans real and suspected take place. Alan Ayckbourne’s classic Taking...
by Lena Wilson | Jul 24, 2017 | Arts, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter, Stream Queen
Though digital media has forever changed the face of filmmaking, there’s still one key way independent filmmakers can premiere their work: by entering it into the festival circuit. Each year many films, spanning all lengths and genres, debut to those lucky minority...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter, Stage
Queen Margaret, Historical Bad-Ass Before there was Game of Thrones and Cersei, there was the War of the Roses and Queen Margaret of Anjou. In fact, many people believe the hit HBO show was based on the War of the Roses, a 30-year war (of which Margaret was a key...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter
Sticks and Stones II, the new exhibit at Hope & Feathers Framing and Gallery, is a contemplation of the very small and natural. The four artists contributing to this show meditated on things like pebbles, pieces of cloth, terra cotta, and textiles. The end result...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 3, 2017 | Featured, News, Newsletter
Ninety-eight-year-old peace activist Frances Crowe of Northampton is thinking about the future. That’s why she was arrested last month along with seven other people protesting Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s $93 million 13-mile tri-state Connecticut Expansion Project in...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 26, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Newsletter
Familiar Forgotten Places Catherine Gibbs picked a ubiquitous, but faded piece of local history for her exhibit at the Elusie Gallery in Easthampton: Mill buildings and train yards. Though not as much is manufactured here anymore, not that long ago people in places...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 26, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter
Art in a (Butter)Nutshell Strolling through booths of fine art with a glass of wine in your hand underneath a sunny sky in the Berkshires isn’t a bad way to spend an afternoon, or two. That’s what you’ll get at the 16th Berkshires Arts Festival at the Ski Butternut...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 12, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Are You Worthy? Yes, yes you are — if you’re 21 or over. The Worthy is back, ya’ll, and sudsier than ever for this year’s outdoors craft beer showcase. The Springfield brewfest, in the city’s most entertaining neighborhood: Worthington Street, is going down Saturday...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 9, 2017 | Featured, Music
Check out Amherst-based indie/garage/ surf rock band Spirit Ghost’s Advocate Sessions performance recorded on May 23 in The Advocate Offices. BONUS: Interview with Spirit Ghost Like what you’re listening to? Check out the Valley Advocate Sessions page for...
by Chance Viles and Kristin Palpini | Jun 5, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
Springfield, Massachusetts, was a big abolitionist hub during the days of the Underground Railroad — not that many people know this. When talking about Massachusetts history, Western Mass isn’t well represented in historical texts — they’re more focused on Boston. And...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 1, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter
The Valley is home to a wealth of arts and cultural events. So many, in fact, that the Advocate prints four seasonal arts preview editions every year — and really we could do one every month. This edition is all about what you can expect to see in the Valley, plus the...
by Chris Rohmann | May 30, 2017 | Arts, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
“We do on stage the things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit being an entrance somewhere else.” That line, spoken by a traveling player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, could well be the elevator pitch...
by Jack Brown | May 30, 2017 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter
There has been a trend in Hollywood filmmaking that, for the last decade or so, has steadily changed the look of our blockbusters. It’s a pervasive change, but one that has happened gradually enough that many people aren’t even aware that it has been happening, quite...
by Lena Wilson | May 22, 2017 | Arts, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Stream Queen
Graduation season is upon us, as high schoolers gear up for the next vein of adulthood and university students steel themselves for the real world, whatever that is. Fresh from a weekend of back-to-back college graduations myself, I can’t help but contemplate the...
by Chris Rohmann | May 22, 2017 | Arts, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Editor’s Note: Here’s the Summer Stage Preview Part I, about the Berkshires. These days, Sam Rush often finds himself using the punning phrase “Home is where the art is.” That’s because his company, New Century Theatre, having lost its longtime home at...
by Chris Rohmann | May 15, 2017 | Arts, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Most theaters in this region have only two seasons: summer and the rest of the year. None of the area’s professional companies are truly year-round. Some focus on intensive summer repertories of multiple shows with two- and three-week runs, while others produce only...
by Kristin Palpini | May 17, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Music
\/ \/ Scroll down for video. \/ \/ Recorded May 9, 2017, at the party for Best Of the Valley Readers’ Poll 2017 first place winners hosted by the Valley Advocate at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. Want more Sessions now? Go to sessions.valleyadvocate.com to...
by Jack Brown | May 15, 2017 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter
Amherst Cinema is gearing up for the return of Special Agent Dale Cooper. Kyle MacLachlan returns to TV this week in his early role as Cooper, the FBI man who got tied up in the death of Laura Palmer and the mysteries of Twin Peaks when the show of the same name first...
by Kristin Palpini | May 15, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Newsletter
The first thing I notice walking into Historic Northampton’s gallery on Bridge Street (besides how interesting the 1800s home is) is that my interpretation of the show’s title is wrong. The exhibit, Laws Change. People Die. The Land Remains, is a collection of...
by Kristin Palpini | May 15, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter, Stage
You Had Me at Giant Killer Octopus Right now, in Trump’s post-truth America, is an excellent time to stage Shipwrecked! The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as told by himself). The play is based on the grandiose stories of a Victorian huckster who fills in...
by Kristin Palpini, compiled and illustrated | May 15, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
The Missed Connections forum on Craigslist is a wasteland of terrible poetry, dick pics, and whining, but among the detritus are some truly fascinating, funny, and occasionally sweet entries. The following are highlights from the Western Mass Missed Connections forum,...
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 15, 2017 | Featured, News, Stage
In a staggering blow to anyone looking for a weird experience on a Monday evening, tonight’s air sex tournament (think air guitar, but with sex) has been mysteriously cancelled. The event was going to take place at 7 p.m. at the Iron Horse, but a message on the...
by Advocate Staff | May 12, 2017 | Featured, Music
Check out Appalachian Still: Also visit our Sessions page, with an interview with the artist and all of our other Sessions bands.
