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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.
by Dave Eisenstadter | May 12, 2017 | Featured, News
Protesters looking to use climate change as a legal defense of their actions to try to stop a natural gas pipeline expansion project through Otis State Forest in Sandisfield won’t need to bother. Charges against them, which included trespassing and disorderly conduct,...
by Jack Brown | May 8, 2017 | Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film, News, Newsletter
For such a rich subject, films about art and the people that make it all too often feel either forced and flat or ridiculously over the top. Better, usually, to take the documentary route, and let the art speak for itself. That’s the course taken by directors Timothy...
by Kristin Palpini | May 8, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter
Got that Galaxy Grass A Kitchen Dwellers show is a true Montana bluegrass experience … that’s been strapped to a rocket, shot into space, and looped around Saturn a few times. Dubbed “galaxy grass,” the band’s sound is high-energy and exploratory jamming with...
by Advocate Staff | May 8, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
One of the proudest moments that Madeleine Charney has shared with her son, Eli, is when she got to hold up the front page of the newspaper on Nov. 7, 2015, and show him that construction of the Keystone XL pipeline had been struck down by President Obama. Charney,...
by Chris Goudreau | May 5, 2017 | Featured, Get Out With Staff Picks, Music, News, Newsletter
David Crosby — the founding member of legendary 1960s and 1970s rock groups such as the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, & Nash — is coming to Northampton’s Academy of Music Theatre on May 19 for a show with his electric backing band. The two-time Rock n’ Roll Hall of...
by Hunter Styles | May 8, 2017 | Columns, Featured, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
In beer, as in life, context matters. If you crash a friend’s wedding in basketball shorts, you may be riding that easygoing reputation of yours a little too far. Conversely, if you’re mowing your lawn on a hot day, and you decide to dress up your lunch break by...
by Kristin Palpini | May 5, 2017 | Featured
LISTEN to ERIC LEE & CO.:
by Jennifer Levesque | May 1, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
The nostalgia of Pearl Street in Northampton always brings back so many MMM’s (magical music memories) from my past. The way the street light illuminates that bend in the road where the tour buses usually line up is always a happy trigger for me. We can hear the...
by Caitlin Ashworth | May 1, 2017 | Featured, Third Eye Roaming, Wellness
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally listed writer Amanda Drane as the author of this story. It was written by Caitlin Ashworth. The Advocate regrets the error. Seven young goats wandered throughout the room, climbing on yoga students in child’s pose, sniffing...
by Chris Goudreau | May 1, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News
Eighteen protesters were detained at Berkshire County Jail on May 2 after blocking access roads to the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company’s easement where construction of a $93 million 3.8-mile Connecticut expansion gas pipeline project at Otis State Forest in Sandisfield...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 28, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Music
Bright-eyed and bolstered by a rapidly growing fan base, the award winning NYC duo has set out to make the world of singer-songwriters a more cheerful place. Although they’ve been favorably compared to Simon & Garfunkel and The Indigo Girls, these ladies have an...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 17, 2017 | Columns, Featured, Music, News, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
After a full day of sitting inside a dankly weed-scented office — we did a photo shoot of some nuggets for this 4/20 issue — my first thought walking into The Root Cellar in Greenfield for an experimental show is “damn this place smells good” … and familiar. I’m...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 13, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Music
Rick Murnane is a Northampton-based singer-songwriter who has played with more area bands than you can shake a drumstick at, but his guitar skills are equally impressive when he plays his powerful and tender songs solo. Whether you’re listening to “Last...
by Chance Viles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Machakos is a city and county in Kenya. It’s a beautiful place. The large palms, and safari grass are strong and bright, the blue sky dominates the flat and open landscape. But the beauty of Machakos can be deceiving: poverty is a struggle many people face. Because...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured
I love the idea of art galleries everywhere — in empty downtown storefronts, in the halls of hospitals and the community rooms of nonprofit agencies — but it’s always a bit awkward, at first, to enjoy them. There’s a buzzer to hit, or a camera to stare into, or a...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, The Beerhunter
Two worthwhile breweries off exit 9 The naturalist John Muir once observed that “when one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” I’m no bearded environmental philosopher, but I do like to kick back with a pint sometimes and...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Stage
We’re still a few months out from July’s annual Green River Festival in Greenfield, but we’re right on time to share a special early announcement from producers Signature Sounds. This year, the festival will add a new stage called the Next Wave Stage, which will host...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film
Strangers No More In the 1950s, Hampshire College professor Abraham Ravett relocated with his Polish Jewish family from Eastern Europe to the United States. Ravett was just three at the time of the move, but he carried with him a memory — and a single black-and-white...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 10, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
Close to Noam Leftist hero Noam Chomsky, now 88, has been around the block a few times, picking up new fields of expertise like normal people pick up groceries. He’s a world-renowned linguist, philosopher, author, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic,...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Leisure, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Tweet Puppets for the People From its founding in New York’s Lower East Side in 1963 to its decades-long residence in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, Bread & Puppet Theater remains one of the country’s most inventive and internationally recognized performing...
by Lena Wilson | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter, Stream Queen
In our world of studio filmmaking driven by franchises and sequels, creators looking to develop original ideas are often restricted to independent production. While indie filmmaking means working on a shoestring budget, it also often means the cast and crew are...
by Jennifer Levesque | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Valley Show Girl
A Woman Alive As I walked into Gateway City Arts in Holyoke for the first time, I came to a dead stop to admire the factory-style architecture. The ceilings are very high, with a huge industrial ceiling fan staring down. The large stage was lit up awaiting performers,...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Stage
War and Music Playwright Quiara Alegría Hudes has jumped onto our cultural radar many times over the years — she received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful, and she wrote the book for the musical In The Heights alongside future...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
No one knows how many timber rattlesnakes there are in Massachusetts — and this is a sticking point for opponents of a plan to boost the endangered species population.Does this species of venomous snakes really need saving? Over the past few years, state scientists...
by From Our Readers | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
You Can’t Make an Omelette …Poem and illustration by Mary L. Rice, maryl.rice@yahoo.com Is Boston Super Racist?Readers weigh in on the question posed in a Between the Lines of the same name in the March 30-April 5, 2017.Via FacebookEvan H Gregg: “Beloved...
by Chris Goudreau | Apr 3, 2017 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Wellness
Every year billions of ticks creep through wooded areas across Massachusetts and New England, feeding vampirically off the blood of wildlife, pets, and humans. With ticks comes the most obvious fear: Lyme disease. But how much of what seems like common knowledge about...
by Jack Brown | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Film, Newsletter
Hurt Feelings A few weeks back I found myself with a rare night off — the kids asleep early, the house somehow clean, the bills already paid. I was scrolling through my various Netflix queues when a familiar title popped up: V for Vendetta, the Wachowskis’ 2005...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Film, Music, Newsletter
The World in Frame Since opening its historic church doors in 2011, Next Stage Arts Project has been working to bring world-class events into the small town of Putney, Vermont (just north of Brattleboro). Never has that mission been more clear than with the group’s...
by Chris Rohmann | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
WAM Theatre exists on two levels: to produce work that foregrounds women playwrights and performers, and to tangibly support, with a portion of ticket sales, organizations that work to better the lives of women and girls. Emilie: La Marquise du Chatelet Defends Her...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Smile! (Or Don’t) Artist, photographer, and punk for the ages Cynthia Connolly made a name for herself in one fell swoop when she published Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes from the D.C. Punk Underground (79-85). That scrappy yearbook-style achievement snuck into...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 29, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music
Jazz-inspired indie duo on vocals and bass When Cait Simpson sings and Chris Merritt plucks his upright bass, something simple and enchanting happens. The friends just released their first EP, The Landing, available on iTunes and Spotify. Catch the full video this...
by Steven Johnson | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
COLUMBUS, Indiana — While Vice President Pence’s gubernatorial career earned national controversy, his hometown and closest friends vouch for his character. Columbus, Indiana, fits the image he presents: practical, family-oriented, and subject to change over the...
by Chris Goudreau | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter
You’re a teenager in high school. You’ve been texting on your smartphone when you shouldn’t be or otherwise refusing to listen to your teacher. You think you’ll probably get berated, maybe detention, but never thought you’d be handcuffed and taken into police custody....
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 27, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Newsletter
Is Boston a racist city? If you’ve been watching Saturday Night Live lately, you probably caught “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che give Boston that dubious title.Prior to the Super Bowl clash between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots, Che...
