News
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 1, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
In a conversation about how more than 140 black people have been killed by police this year, all lives don’t matter. All lives are as pertinent to this discussion as Vienna sausages, Breaking Bad reruns, and gardening — they have no place at the table. Likewise, how...
by Amanda Drane | Sep 1, 2015 | Arts, Music, News
And The Kids Amourasaurus at the Pines Theatre, Northampton, Aug. 30, 2015 I arrived to a clogged line outside the Pines Theatre at Look Park in Northampton. I would have been restless standing there in the heat if not for the Winterpills’ weepy, wrenching harmonies...
by Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson, Propublica | Sep 1, 2015 | News
Newly disclosed documents unveiling the close relationship between the National Security Agency and AT&T could breathe new life into a long-running legal dispute about the NSA’s controversial method of tapping the Internet backbone on U.S. soil. This program,...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 1, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, News, Scene Here
Holyoke City Hall follows you like the moon. Night in downtown Holyoke can be a quiet affair: Sometimes you can stand next to a canal and hear little more than the black water below. One night on Race Street this summer, tree frog near a power substation spoke the...
by Amanda
Drane | Sep 1, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, Music, News, Wellness
Sometimes you just gotta dance. No one gets this quite like you, college student. Many more seasoned adults are too tired or they just downright don’t want to be around a bunch of sweaty people anymore. I don’t ever want to grow up and out of my desire to flail in...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 1, 2015 | Careers & Education, News
If it weren’t for rolling applications, I probably wouldn’t be writing this today. At age 20 and with two years of college behind me, I decided to switch majors, living arrangements, lovers, and jobs; all of which meant I needed to apply and get accepted to a new...
by Chuck Shepherd | Sep 1, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
Apartment buyers in ridiculously expensive Hong Kong are now eagerly paying up to the equivalent of $500,000 (U.S.) for units not much bigger than a U.S. parking space (and typically physically self-measured by the applicant’s wing-span). An agent told The Wall Street...
by From Our Readers | Sep 1, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Sanders is a champion of the working class Bernie Sanders, in contrast to the last five American presidents, is like a soothing summer breeze (“Citizen Sanders,” Aug.13-19, 2015). He has no cloaked agenda. With Sanders everything is up front for you to like or...
by Kristin Palpini | Sep 1, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Once we’ve all had our fill of cheese curds and smoked turkey legs, whipping around on rides, shopping for T-shirts, and visiting the butter statute, and The Big E packs up another season, a perennial question strikes many Western Mass residents: Who gets to keep all...
by Amanda Drane | Sep 1, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Leisure, News, Wellness
Multi-tasking kills. This isn’t an excuse of the lazy — researchers are finding more and more that over-working yourself is a fast lane pass to the grave. According to a new study of 600,000 people in Australia, the U.S., and Europe — published August 19 in U.K....
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 25, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
I’ve never met Brandon, but I know him. He lives in my old neighborhood and just about every time I come in for a visit, I can spot Brandon out on the front lawn of his Havenhurst Road home swinging on a giant blue, high-back swing, or playing golf with his dad. He...
by Amanda Drane
and Hunter Styles | Sep 1, 2015 | Articles, Careers & Education, Featured, News
So you’re in the Valley going to college and you haven’t found your fav spots yet. You haven’t found a mechanic or a hairdresser you trust. Some of you are new to the area, some of you are new to being out on your own, and some of you are both. That’s a hard boat to...
by Chuck Shepherd | Aug 25, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
The distress across the Western world in July over the big-game killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe was apparently misdirected, according to veteran “animal communicator” Karen Anderson of Elk, Washington, who told Facebook and Internet visitors...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 25, 2015 | News, Scene Here, Wellness
AMANDA DRANE PHOTO At 6:20 p.m. on a Thursday I arrive at Fort Hill Brewery in Easthampton to do yoga and drink beer. Clad in yoga attire, we the attendees make our way up to the large, bustling farm building on Fort Hill Road. Brightly colored mats, yoga clothes, and...
by From Our Readers | Aug 25, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Social good or Catholic bashing? In a coincidental twist, right before coming across Editor Kristin Palpini’s article, “Catholic Church Shirks Duty to Aging Religious,” Aug. 6-12, 2015, I read that the Diocese of Springfield donated $1 million dollars to the Sisters...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 25, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, News
Dirty dishes piling up? There’s an app for that. Handy, the home-cleaning service, lets you summon a freelance cleaning crew (or a gardener, or a handyman) at the push of a button. The NYC-based company, which turned three in July, is valued at half a billion dollars....
by Hunter Styles | Aug 25, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Food + Booze, Leisure, News
The saloon doors swing open, and Emily Pichette steps into the small kitchen of the Foundry in Northampton. A wave of sound follows her from the dining room: murmuring, laughter, and clinking glasses. “Are we ready for the first course?” she asks. The staff turns to...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 25, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Fatal traffic accidents are up 14 percent from 2014 in the U.S. — and that’s only counting the first six months of 2015. According to new data released by the National Safety Council, injuries from traffic accidents are also up 30 percent over the same time span —and...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 25, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Music, News
by Amanda Drane | Aug 19, 2015 | Arts, Music, News, Scene Here
PHOTO CREDIT: DANIELLE DESJARDINS At 9:30 p.m. on a Friday, the crowd at Hinge on Main Street in Northampton is packed like sardines, and the show doesn’t start for another half-hour or so. “Excuse me,” says a woman trying to push past those of us standing in front of...
by James Heflin | Aug 19, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
Maybe it’s marijuana’s cultural baggage of Deadheads, dreadlocked Rastafarians, and psychedelic paraphernalia that does it, but there’s something about cannabis that brings out the school marm in certain segments of the population. It just makes the members of the...
by From Our Readers | Aug 19, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Don’t Defund Planned Parenthood Why are Republicans still trying to defund Planned Parenthood? Don’t they know that by providing millions of women with effective birth control, Planned Parenthood is preventing the abortions that would result from the unwanted...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 19, 2015 | News, Wellness
On Aug. 5, the marijuana legalization group Bay State Repeal filed three versions of a new ballot question with the state Attorney General’s office, all of which would allow persons 21 years of age or older to legally grow, acquire, and possess marijuana for personal...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 19, 2015 | MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
Here’s what’s on our MGM Springfield casino playlist this week: At Last: MGM executives cleared two major hurdles on Aug. 6, when the Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted to approve a historic preservation agreement between the company and local and state historical...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 19, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, News
“N o matter what you might do,” Ben Folds once sang, “there’s always someone out there cooler than you.” How true. Every week I scrap together a sense of my own hipness, and every week the world lobs a curveball that busts right through my armor. It happened this past...
by Chuck Shepherd | Aug 19, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
“The worshipful treatment of pets may be the thing that unites all Americans,” wrote an Atlantic Magazine blogger in July, describing the luxury terminal for animals under construction at New York’s JFK airport. The ARK will offer shower stalls for traveling horses,...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 19, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze, Leisure, News, Taste-Off!
Ah, the classic American brownie — it’s the chocolate chip cookie for chocolate lovers. Everybody has a brownie story. Whether your Grandma made the best, you ate that funny smelling one and couldn’t speak for a while, or you had the munchies and ate a whole tray of...
by James Heflin | Aug 19, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, News
A singular event in Bingen, Washington marked Chris Hubbard’s transformation from glassblowing hobbyist to professional: “On Aug. 3, 2005, a SWAT team kicked in my door. They thought the studio was a meth lab,” Hubbard says. He had his medical marijuana card, and was...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 19, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Leisure, News, Wellness
For cancer patient Valerie, marijuana makes the difference between walking and not walking. “I’ve totally outlived my expiration date,” she says, laughing. Valerie, 61 — a long time Western Mass resident who asked to be identified only by her first name — has fought...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 12, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
After a long Sunday spent following Bernie Sanders on the campaign trial, I made a bet with my editor: 20 bucks says that man never kisses a baby on camera this election season. She took the bet, but I’m going to win. Why? For the same reason Sanders is not going to...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 12, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Eleanor Cresson, a mental health and substance abuse clinician who recently went on strike from nonprofit Clinical Support Options, has worked in the field of mental health for more than 20 years and has two masters’ degrees. Despite her experience and qualifications,...
by James Heflin | Aug 12, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
When I was a budding science fiction fan, I stepped into a con — a science fiction convention — for the first time. I was into SF, you know, for the books. The convention, it soon became clear, was about the spectacle of science fiction as delivered via other media....
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 12, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Along scenic Route 20 in Chester, is the Chester-Blandford State Forest. On a 95-degree summer afternoon, the natural shade from the tall trees kept us cool as we walked the mile up to the Sanderson Brook Falls. Walking along the path, we only saw a few small groups...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 12, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Editor loves murder of unborn children Kristin Palpini is a proud pro-abort who says that killing the unborn is a “medically necessary procedure” that should be “acceptable” (“Why I Am Pro-Abortion,” July 30-Aug. 5, 2015). Of course, she’s lying. According to...
by James Heflin | Aug 12, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
Now and then, often while we’re preoccupied with some screen or other, something particularly interesting happens in the sky. A very bright star appears, as if it’s suddenly popped through the inky background, and flies across the heavens. It winks out as abruptly as...
by James Heflin | Aug 12, 2015 | News, Scene Here
Kelly Dempsey, 31, originally hails from Monson and now she’s on the latest season of Project Runway, which premiered last Thursday. At the packed Pasquale’s Restaurant in East Longmeadow last Thursday, Dempsey’s friends, relatives, acquaintances, and some fond...
by Chuck Shepherd | Aug 4, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
Among the health and fitness apps for computers and smartphones are sex-tracking programs to document the variety of acts and positions, degrees of frenzy and lengths of sessions (via an on-bed motion detector) — and menstrual trackers aimed at males (to help judge...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 4, 2015 | Columns, Food + Booze, News, The Beerhunter
The southern Vermont town of Brattleboro does a lot of things right: green hills, friendly people, fun bookstores, and a few stellar swimming holes. But this month, the Beerhunter looks into this town’s newest promising trend: craft brewing. Out of the beer spots in...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 4, 2015 | MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
On the MGM Springfield casino playlist this week: Brothers in Arms: In their host agreement with the city of Springfield, MGM promised to create at least 2,000 jobs during construction of the casino. The hiring for these jobs needs to meet specific demographic quotas...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 4, 2015 | Arts, News
In last week’s issue, our coverage of Brattleboro’s new federally-funded public art project (“What Goes Here?”) mentioned a recent veto by Gov. Charlie Baker that cut $2.37 million from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s budget for the funding of arts, science, and...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 4, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
The Catholic Church is on the precipice of another failure almost as shameful, in its own way, as the decades of rampant child molestation and cover-up efforts. A glut of priests, brothers, and nuns is hitting retirement age without adequate finances to sustain them...
by From Our Readers | Aug 4, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Letters from our Readers, News
Soon after we posted a link to Editor Kristin Palpini’s article “Why I Am Pro-Abortion And You Should Be Too,” to Facebook, the comments came pouring in. Here’s what readers had to say about the staunchly pro-choice Between the Lines that ran in the July 30, 2015...
by Amanda Drane | Aug 4, 2015 | Articles, Careers & Education, Featured, News
Somewhere between climate change, the recession, and an ever-burgeoning Internet universe, the professional landscape changed a lot over the past decade. Naturally, we the worker bees can only scramble to keep up. Hit by the Great Recession, some baby boomers are...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 4, 2015 | Articles, Careers & Education, Featured, News, Wellness
When a zombie plague hits London in the movie Shaun of the Dead, several scenes pass before the protagonist realizes that his trudging, moaning white-collar cohorts have transformed. If you’ve ever wandered through the office like the resident undead, you should...
by James Heflin | Jul 28, 2015 | Arts, Music, News
Near the back door of Mark Herschler’s Northampton house and studio sits a group of boulders. “I think there might be Native American spirits in there,” Herschler says with a smile. “I think it’s helping with the recording.” Sitting inside, we can hear a commotion...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 28, 2015 | Leisure, News, Scene Here
Old garden hoses and porcelain chickens … Oxidized metals and outfits for Wiccans … Doodads and knickknacks that spring cleaning brings … These are a few of my favorite things. I step across a cluttered driveway in Florence, eager to help kick off the beginning of tag...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 28, 2015 | Food + Booze, News, Wellness
Summer is a great time to celebrate the bounty of Pioneer Valley farms, but many households face difficulties — financial and otherwise — in planning meals, feeding mouths, and accessing good nutrition. According to The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, about one in...
by Chuck Shepherd | Jul 28, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
The whimsical premise of the iconic movie “Groundhog Day” (that someone can wake up every day believing it is the previous day) has largely come to life for a patient of a British psychologist writing recently in the journal Neurocase. Dr. Gerald Burgess’ patient,...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 28, 2015 | Food + Booze, Leisure, News
I always feel bad when the tomatoes from my garden rot on the counter waiting in vain for me to chop them up into salsa or boil them into a marinara. I have the best of intentions in May when I ask my husband to plant boccu tomatoes in our garden, but come the sticky...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 28, 2015 | Arts, News
Soon a flood of cash will be available to artists around Massachusetts in the form of grants from local cultural councils. This year, the Massachusetts Cultural Council has $8.8 million to dole out in the form of grants and subsidies. Last year, $2.7 million of the...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 28, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, News
On the night of Nov. 24, 2014, Ta-Nehisi Coates found his teenage son Samori glued to the television, eager to see whether white police officer Darren Wilson would be indicted for fatally shooting black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. No indictment came...
by From Our Readers | Jul 28, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Open Letter to Gov. Baker: Renewable energy alternatives to the gas pipeline We call on you to support Attorney General Maura Healey’s planned evaluation of all energy sources — including efficiency, demand response, and renewables — by their availability, cost,...
by Story and Photos
Hunter Styles | Jul 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
The past five years were rough on Brattleboro. In the summer of 2011, tragedy struck the town several times: Tropical Storm Irene caused extensive flood damage, a five-alarm fire destroyed much of Main Street’s historic Brooks House building, and the Brattleboro Food...
by Amanda Drane | Jul 28, 2015 | Articles, Blogs, Featured, News, The Uncanny Valley
Buses are big and so are the advertisements they often host — that’s no surprise. What is jolting, however, is when the typical music or beverage ad is replaced with a giant placard offering a $50,000 reward for information regarding an unsolved murder from 2013....
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 28, 2015 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News, Wellness
I am pro-abortion in the same way I am pro-triple bypass surgery and chemotherapy. In general, I am “pro” any helpful, legal medical procedure. Being pro-abortion is different than being pro-angioplasty, though, and that’s because, ostensibly, there is a second human...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 28, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
by James Heflin | Jul 22, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
During my poetry MFA thesis defense some years ago, I sat in a professor’s living room, relieved to hear praise from the committee. Then poet James Tate, who’d been peering over with a semi-grin, weighed in. “Mr. Heflin,” he said, “We’ve praised you enough.” He...
by James Heflin | Jul 22, 2015 | Food + Booze, News, Wellness
Let me tell you a story, kale. My Uncle Dale — his musical world was anchored by the “Moods in Music” LPs from George Melachrino. He loved those mellow vinyl releases, emblazoned with hair-helmeted women lazing around on shiny upholstery and gazing over Atomic Age...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 22, 2015 | Arts, Food + Booze, Leisure, News, Wellness
The green-thumbed spend hours in the summer sun growing delicious food that all seems to be ready to harvest at the same time, in abundance. So, what happens to the over-abundance of bounty once it’s pulled from the ground? We stopped by the Northampton Community...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 22, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze, News, Wellness
By Advocate Staff Like an itchy sweater your auntie knitted, you can’t just throw kale out, you have to do something with it. Lord knows eating it is out of the question, so here are some suggestions for how to get the most out of that claw-like green: 1. Hang a sprig...
