News
by Amanda Drane | Dec 18, 2014 | News
Every day between 7 and 9 a.m., the self-proclaimed “Outlook Farm gang” ?gathers. Mismatching tables and chairs, along with a wrap-around wooden countertop, form the meeting ground. Wooden walls give way to caged, country-style windows, and a portrait of...
by Matthew Duncan | Dec 18, 2014 | News
I moved to the Pioneer Valley eight months ago, so I still get asked, “Where are you from?” I’ve lived a lot of places — New York City, Chicago, Dallas — but I grew up in Ferguson, Missouri. It saddens me that the last city in that list...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 18, 2014 | Articles, Featured, News
Getting kids to eat their veggies ain’t easy. But it’s even harder when you’re serving soggy samples from a thawed-out block of greens. For the first four years of operations at the Western Mass Food Processing Center, that’s about as good as it got. The center...
by Amanda Drane | Dec 18, 2014 | Articles, Featured, News
As Miranda LaPolice talks, she grips one of her creations — a tufty, ewok-like creature with an oversized green heart stitched to its front, glowing eyes, and a downturned mouth. Both her arms wrap around the critter and her hands make its little legs dance to the...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 18, 2014 | News
Dance, Muse In a show billed as “dance, Greek mythology and fractals,” Kristin Wold of Shakespeare & Company takes a break from the Bard of Avon to dip into the Homeric one. Thetis: Immortal Fire is a dance piece about the mother of Achilles, who famously dipped...
by Tom Vannah | Dec 18, 2014 | News
When I came to the Valley Advocate in the late spring of 1995, I had the overwhelming sense that I was coming home. And it was a homecoming of sorts. I’d spent important years of my youth in the Pioneer Valley, had gone to nursery school and kindergarten in the old...
by Kristin Palpini • Photos by Jerrey Roberts | Dec 18, 2014 | Articles, Featured, News
In the egg nog battle, which creamy, spiced, egg concoction reigns supreme? The Valley Advocate staff held a blind tasting last week of some of the area’s finest nogs and the results were shocking. Local and store-bought brands were sampled by Advocate editors Kristin...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 18, 2014 | Articles, Featured, News
’Tis the season when theaters go into hibernation or pull out the Christmas shows. Two Western Mass. companies — Old Deerfield Productions and Berkshire Theatre Group — are staging A Christmas Carol this month, along with Hartford Stage’s annual edition. In Putney,...
by Matthew Duncan | Dec 18, 2014 | News
I moved to the Pioneer Valley eight months ago, so I still get asked, “Where are you from?” I’ve lived a lot of places — New York City, Chicago, Dallas — but I grew up in Ferguson, Missouri. It saddens me that the last city in that list is as familiar as the first...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 18, 2014 | News
For Cynthia (Birdwaves) On the wall just to the left of my computer screen, there’s a black-and-white photo by Ashfield-raised Smith alum Cynthia Elbaum, the subject of Tony Jillson’s For Cynthia. In it, three men — or more precisely, what looks like the ghosts of...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 18, 2014 | News
“Music,” Les Miserables author Victor Hugo once noted, “expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” The intersecting Venn diagram of music, visual art, and literature will be further explored this Thursday at Gallery A3 in Amherst...
by Warren Johnston | Dec 18, 2014 | News
Kung Fu Girl Riesling Washington State 2013, $11.99 I find it rewarding when the big national wine magazines write about something that you can actually find on the shelves of a neighborhood store. In this case, the 2013 Kung Fu Girl Riesling, a serious, dry...
by Gary Carra | Dec 18, 2014 | News
The Emmy-winning PBS series Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? has been off the air for nearly two decades And where in the world has the man who co-wrote the show’s theme song, Sean Altman, been in the time since? Performing at the White House Hanukah Party...
by Jack Brown | Dec 18, 2014 | Articles, Featured, News
As we close out another year on this great blue marble, I’m reminded of an annual event in the film world: the December doldrums. This is that week, which creeps in every year just before Christmas, when theaters seem to be holding their collective breath. People are...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 10, 2014 | Articles, Featured, News
Aubretia “Windy” Edick wears her Walmart story. She often sports the distinctive blue vest worn by all store employees, and a large badge announces her name in capital letters. But layered on top of her standard ensemble are buttons and pins. One reads, “Stop...
by Pete Redington | Dec 3, 2014 | News
About a mile past the X on Route 83, after Donut Dip and Pasquale’s Restaurant and Tavern, just over the Springfield city line into East Longmeadow, next to the Pride gas station, is Competitive Edge Ski & Bike. It’s not the typical location for a ski shop...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 29, 2014 | News
The Nov. 4, vote against Ballot Question 3 and the Repeal the Casino Deal movement locked in a promising future for MGM Springfield, which plans to break ground on its downtown casino complex before the end of the calendar year. But the future is less clear for many...
by Hunter Styles | Nov 29, 2014 | News
Need a hand with something in Northampton? Andrew Bombard is the guy you call. If that sounds a little vague, just look at his business card: “Jack of all trades, master of four.” When asked about it, Bombard, 50, just grins. “Those would be kissing girls, sleeping,...
by Kristin Bezio | Nov 29, 2014 | News
Since late August, a group of gamers has been waging an online war against women. In those few months, developers, journalists and critics in the gaming industry have been “driven out” — of the industry, offline and even literally out of their homes. In October,...
by Kristin Palpini | Nov 29, 2014 | News
We’ve all been there: Sitting at your desk waiting forever for an email to open, or counting up the seconds it’s taking Netflix to stream that new Trailer Park Boys special — Can you believe it’s taking this long? Waiting for the Internet to perform properly is...
by Advocate Staff | Nov 29, 2014 | News
Amanda Drane, reporter Thank you, Mimmo’s in Northampton, for offering colossal, $3 pizza slices. For $6, my cravings for saucy pizza awesomeness are (a little too) satisfied. I’ve been eating your pizza for years and I have yet to get over the visual shock of your...
