Newsletter
Cinemadope: Dog Days
“All it takes is one bad day,” a famous cartoon villain once said, “to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy.” And while Kelly Reichardt’s 2008 film Wendy and Lucy is about as far as one can get from the world of the Dark Knight, it takes that “one bad day” idea and...
Pick of the Day 8/20: Michelle Malone at the Iron Horse
The New York Times says Michelle Malone is “the kind of singer and songwriter who can jolt things into overdrive.” She’s been on the scene for decades and she’s collaborated with artists like Steve Earle Malone, the late Gregg Allman, ZZ Top,...
Pick of the Day 8/16: Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers
If you’re aching for the Blues, check out Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers at Hawks & Reed tonight. Or if you’re yearning for some “Electric Delta Boogie–” you got it, check out Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers at Hawks and Reed. Harpe...
Pick of the Day 8/15: The Quebe Sisters at the Iron Horse
If you’re a fan of Americana, Western, Progressive and Jazz-influenced Swing, Country, and Texas-Style Fiddling, you’re a fan of the Quebe Sisters. Hailing from Dallas, between these three sibs, they’ve won a number of state, regional, and national fiddle...
Pick of the Day 8/12: Sweet Crude at the Iron Horse
If you have doubts about the beauty of all the different ethnic and cultural nooks and crannies in America, this act may well erase them. Sweet Crude is straight out of Louisiana and they proudly sing out in French and in English. As a matter of fact, one of their...Pick of the Day 8/11: Punk Prom at the Flywheel Arts Collective
It’s not an ordinary lame prom at the Flywheel. Western Mass punks unite wearing their best alternative formal wear as they jam to local favorites, pose in a photobooth, and stop by a temporary tattoo station. The musical lineup for the evening includes pop punk band...
Pick of the Day 8/9: The Chalet at Mass MoCa
Tonight and every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. until the end of August, Mass MoCA sets up The Chalet. The Chalet is an art installation created by Dean Baldwin and serves as a riverside bar and beer garden in Building Eight. Live music starts up at 8 p.m. and visitors can...
Staff Picks 8/9- 8/15
Punk Prom at the Flywheel Arts Collective // SATURDAY, AUGUST 11 It’s not an ordinary lame prom at the Flywheel. Western Mass punks unite wearing their best alternative formal wear as they jam to local favorites, pose in a photobooth, and stop by a temporary tattoo...
Pick of the Day 8/7: BSO at Tanglewood
One of the finest reasons to live in western Mass is our proximity to great art. So get out there and lap it up! It’s a day of musical activities for the entire family at Tanglewood and the whole shabang ends with an 8 p.m. concert featuring all the...
Pick of the Day 8/5: Dangerous House
The Williamstown Theater continues it summer run with a new play called Dangerous House. An aspiring black South African footballer named Noxolo moves to London for a fresh start. But she’s drawn back when Cape Town becomes host to the World Cup and she discovers her...
Pick of the Day 8/4: Valley Showgirl
The Valley Advocate’s own Valley Show Girl columnist Jennifer Levesque is curating a lineup of local acts at the 13th Floor Music Lounge in Florence, which includes guitar and synth driven duo Fire Letters, progressive synth sorcerer John Trudeau, Grey Matter, led by...
Stagestruck: Dancing down Hubbard Street— 40 years young
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is a frequent and popular visitor to the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. This year, celebrating its 40th season, the company presents a quartet of works showcasing its history and its current 16-member troupe, one of the most technically...
Pick of the Day 8/3: Blondie!
Deborah Harry (and her boys) aka Blondie are rockin’ the Berkshires tonight. Yeah, boy! Call me nostalgic, I don’t care. She and her bandmates are at Mass Moca playing the greats and making the world a new wave paradise once again. And the Kids open up...
Local Calendar: Thursday 8/2 – Sunday 8/5
THURSDAY 8/2 MUSIC Amherst Downtown Beats – Flathead Rodeo & Colorway: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Free. The Amherst BID’s Downtown Beats Summer Concert series continues with a performance by Flathead Rodeo and Colorway.Kendrick Park, East Pleasant St., Amherst....
Pick of the Day 8/2: The Amendments
Thanks to the Northampton Arts Council, The Cardboard Sea Theater presents The Amendments. It’s a play about the sorrows of death and embattled family relationships. Judith and and her estranged brother Gabe’s father die; Judith just wants one thing from...
Stagestruck: Three in the Hills
A trio of two-character plays now running in the Hilltowns and Berkshires offer a summer-season variety of subjects, styles, and even venues – a black-box theater, a converted town hall, a church sanctuary. Pauline Productions is dedicated to “producing and creating...
Pick of the Day 8/1: Joe Purdy at the Iron Horse
Firstly: Welcome to August! We have now entered the eighth month of 2018 and it’s kind of hard to believe! Anyway, folk rocker Joe Purdy is in Northampton tonight. Purdy is prolific; he’s released fourteen albums over the last fifteen years. His music...
Local Calendar: Tuesday 7/31 & 8/1
TUESDAY 7/31 MUSIC Alceste: 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. 12 Senior/$14 General. Opera based on heartbreaking story narrated by Euripides: King Admetus is dying and his wife, Alceste offers Apollo her own life in exchange for that of her beloved. $South Hadley’s Tower...
Pick of the Day 7/30: Sorry to Bother You
Okay, I have a funny feeling and a sneaking suspicion that there are going be some serious laugh out loud moments in Sorry to Bother You, a new movie about race, money, politics, and morals. This is what the Amherst Cinema site says: “In an alternate reality...
Editorial: Vote for Chelsea Kline for State Senate on Sept. 4
So often with candidates running for public office, one must rest the decision to vote for them primarily on their words. In her short political career as a candidate for state Senate, however, Chelsea Kline has amassed some impressive actions. Kline is running in the...
Stagestruck Abroad: Shakespeare’s Haunts, Part 2 — Stratford
Nowadays, Stratford-upon-Avon feels not so much like a town as a gift shop. The once-sleepy hamlet where William Shakespeare was born some 450 years ago, which he abandoned for a life on the London stage, has become a mercantile monument to Stratford’s most famous son...
V-Spot: Are We Screwed if We Stop Screwing?
Hi Yana! My partner and I have been dating since October and from the beginning have had really intense sexual energy for each other (like every day, sometimes multiple times). But in the last week or two it’s sort of died out for a number of reasons. I can’t help but...
Free Will Astrology: You’re wrestling the wrong foe, Pisces
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I predict that August will be a Golden Age for you. That’s mostly very good. Golden opportunities will arise, and you’ll come into possession of lead that can be transmuted into gold. But it’s also important to be prudent about your dealings...
Cinemadope: ‘The Judge’ stirs the stagnant waters of the Middle Eastern judiciary
Back in my art school days, I was always fascinated by my art history classes. Seeing our changing world reflected back at me through the lens of artistic evolution made the lives lived in the distant past seem much more like my own — less a mannered bit of historical...
O Cannabis: Swapping bongs to benefit the Holyoke Creative Arts Center
The Great New England Marijuana Accessories Swap Meet will be “like an Antique’s Roadshow for bongs.” According to Jeff Bianchine, director of the Holyoke Creative Arts Center, which will benefit from the fundraiser event, potentially hundreds of...
Valley Show Girl: A show/album review for Body/Head
I have been to a handful of noise shows at The Root Cellar in downtown Greenfield and I just love the vibe. So, I gave up my usual lazy Sunday night and made my way over to check out the happenings. I sat at the bar and finally had the pleasure of ordering a Coconut...
Basemental: Body/Head’s album could be a soundtrack for the end of the world … or capitalism
The experimental guitar duo Body / Head — Kim Gordon and Bill Nace — released their second studio album, The Switch, earlier this month on Matador. The band’s 2013 debut, Coming Apart, skewed closer to traditional songs, at least in the abstract sense. Gordon, who, of...
Pick of the Day 7/27: Elliot Street Block Party in Brattleboro
If you’re in Brattleboro, Elliot Street is the place to be on Friday. Celebrate food, the arts, and the shops with your green mountain neighbors. Get your grub on at the international food crawl, take your little ones to a concert for kids, and do your grown up thing...
Local Calendar: Thursday 7/26 to Sunday 7/29
THURSDAY 7/26 MUSIC A Little Night Music: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church will present “A Little Night Music” every Thursday during the month of July at 6:00pm. Free, donations accepted for all food items. Trinity United Methodist Church, 361...
Pick of the Day 7/26: Corazon de Granada
Ready to heat things up? Check out Corazon de Granada tonight as they bring their impeccable Flamenco music and dance to New City Brewery in Easthampton. You can expect “a passionate evening … steeped in tradition,” the event hosts promise. Corazon...
Stagestruck Abroad: Two plays in London show theater’s unique power
When I was recently in London, I saw two plays with connections to my favorite (make that favourite) British venue, the National Theatre. One was an African-American riff on a 19th-century melodrama, the other a dramatic immersion in a migrant camp on the English...
Staff Picks: Greenfield Psych Fest, Elliot Street Block Party, and The Machine Shop
Greenfield Psych Fest at Hawks & Reed // SUNDAY, July 29 It’s going to be two floors of psychedelic rock music from noon until 9 p.m. at Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center in Greenfield on Sunday, July 29. On the lineup are surf meets Latin-influenced psych...
Pick of the Day 7/25: We the People
In this time of political chaos and division, it makes sense to go back to the beginning to determine exactly what the Great Experiment was all about. But We the People can’t be put in a box; not only because it’s outside on the farm in Ashfield Double...
VIDEO: Riley Duggan on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Riley Duggan is a poetic folk singer-songwriter with heartfelt melodies. Check out a teaser for Duggan’s upcoming Advocate Sessions performance, which will be released this Friday.
State organization calls for 100 percent renewable energy in Massachusetts by 2035
For Ben Hellerstein, state director of advocacy organization Environment Massachusetts, the state is moving in a good direction with regard to renewable energy, but it needs to do more. “Even being number one is not enough,” he said, adding that Massachusetts is...
The V-Spot: How Do I Amp Up Masturbation?
Hi Yana, I’ve been single for two years now and haven’t engaged in any partnered sexual activity throughout that time. I was wondering if you have any recommendations for adding excitement for one’s masturbation practice? I recently got a new...
Expressing a love for humanity through cutting hair in Amherst
You can pretty much get any hair cut or styling that you could think of from around the world at Global Cuts International World of Barber Styling in Amherst, whether that’s highly stylized facial or hair cuts or something out of the ordinary. Khayyam Mahdi, owner of...
Monte Belmonte Wines: The Rosé List at The Ashfield Lake House
As an aspiring wine snob, ordering a glass of wine at a restaurant can be a risky business. Your abysmal choices may range from overly-oaked Chardonnays to mega-purple, mass produced, fruit bombs to the dreaded Pinot Grigio poured from bottles that have been open two...
Pick of the Day 7/24: After the Rain at the Whately Library
Sometimes you just want to mellow out, right? So why not scoot up (or down) I-91 and check out an outdoor concert by After the Rain at the Whately Library. After The Rain performs acoustic and a cappella arrangements of everything from traditional Appalachian to...
Fighting back against the fitness summer slide
Summer vacation is a much needed break for both kids and parents and often serves as a respite from rigorous schedules that might include music lessons, team sports, and other extracurriculars. But while many parents concern themselves with summer learning loss, or...
Podcast: Local author Kathy Harrison discusses being prepared for your own personal apocalypse
Kathy Harrison doesn’t believe the zombies are coming to get us. But she does believe in being prepared for the worst. Harrison, of Cummington, just wrote her fifth book, called Prepping 101: 40 steps you can take to be prepared. Stocking up on necessities might...
Pick of the Day 7/23: Leave No Trace
Amherst Cinema is just a gold mine. No, really, their film curation is the bee’s knees. And my pick, once again, can only be found in the dark. Leave No Trace is the story of a father and his daughter who have lived off the grid for some time. They make their...
Free Will Astrology: Libra, your new nickname is Delicadeza
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Be extra polite and deferential. Cultivate an exaggerated respect for the status quo. Spend an inordinate amount of time watching dumb TV shows while eating junk food. Make sure you’re exposed to as little natural light and fresh air...
Local Calendar: Monday 7/23 – Wednesday 7/25
MONDAY 7/23 MUSIC Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival 2018: MASS MoCa, 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North Adams. Kitchen Jam – Local Music Rocks! Concert: 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. 2nd performance of our Local Music Rocks! Concert Series. Happening rain or...
Cinemadope: Christopher Robin explores what stays with us from childhood
Close your eyes, and think back to the stories of your youth. It’s remarkable, how strongly they stay with us. The recent release of Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? put a spell on me, casting me back to my own childhood — Fred Rogers...
Parents bring their small children to rally at Greenfield jail and ICE facility opposing family separation practices
Two days after the state Legislature removed a set of provisions in its budget that would have protected immigrants in Massachusetts, a group of activists met in front of an immigrant detainment center in Greenfield to sing songs and demand an end to cruel treatment...
Infrared saunas: Sweating it out — in a dry heat
It’s warm — very warm. I’m sitting on a wooden bench leaning against an ergonomic backrest. The small room within a room is lined on three sides by cedar paneling with a glass door looking out into a small dim entryway where towels had been provided to wrap myself in....
Western Mass millenials find fitness in the extreme
Think of a gym. Muscle-bound men do tricep curls while women in spandex pedal endless miles on exercise bikes. Now forget all that. Those things may still happen, but you’re more likely to see it with people over 50. Those in their 20s and 30s, known as millennials,...
Pick of the Day 7/22: The Southern Vermont Dance Festival
The Southern Vermont Dance Festival 2018 is all day today! From 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. Take your pick of over “113 dance classes, two Galas at the Latchis, an outdoor Promenade Performance and picnic, two Informal Showings, and lots of free community...
Pick of the Day 7/21: Lempicka at the Williamstown Theatre
Williamstown is definitely one of the places to be this summer if you love the stage! And one of my favorite artists is the inspiration for Lempicka, a world premiere musical. Tamara de Lempicka was a war time painter who created beautiful (and frosty) portraits of...
Make your own dog food? Some local pet owners swear by it
A big yellow lab named Jack laid down on the couch while his black litter-mate, Sophie, slept stretched out on the floor. At 11 years old, both dogs are old for their breed but aside for some arthritis in Jack’s hips and a diagnosis of Lyme disease for Sophie, they...
Local Calendar: Thursday 7/19 to Sunday 7/22
THURSDAY 7/19 MUSIC A Little Night Music: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Trinity United Methodist Church will present “A Little Night Music” every Thursday during the month of July at 6:00pm. Free. Free, donations accepted for all food items. Trinity United Methodist Church,...
Pick of the Day 7/20: Valley Music Showcase
This Friday, the Valley Music Showcase will feature original local bands live onstage in a variety of genres as they compete for prizes such as recording time or a slot on our own Valley Advocate Sessions. The special guest for the evening is Advocate Sessions...
Pick of the Day 7/19: The Beggar’s Opera Cabaret
Tonight at Eastworks in Easthampton is Gina Kaufmann’s intimate adaptation of a comedy from 1728. The production is a retelling of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which satirizes operatic conventions, gender, and class with a three-woman cast. The...
VIDEO: Christa Joy on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Christa Joy is a singer-songwriter who writes bittersweet country folk music with songs about everyday life and impermanence. Check out a short video teaser of Christa Joy’s upcoming Valley Advocate Sessions performance available online this Friday.
V-Spot: So I Looked At My BF’s Google History…
Hi Yana, This is a really hard thing to write. I recently went through my partner’s phone. (Yikes I know. I wanted to know what he got for my birthday). While scrolling in the web history I found he’s been watching gay porn and Googling personal ads on...
Staff Picks: Jazz in July, Poetic Recovery, and Shakespeare Under the Stars
Jazz in July Week 2 All Star Faculty Concert // THURSDAY, July 19 It’s not truly July until UMass launches the Jazz in July program in Amherst. And The Jazz in July faculty concerts are always showstoppers. Greg Caputo, Steve Davis, Bob Ferrier, Catherine Jensen-Hole,...
Pick of the Day 7/18: Shakespeare Under the Stars: Othello
Shakespeare’s Othello is a remarkable play that hinges upon (gulp) racist stereotypes. Othello is, after all black, and his wife Desdemona is white. Her father is none too happy and it doesn’t help that Othello’s standard bearer, Iago, is a master...
Out of the spotlight: Sexual assault lurks in the Pioneer Valley local music scene
Author’s note: This article discusses sexual assault and trauma and includes personal stories from victims of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. The Pioneer Valley is unique for its thriving and diverse music scene with dozens of venues and hundreds of local...E-Edition
Best Of 2024
Readers Choice 2024
