Newsletter
Valley Advocate Fall Arts Preview of Western Mass
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....
How to Help Puerto Rico while Trump Golfs
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...
Zapping Depression
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...
Review: Art in the Orchard is a Museum that Breathes
Captivating. Whimsical. An idea at once exotic and comforting. Art in the Orchard is a curatorial triumph striking a perfect balance between art and nature. This was my first visit to Art in the Orchard, which has been hosted by Park Hill Orchard in Easthampton in odd...
Valley Show Girl: The Neon Oxen
On the first fall evening that actually felt like fall I walk into the 13th Floor Music Lounge in Florence just in time to catch soundcheck for the first band, Holyoke’s stoner psych-rock, Oxen. Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Oxen’s first EP The Glass...
Monte Belmonte Wines – Cooler Than You: Portuguese Wines
What’s a hipster’s favorite wine grape varietal? I mean, it’s wicked obscure, you’ve probably never heard of it. I’ve adapted one of my favorite hipster jokes to highlight one of the still obscure, I-knew-these-wines-before-they-sold-out regions: Portugal. Portugal as...
The V-Spot: Healing an Ex-Shaped Hole in the Heart
It’s been over a year now since I got my heart stomped by my ex-girlfriend. We were together for 11 years and our relationship ended very badly. Even after such a long term relationship, I’m still pretty young — in my mid-30s — and I’m pretty sure I’m a catch. But,...
Drug Implants Could Be the Future of Opioid Addiction Treatment
Jamey Summers is in a good mood for someone about to have surgery. Beside the 41-year-old Northampton resident, who sits on an exam chair, Dr. Kate Atkinson is going over the procedure with her staff — they will insert four small rods containing drugs to curb opioid...
O Cannabis: A How-To Guide to Harvesting Weed
You can smell fall in the air — and in Massachusetts the aroma is a lot danker than usual. This October will mark the first major outdoor weed harvest since people ages 21 and up were given the green light to legally grow marijuana in Massachusetts on Dec. 15, 2016....
Between the Lines: Honoring Beloved Activist Jafet Robles
At St. John’s Congregational Church in Springfield more than 200 people mourned the loss of well-known and beloved activist and community leader Jafet Robles. Robles, 33, was involved with Neighbor to Neighbor and other groups with initiatives to end mass...
Mama’s Marmalade’s Goodbye, Black Velvet Reviewed
Mama’s Marmalade is a burst of sunshine that makes dark clouds dissipate with the band’s lush vocal harmonies and jammy acoustic newgrass blend of mandolin, banjo, violin, bass, and guitar. On June 2, the Northampton-based bluegrass quintet released its debut 10-track...
The V-Spot: Real Sex-ed for Students
I recently moved into my aunt’s house, and I now live with my 16-year-old female cousin. Being in her life now makes me realize that I can give her advice on her first relationships and her first love … possibly. When I was 16, I wish I could have had someone in...
Cinemadope: Northampton Film Fest
Even though the town has lacked a dedicated movie house for more than five years, Northampton has continued to find ways to bring film to area moviegoers. Cinema Northampton has done a fine job of scheduling its fun, community-focused, outdoor movie nights, screening...
Stream Queen: Shows and Films to Lose Your Sanity To
For all the amazing potential of life, sometimes things just suck. In times of confusion and desolation, we often turn to art. Maybe we want to use fictional problems to understand our own real ones, or maybe we just want to turn something on as a distraction. Hard...
Basemental: Water Your Waiting For
Last Monday, I reluctantly went to a house show in Hadley. I was going ’cause my friends were going — probably, but I was also vaguely interested in seeing some band from Minnesota that was supposed to be good. Honestly, I had radically low expectations. I saw the...
Valley Show Girl: Millpond.live Hosts Music Under the Stars
For the last six weekends of summer, Millpond.Live puts on a free grassroots festival at Millside Park in Easthampton for all ages to enjoy. Produced by Laudable Productions, a creative agency in Easthampton that has a plethora of services including community...
Free Will Astrology: Emily Dickinson Knows The Size of Aquarius Brains
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Psychologists say most people need a scapegoat — a personification of wickedness and ignorance onto which they can project the unacknowledged darkness in their own hearts. That’s the bad news. Here’s the good news: The coming weeks will be...
Back Talk: Little Ol’ Easthampton’s Punk Rockers
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?...
Stagestruck: Summer Theater Wrap Party, in Living Color
The area’s summer theaters have folded their metaphorical tents for the year, though three of the Berkshire companies are also mounting fall shows. For this critic, it was a Sergio Leone season: good, bad, and occasionally ugly. (An example of the extremes —...
Cinemadope: Missing the Warm and Fuzzies?
At the Headfort School in Kells, Ireland, two of the school’s most popular teachers are getting ready to retire. The husband and wife team have been educating and inspiring children for almost half a century, and their example — and what the possibility of their...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Don’t Blame the Cat
Bordeaux: It’s the wine capital of the world. Even Thomas Jefferson, while keeping busy hypocritically impeding people’s lives and liberties, pursued wine happiness there. When most people think of Bordeaux, they think, “Dude, how the hell am I supposed to pronounce...
Interview: Peter Wolf of J. Geils Band On Music, Art School, And Playing Western Mass
Peter Wolf, the dynamic rock and blue-eyed soul frontman singer for the J. Geils Band, who co-wrote some of the band’s most popular songs such as “Love Stinks,” and “Must Of Got Lost,” is gearing up to play the Academy of Music in Northampton on Oct. 13. Valley...
Yea-Hoo and Rockabilly, too: Flathead Rodeo Friday in Easthampton
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...
Springfield Puerto Rican Parade SUNDAY
The annual Puerto Rican Parade kicks off Sunday in Springfield. The parade, which featured more than 100 marching contingents and floats last year, will start at 11 a.m. and go down Main Street, from Wason Avenue to Boland Way. Expect to get your dance on and enjoy...
Basemental: The Ups and Downs of Touring
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...
Selfie Indulgent? UMass show explores the self portrait
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...
Amherst Emily Dickinson FEST!!!! Now Through the Weekend
Kindly Stopping for Emily Dickinson Amherst’s annual celebration of one of its most famed artists begins Thursday, Sept. 14, and carries on through the weekend with the Amherst Poetry Festival and Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon. The fest, held at various locations,...
The Beerhunter: The Imperial Strikes Back
Earlier this year, I reached into a friend’s beer fridge to grab something light and refreshing before heading outdoors for a hike (as far as I understand the rules, writing this column gives me free access to everyone’s beer). That afternoon’s chatter distracted me,...
Cinemadope: Musical Bandits Plan Their Escape Tour
When September hits, the kids head back to school — and for film fans, that can be a great thing. One of the many film events that are hosted on area campuses is The German Film Series, presented by the Amherst College department of German on irregular Thursdays in...
Down to Earth: The Science Is Clear on Climate Change
During the summer 12 years ago, I interned at Science News, a national magazine that reports on science for the public. As a young and inexperienced writer, part of my reporting included visiting the offices of my more experienced colleagues to ask them what good...
Between The Lines: Massachusetts Reps Should Get With Arnold to Terminate Gerrymandering
Not in a million years would I have predicted the Governator would be the one to kickstart a campaign to stop the legal election-rigging scheme used to weaken the voting power of one political power over another, aka gerrymandering, but here we are. I am less...
The Top 5 Reasons To Hate The Mass Pike All-Electronic Tolls
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation on Thursday announced that the creepy Mass Pike All Electronic Tolling project — those 16 camera-laden gantries above the highway — is a finalist in a national transportation competition. The statement they sent out asks...
Northampton’s ‘Beefcake’ Scandal
Fifty-seven years ago this month, agents of the Anti-Smut Unit of the Massachusetts State Police raided the Northampton apartment of Smith College literature professor Newton Arvin and discovered copies of “beefcake” magazines he had collected and shared with friends....
The V-Spot: IPAs Run My Sex Life
Editor’s Note: This column refers to sexual trauma responses. Hi Yana, My girlfriend and I have been together for four months, but lately I’ve been noticing we’ve only been having sex when we’re drinking. Nothing to put consent into question for either of us, of...
Missed Connections: Hot Dog! We Have a Wiener!
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,...
Tundrastomper’s Psychedelic, Math Rocking ‘O’ Reviewed
Easthampton-based basement rock band Tundrastomper is an experimental psychedelia mutant grown from a vat of math rock that explodes into a storm with manic ferocity. There’s more than a glob of progressive rock stylings thrown into the mixer with the band’s new...
Back Talk: Wypipo Smoking Weed in the Streets and a New Name for Amherst
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?...
Staff PICKS! Lady Snowblood in Amherst, Freak Folkers, Orchard Ballet, and Yucks
Lady Snowblood at Amherst Cinema // FRIDAY Ah, the classic story of bloody and brutal revenge. There’s nothing quite like it. Although many think Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films are the peak of stylized action in the sub-genre, there is another film...
Basemental: DIY All-Stars: Experimental Audio Damage & Research Control Groop
I kept hearing that Ian (Thee Arcadians) and Androo (ex-Spirit Ghost, Nancy Drool) would disappear into different basements and jam on one chord for hours at a time. The roommates tolerated it (within reason), the neighbors were never “chill” to begin with. But that...
Cinemadope: Whose Streets? Life in Ferguson after fatal shooting of unarmed, black teen by white officer
One of the more disturbing things about cinema is the establishment of who is a hero and who is a villain. Most often this looks like a white man taking down a non-white man. The specifics may change with the era — from the villain being African-American to South...
Craving Cool Independent Films/TV Online? Check Out Seed & Spark
In this ever-expanding world of streaming platforms, it can be difficult to look outside the Big Three: Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Viewers mainly feel constrained to these options because of their connections with major networks, their buying power for big-name...
Blandford Fair: All’s Fair in Love and Corn Dogs
What can you say about how much fun the Blandford Fair is that hasn’t been said 150 times before? The four-day agricultural fair has been going strong for a century and a half, tweaking the format a little every year to keep up with the times while staying...
Staff Picks: Three County Fair, Garlic Fest, mo’
Crash, Mmm, Moo, Whee! Sounds Like a Fair to Me It’s a few days away, but I can already smell a unique blend of corn dogs, funnel cakes, old engines, smashed buses, and livestock that can only mean one thing: It’s fair time, baby! The Three County Fair is...
O Cannabis! : Puff Or Pass? Best and Worst Rolling Papers for Your Weed
Rolling papers and Rodney Dangerfield have long had a lot in common: they didn’t get no respect. But as marijuana’s cultural cachet has risen, so too have the quality and variety of smoking equipment. The humble rolling paper has been elevated to prestige level with...
On Repeat: DJs, Karaoke, and Open Mics, R-SU
THURSDAY 8/31 Buccaneer Lounge: DJ. 86 Maple St., Agawam. Christy’s Lounge: DJ. 278 Main St., Indian Orchard. Doc’s Place: Karaoke. 1264 Granby Road, Chicopee. Froggy’s Saloon: DJ karaoke. 846 Airport Industrial Park, Westfield. Hawks and Reed Performing Arts Center:...
Staff Picks: Old Crow Medicine Show, ET, Tomatoes, and Reggae
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...
The Futuristic Art of Christina Gusek
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...
Chicopee Downtown GetDown All Weekend
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...
Cinemadope: Human Smuggling Just to Get By
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...
Tease VIDEO: Jeremy Turgeon Quintet on Sessions Friday
The Jeremy Turgeon Quintet is a Springfield-based funky jazz band with an R&B and neo-soul groove that performed on Valley Advocate Sessions on August 8. The band’s full performance will be released on Friday. Until then, here’s a teaser of the band in...
Missed Connections: ‘Your left leg is unique’
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,...
Valley Roller Derby Superbowl SMACK DOWN Saturday
Don’t Disappoint Halle PAIN Yo; To the Derby We Must Go On Saturday what may be the most anticipated rematch of the roller derby season is going down in Wilbraham when the Western Mass Furies go head-to-head against the Hartford Wailers. Hailed as the “Superbowl” of...
149th Cummington Festival TODAY through Sunday
A Fair-ly Long Run Celebrating its 149th year, the 2017 annual Cummington Fair will feature music, movement, agriculture, and competitions. Spanning four days, each date has a theme: Thursday is truck night, Friday is children’s night/cruise night, Saturday is...
V-Spot: How Do I Make My Orgasms Come Back?
Dear Yana, I’m a single woman in my late twenties, with no relationships on the horizon. But that’s OK, because I have a super intense, cordless Hitachi that I’m in love with. Problem is, recently, whenever I have attempted to reach orgasm, it never comes. I get the...
Basemental: Nanny’s ‘Nowhere’ Reviewed
I first caught Nanny at the 13th Floor in Northampton this past March; one of my bands was sharing a bill with them. Earlier this summer, I saw them again and had that feeling I was starting to grasp the songs. It wasn’t long before I learned a debut EP was right...
Staff Picks: Transperformance, Leafies, Surf Rock God Dick Dale+
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...
FRIDAY Classic Rap With Masta Ace
Living hip-hop legend Masta Ace blends classic rap rhythms with modern beats and messages, and he’ll be performing in Greenfield this weekend. A major player on the underground hip-hop scene since the ‘90s. His most acclaimed release is Disposable Arts, a concept...
SATURDAY: Boogaloo Bash is First in Free Concert Series Millpond.Live, Easthampton
The Millpond.Live Concert series is getting started in a big, booty-shakin’, celebratin’ kind of way this year by featuring a boogaloo bash. What’s boogaloo? A blend of mambo, doo-wop, R&B, and funk that was hot in the 1960s, but for some unthinkable reason (this...
“Where Were You When …” 9/11, OJ, Cobain and More Defining Moments: An Advocate Chat
The Advocate Chat is a recurring series where the Valley Advocate staff talks about a topic on their minds. The text below has been lightly edited. dave.eisen (Managing Editor Dave Eisenstadter): The past few weeks have had some shocking news. So we wanted to chat...E-Edition
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