Newsletter
by Advocate Staff | Aug 16, 2017 | Articles, Music, Newsletter
Old Flame is rollicking bluesy garage rock mixed with folk protest music. The local band performed on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on July 18. Here’s a teaser of Old Flame’s performance, which will be available in its entirety this Friday. Can’t wait...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Food + Booze, Food Booze and Beyond, News, Newsletter
Whether you’re pulling an all-nighter cramming for a test, pub crawling with friends, working the graveyard shift, or just woke up in the middle of the night with the sudden urge for a slice of pizza, there are restaurants, diners, joints, and donut shops in the...
by Laura Holland | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Review
If a white cube is your comfort zone for viewing contemporary art, then the recent expansion of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) pushes well outside the box. “Building 6” is the modest name of an ambitious project that adds 130,000 square feet...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
By Kristin Palpini Outside Art Amid the apple trees at Park Hill Orchard one of the surprises you will see is a towering silver spear shooting into the sky. We don’t know what any of the other art installations will be, so expect lots more artful surprises at...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
With the ongoing avalanche of reporting on Russia and that nation’s relationship with our current president, it feels almost quaint to look back on the days of the Reagan era. Certainly there was international intrigue then, but today, the jelly beans and faux...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 14, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Amherst Town Hall: Echoes of the Past — Photographs of Abandoned Places explores the beauty of decay and what’s been left behind. Through Sept. 4. Free. Amherst Town Hall, 4 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. (413) 222-4924. echoesofthepast2014@gmail.com. Amherst Visitor’s...
by Will Meyer | Aug 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Review
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...
by Lena Wilson | Aug 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Film, Newsletter, Stream Queen
Since its inception in the late 19th century, film has evolved from a seemingly trivial medium into one of the most wide-reaching and popular industries. Film criticism has grown right along with it, as academic and journalistic reviewers endlessly argue over film’s...
by Chris Goudreau | Aug 10, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Local immigrant rights groups aren’t happy with Gov. Charlie Baker and his proposed legislation that would mandate state and local law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests. A group of more than 50 people affiliated...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 9, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, What can we do to build our case to hesitant doctors to perform vasectomies on young people (between 18-25 years old)? What would you recommend to someone interested in this procedure? I have been trying to get my GP (general practitioner) on board since my...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 9, 2017 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Bear Takes Joyride Into Mailbox In Durango, Colorado, bears frequently break into cars looking for food. This week was the first that one resident can recall a bear actually taking the car for a short drive. After likely releasing a Subaru SUV’s parking brake in a...
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 4, 2017 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Review, Review
Back in January of this past year, the members of Westfield-based pop punkers, The Prozacs, parted ways. Formed in 2001 by Jay Gauvin (or better known as J Prozac), the band had seen many different line-ups of members throughout their time performing. Gauvin was going...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 7, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, Review, Stagestruck
Everyone needs something to live for. Some of us have a harder time finding it than others. Much harder. So … if you’re a young child and your mom has just tried to kill herself, what can you do about it? Well, you could give her a list of everything that makes the...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 7, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter, Staff Picks
Smell You Later // Thursday The Osmotheque in Versailles, France, brings visitors to the museum on a journey of smells, cataloging the historic smells of perfumes. It’s name comes from the Greek words meaning “smell storehouse.” Now Williams College is taking a stab...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 4, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Food Booze and Beyond, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
The thing to remember about summer in the Valley — aside from which SPF to use and which local farm stands sell the best corn — is that it will be over before you know it. Sure, the swimming holes don’t really warm up until September, and the cows at Cook Farm gamely...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 7, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
I have a confession to make: I’ve always worried about being underpaid. This concern has been present whether working for a supportive company or fast food joints. Why? Because I’m a woman aware of the U.S. wage statistics that say there’s a good chance I am being...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 7, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Blown Away Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Superman? Better. It’s LOTS of planes. This Saturday and Sunday Barnes-Airport, the home of the 104th Fighter Wing in Westfield, is hosting its insanely popular international air show. There will be live...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 7, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage
Ballet and farming go together like fine art and craft beer — the combo isn’t typical, but it should be. On Saturday, Vermont’s Farm to Ballet troupe will perform at Retreat Farm in Brattleboro, an historic farm dating back to 1836 that has long shared a connection...
by Kristin Palpini | Aug 4, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Go see it, go see it, go see it, here.
by Dave Eisenstadter | Aug 3, 2017 | Articles, Bizarro Briefs, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Hipster Dogs Don’t Need Shots The anti-vaccination movement has expanded — to include additional species. Many pet owners in Brooklyn are refusing to vaccinate their beloved canines, in some cases for fear that the vaccines will give the dogs autism,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 2, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, I always thought of myself as a monogamous person who sometimes dabbled with non-monogamy, but lately I’ve really been struggling to determine just what my “relationship paradigm” is. It started when I was in a non-mono relationship that transitioned to a...
by Jack Brown | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
Summer Cinema Slam 2017 is taking place at the New England Youth Theater in Brattleboro this Saturday night. Featuring an all-Vermont slate of films and artists — the bill includes four shorts and one hour-long feature, with musical act Hungrytown providing ambiance...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Get Out With Staff Picks, Newsletter
DreamCycle at the Academy of Music // SATURDAY You won’t find any creepy clowns here. DreamCycle is a traditional circus with acrobats, jugglers, and aerial stunts complete with tightrope walkers tiptoeing across a narrow wire. Acrophobes be warned: you’ll...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
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?...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Two small-scale productions playing in the area this weekend have one thing in common. They both take place in the jungle. Apart from that, they couldn’t be more different. Slowgirl traces a tentative, emotionally fraught encounter between a motormouth teenager and...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Ray Mason, the Valley’s Neil Young If there’s a mic and some place for him to plug in his old Silvertone guitar, you’ve got a good chance of seeing Ray Mason. The tireless musician gigs up and down the Valley several times a week and for good reason — he’s awesome....
by Advocate Staff | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Ales for Tails Hoist a pint for man’s best friend Friday in downtown Westfield for the third annual Ales for Tails Pub Crawl. Organized by Susie Howard, the roaming pack of beer nuts are raising money for the Westfield Animal Shelter. Things get going at 6 p.m. at...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 2, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Krunkelstiltskin is a heavy electronic driven eclectic rock band with a sense of humor. The group played on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on July 12. Krunkelstiltskin’s full performance will be available online this Friday. Until then, here’s a teaser...
by Chris Rohmann | Aug 1, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
A highlight of my summer theater season is always the magical change of pace afforded by Double Edge Theatre’s annual indoor/outdoor performance. This year, that peripatetic spectacle offers its own change of pace. Where previous seasons have given us captivating...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Newsletter
Music is never just some notes of a melody — it’s always something more, says legendary New Orleans jazz saxophonist Charles Neville. Neville, who grew up in New Orleans during the Jim Crow era, but now resides in Huntington with his wife and children, has seen music...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Newsletter, Stage
We (Sort Of) Hold These Truths When the U.S. ordered more than 100,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast to relocate to internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942, Gordon Hirabayashi refused to listen. The son of Japanese immigrants and a...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 31, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Metal Reflections “With bounced light, magic can happen. Curving or bending light and the resulting shapes and forms open a doorway for our subjective minds. Whimsical or mysterious possibilities abound,” says Tom Wyatt in his artist bio on the Salmon Falls Gallery...
by Dave Eisenstadter | Jul 27, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
News of the Weird is no more, but fear not. The Advocate is continuing the tradition of delivering weird news, now as Bizarro Briefs. Perfectly Preserved Surrealist ‘Stache If you thought Salvador Dali’s mustache could not have gotten any more legendary, you were...
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 Chris Rohmann | Jul 25, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The two mainstage programs at Jacob’s Pillow dance festival last week offered intriguing contrasts in modern dance envelope-pushing. And perhaps surprisingly, it was the simpler, solo show that delivered more variety and excitement. Aakash Odedra is an Englishman of...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Letters to the Editor In Defense of Iron Horse Entertainment Group Tiring to see all the IHEG (Iron Horse Entertainment Group) bashing [“Behind the Music: The People and Promoters Going Beyond IHEG,” July 13-19, 2017]! First, people don’t realize how fortunate we are...
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, Music, Newsletter
Buddy McEarns Your Musical Respect Good time, blusey bar band Buddy McEarns rocks with driving, classical guitar riffs and just the tiniest dash of hippie jam. There’s something comforting about The Buddy McEarns Band, like looking at an old friend named...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, News, Newsletter, Stage
Charlie Brown Would Be So Emo If you’ve ever wondered what happened to Good ‘ol Chuck, from the Peanuts comics, Gateway City Arts can fill you in; A week-long run of Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead begins Friday. Satirizing...
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 Advocate Staff | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Music, Newsletter
200 Master Beaders, 1 Project — ALL WEEKEND This weekend maser beadwork artist Darcy Rosner and beaders from SweetBananberry will be at Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen adding another whimsical art installation to the outside gallery. They’ll be assembling a...
by Compiled By Kristin Palpini | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Missed Connections, 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 Christin Howard | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Newsletter
In its heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s, roller derby was known for fierce females, fishnets, spiked hair and names like “Iron Maven.” After a lull in the ‘90s, roller derby was resurrected in the early 2000s as an all-female, athletic sport. But in the Pioneer Valley,...
by Jack Brown | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
My first exposure to Egon Schiele came via Deane G. Keller, an artist and professor whose figure drawing classes remain one of my most lasting memories of art school. We had been working on some hand studies when he suggested I might enjoy the Austrian artist’s work,...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 24, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Review, Valley Show Girl
Ahead of their show at the Iron Horse, I plug my purple Skull Candies into my ears, and click play on the intro track to Eddie Japan’s Golden Age. The sound of static pulls me in, reminding me of vinyl, so I pretend I’m listening on a record player, not my computer at...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 21, 2017 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
We’re no Nevada, but last week Massachusetts took two rippin’ steps toward weed legalization and protection in the state. First the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a business cannot fire an employee for being a medical marijuana patient — a decision...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 20, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Reid Thompson’s setting for Speech & Debate, now receiving a near-perfect production at Barrington Stage Company, is a high school classroom. Maps and historical posters line the walls and headshots of famous Americans form a frieze above a pair of whiteboards –...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Newsletter
Draco and the Malfoys • Saturday I held out on Harry Potter mania for years, but finally succumbed when the last book came out in 2007. I read them all in a matter of months, but I didn’t go as far as these folks, who wrote albums of Harry Potter-inspired...
by Jack Brown | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Music, Newsletter
“Wimps and Wanna-Be’s need not apply!” That was the tagline of a print ad announcing an open audition for “FIERCE Male Dancers” who wanted to earn a spot on Madonna’s controversial, ground-breaking Blond Ambition Tour in 1990. It would have been a dream job for any...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 18, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s “romances,” those late works in which comedy blends with tragedy and the endings are neither strewn with corpses nor aclang with wedding bells, but suffused with poignancy and forgiveness. The Tempest is the most popular...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Cinematic Pop Music Boston/Western Mass’ Eddie Japan combines that feel good ‘60s pop with a splash of ‘80s alternative new wave that’s a blast. In 2013, Eddie Japan won Boston’s ultra cool Rock ‘n’ Roll Rumble, and picked up a Boston Music Award for “Live...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot
Hi Yana, My partner and I have different sex drives. I could have sex four to six times a week, while he feels more comfortable with about two. In the beginning, we had a lot of sex and I was ecstatic thinking that our sex drives were more matched. Now, not so much. I...
by Warren Johnston | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The Pour Man
Mont Gravet, a light, refreshing, low-alcohol white wine, is perfect for drinking on warm summer evenings. It also has the added enjoyment of being a wine of discovery, one from an unfamiliar region, made from a grape that gets little attention and that I know little...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Leisure, Newsletter, Wellness
The Harry Potter books and films have inspired many real world spillovers, including real-life wizarding schools and online quizzes that determine your magical house. But among the more surprisingly widespread are the leagues that have sprouted up to play the magical...
by From Our Readers | Jul 17, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Iron Horse Entertainment Group Under Fire Several readers took issue with what they perceived as a lack of interest in the local music scene from IHEG in the comments section and on Facebook in last week’s cover story, “Behind the Music,” July 13-19, 2017. Here are a...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 13, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
The Harry Potter books and films have inspired many real world spillovers, including real-life wizarding schools and online quizzes that determine your magical house. But among the more surprisingly widespread are the leagues that have sprouted up to play the magical...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 11, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
When he was 15 years old in 1976, Niberd Abdalla immigrated to the United States from Iraq fleeing persecution due to his family’s Kurdish heritage and democratic activism. He’s lived as an undocumented person in the United States for the past 41 years and has...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
The KO Festival of Performance opened last weekend, kicking off a diverse five-week season clustered around the theme “Tactics for Trying Times.” First up was Jimmy & Lorraine, written by Talvin Wilks and developed with Hartford’s HartBeat Ensemble. The playwright...
by Jack Brown | Jul 10, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter
At the risk of sounding impossibly out-of-touch, let me tell you something: I sure do miss Dialing for Dollars. That syndicated TV program — in which an afternoon movie was chopped into a few hundred pieces, allowing host George Allen to pick a number out of the area...
by Chris Goudreau | Jul 10, 2017 | Articles, Music, News, Newsletter
For years the Iron Horse Entertainment Group with its quintet of venues — Pearl Street Nightclub, The Calvin, The Basement, The Iron Horse Music Hall, and Mountain Park — reigned over the Pioneer Valley music scene. IHEG’s rule has irked some people. Frustration with...
