Newsletter
by Jack Brown | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
More than most people, Americans love a good road story. I think it’s something that is simply part of our collective national subconscious, a metaphysical result of the vast physical breadth of the nation. Few of us, even today, really get (or take) the chance...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Film, Newsletter
The Holy Monty Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a comedy classic that has been creating rabid fans for decades. If you’ve never seen it, the film, a silly trek with mythical King Arthur and his Spamalot knights of the round table, is highly quotable and hillarious....
by Hunter Styles | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
EAST COAST NEW ENGLAND BOY Ian Cat Salieri Records If you pick up a copy of Ian Cat’s new album, grab a pair of headphones, too. Or, at the very least, play East Coast New England Boy with the volume turned way up. Within this static and fuzz beats the meticulous...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Off The Prozacs This poppy punk band from Westfield is calling it quits after more than a decade of making music. The band’s last show is Thursday at the 13th Floor Lounge in Florence. Say farewell to the band that rocked you with their three albums and multiple...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, I’ve been with my husband for a decade. We married young and, in a lot of ways, he’s a great guy and right for me. But I still want to leave. I did leave once a few years ago and he put me on a major guilt trip until I came home. Things have been better, but...
by Michael Majchrowicz | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Downtown Northampton now boasts a new recovery center aimed at providing addicts and loved ones with emotional support.The Northampton Recovery Center at Edwards Church, 297 Main St., which officially opened Monday, was a project that was roughly eight months in the...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
A painting depicting police officers as feral pigs has been ordered removed from the Capitol after months of controversy and a tug of war over whether the art should be on display. What do you think? As I write this on Monday, Donald Trump is yet to be sworn in as...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
If you’ve never checked out Craigslist’s Missed Connections section, you really should. Like all geographic designations on the forum, the Western Mass list is full of wistful near-meets and longing. Below is a compilation of “missed connection” items from...
by Chuck Shepherd | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
The salary the Golden State Warriors pay to basketball whiz Stephen Curry may be a bargain at $12 million a year, but the economics is weirder about the prices Curry’s fans pay on the street for one of his used mouthguards retrieved from the arena floor after a game....
by From Our Readers | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
More WishesIn response to Hunter Styles’ “Between the Lines: Our Wish List for 2017” posted on Facebook.James Moses: “In the meantime, we’re trying to wish Hillary out of the woods and back into her pantsuit. Maybe the Clintons should relocate from Chappaqua to...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Day One On the first day of a Donald Trump presidency, Saturday, Jan. 21, the streets of D.C. as well as cities and towns across the country will be jammed with women and their allies demanding that leaders protect the rights of women through the Women’s March on...
by Warren Johnston | Jan 16, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Food Booze and Beyond, News, Newsletter, The Pour Man
For more than three decades, New Zealand winemakers have been known for producing some of the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world.Until recently, however, the Kiwi producers haven’t been bringing home international accolades for their Pinot Noir. The country’s...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 9, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Film, Newsletter
Fine Tooning One morning in early October, I was flipping through local events online to assemble our calendar listings. That process becomes a bit of a blur sometimes, but my eye stopped short on a striking color cartoon — part of an announcement for an animation...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 9, 2017 | Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Newsletter, The Beerhunter
The best seasonal beers for winter months When predictions of blizzards rolled into town, our parents and grandparents ran to the package store and grabbed a 30-pack of cheap lager cans (we used to call them “dad soda”) along with bread, milk, and eggs. These days,...
by Peter Vancini | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Leisure, Newsletter, Stage
Reflecting on a Tragedy The night of June 12, 2016, news of a horrific shooting unfolding in an Orlando gay nightclub sent shockwaves around the world, leaving collective heartbreak in its wake for the 49 lives cut cruelly short that fateful night. The pain cut...
by Gary Carra | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler
This week, a few of the Valley’s more notable country boys will slap on their Stetsons and give the scene a swift, cowboy boot to the posterior. First out of the gate: on Friday Jan. 13, Trailer Trash will serve up heaping portions of modern country rock at Holyoke’s...
by Jennifer Levesque | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Bone Chilling Metal Turn those cold winter blues into face-melting metal this weekend at the 3rd Annual Hothfest! Two full days of killer lineups featuring local bands scattered throughout touring bands. “When death metal takes over New England!” says the man behind...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Blogs, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
Partway through last Friday’s performance at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater, something unscripted, overdue, and quite wonderful happened. The show was Peter Shaffer’s brilliant examination of genius and envy, Amadeus. The title refers to Mozart, but the...
by Jack Brown | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Leisure, Newsletter
There are times when I look back on my youth and shake my head at my younger self. Mostly, it’s when I think about the dreck that was on in the after-school hours on the local UHF stations: sugar-cereal cartoons that were a 12-year-old’s forbidden fruit. It is with a...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
So, you want to get off heroin; now what? If it’s an emergency, go to the hospital. If you’re lucid, get to a detox center. If you’re Section 35 court ordered to get clean, the state will place you in a bed put aside specifically for Section 35ers.After...
by Peter Vancini | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
As temperatures dip and the ice thickens on Heritage Park in East Longmeadow, ice skaters and hockey players of all ages lace up their freshly sharpened skates and brave the cold to carry on a generations-old winter tradition. Just ask Ryan Morton. He used to play...
by Chuck Shepherd | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
Russian producers are planning the so-far-ultimate survivors’ show — in the Siberian wilderness for nine months with temperatures as low as minus-40-degrees Fahrenheit, with 30 contestants selected after signing liability waivers that protect the show even if someone...
by From Our Readers | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Love for the Advocate Cheers to the Valley Advocate writers and staff for excellence in informative journalism covering topics with both local and universal appeal. Particularly notable in recent months was the “Extra Credit on Question 2 — Follow the Money” article...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
Our annual December Halos and Horns issue of the paper, which sums up staffers’ thoughts on who in the Valley (and the world) has been naughty and nice for the past year, only allows us to look backward. But with a new year rolled out before us, Advocate writers...
by Naila Moreira | Jan 9, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Down to Earth, News, Newsletter
My first container of compostables was beautiful. Inside a repurposed chipped ceramic crockpot lay a smorgasbord of broccoli stems, wilted lettuce, carrot shreddings, sprouted potatoes, onion skins, outer cabbage leaves, asparagus ends, and tomato stems. It looked...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 9, 2017 | Columns, Featured, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hi Yana, I’m in a relationship with someone who I really love and we’ve been together for three-ish months. Before we started dating he knew I wasn’t a huge fan of monogamy, but I agreed I would try and now I’m feeling trapped. He’s so important to me and I don’t want...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 3, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Stage
Blue-eyed Rock ’n’ Soul The higher the hair, the closer to God, honey. So you know Christine Ohlman, the Beehive Queen, is tight with The Man Upstairs — and you can hear it in her soulful rock. Ohlman, whom you may recognize from her years as a vocalist in the...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 3, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Newsletter
The weird and wonderful artwork of Julian Janowitz only starts to reveal itself once visitors pull onto the long driveway of his Shutesbury home. That bumpy, meandering dirt road leads through a small clearing, then along twists and turns through a tall forest of...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 3, 2017 | Featured, Food Booze and Beyond, Missed Connections, Newsletter
If you’ve never checked out Craigslist’s Missed Connections section, you really should. Like all geographic designations on the forum, the Western Mass list is full of wistful near-meets and longing. Below is a compilation of “missed connection” items from...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 3, 2017 | Arts, Featured, Music, Newsletter
Take the Stage Now that all the big holiday celebrations and events are in the past, it’s time to get back to regular old life. Do it in style by hitting a karaoke night somewhere in the Valley. There are plenty of bars known for their customer caterwauling:...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Watch Your ’Grammers @igers413 is an online community of Western Mass Instagram users who gather regularly on their phones — and, somewhat less frequently, in person — for local events, challenges, and photo chats. #CHASINGLIGHT, the fourth installation of what has...
by Will Meyer | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
Staying strong in the face of hate and lost spaces Last week, Basemental interviewed a local musician who lost people close to him in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire on Dec. 2 in Oakland, California. That piece sparked a discussion of safe spaces for artists, which...
by Hunter Styles | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Floating Rock and Rolling Folk From year to year, over hundreds of live sets, Driftwood has proved a cohesive quartet since its members first gathered in Binghamton, NY in 2005. But the band’s sound, rather aptly, is a shifting, constant collision of styles, from...
by Jack Brown | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Newsletter
When it comes to film, the Christmas and New Years weeks are not usually a great time for filmgoers, with the exception of a few blockbusters and carefully planned Oscar-hopeful releases. Studios and theaters know that we’re all too damn busy rushing out to buy a last...
by Peter Vancini | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter
Between 2013 and 2015, the number of opioid-related deaths state- wide surged from 918 to 1,578 — an increase of over 70 percent in two years. The opioid crisis in Massachusetts has reached epidemic proportions, according to the findings of a report out this past...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 27, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Film, Leisure, Music, News, Newsletter, Stage
How Does This Work? Who on earth do we think we are, doling out judgement left and right? Find out here. The List HALOS // The People of East Longmeadow — For creating a seven-member Town Council in the wake of a coup on the now-defunct three-member Board of...
by Kristin Palpini | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Between the Lines, Columns, News, Newsletter
Some topics are too rich to write about just once. For all the people wondering, “What ever happened to …?” this week’s column features updates on issues I’ve written about in this space before. If you’ve got a topic from this column in mind that you’d like to see...
by Amanda Drane | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, Third Eye Roaming
While everyone stands to benefit from yoga, barriers to entry remain. The practice is meant to end suffering, yet ironically those who suffer the most — poor people, people of color, and those with limited mobility among them — often find yoga inaccessible....
by Chuck Shepherd | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, News, News of the Weird, Newsletter
The Hastens workshop in Koping, Sweden, liberally using the phrase “master artisans” recently, unveiled its made-to-order $149,900 mattress. Bloomberg News reported in December on Hastens’ use of superior construction materials such as pure steel springs,...
by From Our Readers | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Letters from our Readers, News, Newsletter
Halos & Horns Editor’s Note: Some responses to the Advocate’s annual section dedicated to the promoting and pooh-poohing of what went on in the last year. I just want to congratulate you on your latest issue. I found it engaging and on target. Beside the nods to...
by Peter Vancini | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, News, Newsletter, Scene Here
There’s always a little bit of added electricity in the air when a Nor’easter is bearing down on New England and the snowflakes start to fly. The cold brings out a sense of camaraderie in people: us v. the snow. Sometimes the best thing to do is to find a cozy corner...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 3, 2017 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Sometimes, when I’m in the mood to masturbate, I enjoy watching porn. The problem is when I do, it literally takes me no time to orgasm. Yesterday, I was feeling in the mood to enjoy myself. So, I started browsing some videos.I barely started touching myself and felt...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 27, 2016 | Featured, Newsletter
If you’ve never checked out Craigslist’s Missed Connections section, you really should. Like all geographic designations on the forum, the Western Mass list is full of wistful near-meets and longing. Below is a compilation of “missed connection” items from...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 27, 2016 | Arts, Featured, Newsletter
Zoinks! In an era before we burrowed into our choice cable channels, American kids grew up watching cartoons on one of three network TV stations. From 1958 through the 1980s, most options on Saturday mornings were products of the Hanna-Barbera company — the creator of...
by Hannah Roach | Dec 27, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
I don’t quite remember seeing my first swastika, but I do remember first realizing what it meant. Like many Jews, I felt the Holocaust sit on my consciousness and take a space in my identity. I remember listening to my mother talk about the reasons why my family would...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 27, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
Rice, Rice, Baby Who knew there were enough people in Warwick, MA (population 780) to start a great rock band? Rice proves the skeptics wrong. Formed at a house party in 2014, the group infuses Americana and jam music with rock sensibilities. It’s not too much of a...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 27, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Rogue Galleries Supporting local artists isn’t just for the holidays. Last-minute shopping needs aside, there are hundreds of cool pieces on gallery walls, ceilings, floors, and shelves during all of the Valley’s year-end art shows. The tradition of using these final...
by Will Meyer | Dec 27, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Basemental, Columns, Music, Newsletter
One artist’s reflections on the Ghost Ship fire NOTE: On Dec. 2, the Ghost Ship, a 10,000 square-foot arts space inside an Oakland, California, warehouse, caught fire during a performance. Thirty-six people were killed, and more were injured. Steve D’Agostino,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Dec 27, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Wellness
Hey Yana, Over Thanksgiving I spent some time with my awesome 18-year-old niece. I’m in need of your wisdom about a situation I’m trying to wrap my 30-year-old, feminist, protective brain around. My niece lives in a small town, far from her friends, and has been...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Ruth Sanderson’s Magic Eye Easthampton author Ruth Sanderson says she has nearly lost track of the number of children’s picture books she has published over the past three decades (she counts 85, at least). But every one of those books conjures a fully-realized...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Newsletter
Here in Spirit Photographer Sandy Alpert’s new exhibition reveals a project she first began gathering imagery for in 1998. Back then, she writes, “I was haunted by the ghosts of my past.” As she worked to capture fellow citizens moving, ghostly and detached, through...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
THE BARGAIN Megan Burtt Self-released Rock musicians with something to prove sometimes lean too heavily on a dark, distressed demeanor. But it’s not hard to spot which artists take up that pre-fab attitude like an expensive frayed coat, and which artists are simply,...
by Hunter Styles | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Music, Newsletter
The Warm-Up Act Fighting to regain some of that precious body heat that you lost on the way in from the car? Let master guitarist Jose Gonzalez and Latin jazz virtuoso Ahmed Gonzalez help you out. Together they’ve founded Banda Criolla,...
by Gary Carra | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Music, Newsletter, Nightcrawler, Stage
Sean Altman was best known as a member of the a capella singing group Rockapella, which had a recurring role on the PBS television show Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego? from 1991 to 1995. Since then, based on Altman’s website, he’s been mugging with former...
by Chris Rohmann | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Newsletter, Stage, Stagestruck
In my last column, “Closing the Gender Gap,” I tallied the representation of women performers, playwrights and directors in the area’s professional theaters in 2016. I found some improvement in the gender balance, though we’re still a ways away from true parity....
by Hunter Styles | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter
The Warm Fuzzies We each do a lot of thinking about ourselves this time of year — what didn’t we get around to in 2016, and what new opportunities can we line up for the coming year? — but at risk of sounding too preachy: please look to the neighbor on your left. Now...
by Jack Brown | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Cinemadope, Columns, Film, Leisure, Newsletter
Director Garth Jennings has had an interesting, if short, career. Coming out of the gate with an adaptation of the Douglas Adams cult classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in 2005, his first big film grossed many millions, starred people like Zooey Deschanel...
by The Daily Hampshire Gazette editorial board | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Between the Lines, News, Newsletter
The marketing teams of white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups have been busy. Rather than give up their hateful views — misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism — they’re trying to scrub themselves clean of the stink by adopting another name — the “alt-right.”As the New York...
by Kristin Palpini | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, News, Newsletter, O Cannabis!
I came out as a marijuana enthusiast to my family when I was 16 and fell on my mother.Late at night, I had been out with some friends smoking pot and gossiping. I came home to find my mom still up, sitting in her rocking recliner in the living room watching TV. I...
by Peter Vancini | Dec 19, 2016 | Articles, News, Newsletter
After being at the heart of the labor movement in Western Mass for over 40 years, Jon Weissman is retiring as the coordinator of Western Mass Jobs With Justice at the end of this year at age 70. Over the course of his career, Weissman served in the trenches of the...
