Newsletter
Staff Picks: Donnie Darko, The Gaslight Tinkers, OroborO, John Trudeau, Rebel Base, and Joy on Fire
Far Out Film Discussion: Donnie Darko // MONDAY, April 30 Forbes Library in Northampton hosts the Far Out Film Discussion, which is basically a book club for weird cult classic and art house films. The next meeting the group will be discussing 2001’s cult classic,...
Pick of the Day 4/25: Faces Places/Visages Villages
It’s the closing night of the Multicultural Film Festival at UMass. Tonight’s film is a special treat. 89-year old French New Wave pioneer Agnès Varda and acclaimed 33-year-old French photographer JR co-direct Faces Places/Visages Villages. This...
VIDEO: Izzy Heltai on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Check out a teaser for video for Izzy Heltai, a North Adams-based indie folk songwriter with a penchant for storytelling. A full performance will be released this Friday.
Valley made sex toys fill gaps in the market
Over the past 20 years, people have begun to care more and more about what goes into their bodies. Most think about this in terms of the food they eat, but for customers of Oh My Sensuality Shop in Northampton, the same can be said for sex toys. “Most companies have...
Editorial: Listening to people from ‘coal country’ our best chance to change minds
Smith College hosted a fascinating speaker earlier this month who addressed a topic that’s been on my mind for several months leading up to the 2018 midterms: communicating and collaborating with people in what’s called “Trump country.” Without their help, we’re all...
Letters to the editor: King Sarno overstepping his royal office
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments 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? Email...
Pick of the Day 2/24: Call of the Forest at Amherst Cinema
For the love trees! Call of the Forest is a 2017 documentary that sounds the alarm bells about deforestation around the globe. The brilliant scientist Diana Beresford-Kroeger explores how our health and the health of the Earth depends on the state of our forests. She...
Stagestruck: Post-Apocalyptic Foolery
The scene: desolation. The time: the aftermath of a cataclysm that has destroyed civilization and left only industrial scaffolding and piles of junk. Piles that include, let’s see, a bucketful of juggling clubs, a couple of unicycles, a teeter board and, oh yes, a...
Podcast: Monte Belmonte plays wine therapist to Advocate staffers
WRSI Morning Host Monte Belmonte was recently voted this year’s best radio personality in the Advocate’s Best of the Valley Readers’ Poll, and is probably best known for walking dozens of miles to raise money for the Food Bank of Western...
Father of Parkland shooting victim recalls son through art in Springfield
When the hammer first punched through the drywall people flinched. The crowd was silent as Manuel Oliver began to destroy parts of the art he had just created, mirroring the destruction of his son’s life in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. Oliver, the father of...
The V-Spot: Help me flirt with an Aquarius!
Hi Yana, Okay. I gotta know. How does one flirt with an Aquarius? There’s an Aquarius male that I like … and I’m a really bad flirter. I don’t do well with flirting because I’m trying to overcompensate with my intelligence to offset my sexy social media...
Pick of the Day 4/23: Ana Popovic at the Iron Horse
“Raw power,” “emotional complexity,” and “vibrant,” are words that have been used to describe Ana Popovic’s sound. She’s a singer and guitar slinger and she’ll be at the Iron Horse tonight. Big Blues Bender says,...
Calendar Monday 4/23- Thursday 4/26
MONDAY 4/23 MUSIC Ana Popovic at The Iron Horse Music Hall: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Iron Horse Entertainment/IHEG, 20 Center St., Northampton. Music Mondays Cafe ~ Berkshire Hills Music Academy Troupe: 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. Music Mondays return to Gaylord Library...
Beyond 4/20: Criminal Justice Reform and Cannabis in Mass
If any day could be called National Marijuana Day, it’s 4/20. Cannabis consumers are celebrating an exciting year for cannabis in Massachusetts with the first recreational marijuana licenses already approved, but many people, particularly in communities of color, are...
Pick of the Day 4/22: After the Gig Fest in Easthampton
Have you ever heard of “a weekend-long DIY/punk fest full of bands, workshops, and skill shares?” Well you have now; After the Gig is at the Flywheel in Easthampton, and 100% of what you pay will be split between the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and...
Pick of the Day 4/21: The Ballad of Philip Andre…
If you’ve followed the long strange trip that is Mickey Rourke’s life, The Ballad of Philip Andre will ring a bell. The Legible Bod(ies)’s The Ballad of Philip Andre, is loosely based on the life and career of Mickey Rourke. The troupe will explore...
Free Will Astrology: Put down your quills Aries!
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Imagine you’re one of four porcupines caught in frigid weather. To keep warm, you all have the urge to huddle together and pool your body heat. But whenever you try to get close, you prick each other with your quills. The only solution to...
Cinemadope: Into the Doc
If you caught the 2016 screening of Khalik Allah’s Field Niggas at Amherst Cinema, you got an early look at the filmmaker’s meditative and searching vision. That film, an hour-long gaze at the faces and bodies of the men and women passing through an East Harlem...
Valley Advocate Readers’ Poll 2018 winners announced!
We are excited to announce the 2018 Valley Advocate Readers’ Poll winners! The categories and winners are available to view here. Thank you to all of our incredible local businesses, and of course to The Valley Advocate readers that vote! Congratulations! ...
Puerto Rican families living in Western Mass could lose housing after April 20
For the past four and a half months, Rosa Ortiz has been living with her 14-year-old son at hotels in West Springfield after her home of Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, was devastated by Hurricane Maria nearly seven months ago. But now, their temporary housing is in jeopardy...
Pick of the Day 4/20: Dune at Amherst Cinema
Ok. My two very best friends tease me about my love of the sci-fi movie Dune. So it’s not an Oscar winner but it is all kinds of fun and engaging. I mean, a young Kyle McLaughlin is always a good start. Throw in Sting, some space palace intrigue, the SPICE...
Bizarro Briefs: No Singing Zone Ahead
Dutch residents formed a chorus of opposition to a newly installed “singing road” earlier this month, prompting the road to be shut down after only one day of use. Workers had installed strips that act like rumble strips on 490 feet of road near the village of Jelsum,...
Calendar: Thursday 4/19 – Sunday 4/22
THURSDAY 4/19 MUSIC Bill Charlap Trio: 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St., Northampton. Dirk Quinn Band w/ The Franz Robert Quartet: 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. The Stone Church, 210 Main St., Brattleboro. Luke Baillargeon: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m....
Pick of the Day 4/19: Tart2f at Hawks and Reed
Silverthorne Theater Company’s world-premiere production of TarT2f! An Irreverent Musical Comedy, by Jeff Olmsted is directed by the Advocate’s very own Stage Struck columnist, Chris Rohmann. Tart2f is described as a “light-hearted lampoon of...
The CDs You Gave Me: ‘Hush Money’ is pure catharsis
Last year, I reviewed psychedelic bluesy rock band, Old Flame, with their debut extended play (EP) “Wolf in the Heather.” Now, a year later the band has released a new six-song EP called “Hush Money” continuing to create political charged art rock that takes an...
VIDEO: Anders Warringer on Valley Advocate Sessions Friday
Anders Warringer performs eclectic acoustic originals with a side of absurdity. Check out a teaser for Anders’ upcoming Advocate Sessions video to be released this Friday.
Stagestruck: In the Valley and New York, history becomes personal
The tattoo From the title, you might think The Tattooed Man Tells All is a memoir of life on the carnival circuit. It’s anything but. This man’s tat is a five-digit number that was etched into his forearm in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Peter Wortsman’s one-man...
Pick of the Day 4/18: Persona at Amherst Cinema
Check out Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona. Amherst Cinema has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Swedish master’s birth. Hooray! Persona is another trippy Bergmanian piece wrought with WTFs. Liv Ullmann plays Elisabet, an actress who, without reason, has gone...
V-Spot: Help Me Kick My Hitachi Addiction
HELP YANA! I’m addicted to my Hitachi! I’ve had a primary partner for just under a year. The sex is awesome, intimate, and fun. However, very rarely can I have sex and get off without using toys, and I think it’s starting to frustrate them. I don’t have a lot of...
Staff Picks: What Cheer? Brigade, Holyoke Innovation Week, Poor People’s Campaign
What Cheer? Brigade and Landowner at Hawks & Reed // SATURDAY, APRIL 21 Odds are you haven’t seen a band like What Cheer? Brigade. The 20-piece brass band from Providence, Rhode Island, is basically a dance party version of a marching band and returns to Hawks...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Giving Pinot Grigio another shot
I hate to write about the most boring grape in the wine world, Pinot Grigio, two columns in a row. But I threw down the gauntlet in my last wine column and challenged someone to convince me that Pinot Grigio is not the most boring of all wine grapes. “Part of me...
Pick of the Day 4/17: Hawktail at the Parlor Room
Hawktail, an exciting acoustic group, describes themselves this way: “Haas Kowert Tice brought on mandolinist Dominick Leslie to form Hawktail. Music fans will recognize them from their various other outfits (Punch Brothers, David Rawlings, Crooked Still, A...
Valley Advocate Podcast: Artist Barbara Hadden on women, men, lesbianism, and becoming an artist
According to artist Barbara Hadden, you’re just as likely to see her painting a house as you are painting a portrait. Hadden’s approach to art is informed by her practical and thoughtful demeanor, as well as her experience in the outdoors. Discussing her...
Cinemadope: Getting schooled on schools – A Backpack Full of Cash
American schools — and the teachers and students that fill their halls — have been in the news quite a bit lately. More and more, it seems that the reality of the classroom has become lost in a fog of “thoughts and prayers.” But it isn’t only during the...
Review – Doing Justice: Denise Beaudet’s Roots to Resistance
Going into Denise Beaudet’s exhibit Roots to Resistance at the New England Visionary Artists Museum, requires a bit of preparation. Beaudet, after all, has amassed a master’s course in global female activism. In her bountiful literature, her writings concerning...
Free Will Astrology: See you on the dark side of the moon, Leo
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the early history of the automobile, electric engines were more popular and common than gasoline-powered engines. They were less noisy, dirty, smelly, and difficult to operate. It’s too bad that thereafter the technology for...
Pick of the Day 4/16: Being Mortal
This PBS Frontline documentary is based on Atul Gawande’s best seller. The documentary explores the hopes of patients and families facing terminal illness and the physicians who treat them. There will be a discussion following the screening of the film. Being...
Local Calendar: Monday 4/16- Thursday 4/19
MONDAY 4/16 MUSIC Amherst Jazz Orchestra: 7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Free. With vocalist Ethel Lee. No cover, free parking and great food. Union Station Grand Ballroom, 125A Pleasant St., Northampton. 413 253 1607. info@amherstjazzorchestra.com. Julien Baker: 7:30 p.m....
Bank bails on Mass cannabis businesses
April 20 (4/20) can be an auspicious day for cannabis-related businesses. But this year, some of them will see their bank accounts abruptly closed. Citizens Bank, based in Providence, Rhode Island, informed an unknown number of customers with connections to the...
Western Mass Women’s Fund to honor Northampton Chief Jody Kasper
Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper will be honored on June 4, 2018, with the She Changes the World award from the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts (WFWM). “We are excited to spotlight Chief Kasper as a leader who is breaking barriers and who serves as a great...
Massachusetts readies for legal fight over ‘Student Loan Bill of Rights’
State legislators hope to create a “Student Bill of Rights,” which passed in the state Senate on April 11 and aims at granting better protections for students in disputes with loan service companies. There’s one catch though: the federal government...
Thoughts on Barb Hadden’s Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
Barb Hadden walks about the white walled Oxbow Gallery on Pleasant Street, contemplating the placements in her show at the Northampton artist collective. With two galleries, artist-members have a show in the large front gallery and a show in the back gallery. Hadden’s...
Pick of the Day 4/14: Matali Shaka Banda Oneness Project
“I’m trying to represent who I am and the way I’m trying to be, making sure my art and my life are one,” says jazz saxophonist Matali Shaka Banda. “I think a lot of artists preach a certain way but don’t live that way. Or attempt to live a certain way, but their...
Pick of the Day 4/15: Fatai at the Parlor Room
Fatai is a big deal. She’s sold-out multiple headline tours in North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and is touring again internationally. She’s making stops at SXSW and The Parlor Room in Northampton! Check out this young phenom up close and personal tonight at...
Down to Earth: Sugaring in a warmer world
In the sugaring room of North Hadley Sugar Shack and Market on a recent Saturday, a trio of young farmers manned the massive wood-fired evaporator slowly boiling off water from maple sap. Mahogany-colored product rushed every couple minutes from the spigot. On a...
Blaise’s Bad Movie Guide: What is Thunderbird Six???
Hands up! — how many readers remember HL Childs’ toy store in Northampton? I was there on closing day and came across a massive “Thunderbirds Island” playset commanding an entire shelf. As you may recall, “Thunderbirds” was a British TV show featuring marionettes and...
Pick of the Day 4/12: Irin Ajo at Mount Holyoke College
Ìrìn Àjò is a world premiere opera by Bode Omojola. It’s about Káyò̩dé, a Nigerian engineer who immigrates to the United States in search of a better life. His parents in Nigeria now look up to him to take care of them and other members of his family back home....
Staff picks: Ingmar Bergman, Katherine First, and Mtali Shaka Banda
Ingmar Bergman’s Persona // SUNDAY, APRIL 15 It’s tax time and to increase your psychological stressors, check out Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona. Amherst Cinema has been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Swedish master’s birth. Hooray! Persona is another...
Events Calendar: Thursday 4/12- Sunday 4/15
THURSDAY 4/12 MUSIC Live Music!: Wyld Nightz: 8:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery, 36 Bridge St., Brattleboro. Luke Baillargeon: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Live Italian music with Luke Baillargeon in The Mick. Free. The Mick, 3 Country...
Springfield police union pickets Sarno following contract negotiation breakdowns
Sarno repeatedly calls himself a “law and order mayor,” but for Springfield’s police union president, his recent decision to leave the bargaining table speaks louder than his words. “The fair thing to say is that we judge people on how they treat us,” said Joseph...
Spring Arts Preview in Western Mass
When spring blooms burst forth, you’ll want to rove the Pioneer Valley looking for fantastic things to see and do. We’ve pulled together some of the best events happening in the area April through June. 4/14: Radically interconnected There’s a plethora of arts events...
Pick of the Day 4/11: Jesse Cook at the Academy of Music
Guitarist Jesse Cook says, “I want to take people to places they haven’t been,” and he’s traveled the world looking for and mastering sounds that speak to him. His new album, Beyond Borders, is an expression of that world music combination his...
VIDEO: Fuzz Puddle on Advocate Sessions Friday
Fuzz Puddle is an alternative rock duo that mixes indie jazz influences with an experimental approach. Check out a teaser video for the band’s upcoming Advocate Sessions performance to be released this Friday.
UMass unions take contract demands to trustees
The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees meet at UMass Amherst once a year, and this year, on April 6, they were met by union employees from all over the state demanding “respect and fair contracts.” “Our belts are as tight as they’re going to get,” said Eve...
Russian-born undocumented immigrant gets sanctuary in Northampton church amid supportive community
Irida Kakhtiranova faced discrimination in her home in the Ural region of Russia due to her same-sex relationship with the woman she loved. In 2003, she left to come to the United States. Fifteen years later, she is married to U.S born man and has three children, but...
O’ Cannabis! Inhale, Exhale: Cannabis friendly yoga comes to the Valley
Slow, meditative breathing is an important part of most yoga classes, but at Chronic Trips’ first cannabis-friendly yoga class on April 7, there was also a different kind of inhaling going on. “We want to reduce the stigma of the lazy stoner,” said Chronic Trips owner...
Editorial: Find someone else to pick on, Mayor Sarno
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno spent the better part of the past two weeks railing against a Springfield church for offering sanctuary to an undocumented Peruvian woman and her two American children. Immigrant Gisella Collazo’s cause was taken up by the Pioneer...
Back Talk: Hurrah for ranked choice voting!
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our letters to the editor page. Here you’ll find reader comments 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? Email...
Wellness: PCOS, affecting fertility and appearance, quietly plagues many reproductive-age women
“I was the fat girl complaining about back pain,” said Becca Minardi, 24, of Longmeadow about the early symptoms of her polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Diagnosed just six months ago, Minardi feels as though doctors didn’t take her seriously before her diagnosis....E-Edition
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