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by Bob Flaherty | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, News, Uncategorized
In short, there’s simply not A more congenial spot For happily ever aftering Than … here … in … OK, our little Happy Valley ain’t exactly Camelot, but it’s got a lot going for it. Even in the midst of quarantines and arguing over masks and...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
We lost a bright light on our local music scene with the recent passing of musician Kate Lorenz. Her brother Matt Lorenz (The Suitcase Junket) announced the loss via his Facebook page saying that she had died unexpectedly two weeks ago. Kate and Matt Lorenz along with...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 26, 2022 | Uncategorized
Nearly six years after voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana and almost four years since legal sales began, Gov. Charlie Baker this month signed into law the first major step of its kind by state government to bolster the nascent industry and tear down...
by Monte Belmonte | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines, Uncategorized
When I go to Pita Pockets in Northampton I always get the shawarma pocket, hot. When I go to Mesa Verde in Greenfield, I always get the blackened chicken burrito with chipotle sour cream. When I go to Captain Jack’s in Easthampton, I always get “Just Clams.” I am a...
by Dusty Christensen | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News, Uncategorized
Stephen Parmenter married his wife Nina on a special, palindromic date: Nov. 11, 2011. Read another way: 11/11/11. So as the couple’s 11th anniversary approaches, Parmenter knew his anniversary gift to his wife had to be special. Nina is originally from Vietnam,...
by Bera Dunau | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, News, Uncategorized
Cafe Balagan, the Main Street coffee shop associated with the Balagan Cannabis dispensary next door, has opened for late-night service. Rachael Workman, one of the owners of Cafe Balagan and Balagan Cannabis, said that she and her fellow owners, who are all in their...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 26, 2022 | Uncategorized
2020’s Summer of Rage following the murder of George Floyd — another “last straw” in response to police killings of Black men — gave rise to much soul-searching in many areas of American society, including the theater community. Some of the fruits were on view this...
by Jennifer Levesque | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
Neon FaunaLeather Motel “Pinned Butterfly” the opening track and first single off of Neon Fauna’s second full length album Leather Motel sets the energetic mood immediately with this experimental album. When I say experimental, it’s not just in reference...
by Advocate Staff | Aug 26, 2022 | Uncategorized
Amherst 1 Mass Alternative Care Inc. 55 University Dr.413-377-6240 massaltcare.com 2 Pleasantrees422 Amity St.413-213-5055enjoypleasantrees.com/ ma/amherst 3 Red Cardinal328 College St.413-253-1733red-cardinal.com 4 Rise Holdings 169 Meadow...
by Emily Thurlow | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, News, Uncategorized
When she was 10 years old, a fourth-grade teacher asked Debora Bridges during a classroom lesson “what it felt like to be a slave” as a “little colored girl.” It happened in 1961. In Amherst. Although her mother and grandmother were able to scrounge up an apology...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, The V-Spot, Uncategorized
After over a decade of doing this work, I firmly believe that everybody who is interested in having sex wants to be good at it. Or, at the very least, they want to have sex that is good rather than sex that is not. Meaning, we are motivated to experience good...
by Dusty Christensen | Aug 26, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
The first time lifelong Holyoke resident Damaris Aponte sold marijuana, she was 14 and growing up in a city deeply impacted by the so-called war on drugs. She saw many people she knew get arrested on drug charges, and her own brother was killed in the city’s...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 20, 2022 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
Just about the only things Shakespeare & Company’s two current productions have in common are fresh air and trees. The Bard’s sun-and-shadow comedy Much Ado About Nothing sprawls over the outdoor New Spruce Theater, the set’s Italianate columns backed by a grove...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
After a year on the front lines, Jason Zvokel traded in his 15-year career as a Walgreens pharmacist for a different kind of drugstore: a marijuana dispensary. Now instead of administering vaccines and filling prescriptions, he’s helping customers make sense of...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Systemic problems require systemic solutions. If the country has at long last realized that the war on drugs, the school-to-prison pipeline, the “tough on crime” policies, and “welfare reforms” that deny people convicted of felonies housing, jobs and continuing...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
It wouldn’t be accurate to say Scott Tulay is moonlighting. The Northampton architect spends a good number of his evenings and weekends drawing, and he earns some money from it, but drawing is much more a passion for him than a second job.Then there’s the connection...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
When she was studying voice, piano and composition as a college student, Beau Flahive was thinking of a possible career as a performer. She was already playing in rock bands and jazz ensembles to help pay for college, and the idea that she might teach music, she says,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Once June came around, I realized that this year, more than any other year, has flown by in a blink of an eye. I hadn’t even had a chance to make summer plans yet, but at the same time I was anxious for those summer plans I would come up with on a whim. In my opinion,...
by Monte Belmonte | Jul 12, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Monte Belmonte Wines, Uncategorized
Why, then, the world’s mine oyster, Which I, with sword, will open. — William Shakespeare from The Merry Wives of Windsor Scott Soares’s world is an oyster. Well, his world when he is not being appointed by Presidents Obama and Biden to be USDA...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
After shutting down two years ago, then edging back with skeleton seasons last year, theaters in the region are back at full capacity this summer, for the most part with vax-and-mask policies still in place.Here are some of the shows I’m looking forward to seeing up...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jul 12, 2022 | Articles, Featured, The V-Spot, Uncategorized
Hey Yana, I’ve been in a serious relationship for almost two years now and am only now feeling strong flare-ups of intense insecurity around sex. My partner and I have been having sex every day at least once a day, if not two or three, consistently for the...
by Dusty Christensen | Jul 12, 2022 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
Ilya Tunitskiy arrived in the United States when he was 7 years old, his family, who are Jewish, having fled religious persecution in Tajikistan after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tunitskiy said he grew up to be a normal teenager who, like so many others,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Amherst 1 Mass Alternative Care Inc. 55 University Dr.Hours: Mon.- Sun., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.413-377-6240 massaltcare.com 2 Pleasantrees422 Amity St.Hours: Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.413-213-5055enjoypleasantrees.com/ ma/amherst 3 Red Cardinal328...
by Chris Rohmann | Jul 20, 2021 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
I had a theater-going “double feature” planned for last weekend – two outdoor shows in a row with adventurous Berkshire-based companies. But those plans were disturbed by two irresistible forces: Nature and Actors’ Equity Association. At Shakespeare & Company in...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 16, 2020 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Review, Stage, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
Phase Two of Massachusetts’ staged reopening started this week, lifting some restrictions on public activities such as dining, swimming and hairdressing (really??) but not on live performance. That no-no doesn’t lift till Phase Four, which won’t come along till late...
by Advocate Staff | Mar 8, 2019 | Articles, Featured, Music, Uncategorized, Valley Advocate Sessions
OroborO combines experimenatal rock with punk, metal, and mathy riffs. Check out the band’s Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with OroborO:
by Will Meyer | Mar 1, 2019 | Articles, Basemental, Columns, Featured, Music, Uncategorized
Free Pizza was a punk band founded in 2009 and based in Boston. If the name isn’t too much of a giveaway, the ethos of the band was playful and goofy. The heavy-hitting upbeat rowdiness was accessible, earnest, and always a good time. In 2016, Free Pizza threw in the...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Jan 8, 2019 | Articles, Columns, The V-Spot, Uncategorized
Dear Yana, How do I stay chill when I’m interested in somebody new? Getting too excited (read: obsessed) with new people is no good for any of my relationships, regardless of how well the new connection is going. I’m a polyamorous person with a wonderful,...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Sep 14, 2018 | Columns, Featured, The V-Spot, Uncategorized
Hi Yana, Can you even find The ONE when searching for The One? I know that when searching for The One, you have a list of all the things you’re attracted to, but what if those things are what are bad for you? Like, when you’re into hot and rough sex and you find the...
by Gina Beavers | Aug 28, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Music, Uncategorized
Minneapolis trio Mama Caught Fire heads a line up of girl power tonight! Kimaya Diggs and Emma June complete the trifecta. Iron Horse Music Hall, 10 Center St.,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 20, 2018 | Articles, Music, Uncategorized, Valley Advocate Sessions
Christa Joy is a local singer-songwriter who writes bittersweet country folk songs about everyday life and impermanence. Watch her Valley Advocate Sessions performance in the video below. Interview with Christa Joy:
by Advocate Staff | Jun 6, 2018 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Uncategorized, Valley Advocate Sessions
This week’s Valley Advocate Sessions band is experimental math/basement rock group Tundrastomper. Check out a teaser video of the band’s upcoming Advocate Sessions video to be released this Friday.
by Jack Brown | May 27, 2018 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Featured, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Movies about painters are tough in the way that movies about musicians are tough: it’s nigh impossible to find an actor or actress for the part that is not only adept in their own chosen field, but also good enough to fake the very real particular talents of those...
by Meg Bantle | Apr 26, 2018 | Articles, Featured, News, Newsletter, Uncategorized
https://valleyadvocate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/video-1524758618.mp4 “As far as we know we’re the only (team) that jumps in a bar,” said Jennifer Therkelsen, 31, of Shutesbury. Therkelson, who is the fundraising manager for the all-adult Pioneer Valley Jump Rope...
by Gina Beavers | Jan 31, 2018 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized, Wellness
Holly Woods has always loved the art of dance. When she was a young girl in Manhattan, her mother rented an apartment above Alvin Ailey’s studio. “I would go downstairs and hangout and watch the ballet dancers perform,” she recalls. “You would see Debbie Allen and all...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 29, 2018 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
Constellations, playing at TheaterWorks in Hartford through Feb. 18, looks at love and second chances through a prism of reflecting and refracting fun-house mirrors – or more accurately, through a spectrum of infinite chances. Nick Payne’s two-hander isn’t exactly a...
by Jennifer Levesque | Dec 11, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Music, Newsletter, Uncategorized, Valley Show Girl
About a month ago, Valley musician Nate Martel came into the Advocate office to drop off his debut solo album “Short Stay.” Being a fan of his role in rock group, Outer Stylie, I was pumped to get the CD into my car as soon as I left work. And that I did. Recorded at...
by Rob Brezsny | Nov 27, 2017 | Articles, Astrology, Uncategorized, Wellness
ARIES (March 21-April 19): I hope that everything doesn’t come too easily for you in the coming weeks. I’m worried you will meet with no obstructions and face no challenges. And that wouldn’t be good. It might weaken your willpower and cause your puzzle-solving skills...
by Chris Rohmann | Nov 1, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
As artists, how can one watch the millions of refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, not to mention countries in Africa and Asia, and not want to address this issue? That question provoked the latest handmade production from Sandglass Theater, the world-class...
by Jennifer Levesque | Oct 27, 2017 | Articles, Music, Uncategorized
Reverend Dan and the Dirty Catechism, Springfield-based preacher rock n’ roll with a side of post punk. BONUS: Reverend Dan and the Dirty Catechism interview: Check out our past Sessions performers, including Seth Newton, Old Flame, Shokazoba, and Tang...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 18, 2017 | Articles, Cinemadope, Columns, Newsletter, Uncategorized
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...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 15, 2017 | Articles, Music, Uncategorized
Local indie folk trio, Parlicium, performed on the Valley Advocate Sessions stage on August 15. The band has roots in acoustic folk rock and was one of five bands to perform at the Green River Fest 2017’s Next Wave Stage. Interview with Parlicium: Like what you’re...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 11, 2017 | Uncategorized
Unfortunately, we had to cancel the live show due to thunderstorms. Sessions will no longer be open to the public tonight. Hopefully we can plan another event sometime soon!
by Advocate Staff | Jun 21, 2017 | Articles, Music, Uncategorized
Sodada is a quintet that plays dreamy jazz meets soulful punk rock. Stay tuned for the band’s full performance out this Friday. Can’t wait for Friday to see more Sessions? Check out some local bands now.
by Advocate Staff | Jun 16, 2017 | Articles, Music, Uncategorized
Check out local singer/songwriter and powerhouse alternative rock vocalist Seth Newton perform for the Valley Advocate Sessions recorded on May 30 at the Valley Advocate Offices. BONUS: Interview with Seth Newton Like what you’re listening to? Check out the Valley...
by Chris Rohmann | Jun 12, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Stage, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
As it happens, two different productions of the same show open on area stages on the same day this week. On Wednesday, Million Dollar Quartet premieres in the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, and the Majestic Theater in West Springield...
by Advocate Staff | May 15, 2017 | Uncategorized
Hope for Better Health Care Thank you for your piece in the Advocate (“Between the Lines: With Obamacare Under Fire, Massachusetts Must Lead on Health Care — Again,” May 11-17, 2017). However, it seems from it that you may not be familiar with House Bill 2987 and...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 17, 2017 | Articles, Film, Uncategorized
This week, our resident Stream Queen Lena Wilson offers a journey into some high-minded flicks beyond old Cheech and Chong movies (see pg. 18). But Advocate staff thought it equally important to share a blacklist of movies and TV shows to avoid when high — at...
by Chance Viles Photos by Jason Murray | Feb 20, 2017 | Articles, Arts, Music, News, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Wesley Jillson has been a part of the local metal music scene since the ’80s. He saw Western Mass area metal rise to national prominence in the ’90s, then fade away by 2010.At the fifth annual Promoterhead show at the 13th Floor Music Lounge in Florence in early...
by Chris Rohmann | Jan 25, 2017 | Uncategorized
This year’s National Theatre Live season opens with a contemporary classic and continues with another one, followed by fresh productions of three canonical works. The first is Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land, coming this Saturday from the London stage to the Amherst...
by Advocate Staff | Dec 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
If you’ve ever seen a jumping cow, then you’ve been in the right place at the right time. It’s quite a spectacle to see a big, meaty rectangle defying gravity. This tattoo on my left forearm of a young jumping bull reminds me to embody spontaneous...
by Advocate Staff | Sep 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
Small UAVs come in all shapes and sizes with models varying by application. Here are a few of the designs you’re likely to see overhead sometime soon. Multicopters are the most well-known and most popular. This DJI Phantom series quadcopter is a...
by Peter Vancini | Sep 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
Master Falconer Chris Davis is on a mission to help you understand birds of prey by letting you join the hunt At the edge of a shady green grove in Hadley, light streams through the forest canopy in thin shafts. It speckles the grassy floor below, where three large...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 15, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, Newsletter, Taste-Off!, Uncategorized
One classic question among lazy, hungry people goes like this: if you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? It’s a fun question — and, if the Trumpocalypse triggers the end of global food supply lines, possibly a relevant one. But...
by Warren Johnston | Aug 15, 2016 | Uncategorized
Erath Oregon Pinot Noir is priced above my usual comfort level, but so are most exceptional Pinot Noirs from Oregon. So, without hesitation, I recommend Erath as an excellent choice for those special occasions when you don’t want to break the bank on a fine wine or...
by Yana Tallon-Hicks | Aug 15, 2016 | Columns, Newsletter, The V-Spot, Uncategorized
Hi Yana! I saw your TEDx talk in Vienna and was copiously taking notes. The content was an eye-opener for me. I had never thought that both of our basic information sources about sex [school-sanctioned sex education and online pornography] are running their very own...
by Hunter Styles | Aug 8, 2016 | Uncategorized
Leading Light Scout Cuomo finds inspiration along a vivid spectrum Rivers and forests, serene and idyllic. Portraits of swimmers in neon acrylic. Sculptures and painted glass mounted with string. These are a few of Scout’s favorite things. And the body of work grows...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 25, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
A Sea of Stories “There came a point where I got tired of hearing, ‘Why is your English so good?’ I felt like a novelty at times. But now it’s better.” – Vaishali Sinha, filmmaker “Because I grew up in India, I have comfort...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 25, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Windows InwardOne of South Africa’s most noteworthy young artists, Lionel Smit creates sculptures and paintings on canvas — done in bronze or in painted resin — that manifest his ongoing fascination and respect for the indigenous peoples of his country, notably the...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 25, 2016 | Newsletter, Uncategorized
Sweet and Lowdown Fans of acts like The Civil Wars, Fleetwood Mac, and The Lone Bellow would do well to cozy up with some recordings by the Northampton-based Eavesdrop Trio — or, better yet, check them out live in Brattleboro this Thursday. Musicians Kara Rose...
