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by Hunter Styles | Jul 25, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Uncategorized
My gut told me that I should tune in to the Republican Convention last Thursday night for Donald Trump’s acceptance speech. So I tried, but I just couldn’t hack it. Every time the Donald opens his mouth for another ramped-up round of free-associative shouting, my...
by Peter Vancini | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Springfield’s Summer Concert Series at Stearns Square has undergone its fair share of transformations since it was founded in 1999. The latest happened last year when the concert series shed its title as the Stearns Square Concert Series and reclaiming its original...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Member Login Username: Password: JULY 21 The Machine performs Pink FloydThis four-member tribute band has played theaters, casinos, and festivals across the country for 25 years. Plenty of needed time to practice, given Pink Floyd’s rather jaw-dropping 16-album...
by Kristin Palpini | Jul 20, 2016 | Articles, Music, News, Newsletter, Uncategorized
1881 — Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon and congressman from Springfield, commissions renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to create a bronze statue of his ancestor and early city settler, Deacon Samuel Chapin. Springfield builds a small park, Stearns Square,...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
Taylor Made It’s just a hop, skip, and a flying leap from Manhattan to the Berkshires, at least for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The group has been trucking up shows to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center for nine years running now, but the good thing about a...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Uncategorized
SUNDAY: Build it YourselfSunday is for relaxing — and that includes a day of rest for the bartenders at Arkham at Harmony Place in Brattleboro. The quintessential hipster dive bar, complete with air hockey and arcade games, has a Build Your Own Bloody Mary party. It’s...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
The Doctor Is Out and AboutAnd to think that he grew up on Fairfield Street! Theodor Seuss Geisel — a.k.a. Dr. Seuss — was born in Springfield to German immigrants in 1904, and although he moved to California for much of his adult life, it is on these local blocks...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Creative InletsAya Yamasaki and Jason Brown know how to flow. Working as a creative duo called Operatura, the two artists create hand-drawn animation, illustrations, comics, and installations, drawing inspiration from the natural and magical worlds, the humorous and...
by Gary Carra | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles, Columns, Newsletter, Nightcrawler, Uncategorized
Musician and artist Wendell Rheinheimer, the owner of Moonlight Designs screenprinting in Easthampton, has been doing a little moonlighting of his own in recent months. The fruits of a new collaborative effort with his partner, organic vegetable farmer Shana Totino,...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Swing and a HitSinger and guitarist Erin Harpe formed her Delta blues quintet in Jamaica Plain in 2010, and the group has been all over since then, winning the Boston Blues Challenge three times, playing the five-day International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2015,...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Magic on the MountainThe lower Valley has plenty of reasons to boast about its brews, but this weekend, it’s Franklin County’s turn. Hilltown pride and local products prevail at the first-ever On Tap festival at Berkshire East, featuring local beer, mead, cider, and...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Great ScotsYou thought your Independence Day was wild, food-stuffed fun? Just stop by the annual Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival to see how the brave of heart really get down. Highland dancers, pipers, and drummers (like Albannach, pictured here) cast a spell of sound...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Music and MemorySouthampton has many a quiet corner, but the grounds of Black Birch Vineyard will be lively on Saturday as the winery hosts a summer concert benefit to raise funds for the Northampton Survival Center. Local food trucks will help to keep visitors fed...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Music, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Triple Threat I tried to be open-minded as a young music lover, but despite the curious sonic wanderings of my teenage years, my ears could never quite latch onto songs with no vocals. As soon as I’d hit a track called “Instrumental,” I’d stubbornly skip it (the...
by Will Meyer | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Book It Yourself The Western Mass DIY music calendar does what Facebook can’t Amherst punk musician Will Killingsworth and Belchertown visual artist, musician, and show-booker Miranda Wiley have noticed a disconnect between subsets of the DIY music scene in...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
War-Torn Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies gives the trauma of battle, and the sting of accountability, a voice in Sarah Goodwin, the protagonist of Time Stands Still. An Iraq War photojournalist recovering in America from severe injuries suffered in...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Mini MoodsIf the inside of Ami Fagin’s head looks like the bright-hued watercolors she began painting last summer, we’d love to take a few trips on her train of thought. This series, called One Hundred and One Visual Haiku, started as a daily meditation. After about...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 11, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Upcoming adventures might make you more manly if you are a woman. If you are a man, the coming escapades could make you more womanly. How about if you’re trans? Odds are that you’ll become even more gender fluid. I am...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Body of Work Living wage legislation seems like a flurry of statistics and economic reports until you focus in on the faces, voices, and lives of the millions of Americans affected by low-wage work. Pioneer Valley Workers — in collaboration with curators and artists...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Meals With WheelsWhat’s that delicious aroma wafting from the scenic grassy terraces of Hartford’s riverfront plaza? Probably some combination of Cheesesteakissimo, Maui Wowi, New Haven Pizza, Four Flours Baking Company, Taco Tequila, Ben & Jerry’s, Caribbean Food...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
In With a Bang Just in time for MASS MoCA’s welcome shift to summer hours, we’re jazzed to spread news of the return of the museum’s annual Bang on a Can festival, which ushers in three weeks of music all day, every day. Museum-goers and the general public can choose...
by Hunter Styles | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Evening Becomes Eclectic The 25th annual Ko Fest at Amherst College welcomes back many of its most treasured artists from previous years. This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, July 8-10, three evenings of special guests — from as far away as New Orleans and as close as...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Screwballs You never know what the world will throw at you. It’s one of the hardest lessons to learn, but at least there’s occasion in Conway to practice swinging at life’s surprises. On Saturday, the Hilltown hosts its fourth annual Chesbro Challenge, a very silly...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
Testing the WatersSince it re-opened in March under new ownership, the Waterfront Tavern has been looking for ways to let the Valley know that it’s an up-and-coming nightspot all over again. One appealing addition to the music venue’s regular lineup: Wednesday...
by Gary Carra | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Newsletter, Uncategorized
This weekend, July 8-10, marks the 30th year of Greenfield’s Green River Festival. The much-ballyhooed hullabaloo has been feted by the likes of Rolling Stone and USA Today as one of the nation’s must-catch summer festivals in recent years, with its...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
When I was a younger man, I looked at my father’s record collection as if it were a collection of lost gospels. He was a Dylan nut who branched out to collect lesser-known folk types, and while my friends were keeping up with what was happening in our own time, I...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Gene Brienre, makes his way to the opening celebration for the 44-unit Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community building — his new home.Select Soldier On military veterans were given the opportunity to purchase an equity stake in their homes. The idea is for veterans to...
by Advocate Staff | Jul 5, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Events in the coming week may trick your mind and tweak your heart. They might mess with your messiah complex and wreak havoc on your habits. But I bet they will also energize your muses and add melodic magic to your mysteries. They will...
by Peter Vancini | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
How did you get connected with Greenfield Gallery?I was just looking for my own art space and I was kind of shopping around the area. I think that was the second place I looked at and I was just completely enchanted. It’s such a great space. I love how the owner lives...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
SUNDAY: High Water MarkIt’s been one year since the relaunch of the Ashfield Lake House, which means a funkadelic anniversary show with music inside and outside, featuring the return of What Cheer? Brigade, Providence’s best 18-member brass band, plus performances by...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 30, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Picnic Perfect Fourth of July is the most picnic-iest holiday of the year, and we’re here to help you pack the most delicious, envy-inspiring, locally-sourced picnic basket of your life. You’ll notice that we didn’t make any of the food ourselves; that’s because this...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Food + Booze, News, Uncategorized
The staff at the Valley Advocate have been to many picnics, parties, hootenannies, hoe downs, shindigs, and festivals, but only one of us has ever tasted the infamous vodkamelon.Amanda Drane, our Third Eye Roaming yogi, claims to have made a vodka infused melon with...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Hoop DreamsThis summer is pretty much guaranteed to be a scorcher. The Valley’s best way to scratch that b-ball itch while enjoying some air conditioning is probably the Basketball Hall of Fame’s annual 60 Days of Summer, which provides 60 consecutive days of...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Shrew(d) ObserversIn a presidential election cycle as bizarre and theatrical as this one, it’s fitting that some of our weirdest art would start to imitate political life. Lauren Gunderson’s play The Taming — inspired in part by Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the...
by Steve Pfarrer | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
It was the era that became known as the Spanish Golden Age, when Spain was arguably the most powerful nation in western Europe, with a burgeoning colonial empire in the Americas and considerable territorial holdings in Europe, including modern-day Belgium, the...
by Gary Carra | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Uncategorized
The Springfield Business Improvement District isn’t trimming any fat with its 16th installment this year. Rather, they’re leading off with it. Or, more specifically, the locally notable band of same name.”FAT’s annual concert at Cityblock has always...
by Kristin Palpini | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Paul Hoffman may be Greenfield Gallery’s most exhibited artist.The longtime illustrator, turned painter, has shown his work there three times, most recently his one-man show running through June 30. “What’s wonderful about the Greenfield Gallery is they’re dedicated...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Sibling RevelryThe Springfield-based Center for Human Development has been matching kids with mentors through its program Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County since 1975. Over the past four decades, more than 2,000 “littles” between the ages of 6 and 16 have...
by Hunter Styles | Jun 27, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Visit from a Dark Horse As a teenager, Micah Scott was lost in a musical fugue, shuffling his tastes from Creedence Clearwater Revival to The Beatles to Pantera and Alice in Chains and back again. It wasn’t until his guitar teacher turned him on to Blind Lemon...
by Advocate Staff | Jun 20, 2016 | Articles, Featured, Newsletter, Uncategorized
The Friend Zone Dip your hippie head into a cool sonic pool this weekend by day-tripping up (or, hey, camping out) for the sixth annual Frendly Gathering, a three-day grassroots music festival in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont. Vibe-wise, this fest is heavy...
by By Will Meyer | May 31, 2016 | Uncategorized
It is worth noting the congruity between the Western Mass underground 30 years ago and the scene now. Take the power duo Wydyde. In the Bandcamp tags for their recently released debut EP Hadley Fire, Wydyde claim Dinosaur Jr. as a reference point. And there are...
by Gary Carra | May 25, 2016 | Uncategorized
And The Kids share the ‘Love’ & some seed-y characters in West Whately Paul Newlin is going to party like it’s 1999 this week. No, it’s not another homage to his royal purpleness and his recent passing. Rather, it was this fateful year...
by Peter Vancini | May 11, 2016 | Articles, News, Uncategorized
With winter gone and Earth Day a recent memory, it seems like a good time to check in on the local environment before we all head outside to play in the sun again. Area environmental specialists say the Valley is full of environmentally conscious folks, which is...
by Gary Carra | May 9, 2016 | Columns, Music, Nightcrawler, Uncategorized
An interview with Joe Perry, Aerosmith vet and member of the Johnny Depp-led band Hollywood Vampires Gary Carra: Joe – big fan. I’ve been kicking around Western Mass for a quarter-century now, either playing music or writing music, so of course I’ve come across...
by Hunter Styles | May 5, 2016 | Articles, Featured, News, Uncategorized
It was Northampton that held the first Pride march in the area, and those who participated walked down the Main Street of a very different America. The year was 1981. Non-heterosexual citizens held virtually no legal protections as employees, as tenants, as...
by Hunter Styles | May 3, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Trance Dance EvolutionIt takes an uncommon blend of bravado and skill to play “imagined hybrids from lost empires,” but that’s what Pakistani pop star Zeb Bangash and Brooklyn-based klezmer clarinetist Michael Winograd have set out to do. The dynamic musical duo has...
by From Our Readers | May 3, 2016 | Uncategorized
Letter from the Editor: New columnsThis week’s Advocate marks the second column in a new series we’re calling Basemental. The column will focus on the local DIY music scene, artists who play and record in alternative spaces, like basements and barns, old churches and...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
By Hunter Styles Welcome, reader, to Appleseed, Massachusetts. Never heard of it? On page one of his newly-released second novel Golden Delicious, Longmeadow native Christopher Boucher provides an off-kilter lay of this fictional land:“That afternoon I took the...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Turbine at Bishop’s LoungeNYC-based quintet band Turbine is one funky, rough, finely-tuned act. Full of big, brash rock lines and upbeat, soulful vocals, Turbine’s music is also surprisingly inventive, marked by shaken-up time signatures and unusual song structures....
by Hunter Styles | Apr 25, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
For ten years now, Opel has demonstrated the importance of being earnest. In the face of a modern music industry too often pockmarked by pretension, the seven-piece Springfield band’s hearty, fun-loving approach to making songs remains reassuringly down-to-earth.The...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Stagestruck, Uncategorized
The subtitle of the best-selling book and its 1995 Broadway adaptation — The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years — is no exaggeration. Both the memoir and the play cover more than a century of African-American history, seen from the centenary vantage point of two...
by Peter Vancini | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Traveling down Union Street, through the heart of the sprawling industrial section of West Springfield, an oasis appears on the horizon. Amid the landscape of parking lots and deteriorating buildings, Crepes Tea House is a spot of color: a small, unassuming building...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 18, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Divest UMass supporters hold hands before leaving the Whitmore Administration Building after staging a sit-in for the fifth consecutive day Friday, April 15, demanding that UMass officials divest from fossil fuel companies. Though UMass has divested from coal and less...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
Place to see local bands Iron Horse Music Hall 20 Center St., Northampton (413) 586-8686 www.iheg.com Since 1979 the Iron Horse has hosted a wide variety of music and entertainment acts both local and far-flung, under the slogan, “Music alone shall live.” During the...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Uncategorized
I’m a wicked Zelda geek. I grew up playing the Nintendo series on every console it came out on. When my friend Doug Poole started apprenticing at Shark Tank Tattoo in Easthampton, I asked him to do Link’s life hearts and the Hylian Shield. He’s done...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Three-hour trip ‘round the world For the second year in a row, the Five Colleges are throwing an international festival on the Amherst Common. Organized by the UMass International Students Club, the free event features cultural displays — such as dancing, singing, and...
by Peter Vancini | Mar 22, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
A walk through Ten Thousand Villages on Main Street in Northampton is a stroll through a rich international bazaar. The store’s warm, earthy interior is a respite from the stark dreariness on the sidewalk. Gentle jazz and the smell of spices and herbal tea waft...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 22, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
Good news, everyone! The Advocate has made some staff changes that we think will create a more balanced and exciting paper. First up, staff writer Hunter Styles has been promoted to arts editor. Styles will be drawing on his background in theater and his deep love of...
by — Peter Vancini, pvancini@valleyadvocate.com | Mar 22, 2016 | Articles, Uncategorized
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Groan, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Some things endure because of their worn familiarity.Take the iconic Waterfront Tavern in Holyoke for instance, which is undergoing a revitalization. Don’t worry. It’s...
by Advocate Staff | Jan 6, 2016 | Articles, Arts, Uncategorized
Shokazoba featuring DJ Megha • Friday Friday nights were made for chill reggae and funky beats, especially Fridays that cap the first full post-holiday week. Breathe deep, relax, and shake that thang with Northampton-based Afrofunk band Shokazaba. DJ Megha Amira will...
