Taking up arms to help others: Western Mass Arm Wrestling League puts athletics, theater on display in the name of philanthropy
By EMILY THURLOW For the Advocate A woman dressed in pajamas walks into a Cottage Street bar and challenges a random stranger to an arm-wrestling match. The circumstances sound like the set-up of a joke. It’s not. That woman is Rose Lynch of Easthampton, and over the...
Monte Bellmonte Wines: Ken Washburn, Wine Spectator: How a Level II Sommelier lost wine and found themself
Why does wine give some people headaches? A commonly sighted cause is a plant chemical found in grape skins called tannins. But tannins are also found in things like tea. Others site sulfites. Sulfur is a naturally occurring element, and while sulfur is sometimes...
Trailblazers: The first Black-owned marijuana cultivation center on the East Coast has set up shop in Cummington
The first Black-owned cannabis cultivation center on the East Coast is, remarkably, located in the tiny hilltown of Cummington — with a population of 875, mostly white, residents.That fact didn’t dissuade Reginald Stanfield from selecting the community in northwest...
Stagestruck: Earnest and Chester
Last week, Barrington Stage Company’s Julianne Boyd greeted the audience for her troupe’s opening production, staged in a socially distanced tent at the edge of Pittsfield, with these long-awaited words: “I want to welcome you to live theater.” This week, introducing the season’s second show, in the company’s downtown mainstage, she added: “… in a real theater!”
Stagestruck: And We’re Back!
Sometimes in the course of the past year I despaired of ever again hearing that mantra of curtain speeches in the cyber-era: “Please silence your cell phones” – or of hearing the words spoken by Julianne Boyd on Barrington Stage Company’s opening night: “I want to welcome you to live theater!” Last week it happened, as two Western Mass companies greeted live audiences with live performances.
Stagestruck: Through the Portal
Down a pebbled path flanked by tall grasses in an orchard hung with ripening fruit, we come to an archway fashioned of bent branches: The Portal. There, our Guides invite us to hang a slip of paper on which we’ve written something we wish to leave behind, after the cruel year we’ve just been through. (I write “Zoom.”)
Itching for some theater, music? Here’s some ideas
It’s been a long year, but how’s this for a bit of uplifting news – shows are coming back, albeit slowly at first. Here is a roundup of some of the in-person and virtual events starting in May. Music Sunday, May 2 Karrin Allyson, Marty Jaffe and Valley Jazz Voices, 4...
A weed newbie?: Recreational marijuana is here to stay, but where should you start? A playbook for beginners
OK, so you’re new to this marijuana thing. You’ve driven by one — or two or three — dispensaries that are popping up like Pez dispensers in communities up and down the Pioneer Valley. You’re curious. You’ve got some stimulus money. Odds are you’re on the “older” side,...
The V-Spot with Yana Tallon-Hicks: How do I prepare for first-time sex?
By Yana Tallon-Hicks I recently began a new relationship and am something of a late bloomer (I’m in my mid-20s), so I have very little actual experience when it comes to physical intimacy with a partner. My boyfriend and I have discussed it a bit, and he’s very...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Let these dozen rosés meet your desires
Rosé is not a grape. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at a party or restaurant and someone asks me, “Would you like a rosé?” That question is the functional equivalent of “would you like white wine?” The answer to both questions is “yes.” Follow up questions:...
Live at Last
Sheryl Stoodley is standing in the middle of the Workroom, the performance space in the Northampton Community Arts Trust building curated by A.P.E.@Hawley. In time, it will become a fully equipped studio theater, but for now it’s an enormous unfinished cube, more like...
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That’s One Small Step for a Band: Bandella, a musical group including astronauts, will play Hawks & Reed on July 27
Three of its members have lived in space.
The V-Spot: Help! I’ve DepoShot my Libido in the Foot
I’ve been on the Depo shot for two months now and I have no sex drive. No desire whatsoever. I Googled it and it’s normal for women on the shot to feel this way. Do you have any tips or sex hacks to help me and my BF out? I’m sure he’s tired of coming home to me not wanting to do it.
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Stagestruck: Pre-Season Previews – Summer begins, spring continues
There’s usually a bit of a lull between the end of one theater season and the start of the next – the spring pause before the summer rush. But the pause keeps getting briefer and the seasons are starting to overlap. Take this week, when three Berkshire theaters open...










