Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Springing onto the stage and into summer
Editor’s note: The Advocate is pleased to introduce a new theater writer. Jarice Hanson was a professor in the Department of Communication at UMass Amherst, and has been active in theater in the Valley and beyond for over 30 years. She’s a member of AEA, the...
Cinemadope: Home Movies
As we all navigate our way through this new landscape of isolation and social distancing, most of us have lost the small local connections we once took for granted. The familiar hello of a barista who poured our morning coffee, the nod of the bus driver who brought us...
Empty Arms group supports parents who’ve experienced loss
It was October 2018 when Emily Collins of Holyoke, now 30, had her second child, Sebastian, who was born 12½ weeks premature. Sebastian lived for 15 days, then died at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
Supporting Nearby Food Producers While Maintaining Social Distance
An important related issue is support for undocumented people — some of whom work for local farms.
The V-Spot: Can I Ask for More Sex Without Being a Creep?
Ask your partner about their boundaries, respect the boundaries that are set, hold space for discussing each others needs with consent and optionality always on the table and you’ll be avoiding the very behaviors that make a sexual predator predatory.
Stagestruck: Bridging the Social Distance
With campuses closed and classrooms empty, teachers of acting, directing, and other hands-on theater skills are challenged with applying long-distance work-arounds to complete their spring courses. Forget “intimacy training” — how can you do scene work when your actors have only screens to touch?
Biking in the Valley: Even with COVID-19, bicycling is the way to go for many
With spring having arrived, bicyclists are again hitting the road in increasing numbers, even as the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown new wrinkles into the situation. Some bike commuters, like physical therapist Jessica Goldberg of Florence, are not going to work as frequently or at all.
Correcting The Record: You Should Wear Masks
Now firmly in the second month of intense disruption caused by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, it's getting clearer to see that information is among our most highly prized assets as we continue to shelter in place and undertake other efforts to flatten the curve....
The Beerhunter: Local Breweries Adapt to a New, Locked-Down World
This article was supposed to be about gathering in large groups.
Valley Show Girl: The Valley Needs Doc Westchesterson
“The World Needs A Doctor” is a theme song for COVID-19. The video shows Doc in quarantine, playing Scrabble, smoking weed, playing music with a pyramid of toilet paper shown in the background, practicing yoga and meditating.
Cinemadope: Alone Together
I’ve been looking at web cams, live concerts, and online art classes, and while it might sound mawkish, these — along with some inspired ideas collected from like-minded friends — are a few of the things that have helped me feel like I’m still connected to the world, and to all of you in it. Here are a few of the streams I’ve been dipping into lately.
Sessions
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Valley Show Girl: Weege & The Wondertwins
Western Mass’s Weege and The Wondertwins turn it to 11 on the jazzometer and when listening to them, they send you to the nearest time machine.
The V-Spot: My ‘Orgasm’
Hello Yana,I’ve been dating my boyfriend for almost a year. We’re in our 20s, and he’s a few years older than me. There have been times when we're intimate when he doesn’t provide me with oral sex. He’s never close to ejaculating while inside me. He only does so after...
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Stagestruck: Imperfect “Nonsense”
My brother is the world’s biggest P.G. Wodehouse fan. Well, maybe not the biggest — he’s got legions of competitors for that title — but big enough to have come up from his home in New Jersey to accompany me to the American premiere of a new Wodehouse-derived play....












