Terpenetics 101: A hatchet job
By Robin Goldstein For the Valley Advocate The weed world is always full of buzz, and lately you might have heard everyone buzzing about terpenes. Should you care? The answer is complicated and non-obvious. To explain, I must start from the beginning of the story, in...
‘O’ is for Oman: Northampton man completes mission of traveling the alphabet of countries
By JAMES PENTLAND Staff Writer More than 60 years after he crossed his first foreign border, Gerard Simonette this month completed a mission of sorts: He checked off the last remaining letter of the alphabet of countries he has visited with a trip to Oman. Simonette,...
Rare views into an earlier age: Clark Art Institute exhibits some 80 original images in paper and photographs
By DON STEWART For the Advocate There are those who see winter not as a season but as a siege. They tire of shoveling white glittering fractals from their driveways and see snow as the unnecessary freezing of water. If you’re among those who don’t consider the frozen...
In time for downbeat: Jazz record designer Jack Frisch hosts new show on Valley Free Radio to ‘get the music out there’
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Back in the 1980s, Jack Frisch, then in his early twenties, got bitten pretty hard by the jazz bug, taking the ferry from his home in Staten Island, New York, over to Manhattan with some friends and haunting record shops. His interest had...
‘Creole love call’: Gombo launches new music series starting Feb. 2 with jazz reedman Evan Arntzen
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer When John Piskor opened his Cajun-style restaurant, Gombo Nola Kitchen & Oyster Bar, in Northampton last year, he said he eventually wanted it to turn it into something akin to a New Orleans cafe, where people come out for a drink and...
‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Dr. Khama Ennis had come a long way in her medical career. Until 2022, the Amherst resident had spent about two decades in emergency medicine, including a number of years as chief of emergency medicine at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in...
Staying in the game: Veteran actors and teachers Raye and Candace Birk are still involved with theater after decades of performance
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Looking for some talented older actors who can play a wide range of roles? Who have decades of experience in theater, film and television? Raye Birk and Candace Barrett Birk are at your service. The Florence couple, relatively new...
A song for the ages: Easthampton Theater Company presents ‘Torch Song,’ an iconic work of queer theater
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Ever since the November 2022 elections, politicians in over a dozen Republican-controlled states have seemed to compete with each other in attacking parts of the LGBTQ community: banning or restricting gender-affirming medical care for...
Is Northampton still lesbian mecca? Why we must keep queer spaces alive in Northampton
By KATE LAUGHLIN and GRACE XU For the Advocate Walking into the Majestic Saloon in Northampton feels like a breath of fresh, albeit heavily perfumed, air. The pink and purple lighting with a constant loop of popular drag queens Trixie and Katya on the TV signals that...
Almost showtime: 33 Hawley, Northampton’s community arts center, is putting on its finishing touches
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer It’s been a long run — but the finish line is now in view. The Northampton Community Arts Trust building, largely or partly shuttered for most of this year, is poised to reopen, as work to make the final improvements in the...
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...
Sessions
Check out our most recent performances in the playlist below, or click here to dig into interviews and related material!
O Cannabis: The craftsmanship of hand trimming
“Practice makes perfect, you just want to be super slow and meticulous,” Dunphy said.
Reviving a local treasure: Parlor Room raising renovation funds to fix up Iron Horse Music Hall; reopening set for May 1
By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL Staff Writer When Chris Freeman was in eighth grade, his father took him to the Iron Horse Music Hall for his first concert at the venue, where he was immediately entranced by the atmosphere, sitting at one of the tables by the wall plastered...
The V-Spot with Yana Tallon-Hicks: Am I Polysaturated or Polyinfatuated?
Dear Yana, As a polyamorous person who’s having much more success building new connections these days, I worry sometimes that I am dating from a feeling of not enoughness-ness, in a way that keeps me too focused on the new and the possible, and not enough with the...
‘You don’t look like a doctor’: Documentary film looks at the biases and challenges Black women physicians face
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Dr. Khama Ennis had come a long way in her medical career. Until 2022, the Amherst resident had spent about two decades in emergency medicine, including a number of years as chief of emergency medicine at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in...
The Beerhunter: Kismet Brewing Company Prepares to Open in Westfield
Rich and Liz DeSousa, both longtime craft beer enthusiasts, are hard at work on their new business, Kismet Brewing Company.
Stagestruck: Riot Grrrls
Two shows I saw in London turn received history on its head. In the mini-musical “SIX” the half-dozen wives of Henry VIII sing their side of the story. And at the Globe, a distinctly non-Shakespearean play takes a non-binary look at Joan of Arc.
