‘His notes will linger forever’: Remembering Young@Heart accordionist and Springfield College professor Chris Haynes
By CAROLYN BROWN Staff Writer Chris Haynes, longtime accordionist for the Young@Heart Chorus and associate professor emeritus of music at Springfield College, died on Wednesday, March 12. “Chris was somebody who really cared about people, really made sure they were...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Shelburne Falls is western Mass wine country
By Monte Belmonte For the Valley Advocate The Bridge of Flowers may be closed to tourists this year but I can think of another great reason to visit Shelburne Falls — bowling! But this is a wine column. So, I’ll start again. The Bridge of Flowers may be closed to...
Should weed be legal? A Socratic dialogue with a prohibitionist
By Robin Goldstein For the Valley Advocate As an economist studying the weed industry, I end up in a lot of policy discussions with people who do not believe that weed should be legal. Their points are often fair, well reasoned, thought-provoking, and deserve to be...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Valley theater companies and audiences grow: Attracting new audiences has become an art in itself
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate In this next year, theater goers from Hartford to the Berkshires are going to have more entertainment choices than they’ve had in many years because attracting new audiences has become an art in itself. Older, more established...
You’re up next: Western Mass open mic scene heats up post-pandemic
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer Not so long ago, there was a general lament sometimes heard among Valley musicians: “There aren’t enough places to play around here.” That might have been true for professional players who wanted to be paid — and maybe, despite the...
The local logophile, an erudite Easthamptonite: Veteran Merriam-Webster editor Peter Sokolowski is the public face of the country’s oldest dictionary
By STEVE PFARRER Staff Writer When Peter Sokolowski started work as an editor at Merriam-Webster 30 years ago, about 80 people worked at the venerable dictionary company in Springfield, including about 45 editors. But based on how quiet the offices were, it might have...
I did ketamine therapy … and here’s what happened: A one-time tripper takes a second psychedelic journey 50 years later
By Bob Flaherty For the Valley Advocate A gamechanger, they call it. A chance to face the challenges of your life head on. To free your mind, unencumbered by old negative patterns. Empowering your life. Re-setting your brain. Though it’s been around for decades,...
Theater Matters with Jarice Hanson: Two world premiers explore family, place and identity
By Jarice Hanson For the Valley Advocate World premieres are challenging pieces of theater in every sense. For many theaters and theater companies, it’s safer to produce an “old chestnut”— a show that has a proven track record with audiences, or a show that is...
Monte Belmonte Wines: Aging wine is a lost art, even with us wine snobs
By Monte Belmonte For the Valley Advocate Aging wine is a lost art. It’s lost on me and I’m a self-described wine snob. I have exactly two bottles of wine in my “wine cellar.” It’s actually not a cellar at all. It’s a room off of my living room where I keep my tools...
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...
Mixtape: An album decades in the making: Chris Croteau releases ‘Mesmir’
By Jennifer Levesque For the Valley Advocate Local musician Chris Croteau took a musical hiatus to focus on parenthood, but is now back with an album that is worth the wait. Released in November of last year, “Mesmir” is Croteau’s comeback. The 16-track album has...
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A music empire goes dark: Musicians, club owners wonder what’s happened to Iron Horse Entertainment Group
When she looks back at how her band first found its footing, Nerissa Nields sees one club in particular at the center of that story: the Iron Horse Music Hall. From the time The Nields, the Valley folk-rock band, formed in the early 1990s, the Iron Horse became the...
V-Spot: What Do I Do With My Dude Pubes?
Does it even matter to most women or is this something men have mistakenly fixated on?
Valley Advocate Staff Picks: Maniac, Valley Winds Cinco de Mayo, and Motherhood Out Loud
This production is a great opportunity to check out Springfield Technical Community College’s theater program, and a good way to spend the weekend before Mother’s Day.
The Magical Mountain Mystery Tour: What craft beer adventures await in the Berkshires?
As the Advocate's resident Beerhunter, my reportage on the art of the local craft brew has taken me up and down the Pioneer Valley, with the occasional stop in Brattleboro, Boston, and beyond. But there’s one big region on the Western Mass beer map that I’d been...
Stagestruck: My Year of Zoom
In the Year of Covid, Zoom was a blessing – a marvel of the age, allowing face-to-face contact and online performance. But it was also a curse – and I spent a lot of time cursing at it. Over the year, the drawbacks did constant battle with the benefits.
