Arts & Life
The Beat Goes On: Deck the halls with holiday shows, from Amherst to Easthampton to Northampton to Turners Falls
By STEVE PFARRER
The holidays are nearly upon us and, no surprise, the Valley’s music calendar is chock full of holiday shows over the next week, with some featuring bands playing their versions of seasonal tunes and others focused more on spreading general good...
Not home for the holidays: ‘The Holdovers’ offers a funny, bittersweet Christmas story
By STEVE PFARRER
Back in 2004, actor Paul Giamatti teamed up with screenwriter/director Alexander Payne in “Sideways,” an offbeat comedy/drama about two friends who take a road trip through the California wine country as they both grapple with midlife crises of a...
Around and About with Richard McCarthy: ‘The having doesn’t stop the wanting’: Catching up with a former colleague who’s still determined to ‘make it’
By RICHARD MCCARTHY
I spent a few years of my life writing one-act plays in the wee hours of the morning before I went off to my job. Three of those plays were produced at small theaters in New York City (off-off-Broadway), as part of a bill of one-act plays by different...
Gateway City Arts in Holyoke for sale, scaling back
By JAMES PENTLAND
HOLYOKE — Losing steam after more than a decade confronting the ups and downs of running an entertainment and dining complex, the owners of Gateway City Arts are looking to sell. “I think Vitek and I got worn out,” co-owner Lori Divine said...
Natural beauty: ‘Live edge’ wood takes center stage at Hadley Mill Works
By SCOTT MERZBACH
HADLEY — Large slabs of wood from a variety of local tree species, with the edges left rough on each piece, are stacked on the concrete floors and line the walls of a Hadley showroom, likely to soon be fashioned into dining room tables, bar tops,...
The Beat Goes On: A bluegrass ‘minifest’ in Whately, Swedish a capella in South Hadley, jazz in Holyoke, and more
By STEVE PFARRER
Summer’s long past, and so are the watermelons. But Watermelon Wednesdays, the long-running summertime acoustic music series at the West Whately Chapel, isn’t ready to pull the plug on its concerts.On Dec. 6, they’re sponsoring what they call...
Jump for joy: The Lindy League of Western Massachusetts makes swing dance accessible and fun
By MELISSA KAREN SANCES
As snow mingles with rain on a Tuesday evening, the door to Spare Time Northampton is cool to the touch. But inside the bowling alley’s City Sports Grille, the cracks of falling pins fade into the warm pulse of swing music.The Lindy League of Western...
Just a big kid at art: Carle Museum showcases children’s book art of legendary graphic designer Seymour Chwast
By STEVE PFARRER
Seymour Chwast turned 92 this summer. But in his heart, he might still be about 8 or 9 years old, based on the work he continues to create.A legendary graphic designer who, beginning in the 1950s, helped revolutionize the look of commercial art,...
Book Bag: ‘L’Allegria,’ translated by Wally Swist; ‘Listen to the Birds’ by Donald Kroodsman, Léna Mazilu and Yoann Guény
By STEVE PFARRER
Listen to the BirdsBy Donald Kroodsma, Léna Mazilu, and Yoann Guény; W.W. Norton & Co. Donald Kroodsma, a leading expert on the science of birdsong, once taught biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. But the Valley writer and scientist...
Arts Briefs: New jazz host at NEPM, abstract art in Amherst, dance concert at Smith Colle
If you’ve tuned into New England Public Media’s “Jazz à la Mode” this past week, you may have heard a new guy introducing the music on the Monday-to-Friday evening show. And if you’re a jazz fan, you know that he knows his stuff.Avery Sharpe, the...
Valley Bounty: Creating local buzz: Share Coffee Roasters invests in community and it pays off in their food and coffee
By JACOB NELSON
For many of us, coffee is more than a drink. It’s an experience, and often a ritual. And while it’s grown far away, it can elevate the enjoyment of many of our favorite foods grown close to home, and vice versa.As Ken Majka, owner of Share Coffee...
Objects may be closer than they appear: Artist painted memories into 252 vintage car mirrors, on display at UMass’ Hampden Gallery through Dec. 1
By JESENA KALABOKIS
Scottish multimedia artist Moray Hillary turns overlooked, ordinary details of everyday life into works of art.His latest exhibition, “Selective Memory,” currently on display at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Hampden Gallery until Dec. 1,...
Smiarowskis celebrate 100 years of Pioneer Valley farming
By CHRIS LARABEE
SUNDERLAND — If you live in the region and have picked up locally grown asparagus or potatoes, odds are you purchased something grown by the Smiarowski family.On Saturday afternoon at the family’s Sunderland farm, members of the Smiarowski clan,...
Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Gardens, like poetry, have restorative powers: Poet Tess Taylor reads from new anthology of garden poems Sept. 19 at Amherst College
By MICKEY RATHBUN
All the gardeners I know have their favorite garden writers. Allen Lacey, Katharine S. White, Elsa Bakalar, Henry Mitchell … the list is long and endlessly fascinating. But I suspect that few of us take the time to seek out poetry about gardening....
Showcasing arts and culture: South Hadley introduces a new festival to highlight music, dance, and more
By STEVE PFARRER
Several years ago, South Hadley created a community block party, FallsFest, that was designed to bring people together in the Falls area, the oldest neighborhood in town, with the long-range goal of revitalizing the area, home to many businesses, and...
Fresh exhibits bloom at Valley galleries as colleges reopen
By STEVE PFARRER
September brings hordes of college students back to the Valley — as well as new art exhibits. Here’s a selected look at what’s on tap at several local campuses, as well as some area galleries.University Museum of Contemporary Art, University of...
Book Bag: ‘Beyond the Monuments in Washington, D.C.’ by Michael Jacobson-Hardy; ‘The Sky We Shared’ by Shirley Reva Vernick
By STEVE PFARRER
The Sky We Shapedby Shirley Reva VernickCinco Puntos PressAmherst author Shirley Reva Vernick has written a number of Young Adult novels based on historical events, including her debut book, “The Blood Lie,” a story of an incident in an upstate New...
Expanding the musical horizons: Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares readies for new season with 22 shows and some new venues
By STEVE PFARRER
A few years ago, Pioneer Valley Jazz Shares (PVJS), the member-supported concert series, faced the same issue all musicians, clubs, and show promoters were dealing with: a problem called COVID-19.Like others, PVJS went online during the worst of the...
Arts and music: Folk music in Amherst, a new director at a key UMass Amherst gallery
Folk veteran and organizer playing church gig for climateAMHERST — Folksinger and songwriter Paul Kaplan, a longtime host of the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society’s Song & Story Swap, will mark 25 years of involvement with the event Sept. 2 when he...
Time to swing: Jazz drummer and South Hadley native Joe Farnsworth returns to the Valley for a concert honoring his idol, Max Roach
By STEVE PFARRER
Joe Farnsworth was 10 or 11 when he got the chance to meet a drumming legend: Max Roach.It was at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1979, where Roach taught. Farnsworth, who grew up in South Hadley, remembers how one of his older brothers,...
