Arts & Life
A cartoonists’ cartoonist: Florence’s Hilary Price won the highest honor awarded by the National Cartoonists Society
By CAROLYN BROWN
Cartoonist Hilary Price, who lives in Florence, won the 2023 Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year, the highest honor awarded by the National Cartoonists Society, in August of this year.Price draws the comic “Rhymes with Orange,” which is syndicated...
Mickey Rathbun: Appreciating the aster
Many gardens go drab this time of year after summer flowers have faded away. But in fields and along roadsides, swaths of native asters add explosions of color to the transitioning landscape, with their golden centered, star-shaped flowers ranging...
Six Valley authors receive awards: Massachusetts Book Awards announces 2024 winners and honorees
By CAROLYN BROWN
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Center for the Book, the state branch of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, announced the winners of its 24th annual Massachusetts Book Awards — and six authors from the Pioneer Valley were on the...
Around and About with Richard McCarthy: AI and I, part two: Can you guess which column was written by McCarthy and which was written by AI?
By RICHARD MCCARTHY
Last year I challenged Artificial Intelligence to produce a column in my style of writing, and the results were published in this newspaper. This year I repeated the experiment to see what advances AI had made.Working with Matthew Berube, head of...
Valley Bounty: Nothing says autumn like apple picking: Over 10 varieties available this year at Apex Orchards
By LISA GOODRICH
School is back in session, and the emblematic apple is in season at local orchards. Courtney Basil, co-owner of Apex Orchards in Shelburne Falls, reports “beautiful, bountiful peach and apple crops this season.” Apex planted several new varieties in...
Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Time for a garden makeover: Seek help from professionals to see the big picture
By MICKEY RATHBUN
Late summer isn’t a pretty time in the garden, at least not in my garden. The recent mini-drought has bleached out what passes for lawn, several large hydrangeas are drooping as they beg me for water, the daylily borders are shriveled and brown....
Earth Matters: Coming together for climate action: Hitchcock Center facilitates conversation and action on a community level
By BILLY SPITZER
We are all experiencing the impacts of climate change more each day, in our own communities and around the world. Recent data from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication shows that 72% of Americans understand that climate change is real,...
New college bar has potential, is spacious, lacks buzz: Spoke Live the place to go when Spoke is full
By EMILEE KLEIN
Spoke is a University of Massachusetts Amherst student treasure. One of the three college bars in town, Spoke offers the trifecta of a good college bar: space to dance, cheap drinks and a classic bar feel complete with a wall of fake IDs. The...
An old garden’s revival: Path at former Belchertown State School a labor of love for the volunteers who maintain it
By EMILEE KLEIN
The only structure that appeared still intact from the first superintendent’s home at the Belchertown State School was a century-old stone wall outlining a small grassy plot at 47 State St.At least that’s what residents believed until three years ago,...
Around and About with Richard McCarthy: Giving life a smooch ‘at my age’
By RICHARD MCCARTHY
Sometimes life teaches you things you never wanted to know.As I alluded to in a previous column, I broke my femur, or thigh bone, this past March 25th, when I went down on a patch of ice while bicycling. For those of you who do not know, the femur is...
Finger-picking good: Amherst autoharp workshop hosts weekly jams for all levels
By SCOTT MERZBACH
Music from centuries-old folk songs and contemporary and classical tunes emanates through the hallway at the Bangs Community Center on a recent morning, as some of the autoharp players hold the instrument upright against their shoulders and below...
Federal humanities grants go to Porter-Phelps, colleges’ learning institutes
By SCOTT MERZBACH
Enslaved from 1770 to 1776 at the Forty Acres homestead in Hadley, now known as The Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum, Caesar Phelps wrote a letter from Fort Ticonderoga, where he was serving in the Continental Army, to his owner, Charles Phelps,...
Where it’s fun to get lost: Mike’s Maze returns Sept. 6 with a circus theme
By CHRIS LARABEE
Corn one, come all! The circus is coming to Sunderland this fall, as Mike’s Maze turns itself into a corn-ival for the 2024 season, with its “Join the Circus” theme.With stars and the theme’s phrase etched into the cornfield, the famous labyrinth is...
The story of Local Mojo: How one group of students is changing the UMass music scene
By PAIGE HANSON
During his sophomore year of college in November 2021, Charley Blacker wanted to start an organization that was unique and new to the University of Massachusetts Amherst community: a group dedicated to promoting local musicians through playlists,...
Prepare to be horrified: Greenfield Garden Cinemas to screen 25 films over five weeks for Stephen King Film Festival
By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI
In an effort to bring movie buffs from throughout the region into the city, the Garden Cinemas, and, subsequently, the Greenfield City Council, have declared the month of September “Stephen King Month.”From Aug. 30 to Oct. 4, Garden Cinemas will show...
From their table to yours: Taking inspiration from their mothers, friends open 3 Amigos in Amherst offering Caribbean-infused Mexican cuisine
By SCOTT MERZBACH
AMHERST — Inspired by meals their mothers prepared for them while growing up, the owners of a new restaurant in the Mill District in North Amherst are bringing Caribbean-infused Mexican cuisine to a wider community.“We have the best dishes from Puerto...
Chance Encounters with Bob Flaherty: Tobacco road — Harvest time at Hadley farm like a family reunion every day
By BOB FLAHERTY
HADLEY — There are TV shows with “friends” in the title and we all have enough Facebook friends to fill the Mullins Center, but the sort of companions who help you bring in the tobacco harvest on a hot weekend in August are the ones you want with you...
Let them run wild: Doc from Hadley-born filmmaker explores the lives of wild horses
By ADA DENENFELD KELLY
Growing up in Hadley, Steven Latham had a wild Chincoteague pony on his family farm, but it wasn’t until he learned about a veterans’ program pairing veterans with mustangs to train that he was inspired to create his documentary.“A couple friends told...
Fests to feel good attending: River Roads Festival, Sept. 7, and Arcadia Folk Festival, Aug. 23-24, center on environmental causes
By ALEXA LEWIS
Nature has served as an artistic muse for centuries, so it’s no surprise that music and environmental activism have historical connections.Two music festivals returning to Easthampton this summer embody the relationship between the natural and musical...
Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: You say tomato: A brief history of the fruit (or vegetable)
By MICKEY RATHBUN
It’s August and in my household that means one thing: local tomatoes. For much of the year, our grocery stores offer tomatoes tough enough to endure machine picking followed by days or weeks in cold storage. Even the more expensive, so-called...
