Arts & Life
When Sherlock Holmes came to the Valley: famed writer Arthur Conan Doyle visited Amherst and Northampton in 1894
By LAWRENCE B. SIDDALL
Until recently, I knew little about the super sleuth Sherlock Holmes, and even less about his creator, Arthur Conan Doyle. As an adolescent, I was captivated by his amazing tales, but soon my interests changed and my reading shifted to other...
Amherst Books still thriving after 15 years
By DANIELLE LIPIEC
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of French literary theorist Roland Barthes.When Amherst Books opened its doors in 2003, the last thing on the minds of staff was where it might be in 15 years.But after a decade and a...
Blood and mud, not glory: Smith College exhibit showcases horror of WWI
By STEVE PFARRER
It began during a warm, beautiful summer, when many still viewed war as a glorious and noble pursuit, a rite of passage for men marked by dressed battle lines, colorful uniforms, dramatic cavalry charges and quick and decisive campaigns.But when the...
Jarrett Krosoczka uses art to come to terms with a difficult childhood
By STEVE PFARRER
In a childhood that had its fair share of pain and confusion, Jarrett J. Krosoczka can recall a couple of incidents that really stood out.When he was three, his grandparents, Joe and Shirley Krosoczka, told him a few days before Christmas that he’d be...
A musical taste of Ireland: The High Kings bring their folk songs and harmonies to the Valley
By CHRIS GOUDREAU
For more than a decade, the Irish folk group The High Kings has followed in the footsteps of legendary Celtic balladeers such as The Clancy Brothers during the golden age of Irish folk bands in the 1960s, while also forging a path for the continuing...
The Mentalist: Amherst College philosophy professor Alexander George moonlights as a mind reader
By STEVE PFARRER
By day, he’s in the classroom, leading discussions on ethics, value, knowledge and other philosophical questions, as well as the ideas of specific philosophers themselves.By night, he leads a different kind of discussion — a performance, really — that...
Ready to Rock: Why I quit my day job, left Manhattan, and moved back to the Valley to play music full time
By PETER SIKOWITZ
April 22, 2017, 13th Floor Music Lounge, Florence. Three bands are on the bill: two punk outfits and Flathead Rodeo, a rockabilly band playing in public for the first time. Pairing those styles isn’t as strange as you might think; rockabilly, which...
People Watching: Joan Holliday, radio host and DJ
By EMMA KEMP
‘Ireally love having the honor of being in people’s lives every day, having the opportunity to make their lives just a little bit better in some way by having that microphone,” radio host Joan Holliday recently said in her office at WRSI, home to 93.9...
Creature Comfort: More and more college students are moving in with comfort and service animals
By Shell Lin
Every fall, college freshmen arrive on campus, excited to meet their new dorm mates. But what if one of those new neighbors has fur? More and more students are facing this reality with new policies regarding “comfort animals,” which are basically pets...
Art Maker: Lou Conover, shingle/tile designer
Lou Conover, who lives in the Pioneer Valley Cohousing Community in Amherst, has worked in a number of fields: music, software, education (teaching math). But over the past 17 years, he has also taken up a different trade: installing decorative...
The sound of music… and a few stray notes: Seniors play in New Horizons Band
By STEVE PFARRER
Carol Neubert took piano lessons for several years when she was growing up, learned to read music and figured out how to play the instrument — to a degree.“My right hand can play the piano well, and my left hand plays well, but they do not play well...
The Risk Takers: Daniel Elihu Kramer shakes things up at the Chester Theatre Company
By STEVE PFARRER / Staff Writer
At the Chester Theatre Company one recent morning, it was shaping up to be a very busy day for Daniel Elihu Kramer.For starters, there was a rehearsal for the play he was directing, “Every Brilliant Thing,” which would open Aug. 2 at the theater...
Road warriors: Springfield exhibit celebrates first cross-country motorcycle trip by women
By STEVE PFARRER
A hundred years ago, there was one relatively efficient way of crossing the country: by rail. To do it by road required using a patchwork of mostly unimproved surfaces — dirt, gravel, and sometimes just sand — on motorized vehicles that were still in...
Art in the family
By STEVE PFARRER
What’s the connection between tribal art, illustrations of animals and natural settings like forests, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? If you answered “none,” you haven’t met the Derby family of Northampton. Charles Derby, a onetime art teacher...
The Ring Leader: Rebekah Brooks
By Veronica Suchodolski
Rebekah Brooks’ jewelry store in Thornes Marketplace in Northampton is an intimate and enchanting space. With antique molding, a red velvet gown in one corner and a sculptural bust of a unicorn on one wall, the shop feels like it was lifted out of a...
Every picture tells a story: new exhibit at the Eric Carle Museum
By STEVE PFARRER
Octopuses sprawled in armchairs, reading books; tiny mermaids riding on squids. Frogs that skim above the ground on mobile lily pads like flying carpets. And a boy who makes friends with a small cloud at the Empire State building and rides around on...
Sylvia Plath, in full color
By STEVE PFARRER
Her basic storyline is well known: successful poet and novelist before she turned 30, one half of a literary couple who had a famously stormy relationship, and — sadly — a suicide in 1963, just as her work was beginning to achieve wider notice.But...
The Bird Whisperers: Inside the wild and wonder-filled world of Jane Yolen
By BROOKE HAUSER
At 78, Jane Yolen might just be the most prolific children’s author in the Valley. To date, the New York Times best-selling author has written 366 books—enough to read one a day for a year, “even Leap Day,” says Yolen, who is perhaps best known for...
Lilacland: Pelham property inspires local painter
By STEVE PFARRER
Jim Lumley learned to appreciate nature’s beauty at an early age.His parents, the late Mabel and Al Lumley, planted extensive lilac bushes on the family’s Pelham property, which for decades has been a popular visiting site for lilac lovers, picnickers...
A lasting landscape: Northampton exhibit focuses on iconic Holyoke Range
By STEVE PFARRER
It’s a modest range, made up of hills rather than mountains, even if the peaks are labeled as such. Perhaps its most interesting feature is that it runs east to west, rather than north to south as most mountain ranges are configured.But the Holyoke...
