Last week I set out on an expedition to find and read a Colleen Hoover book.
I’m an English major and, more relevantly, a lifelong literary elitist. Pretentious books have been the pillars of my superiority complex since grade school, as I peered disdainfully at my classmates’ beyblade battles over my copy of “Beowulf” and once told my seventh-grade teacher that I found “Great Expectations” just so much more rewarding when reading it for the third time.
“The Holdovers” relishes in the powers of its actors, its dialogue and its setting. The film takes an angry kid, a washed up academic and…
Annie Rauwerda is a 24-year-old comedian who had never been to western Massachusetts. But, she certainly knows a lot about it. She’s read up on…
“It’s a shallow day where we only talk about shallow things” began comedian and moderator Kate Clinton to MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow, before heading into…
On Nov. 3, the Valley Light Opera (VLO) opened their fall opera “Iolanthe” by Gilbert and Sullivan at the Academy of Music, marking the organization’s sixth staging of the comic operetta since 1976. The production boasts delightful performances from Valley Light Opera veterans Elaine Crane and Thom Griffin, and captivating ensemble numbers that kept the audience laughing.
On Nov. 3, singer-songwriter Amelia Day released her sophomore EP (Extended Play), “Little One.” Coming off the heels of her 2022 folk EP “Eastward of Eden,” “Little One” is a love letter to the stages of growing up, wrapped up in a 6-track eclectic patchwork of genres.
“It’s been a long time coming.” These aren’t only the first words on Taylor Swift’s lips as she rises onto the stage of her Eras Tour — but a message to her fans.
“I guess you wonder how you got to where you are?” That is the first line of the introduction to Blair Sorrel’s (ʼ77) memoir, “A…
The literary world of Roald Dahl is eccentric, humorous and often mischievous; naturally, the cinematic universe of Wes Anderson is its perfect match. Yes, Anderson’s latest Dahl adaptation, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” (Netflix, 2023), is every bit as charming as his last, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009). Despite a seemingly never-ending influx of movie adaptations, Anderson claims “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” as his own by combining his eccentric aesthetic and Dahl’s authorial wisdom in this 41-minute short.
When comedian Ashely Gavin announced a Northampton stop on her tour on Oct. 1, I knew I had to go. I first saw Gavin scrolling on my TikTok “For You” page a few months ago. In this first short clip, Gavin describes a conversation with a contestant on The Bachelor who slid into her Instagram DMs (Direct Messages). It led me on a deep dive into her TikTok page, building my excitement for her stop at the Academy of Music. Her performance offered not only two hours of laughs but also unique insights on recently having a changed reputation in the world of social media cancel culture.
