Valleyist

Philosophers

2012-01-28T15:50:00.009-05:00

The students are back from winter break, as seen here on their way to their 8am classes.

Tremble students, lest the fate of this graduate in downtown Northampton become thine own!

Scene out the front door of the Haymarket Cafe.

Mary Serreze (right) Queen of Northampton Media, in the Haymarket styling the latest fashions from Maine.

A disc of ice on a fresh stump near my house.

Yikes, I hope this prophesy on a Hamp postal box doesn't come true!

I wonder if a Catholic drives this car?

Sometimes this is good advice.

Philosopher and a fish.

The philosophy of Springfield's Dr. Leary adapted by UMass for traffic purposes.

Big poetry reading in Amherst last night at Raos Coffee. It was so crowded I couldn't get in to film any of it except by going outside and filming thirteen seconds through the window.

Rao's House Plant

Mo Sno

2012-01-21T13:56:00.009-05:00

As they say (whoever they are) "Beware what you wish for!" We were complaining all through the holiday season that it wasn't snowing, and now we are having snow storms interrupted only by arctic blasts, as Northampton's Silent Cal could testify, if he wasn't so silent and covered with snow.

In Amherst all the plows were out this afternoon.

Raos Coffee was packed with people relaxing over a hot, steaming brew.

I however was recruited to de-chill at the Black Sheep.

Silverscape Designs is a Northampton landmark with its iconic clock dating back to the time when the building was a bank.

Across the street is this bench.

And on that bench there is a plaque.

May all the dreamers who sit there have all their dreams come true.

Joe Carvalho (above) is probably best known locally for his longtime multiple roles with the Springfield Library and Museums Association. Today he's done with all that and heavily into a musical trip. This is one of his spacier compositions.

Snowy

2012-01-14T13:10:00.013-05:00

This guy's been all over town.

So has Old Man Winter. After a premature start with a mammoth storm around Halloween the winter has been pretty much snowless except for the hilltowns, leaving even the usually super scenic woodland way into Northampton looking dreary and drab.

Now this is more like it!

Hard to believe that right around this bend is downtown Northampton!

The ancient church juxtaposed with Saturn.

Rudolph on Amber Lane.

By the time I got to work the weather was just exactly perfect.

Unfortunately, it was soon followed by a bitter arctic blast. Happily all was snug and cozy in the Haymarket Cafe last night.

This week the first presidential primary of Campaign 2012 was held next door in New Hampshire. Lots of political junkies in our Valley scoot over there every presidential season and this year was no exception, as shown in this photo of local GOP rising stars Joe Flebotte, Alexander Sherman and Josh Carpenter arriving at former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's victory party.

Who says Romney doesn't inspire a devoted electorate?

Meanwhile over at Ron Paul headquarters, adding a little Western Mass madness to the scene was Valley libertarian leader Terry Franklin and friends engaging in some satirical surrealism with prankster candidate Vermin Supreme, who wears a boot on his head because people are always saying they want to give politicians "the boot" but there's never one handy: Aleksandra Valiunas of Amherst in white suit on far left at 1:10; Terry Franklin in red jacket and black hat, taking photo at 1:40; Barbara McGovern (UMass grad) hair in foreground at 2:14.

UPDATE - Oh no! YouTube has taken the video down, no doubt as the result of an evil conspiracy!

psychedelic moose on king street

Alan C. Howard

2012-01-07T13:53:00.011-05:00

1959 - 2011

I'm sorry to hear that Alan Howard has died. I knew him best back in his radio days at WNNZ-640, where he had a series of radio shows in the early 1990's, the best known perhaps being the version he co-hosted with fellow flaming liberal Barbara Heisler. I was a guest on his show sometimes, and even had a program of my own, The Tommy Devine Show, for one summer. So I got to know Alan mostly through the station.

Today WNNZ is an affiliate of National Public Radio, but in the early 1990's it was owned by the Hahn's, a powerful Republican family in Westfield. Cele Hahn was Westfield's State Representative for a time. The joke was that they let Alan do pretty much whatever he liked on the air because the Hahn's wanted to be able, in case the FCC gave them any crap about a lack of balance in their overwhelmingly right-wing programming, to point to Alan and say, "Hey, we not only have a liberal radio host, but he's black too!" Or come to think of it, maybe that wasn't just a joke.

This was in the golden age of Valley talk radio, when we were all battling the injustices and corruption of the Valley political machines, in particular the crooks in Springfield. We were definitely all on the political fringe in those days, with the mainstream media either ignoring the crooks or even cheering them on. In the end we outsiders were all vindicated by a hail of Federal indictments against nearly all of the people we fought against, although it remains an open question whether the Feds actually succeeded in cleaning up Springfield or the crooks just got smarter.

Anyway, besides our ties to WNNZ Alan and I shared another interest - we were both stoners. In fact sometimes we actually smoked pot behind the radio station before going on the air. Perhaps the fact that we got stoned to go on the radio at least partially explains why both of our shows were eventually cancelled.

After the radio era Alan and I worked together briefly as political reporters for The Springfield Gazette, an underground newspaper that put out about ten issues before sinking beneath a sea of debt. Once there were no longer any media ties between us I seldom saw Alan in person again. In fact I think the last time I saw him in the flesh was at The Democratic National Convention in 2004, when he came up to say hello to myself (who was there as an outlaw journalist) and Mitch Ogulewicz (who was attending as a personal guest of John Kerry) at a reception for the Massachusetts delegation put on by Rep. Barney Frank. I have a picture of Alan at that event somewhere, and if I come across it I'll put it up.

Although I didn't see much of Alan after WNNZ and the newspaper bankruptcy, I continued to hear news about him from time to time, and it wasn't always happy news. He did a short jail term as a result of some personal scandal that the local press, which had ignored his career up to that point, gave prominent coverage to. I don't recall the details of the scandal, but I remember that he insisted to me that he was innocent and I believed him. My final contacts with him came when I accepted his request a few years ago to become my Facebook friend, which he apparently did primarily in order to send me snide but good natured putdowns of my political views. Although Alan never pursued all that healthy a lifestyle, I was still taken by surprise when I heard that he died last week on the day before New Year's Eve at only 52.

Now in the future whenever I remember Alan, I will prefer to recall the times when I was his radio guest, around about 1993, and there were no Hahn's about, and we would smoke pot behind the station before the show. There was a charming little brook back there, and it was babbling (and so probably were we) with us smoking and laughing and then going before the microphones to rail uninhibitedly against the evil deeds of the local politicians, blazed as much on idealism as we were on weed, righteously attacking the establishment, sometimes harshly but never more than they deserved.

Those were the days, Alan. Rest easy.

To read the obituary, which curiously doesn't mention his radio career, click here.

A soldier stencil in Northampton.

The sunny side of the street.

In Northampton the other night.

Bye Eleven

2011-12-30T16:31:00.005-05:00

The Mighty Connecticut in winter.

The old abandoned railroad station along the Norwottock Trail. It's a shame that it is falling into irretrievable ruin.

The building itself has a clear opinion of its fate:

BEING ABANDONED IS NOT COOL!

Message on the pedestrian tunnel under Route Nine.

Sister trees on Mount Pollux in Amherst.

Man in a valley.

I like my neighbor's rock and wreath decor.

I love the cakes at the Haymarket Cafe.

Just like in the old days.

Here is a great video tribute to Northampton.

Okay, so here comes another year of adventures.

I can't wait to see what happens next....

Happy New Year Everyone!

Christmas Cards

2011-12-23T15:32:00.009-05:00

Every year I get several cards wishing me a Very Jerry Christmas. I never tire of them.

Politicians are also always sending me Christmas cards. I can never be sure whether they do so because they like me, or because they hope I'll leave them alone! The highest ranking politician to send me a Christmas card was former President George W. Bush, who for reasons that were never quite clear (I never contacted him in any way) sent me a card all eight years he was in office. They were always religious and very elegant with a gold-embossed presidential seal on top.

Somehow the Obama's keep forgetting to add me to their list. The other day I got a Christmas greeting from Amherst State Senator Stan Rosenberg. It shows the Senator looking somewhat frail while undergoing recent cancer treatments, seated next to his partner Byron, whom I had never seen before. Frankly, he's hot.

It looks like it's going to be a snowless Christmas. New England doesn't look so nice without snow to cover all the dead plants. Even the woodland way into downtown Northampton, usually a majestic cathedral of snow this time of year, is looking drab.

Yet someone decorated this scrawny little pine tree, simply to amuse the passersby on the way. This is the season for good natured whimsy.

What a lucky guy I am. The sun is setting, its a rockin' holiday weekend and as soon as I post this I'm off to downtown Northampton!

Wreaths on the rails of the old First Church, portions of which date back to 1727.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Stairway to Art

2011-12-12T18:17:00.007-05:00

Looking out of one of the top floors of the UMass Library you can see that only a few cars remain as the students all leave for their winter holiday.

Hurry back kids, lest we die of boredom! A cool thing to do in the UMass Library is explore the stairwells, which also serve as a gallery for student art, most of it dating back to the late 1980's. Here are a few samples:

Washington in the stairwell.

Stairway sunset.

Traversing the woodland way into downtown Northampton yesterday I came upon some city workers still hard at work clearing branches that fell during the Halloween snowstorm.

That storm was a real holocaust for our friends the trees. Not only were many tree branches knocked down, but a lot of branches that didn't fall were none the less weakened to the point that the snowstorms over the rest of this winter will bring them crashing down. Thus there were really two storms, the original one that brought a whole lot of branches down in one day, and another, slow motion aftermath as the branches weakened in the storm continue to fall for months to come.

When I got downtown I took a short cut by the old courthouse onto Main Street.

There I was surprised to see in this shop window dinnerware for Republicans!

Positive beats filmed entirely in Northampton.

Hadley tree on a cold day.

A New Day

2011-12-11T17:44:00.010-05:00

In the Same Place.

The Northampton Christmas tree last night.

Good Morning Northampton!

Happy Hamp sign.

A naked torso in the window.

I haven't read a Stephen King book in years, having grown bored by his formulaic plots and lack of fresh ideas. His new book looks intriguing though.

Staircase in the Haymarket Cafe.

People waiting in the cold to get into the Green Bean this morning, the hip Hamp Sunday morning hotspot for talking about all the Saturday night action.

A psychedelic corner in Raos.

Pioneer Valley artist Seth Glier has been nominated for a Grammy Award!

Never Forgotten

2011-12-04T16:51:00.012-05:00

The Northampton Urban Outfitters is located in an old bank building, as seen in this classic Greg Saulmon photo.

Here's what it looks like inside:

On the wall is this plaque leftover from the bank days, honoring a teller who was killed in World War One in 1918.

In front of it is this rack of ladies clothes.

At first I was inclined to say something to the management about the lack of respect that shows, but then I was struck by the idea that the dead soldier probably would have liked the notion of pretty young Urban Outfitter shoppers pausing all day before his plaque. That's better remembrance than a lot of vets get.

There was another one of those censorship controversies at UMass last week when Professor Andrew Bernstein tried to lecture on the virtues of capitalism and was repeatedly interrupted by screaming leftists. Here one of them is escorted from the hall by campus security.

Newt who? This Northampton van owner is supporting (and has been supporting) Vermin Supreme!

A cow on the roof of an Amherst shed.

Legendary Amherst Bulletin columnist Phyllis Lehrer (right) stopped by the Amherst Survival Center recently with her friend Gale Kuhn.

So did Channel 22's Shannon Halligan and her cameraperson.

The Northampton Chapter.

The Hot Chocolate charity run through downtown Northampton was this morning. Here is sixty-five seconds of it - see anybody you know?

Strictly Commercial

2011-11-27T14:33:00.005-05:00

Most of this year's pumpkin harvest has gone rotten by now, although this one outside Carmelina's on Route Nine is still doing fine.

An old tractor at Wanczyk's Farm.

How long ago did Stan's close?

Long enough so that the paper was called The Union-News.

Yes in Northampton is a cool store.

Northampton Wools is in a new and bigger location. I'm told the knitting scene is exploding in popularity these days.

View out the window of Bruegger's in Amherst.

The Amherst Starbuck's is closed temporarily.

The Corporate Flag of America at UMass.

Good advice on the Norwottock trestle.

Thanksgiving Sunset

South

2011-11-20T15:53:00.007-05:00

Hello Holyoke, ain't seen ya in a while.

At the Springfield bus terminal I was surprised to see that there are no more free papers available. It's buy the Springfield Republican or nothing.

I'm not sure that Peter Picknelly would have approved, but of course now ol' man Picknelly can only be found on a psychedelic sneaker in the bus station lobby.

I stopped by St. Michael's to visit family and friends.

Welcome to beautiful downtown Pine Point!

I wish I could have back all the money I spent at Kappy's.

The former Pine Point Cafe.

Out the window of Doyle the Twig Painter.

Doyle and some fun loving Pine Pointers in 1993.

Saturday Night Live was poking fun at Northampton last night with an imaginary band called The Blue Jean Committee. It would have been more accurate if it had some of nearby Springfield's Dr. Seuss characters dancing rather than Muppets.

In Northampton.

Veteran's Weekend

2011-11-13T14:43:00.004-05:00

Here are some vets setting up chairs for a ceremony in Northampton's Pulaski Park in their honor.

The rising sun comes shining through the front windows of the Haymarket Cafe this morning.

At noon it was so nice that I was sitting outside at Raos in Amherst without even a coat on.

There are three main coffee houses in downtown Amherst. Amherst Coffee is where the power players gather to cut their deals. Raos is for academics, with everyone sitting and staring at computers. The Loose Goose is for the farmers and other year round residents.

You might think I spend all my free time in coffee houses. Well hey, it beats my Pine Point Cafe years, but the truth is I do go to other places as well. Like hamburg joints, such as this wonderful new one that opened in Amherst recently.

The burgers are great and the prices are low, so who could ask for more? It's located in the old Newbury Comix, now unrecognizably transformed into a kitchen, although the beautiful old hardwood floor remains.

A psychedelic truck at the Amherst Survival Center.

A colorful new mural in the UMass Student Union features the names of Valley towns.

Anti-Bush art in the UMass Student Union Art Gallery.

In a Men's Room in Herter Hall.

Election 2011

2011-11-09T19:49:00.001-05:00

Whew, glad that's over!

In the aftermath of the storm at Amherst College a snowbeing appeared wearing a skirt of marijuana leaves.

Hey, Northampton has a new mayor, but I didn't vote for him.

Instead I voted for this guy, but without much enthusiasm.

Actually my emotional range regarding the candidates running in the Valley this year stretched from a yawn to a wretch, so I didn't make any public endorsements. Besides, I probably drive away as many votes from the candidates I endorse as I attract. You needed a microscope to find a difference in the issues separating the Northampton candidates. The only reason I chose Bardsley over Narkewicz was that I didn't like the way incumbent Mayor M. Clare Higgins stepped down early to allow her chosen heir Narkewicz to run as an incumbent. It reminded me too much of Springfield, where for decades mayors were "anointed" and I hate to see Northampton adopting any of Springfield's bad habits. That said, Narkewicz is a good man and will probably make a fine mayor. I saw him this morning standing by Smith College when a passerby asked him about his tie.

In Springfield, incumbent Dominic Sarno whomped mayoral wannabe Jose Tosado. Nothing to cheer about really, the only true change agent in the race, Antonette Pepe was eliminated in the primary. (Rumors are rampant that Pepe intends to step down after her current term.) One thing to take solace in is that the gang behind Sarno is slightly less sleazy than the gang behind Tosado. Here's a capsule review of the Springfield City Council races:

SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL AT LARGE

The Winners

Tom ASHE - Oh for shame that this sleazy, two bit hustler was re-elected, let alone came in first.
Tim ROOKE - The best person on the Council is recognized at last.
Kateri WALSH - Everybody loves Kateri, even if she doesn't really do anything.
James FERRERA - I give up.
Bud L. WILLIAMS - Bud's a likeable guy and I'm sure he'll be as useless as ever.

The Losers

Justin HURST - In the end Mommy and Daddy didn't have enough pull.
Amaad RIVERA - There must be a socialist people's state somewhere he can win in.
Charles RUCKS - He seems always destined to be the best candidate no one will vote for.
Joseph FOUNTAIN - He made it through the election without humiliating himself, which is a first for Joe.
Miguel SOTO - He never realized you're supposed to at least pretend to care about non-Hispanics.

SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL WARD 8

Rarely has a candidate worked harder to give voters a reason not to vote for him than John Lysak. First there was his ugly divorce and the accusation from his ex-wife that he put his new girlfriend on the city payroll. Then he was accused of campaign finance violations. Finally Lysak was discovered to have been a regular swimmer in the notorious pool owned by jailbird ex-rep Christopher Asselin, which during Asselin's criminal trial had become a hated symbol of arrogant corruption. Fortunately for Lysak he had one ace up his sleeve - his opponent Orlando Ramos, who was widely known to be a stooge for the Rivera Gang operating out of the city's North End. It was one of those classic Springfield races where any way it turned out the public lost.

Happier mayoral outcomes were found elsewhere in the Valley. Alex Morse is the best thing to happen to Holyoke in a generation, while Greg Neffinger won a much deserved victory in West Springfield. But that's pretty much the only bright spots. Oh well, let's hope for the best, but I've learned that in politics if you expect nothing you will never be disappointed.

In the better world of music, a big Grateful Dead tribute show taking place in Hamp this weekend.

Bob Weir and Phil Lesh of the real Grateful Dead were at UMass this week. Here the t-shirts are prepared for consumption by the rabid fans.

Can this old man really be Bobby Weird the Kozmik Kid?

It's probably best that Jerry Garcia died young, or he'd probably be playing in a wheelchair by now.

But he'd be rockin' the wheelchair.

And speaking of fanatical fans, radical poets are using Amherst's Emily Dickinson to launch a Google bomb.

Snow on the Pumpkin

2011-10-30T13:30:00.007-04:00

Some hungry squirrels attacked my neighbor's pumpkins.

Maybe they should have had a scarecrow to keep them away.

The Northampton Stop&Shop sells pre-painted pumpkins, but that feels like a form of creative laziness.

Happy Halloween, I guess.

The Pioneer Valley is known worldwide as one of America's most beautiful places. Unfortunately it comes with a few downsides, such as utterly corrupt politics and winters that come too early and springs that arrive too late. Here is the weather as I left UMass last night.

Of course it's nothing to the Old Chapel, which has seen the snowfalls of three centuries.

By morning the snow had stopped and this was how things looked by the babbling brook near my house.

Here's a little video I made while attempting to traverse the woodland way into downtown Northampton.

Finally I arrived downtown, where a bouquet of fallen branches surrounded a snow-faced Calvin Coolidge.

The buses were running as usual and so I soon arrived in Amherst, where the snowstorm perhaps caused this witch to crash into a UMass frathouse.

A menacing mouth greeted the customers of The Black Sheep, or would have if it was open.

A power outage meant that everything was closed, except of course for the store that never closes for any reason whatsoever.

No power meant the cash register didn't work, but if you could pay in cash with exact change it was business as usual.

In a world in which there is so little you can depend on, it is nice to know that on every single day since 1914 you can always count on Hastings.

What's in a Name?

2011-10-23T16:48:00.005-04:00

I was surprised to see my lifetime motto on display this week in the UMass Campus Center concourse.

As you may have noticed, I've changed the name of this thing again. Long timers know this blog was originally a print publication out of Springfield called The Baystate Objectivist. That name was kind of a joke, a play on the unimaginative tendency of everything around these parts to be called Baystate this and Baystate that. It is generally divided into two words - Bay State - so just to be contrary I mashed them together. Then I tried to spoof the journalistic convention of naming publications after ideological things, like the Cleveland Democrat or the Springfield Republican by using a term that was at that time obscure - Objectivist. Today of course everybody knows that as the philosophy of Ayn Rand.

Anyway, for all my intended wit very few people got the joke and besides it wasn't a very catchy name and kinda hard to remember so I changed it to Samizdat, which is a Russian term meaning an underground publication. I thought Samizdat more accurately described what I write about - things that aren't published anywhere else - but to my surprise most people said they liked the Baystate Objectivist moniker for its oddness or whatever and asked me to change it back, so I did.

Eventually I took the project online and to distinguish it from the print version (they existed simultaneously for a time) I called this "Tom Devine's Online Journal." That was cool for a while, and then people started questioning the name's reference to a journal. That was when I first realized that a name had been invented for what I was doing, a condensation of "web-log" into the word "blog" and that furthermore people started singling me out as the Pioneer Valley's first blogger. But I had to draw the line when they started to call me things like "the father of the Valley blogosphere" so I demanded a paternity test. I ain't takin' the rap for that!

Anyway, it seemed like a good idea to change the name again so I had to figure out what to call this that would really explain what my blog is about. Then I realized that I actually write about just about anything and everything in the cosmos, so to cover all of creation I settled on "The Cosmos Report." I intended to call it "Tom Devine's Cosmos Report" but tomdevine.com was taken so I took tommydevine.com which no one had swiped yet and thus it became "Tommy Devine's Cosmos Report."

But the other day I was going through some of my old files and came across an edition of the Samizdat from 1993 and thought, "You know that was the best name I ever had." So it's back, only with "Valley" added for some geographical relevance, although I have never confined my subject matter strictly to this Valley and will continue to hit to all fields. So Valley Samizdat is the latest name until I come up with a reason in a year or two or ten to change it again, but it will always be the same sort of subversive weirdness no matter what you call it.

In the window of Feeding Tube Records in Northampton.

An advertisement tries in vain to be as cool as a real Northamptonite.

There was a book sale on the lawn of the Unitarian church this morning.

Northampton's version of Occupy Wall Street has dwindled down to one single overnight camper.

An attempt to hold an Occupy Springfield protest fizzled out when more cops showed up then protesters, as seen in this Mark M. Murray photo.

Despite our Valley's lefty reputation the Occupy Wall Street movement doesn't seem to be catching on around here, but maybe that's because the real firebrands are going to the big protests down in nearby New York City.

Speaking of New York, here is former Northamptoner Paolo Mastrangelo leaving Massachusetts in the rear view mirror as he heads to New York City where he moved a few years back.

When Paolo was living in Northampton he always had some kind of journalistic type activism underway and has continued to do so in the Big Apple, where he has been all over the New York media these last few weeks as one of the most prominent chroniclers of the Wall Street protests. To follow Paolo's further adventures click here.

Meanwhile the libertarians at UMass have been covering the campus with recruitment posters.

I managed to stop by briefly during my lunch break at the marijuana conference at UMass this week.

It was well attended. Here keynote speaker Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) addresses the crowd.

Trevor wrote a new song about Springfield's Dr. Seuss.

Some drummers playing in downtown Amherst this afternoon.

UMass horserides.

Protesters

2011-10-16T17:04:00.009-04:00

The winds of change were blowing through Northampton's Pulaski Park with a copycat Wall Street style occupation underway.

Not a lot of people involved.

But a lot of signs were participating.

Most of the signs had dull slogans on them, but a few like this one showed a sense of humor.

The protests in Boston had a contingent from Springfield, as seen in this photo by Michaelann Bewsee

In downtown Amherst there were cries of treason.

UMass students were focusing on fixing the bottle bill.

Big pot pow-wow at UMass this week - the general public is invited.

When: Wednesday, October 19, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Location: Student Union Ballroom
Hosted by: Cannabis Reform Coalition

It's time to talk about the elephant in the room, folks. Cannabis is making headlines in pop culture, medicine, politics, you name it. So how is it that something so present can still be so misconstrued? Well, we're working to solve that. Whether you're a cannabis connoisseur or just curious what all the hype is about, this is your event.

The UMass CRC Cannabis Colloquium will be an event centered on education about the drug and discussion of relevant topics. Members of the UMass CRC as well as student groups from the Amherst area and beyond will have tables to present information and answer questions on such topics as the Mexican drug cartels, hemp, and knowing your rights. In addition, we will provide speakers from organizations in the cannabis industry, including:

1:00: Terry Franklin Executive Director of The Freedom Bus Caravan.
1:30: Erik Wunderlich of Mass Patients (MPAA).
1:45: Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition(LEAP.)
2:25: Richard Cusick of High Times Magazine.
3:00: Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

This morning while waiting for the bus I saw a kid doing yo-yo tricks in the lobby of the Academy of Music. I made this video holding the camera wrong so it came out sideways.

I got off the bus in Amherst by the Robert Frost library at Amherst College.

I noticed that they were having the ceremony for the induction of Carolyn Martin, the new college president and the first female one.

In honor of the occasion, in the Frost Library some Tibetan monks were making a psychedelic mandala using only finely colored sand, as seen in this video I made.

It rained a lot this week, as you can see from this picture I took out the back door of the Haymarket Cafe.

But that didn't stop Jordan Williams (below) and myself from doing some hiking around the Holyoke reservoir.

It was mostly just misting out, and eventually stopped completely.

The last rays of light at sunset made a rainbow fragment.

A sign of good luck, and better days.

Autumntimes

2011-10-08T15:31:00.010-04:00

My lost brother John was in town visiting his big Irish family this week, a family he hadn't even met five years ago. Here is just a portion of the motley crew - my brother Dick, my sister Donna, John and the family troublemaker at Amherst College.

John arrives just in time for the local pumpkin explosion!

Deadhead selling gourds in the UMass Campus Center.

This UMass student has attracted attention with her militant non-conformity.

Heather selling her wares in downtown Northampton this morning.

Nearby David Narkiewicz was campaigning for Mayor of Northampton.

Here is the first 2012 anti-Obama sticker I've seen in Hamp.

In Easthampton last night Amherst Senator Stan Rosenberg joined Amherst Representative Ellen Story to listen with other Democrats to U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (center). Warren is off to a strong start, but I predict she's another Martha Coakley - the more voters get to know her, the less they will like her.

Dust Witch in Easthampton last weekend.

In an Amherst window.

Rand's Revenge

2011-10-02T13:25:00.010-04:00

The Libertarians have been very active on the UMass campus this semester.

So have the campus Democrats. But seemingly missing in action are the campus Republicans. They were extremely active during the years when activists like Ben Duffy and Ed Cutting were on campus, but since they graduated the energy of the UMass Republican Club has gradually dissipated until now the Democrats have regained the hammerlock hold on campus they've maintained since the 1960's. A pleasant surprise however has been the rise of Objectivism on campus, with these Ayn Rand distribution stands springing up not just at UMass but on college campuses all over the Valley. Here's one at the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College.

The print publication that preceded this website was called The Baystate Objectivist, and Objectivism was so unknown at that time that most people thought I was trying to make some kind of statement on journalistic objectivity. Now Ayn Rand's ideas are everywhere and at the center of all major policy debates; sweet revenge for the many years she was ignored.

If only Rand's ideas had caught on sooner, many of our Valley's cities and towns would have been spared the devastating government interventions into the economy known as "Urban Renewal." This video tells about the tragic consequences of an urban renewal project in New York City, but a similar tragedy unfolded locally in Springfield's North End around the same time.

Time changes everything, like this mighty boulder totally transformed by ages of water swirling around it while sitting in the Westfield River, and now on display as an ornament in front of Westfield City Hall.

This antique car was parked in front of the UMass Student Union the other day. My Uncle Steve had a car just like this, only it was green.

Elsewhere on campus Hollywood Director Michael Haley, UMass class of 1965 and the man behind such films as "Primary Colors" and "Groundhog Day" gave a speech. Afterwards there was a long line of students asking him to sign their DVD's.

UMass had a big outdoor poster sale this week.

A new clothing store has opened in downtown Northampton.

There are those among us still seeking their way.

Someone stated their humble opinion of Northampton's law enforcement personnel.

Valley favorites the Alchemystics in Greenfield last week.

Pittsfield Pumpkin Patch by Andrea Nuciforo Jr.

Wildlife

2011-09-25T17:29:00.006-04:00

An angry troll along the Norwottock Trail. I'm over my own angry rant about the election results in Springfield. Hey, the people have spoken - God damn them.

Looks like the Jolly Green Giant has been by.

Feminists too pass this way.

Along the Hadley part of the trail I came upon this group of turkeys crossing a farmer's field.

What is a group of turkeys called? According to Answers.com - A group of turkeys is called a rafter, although a gang is also an acceptable name. They have also alternately been called a gobble, although this definition is colloquial and does not appear in dictionaries.

But my real wildlife thrill this week came while I was traversing the woodland way into downtown Northampton one morning. I whipped out my camera as fast as I could as soon as I spotted this deer staring at me from the clearing!

I quickly turned on my telescopic lens to get a closer shot, but then imagine my amazement as yet another deer entered the viewfinder!

Then both of them melted away back into the woods. How lucky I am to live in such close communion with nature! Emerging from the woodlands onto King Street and then down to Main, I encountered Bill Dwight (right) setting up a table for his City Council campaign. He served on the Council years ago and is trying to get back on.

One of the reasons Dwight may have decided to make a political comeback is because his long running gig working at Northampton's Pleasant Street Video ended over the summer when the joint went out of business. Here's a funny video someone made to mourn its passing.

There is a theory that if anybody ever discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory that states that this has already happened. - Paul Kantner

Primary Wrap-up

2011-09-19T15:29:00.016-04:00

Springfield's Tragic Loss

Pepe and friends last night by Don Treeger.

It's a sad day in Springfield as the best chance the city had for meaningful reform slipped away with the defeat of Antonette Pepe for Mayor in yesterday's primary. That leaves the contest in November between incumbent Dom Sarno and Albano era stooge Jose Tosado. Sarno whomped Tosado by a landslide margin, leaving it highly unlikely that Sarno will be beaten in November unless he really messes up big time in the coming weeks. While Sarno has been a competent mayor, he is not the person who will shake things up the way they need to be shaken up to give the city some forward momentum. That person was Antonette Pepe, and her elimination in the primary is a tragic loss for the entire region.

Meanwhile, the at-large City Council results did little to dispel Springfield's reputation as having the dumbest electorate in the Valley. The pitiful results were as follows:

Thomas Ashe: 6,885 - That a flunkie for convicted felon Frankie Keough (Keough once described Ashe as his political heir) could finish in first place is so pathetic one is tempted to simply give up in despair on Springfield.

Tim Rooke: 5,955 - Rooke is the only councilor who consistently appears to take the public good into consideration. His second place finish partially redeems the shameful Ashe results.

Kateri Walsh: 5,642 - Everybody likes Kateri, including me, but she is an old guard councilor not noted for any reform tendencies.

Bud Williams: 5,117 - He did nothing when he was on the Council before, why do voters want to send him back?

Jimmy Ferrera: 5,087 - It's been a mystery why Ferrara was ever elected in the first place and that he gets re-elected is simply baffling. May he finally be shown the door.

Justin Hurst: 4,245 - Another wanna-be from one of Springfield's establishment families. Beyond the family connections, he hasn't given anyone a reason to vote for him.

Amaad Rivera: 3,179 - This crusading leftist really wishes he was a congressman. Voters should give him the free time to challenge Richie Neal in the Democrat primary of 2012.

Miguel Soto: 2,398 - An ethnic candidate crippled by the low Hispanic turnout.

Charles Rucks: 2,327 - Probably the best challenger on the field, but somehow he never gets the attention he deserves. Hopefully the voters will wake up by November.

Joseph Fountain: 2,111 - The comeback attempt by this eccentric figure from the Albano era continues, but just barely.

Bruce Adams: 2,036 - He got eliminated because he didn't get it - even in Springfield you're supposed to be accused of stealing after the election, not before.

John Stevens: 1,557 and David Ciampi: 1,374 - Of course two Republicans occupied the bottom spots - after all, the Democrats have done such a wonderful job for Springfield.

Write-ins: 149 - I'd love to know whose names were being written on the ballots. How much you wanna bet most of the names being written in were far superior to any of the actual candidates?

A display of football memorabilia at the UMass library shows this image from the cover of a 1961 game program. It portrays a typical college student attending a game with two bratty kids in tow. Those were the days when everybody got married right out of high school and most of the students had at least two kids by graduation. Today college students who are raising children are a rarity.

The annual marijuana legalization rally in Boston, one of the largest in the country, was held last weekend and among the speakers was Amherst's Terry Franklin. Here's his two minute speech.

Never Forget

2011-09-17T16:14:00.019-04:00

Northampton - What a concept!

It starts getting chilly early here in New England.

The haunted, frightened trees in the window of Silverscape.

In the window of Valley Antiques a treasured memento of the past boys of summer.

Through the window of the APE Gallery.

Last Sunday was the tenth anniversary of the event universally known simply as 9/11. Here Selectboard Chairperson Stephanie O'Keefe addresses the Amherst Police and Fire Departments.

Big Y let the town borrow their gigantic flag, the largest ever to fly on the Amherst Common.

Naturally Larry Kelley was there blogging it all for posterity.

But it wouldn't be Amherst without a little protest demonstration on the side.

At UMass they had this huge flag display outside the campus center.

There are a couple of important local primaries this Tuesday. I don't live in Springfield anymore, but if I did I'd vote for the most honest woman in Valley politics, Antonette Pepe for Mayor. For At-large City Council I would vote for Timothy Rooke, Kateri Walsh, John Stevens, Charles Rucks and David Ciampi.

Of course this being Springfield, be sure to vote early and often!

If I lived in Holyoke, for mayor I would vote for Alex Morse, one of the most promising fresh faces to appear in Valley politics for a long time.

Some hot pickin' a few nights ago in an Easthampton record store.

Beatle bag at Raos in Amherst.

Students

2011-09-10T15:27:00.008-04:00

They're Back!

Sleepy ol' Amherst was jolted out of its summer doldrums this week as you know who came roaring into town.

2015? Is that a date from a science fiction novel or am I just getting old?

They were swarming all over the Campus Center.

And running through the streets.

Organizing their clubs.

And doing their politics. At least the Democrats were, the campus Republicans were nowhere in sight.

Students we love you - as long as you brought your credit cards!

Meanwhile City Hall pranksters decorated the car of retiring Northampton Mayor M. Clare Higgins on her last day with parking tickets, a no parking barrier and a pedestrian beneath her wheels, as documented by Dave Narkewicz.

Yesterday was Hamp's annual chalk drawing contest. In the morning on my way to the bus stop I saw this artist starting to map out his picture.

When I arrived back downtown after work I saw that his drawing was done.

The winner of the $250 Grand Prize was this portrait of an owl drawn in front of the Academy of Music.

This was my personal favorite.

An Irish band was playing last night in the Woodstar Cafe in Hamp.

Hot upcoming Northampton show.

Saratoga Springs

2011-09-06T09:47:00.003-04:00

Uh oh, the Massachusetts legislature is back in session, which means the casino lobby has got the promo thing going full blast.

I just got back from Saratoga Springs where I was attending the horse races.

Private sector controlled gambling = good. Public sector controlled gambling = bad.

On the way we stopped in Albany. Going places with me means you have to check out the government buildings. All Power to the People!

This is the legendary horse trainer Nick Zito being interviewed by the media.

Here's a video I made of Sam the Bugler who performs before each race.

Retiring Northampton Mayor Mary Claire Higgins at her last City Council meeting in this photo by cable videographer Dann Vazquez.

Artist John Sendelbach captured this view from Shelburne Falls last week. Notice how close the Bridge of Flowers is to being washed away!

East Longmeadow's Lazer 99 has a cool car.

Irene Report

2011-08-29T09:45:00.011-04:00

And Other Assorted Stuff

On Saturday the sun shining through the trees created a cathedral of light along the woodland way into downtown Northampton.

But after hurricane Irene passed through on Sunday, the woodland way was blocked in several places by fallen trees.

Personally, I do not think that Irene lived up to Hurricane Gloria back in the mid-1980's. I remember being out in my backyard during the period of time when the eye of the hurricane passed over Springfield, and the sky was as strange and beautiful as I've ever seen it, with odd colors and spectacular cloud formations. I saw no such wonders of nature displayed by Irene. However, maybe I was just in the wrong location, as Irene made much more of an impact in other parts of our Valley, as seen in this Craig Gagne photo taken in Deerfield near Richardson's Candy Shoppe.

Some critics have complained that the media overhyped Irene, but in any case, it's over.

Earlier in the week people were arriving at the Amherst Survival Center by all means of transportation.

The media was there too, like Hampshire Gazette reporter Nick Grabbe.

And veteran photographer Gordon Daniels of the Amherst Bulletin.

Soon U.S. Congressman John Olver arrived on the scene.

He was immediately given an apron and put to work.

I guess this is what you would literally call "serving your constituents."

I was surprised to see this big line stretching down the street to see Alice Cooper in Northampton.

There has always been something kinda corny about Alice Cooper and his horror show schtick. Yet at the same time his music is rockin good fun and the special effects I'm told are impressive. Plus to people of a certain age he's a big nostalgia trip that still generates a substantial cash flow. This limousine bus parked at the Hotel Northampton was definitely Alice's.

Only in Northampton do signs end up like this. Who knows what they originally said?

Sean is a hip Hamp biker.

A rare recent interview with David Starr of the Springfield Newspapers. Extremely controversial in earlier years, Starr has faded from the scene somewhat, although he maintains his position as President of the Springfield Newspapers. This interview is about what you'd expect - lots of civic cheerleading, quoting Karl Marx, and dripping with unintended irony.

Jake's Saved

2011-08-20T15:22:00.003-04:00

For decades everyone has been going to Northampton's Jake's.

So all of Hamp cried out in dismay a few months ago when it was suddenly shuttered beneath a cloudburst of legal and business hassles.

But sighs of sorrow turned to jumping for joy as all has been sorted out and this sign appeared in the window.

Amherst College is restoring the exterior of one of its classic colonial structures, including putting in new steps.

However, it was a little sad to see the old steps waiting to be dragged away. How many generations of Valley residents have climbed those ancient stone steps?

I'm as much in favor of the new as anyone, but must the old be so casually tossed aside? Of course not everything old is good, like old dents in your car, although they can be partially disguised by dog paintings.

It's nice to see that an old rockstar like Jim Morrison still rates a bumpersticker.

But the newfangled Rumble Bee is ready to rock!

And the ultra-new Wheego All Electric car is making the scene all over Amherst!

But along the old Nowottock Trail the spider in its web greets the morning mist at dawn just as it always has and always will do.

Third Letter

2011-08-17T17:51:00.009-04:00

I wonder how long the mainstream media will continue ignoring this story, although a link in the Valley Advocate suggests that the media blackout is crumbling. And why do the Asselins always surface wherever there is sleaze?

Hi, Tom.

Well, more has happened. One of my kids has said that John has been molesting them since they were 9 years old. I immediately called the police and DCF. On Monday, I got restraining orders for me and all 4 of the kids. He cannot see or speak to them or to me. Also, the Springfield Special Victims Unit is investigating. I am so sick and upset from all of this. I never would have thought that he is capable of this, even given his violent history. I'm looking to move to a nearby suburb, and my child wants to press charges and bring him to justice. It's going to be a long road for us. I will keep you updated.

I have to say that all of the professionals involved are being great. I feel very safe with my case in their hands. I did not see about Mo Turner's column, but I did see that she commented on your blog. It was terribly unfair of John and his friends to criticize you. I imagine that one of those people was Peter Lyons, as he made nasty comments about me, and then also made nasty comments to my sister when she defended me.

Peter Lyons has to support John, because it was through his work on John's campaign that Peter became friends with Chris Asselin. Yes, John and Chris are good friends, and Peter currently works with Chris thanks to John's connection. In fact, my kids tell me how much they enjoy swimming in Chris's pool with the water slide. The very same pool that was partially funded by stolen monies from city residents. The whole thing is disgusting.

Priscilla

My stuff waiting to hit the fan. The brass bell belonged to my grandfather and is over one hundred years old. The fish is a trophy that Jay Libardi and I won around 1986 at Yolly Nahorniak's fishing derby at Five Mile Pond in Pine Point.

Trevor Hall has a new album coming out in about a week. It sounds really hot.

As seen on this poster in the window of the Iron Horse Trevor is coming to Northampton on Columbus Day October 12th. Don't miss it!

Freethinkers

2011-08-13T14:23:00.009-04:00

When my friend asked me if I wanted to go to a meeting of the Pioneer Valley Freethinkers, of course I had to attend, if only to see what is considered a free thinker. I mean, is there anyone who does NOT consider themselves a free thinker?

"Excuse me, but are you a free thinker?"

"No, I'm rigid in my thoughts, close minded and I hate new ideas."

It's sort of like a sense of humor, no one will admit to not having one, yet at the same time we all know people who are humorless. In the same way everyone is a free thinker - until the thoughts get a little too free.

So I went out of curiosity, but also because it was being held at a place with a great reputation, Shelburne Falls Roasters Coffee Shop on Route Nine.

As you can see it has won numerous Valley Advocate awards.

A little late, I entered the room where the free thinkers had already gathered.

They were a friendly enough bunch, these free thinkers. They were also primarily atheists, and I soon realized that this was the topic they mostly talk about. At points when the discussion drifted to other topics, the conversation was pretty much orthodox lefty Valley talk.

However, atheism is indeed a radical concept in this country where about 90% of people in public opinion polls say they believe in God. It would have been helpful however had some hapless Christian wandered into the discussion to spice things up with some opposition. Frankly, a radical idea loses a bit of its punch in a room where everyone agrees with it.

Oh well, it was still a fun and interesting time, and if this sounds like a group you'd like to join (or challenge) click here.

Hey, next time you're zooting around on the Norwottock Trail, don't forget to stop in at Grey Matter Books. It's good for your grey matter.

Then go next door and check out Troubador Books.

There's some ducks living around there too, as you can see in this video.

Advice scrawled on the Norwottock Trail.

Around about 1979 everyone used to get stoned and go to Bart's Ice Cream, at that time located in Northampton. We could never have imagined that there would one day be solar powered Bart's Ice Cream stands like this one in Amherst.

Daniel Platt has an article in the Valley Advocate on this year's Western Mass Republican picnic, the most publicity that affair has received since Dan Yorke broadcast live from the event back in 1995. (click to enlarge)

Things were much weirder at the Big Fruity Picnic in Easthampton.

An orange resident of Ashfield, Massachusetts by Tony Mateus.

Southwick Boatride

2011-08-05T10:46:00.009-04:00

Hey everybody, I was floating around on Congamond Lake recently. A lot of people seem to do that, taking it easy on the water.

Easy, the way life's supposed to be.

Congamond actually consists of several bodies of water, connected by tunnels.

There are strange sights on the shore.

The strangest things of all go on in the non-stop party zone called Louie B's.

There was a band playing called Mass-Conn Fusion.

When I first heard the name I thought it meant 'Massachusetts Confusion' which is pretty funny, but I later learned that it refers to how the band consists of a fusion of Massachusetts and Connecticut players. Not a bad band, whatever their name.

Here's a video I made of somebody's patriotic raft.

I often cross these railroad tracks in Northampton, yet never saw a train on it. Therefore I began to think the tracks were abandoned.

Then yesterday I found out I was wrong.

I wonder what these symbols mean that somebody painted on the bike path.

My friend bought a cool shower curtain.

Connecticut River Explorer by Robert Genest.

Another Letter

2011-07-30T13:48:00.007-04:00

Springfield City Councilor John Lysak

Good evening, Tom.

First, I would like to thank you for publishing my letter on your website. I know that you took a lot of heat for putting that out there, and I appreciate you giving me the chance to tell a small portion of my story.

Secondly, John is aware of the letter, and has responded to me, via a letter from his attorney Thomas Kenefick. The following is a quote from the letter:

"My client [John] has advised that your client has increased her virulent campaign against him in a number of ridiculous websites, viz, Tony Devine's Cosmos Report or Astronauts in Space. Apart from the bizarre nature of the website to which your client seems oddly attracted, she has made it her campaign to ventilate and/or publish my client's alleged abusive behavior towards her and the children (keeping in mind the parties have been separated for over a year) in the hope of causing him embarrassment and humiliation in the public sector. While I question the intellectual calculus of anyone who visits these blogs, nevertheless, it is embarrassing to my client not only because of its falsity but because of the continued vindictiveness and animus of your client towards mine which obviously must have an adverse impact on the children."

Tom, I'm telling you this because it was bloggers like you, Heather Brandon, and Bill Dusty that helped John's political career. He would be nowhere without the bloggers! When the mainstream media ignored our press releases, the bloggers were the only ones who would interview him and take his candidacy seriously. You (the bloggers and yourself) were the only ones to talk him up to the voters. I'm astounded that he would allow his attorney to say these things about people who were his friends.

The rest of the letter is concerning John's wedding band. He gave it to my oldest daughter to wear on a necklace. She fell asleep on my bed while wearing it, and I asked her to take it off while she slept as I worried that she would choke on it (I do this myself). She has misplaced it. John's attorney is convinced that I stole it from her and pawned it for money. It's not true of course.

In another letter, John's attorney tries to say that I should lose custody because he believes that I'm practicing witchcraft, which is not condoned by John's conservative Pentacostal Christian faith.

This is just a sampling of what I've been through and am going through with this man. This is the sort of person who wants the voters in Ward 8 to trust him? If he will treat his wife, his children, and his friends in this manner, then there really is no one that he won't betray in his desire for political power. I hope that the voters in Ward 8 learn this before it is too late.

Sincerely,
Priscilla Lysak

My neighbor's mailbox.

Norwottock Trail party invitation.

Amherst bloglord Larry Kelley in Amherst Town Hall.

Out the window of the UMass library.

Waiting for the bus at UMass.

Shiny Happy People at the Amherst Survival Center.

By the Calvin Coolidge Bridge by Nathan Gregory.

On the Farm

2011-07-23T14:36:00.006-04:00
This week I paid a visit to the Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst.

It's a beautiful place, as you can see in this video I made about a historic tale of enduring love.

Farmers have a sense of humor, as evidenced by this sign regarding the famous mystery about chickens and roads.

Some of the farming is done in homemade hothouses.

This allows for a faster growing cycle, resulting in perfect red tomatoes weeks ahead of the normal harvest.

If you want you can go online and buy into a portion of the harvest.

When it comes to the porkshares, they are presently still very much alive and living in psychedelic houses.

Yikes! Here comes mother and child to check out the visitors! Baby pigs sure are cute, but that cuteness factor fades considerably once they put on 500 pounds.

At the end of our little tour we were served snacks of healthy organic produce and homemade dip.

Pretty neat place, I promise to come back and explore the farm again around harvest time.

Meanwhile, the heatwave that's been gripping the country finally hit New England this week, as you can see from the fiery sun setting over the mighty Connecticut.

A hot show in Hamp.

Cool in the pool.

The better to see.

Conserving

2011-07-16T14:53:00.008-04:00
The 633 acre Fitzgerald Lake Conservation area is the largest conservation area in Northampton, yet I'd never been there until recently. It's a hidden gem.

It's a really cool place, with clearly defined paths reinforced by either wood or stone.

Not surprisingly, all paths lead to Fitzgerald Lake, which is absolutely gorgeous and looks like a great place to fish.

For more information about how to get there and what to do click here.

This morning I did a little acrobatic act, riding my bike and pointing my camera as I negotiated the speed bumps on the trestle over the Connecticut River in order to bring you the following video.

Legendary street singer Motown Bennie Johnson got the coverboy treatment from the Valley Advocate this week.

At downtown Amherst's Kendrick Park there is this display called "Amherst Truths" where local folk are photographed holding signs saying what feels true to them.

A big photography convention at UMass has these shutterbugs swarming over this hot woman with her hot car out by the campus pond.

Oops! Somebody was going way too fast and took down this sign by the UMass Grad Research Center.

"Former mob boss and longtime federal fugitive Whitey Bulger's brother was a politician. So one brother was operating in a world with no morals, dealing with the lowest of the low, and the other one was a mobster." -- Howie Carr.

I love this brilliant new songwriter Lindy Vopnfjord.

"

Last night's sunset on the Connecticut River.

A Letter

2011-07-09T13:47:00.007-04:00

John and Priscilla Lysak in 2009

Dear Mr. Devine,

I am the ex-wife of John A. Lysak, the current Ward 8 city counselor. Having helped him with running his campaign, I understand that you are a local blogger, and a passion for Valley politics. Because of this, I felt the need to reach out to you regarding my ex-husband.

John and I are currently going through a nasty custody fight over our children. John has a history of domestic violence towards me, and he is now turning on our children. Despite the fact that I have evidence of this (restraining orders I've taken out on him in the past), and my children's therapist ready to testify in court about what the children themselves have said, no one in the local media is willing to pick up the story.

Mr. Devine, I am very much afraid of John, and I think that he is not the right sort of person to be a city counselor. He abandoned me and our children for his co-worker, his current girlfriend, Luz Rivera. He has threatened to use his position to end contracts with the children's therapist, in an attempt to shut him (my therapist) up about the abuse of the children. He is also attempting to force me to continue living in Springfield, where he feels that he won't be arrested by the SPD if he should break the law. He has even used his position to get Ms. Rivera a job as a domestic violence advocate with the SPD, even though she lacked both the experience and the qualifications. I feel that if he continues to win his seat, he will continue to use his political clout to bully me.

I know that I must come off sounding as a bitter ex-wife, the woman scorned. I also know that John has done some good things for the city, such as opposing the PRE biomass plant. I guess I am hoping to present a balanced view of him to the public, and I am also hoping that public scrutiny will force him to cease the harm that he is doing to me and the children.

If you doubt my story, it is very easy to verify. Go to the Hampden County Probate and family court in downtown Springfield, to the 4th floor. Use the computers there that they have available to look up the following docket number, HD10D1140JP. This is the current divorce and custody case. Connected to that, you will find the docket numbers for the 2 restraining orders that I've taken out against John. This is public information, and could be found by going into the court house and looking these up on those computers by typing in John Lysak's name.

I do fear that if John finds out that I am talking to others about his history, that he may escalate. But the way that abuse thrives is in secrecy, and it is my hope that making things public will bring an end to the abuse.

Thank you for your time, and for reading this.

Sincerely,
Priscilla Lysak

That terrible thunderstorm we had the other night brought down this branch along the Norwottock Trail. I had to carry my bike over it.

All the dampness has been heaven for mushrooms, such as this one that sprouted on my lawn.

This red one bloomed in the woods by my house.

Along the woodland way into downtown Northampton I thought I saw a mouse in the road. As I got closer I saw that it was no mouse - it was a baby possum paralyzed with fear! But only temporarily, a microsecond after I took this photo it bolted into the woods.

Ducks trying to cross the street in Amherst.

Mother duck and her kids in Calvin Coolidge Park in downtown Northampton.

Fooling around on the front porch.

Going Fourth

2011-07-02T14:14:00.006-04:00
A rainbow over downtown Northampton last week.

My two year old neighbor makes a political statement when she rides on the back of her mother's bike.

A train crossing the Connecticut River over the Northampton Rail Road trestle in 1968.

Standing on that very trestle in 2011 looking at the Calvin Coolidge Bridge.

Going over the Calvin Coolidge Bridge this morning on the bus.

My friend has a really cool sexpod in his backyard.

Looking up at Raos Coffeeshop in Amherst.

The Silvio Conte Wildlife Refuge had a display this week at UMass.

The display travels around in this chilltown trailer.

A chilltown truck in Amherst.

A Vermont libertarian passing through Amherst.

Why it's hard to visit with my friends in Amherst.

The Hadley Common

Happy Fourth Everybody!

All Over

2011-06-18T15:32:00.014-04:00
The Place.

I'm not sure what to make of this statement I pass every day in downtown Northampton.

Forget the future? That seems like bad advice, because that is where we have to live the whole rest of our lives. Quarantine the past? The past is where we have learned everything we know. What I think the person who wrote that graffiti wants to say is that we should be more appreciative of the present, which after all is the only place we can be at any given moment, but that appreciation of the NOW does not require rejecting the future or the past.

Past, present or future it is wise to appreciate all aspects of our lives, since we never really know how long our life will be, as UMass band leader George Parks learned when he died suddenly last year. However he is not forgotten, his image still hangs in the doorway of where the band used to practice.

Of course to live one must eat, and many this weekend are eating at the Taste of Amherst, one of the few such food festivals still around. Northampton and Springfield used to have big taste-of festivals, but abandoned them years ago. All year round it is a good idea to dine at the legendary Amherst Chinese.

However to eat food you must first grow it, which has been made difficult by all the rain we've been getting, as evidenced by this flooded tomato field in Hadley.

No matter what you do, your life may end because of bad weather, as happened tragically in our Valley recently. However not only has Springfield had to endure a devastating tornado, but it's been followed by a plague of pestering, preening, posing and posturing politicians, all wearing their caring compassion on their shirtsleeves while promising to fix the taxpayer's problems by using the taxpayer's own money. Here's a pack of pols in Springfield last week as captured by S.P. Sullivan.

Everywhere people are just people, but my neighbor questions our definition of people.

Some people make music, like Jerry Garcia's friend David Grisman.

Some people make music and appear on magazine covers, like Northampton resident Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth on the cover of this week's Valley Advocate.

Some people in Northampton have poor math skills.

Other people in Northampton have a golden glow.

Some people who follow sports are very happy this week, as evidenced in the window of Dick's at the Hampshire Mall.

Spotted on the bus this week.

This guy on the street in downtown Northampton showed me his snake. He said he caught it in Granby.

Someone set a trap for a Hamp Hipster!

I should do less reading and more doing.

I freaked to see a deer in my neighbor's yard the other morning. I got my camera out just in time to capture it before it bounded back into the woods.

Better a deer than what Hamp music scenester Cher Lovestrong found visiting her backyard!

A cliche comes to life in Hadley as a chicken prepares to cross the road, for reasons known only to itself.

The Tuesday Cooks Band performs at the Amherst Survival Center.

Good morning Hadley.

Blowing Smoke

2011-06-11T13:34:00.007-04:00
Toker Volunteers Unwelcome?

Yesterday Kai Price made me aware of this complaint filed with the Monson Police over the way a volunteer, helping with recovery from the deadly tornado that roared through our Valley earlier this month, was treated by local police officers:

On Jun 10, 2011, at 4:24 PM, "subversive01057" wrote:

I do not want to discourage anyone from helping with the tornado volunteer cleanup effort. The town has been devastated, and we can still use all the help we can get. And overall the police have done a tremendous job. However I wanted to report that I am about to file a compliant with my town of Monson, MA, as follows:

Sometime around 10pm on the evening of Tuesday, June 7th, Will of Amesbury, MA, was outside the Unitarian Universalist Parish of Monson, which had been affected by the tornado, dropping off some extra slate tile donated from elsewhere, with the fore-knowledge of UUPM minister.

Will had heard about the tornado in the news, saw the devastation on TV, and being a tradesman/electrician, he thought he could help and he packed up and moved to the Monson campground and worked as a registered volunteer around town for a week, including at the UUPM, where he made a real difference. At the time, three of his chainsaws had been well used by the First Church of Monson and were in the process of being repaired by him.

Given the rubble outside the church, the time of day and the looting that has occurred in town, this constituted suspicious behavior, and Will was stopped by the Monson Police Department, questioned, and his vehicle was searched. In my mind, this was all very reasonable (with the exception that Will's glove compartment may have been damaged during the frenzy of the search). The Monson PD does an excellent job of helping residents feel safe and secure in their homes and businesses.

Will explained his presence, presented the Rev. Jackson on his cell phone to the officer involved to corroborate his presence, and as no evidence of looting was found, Will was not arrested.

In the search of Will's vehicle, the officer found a small amount of marijuana. It seems that as a result, Will was ordered to leave the town limits of Monson immediately under police escort and threatened that should he ever return he would be subject to immediate arrest. When he explained that he was staying at the Monson campground and that the medication he was under made it seriously unsafe for him to drive, he was told that he would not be allowed to stay there and must leave Monson immediately.

The Monson PD should be very well aware that following overwhelming voter approval that in Massachusetts, simple possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a civil infraction punishable only by a maximum $100 fine and forfeiture of the marijuana. The penalty for possession of marijuana does NOT include being run out of town. Will has had a challenging life and was deeply emotionally hurt by being (unofficially?!) trespassed from the Town of Monson and denied the opportunity to help further, especially after he had just donated a week of volunteer labor and had done nothing that would warrant this banishment.

The Monson PD has responded incredibly well to a challenge that few police could have ever imagined that they would be called upon to face. The widespread tragedy of this tornado, combined with the heat and the long hours, make the generally magnificent response of the Monson PD in the past week all the more heroic.

However sometimes mistakes are made--I've certainly made mistakes in my life, and I'm sure that nearly everyone else has too at some time or another. The way Will was treated is deeply appalling to me as a Monson resident and home-owner (and please note that I am not nor I have ever been a member of the UUPM), and I would like to think that it was just a misunderstanding. Surely this was not the instance of prejudice that it appears to be. And when mature adults make mistakes, what they are called upon to do is man-up (or woman-up), admit to the mistake, apologize for the mistake, and reasonably try to rectify the situation.

Today Kai Price released the following update:

Lesson learned: file the written complaint.

A half hour after I dropped off the form the police sergeant stopped by and explained that it was all a big misunderstanding, Will was not trespassed at all and is welcome to come back to volunteer without fear of police harassment, and the problem was that his associate/passenger did not have ID, gave sketchy answers to questioning, and they were both in an area where looting had been reported and it was late at night.

You may now return to your regular programming.

Despite the way Kai Price bends over backwards to praise the police, is this really a happy ending? Unanswered questions remain. Would the police have backed off if no complaint was filed? When they realized that there had been, in their words, "a big misunderstanding" why didn't they contact the person involved on their own and apologize instead of waiting for a formal complaint to be filed? Does the glove compartment damaged in the search need to be repaired, and if so, who will pay for it? The police justify what they did by claiming to have been searching for looters, but was everyone stopped in that search given a police escort out of town?

This incident is hardly the most earth shattering local controversy, but it does clearly illustrate the tendency that law enforcement still has to overreact in instances where marijuana is involved, despite the fact that the drug has been nearly legalized. To prevent further such overreactions in the future, the best and most effective way would be legalize marijuana entirely.

Meanwhile, fascinating videos from the June 2nd tornado continue to surface. Here's an amazing one showing the dangerous scene as severe winds strike a downtown Springfield parking lot. Notice how a car moves just in time to escape deadly debris that soon strikes that spot.

There was some dark clouds and thunder and lightning this past week, but thankfully nothing like the violent storms of the week before. Here's some of the electrical show the other day over Holyoke as captured by Greg Saulmon.

Mary Serreze caught these dark clouds hovering over Northampton City Hall.

My neighbor assembled these stones on his front steps in accordance with a feng shui pattern of good fortune.

Happy UMass summer school students.

Kurtis and Rob are traveling in style to the Amherst Survival Center.

The following feelgood video was filmed entirely in Amherst.

Twister

2011-06-04T14:39:00.009-04:00
All was calm reflection when I crossed the mighty Conneticut today at dawn.

However that was hardly the scene on Wednesday when a giant tornado crossed the river into Springfield, as seen in this dramatic video.

Springfield's South End really suffered a lot of damage, as captured in this S.P. Sullivan photo.

At least the damage was natural, rather than political. Nothing in nature ever devastated the South End like the idiotic decision to build the highway on the Springfield side of the river - where it wiped out a huge section of the neighborhood, destroyed the Barney Estate and isolated the city from the riverfront - instead of building it on the other side, where there was mostly just woods. But then the politicians and their friends would not have been able to make a lot of money on the dirty real estate deals surrounding the land takings for the road.

A lot of good videos have surfaced by people who were in the area hit by the tornado. I think this is the best one - dig that crashing tree!

I was in Amherst during the storm, where the sky got really dark and it poured rain like crazy, but we never saw the heavy winds up here like they did in the South Valley. In fact before the storm it was an unusually warm spring day, as evidenced by this thermometer on the Greenfield Savings Bank.

I was in Greenfield with my friend Damon who was doing his patriotic duty by paying his parking fine at the Franklin County Courthouse.

Only it turns out you don't pay parking fines at the courthouse, instead you have to go to City Hall. Inside is this wall painting of the pilgrims discovering Greenfield.

Meanwhile at Amherst College they were having a reunion, and it looks like the class of 1999 has been busy in the bedroom!

This week while riding down the woodland way into downtown Northampton I swerved to avoid what looked at first to be a large stone in the road!

Getting off my bike to check it out I went, "Whoa, that's no rock!"

Messages in the window of Broadside Books in downtown Northampton.

This guy must be a joy to know.

Don't forget, tornadoes are not the only ones to cause trouble.

Norwottuck Ride

2011-05-28T13:14:00.008-04:00
Lately I've been riding my bike on the Norwottuck trail every day, keeping fit and trying to remember all the rules. (click photo to enlarge)

It really is a beautiful ride through God's country, beginning with the old trestle over the mighty Connecticut.

And don't worry if your tires get soft or your throat gets parched, both air and water are provided by Country Nissan for the price of free.

Much of the trail is through the farm fields of Hadley, where the heavy snow this winter caused this old barn to completely collapse.

At one point I came across a couple of chickens that had escaped their coop and I got off my bike and chased them around a bit with my camera. Chickens have wings, so why does the chicken run instead of flying away?

Can chickens fly? Perhaps they can, but maybe they just don't want to.

Meanwhile, a tranquil serenity has settled over UMass now that the students are gone for the summer.

There was no such serenity earlier this month however, following the announcement of the assassination of Osama Bin Ladin. This video captures the moment when the UMass students came pouring out of the towers into the courtyard.

Although the title of the video refers to the event as a riot, it was really more of a celebration. Rioting at UMass is reserved for sporting events, not politics.

Speaking of politics, at Rao's in downtown Amherst you get your coffee served with a side of irony.

I see from the red X on the side of this old ruin that it is set to be torn down.

An old freak once told me that back in the 1960's that rambling old place was the wildest hippie house in Amherst. When the wrecking ball hits it, ghosts of the Summer of Love will fly away.

Oh well, this sticker on a neighbor's house has the right attitude.

Have a nice holiday weekend folks!

Rainy Days

2011-05-20T15:55:00.005-04:00
It's getting a little tiresome, all the rain we've had this week. But at least it hasn't been non-stop. Here's a video I made of downtown Northampton during a pause in the downpour, showing Main Street through the bus window.

It had actually dried up a bit when I took this picture from the porch of a friend who lives across the street from Westfield City Hall. However, notice the fresh storm clouds approaching.

At least all this rain is good for the plants. On the woodland way into downtown Northampton someone has taken it upon themselves to make little homemade signs pointing out the various plant life along the path, complete with latin names. Who is doing it or why I don't know, but it's pretty neat.

Not surprisingly, as far as activities go the focus has been on indoor stuff, like listening to bands. I'd long heard of the band Orange Crush, but never saw them until one day recently in Southwick. They're really good, and they like cake.

Coffee shops are good places to hang out on rainy days. Here's looking up through a rain drenched window at the fire escape outside the Haymarket Cafe.

Of course everyone is looking forward to summer, assuming it ever actually arrives. At UMass even Honest Abe is into the retro sunglasses craze.

Yet even in dreary weather, nothing can really dim the mindblowing beauty of our Valley.

Inspirational Video

2011-05-12T10:52:00.013-04:00
Caity lives in Connecticut. Her boyfriend dumped her and now she wants to die. I guess she also didn't like me posting her video about it, because she made it private. However, you can still see from the screen shot that she is quite unhappy.

However, someone came forward with some advice. This is well worth watching.

Want a career where you can help people? Visit psychology
classes online
.

Springfield mayoral candidate Antonette Pepe addressed the Springfield Republican City Committee the other night, as captured by Chris Marion. Beside Pepe is the legendary activist Karen Powell.

Seated in the audience was Pine Pointer and future State Senator Tom McCarthy and his son Justin.

In Northampton, Jaz Tupelo took to the streets to gather signatures for her sometimes radiomate Bill Dwight, who is running for City Council.

Of course Dwight still has a ways to go to match the career of Northampton's most renowned politician, Calvin Coolidge, the only resident of Western Mass to be elected to the presidency and whose words of wisdom can still be seen on the streets.

More words of wisdom on a bike outside the Haymarket Cafe.

Your Ignorance is their Power.
The beautiful weather lately has brought the streets of Hamp alive with the sound of music. Here my friend Zak Grey plays his banjo yesterday afternoon to a washtub accompaniment.

Also yesterday the students of Northampton High School had an art show at the Forbes Library.

This student had a clever idea, get a pose of his friends taking a photo of himself taking a photo of them!

On Mother's Day at UMass a student created a sentiment of motherly love with a spraycan on the wall of the Fine Arts building.

At the Amherst Survival Center a jazz band performed this week, featuring an antique horn from the 1930's.

How does a horn sound after 75 years of seasoning? Check it out.

Last Gasp

2011-05-06T18:00:00.008-04:00
Of Extravaganja

It's been a few weeks now since Amherst's infamous marijuana legalization rally Extravaganja, which despite all the negative hooha is really just a lot of freedom loving people joining together for a good cause. Of course a lot of people there had cameras to capture all the fun, and most of them have worked their way onto YouTube by now. A few such videos however are - ahem - quite interesting.

For example this young lady appears blissed out on something a little bit stronger than the gentle weed. Forget the weird dancing, dig her facial expressions!

Of course as always it's all about peace and love, except when its not, as when this fight broke out. Actually it looks more like something beer would produce.

For those purist stoners who are unfamiliar with "beer" it is one of a number of drugs commonly used by "adults" which contain the narcotic alcohol. Alcohol (known in its various forms as "booze," suds," "juice" etc.) has been proven to cause liver and kidney damage and to result in serious character deterioration. Studies have shown that alcohol usage often leads to indulgence in other harmful drugs such as caffeine and tobacco.

I ran into Northampton blogger Jim Neill the other morning at the Haymarket. His blog has been sorta dead lately, but he promised to revive it. No evidence of having done so yet however.

A blogger who remains very active is Alex Ross, who I ran into hanging out on the street.

Hey, buy your doors from these dudes.

After a couple year hiatus they started putting temporary sculpture displays in Coolidge Park again. Making a return appearance is sculptor James Kitchen, whose earlier display did not impress me but whose new work is much more interesting. For example, check out this scrap metal Saturn.

Silent Cal contemplating his new neighbor, Rusty Fish.

Is it just a coincidence that this big gun is pointing right at the spot where the weekly anti-war protests take place?

Losing face on the street.

Storm clouds descending on Amherst.

Good advice for life's stormy weather.

The Demographic featuring Valley Advocate cartoonist Tom Pappalardo appeared on Greenfield TV recently.

Ben Stein at UMass

2011-04-28T17:59:00.007-04:00
When promoting your event at UMass, it pays to do so with a smile.

However, the UMass Republican Club preferred to promote their guest speaker event with a rather serious looking display at the Campus Center.

However it seemed to work, as last night they got the largest turnout I've ever seen at a UMass GOP sponsored event.

Maybe the reason for the full house was that the speaker wasn't some dreary conservative politician but the TV and movie celebrity Ben Stein, probably best known for his role in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Recently his performance in that film was voted by some magazine as one of the 50 funniest scenes in the history of American Cinema.

But Stein is much more than just an actor and comedian. He is a passionate, if somewhat eccentric right-wing activist and a financial expert whose prognostications on economics are respected on Wall Street. He is also a prominent critic of the United States educational system. For reasons that were not explained, Stein demanded that his talk last night not be recorded, but here's his opening remarks which I captured before all cameras were ordered turned off. Normally I would have considered such a command a mere dare, but I wasn't in my kamikaze free speech mode last night and besides I wanted to hear the speech and so I didn't want to get thrown out. In any case, note Stein's praise of the UMass dining services food, a real compliment when you consider how Stein has appeared (and been treated to free dinners) at every major college in the country.

Conspicuous in their absence last night was the presence of rabble-rousing leftists, who in past years have actually driven conservative speakers right off the stage with their antics, sometimes resulting in national negative publicity for UMass. This incident I filmed at a talk by anti-feminist professor Mike Adams in 2006 has become a YouTube classic of campus intolerance.

Despite the Republican sponsorship of the talk, not everything Stein said would please most conservatives. Although he complained that the spending curve has "gone vertical" under Obama, he was critical of the free-spending Bush Administration as well. Stein insisted that tax increases, preferably on the rich, "are inevitable" if the national debt is to be brought under control. He described his next door neighbors Nick Nolte and Barbara Streisand as having three Bentleys in their garage, and said he favored tax increases that would make them downscale to Cadillacs. However he also said that liberals would have to face the reality that "Social Security and Medicare as we have traditionally known them are absolutely dead."

He also launched into a scathing condemnation of American education, although he impishly assured the audience that he wasn't referring to "any schools anywhere around here." His examples of modern educational stupidity were often very funny, but he was dead serious when he declared that America "cannot be a first rate nation with an uneducated, unskilled, third rate work force."

While angry leftists were nowhere to be heard, in the question and answer portion of his talk he faced harsh criticism from an unlikely source - angry biology majors! Stein gained some notoriety a few years ago by stating that he thought the evidence in favor of evolution was more inconclusive than most scientists will admit. That resulted in some hostile questions last night from students in the biological sciences. He was surprisingly thin-skinned about this criticism, with the Jewish Stein at one point declaring "The last time scientists confronted my people they were directing them to a gas chamber." This comparison of scientists to Nazis resulted in the only smattering of booing all evening.

Yet Stein's appearance overall was a big success, avoiding any of the ugly incidents that have marred UMass Republican events in the past, and in all Stein came across as a brilliant, good humored man with provocative views who provided worthwhile food for thought whatever your ideology.

Elsewhere on campus, you can tell that Spring has truly arrived when you see poetry classes being conducted on the lawn outside Bartlett Hall.

Parents visiting the campus recently were invited to take rides on a horse and buggy. For what they pay to send their kids to UMass, they should have been given rides in a golden chariot!

Lycanthropy at the bus stop.

I'm sorry to see these ancient trees being cut down. These are the trees that remember the farm people who once dominated Amherst but who have long vanished.

The Mullens Center from the 24th floor of the UMass library.

April Showers

2011-04-23T16:13:00.002-04:00
Wow, it was raining so hard today that the Northampton Earth Day celebration at Pulaski Park was pretty much a wash-out, despite the stubborn loyalty of stalwarts like WGBY-57 and The River.

Fortunately the downpour seemed to do no damage to the school children's drawings.

Actually it's easier to put up with the rain than the weather we had back in February, as shown by this sample which I captured on King Street.

Now why do I suspect that this statement on the wall of Herter Hall at UMass was written by the cleaning lady?

A cute robot on the UMass Fine Arts Center.

A threatening robot on the Fine Arts Center and his blue meanie friend.

A glowing green meanie terrorizing a mouse.

Jack Kerouac was here.

The recent big musical event in our Valley was last weekend's Extravaganja festival in Amherst. Here's headliner Stephen Fowler and Echo Movement doing their stoner hit I Think God Smokes Weed.

Stephen Fowler by Michael Beswick

Extravaganja 2011

2011-04-17T15:02:00.007-04:00
They were promoting it all week in the UMass Campus Center.

Friday afternoon when I passed by they were setting up the stage.

Here's what it looked like when the crowd showed up on Saturday, as captured by Larry Kelley.

The occasion was the annual Extravaganja Marijuana Legalization rally, which this year was expanded into a two-day affair. Here's a picture of local libertarian leader Terry Franklin (center) with two of the organizers of the event.

The event attracts a lot of vendors, such as this mobile Jamaican restaurant.

The Extravaganja always brings out the seldom seen freaks from the hilltowns, who leave their woodland hideaways to come into town for a day of revelry and then return to the forest to resume their mushroom meditations.

Unfortunately my camera memory was almost full, so I only got 23 seconds worth of video:

A flower power bumpersticker in a Northampton parking lot.

A Tea Party bumpersticker at a Northampton conveniece store.

An unanswerable question on an Amherst College A.C. unit.

The Beautiful Boy

2011-04-08T16:52:00.016-04:00
Valley Historian Ralph Slate has alerted me to the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System, a part of the Massachusetts historic archives collection, which is putting a lot of photographs online from their files of some of the older buildings in Springfield. For example here is the Magidson, Saul Commercial Block in the Pine Point section of Boston Road as it appeared circa 1985:

Here is a picture of the same block taken just a few days ago.

My main memory of that area is not of a building but of a person. There used to be this incredibly hot looking kid who used to walk his dog all the time past that building, often shirtless in the summer, about 18 or 19 years old, openly queer and so sexy that all I can remember about his dog, despite seeing it with him all the time, is that it was brown. In his presence somehow I couldn't focus on the dog.

I was about ten years older than the sexy kid, and while there may not be much difference between someone who is 38 and someone who is 48, in the gay hierarchy of sensuality the difference between an 18 year old and a 28 old is very significant. I had no chance of competing with the circle of lusty teenage studs who were always vying for his attention, but still, I remained a wistful admirer from afar.

Eventually some older guy with a lot more money than I ever had (money is the ultimate sexy) whisked the beautiful boy off to live with him on the west coast. Soon afterward I heard that the boy had left his older lover's mansion and become a part of the Castro Street party scene in San Francisco. Then I lost track of him entirely.

Many years went by, until one day I was in a bar and I noticed somebody whom I recognized as a friend of his. I had to go up and ask if he knew what had become of the beautiful boy. I was shocked and saddened to hear that he had contracted AIDS and died before reaching the age of 30. I guess that's the downside of being so beautiful that everyone loves you.

I not only saw my first robin of Spring the other day, but I managed to get its picture.

UMass students with tax policy suggestions.

UMass has always been a place with a lot of graffiti, probably dating back to the school's origins in the 1860's, when no doubt you could find in the campus restrooms scrawlings such as "Go Ulysses S. Grant!" or "Eudora lifts her petticoats!" Perhaps in an attempt to cut back on the writing on buildings, this bird sign was put up recently for folks to write their thoughts on.

Here's a thought I like.

The annual UMass record convention attracted sellers from all over, including Nick Williams of Feeding Tube Records in downtown Hamp.

Speaking of Northampton, the Forbes Library has a new sign in front featuring a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge.

Fascinated by history and the world around us? Learn more at Guide to Online Schools
.

The view out the back window of the Starbucks in Northampton.

The entrance to the mall out the bus window.

Finally, a video of Springfield's North End filmed through the bus window.

St. Mike's

2011-03-27T16:44:00.012-04:00
Well folks, here's yet another one of my cheerful cemetery posts! I was in Pine Point over the weekend, where I now know more people under the ground than above it. Some of the underground ones I visited at Saint Michael's.

However some of the more interesting tombstones in the place belong to people I never knew. For example by chance I stumbled upon the tragic grave of Conor Reynolds.

No doubt there are tragic stories behind many of these graves. This beautiful orb commemorates someone who died in the 1800's at only 26 years of age.

Here's something a little odd that someone placed on a grave - a lobster in a clear container! My mother was a big fan of Maine lobsters, but I'm not sure I'd put one on her grave. Oh well, there is no right or wrong to such things.

I remember reading once about some eccentric philosopher who used to walk around with a lobster on a leash. When asked why he was using a lobster to guide his way, he would reply, "Because it knows the deep."

Here is a little video I made showing the grave of south Valley Congressman Edward P. Boland, and his less famous but well loved graveyard neighbor.

Soon I was back in Northampton, where there are no lobsters but where dragons lurk.

In recent weeks there have been protests and counter-protests in Northampton each weekend, where the participants are usually well behaved. But this week things got a little tense as you can see in the video below.

Upside down "open" sign on a Northampton headshop.

Sad Prude

2011-03-25T16:10:00.004-04:00
Food for Thought Books in Amherst has had a constant problem recently with someone who keeps coming by when they are closed and covering up with tape the posters in their window showing two guys kissing.

Finally they put up the following message under the poster:

To the sad prude that keeps putting duct tape over the images of love and affection on this sign:

Every time you do this you just make us decide to keep them up longer. If you keep it up, we'll be sure to get 100 of them and display them in every inch of window space we have. That's a promise.

Hugs and kisses,

Food for Thought Collective

The details of the 2010 census were released yesterday for Massachusetts and the Boston Globe put up charts and graphs explaining it all. The problem is their maps were of a state I don't quite recognize. Notice that the display is called, "Every person counted." Oh really?

WHERE THE FUCK IS WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS???

At last a beautiful dash of purple life breaking through the brown death.

Graffiti on the UMass Fine Arts building.

This creature was part of a student movie being filmed at the UMass library.

Yesterday a jazz band was playing in the lobby of the UMass Student Union.

Full moon over Ludlow by Tony Mateus.

Happy Saints

2011-03-17T17:51:00.001-04:00
View out the window.

It's too early for any plant life to emerge outdoors in Massachusetts, but this houseplant in the Haymarket Cafe gave birth to a baby leaf.

The dead outdoors makes a good setting for a video about graveyards.

I wanted to take a photograph of this Northampton artist, but didn't realize that my camera was set to video.

I filmed this today downtown. Northampton is always weird and wonderful.

Cher Lovestrong made this video of a hard rockin' night last week in Hamp.

Hamp alien by Dann Vazquez

Wetness

2011-03-10T17:25:00.005-05:00
After all the snow we got this winter it is getting awfully soggy around here now that the tempertures are starting to creep above freezing. For example, State Street in Northampton was closed off earlier this week by flooding.

Here is a video I made of the watery scene.

This video shows the effects of rain in washing away snow in downtown Amherst, as seen through the window at Starbucks.

Glad to see this tacked up everywhere.

A pink-tied Senator Scott Brown was at the Holyoke Mall last weekend promoting his autobiography. Here he is with longtime Springfield activist Victor Davilla.

I never saw the argument for farm conservation made with such compelling conciseness.

Odd how someone turned this insult into a statement of Irish pride.

Jerry Garcia would be so pissed to see how commercialized the Dead have become.

Space Child strikes again, this time at the UMass library.

The Plastic Crimewave in Northampton.

View from the 25th floor of the UMass Library.

Tux Sullivan

2011-03-03T15:53:00.017-05:00

Our entire Valley was saddened last week by the death of Walter "Tux" Sullivan. At least no one could say he died young, passing on at the age of 99. He was a recognized expert on baseball, both local and nationally, and wrote several books on the sport.

Yet while everyone was praising the baseball legend this week, there was no media account which I saw that mentioned the one political episode in Tux's life. Therefore as so often happens in local politics, the duty falls upon me to recall what so many would prefer to forget.

In the 1990's Springfield's corrupt Albano Administration had no shortage of schemes to bilk the taxpayers on behalf of a privileged cartel of insiders, but one of the most notorious was an attempt to erect a baseball stadium in downtown Springfield. Although the whole thing was financially unfeasible, it was supported by political lowlifes because it would have provided lots of patronage jobs, shady contracts and slush fund opportunities to those with political pull. Among those who saw through the ruse was Tux Sullivan, whose staunch opposition to the baseball stadium was a major embarrassment to the Albano gang.

It was in that context that I had my only encounter with Tux Sullivan. In 1999 in a desperate attempt to stop the baseball boondoggle, activists Bob and Karen Powell held a fundraiser in order to hire a lawyer, former and future mayor Charles V. Ryan, to challenge the Albano gang and the sketchy financing schemes behind the stadium. I attended the affair with former City Councilor Mitch Ogulewicz, and by chance we were seated at the same table with Tux and some of his friends.

I recall him as being very likable, and full of entertaining stories that made him the center of attention. Indeed a Springfield Newspaper photographer wanted to get a big close-up of Tux for their morning edition. In fact the newspaper photographer had been taking photos of the gathering all night. The newspaper's presence at the event surprised us, as the paper had been stridently editorializing in favor of the stadium, and generally tried to play down or ignore any anti-stadium activity. So as Tux struck a beaming pose for the camera, with everyone turning to look at the sport celebrity getting his portrait taken by the press, as the flash exploded I noticed something that startled me more than the bright flash did:

The camera didn't seem to be pointed at Tux - but instead was turned a little to the side. The camera was actually pointed at me and Mitch.

The next morning a small article appeared in the back of the paper about the fundraiser that implied that nothing of importance had transpired. The article mostly focused on the possibility that the minor involvement in the fundraiser by then City Councilor Bill Foley was somehow improper. There were no photographs accompanying the story. Later it was reported by an anonymous caller to the Dan Yorke Show that a plain brown envelope had been delivered to City Hall that morning with photographs inside revealing who had attended the fundraiser. That City Hall would be interested in who attended was not a surprise, since that would've been standard political machine practice in order to identify those who were to be subject to future retaliation. The rumors were neither confirmed nor disproved that the photographs in question were the ones taken by the newspaper that night but never used for journalistic purposes.

In the end the stadium scam came to nothing, as Attorney Ryan successfully convinced Judge Constance Sweeney that the whole enterprise was a crooked farce. In fact Judge Sweeney accused the Albano Administration in open court of having committed felonies in order to receive funding for the stadium under false pretenses. None the less, then District Attorney Bill Bennett refused to convene a grand jury in order to investigate the judge's charges.

I've always given Tux Sullivan a lot of credit for the risks he took in so publicly opposing the corrupt stadium scam. Had he supported it the Albano Administration would have made him the biggest name in Springfield. Instead he was relegated to the level of a "non-person", as were so many others who opposed the local machine. Tux Sullivan was remembered this week for his encyclopedic knowledge of baseball, but it was his courageous character and unbending integrity that was his real legacy.

There was a big labor rally at UMass this week.

I was not surprised to see Kevin Noonan and his dog on their way to it.

Northampton Mayor M. Clare Higgins at the Haymarket the other morning.

Some interesting graffiti scrawled on the UMass Fine Arts Center.

Space child.

The hard working janitors of Northampton never get enough respect.

Friday

2011-02-25T17:41:00.002-05:00
This morning walking on the woodland way into downtown Northampton I videoed the following scenes of transcendent beauty.

A wooden bear outside the R & R Sport Shop in Belchertown.

Hanging a picture in the Haymarket Cafe in Northampton.

While a customer looks on.

Filmed in a Northampton club way back in 1991. Is that you dancing in the audience?

Observation on a Northampton bench.

Lame Holiday

2011-02-20T14:49:00.011-05:00
Hey everybody, Happy President's Day! When I was a kid they used to call it George Washington's Birthday, but then someone got the lame idea of making the holiday honor ALL the presidents. You mean like President Nixon? Or Clinton? Or Chester Arthur?

Westfield State Senator Mike Knapik noticed this oddity today at a McDonald's President's Day display. Along with George Washington and Abe Lincoln we have - President Ben Franklin!

Actually Ben Franklin probably should have been president, and might well have been had he been younger at the time of the revolution, but somebody needs to tell Micky D that wise ol' Ben was never a President, nor did he ever even attempt to run for the office.

Speaking of State Senators, Northampton's Stanley Rosenberg is taking some well-deserved flack for his latest attempt to make more difficult the process for putting policy questions on the ballot. Every few years he claims that the ballot questions favor special interests, but the truth he just doesn't like the causes that the public puts on the ballot. As those saints at the Massachusetts Citizens for Limited Taxation point out in a recent press release:

Stanley and his mob are back again for yet another assault, his lust to crush democracy undiminished.

"After grassroots groups had to spend about $11 million to fight 2010 questions at the polls seeking to cut taxes," the Hampshire Gazette reported, "Rosenberg said, they have joined a coalition seeking to raise the bar for placing initiatives on the ballot."

Time out, Stanley: What "grassroots groups" had to spend that money? Let's take a look at his latest Big Lie. Let's look at Question 3 on last year's ballot, the proposal to reduce the state income tax from its recently hiked 6.25 percent down to 3 percent. How'd that work, Stanley?

According to the Secretary of State's Elections Division, here is the amount raised by the proponents and opponents:

Proponents: Alliance to Roll Back Taxes
$263,838.66

Opponents: Mass. Coalition for our Communities
$5,673,178.18

According to BallotPedia.org, the largest contributors opposing the 2010 sales tax cut ballot question (Question 3) were:

National Education Association - $1,325,000

Massachusetts Teachers Association - $1,062,000

Service Employees International Union - $888,000

American Federation of Teachers - Massachusetts -$704,000

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees -$200,000

Boston Teachers Union - $150,000

Mass. Nurses Association - $104,000

"After grassroots groups had to spend about $11 million to fight 2010 questions at the polls seeking to cut taxes, Rosenberg said, they have joined a coalition seeking to raise the bar for placing initiatives on the ballot."

"Grassroot groups" indeed! What hogwash.

Almost eight years ago, on Apr. 13, 2003 the Eagle-Tribune editorial ("A wolf in sheep's clothing") stated:

State Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, says his bill to "reform" the initiative petition process is not an attempt to kill it. He says if he wanted to destroy the ability of average voters to pass laws, he would have filed a bill to do exactly that.

Don't believe it. Legislators rarely do things directly. It is much safer, and usually more successful, to do it indirectly.

Rosenberg is indeed trying to kill the only avenue to direct democracy in Massachusetts. He is just trying to kill it softly. He is hoping that, just like the frog in the cook pot, voters won't notice the heat gradually increasing on their already limited powers until it is too late and those powers are boiled out of existence....

It is not that Rosenberg has a problem with manipulating public opinion. He just wants himself and his colleagues to be the ones doing it.

Here former Valley investigative TV reporter Jim Polito, now turned radio provocateur, discusses Rosenberg's anti-democracy efforts on his radio show

In Holyoke the other day I made this video about the old Holyoke Catholic High School building.

Lovers in a Northampton alley.

Local musical treasure Jim Armenti has a new solo album out.

You can listen to some of it by clicking here.

Another local musical talent is Tom Pappalardo, although he's best known for his Valley Advocate cartoons, such as this one mercilessly attacking Valley hipsters. (click to enlarge)

His songwriting shows a pretty caustic wit as well.

Early spring at UMass.

OOPS!

2011-02-17T17:22:00.009-05:00
The way I have to walk every day is a perfect path of ice.

Despite my years of expert experience walking on icy New England sidewalks, I somehow managed to put my foot down in just the wrong way and before I knew what was happening I was on the ground. At first I tried to pretend that nothing was wrong, even though my right knee hurt. As the morning went on it started to swell and wasn't showing any sign of receding. Finally I went to see the nurse at work and she said, "You need to have that x-rayed." So off I went to the emergency room.

The nurse at the desk told me that the hospital had been seeing slip and fall injuries all week. She brought me to this room filled with medical contraptions.

When they did the x-ray of my knee the news was good - no fractures. However I had strained a knee-ligament and would have to stay off my feet for the rest of the week. Thank God for sick days! Here is a picture of the big bandage on my knee.

So what's a good thing to do while primarily sitting? Well, reading is cool, and I've been enjoying a big biography of Massachusetts writer Nathanial Hawthorne. But that gets dull, so I've also been spending some time sitting in restaurants, such as the Evolution Cafe in Florence. Joining me one day was my friend Emily, who was once involved with the same hippie drug cult that I was, but at a later time and without the drugs. As we chatted in the cafe she worked on making an origami crane.

Traveling further afield I went to The Ugly Duckling in Sturbridge, which is well worth the extra drive for their outstanding hamburgers.

All of Northampton is abuzz about the new restaurant called The Roost, located where Pop's Liquors used to be.

Inside I discovered two celebrities dining - multi-media figures Jaz Tupelo and Bill Dwight. They tried to block being photographed, but were no match for my paparazzi skills.

Jaz and Bill have just launched a new show on Valley Free Radio. Bill asked me if I would come on the show sometime and gave me his card. It had a cool radio graphic on it.

I almost went on Valley Free Radio a few years ago when Mary Serreze and Paolo Mastrangelo had a show. However, just before I was to appear the program got canceled. Warning to Bill and Jaz, inviting me on your show could be dangerous to your career!

Speaking of hotboy Paolo, he's been riding a wave of notoriety lately on his blog reports about the worsening rat problem in New York City. However those bold and nasty NYC rats are nothing like our sweet Northampton rodents, which never appear on Main Street unless accompanied by balloons.

Did you know that Ronald Reagan is now on a postage stamp?

This looks like an interesting show. I wonder what a band called "Mail Myself to Thoreau" sounds like. It should either be a beautiful country band or an ultra-extreme punk band. Ideally, it should be both.

The Jerry Garcia Fire and Snow Ritual in Turners Falls, Massachusetts.

May the grit from the road of life
never tarnish the snowbanks of your love.

Holyoke photo and concept by Greg Saulmon

Madsen Remembers

2011-02-13T14:19:00.006-05:00
One of the most popular figures in our Valley media is Dave Madsen, best known for his nearly two decades at WGGB-TV40 as reporter and anchor. His bio at the station's website includes this info about his long media career in our Valley:

Madsen in 1982

Dave Madsen is celebrating his 40th year in broadcasting and 19th anniversary with abc40. Dave came to abc40 in 1992 after spending twelve years with WWLP-TV. He began his career in 1970 with WMAS in Springfield. Later that year he began a nine-year association with WHMP Radio in Northampton.

Dave was born and raised in Southampton, attending schools there and in Easthampton. He attended the University of Massachusetts in Amherst where he majored in Communications studies. He now serves as an adjunct professor at the University, teaching a television news writing course in the Journalism department.

Dave and his wife Linda, a registered nurse, will celebrate their 36th wedding anniversary in September. They have two sons, Christopher and Greg.

I used to hang around TV40 a bit in the 1990's when I was one of the stable of fill-in hosts for the now defunct Dan Yorke Show. I occasionally chatted with Madsen, and in contrast to the stereotype of news anchors as egomaniacs, he always came across as a nice, down to earth guy. Here is the news team when I was around - Mike Ratte, Madsen, Eileen Curran and Tom Bevacqua in 1995.

A bunch of historic media pictures from Madsen's personal collection are floating around the internet, and here are a few classics. Speaking of Dan Yorke, that's him in the second row, second from the right, in this 1992 photo of the TV40 softball team. Others who appear in the pic are Mike Ratté, Mary DeLiso, Clayton Trauernicht, Dave Fraser, Eileen Curran, Ed Carroll, Jim Cline, Dan Salamone and Priscilla Ress. (click photo to enlarge)

Madsen has been at TV40 for so long that people have almost forgotten about the more than a decade he worked for arch-rival TV22, as seen in this 1980 photo of a billboard in Springfield. Note the adjoining billboard for the long lost, lamented Dreikorn's bread.

Here's a picture of the TV22 crew at a 1985 St. Patrick's Day parade in Holyoke. Note the youthful Sy Becker! What other local media stars of yore can you recognize? (click photo to enlarge)

The man above in the grey trenchcoat is the late local weatherman legend John Quill. Here is a picture of Quill's set in the pre-computer era when you actually had to try to explain the weather while drawing with an ink marker on maps. Yet despite the primitive technology, Quill was renowned for his accurate forecasts.

This is Madsen with actor Ed Begley (St. Elsewhere). Begley's sister Allene Begley-Curto was a Springfield School Committee member about twenty years ago.

One of the great things about a gig with a TV station is that you never know when you might meet one of your heroes. Madsen with Yaz in 1988.

With Ted Kennedy in 1988.

With fellow Massachusetts resident James Taylor in 2008.

Returning to the present, here I am this morning in beautiful downtown Amherst boldly holding a product from Arizona.

Oh no! I hope I don't get arrested for violating the official town boycott of the allegedly racist hate state of Arizona!

The woodland way into downtown Northampton sure is pretty this time of year.

This iceboy stands outside of Thornes in downtown Hamp.

The back exit of the Haymarket Cafe is covered in ice!

Spotted in a Northampton parking lot.

In Northampton the other night.

Whiting Resevoir in Holyoke by Robert Genest.

To Hampshire

2011-02-07T14:41:00.005-05:00
After work today I took the bus out to the weird and wonderful Hampshire College in Amherst. In this picture taken out of the bus window, the fertile farm fields of Hadley wait silently to be reborn in Spring.

The snow has made everything seem more scenic.

Our Valley stands alone in its unique beauty.

This silver trapezoid alerts us that we have entered the Hampshire habitat.

This is the Johnson Library. Of course I am constitutionally unable to walk past a library without going in.

I paused to check my favorite website.

Then I had a nice organic vegan lunch at their cafeteria.

Later I went downstairs to the art gallery, where these antique stereoscopes allow you to look at 3D images of New York City as it was in the 1800's.

Finally it was time to go to the bus stop to leave.

As you can see the bus stop is covered with posters. This one for a UMass radio show caught my attention.

There is a great organization at Hampshire College called S.C.R.E.W.Y which stands for the Society for the Creative Realization of a Weirder You. It has a cool public service announcement that airs on Amherst Cable TV.

On a classroom blackboard:

There are all kinds of crazies, some more talented in their ways than the over-numerous duly, dully sane. - Bukowski

The Book of Devine

2011-01-31T18:41:00.014-05:00
One of my prized possessions is the old trunk my father used in 1950's when he was in the military. Notice that it has his Social Security number stenciled right on it.

Obviously it dates back to a time when people were not so paranoid about identity theft, perhaps because those were the days when your Social Security number was only used for Social Security, and not as a pass-code to every database about you. In fact I wouldn't show you that picture except that my Dad has been dead and buried for years and is now beyond being robbed in the material world.

One of the many reasons I wish my Dad were alive is so I could ask him about an insignia on the trunk. With it's iron crosses it looks almost like some Nazi artifact, although my father never served in World War II nor was he ever stationed in Germany.

However, maybe it's a decal my Dad got from his father, who did serve in World War II and who did bring a lot of Nazi stuff back from Europe. My Grandfather served all over Europe but never saw a moment of combat, serving instead as one of the military cooks; a humble wartime calling but an essential one because, as my Grandfather used to say, "An army marches on its stomach."

My Grandfather was full of war stories, which unfortunately I've forgotten most of. It is a shame that when we are young we only half-listen to the tales of our elders, only to wish when we are older that we could rehear them, but the tellers have vanished into the realm beyond telling.

One story I remember that my Grandfather used to tell involved an Irish monk and his sacred mission regarding a book. At the end of the war all of Europe was flooded with refugees of various types, people who had been displaced by the war and who were now returning to their homes - if their homes even still existed.

My Grandfather said that one day driving in Germany he came upon an elderly Irish monk who was walking along the road, carrying an old book. He stopped his jeep and asked the monk where he was going. The monk replied that he was trying to return to Ireland, from which he had fled after his monastery had been bombed.

"What is that book you're carrying?" my Grandfather asked.

"It is the only thing I was able to save from the ruins of my monastery," the old monk explained. "It is a book of genealogy dating back to the fourteenth century."

My Grandfather asked to see the book, and then was shocked to read its title - The Book of Devine. In it was the listing of the name, birth, baptism, marriage and death dates of every member of the Devine family going back five hundred years! My Grandfather quickly showed the old monk his dog tags.

"Look!" he cried," My name is Devine! This book is the only known complete record of my family history! I must have it!"

"NO!" the old monk exclaimed, "It is the last remaining relic of my monastery, and I have made a sacred vow that I shall return it to Ireland where it belongs. You cannot have it."

My Grandfather laughed, "Sorry old padre, but if you'll notice I have a gun and you do not, and I'm taking this book back to America with me." Then he walked to his jeep carrying the Book of Devine and returned to the base.

That night my Grandfather went to the tavern with his friends for a night of drinking, and as he walked there he kept thinking that he saw a shadowy figure behind him just out of view. When he got to the bar he saw a small shape slip in the door just behind him. Looking in the direction the figure went he recognized the old monk seated in the corner. There he sat and stared at my Grandfather from across the room the whole evening, making it difficult for my Grandfather to relax and enjoy himself. Finally at closing time my Grandfather went up to him demanding, "What are you doing here? Leave me alone!"

"Give me the Book of Devine." the old monk solemnly stated. My Grandfather refused and returned to the base.

The next morning, as my Grandfather left the base, a little down the road he saw a familiar figure standing by the side of the road. "Old man, this is a military installation! What are doing here?"

"You know why I am here." the old monk stated. "Give me the Book of Devine."

"Go away you old fool!" my Grandfather ordered. "Leave me alone!"

But every day for the next week, when he left in the morning and when he returned at night, there would stand the old monk. Whenever he went to the tavern, there the monk would appear sitting in the corner. Always when my Grandfather confronted him he would make the same, solemn demand.

"Give me the Book of Devine."

Soon it became time for my Grandfather to leave to return to America. As he left the base driving the jeep carrying him to the waiting plane, as always there was the monk waiting down the road, only this time he was standing in the middle of the street, blocking the way.

"Get out of the road, you idiot!" my Grandfather commanded. "Or I'll run you over!"

"Kill me if you must," the old monk replied, "for I prefer death to failing in my sacred duty before God to return the Book of Devine to Ireland."

My Grandfather could see that the monk was serious, and would not get out of the road. The resulting stand-off in which my Grandfather attempted to threaten and cajole the monk to move was both time consuming and futile. The delay soon threatened to cause my Grandfather to miss his plane, and he was anxious to return to his family in the Pine Point section of Springfield. Finally my Grandfather reached into his duffel bag and took out the ancient text and angrily hurled it at the feet of the old monk. "Take it and get the hell out of the way!"

The old monk snatched up the book, "Bless you my son!" he said as he quickly ran off and vanished from view. My Grandfather made it to his plane with only seconds to spare.

Is that story true? My Grandfather had the gift of blarney (that's Celtic for bullshit) so one can never be sure. But whenever he heard that anyone was returning for a visit to the old country, he would always tell that story and urge the traveler, "Keep an eye out for The Book of Devine!" No one has ever found it.

Returning to 2011, all it ever seems to do in this new year is snow. Here the usually congested King Street in downtown Northampton is left deserted by the weather.

Even media personalities like David Pakman had to dig his own car out from the snow.

The view out the window of Dunkin Donuts.

A few months ago I showed you this tasteless graffiti on a dumpster outside a UMass frat-house.

Since then someone has painted something more politically correct over it.

Filmed entirely at the Forbes Library in Amherst.

Sunrise on Springfield's Porter Lake by Burt Freedman.