Valley Today 2010

 

I was down by the Connecticut River in Hadley walking and strumming on Damon's guitar.

The Hadley farm fields are plowed and ready to burst forth with their bounty.

Later we stopped in downtown Northampton for lunch. The media was all around the courthouse for the arraignment of "the bullies."

 



Nearby life juggled on.

I also ran into my old roommate Shane walking his dog Zeeper.

It was too late to have lunch at my friend Zak's new restaurant Eclipse but we stopped in anyway to see the beautiful new mural he put up. 

This is the view of Main Street from Zak's restaurant.

We crossed the street to Sam's and I had delicious broccoli and cheese pizza. 

Then Damon sat on the steps and sang songs.

Wilbraham Cop

Tells his Tragic Tale.

Wow, listen to this shocking video about what went down in the Springfield suburb of Wilbraham, Massachusetts.

Thoughts

Bumperstickers I would put on my car if I had one.

 










Eclipse Plus

Hey, Zak has opened his new restaurant called Eclipse. Here he is working in the kitchen this morning.

It's a real classy joint. Dig this artistic shiny wooden eclipse embedded in the floor. 

Here's the bar area. Ya gotta check this place out for yourself! It is located in the heart of downtown Northampton by City Hall. 

A biker observes a painter at UMass yesterday. Things are quiet while the students are on Spring Break.

 



When I was young you could always tell the upper class kids at UMass from the scholarship kids because the ones with money came back to campus from Spring Break with tans while the rest of us were still winter white because we had to stay in the area to work jobs. 

The Music Section

Too cool.

Beyond cool. 

Out of the Vault

This is a day for the Irish to get drunk and sentimental. Personally I'll forego the drunk part and go straight to the nostalgia trip with these gems from deep in the catacombs of my legendary vaults.

Here's a photo strip of my Grandmother Ida Devine in 1906.

Here is my Grandfather Clarence White at Five Mile Pond in 1930.

My father in his scout uniform in 1940.

My father's boyhood friend Doug Ariel ran unsuccessfully against Stanley Zarod for State Rep in 1972. When he ran for mayor of Springfield the year before it was my first exposure to a political campaign.

 



This is a bus ticket. They used to pass them out at school every Monday in strips of ten, and God help you if you lost any of them. The Springfield Street Railway Company was the private firm that ran the busses before the government took over as the PVTA, and the prices rose as the service declined. 

If you lost bus tickets and had to walk it might very well take you so long that you would need one of these.

Marc Walker in a picture taken in 1979. Marc was a member of Destiny's Defeat, Pine Point's first real rock band. He died five years ago of an accidental drug overdose. In fact, of the original five members only one is still alive. I guess destiny really did defeat them.

 



It's hard to believe that in two weeks it will be a mindblowing thirty fuckin years since this Martian Highway concert at UMass.

Me and my bike in 1982.

Neal Under Pressure

 



Congressman Richard Neal found his Milford office under siege from angry Tea Partiers yesterday. Read the full account here.

Assorted Shots

Bruce Adams photo of the Springfield St. Patrick's Day Committee at City Hall this morning. 

Radio dudes Bill Dwight and Monte Belmonte doing a charity gig in downtown Northampton today. 

 Dan Yorke in Rhode Island last week.

My friend Zak's new restaurant Eclipse in downtown Northampton is opening today. Go check it out!

The hot new spring fashion statement.

Me in the great wide open this afternoon atop Amherst's Mount Pollux. 

The Music Section

Trevor: The bald version.

 



 

Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Starplane turns 69 today. Here's a picture of him I took at the Springfield Civic Center sometime in the Seventies.

Zak

Last Night