Western Massachusetts

never made it to that 8 am calculus class because it was always TOO DAMN SNOWY OUTSIDE.

Yep, my once in a lifetime grade F - earned in WESTERN MASS. hoo-rah!

lots of trees there

my sister and her husband moved to bennington last fall, they live next to the war monument so pop in and see them the next time you're in the neighborhood.

and yes, kate, bennington is beautiful ... they have this memorial there for the Green Mountain Boys, it's this 300-ft. white spike (like the Washington Memorial) on top of a hill with a knock-out view of the surroundings. and lest we forget, mr. american psycho went to Bennington College (i.e., trustafarian-central)!

my sister lives next door to it. the best part is the kleig lights that they have started to illuminate it at night. they didn't use them last year when she bought the place but now the second floor of her house is in permanent daylight.

I'm wondering where that record store is that hstencil loves

me too?

Or it could be some place else, but that place is worth a visit!

so i'm gonna be moving up there in about a month, probably to the northampton/five colleges area. my girlfriend is continuing at smith college's social work grad program and we'll be leaving dc after 6 years of being here (8 for her).

so as i'm looking for jobs (mainly library jobs at the colleges up there), i'm trying to get a sense of the geography. anyone have any experience living up there? would it be outrageous to try to work in williamstown/north adams but live in northampton? is that a ridiculous commute? it's only about 45 miles but the google says it takes about 80 minutes.

any other western mass living experiences to be shared? i'd like to hear em.

that would be a shotgun to the mouth inducing commute from halloween until spring training.

That's a very long commute for most of the year -- 80 minutes sounds about right -- and I can't imagine it being anything but excruciating once the roads get slippery. If you can't find library work around Northampton -- and with so many librarians being minted I hear its hard -- is splitting time with an apartment where you're working.

it's that bad, huh? i wasn't sure. 45 miles doesn't seem bad, and hell, my commute in dc is only 4 miles but it takes literally an hour (though i'm not driving - it's a walk + bus). but what seems to be 45 non-freeway miles (hence the 80 minutes) is pretty brutal, i guess. day-in day-out that would surely grind.

i wish i lived in northhampton. i love northhampton. i love western mass. whenever we go crazy on this island we think about moving there. maria's sister lives in northhampton. and her dad has a new age retreat there on top of a mountain:

http://www.ninemtn.com/quintile/img/9mtn.jpg

and my best friend maggie just opened a new restaurant in greenfield:

http://www.hopeandolive.com/images/home_bubble1.jpg

awesome! yea i'm pretty excited about it. northampton's awesome. all the apartments we're looking at (we're heading up there this weekend to hopefully find one) are the top floors of huge, old victorian mansions.

good record stores, too, good restaurants. lots of culture w/ all the colleges/universities. i'm really looking forward to small city/town life. the pace there seems a lot slower, surely moreso than dc which i'm kind of burned out on.

the new age retreat looks awesome!

all the apartments we're looking at (we're heading up there this weekend to hopefully find one) are the top floors of huge, old victorian mansions.

my sister lived in one of these and i would have been jealous if the pioneer valley wasn't a short drive from the middle of nowhere.

I have friends in Williamstown, they say everything closes at 5 and the only restaurant is crappy Thai. I'll tell them about the record store, though.

I can probably speak to you about this with some certainty since I live here. In the 'hamps.
You are going to love the Happy Valley. Librarian jobs don't seem too hard to come by - at least two are advertised every week in the Gazette. I mean, there are a gazillion libraries here!

(The UMASS library is open 24 hours, for instance of librarians being needed.)

My s.o. drives to W. Hartford, CT. to work - much easier than going West from this area. Unless you decide to live in Greenfield, which is what a lot of cool people are doing because homes (to buy) are affordable.
Is your g.f. doing a lot of academics at Smith? I know the social work grad program is based on a lot of externship type learning.
If you're already looking at apartments in Noho and liking what you see, go for it. There are less expensive places/towns to live in, but that probably sounds ridiculous if you're coming from D.C. (many people here still cringe at the thought of paying over $800.00/month for a one bedroom.)

You can email me through the ilx mail thing - I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. And we might even have a mini-fap when you get here, if you're so inclined!

thanks a lot! a mini-fap sounds great, btw.

yea, the social work program is largely based on internships (classes during the summers, internships rest of the year), and we'll find out next week where her placement will be. smith is pretty good about giving first choices for locations, so most likely she'll be placed in noho. there's a slight possibility she'd be placed in north adams/williamstown, and if that's the case and there's a job there for me, i imagine we'll both move there after her summer sessions at smith are done.

there certainly has been a lot of library jobs posted so far, though most of them actual librarian positions requiring an MLS, which i do not yet have. i wouldn't be able to start a position until june anyways, so i'm optimistic that i'll find something closer to noho in the next couple of months.

my dad lives in gloucester. visited him there last week, which was my first time in states.

About two years ago someone stole my purse, digital camera and shoes from a rough bar in Gloucester.

.......shoes?

gloucester has had a wildly out of proportion heroin/morphine addiciton rate for over 150 years.

Yeah, shoes. We'd been drinking all day and I was completely blasted - not one of my finer moments. I was wearing flats and had kicked them off at some point. They were next to my purse which was (stupidly) on the floor and someone stole both. My own fault really but I'll never understand why they took the flats. They weren't anything special. Someone we were with ended up passing out on rock in the middle of a park and it took us hours to find her. It was a bad night.

I know it's not W Mass and now I've ruined the thread but Glouster made me think of Essex which made me think of Woodmans. I can't wait.

my favorite spot in cape ann, plum island:

http://www.channeledgecharters.com/newsite/pics/image020.jpg

yeah i don't imagine i'll be able to get to mass moca this trip but i will get there some day

one thing i like about northampton is that place where you can rent a hot tub

"I'd also like to visit a swimming hole before winter's icy grip tightens around our collective throat."

pumping station in greenfield is nice. lots of people go there. there is a really nice one in montague too. i like to go past the actual greenfield "pool" (where there is a park/swimming/bbq/playground) on leyden road and behind the ball fields and down the hill to the water. its nice down there and usually there are hardly any people. can show you sometime.

Pro tip: That giant head is hollow and has two ladders and a platform and a hole in the top, so you can stick yourself out of this hole and look out over the Taconic State Parkway and across miles and miles of rolling hills and forest. You may also wave at the cars to freak ppl out if you so desire (and you do).

the one behind the ball fields is cool just cuz you have to know there is a trail there. feels secret. and its pretty. i guess its not really a swimming hole. you are just going down to the river. but its a nice spot. and there is a little beach.

Yeah that sounds great. I want to do more biking too. What do people do for fun in winter?

And also Fosters was really good and cheap!

yeah, i love fosters. in the winter people ski. and skate. and sled. and snowshoe. and drink.

i just do the same stuff all year long. so, seasons aren't that big a deal. i don't like shoveling snow, but between us and the neighbors its not a big deal.

Woah Laurel do you know more about those sculptures and where that is exactly? I'd love to go.

Actually, I really want to go back to N. Adams and MassMoca. I went over the winter and it was so awesome. Would totally stop there on the way. Also, those waterfalls!!! Woah.

I put a link up above, it's to Roadside America! Totally worth it.

Thanks!

we're here! gonna knock around for a while and hopefully make it into greenfield later this afternoon

FYI: the ILX commune is still for sale:

http://www.trulia.com/property/1068735105-172-Highland-Ave-Greenfield-MA-01301

cute bargain on hope street. hope street is bargain central:

http://www.trulia.com/property/1044170692-145-Hope-St-Greenfield-MA-01301#photo-12

Jeez house prices around here

it makes you think, doesn't it?

i am such a shameless shill for this place. i can't help it. but its kind of the perfect place to hide out when the future warming wars come. plenty of food and water. its pretty. lots of smart people. but smart people who are quiet about it. no big deal.

perfect example of what i mean: this morning there was a bat in the store. pretty big bat. they freak me out. there was ONE guy looking at records in the store. i said to him, are you good with bats? and he says: "Well, I am a zoologist..." he walked over and he took a picture of the bat, studied it briefly, and then took it out of the store! and then he bought cool records.

Let's put it this way-Greenfield is one of the few places I could actually afford a house. But I still can't afford it!

so awesome meeting u scott! i'll try to give you a heads up if we're back up there before we leave monday.

we went down & checked out a swimming hole on your & maria's recommendation. didn't go swimming, but laid out a blanket under the pines and had a picnic of stuff we bought at fosters. munched & took photos & walked the dog around & watched a bunch of teens cannonball into the water.

pretty amazing afternoon.

If you are near great barrington there is a butcher shop called Meat Market that does an all outdoor grill dinner that is pretty amazing and not that expensive

the maple cone at the sugar shack in hadley is no joke, damn

bat guy story is dope, scott. i wanna be a cool western mass smart guy.

love you greenfield...

3:33 p.m. — Control got a report from Prospect Street of a possible domestic disturbance; officers learned the noise that was heard was a woman stabbing cardboard boxes with her swords; she stated she practices with swords.

5:26 p.m. — Control got a call from a person who stated that her son called her and said he was on Wheeler Avenue, and there were three, 100-pound pigs in the road; officer checked the area, and had no contact with any people, or pigs.

7:38 a.m. — Caller from East Chestnut Hill Road calling to request contact with the owner of several loose goats that are in her yard eating her bushes; she said she would contact him herself, but he doesn’t have a phone; officer spoke to the owner of the goats who will see what he can do and speak to the reporting person about possible damages.

Home turf

Penn Jillette makes stop in Greenfield and is glad he did

By DAVID RAINVILLE Recorder Staff

GREENFIELD — “When I came back to town, I didn’t realize Greenfield had turned into Brooklyn.”

Penn Jillette, internationally known comedian, author and illusionist, returned to his hometown of Greenfield Thursday night, and spent Friday walking around town before speaking at Greenfield Community College.

“When I last left Greenfield, it was a depressing, dead factory town,” he admitted.

He was impressed by all the changes that happened while he was away.

“Now, the old Clark’s Sport Shop has turned into a great performance place; it’s a club I’d love to play,” said Jillette. He was referring to the Arts Block, at Main Street and Court Square. If he had more time in town, he said, he’d try to take in a show.

In 2007, Jillette went on national television, saying that a Walmart was just the thing Greenfield needed. The town was featured on former Showtime series, “Penn & Teller: Bulls**t!” in an episode that focused on small towns’ resistance to the retail giant. On the show, Jillette lampooned Al Norman, nicknamed the “sprawlbuster” for his anti-Walmart agenda.

Jillette has since changed his mind.

“The way Greenfield looks now, I think we might have been on the wrong side of that one,” he admitted.

He couldn’t believe that the sleepy town he’d left now sports two Thai restaurants, a revamped Bank Row block and a used record store.

Jillette said he spent $200 at John Doe Jr. Used Records, buying new copies of old favorites, from stand-up comedy albums to old “dirty party records” from the 1960s.

His appearance at GCC was one of a handful of speaking engagements to promote his 2012 book, “Every Day is an Atheist Holiday,” which was recently released in paperback.

Jillette was also taken aback with the venue. Since he’d last seen the community college, it’s undergone major renovations.

“It used to be a depressing idea of a community college, a place I wouldn’t go. Now, I’m sitting here and enjoying it.”

Jillette sat in a cushy chair in front of the southern-facing, allglass wall of the upstairs library, watching the sun go down on what he said must have been “the most beautiful day of 2013.”

“Sitting here, I can’t imaging why I ever wanted to leave Greenfield.”

It was a matter of opportunity, or lack thereof, that made Jillette strap a few belongings to his back and set out on the open road, to make a go of show business. He said he knew he wasn’t going to get his big break in Franklin County.

Nice haul, Scott!

http://www.newenglandmoves.com/property/details/682371/MLS-71536350/7-Church-St-Montague-Turners-Falls-MA-01349.aspx?

kinda miss it out there

That church would make an awesome screening space...

WANT

Many a x-post....

now i'm trying to remember collardio's story...might drive me insane. i know he came to the store, but i don't remember where from...

― scott seward, Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

From Boston! That's where from. In August of last year I showed up at your store with my two kids and a friend who lives in Shutesbury, and picked up a few LPs. You were quite the gentleman.

BTW I was planning on swinging through again this Labor Day but I broke my leg in late August! I should be hale and whole next time I see you however.

7 years here and I think I'm finally going to buy a snow blower today.

hey, adam! no idea you were still on the board :)

it's raining now though!

hey, adam! no idea you were still on the board :)

I just dropped by to see what was happening on this thread.

it's raining now though!
Yeah, but I want to be ready next time...

bumping for roll call and local updates

Who else is around here now? Scott has been awol for some time now, Tarfumes too (?)

Feeling grateful for woods and rivers and etc. this week

I'm going to be spending a week in September a little east of Great Barrington. It's a bit of a haul to skot's store, but I would love to go. Any (other) recommendations for hikes, farms, food, activities in and around this area?

bump?

monument mountain is a good, pretty, 2-hour hike that offers a good view of the whole area. olivia's overlook is an easy nature walk that starts from another nice viewpoint.

tanglewood always has music going on, tickets might be a little expensive so close to the date, but you might be able to get on the lawn for a good price (need your own chairs/blankets).

for food, there are a lot of good options, but boema is a solid, upscale pizza place that opened recently in lenox.

I’m just outside of Great Barrington right now. It’s a nice town, I’ve been a bunch of times. For a hike we were just recommended Bash Bish Falls which we’ve never tried before. We ate good upscalish Mexican at Xicohtencatl. Tomorrow we are having our splurge meal at John Andrews Farmhouse which we’ve also never tried. There’s jazz on Thursday nights at The Mount (Edith Wharton’s home) - the sign on the road says “Free Jazz” which always amuses me. Food on average tends to be good - we’ve had a lot of good meals at a lot of different places, and you can easily find good coffee, craft beer etc. The local coffee roasters and breweries are solid (Berkshire and Great Barrington are the beer companies I remember, haven’t had any beer yet since I got here).

Great cheese store in GB called Rubiners. There’s a bar that has hippie jam band type stuff on the main st in downtown but I forget the name. I’ll try to remember more of the places we tried and liked.

The lake beaches are nice but unfortunately as we just learned they made them town residents only this year (at least Lee and Lenox did).

Rubiners has stuff you can't find elsewhere, but the main street of Great Barrington has become the kind of place I don't really like anymore

I've ended up shopping for food mostly at Guido's when I'm there, which is also expensive but not quite as expensive, and it is a full grocery store

Thanks for the recommendations.

Monument Mountain and Olivia's Overlook were on my radar, but we'll be sure to check them out. Our friends aren't up for big hikes so those look just right.

Boema looks right up our alley for lunch. Seems like they do outdoor dining.

Holy shit at Rubiners. This is exactly my kind of place. We will likely cook in each evening, so this is perfect.

Always interested in food spots even if we likely won't eat indoors yet.

The Southfield Store, just south of Great Barrington and equidistant from Sheffield and New Marlborough, has great sandwiches and is a good lunch place

Tons of places have patio dining - seems to be the norm.

Guido's is definitely where you shop when you want the good stuff. Big Y is also a solid grocery store. People have also said good things to me about Berkshire Food Coop.

Naji's = good lebanese. I really can't think of a bad meal I've had in the area tbh, it just seems like fresh ingredients are the norm everywhere.

I went to the Old Inn on the Green once in New Marlborough, it was very nice but expensive

Oh the Rubiners cafe is good too (Rubi’s). They have outdoor seating.

John Andrews was REALLY good. Definitely a bit of a "go with your parents" kind of vibe to it (which is funny that I still think of places that way although I'm almost 42), and we did in fact go with my inlaws. But the outdoor setting is bucolic, and the food is excellent. Had some incredible local steelhead trout over french lentils, one of the best fish dishes I've ever had. Desert was insanely good as well - we shared a few different things that included ginger ice cream and lemon panna cotta and an extremely bittersweet bittersweet chocolate cake and an almond cake and all were interesting and not in the realm of typical restaurant deserts.

That all sounds terrific. I looked at the menu when you recommended it and it looked very nice.

If you're around amherst go to Henion Bakery and get a cruller. It was a revelatory experience for me that I still think about after 20 years.