You can view, save and delete any story that appears on GazetteNET here for up to 30 days. To add a story, simply click on the icon next to any headline.     Thursday, May 08, 2008  Reelin' in the years Lots of modern hipster nerds roll their eyes at Steely Dan, cursing them as the ultimate in muzak dreck, yet the band was started by two hipster nerds of the '60s who loved sci-fi, beat poets and bop jazz. They named themselves after a vibrating device from "Naked Lunch," wrote wry and usually oblique lyrics, and put it all to unique, sophisticated music. City Column  Suitors vie for food dollars  BY LAURIE LOISEL Do you have the feeling you're being wooed? Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Lifestyle  The primary schedule plays out  By BRUCE WATSON Those few of you who may be weary of the presidential primary season will be glad to know that the remaining schedule has been set. Now you won't have to wonder what state is next, when to tune out the next debate, when to vote and when to finally pack up and leave this country in dismay. Thursday, April 24, 2008 Clubland  Bathed in a blue glow  By KEN MAIURI THE enigmatic Takka Takka paid their first visit to Northampton for a show at the Basement last Saturday night. The quintet came from Brooklyn, but easily could have come out of a time machine instead - their atmospheric yet tactile pop songs shimmered with an early-'80s dreaminess. Thursday, April 17, 2008 City Column  Get a little greener -all the time  BY LAURIE LOISEL There I was at Cornucopia, buying vitamins, when confronted with That Question. You know the one: "Paper or plastic?" Clubland  Led it all hang out  By KEN MAIURI It's possible that every American teenager since 1970 has gone through a Led Zeppelin phase. And that every Classic Rock radio station has a "Get the Led Out" show, broadcasting the British band's hallowed hard rock forevermore. Thursday, April 10, 2008 City Column  From downtown cuisine to HCC culinary scene, it's all good  BY LAURIE LOISEL The menu, which included a fresh herb omelette with choice of cheddar, Gruyere or goat cheese and sauteed mushrooms, potato latkes with homemade applesauce, and rosemary potatoes, seemed vaguely familiar. Clubland  Storm's a-brewin'  By KEN MAIURI It's the Age of the Leak, especially when it comes to new albums. While recording artists and record labels still make plans to release their new work on a specific date, if you're a fan and know your way around the Internet, you can probably find and download a new record weeks, even months, in advance. No one can wait to open their presents anymore. Thursday, April 03, 2008 City Column  Where a city gathers: Meetinghouse lives up to the word  BY LAURIE LOISEL Quick question: What do the following groups have in common? Wednesday, April 02, 2008  We've come a long way, but there's a long road ahead  By MARIETTA PRITCHARD A recent conversation with a frail patient at the Hospice at the Fisher Home caught me off guard. She was asking - politely, reasonably, but insistently - to be helped out of bed so that she could go home and make supper for her husband. Her husband has, in fact, been dead for some years, as she herself acknowledged shortly. Still, she maintained that she needed to go and look after him. I shouldn't have been surprised, since I have learned in my training as a hospice volunteer that people approaching death often begin to hallucinate, to move outside the bounds of what we tend to think of as ordinary reality. Wednesday, March 26, 2008  Streamlining: a fast track to trouble  By ALEXANDRA DAWSON The state has lately adopted a highly parental mode of suggesting to cities and towns how to handle their business, especially land-use business. To the consuming concern of former governors for affordable housing, the present administration has added a passion for permit streamlining, not matched, alas, with much understanding of how local permitting is actually conducted under a host of statutes. Thursday, March 20, 2008 Clubland  Dancing into the keys  By KEN MAIURI You're not scared of me, are you? Tift Merritt was addressing the politely quiet Iron Horse crowd this past Tuesday night. "I'm a little girl. It's all going to be okay." Thursday, March 06, 2008 Clubland  Something for everyone  By KEN MAIURI When guitarist Bill Frisell and his quartet took the stage at the Iron Horse this Tuesday night, they tuned up like an orchestra, and fittingly their set had the feel of an Americana symphony in two long movements. Tuesday, March 04, 2008 Parent to Parent  Improving kids less, enjoying them more The youngest of our three children, 6-year-old Michael, has an uncanny and sometimes unnerving knack for gently calling to my attention issues that I need to focus on. I'm sure this ability will prove to be very useful for him if he grows up to become a therapist or a talk show host or a prophet. In the meantime, however, the experience of being sorted out by a Power Ranger with only one front tooth is a decidedly ambiguous one. Wednesday, February 27, 2008  Island bucks the development trend  By ALEXANDRA DAWSON When I went to Sanibel Island this winter for two weeks, my only intent was to warm up old bones. However, once I had a good look at the mainland, I saw that Sanibel, crowded as it is in season, has hold of some good juju. Thursday, February 21, 2008 Clubland  Clubland: Clean-cut Cajun  BY KEN MAIURI We've come a long way. It's nice to see some people who know how to dance, said Chas Justus, guitarist from the Lafayette band the Red Stick Ramblers, smiling at the folks two-stepping around the floor at the Iron Horse this past Tuesday night City Column  This is a 'Shew' that will be 'Really Big'!  BY LAURIE LOISEL What I remember most vividly from my firsthand television experience of "The Ed Sullivan Show" is spinning plates, an amazing ventriloquist and Topo Gigio. Yes, the unbelievably cool trick of spinning multiple plates on metal poles lined up on the stage is just the kind of spectacle that can mesmerize a kid. Wednesday, February 20, 2008 Lifestyle  A would-be scab welcomes writers back to work  BY BRUCE WATSON It's a good thing the writers strike ended because I wasn't having much luck as a scab. Thursday, February 14, 2008 Clubland  Clubland: Clap, but quietly  BY KEN MAIURI Stephin Merritt, songwriter and main vocalist for The Magnetic Fields, sat onstage at the Iron Horse, hiding under a plain baseball cap, probably more interested in being elsewhere. City Column  In these political times, decisions - and signs - abound  BY LAURIE LOISEL This election season is so exciting, it's hard for some people to stop campaigning, even though in these parts, the primary is long gone. Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Lifestyle  Listing the possibilities in the trek to the finish line  BY BRUCE WATSON It started a few years ago with the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." Paris. Rome. Peoria. Thursday, February 07, 2008 Clubland  Clubland: Hot tunes at 'The Voo'  BY KEN MAIURI Driving up a dark and deserted I-91 this past Monday night, through a snow squall coming directly at the windshield like Star Wars hyperspace, it really felt like Turners Falls was in a galaxy far, far away. City Column  Thinking nationally, voting locally: a ward-by-ward look  BY LAURIE LOISEL On Super Duper Tuesday, politics was national. But it was local too. A day later, aren't you wondering how your neighbors voted, and how that compares to the rest of the country? We found out Tuesday night that although both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney won in Massachusetts, Clinton's competitor Barack Obama took Hampshire County, and soundly defeated her in Northampton. John McCain also beat Romney in Hampshire County, including its county seat, Northampton. Wednesday, February 06, 2008  Learning the lessons of universal health care  BY MARIETTA PRITCHARD When I voted for Bill Clinton in the 1992 election, it wasn't because I especially admired him or believed that he never inhaled or avoided the military draft. My main reason was that he promised - and made me believe - that he would create a workable national health system. By the time of his second run for the presidency, it was pretty clear he wasn't going to make that happen, that putting Hillary in charge of bringing about health care reform had been a big mistake, and that the cause wouldn't be resurrected in any serious way. Tuesday, February 05, 2008 Parent to Parent  Keep in mind that kids believe what they see  BY MARY CLEARY KIELY GUEST COLUMNIST If you, like me, feel clueless much of the time, take heart. You've probably just forgotten how much worse it was when you were a kid. Young children don't have a firm grasp of our adult ways, so out of necessity they become great constructionists, cobbling together their ideas about what's going on from the shards of their observations and the thread of their imaginations. The resulting misconceptions are sometimes serious, sometimes comic. Thursday, January 31, 2008 City Column  Annual Silver Chord Bowl a hot ticket for a cappella devotees  BY LAURIE LOISEL Once you've been to the Silver Chord Bowl, you want to go back. Clubland  Clubland: Battling at the Basement  BY KEN MAIURI This week I did an email interview with promoter Mark Sheehan, whose Happy Valley Showdown showcase, an epic five-week battle of the bands, is regularly filling the Basement to party-packed proportions. When I asked how he got the idea for the contest, he responded with an 850-word run-on paragraph.