5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
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Remembering Joel Librizzi
6.16.09
In the late 1980s, I was on staff at the Berkshire Eagle, back when the paper was still located in the old Eagle building in downtown Pittsfield.
Joel Librizzi was a ubiquitous presence there, and pretty much everywhere you went around the Berkshires, until recently, when he succumbed to illness and, sadly, died this week.
Joel was one of a kind. He would wander into our office -- our office being that of Berkshires Week, under the reign of editor Nada Samuels -- and just engage in some colorful anecdote about something that happened that day or something that happened thirty years ago. Half the time I had no idea what he was talking about, but he and Nada seemed to share a wavelength, and it was just fascinating to sit back and watch the two of them go at it.
Later I realized it was that Joel was no mere photojournalist -- and I distinctly remember Nada telling me this -- but Joel was an artist. Or at least he had the temperament of an artist. His brush was his camera, and having worked with many photographers over the years, Joel was pretty much one of the classics -- someone who saw the world, through the lens or otherwise, through his unique F-stop.
He had a great voice, inflected with an ethnic accent even though he was a Berkshire native, and a sweet soul and a kind heart. Nothing seemed to faze him while at the same time everything did. But even when he went off on one of his rants, he never lost his temper or became ill-mannered. He always smiled and laughed in the end.
For years after I left the staff of the Eagle but continued to contribute to the daily paper, and then afterwards when I turned my attention to Berkshire Living, I'd run into Joel, and it was as if time stood still. He was as friendly and outgoing as ever, and would launch into one of his good-natured rants or tirades, or talk about some crazy thing his father did, or what have you.
Like I said, I didn't always know what he was talking about. But I did feel his passion, and for that alone I'm thankful to have known Joel Librizzi, may his memory be for a blessing.
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