7.15.10
FILM REVIEW: I Am Love
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
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FILM REVIEW: Please Give
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He's Your Handyman
Call Peter Vernon for just about anything you need done around the house or garden
6.3.10
Prime Minister Netanyahu's Statment Regarding the Gaza Blockade Action
4.21.10
FILM REVIEW: Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.17.10
CONCERT REVIEW: Jakob Dylan at the Egg, Albany, N.Y.
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.16.10
BOOK REVIEW: The Ask by Sam Lipsyte
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.16.10
MUSIC REVIEW: Shawn Colvin at the Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
4.16.10
FILM REIVEW: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Thriller introduces Sweden's answer to Natalie Portman
12.29.08
Palestinians Need Israel to Win
WALL ST JOURNAL: If Hamas gets away with terror once again, the peace process will be over.
2.18.10
Community Radio Station Gets Full-Power License
WBCR to become regional powerhouse in three years
2.15.10
[Eagle Watch] Whoops! They did it again.
Berkshire Eagle headline contradicts story
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FILM REVIEW: Crazy Heart
by Seth Rogovoy of Berkshire Living Magazine
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The Filibuster Fiasco
The majority party must wield the reins of power delivered unto it by the people
1.14.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights 1.15-1.18
by Seth Rogovoy of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
1.14.09
Weekend Cultural Highlights 1.15-1.18
by Seth Rogovoy of BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
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Club Helsinki: An Appreciation
8.28.09
After over a decade of bringing the greatest music on the national, regional, and local scene to audiences in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Club Helsinki winds down this weekend with a series of shows culminating in a final performance by Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys on Monday night, when the club will have been emptied of its furniture and when, at the end of the night, the lights will dim, the doors will be shut and locked, never to be reopened again as Club Helsinki.
It's a bittersweet development.
On the one hand, it's an opportunity to celebrate the greatest such music venue the Berkshires have ever seen. It's not even possible to capture the impact that the club has had on the regional music scene merely by running down a list of the stars who have appeared on its tiny stage, although that list includes an impressive lineup, with names like Odetta, Shawn Colvin, Leo Kottke, Mike Gordon of Phish, Don Byron, Hamiet Bluiett, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Fred Eaglesmith, Greg Brown, Levon Helm, Tom-Tom Club, Burning Spear, Graham Parker, and Norah Jones.
The club has nurtured up and coming regional talent including Meg Hutchinson and Sonya Kitchell, local performers now recording for national record labels.
The club has also provided a stage for regional performers to assemble in a variety of circumstances, and for one last time on Sunday, there'll be a showcase of that talent in a six-hour extravaganza modeled along the lines of the Last Waltz, the Band's 1976 farewell concert.
More than all this, however, is that, in the best power of art to transform lives, Club Helsinki was a community, a shared community of artists, music lovers, activists, poets, and just people who found a home among the club’s fascinating array of its technical staff, waitstaff, regulars, management, and overseeing it all, its founder and owner, Deborah McDowell, who grew her fifteen-year-old teahouse into one of the region's most popular restaurants, Helsinki Café, and expanded it into a nightclub.
Countless people who passed through the doors as concertgoers, staff members, musicians, or diners, have had their lives changed. And while this was a collective effort, it was one created and constantly curated and nurtured by Deborah, the visionary behind Helsinki.
Deborah McDowell defied all odds in keeping the restaurant and club going for as long as they did, and although times have dictated that the doors must close on Monday, Deborah should be remembered for all that she accomplished in a brutal playing field where few venues accomplish what she has over the past decade and a half.
8/29/2009
Seth please do not forget Deb's partner Marc Shafler and all his hard work.
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