Mel Livatino

Jan 7, 2025 | magazine.nd.edu | Mel Livatino

In the home of my youth there was no clear line between being a man and being able to repair the house you lived in and the car you drove. I was 9 when we bought our first house, and from that day till now, 75 years later, I have never stopped living under the fear of not being man enough to repair my own house or car. Though the weight of that fear is always silently pressing down, I notice it only when something goes wrong or I remember something going wrong that I couldn’t take care of myself.

Jul 3, 2024 | magazine.nd.edu | Mel Livatino

IOn this penultimate day of August, I am blessed with an early September light as I take breakfast at noon on the patio. This light on the canopy of trees that tower over my neighborhood and wrap it in brilliant shades of green is among the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. I have been contemplating the beauty of this light on warm, blue-sky days every September for half a century now. I know no more beautiful place to be than in it.

Mar 4, 2024 | yourvalley.net | Mel Livatino

For nearly a quarter century, John Schumacher has been the heart and soul of Recorded Recreational Reading for the Blind. So no one was surprised when nearly all 34 RRRB volunteers responded yes to board president Sarah Shew’s invitation to a surprise party for his 90th birthday on Valentine’s Day. Their gift to him that day was to pledge a collective total of $15,000 to RRRB if their dollars would be matched by donations from non-volunteers.

Feb 15, 2024 | yourvalley.net | Mel Livatino

Submitted photo/Mel Livatino RRRB audio engineer John Schumacher, Desert Brass Band conductor Charles Musgrave, RRRB interviewer Gary Cohen and RRRB interviewer Mel Livatino.

Feb 15, 2024 | yourvalley.net | Mel Livatino

One of the West Valley’s crowning jewels paid a visit to another of the West Valley’s crowning jewels Feb. 5, as Charles Musgrave, conductor of the Desert Brass Band, sat down in a sound booth at Recorded Recreational Reading for the Blind to talk about yet a third jewel, Mary Apick’s documentary film, “Jewel of the Desert,” an hour-long film about Musgrave and his nearly quarter-century-old band.