Dave’s Gone By Interview (3/30/13): ROSLYN KIND & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actress and singer Roslyn Kind

Topics include: music, concerts, acting and Kind’s half-sister Barbra Streisand.

Segment originally aired March 30, 2013 on the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

Complete Original Broadcast:http://www.totaltheater.com/?q=node/5032

All content (c)2013 TotalTheater Productions.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
More information on Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By #417 (3/30/13): ONE OF A KIND

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Here is the 417th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, March 30, 2013. Info: davesgoneby.com.

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with singer-actress Roslyn Kind. Also: Inside Broadway, Dave’s Trip to Indianapolis, and Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Passover).

Host: Dave Lefkowitz

Guest: Roslyn Kind

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN
00:12:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Indiana
00:40:00 DAVE’S GONE AWAY – Indianapolis (w/ guest caller Joyce Weil)
01:36:00 Sponsors
01:44:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon & Roslyn Kind
02:31:30 Weather
02:32:30 INSIDE BROADWAY (The Lyons (02:36:30) & 9 to 5 (02:39:30))
02:49:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (Passover)
03:03:30 Thanks & Friends
03:05:30 DAVE GOES OUT

March 30, 2013 Playlist: “The Nearness of You” (00:13:0 0; Norah Jones). “Perfectly Good Guitar” (00:16:00; John Hiatt). “Black or White” (00:20:30; Michael Jackson). “Anything Goes” (00:24:00; Frank Sinatra). “Gary, Indiana” (00:26:30; The Music Man, original Broadway cast w/ Eddie Hodges). “Indiana Wants Me” (00:28:00; R. Dean Taylor). “Take Me Home” (00:32:00; Crystal Gayle). “Jim Dean of Indiana” (00:33:00; Phil Ochs). “It’s a Beautiful Day” (01:42:00), “Give Me You” (01:55:00), “Living Colors / Meadowlark” (02:05:00), “Somebody Loves Me” (02:17:00), “At Times Like This” (02:21:00) & “Come What May” (02:27:30; Roslyn Kind). “Get Out and Stay Out” (02:43:30; 9 to 5 Broadway cast w/ Stephanie J. Block). “Saved” (02:49:30) & “Ain’t Talkin’ (02:53:30). “When Day is Done” (03:06:30; Michael Feinstein).

Roslyn Kind
Roslyn Kind
9 to 5: The Musical
9 to 5 at Beef `n Boards
Phoenix Theater’s The Lyons
Mayor Bloomberg and the beverage police
Indianapolis

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #61 (3/17/2013): Sugar Sugar

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Aired March 16, 2013 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube clip: http://youtu.be/NUaspXp3-Kw

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of March 17th, 2013.

How big is too big? This is a question asked by real-estate agents, businesses and gay men since time immemorial. Now the same question is being put to soft drinks – at least in New York. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, or, as I like to call him, Big Brotherberg, wants to make it illegal for restaurants to sell sugary beverages in containers bigger than 16 ounces. Places like McDonald’s and 7/11 and even Starbucks, with their grande-vente-sabado-gigante-ultra-maxi-mocha-poppachinos – would be subject to fines unless they gave customers less goliath-sized portions.

To give Big Brotherberg his due, his motivations are truly admirable. Obesity is a huge problem in this country. Not just that fat people are unpleasant to look at, or sit next to on a bus, or listen to when they’re not being jolly; no, it’s that bad eating sends healthcare costs through the roof. Billions of dollars are funneled into treating heart disease and diabetes and tooth decay, and Ritalin for kids who are so hopped up on sugar, we confuse their natural exuberance for ADHD.

The rationale of a soft drink ban is that if you put less crap in front of people’s mouths, they will pour less garbage into their guts. Psychologically, this is absolutely sound. If we see six pieces of cheese on a plate, we’re probably gonna eat all six even if we stopped being after hungry after four. And have you been to a supermarket lately? Shopping carts are bigger than Buicks. Why? Because the cart looks empty and lonely with only half a dozen items in it. But with 15 items, we consummate our urge to consume.

So the logic is, if you give people 16 ounces of Dr. Pibb with their 8,000 calorie happy meal, they’ll get used to having a little less fructose with their fries. And right there, that’s 200 calories staying in the fountain and out of your colon. It’s a really great idea – if it were voluntary. If chain restaurants and family-style eateries said, “Hey, we’ll charge a little less, and we’ll serve a little less.” Maybe, eventually, people will go back to portion control the way it was before America supersized everything from street pretzels to porn stars’ boobs.

But wait a minute – Americans have already been downsized, and it hasn’t done a damn thing to shrink their waistlines. For years, snack companies have been slicing candy bars just a notch smaller for the same price, hoping we won’t notice. Potato chip makers have kept their bags the same while putting fewer spuds in it. They’re just being health conscious, right? And it’s really made such a difference to people’s buying and eating habits, right?

But more than that, if we’ve learned anything from the failure of prohibition or Nancy Reagan’s war on pot, it’s that banning vices does not work. It just drives the market underground and turns cravings into criminality. And I don’t care how well-meaning his motivations, New York’s mayor is overstepping his bounds. If a mother tells a ten year old, “I’m doing this for your own benefit,” well, sure; she’s a mom and he’s ten. If a government official tells you, “I’m doing this for your own good,” you know it’s only a matter of time before everyone visiting City Hall has to bring frankincense and a sacrificial goat.

I realize my opposition to the soda ban can be viewed as contradictory to my support of reasonable gun control. After all, how can I support 32 ounces in a big gulp if I’m against 32 bullets in a chamber? The answer is, which would you rather come across: a psychopath pointing a semi-automatic at a classroom, or a chubby guy with a Mountain Dew asking you the time because his wristwatch doesn’t fit anymore?

In striking down Mayor Brotherberg’s soda ban last week, Judge Milton Tingling – love that name! – Judge Tingling said the law was arbitrary and capricious and virtually unenforceable. It’s also insulting to grownups who wanna make their own choices. Even worse, it turns presumably smart people into retards. Restaurants are complaining, “Oh, no! We can only serve 16 ounces now, we have to get smaller cups.” News flash: 16 ounces fits even better in a 24-ounce cup than it does in a 16. You can actually walk past the counter without spilling Pepsi on your fingers.

Most aggravating is the unfairness. If you can go in a bodega and buy 20 cartons of cancer-causing cigarettes; if you can pop in a liquor store and buy beer by the keg; if you can visit your local topless bar and get twelve lap-dances (and by the way, I recommend Tina; she does this thing with her kegels), if you can saunter into a supermarket and buy a 2-liter 7-Up for one-fifty – if you can do all of this – why turn fast-food managers into cup cops?

Mayor Brotherberg, if you truly wanna cure obesity, stop this nanny nonsense and make real change. New York City is so crazy expensive, poor and middle-class families can’t afford fresh, organic produce. Try giving people real salaries and livable budgets, and they’ll eat in better restaurants. They’ll save Burger King for a once-in-awhile guilty pleasure instead of eating there three times a week because it’s the only thing a single mother has time, energy or money to manage.

As far as portion control, tell ya what Mayor. Next time you try to get some cash out of your bank account, I want the bank manager to tell you, “No, you don’t need $30,000 at one time. I’m cutting you off at 20; you can come back tomorrow for the rest. I realize it’s your money, but I don’t trust some of the business deals you might make, so . . . I’m doing this for your own good. Have a nice day.” That noise you’ll hear from Bloomberg’s throat will be a very big gulp, indeed.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Supersize Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.

(c) 2013 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

—> https://davesgoneby.net/?p=28998

Dave’s Gone By Interview (3/16/13): DEBBY BOONE & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews singer Debby Boone

Topics include: theater, music, Boones & Ferrers

Segment originally aired March 16, 2013 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2013 TotalTheater Productions.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
More information on Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By Interview (3/16/13): JULIE HALSTON & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews actress Julie Halston

Topics include: Charles Busch, Classical Julie, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.

Segment originally aired March 16, 2013 on the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2013 TotalTheater Productions.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
More information on Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By #416 (3/16/13): TRULY JULIE

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Here is the 416th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, March 16, 2013. Info: davesgoneby.com.

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actress Julie Halston and singer Debby Boone. Plus: Inside Broadway, Rabbi Sol on soft drinks, Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Arts & Letters) and a St. Pat’s Saturday Segue.

Host: Dave Lefkowitz

Guests: actress Julie Halston, singer Debby Boone

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN
00:07:30 SATURDAY SEGUE: St. Pat’s
00:35:30 INSIDE BROADWAY
00:54:30 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Julie Halston
01:43:30 Sponsors
01:52:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #061 (Sugar Sugar)
02:03:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (Arts & Leisure)
02:38:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Debby Boone
03:22:30 Weather, Friends & Thanks
03:34:00 DAVE GOES OUT

March 16, 2013 Playlist: “From Galway to Graceland” (00:08:00; Richard Thompson). “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” (00:13:00; Michael Feinstein). “Streets of Arklow” (00:17:00; Van Morrison). “Limericks” (00:21:00; Benny Bell). “The Rocky Road to Dublin” (00:24:00; The Clancy Brothers). “”The Belle of Belfast City” (00:26:00; Kirsty MacColl). “It Might as Well Rain Until September” (00:49:30; Carole King). “Julie Halston accepting an award from the Off-Broadway Theater Alliance” (youtube clip). “You Gotta Have a Gimmick” (01:18:00; Gypsy 2003 Bway revival). “Thunder on the Mountain” (02:06:30), “I was Young When I Left Home” (02:12:00) & “Call Letter Blues” (02:22:00; Bob Dylan). “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (02:17:30; Counting Crows). “Love is a Four- Letter Word” (02:26:00; Joan Baez). “Surrender” (02:35:00), “Blue Skies” (02:43:00), “When You’re Loved” (02:57:00), “You Light Up My Life” (03:12:30), “California” (03:18:00) & “Hasta Manana” (03:37:00).

Julie Halston
Debby Boone
Debby Boone lighting up our lives
Happy St. Pat’s!

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #60 (3/10/2013): Whose Line Returns

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RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #60 (3/10/2013): Whose Line Returns

Aired March 9, 2013 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube clip: http://youtu.be/Yhyv7lhIT6E

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of March 10th, 2013.

A bit of happy, wonderful news from the world of television: “Whose Line is it Anyway” is coming back for a summer run. That delightful show, where improvisers take suggestions from people and do crazy things with them – kind of like Congress – it’s been off the air for six years. Even though reruns make it feel like it was just last Wednesday.

Still, the CW Network, which is co-owned by CBS and Warner Brothers – CW – that’s how they got their initials – did you know that? It’s a good thing it wasn’t Fox and Universal. Anyhoo, they’ll be airing the brand-new season of “Whose Line is it Anyway.” And it’ll be just like old times. Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie and Wayne Brady will all be back to do their thing. Which means Ryan will be genius, Colin will be bald, and Brady won’t be that funny but he can sing the phone book and shake his tush for the ladies.

Drew Carey will not be back to host, and let’s face it, that’s a blessing. He meant well, but he was the weak link when he was in scenes. And when he wasn’t, the camera would spend half the program showing him laughing instead of showing us what he was laughing at. If I wanna spend a half hour watching someone giggle like an idiot, I’ll go visit my uncle Brian in the mental home. And the tragic part is he works there in personnel. But I digress.

For all its flaws, “Whose Line is it Anyway” was an oasis of old-fashioned entertainment. And by old-fashioned, I don’t mean like barbershop quartets and public hangings. I mean simple, live-by-your-wits live performance. Look around: all the sitcoms now are shot like movies, all the movies look like video games, and all the video games look like the end of the world. “Whose Line” is just four brave souls and a piano-playing lesbian. How can you beat it?

I admit, I have had my secret dreams of being part of an improv troupe. I’m quick-thinking, I’m funny, I can imitate noises. Here, listen, listen: shhhhhhh – that’s a shower. Shhhhhhhhhh. Not bad, right. Sssssssssssss. That’s a bicycle tire running out of air. Or my Cousin Velvel pishing his pants. See? My talents are protean.

I can also spin comic monologues out of thin air. Here, wait wait. Okay. Hi, my name’s Rabbi Sol. Great to be here. Hey . . . how about those . . . sports teams. You ever notice how they, uh, play sports? One time I met a friend, he was going off to play tennis – no wait, softball. I was like, “Hey, friend. Where you going?” And he’s like, (different voice) “I’m going to play softball.” And I’m, like, (different voice) “Why” – no, wait, that’s his voice. I’m like, “Why?” And he says, (different voice) “Because I like it. Football’s too dangerous.” And then he hurts himself. See? My stories have an arc! 

But I know improvisation is really about the other person, working with your partner to create magic. So let’s do this. You say something funny, and I’ll build on it. Go ahead: Uh huh, yes, and . . . Yes, and . . . Yes and . . . And how long have you been a gynecologist? The ostrich farm. Aaaand scene.

Of course, to be on a show like “Whose Line is it Anyway,” you also have to be musical. You have to take a topic and instantly fashion it into a song. I can do that! Here:
Doi doi doi doi-doi-doi-doi-doi-doi-doi.
I went to the synagogue to pray to HaShem.
There were many people there, I said hello to them.
They threw me on the beemah and started feeling up my crotch.
And when it was over I was missing my tallis and my watch.
My tallis, my wallet, and my watch. Yeah!

CW, you have my resume. I’m sure the show will be great as it is, but there’s always room for . . . improv-ment.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York. You may now read the Talmud in the style of your own devising.

(c) 2013 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

Dave’s Gone By Interview (3/9/13): DAVID HERSKOVITS & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with theater director David Herskovits

Topics include: Target Margin Theater Company, Yiddish Theater.

Segment originally aired March 9, 2013 on the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast.

All content (c)2013 TotalTheater Productions.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
More information on Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By #415 (3/9/13): WITZ `N VITS

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Here is the 415th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, March 9, 2013. Info: davesgoneby.com.

Featuring Rabbi Sol Solomon’s chat with theatrical director David Herskovits (of Target Margin Theater). Plus: Inside Broadway, the satirical News Gone By, a Saturday Segue (snow) and Rabbi Sol on the return of “Whose Line.”

Host: Dave Lefkowitz

Guest: theatrical director David Herskovits

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN
00:12:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Snow
00:46:00 INSIDE BROADWAY (News (00:46:00), Legally Blonde at UNC (00:59:30))
01:16:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews David Herskovits
01:51:30 Sponsors
01:55:00 NEWS GONE BY
02:01:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (Legally Blonde on Blonde)
02:34:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #060 (“Whose Line” returns)
02:39:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – More Snow
02:55:00 Friends
02:59:30 DAVE GOES OUT

March 9, 2013 Playlist: “Come a Long Way” (00:13:00) & “Winter Song” (02:45:00; Loudon Wainwright III). “Winter Wonderland” (00:15:30; The Roches). “Winter” (00:17:30; Tori Amos). “50 Words for Snow” 00:23:00; Kate Bush). “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” (00:31:30; Frank Zappa). “Winter Weather” (00:33:30; Benny Goodman w/ Art Lund & Peggy Lee). “Listen the Snow is Falling” (00:36:30; Yoko Ono). “Blood in the Water” (01:11:00; Legally Blonde 2007 Broadway cast w/ Michael Rupert). “I Want You” (02:01:30), “Visions of Johanna” ({“No Directions Home” alternate version}; 02:04:30), “Temporary Like Achilles” (02:11:00), “One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)” (02:16:00), “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 ({MTV Unplugged version}; 02:21:00) & “Obviously 5 Believers” (02:24:30; Bob Dylan). “Winter Song” (02:39:00; Tom Paxton). “Winter Song” (02:41:30; Nico).

David Herskovits
Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde
Legally Blonde in rehearsal at UNC
snow

RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #59 (3/3/2013): Disappearing Delis

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RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #59 (3/3/2013): Disappearing Delis

Aired March 2, 2013 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube clip: http://youtu.be/dXEmeT2NOd8

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of March 3rd, 2013.

Oh, woe is me. Woe are all of us. There was a story in the Los Angeles Times this week about the decline of the Jewish deli in American life. The story bemoaned the closing of the 50-year-old Junior’s Deli in L.A., and the 75-year-old Stage Deli in New York. There used to be thousands of delicatessens in Manhattan, now there are dozens. And delis are being deleted from other major cities, too.

Why is this? All sorts of reasons. Changing demographics, the generation that grew up feasting on tubes of salami is now eating through a tube, and the younger people have so many choices of where to eat and what to eat. It’s hard to blame them when they don’t go for the old pickles-on-the-table, toothpick-in-the-brisket standbys. Also not helping is our so-called health consciousness, which sees fatty meat and red meat and cured meat and smoked meat as the four horsemeats of the apocalypse. Oh sure, McDonald’s and Burger King aren’t exactly dishing out broccoli quinoa, but you can buy a happy meal for five dollars. Try finding a heaping brisket sandwich for less than a sawbuck.

Deli owners complain they have to increase prices because food costs keep rising, rent goes up, and insurance is through the roof. Which, if you figure every third person in a Jewish deli is a candidate for a bypass or old enough for a plot in Baron Hirsch, you can see why.

Some delicatessens are going with the flow. They’re serving egg-white omelettes, they’re offering Cajun burgers, they’re doing paninis instead of blinis. The co-owner of Canter’s restaurant told the L.A. Times, “You don’t need to just have rye bread and pastrami to have a deli sandwich.” I agree. You also need Russian dressing and potato salad.

Yet we have to endure stories about delis in San Francisco bringing in homemade sodas and drinks – and removing Dr. Browns. A deli without Dr. Brown’s cream or black cherry soda? Is the world truly coming to an end? My God, Dr. Brown’s are the people who made a soda out of celery. The single most useless, hated vegetable on earth, and some genius at Dr. Brown’s made a delicious – well, tolerable – carbonated beverage out of it. And they say deli’s not health food. Pooey!

Look, I understand the need to change with the times, but you don’t fix what isn’t broken, and a good pastrami sandwich, cut thick, on fresh rye, with a shtickel of red pepper, is going to outlast doomsday – let alone garden burgers and tofu chicken. Things are cyclical, and just the way Yiddish has been brought back around by a new generation of Orthodox Jews, and just like record albums are selling again thanks to audiophiles and scary black people, I believe the virtues of an old-fashioned Jewish deli are bound to rebound in the public imagination. Much the way a chopped-liver sandwich ricochets from your stomach to your heart to your throat to your intestines to your eyes. You eat it once, you’re still eating it three days later – that’s value!

So let us not yet say kaddish for kishke and hymns for Hebrew National. Let us hope that owners of Jewish and Kosher delis – which are not the same, by the way. If someone hands you a corned beef on white toast with Swiss cheese over it, you’re probably not in a kosher establishment. If somebody hands you a pastrami with ham over it, you’re probably in hell. But either way, let us hope the deli owners find a way to keep prices down, quality up, hot dogs on the grill, pickles on the dill, kasha and knishes, herring and whitefishes, Cel-Ray in our glasses, and cellulite on our asses.

Anyone who has a belly knows the beauty of a deli.

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.

(c) 2013 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

–> https://davesgoneby.net/?p=29226


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