Dave Lefkowitz interviews musicologist Stan Ransom
Topics include: Long Island, folk music, libraries.
Segment originally aired Feb. 26, 2011 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: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 344th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Feb. 26, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: Stan Ransom
Featuring: Dave chats with folk musician and musicologist Stan Ransom. Also: Inside Broadway (Driving Miss Daisy, Molly Sweeney), Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Charlie Sheen; sponsors, friends & letters. Plus: Saturday Segue birthday tributes to Fats Domino and Johnny Cash, and Bob Dylan – “Sooner & Later.”
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:09:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Johnny Cash & Fats Domino 00:40:30 INSIDE BROADWAY (Molly Sweeney (00:41:00) & Driving Miss Daisy (00:50:00)). 00:58:30 GUEST: Stan Ransom 01:47:30 DAVE – Sponsors 01:56:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later 02:27:30 Weather 02:31:00 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection (Charlie Sheen) 02:43:00 Friends & Letters 02:55:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Feb. 26, 2011 Playlist: “I’m Ready” (00:09:30), “The Fat Man” (00:13:30), “Valley of Tears” (00:20:30), “I’m in Love Again” (00:30:00), “Whole Lotta Lovin'” (00:34:00) (Fats Domino); “Hey Porter” (00:11:30), “I Hung My Head” (00:16:30), “Ring of Fire” (00:22:00), “Daddy Sang Bass” (00:32:00) & “Hurt” (00:35:30) (Johnny Cash), “My Long Island Home” (00:55:30), “Wainscott Dumpling” (01:03:30), “Where are the Stones” (01:05:30), “Carolan’s Concerto” (01:43:30), “I Love Long Island” (00:01:00) & “The Coast of Peru” (02:59:00) (Stan Ransom), “Pretty Peggy-O” (01:58:00), “Little Maggie” (02:01:00), “Abandoned Love” (02:04:30), “Tell Me That it Isn’t True” (02:08:30), “Born in Time” (02:11:00), “It Hurts Me Too” (02:14:30) & “Blind Willie McTell” (02:18:00; Bob Dylan), “Desperado” (02:36:00) (Johnny Cash), “I Want to Walk You Home” (02:39:00) (Fats Domino), “Scott Walker Loves You” (02:46:00) (Art Paul Schlosser).
Stan Ransom
Vanessa Redgrave & James Earl Jones in Driving Miss Daisy
Fats Domino
Molly Sweeney at Irish Repertory Theater
Johnny Cash
Charlie Sheen
(pictured: Stan Ransom as “The Connecticut Peddler,” Stan Ransom, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in Driving Miss Daisy on Broadway, Jonathan Hogan, Geraldine Hughes & Ciaran O’Reilly in Molly Sweeney at Irish Rep, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash, Charlie Sheen.)
Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of February 27th, 2011.
Chaos, turmoil, madness, uncontrolled rebellion – no, I’m not talking about Libya, I’m talking about Charlie Sheen. The handsome but unprincipled actor who makes Lindsey Lohan look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Shtetl.
After yet another stay in rehab – ooh, that must have been a tough three days – Sheen pronounced himself fit as a fiddle and ready for work.
Just what CBS wanted to hear about their hit show, “Two and a Half Men.” Only Charlie Sheen’s idea of being ready for work is vilifying his boss – the show’s creator – on syndicated radio.
He called producer Chuck Lorre an earthworm, a maggot, and a charlatan – which is pretty strong stuff to call anyone who isn’t a lawyer.
But okay, who among us hasn’t said terrible things about their boss? I once called the chief of the Southeast New England Board of Rabbis a douchebag. Because he was. But I didn’t do it in public. I did it quietly, behind his back, the way you’re supposed to insult people.
More upsetting in the latest Charlie Sheen incident is his migration into Mel Gibson mode. In Sheen’s rant, and apropos of nothing, the actor repeatedly calls Chuck Lorre by his birth name, “Chaim Levine.” Sheen claims he did it as a way of calling out the real man, instead of the guy’s phony Hollywood persona. Too bad it sounded like Sheen saying, “Here’s another Jew using his money and power to abuse poor, underpaid actors.”
Yes, Chuck Lorre did change his name from Chaim Levine. Just like Archie Leach switched his name to Cary Grant, and Arthur Rosenberg magically became Tony Randall.
But in this day and age, what kind of pathetic loser would change his name to make it less ethnic and more saleable in Hollywood? Gee, Carlos Estevez – d’ya think there’s a possibility changing your name to Charlie Sheen got you playing boyfriends and lotharios instead of Mexican drug dealers and auto mechanics? Just ask your brother Emilio how much work his name got him.
Now I’m not in agreement with concealing your heritage, but sometimes you do what you have to do, to get a job. For example, when I first started looking for a job as a rabbi, I had to change my real name. What synagogue would hire Fergus O’Malley?
No, I’m kidding, but seriously; it is not surprising to hear anti-Jewish slurs tumble from the mouth of a Sheen. Charlie’s father, Martin, has been a longtime Palestinian sympathizer. He even appeared at a right-of-return rally alongside Ralph Nader and Susan Sarandon back in 2000. Yeah, let’s give Palestinians right of return – as soon as Americans have right of return to the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center.
Anyway, CBS-TV has finally said, “goodbye Charlie” and halted production on “Two and a Half Men,” which should really be called “A-Man-and-a-Half and a Moron.”
Meanwhile, the moron believes that he has successfully completed rehab – no problem with alcohol, no problem with drugs, no problem with beating the crap out of prostitutes. Come to think of it, no wonder Martin Sheen is pro-Arab: his son would make a great Libyan dictator!
Perhaps I’m being cruel. From watching “Celebrity Rehab,” I know addiction is terrible, and the nasty things Charlie Sheen says are just his disease talking. Then again, if diseases could talk, my hernia would have its own blog.
I do not wish ill on Charlie Sheen. I do not wish well on him, either. We can pretty much stop hoping he’ll ever be a “Two-and-a-Half Mensch,” but at least he could grow up and get some real help. Why, he could even go to the Chabad people – a telethon his own father has pitched for.
And if Charlie feels like calling the Chabadnicks by their Jewish names, I’m sure they won’t mind.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection by Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #5 (2/20/2011): Presidents Day
click above to listen (audio file only)
aired February 19, 2011 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube: https://youtu.be/nZT9N_r13ag
Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of February 20, 2011.
Happy Washington’s Birthday everybody. No, wait – Happy Lincoln’s Birthday everybody. No – wait, make that Happy Presidents Day. Who the hell knows what day it is?
Back in olden times, George Washington’s birthday was celebrated on February 22nd because it was … wait for it… George Washington’s birthday! What could be simpler? Venerate this important statesman on the actual day of his birth.
But everybody knows the best holidays fall on a Monday. If you keep Washington’s Birthday on the 22nd, there’s only a one-in-seven chance of scoring a three-day weekend. Politicians fixed this problem by moving the holiday one week earlier. Leave it to the Federal Government to ensure Washington’s Birthday never actually falls on Washington’s Birthday. These are the people we pay to fix our sewers.
Anyway, let’s not forget about Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12th. God forbid we should have two national holidays so that working people get two days off in the middle of godforsaken February. No, even though Lincoln’s Birthday was never officially shlunked into Washington’s, most people assume Presidents Day covers both these guys.
But who’s to say it doesn’t cover more? Some of the founders of Presidents Day intended it to honor the office of the presidency, rather than any particular leader. But does that mean, when we celebrate Presidents Day, we’re glorifying Warren G. Harding? Richard Nixon? Jimmy Carter? George W. Bush? I’d sooner celebrate Bernie Madoff’s birthday!
Why couldn’t we leave things the way they were? Celebrate a holiday on the holiday. I feel bad for Lincoln; I really do. He’s like the goyische kid whose birthday falls on Christmas Eve. So all his relatives bring him one present instead of two – but it’s a slightly nicer, more expensive gift because it covers both occasions. They think this is fairness. When the kid grows up, he should tell the relatives, “You know.. years from now, when you’re lying in a nursing home, I would have come to visit twice a year, but instead, I’ll come once, but I’ll stay ten minutes longer. Cheap bastards.”
Speaking of goyim, you notice – they don’t touch Christmas. The other holidays they move like backgammon chips, but Christmas, no. Or New Year’s Day – but that one at least has a built-in safety. Nevertheless, I’m sure there’s a schmuck politician out there who’s thinking, “January 1st would be so much more convenient on December 28th.” Only thing stopping the madness is the calendar.
Christmas, on the other hand – why not move it? Who knows when Jesus was actually born, if Jesus was actually born. So keep New Year’s Day, and move Christmas to July. This way the goyim can put up their decorations without freezing their balls off, we get a nice Federal holiday between Memorial and Labor Day, and Jews wouldn’t have to keep explaining to our children why Christmas and Chanukah have nothing in common.
Well, except the fat guy who comes into people’s houses for a nosh while they’re asleep. One is Santa Claus, the other is crazy uncle Mort who needs a restraining order.
And as for Presidents Day – well, if we set aside one holiday for every president who wasn’t a disaster, you’d need half a dozen days. So lumping all the leaders into Presidents Day does have its logic. In fact, why not add Statesman Day? That way, you could honor all these noble speakers – Martin Luther King, Madeleine Albright, Mister Rogers – without going through the controversies: “oh, this one’s an adulterer, that one’s too liberal, this one wears lame sweaters.”
And how about a holiday dedicated to the guy who put all the holidays on Mondays? For the sake of three-day weekends and half-a-day Fridays, the guy who disregarded birthdays, anniversaries, bombings, assassinations, all in the name of commerce, convenience and white sales. We should find out who this guy is and celebrate his birthday… whenever.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection by Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
Dave Lefkowitz interviews his father, Philip Lefkowitz
Topics include: birthdays, movies.
Segment originally aired Feb. 19, 2011 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Sad Note: Our father of the Daverhood, Philip Lefkowitz, passed May 5, 2021.
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: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Topics include: Alice, Other Desert Cities, cabaret.
Segment originally aired Feb. 19, 2011 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: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 343rd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Feb. 19, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
host: Dave Lefkowitz Guests: actress Linda Lavin & Dave’s dad, Philip Lefkowitz
Featuring: Dave chats with actress Linda Lavin (“Alice,” Other Desert Cities) and his dad, Philip Lefkowitz. Plus: Dave Says Bye to Kenneth Mars and Betty Garrett. Also: Inside Broadway (The Importance of Being Earnest, Colin Quinn: Long Story Short, The Divine Sister, Baby Wants Candy), Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Presidents Day, and Bob Dylan: “Sooner & Later” (Presidents Day).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:14:30 GUEST: Linda Lavin 00:39:00 DAVE SAYS BYE – Betty Garrett & Kenneth Mars 00:53:00 INSIDE BROADWAY (Reviews of The Importance of Being Earnest (00:53:30); Colin Quinn: Long Story Short (01:02:30) The Divine Sister (01:07:30); Baby Wants Candy (01:13:00); thoughts on Spider-Man (01:17:30). 01:33:30 GUEST: Philip Lefkowitz 02:09:30 Dave’s Sponsors 02:15:30 Bob Dylan: Sooner & Later (Presidents Day) 02:47:30 Weather 02:49:30 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection (Presidents Day) 02:55:30 Friends 03:04:30 DAVE GOES OUT
Feb. 19, 2011 Playlist: “Mr. President” (00:07:00; Randy Newman); “Funky President” (00:10:00; James Brown); “You’re Awful” (00:36:30; Frank Sinatra & Betty Garrett). “Franz Liebkind Scene” (00:44:30; “The Producers” film); “The Lullaby of Broadway” (00:48:30); “The President” (01:29:00; Robyn Hitchcock). “End Titles” (02:05:00; “To Kill a Mockingbird” score by Elmer Bernstein). “Dear Mrs. Roosevelt” (02:16:00), “Talkin’ World War III Blues” (live) (02:22:00), “Joey” (live) (02:27:30), “Must Be Santa” (02:36:30) & “It’s All Right Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” (live) (02:39:00) (Bob Dylan).
Dave Lefkowitz interviews cabaret “Cast Party” emcee Jim Caruso
Topics include: cabaret, open mic, Birdland.
Segment originally aired Feb. 12, 2011 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: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 342nd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio Feb. 12, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: entertainer Jim Caruso
Featuring: Dave chats with entertainer Jim Caruso (“Cast Party”). Plus: Dave Says Bye to Mary Cleere Haran. Also: Inside Broadway (Lombardi, Mistakes were Made), Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Egypt, and Bob Dylan: “Sooner & Later.”
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:10:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Valentine’s Day Songs 00:34:30 GUEST: Jim Caruso 01:31:00 DAVE SAYS BYE – Mary Cleere Haran 01:36:00 Dave – Sponsors 01:48:30 INSIDE BROADWAY, part 1 (Lombardi) 02:01:00 Weather 02:02:30 Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Valentine’s Day) 02:36:00 INSIDE BROADWAY, part 2 (Mistakes were Made) 02:44:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION (Egypt) 02:56:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Feb. 12, 2011 Playlist: “Heart’s Desire” (00:10:30), “Just Squeeze Me” (00:29:00) & “The Doodlin’ Song” (01:22:00) (Jim Caruso); “Lovers of Today” (00:13:30; The Pretenders); “Blue Valentines” (00:18:30; Tom Waits); “Love is Just Around the Corner” (00:24:00; Mary Cleere Haran); “Radio Sweetheart” (00:27:00; Elvis Costello). (part two): “I’m in the Mood for Love” (01:25:30) & “For Now” (01:31:30) (Mary Cleere Haran); “The Wonderful World of Disney” (01:58:00) & “The Wonderful World of Color” (01:59:00) (Walt Disney TV show), “I Wanna Be Your Lover” (02:03:00), “Is Your Love in Vain” (live, 02:06:30), “Watered-Down Love” (02:10:30), “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (live, 02:15:00), “True Love Tends to Forget” (02:19:00), “Make You Feel My Love” (02:23:00), “I Want You” (live, 02:26:00) & “Love Sick” (02:29:00; Bob Dylan); “Valentine’s Day” (02:50:30; Bruce Springsteen).
Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of February 13, 2011.
Well, it’s been a quiet week in the Middle East . . . nothing much going on there. (laugh) Is there ever quiet in the Middle East? In the Arab world, quiet is when they send only two missiles a day into Israel instead of the usual five.
But of course, these past three weeks, the world has been watching Egypt with a mixture of excitement, hope, fear and “oy, is gas four dollars yet?”
Doesn’t it figure that the one country Israel gets along with, the one country that has been a stable, peaceful neighbor for 30 years is the one that goes tohu-va-voho crazy? Does Iran go berserk, does Libya? No. Egypt is where they riot in the streets.
And they got what they wanted; Hosni Mubarak stepped down. One day before he quit, he sneaked away to a fancy resort. Got himself a massage, maybe a nice pedicure, calls Al Jazeera and says, “Okay, I’m done. I was gonna leave in a couple of weeks anyway. Help you guys transition to…whatever it is you’re transitioning to. But the people have spoken, and the regime is broken.” He’s probably shopping for a condo in Fort Lauderdale as we speak.
But of course, the big question is: what’s next? Mubarak’s vice president is trying to hold power – good luck on that. And as we ideally interpret the situation in the Western World, we hear the chant: “Democracy! Democracy! A democratic government by and for the people.” Crap, we don’t even have that here!
But do ya think they’ll even get that there? If and when Egypt does hold an election, the top candidate is gonna be backed by an outfit called the Muslim Brotherhood. I don’t mind the Brotherhood much, it’s the Muslim I’m worried about.
The Muslim Brotherhood is an organization across the Arab world that supports Muslim Sharia law as the law of the land. Supposedly, they’re non-violent, as opposed to Hamas, or Al Qaeda, or your typical Irish soccer fan. If we believe their press releases, they are a harmless, moderate, political group – like Shriners with different turbans. If we believe history, they’re anti-West, anti-Israel, ultra-religious – and just waiting for their day in the sun.
The question is not, “will Egypt become a Muslim state?” but “When they’re a Muslim state, will they march into Czechoslovakia?”
Now, I hate to sound pessimistic because I am, by nature, such a fun-loving goddamn bon vivant. So I will say this: when Anwar Sadat first came to the peace talks all those years ago, I didn’t trust him one bit. After all, 1979 was only six years after the Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria picked the holiest Jewish day of the year to sneak-attack Israel. We kicked their asses, of course, but what were we to make of Sadat suddenly cramming an olive branch between his teeth? How do you trust the untrustable?
Except, of course, and to his everlasting credit, he kept his word. Egypt stopped attacking Israel. And Israel kept its word, too. We didn’t attack Egypt. Well, we weren’t attacking Egypt to begin with, but such is the unbalanced balance that passes for fairness in the Middle East.
My point, though, is that Mubarak also kept Sadat’s word. Maybe he was a dictator, maybe his economics didn’t trickle down to the people, maybe he was a western puppet. All I know is, now that the strings are cut, we’d love to see this puppet replaced by Jerry Mahoney, King Friday, even Kukla.
So why does my gut tell me we’ll end up with Chucky?
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection by Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
