WVTL-FM’s Bob Cudmore interviews Dave Lefkowitz about Broadway
Topics include: Broadway, Tony Awards, Spider-Man.
Segment originally aired on WVTL FM (Amsterdam NY) June 21, 2011 as part of Bob Cudmore’s morning show, “Coffee with Cudmore” and was rebroadcast June 25th on Dave’s Gone By.
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)2011 TotalTheater Productions. More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Dave Lefkowitz interviews theatrical lighting designer Richard Pilbrow
Topics include: theater, lighting, producing.
Segment originally aired June 25, 2011 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: 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 357th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, June 25, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guest: lighting and theater designer Richard Pilbrow, radio host Bob Cudmore
Featuring: Dave chats with Broadway lighting wizard Richard Pilbrow. Plus: a Saturday Segue of light songs, Dave Says Bye to Peter Falk, Dave’s appearance with Bob Cudmore on WVTL’s “Coffee with Cudmore,” Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (light), Dave Says Bye to Clarence Clemons, and Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on the death of Jackass star Ryan Dunn.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:08:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Light 00:30:00 GUEST: Richard Pilbrow 01:20:30 INSIDE BROADWAY – News & Peter Falk (01:25:30) 01:39:30 DAVE on “Coffee with Cudmore” w/ Bob Cudmore (WVTL-AM 1570, taped 6/21/11) 01:54:00 Sponsors & Weather 01:59:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (Light) 02:32:30 DAVE – Upcoming 02:39:30 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on “Jackass'” Ryan Dunn 02:55:00 DAVE SAYS BYE – Clarence Clemons 02:58:00 More Sponsors & Friends 03:03:00 DAVE GOES OUT
June 25, 2011 Playlist: (part one) “In a Different Light” (00:09:00; Bangles); “In the Light” (00:12:00; Led Zeppelin); “It’s not the Spotlight” (00:19:30; Beth Orton); “Color and Light” (00:25:30; Sunday in the Park with George, 1984 Bway cast); “Arrows of Light” (00:55:30; Bruce Cockburn); “Shadows and Light” (01:16:00; Joni Mitchell). “When the Deal Goes Down (02:00:00), “Chimes of Freedom” (02:04:30), “Something’s Burning, Baby” (02:12:00), “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (02:16:30), “Every Grain of Sand” (02:20:30) & “Moonlight” (02:26:30; Bob Dylan); “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (02:45:00), “Pink Cadillac” (02:48:00), “Bobby Jean” (02:52:00) & “The Long Goodbye” (03:06:00; Bruce Springsteen).
Richard Pilbrow
Bob CudmorePeter FalkClarence ClemonsRyan DunnRabbi Sol Solomon
Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #19 (6/25/2011): RYAN DUNN
(aired June 25, 2011 on Dave’s Gone By. YouTube Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGoZRYSFmX0)
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of June 25, 2011.
What is the definition of a jackass? A donkey, of course. Also, a stupid person, a fool. That’s according to Webster’s Dictionary and to me, when we talk about the late Ryan Dunn.
Dunn was a castmember on the MTV television program, Jackass, which had crazy people doing idiotic, dangerous things. Putting their heads in beehives, skating into walls, firing objects in and out of their tuchases, and falling on things – lots and lots of falling on things. This is what passes for entertainment in the new millennium. And hey, sometimes it’s funny. A person walking on the street slips on dog poop – it’s amusing. Unless they’re badly injured, in which case it’s hilarious.
Goofy people pulling stunts that the rest of us are too mature or just too cowardly to do can be an appealing form of comic relief. After all, it answers one of the basic curiosities of mankind: “What would happen if?”
What would happen if I ride a motorcycle into a group of midgets dressed like nuns? What would happen if I cover my best friend with firecrackers, make believe I’m going to light them, but instead, I kick him really hard in the nuts? Hours, my friends, of delightful, high-class entertainment!
Along with Johnny Knoxville and Steve O, Ryan Dunn took part in these perilous shenanigans. And there was always controversy. Parents worried that their children would imitate these yutzes and put themselves in the hospital – or worse. But that never bothered me. These were professional pranksters. If they wanted to strap raw meat to their behinds while being dangled over a swamp full of alligators – who am I to judge? And if your kid is stupid enough to copy that, well, alligators have to eat, too. So if you want to hurt yourself or your willing accomplices, that’s between you, your friends, and the guy holding the water cannon.
But I call Ryan Dunn a jackass – and a putz and a moron and a bastard – because on the night of June 20th, he had enough drinks to befuddle Russia, and then climbed in his Porsche and started to drive. Eventually, his fancy car came to a stop. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of a tree.
Police estimate the automobile had been going 130 miles an hour, and that Dunn’s blood alcohol was more than twice the legal limit. And yet, a miracle occurred. Oh yes, Dunn and his friend in the passenger seat were both killed, but thank God, they didn’t kill anyone else.
A car is a loaded weapon – especially if you’re loaded. You’re rich, you’re famous, you think you can get away with anything, and you’re gonna live forever. Guess what? You’re rich, you’re famous, but if you have three Stolis and a whiskey sour when you get behind the wheel, you will not live forever, nor will you deserve to.
I don’t care if you’re Mel Gibson, or David Cassidy, or Gary Collins, or Lindsey Lohan, or Nicole Richie, or Rip Torn, or Rick Springfield, or the woman down the street with three kids and a Percodan habit – if you’re driving under the influence, you should be arrested for attempted homicide.
When you get in a car – sober and alert – you depend on your own ability to get safely from where you start to where you want to end up. Alas, you are also dependent on everyone else on the road obeying the rules and maintaining the same level of caution. These include schmucks on their cellphones, women doing their makeup in the rear-view mirror, idiots on bicycles who think the road is their own personal videogame, and the prick in the SUV who thinks a couple of beers won’t affect him if he just drives a little more slowly. The only thing that shocked me about those drive-by shootings in L.A. is that they were done by gang members and not white-collar working stiffs just trying to get home without being cut off at 70 miles an hour by a Jeep Cherokee blaring Lynyrd Skynyrd.
And so, I come not to praise Ryan Dunn, but to bury him. Thirty-four years old and a victim only of his own arrogance and negligence. When they put the word “Jackass” on his tombstone, his fans might take it one way, but anyone with a brain will know exactly what it means.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches.
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 356th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, June 18, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guest: Dave’s dad, Philip Lefkowitz
Featuring: Father’s Day episode featuring Dave’s dad, Philip Lefkowitz, an Inside Broadway recap of the Tony Awards, plus a farewell to Wild Man Fischer, Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later, and Dave’s thoughts on his trip to L’Aquila, Italy.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:08:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Summer 00:34:00 GUEST: Philip Lefkowitz 01:02:30 Sponsors 01:05:00 INSIDE BROADWAY – Tony thoughts 01:29:30 DAVE SAYS BYE – Wild Man Fischer 02:09:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (dads & summer) 02:39:00 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Father’s Day 02:48:00 DAVE GOES AWAY – L’Aquila, Italy 02:58:30 Friends 03:01:00 DAVE GOES OUT
June 18, 2011 Playlist: (part one) “Summersong” (00:08:00; The Decemberists); “Summertime Blues” (00:11:00; T. Rex); “In the Summertime” (00:14:00; Mungo Jerry); “Indian Summer” (00:17:30; Lee Konitz); “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” (00:20:00; Joni Mitchell); “All I Have to Do is Dream/A Summer Song” (00:23:00; Christine Lavin); “The Summer of My Wasted Youth” (00:26:00; Amy Rigby); “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer” (Nat King Cole; 00:29:00); “Sweet Little Papa” (00:59:00; Louis Armstrong); “Hello!” (01:27:30; The Book of Mormon, 2011 Bway cast); “My Name is Larry” (01:29:30), “Don’t Ever Get Mad at Me” (01:42:30), “I Light the Pilot” (01:43:30), “I’m Selling Peanuts for the Dodgers” (01:45:30), “Go to Rhino Records” (01:51:30), “The Wild Man Fischer Story” (02:02:00) & “Love, Love, Love in Everything You Do” (03:08:30; Wild Man Fischer); “Summer Days” (02:10:00), “In the Summertime” (02:15:00), “Ain’t Talkin'” (02:18:30), “Precious Memories” (02:27:30), “Sittin’ on Top of the World” (02:30:30) & “Father of Night” (02:35:00; Bob Dylan); “West of Rome” (02:44:00; Jeff Finlin).
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #18 (6/18/2011): Father’s Day
aired June 18, 2011 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI7TbF3qbcg
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of June 19, 2011.
Happy Father’s Day, goddammit! What a nice thing to be able to celebrate: a non-sectarian holiday that nevertheless follows the fifth commandment: honor thy father and thy mother.
It actually took awhile for the papas to catch up to the mamas on this. Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914, but it wasn’t until 1972 that Father’s Day became an official national holiday. Of course, since then, we’ve added an official Grandparents Day, and if Hallmark had its way, we’d have an Uncles Day, a Stepmother’s Day, a Caribbean Nanny’s Day.
Not that these are bad things; anyone responsible for raising a child deserves a day of pampering and obeisance. As the father of 21 and a half children – or is it 22 and a half? A couple of them are very quiet – but as a father, I know what it is like to endure the crying, and the screaming, and the begging, and the pouting, and the tantrums when my wife needs me to help with the kids. I know what it is like when your baby has 103 degrees fever, and you don’t know whether to rush to the emergency room or stay home and finish watching Hawaii 5-0. I know what it is like when you’re in a supermarket, and the kids are yelling and pulling things off the shelves and smashing the cart into the displays, and someone looks at you as if to say, “Is that your kid?” And you just want to say, “No, my real kids are at home. These are aliens who were sent from hell to destroy the earth. As long as I keep them busy in the King Soopers, the world is safe. So you should thank me and stop giving me the stink-eye, all right?”
I remember my father. He was a small man who kept getting smaller as the years went on. I remember he used to come home, stooped and exhausted, holding his abdomen and lower back after hours of lifting heavy bundles. Which was strange because he was an accountant. But in his life he was also a jeweler, a furrier, a candy store clerk, an insurance salesman, a math tutor, a night watchman – anything to put food on the table. And let me tell you, sometimes there wasn’t a table to put food on, so we had to put it on the floor. And one time, the floor fell in, so we had to put the food on our downstairs neighbors’ floor. I still don’t know why they wouldn’t let us use their table…
But what I remember most about my tateh are the quiet times, like when he took me fishing in the Hudson River. We didn’t have to say anything; we just sat side by side getting our tetanus shots.
I remember papa showing me how to daven and put on tfillin in the synagogue. I would get all tangled in the leather straps and the tallis, and I’d get frustrated and start cursing. And then he’d start cursing. Then the rabbi would come over and threaten to throw us out. Then we’d start cursing at him. You can’t buy moments of bonding like that.
I’ll also never forget one of the last things my father ever said to me. He said, “Son, no matter what your mother says, you really are my child. I love you, and I hope one day when you have children, they will give you the joy – and the trouble – that you have given me.” If he only knew.
But what can I say? Once you have children, you can’t imagine not having children. And since it’s illegal to kill them once they’re born, you have to do your best on their behalf. Hopefully, one day a year, they remember you with a tie, or a DVD, or a Sony Blu-Ray player (HINT HINT HINT if you’re listening, you little bastards!).
Whatever your relationship is with your father; if there’s issues, if there’s bad feelings – put them aside for a day if you can, and call him, send him a card, maybe buy him a hooker if he’s lonely – give thanks to the man who put you here, because he may not always be there.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches.
On Father’s Day, Dave Lefkowitz interviews his dad, Philip Lefkowitz
Topics include: memories.
Segment originally aired June 18, 2011 on the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Sad Note: Our father of the Daverhood, Philip Lefkowitz, passed May 5, 2021.
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
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #17 (6/12/2011): 2011 Tony Awards
(aired June 11, 2011 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3k7A1FHCQ)
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of June 12, 2011.
Despite my ceaseless grouchiness, there are some things in this world that I love. A good pastrami sandwich, for example. Watching reruns of Columbo. Getting a check in the mail from someplace I wasn’t expecting. Getting a check in the mail from someplace I was expecting. All these things give me joy. Well, unless the pastrami is too fatty. Or there’s too many commercials in the rerun. Or the check in the mail isn’t really a check, it just looks like a check but it’s actually a coupon where they fool you into thinking you’re getting money but actually, it’s just a fake discount where you’re giving them money – bastards!
But be that as it may, some things do make me happy. And I admit, I have a soft spot in my heart and in my brain for the theater. Plays, musicals, erotic circus performances – anything in which talented people are doing their best to entertain the rest of us.
I remember the first show I ever saw. It was Oh, Calcutta! I was 8 years old when I went in – and 27 when I came out. I recall being deeply moved by seeing a Death of a Salesman. Unfortunately, the salesman was my uncle Morty, and he died when he was hit by a bus on 23rd Street. And in 1975, my high school teacher asked if I wanted to see The Wiz. Then he took me to a urinal, and I don’t wanna talk about what happened next.
But still – the theater! Broadway! The Tony Awards, which are happening Sunday night, at New York’s Beacon Theater. Oh, I wish I were there! Look at the shows that are up for Tony Awards this year. For best play, there’s Jerusalem. It has nothing to do with Jews, or Israel, or, from what I’ve heard, anything relevant to anybody, but hey, the title!
Then there’s the revival of The Merchant of Venice, with Al Pacino playing Shylock the Jewish moneylender. This is a very difficult play to pull off, because it’s supposed to be a comedy. Meanwhile, the Jewish character, who just wants his money back, is mocked, humiliated, and forced to convert. Some hilarity. Too bad Shakespeare didn’t write Schindler’s List or we’d have had some real giggles. And really, Al Pacino as an observant Jew? They couldn’t get Steve Guttenberg? (sigh)
In the category of Best Actress in a Musical, we have Donna Murphy nominated for The People in the Picture. This is the story of the Yiddish theater in Poland, both before and during the Holocaust. I’ve heard Donna Murphy is wonderful, but really – “Murphy?” They couldn’t get a Yid for this part? A hundred zillion Jewish people on Broadway and they get someone who couldn’t tell corned beef and cabbage from kasha varnishkes and kneidlach?
And then there’s a play called “The Motherflinger with the Hat.” What kind of name is that for a play? Of course, I’m bowdlerizing it for radio, but who can put this on a poster? “The Motherflinger with the Hat.” They can’t even advertise it. People are saying, “The Mother with the Hat,” “The Mother F-er with the Hat,” “The Hat Play,” “A Buncha Schvartzes Sitting Around Talking.” What, they couldn’t name the play something you could put in a newspaper?
I don’t mind dirty stuff in the play. Half the shows out there, every other word is “f” this, and you’re full of “s,” and why don’t you “s” my “c” in the YMCA? One time I saw a censored version of American Buffalo. It was twelve minutes long! I’m not against foul language; I use it myself sometimes. Most of the time. Nearly all the time, but still, how do you put a play on tour that you can’t promote? They’d have to run a brown paper bag over the marquee.
What I do like about this year’s Tony nominations is their multi-faith nature. You got Shylock and the Holocaust and the AIDS play – The Normal Heart – lotta angry Jewish people. You got pissed-off Muslims in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. There’s goofy nuns in Sister Act and sad Baptists in The Scottsboro Boys. Someone tries to kill the Pope in The House of Blue Leaves, and of course, there’s The Book of Mormon, which has people shtupping frogs, raping babies, getting colonoscopies – my kind of show!
It is said that if you make fun of one culture, you’re a bigot, but if you poop on all of them, you’re an enlightened liberal. Hypocritical as that may sound, it works for me. And if we’re all going to the theater laughing at each other’s stupidity, crying for each other’s losses, and hurrying to be first in the bathroom at intermission – that is the true spirit of globalism, of empathy, and of sharing the human condition.
I offer my best wishes to all the Tony Award nominees – you are all winners, even the losers. Except Billy Crudup, because he was terrible, and Arcadia’s boring, but the rest of you: take a bow.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches. On with the show.
Dave Lefkowitz interviews Oscar-winning songwriter, Paul Williams
Topics include: theater, musicals, Phantom of the Paradise, The Odd Couple.
Segment originally aired June 11, 2011 as an after-show bonus on the 2011 Tony Award Special of 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: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Dave Lefkowitz interviews theater critic and former Dave’s Gone By co-host Jeff Goodman
Topics include: theater, 2011 Tony Award nominations.
Segment originally aired June 11, 2011 as part of the 2011 Tony Award Special of 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: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
