Dave’s Gone By Skit: STORYTIME: Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva

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Dave’s Gone By Skit (6/28/2025): STORYTIME: Dave Reads “Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva”

For this week’s StoryTime segment on Dave’s Gone By, Dave reads the religious children’s book on Buddhism, “Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva” This segment aired June 28, 2025 as part of the 988th “Dave’s Gone By” video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Full episodes also available on youtube, Facebook (davesgoneby), and on DavesGoneBy.com.

All content (c)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                 

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

Dave’s Gone By #988 (6/28/2025): AKA PABLO

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Here is the 988th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, June 28, 2025.

Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews comedian Pablo Lewin and offers his Rabbinical Reflection on Zohran Mamdani; Greeley Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Bunyan); Bunion Watch; StoryTime (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva)

Guests: comedian Pablo Lewin; spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: flying sloths, exercise, dentistry, hummingbirds, frog refuse, Riverside Tower
01:18:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Pablo Lewin
01:58:00 GREELEY TIMES
02:24:30 STORYTIME: “Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva”
02:53:00 Friends of the Daverhood
03:08:30 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195: Zohran Mamdani
03:20:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Bunyan & BUNION WATCH (03:21:30)
03:25:00 DAVE GOES OUT

Pablo Lewin
Rabbi Sol Solomon
Bunyan, CO
your host and his Froggo friend
Potato takes in the view from the Riverside Tower Hotel

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/28/2025): PABLO LEWIN & Rabbi Sol Solomon

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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with comedian PABLO LEWIN

Topics include: stand-up comedy, aviation, ham radio, Israel.

Segment airs June 28, 2025 as part of the 987th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: 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)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                    

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: shalomdammit.com

Dave’s Gone By Skit: RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195 (6/28/2025): Zohran Mamdani

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #195 (6/28/2025): ZOHRAN MAMDANI

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 28, 2025 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast. 

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read. 

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.

© 2025 TotalTheater Productions. All Rights Reserved.

 More on Rabbi Sol: shalomdammit.com

TRANSCRIPT:

RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #195 (6/25/2025): Zohran Mamdani 

airs June 28, 2025 on Dave’s Gone By. Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_8PqbgcvwE

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for late June 2025.

Well, congratulations, progressive Democrats. Your efforts to transform once-magnificent New York City into a terrifying shithole are going splendidly. On June 24th, Primary Day in NYC, voters rejected Andrew Cuomo—whose only sin was hubris and killing a bunch of old people during COVID (ask yourself: were they missed?). Instead, these lefty losers pulled the trigger – er, lever – for Zohran Mamdani.

Who is Zohran Mamdani? Or, more precisely, who the fuck is Zohran Mamdani? He’s the son of a Columbia Professor of Colonialism (that should tell you something right there) and of a filmmaker mom who’s spent a decade boycotting Israel. Little Zohran got his start stumping for a Palestinian pastor and joining the anti-Zionist Democratic Socialists of America. Bolstered by these unassailable credentials, in 2020 Mamdani was elected Assemblyman for Astoria and Long Island City, Queens. 

Like so many liberal Democrats, Mamdani has ideas that sound good on paper: raising minimum wage, free busing, government-run free grocery stores for the poor (can you say, Russia 1970s?), prison reform. But like so many socialists, he has no idea where to get the money to pay for this Marxist utopia. But that’s okay; all politicians promise pie in the sky but deliver olive loaf in the gutter. The disaster of Mamdani is not inexperience and economic naivete. His worthlessness boils down to one issue: virulent hatred of Israel. When you elect someone whose rallying cry is “globalize the Intifada,” who calls Israel’s revenge against Hamas “genocide,” and who refused to co-sponsor Holocaust Remembrance Day, you’re putting power in the hands of a dangerous, evil radical.

The very fact that Mamdani was backed by AOC and by Bernie Sanders, a self-hating Communist kike if there ever was one, tells you everything you need to know—except that this guy isn’t even Arab! Mamdani is Ugandan—the country that gave us Idi Amin, child soldiers, and anti-gay legislation that makes Yemen look like Rainbow Station on Christopher Street.

So, New Yorkers, when November rolls around, you have a choice. You can reelect Mayor Adams—who may not be Giuliani but he certainly moved the city past the DeBlasio debacle. You can go Republican with Curtis Sliwa, who’s run so many times, he should campaign in jogging shorts. (Actually, I think he does.) And, by the way, the platform of pro-police, anti-crime, anti-illegals, conservative Sliwa also includes pilot testing universal basic income. Put that in your progressive pipe and smoke it!

Oh, and there’s also an independent candidate: Jim Walden, a high-powered attorney who has as much chance of winning as I have of growing my foreskin back. Then again, the impossible and unthinkable have happened so many times the past couple years, I keep Ripley’s Believe it or Not on speed dial.

What I do believe is that Big Apple Democrats now have their own Trump – a scary wildcard they chose mainly to signal their exasperation with the status quo. Or at least I hope that was the motivation. The other option is that pro-Muslim anti-Semitism has become so ingrained in the left—even the Jewish left—that they’d vote for Bin Laden if he used the right pronouns. 

Me? I fear for New York and America, not because Zohran Mamdani will build concentration camps or start pogroms, or close all the delis. I dread a culture that turns a blind eye to hateful ideology and a deaf ear to common sense. Too often, socialist policies meant to provide a safety net instead ignite lawlessness. But look on the bright side: there’s always sharia law. 

This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, (you should pardon the expression), New York.

(c)2025 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

Dave’s Gone By #987 (6/14/2025): PACKER OF THE LEAD

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Here is the 987th episode of the long-running radio show/video podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook, Saturday morning, June 14, 2025.

Featuring: Dave interviews theatrical Randy Packer; Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Sly & Bri; StoryTime (Alien Tomato); Greeley Times; Colorado Limerick of the Damned (Buckeye).

Guest: director Randy Packer, spiritual leader Rabbi Sol Solomon

00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce: Sly Stone and Brian Wilson, Come Blow Your Horn, Dr. Demento
01:14:30 GUEST: Randy Packer
01:58:30 GREELEY TIMES
02:23:30 STORYTIME: Alien Tomato (by Kristen Schroeder)
02:40:30 Friends of the Daverhood
02:53:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #194: Sly & Bri
03:01:00 COLORADO LIMERICK OF THE DAMNED: Buckeye, CO
03:04:00 DAVE GOES OUT

Randy Packer
your host (left) meets a fan
Sly Stone (top), Brian Wilson.
Rabbi Sol Solomon
original Broadway cast
Buckeye, CO

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/14/2025): RANDY PACKER

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Dave Lefkowitz chats with theatrical director RANDY PACKER

Topics include: theater, Hewlett, Come Blow Your Horn

Segment aired June 14, 2025 as part of the 987th episode of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/video podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: 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)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                   

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

Dave’s Gone By Skit (6/14/2025): RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #194: Sly & Bri

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Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #194 (6/14/2025): SLY & BRI

This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 14, 2025 on the Dave’s Gone By video podcast. 

Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections are heard on the long-running Dave’s Gone By radio/video podcast program (davesgoneby.com) and then archived as text and audio on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com, where a transcript of this Reflection may be read. 

Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage show, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon,” which played in NYC in Nov. 2011 and Aug. 2012.

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com 

 More on Rabbi Sol: shalomdammit.com

TRANSCRIPT:
Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #194 (6/14/2025): SLY & BRI

Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for mid-June 2025.

Oy, what a sad week for music-loving Boomers like yours jewly. On Monday June 9th, Sylvester Stewart, aka Sly Stone, passed away at the surprisingly old age of 82. Just two days later, Brian Wilson, wunderkind of the Beach Boys, left this world at the very same age.

Talk about influential! Not only are rap and hip hop children of Sly’s beats, but any music group with a big sound and a desire to be inclusive and idealistic owes a debt to the Family Stone. After all, the band comprised white guys, black guys, an Italian dude, and women, including their keyboardist Rose and beloved trumpet player, Cynthia. If she had done nothing else but scream “All the squares go home” and “all together now!” her place in music history would be secure. And the person who gave her that place was Sly Stone, whose songs like “Everyday People,” “Stand,” “If You Want Me to Stay,” and “Everybody is a Star” reached for the stars and grabbed them. At their peak, Sly and the Family Stone were like the 4th of July, a 1960s peace march, and a Diddy party all rolled into one. 

Meanwhile, the Beach Boys began as a whiter, mellower party: California kids catchin’ a wave, cruisin’ in cool cars, and already feeling nostalgic about their youth and good times slipping away. And, as Brian Wilson deepened his themes, he simultaneously morphed into one of the greatest arrangers in pop history. If Phil Spector built a wall of sound, Wilson constructed a Legosphere of harmony, eccentricity, and fun. When the album Pet Sounds came out, the Beatles heard it and said, “We’ve gotta do better.” They did. And when “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was released, Brian Wilson said, “I’ve gotta do better.” He didn’t. And laboring on Smile, or Smiley Smile, or “Smiling the Smiles of Guy Smiley” broke Wilson’s brain. Still, for a short time, Sly Stone and Brian Wilson had the Mozart thing: God was comin’ through them, touching everything they did.

Now, is it because they were both crazy? Did they each self-destruct because that level of genius has to flame out after burning so bright? Maybe. They also did a mountain of drugs. Brian, already a schizophrenic, used coke and LSD to enhance his creativity; Sly, wanting to take himself higher, used PCP and crack because back then, that was a rock star. Both of these idiots mashed their cerebrums into oatmeal. Sly turned paranoid, canceled gigs, ran through his fortune, and squandered every opportunity for a comeback owing to his aberrant behavior. Brian was a little luckier. He found a therapist, who was both a shyster and a miracle worker. Depressed, bedbound, and obese, Wilson nonetheless kept coming back to music, and by the 1990s was again recording, producing, and even touring. They say the last two years he was struggling with dementia but…when wasn’t he?

So, kids, here’s a cautionary tale: to quote South Park’s Mr. Mackey, “Drugs are bad, m’kay?” Say all you want about personal freedom, state law versus federal, edible versus smokeable—if you’re gonna put your mind on a rollercoaster, the seatbelt is not guaranteed.

Which brings us back again to the consolation prize that both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson lived a lot longer than their lifestyles promised. Both men saw themselves appreciated and sampled by new generations, and revered for their contributions to culture. Sly taught us to accept that different folks have different strokes. Brian looked at our burdensome world, and, rather than complain, sought the silver lining saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice?” God only knows what music would have been without the two of them.

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

(c)2025 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/7/2025): ZACHARY STEWART

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Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/7/2025): ZACHARY STEWART

On the 20th annual special TotalTheater Broadway special, theater critic Zachary Stewart weighs in on the Tony nominations, in particular original score of a Musical.  

Segment aired June 7, 2025 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: 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)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                   

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/7/2025): DAVID FINKLE

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On the 20th annual special TotalTheater Broadway special, theater critic David Finkle weighs in on the 2025 Tony Award nominations, in particular, Best Actor in a Musical.

Segment aired June 7, 2025 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: 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)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                   

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com

Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/7/2025): CAREY PURCELL

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Dave’s Gone By Interview (6/7/2025): CAREY PURCELL

On the 20th annual special TotalTheater Broadway special, theater critic Carey Purcell weighs in on the 2025 Tony Award nominations.

Segment aired June 7, 2025 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” podcast program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.

Please Note: 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)2025 TotalTheater Productions.                                                   

More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com