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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with playwright Richard Nelson
Topics include: playwriting, The Gabriels, Illyria, Public Theater, Rhinebeck, politics, Judaism.
Segment airs Dec. 2, 2017 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio 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)2017 TotalTheater Productions. More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com VIDEO
Click above to watch in-studio footage of the entire episode.Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 626th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on Facebook and UNC Radio, Nov. 4, 2017. Info: davesgoneby.com. Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guests: actress Donna Mills, Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews actress Donna Mills. Plus: Inside Broadway, Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Saturday Segues (birthdays, in the news), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (oh goy).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (physics, Captain Underpants, fall back) 00:28:30 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 00:59:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Birthdays 01:24:30 INSIDE BROADWAY (news & reviews: Prince of Broadway (01:41:30), Curvy Widow (01:48:30), A Bronx Tale (01:54:00)) 02:04:30 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Donna Mills 02:36:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (oh goy) 03:05:00 Sponsors 03:10:00 Friends 03:20:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 03:47:30 DAVE GOES OUT
Nov. 4, 2017 Playlist: “Birds” {alternate version} (01:01:00; Neil Young). “Give Me a Ride Down the Hill” (01:03:30) & “Merry-Go-Round” (01:07:30; Wild Man Fischer). “Night in the City” (01:05:00) & “The Last Time I Saw Richard” (01:09:00; Joni Mitchell). “Forever Beautiful” (02:00:30; War Paint 2017 Broadway cast w/ Patti LuPone). “Donna” (02:32:30; Ritchie Valens). “When You Gonna Wake Up” {live} (02:47:00), “Every Grain of Sand” (02:52:00), “Making a Liar Out of Me” (02:57:00; Bob Dylan). “Truck Driver” (03:21:30; The Archies). “It’s a Fix (Reprise)” (Hands on a Hardbody 2013 Broadway cast). “Russian Roulette” (03:25:00; Van Morrison). “Astro” (03:29:30). “Spacy Basement” (03:32:00; Royal City). “Daylight Fading” (03:51:00; Counting Crows).
(pictured: Donna Mills, Captain Underpants, Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Vol. 13: Trouble No More, Prince of Broadway, A Bronx Tale, Nancy Opel and Bobby Goldman of Curvy Widow)
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actress Donna Mills Topics include: Knots Landing, Larry Hagman, Judaism, Catholicism, Driving Miss Daisy, theater.
Segment airs Nov. 4, 2017 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio 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)2017 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 620th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on UNC Radio, Sept. 2, 2017. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guest: Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon’s new song (“I’m Too Sexy (For My Prostate)”). Plus: Inside Broadway, Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Saturday Segues (Liam & Loudon, In the News), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (Joyce in NY, Hurricane Harvey, Storey’s story, Dave’s restaurant, screaming hairy armadillos, Snooty post-mortem) 01:01:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:33:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 01:57:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Liam & Loudon 02:17:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later 02:42:00 Friends 02:59:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 03:38:30 Weather 03:41:30 DAVE GOES OUT
Sept. 2, 2017 Playlist: “I Go to Work” (00:39:30; Kool Moe Dee). “There Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” (01:21:00; Asleep at the Wheel). “Natasha Lost” (01:40:00; Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 2013 off-Broadway cast). “Dirty Old Town” (01:59:30) & “An Poc Ar Buile” (02:09:00; The Clancy Brothers). “The Letter That Never Came” (02:02:00) & “Valley Morning” (02:05:00; Loudon Wainwright III). “Chimes of Freedom” (02:19:00; Bob Dylan & Joan Osborne). “If You Ever Go to Houston” (02:24:00; Bob Dylan). “Hava Nagila” (02:36:00; Pete Himmelman, Harry Dean Stanton & Bob Dylan). “Popcorn” (02:48:00; Art Paul Schlosser). “I’m Too Sexy (For My Prostate)” (02:55:00; Rabbi Sol Solomon). “Houston” (03:00:00; Dean Martin). “Chain Saw” (03:03:00; The Ramones). “Department Store” (03:05:00; Shelley Berman). “Immigrant Song” (03:11:00; Led Zeppelin). “National Brotherhood Week” (03:13:00; Tom Lehrer). “Fruits of My Labor” (03:16:00; Lucinda Williams).
(Pictured: Liam Clancy, Loudon Wainwright III, Rabbi Sol Solomon, Snooty)
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of August 20, 2017.
Nazis are bad. I just thought I’d get that out of the way in case you didn’t know. Nazis are bad. And just so we’re clear, within the realm of Nazis, I also mean the KKK and White Supremacists. Bad, naughty, bad.
See? Wasn’t that easy?
Not for the president. At a time when the United States needed a leader who could spout soothing platitudes about standing up to the bad guys, President Trump painted everyone as bad guys. And then he started saying that some of the bad guys were good guys. In doing so, he’s made himself a pariah even among Republicans who forgave him for seven previous months of crazy.
And what kills me is that much of what Donald Trump said after the Charlottesville slugfest was both defensible and sensible. In his first statement after the event, the President said there’s no place for bigotry and hatred in America, and that we should all unite as one people. I dare anyone besides David Duke and Mel Gibson to disagree with that. And Chuck Schumer, just because disagreeing with Republicans is how he gets his oxygen.
But Trump also wanted to make a point about law and order. Remember: the guy went to a military academy and grabs his ankles every time a general walks by, so for him, a peaceable kingdom has more value than a righteous one. So he said, Look, you had one side showing up for a rally with torches and sticks, and another side meeting them with bats and pepper spray. When they got too close to each other, it was like a Jerry Springer picnic. And Trump was saying, very clearly, that both sides came to rumble. Instead of the Sharks and the Jets, you had the rights and the lefts. If Antifa hadn’t shown up, the alt-right would have had a non-eventful event. But the militant anti-fascists did come, saw a bunch of racists and Jew haters two feet away, and went to town. If you wave a red flag in front of a bull, you better hide your china. Which mixes two metaphors but still makes more sense than Donald Trump’s next speech.
That’s where the orange one doubled down on the douchebags. Two days after reading a prepared statement saying Nazis are bad—took him two days, but he managed it—he tried to re-re-clarify his pronouncements on the mutual violence in Charlottesville. How did he do that? By saying—and I kid you not—that there were good people on both sides. Which means that white supremacists holding confederate and Nazi flags, shouting “Jews will not replace us”—some of them were okay dudes. And he wonders why even Fox News anchors are having a crisis of conscience. Well, the ones who haven’t been fired for sending dick pics.
Turns out it doesn’t matter who is trying to corral the President—Sean Spicer, John Kelly, the Mooch, that sexy siren Sarah Huckabee—they’re all dealing with a man who says the first thing that comes into his head, which is so filled with orange peroxide, there’s no brain left. If there were, he’d realize that what he was trying to say was simple. In Charlottesville, you could divide the situation into two elements: ideology and behavior. One side had an evil ideology; both sides engaged in inappropriate behavior.
I’ll put it another way. Let’s say Trump pushes through his budget next year and cuts meals on wheels for the aged and handicapped. So a million old people march on Washington. Along with some cripples who roll on Washington. And they protest the cruelty of denying support to those who need it most. And the protestors are so mad, they start bashing young people with their canes and hurling their diapers into the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. Worst of all, they destroy the ratings of the Hallmark Channel by missing a whole day of “Diagnosis Murder” reruns.
Now, ideologically, these geezers are on the side of the angels—with whom they will be consorting soon enough. They have right on their side. Not alt-right, virtue-right. But behaviorally, they’re wicked, and should be arrested as soon as the first colostomy bag hits the Potomac.
So you see that moral evil can be separated from physical misconduct. A well-spoken Nazi in a suit and tie is still a Nazi. A heart surgeon who speeds through a red light still deserves a ticket. And a President who usually means well can keep doing things that make us want to impeach him.
We’re in for a long national conversation about pulling down statues, taking down blogs, and everyone being fed up. But take heart, America. It’s only 41 more months to the next presidential election. And if we can just manage to stay out of a nuclear war, that’s more than enough time to bounce back from a civil war. Isn’t it?
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York.
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of August 13, 2017.
In much of mainstream media, Donald Trump is maligned—left, right, and sideways—for everything he says and does. A lot of times he should be, but other times, it’s just knee-jerk obstructionism as payback for the way the Republicans cock-blocked Obama for eight years. Is it really wrong to put America first, or to be extra careful about immigration from hostile countries, or to think your daughter’s kinda hot? No. These are defensible ideas, whether you ascribe to them or not.
However, since Donald Trump can’t get his own agenda started, his whole presidency has been about reversing whatever the last administration did. And about saying, “Hey, you think I’m a liar and a meanie? Hillary’s even worse!”—which is such a helpful ideology six months after the election.
Still, Trump wants to junk the Iran deal? I don’t blame him. He wants to hold Arab countries to a higher standard of behavior before selling Israel down the river? I’m all for him. He wants to fire everyone he appointed? Eh, he did that on TV, so why should we expect different? He wants to reverse policy about transsexual people joining the military? No. Just no. What the hell is it to Donald Trump if a soldier’s uniform fits a little differently between the hips and the knees?
Republicans say they’re not being homophobes; the reason to keep Trannies out of the service is cost–for building separate bathrooms and showers. And since the army is known to spend $400 on a toilet seat, putting up an entire stall must cost millions. The military also fears that transgenders will stay closeted until they get through basic training, then ask for surgery and expect Uncle Sam to pay for it. I mean, where’s the money going to come from if we’re pouring all that dough into building empty schools in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Another excuse to ban the Trans is mental instability. Right-wingers say that if a person can’t decide whether to be a boy or a girl, that points to confusion, which can be deadly on the battlefield. And, of course, bible-thumping goyim see gender fluidity and homosexuality as mental illnesses to begin with. We can’t have crazy people in the air force and navy, they say. We need to save those slots for colored folks who have no other way to get a leg up in this economy than to be cannon fodder.
I think what Trump is most worried about is the downtime. You’ve got Marines, pumped up on testosterone and killer instincts, waiting around for an excuse to release their aggression. With no battle to charge into, they go out to drink and pick up a female cadet. Now, there’s a private, taking a woman back to his tent, groping around her privates, and finding a ding-dong where her ying-yang should be. That’s a homicide waiting to happen. But it’s not a trannie’s fault if a cadet can’t control himself, any more than it’s Burger King’s fault if I take extra ketchup packets and put them in my cupboard for later. They may be tempting me by displaying free condiments, but it is my weakness that makes me stuff my pockets. Damn you, H.J. Heinz.
But back to the AC/DC’s. If you’re in a foxhole fighting a war, do you care whether the person next to you has a penis, a vagina, or a mixmaster between the legs? No. You just want them to fire when ready and send your dog tags home if you don’t make it. And the bitching about transgenders in the military is no different from the griping about women in the military, and gays, and blacks, and Jews, and anyone who isn’t white, Christian, and 100 percent brain-washable. Donald Trump has bought into this prejudice to the point where he won’t even allow trannies in the office pool, let alone facing combat.
Of course, the silver lining is that transgender people who can’t serve in the military also can’t get killed in the military. When we have to start sending bombers over North Korea, it’s the tow-headed, Sunday-school Andy Hardys who’ll be flying top-secret, while the Caitlin Jenners will be shopping in Victoria’s Secret. But it is not the President’s place to declare that people of any sexuality are unfit to defend their own freedom. After all, 66 million Americans voted that Donald Trump wasn’t fit to be President, yet here he is in the job. Hmm, maybe that’s not the best example.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York.
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of August 6, 2017.
Today, my friends, I go swimming in foul waters. Brackish waters. Roger Waters! The former head of Pink Floyd is now a solo artist with delusions of relevance.
Waters has long been critical of Israel’s position vis-à-vis the Palestinians. According to Mr. Stink Floyd, Israel is always the bad guy: occupying land, denying Palis of their rights, existing. And Waters has made no attempt to hide his contempt for the only democracy—and sometimes the only civilized society—in the Middle East.
Who can forget the 2010 Waters concert, where his animated set design included B-1 bombers dropping mogen davids? Or, worse, the 2013 concerts, where, instead of launching beachballs and t-shirts into the crowd, he sent an inflatable pig with a Jewish star on it hovering over bewildered baby boomers, who just wanted him to shut up and play “The Wall.” And that’s the problem in a nutshell—or a nutcase. People still want to hear his old music, so that gives Waters a huge platform for his babble.
I’ll even grant that he thinks he means well. To Roger Waters, Israel is a torture state, an oppressive regime that doesn’t let a bunch of poor, bedraggled Arabs blow themselves up in peace. He’s not against Israel, he says; he doesn’t hate Jews; he’s merely a rabid anti-fascist. Except for someone who supposedly has nothing against Hebes, Waters takes every opportunity to savage our homeland. He equates Benjamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of Jewish settlements on Jewish land with South Africa’s apartheid and feels both should be countered the same way. As such, Waters has become the poster boy for BDS. You know BDS: Bondage, Domination, and Stupidity. Or more officially: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israel. In other words, hurt Israel financially, and the Jews will just slink off into the Red Sea and let the Palestinians take over land that they’ll just turn back into desert.
At least BDS isn’t the usual Moslem protest. Instead of flying planes into office walls, they just want to build a commerce wall around Israel. As part of his responsibilities being the BDS butt boy, Roger Waters has called on other musicians to avoid Eretz Yisroel and cancel any concerts they have planned there. In response, Thom Yorke and Radiohead, bless their hearts, went to Tel Aviv and played their longest concert in eleven years. Now granted, even they equivocated: “Playing in a country isn’t the same as endorsing its government,” Yorke said in a statement. “We don’t endorse Netanyahu any more than Trump, but we still play in America.”
Well, okay, I’ll accept Radiohead’s defensive half over Pink Floyd’s ass whole. And lest we think Roger Waters is anything other than a Goebbels with a guitar, look no further than his interview with the blatantly anti-Israel CounterPunch magazine. Waters complained about the “extraordinarily powerful” Jewish lobby in America, which he says makes it hard for other musicians to back him in his fulminating foolishness. Waters also bitched about Israel’s “right-wing rabbinate” supposedly causing, quote “the ethnic cleansing and systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime.” Ethnic cleansing. Right. Because Arabs are systematically murdered by the Israeli government for no other reason than the towels on their heads. Sure. That they start riots, kill soldiers, and blow themselves to pieces in cafes has nothing to do with Israel’s distrust of their breed.
I’m not saying Israel is perfect, or that the Prime Minister is right about everything. After all, a couple of weeks ago I, myself, blasted Netanyahu for reneging on a plan to make a small bit of the Wailing Wall co-ed. But I also understand what Israel is up against: ongoing hostility from the very neighbors who should take in the miserable Palestinians but won’t. For 80 years, little Israel has made the best of a situation that the Arabs have consistently made worse.
And Roger Waters? He won’t play Milk and Honey City? Let’s take a look at the schedule for his 2002 world tour, shall we? We shall. Let’s see, he started in South Africa in February. Well, there’s a country with a glorious history of justice. Oh, and then he moved on to Chile—no problems there. Argentina, which at the time was run by that bastion of morality, Carlos Menem. Let’s see…Brazil (where I’m sure Waters felt at home with the other Nazis), Venezuela (ditto), Mexico (because drugs and rock and roll do mix), Japan—because hegemonic nationalism was never an issue there. Oh, and then it was off to Beirut. Uh huh. And Moscow and Warsaw and Munich and Frankfurt and Stuttgart and Oberhausen and Vienna. Because when have Germany and Austria ever had a race problem?
A million times I have said that Israel is a Jewish state, and it is also a teeny-weeny state, so if the Palestinians don’t like living there, they should gas up their camels and move to any other Arab country that would have them. Which is, of course, none. Which is the real tragedy that putzes like Roger Waters, Susan Sarandon, Amy Goodman, and Javier Bardem never acknowledge. There is no occupation. There is a miniscule Jewish country that every Arab wants to level, and when the Jews fight back, or get strategic with blockades, the lefties wring their hankies and blame the good guys.
If I sound especially grim and intolerant, understand that I am writing this only a couple of days after three Israelis were stabbed to death by Palestinians in the West Bank, and a day after Arabs attacked the Israeli embassy in Jordan. Why the violence? The Palis were pissed off because Israel put in metal detectors by the Temple Mount. That started a riot, and three Arabs were shot by Israeli police. Yes, using deadly force against rioters is unfortunate, but over metal detectors? Something designed to keep everybody safe no matter what the religion? When I go in an airport, I’ve gotta take off my coat, my shoes, my belt, my watch. It’s a pain in the ass, but do I riot? No. And let’s not forget the reason we all have to get naked at JFK in the first place: the Arabs!
So Roger Troubled Waters, feel free to stay away from Israel. Plenty of bands who have actually made good music over the past forty years will take your place. And if you want to be the change you hope to see in the world, howsabout looking in the mirror? You were in Pink Floyd where the lead songwriter turned into an insane recluse, and the guy who replaced him can’t get along with you. You’ve been married four times—and divorced four times. And you’re an atheist, so even God has washed his hands of you.
You are the Pooper at the Gates of Dumb. You are the Atom Heartless Motherfucker. You’re the Dark Side of the Moron. The Final Cunt. A More-Than-Momentary Lapse of Reason. All in all, you’re just another Prick in the Wailing Wall, and I wish you weren’t here.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York.
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with musician Peter Yarrow
Topics include: Peter Paul & Mary, politics, Judaism. Segment airs July 15, 2017 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio 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)2017 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews actor Allen Lewis Rickman
Topics include: Yiddish, Alan Rickman, Coen Brothers, A Serious Man, Steve Sterner.
Segment aired Feb. 4, 2017 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio 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)2017 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 592nd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Feb. 4, 2017. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guests: actor Allen Lewis Rickman, Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actor Allen Lewis Rickman (“A Serious Man”). Plus: Inside Broadway, Greeley Crimes, Old Times, & Fraccidents; Saturday Segues (In the News, Stephin Merritt), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (pig pen, comedian movie titles, respect, ribs!) 00:47:30 Sponsors 01:02:00 GREELEY CRIMES, OLD TIMES & FRACCIDENTS 01:40:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Stephin Merritt 02:00:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 02:12:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Allen Lewis Rickman 02:54:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later 03:25:30 Friends 03:33:00 Sponsors 03:35:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 04:01:30 Weather 04:04:30 DAVE GOES OUT
Feb. 4, 2017 Playlist: “Vocabularry – Ball” (00:07:30). “Beds are Burning” (00:57:30; Midnight Oil). “Wild Wild West” (01:26:00; Kool Moe Dee). “The Message” (01:32:00; Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five). “The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing” (01:43:00), “Irma” (01:45:30), “I Don’t Believe You” (01:51:00) & “Quick!” (01:55:00). “Poppyland” (01:48:00; Stephin Merritt). “1984” (02:09:00; David Bowie). “I Could have Told You” (03:01:30; Bob Dylan). “I Could have Told You” (03:05:00; Frank Sinatra). “The Times They are a-Changing Back” (03:09:30; Billy Bragg). “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (03:13:30; The Grateful Dead). “Banned from the End of the World” (03:36:00; Sleater-Kinney). “T.V. Football” (03:38:30; Bill Cosby). “Machete” (03:39:30; Moby). “Berkeley Girl” (03:43:00; Harper Simon). “Do You Want to Dance” (03:46:30; Bobby Freeman). “Dream Seller” (04:09:00; Melanie).
(pictured above: Allen Lewis Rickman, Stephin Merritt, ribs!)
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
(pictured: Donna Mills, Captain Underpants, Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Vol. 13: Trouble No More, Prince of Broadway, A Bronx Tale, Nancy Opel and Bobby Goldman of Curvy Widow)
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with musician Peter Yarrow
Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews actor Allen Lewis Rickman
