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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actress Marie Wallace
Topics include: Dark Shadows, Gypsy, Sweet Charity, Robert Preston, Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman, New York Romance, Gwen Verdon.
Segment aired Jan. 27, 2018 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)2018 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com More information about Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com
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Dave Lefkowitz chats with legendary comedian Robert Klein
Topics include: Judaism, Israel, the Holocaust, Rodney Dangerfield
Segment airs Jan. 6, 2018 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)2018 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com DOWNLOAD VIDEO
Click above to watch in-studio footage of the entire episode.Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 634th episode–a New Year’s Eve special–of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on UNC Radio and Facebook Dec. 31, 2017. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guests: Dave’s wife Joyce, writers Lisa Arata and Bruce Kluger, Chicago expert Bill Endsley, musician Brian Gari, Dave’s aunt Esther Brower, Dave’s mom and dad Philip & Brenda Lefkowitz.
Featuring: New Year’s Eve celebration with Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #152 (2017 Farewell), Inside Broadway, Best of Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Saturday Segues (Passings, In the News), Guest call-ins.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce 00:03:00 GUEST: Esther Brower 00:16:30 GUEST: Bruce Kluger 00:26:00 GUEST: Brian Gari 00:46:00 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:14:30 GUESTS: Philip & Brenda Lefkowitz 01:17:30 SUNDAY SEGUE – Farewells 01:38:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #152 (2017 Farewell) 01:44:00 GUEST: Bill Endsley 02:15:00 GUEST: Lisa Arata 02:28:30 Sponsors 02:29:30 SUNDAY SEGUE – Passings 02:52:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 03:15:00 Friends 03:23:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Dec. 31, 2017 Playlist: “President” (01:18:00; Robyn Hitchcock). “Hurricane” (01:21:30; Leona Naess). “Fight Fire” (01:25:00; The Golliwogs). “Eclipse” (01:27:30; John Denver). “Age of Consent” (01:33:00; New Order). “Big Balls” (02:31:00; AC/DC). “Let Yourself Go” (02:34:00; Tom Petty). “William Wilson” (02:38:00; The Smithereens). “Books About UFO’s” (02:40:00; Husker Du). “What a Party” (02:43:00; Fats Domino). “Every Day We Rock and Roll” (02:45:00; Chuck Berry). “For Forever” (03:10:30; Dear Evan Hansen 2017 Broadway cast w/ Ben Platt). “I’m 18” (03:20:00; Alice Cooper). “I Think “Heroes” {live} (David Bowie).
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with singer Brooke Moriber
Topics include: Les Miz, Mandy Patinkin, Cyndi Lauper, Threepenny Opera, Wallace Shawn, country music, Nashville, Judaism
Segment airs Dec. 9, 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 listen to the interview (audio only).
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.