Click above to watch in-studio footage of the interview.Click above to listen to the interview (audio only).
Dave chats with University of Northern Colorado student Trevor Okeson
Topics include: gun control, AR-15, radio, Christianity, music, 21 Pilots. Segment aired Feb. 17, 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.
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of January 1, 2018.
Hard to believe, but the tumultuous, ridiculous year of 2017, or, as I like to call it, 5777-5778, is coming to an end. We’ve made it through 365 days without a nuclear war, an ice age, and a new Renny Harlin film, so why grouse?
As I did last year, I have chosen to summarize the events of the past annum in a poetical-artistical form, so I hope you will bear with me as we bid shalom to the current year and, well, shalom to the next. Seriously, whoever invented Hebrew really dropped the ball on word coinage. Anyhoo, here goes:
`Twas the night before New Year’s and throughout this great land, Americans took about all they could stand
The country was split between blue states and red And folks on each side wished the other side dead
The Democrats never imagined they’d lose To a man who refers to the truth as “fake news”
A man who will speak without filters or grace Though he could not repeal and he could not replace
And so, onto migrants Trump’s temper did fall But Mexico said, “We won’t pay for your wall!”
“Now, folks,” said The Donald, “I’m just getting warm! I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll do tax reform!”
And just before Christmas, the bill it did pass. It’s great for the rich, not the poor and middle-class.
The stock market soared, the jobless claims fell And still we all feel like we’re going to hell
Big hurricanes drowned with their winds and their waves And statues came down `cause their subjects owned slaves
The national anthem brought teams to their knees While Hollywood drowned in an ocean of sleaze
Oh Spacey, oh Keillor, oh Lauer, oh Franken A few should get jailtime, the others a spankin’
The Democrats grinned when Fox News canned O’Reilly Till the axe fell on Schwartz, Hockenberry, and Smiley
And suddenly hashtags were filled with “Me Toos” Against a whole passel of rich, horny Jews
Yet Hollywood shlock remained vegetative “Star Wars” 26 – how innovative!
But at least cinema took our minds off our woes Prince Harry did, too, when he chose to propose
But still there were shootings by Muslims and crazies With Jason Aldean fans all pushing up daisies
Now, that Vegas massacre was not by a Muslim But they sure got mad at a Jewish Jerus’lem
And speaking of mad, how about North Korea Which seems like it’s ready to start World War Threea
The pundits were urging our chief to stay calm While Rocket Man threatened to liquidate Guam
But Trump was no Scrooge, no fiend out of Dickens Why, he tossed paper towels at wet Puerto Ricans
He railed against Clinton, he’s threatening DACA He kisses hot women but won’t use Binaca
He seated Neil Gorsuch upon the high court To make it much harder for girls to abort
He praised Neo-Nazis so white folks were mollified And all his appointees were ultra-unqualified
That said, he bombed Syria for murder by gas So why does he Tweet and kiss Putin’s ass?
O.J.’s a free man until his next trial And Mary Tyler Moore turned off her smile
This year we lost Domino, Berry, and Petty And Allman and Cassidy and enough already.
2018 is just up ahead With midterm elections to fill us with dread
The Winter Olympics will bore us with thrills So doctors, please don’t ban our opioid pills
We’ll need them to get through each day and each night Happy New Year to all, and to all a “La-La-Land.” I mean, “Moonlight!”
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. Shana Tovah!
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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
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.
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.
Note: Farewell to our Friend of the Daverhood, Peter Yarrow, who passed Jan. 7, 2025 at age 86.
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 568th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, July 30, 2016. Info: davesgoneby.com. Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guest: press agent and playwright Beck Lee
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with theatrical press agent Beck Lee. Plus: Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Saturday Segues (Jerry Garcia, Brazil), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Olympics), Inside Broadway, Dave Goes Off on Sesame Street.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN (iliopsoas, the DNC) 00:40:30 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 00:52:00 Sponsors 00:55:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Jerry Garcia 01:14:30 Sponsors 01:20:30 INSIDE BROADWAY 01:52:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Beck Lee 02:48:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (The Olympics) 03:07:30 Friends 03:18:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Brazil 03:36:00 DAVE GOES OFF – Sesame Street 03:40:30 Weather & Thanks 03:45:00 DAVE GOES OUT
July 30, 2016 Playlist: “Box of Rain” (00:57:30), “Eyes of the World” (01:03:00) & “China Cat Sunflower” (01:08:00; The Grateful Dead). “Fantasies Come True” (Avenue Q 2003 Broadway cast). “Property of Jesus” (02:51:00) & “Country Pie” (03:01:30). “Restless Farewell” (02:56:00; Joan Baez). “Brazil” (03:19:00; The Coasters). “Fotografia” (03:21:30; Astrud Gilberto w/ Antonio Carlos Jobim). “Ponta de Lonco Africano (Umbarabauma)” (03:23:30; Jorge Ben). “Um Canto do Afoxe Para o Bloco do Ile (Ile Aye)” (03:27:00; Caetano Veloso). “Time for August” (03:47:00; Julie London).
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 567th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, July 23, 2016. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz Guest: actor-director Austin Pendleton, Dave’s wife Joyce
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with actor-director Austin Pendleton. Plus: Inside Broadway, My Sick Mind, Saturday Segues (conventions, Snooty’s birthday!), Greeley Crimes & Old Times, Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (political places)
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN w/ Joyce (Snooty’s birthday!, crows) 00:31:30 GREELEY CRIMES & OLD TIMES 01:19:00 Sponsors 01:26:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Manatees 01:50:00 INSIDE BROADWAY 02:23:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Austin Pendleton 03:03:00 Reader Mail 03:12:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (political places) 03:28:30 Friends 03:38:00 MY SICK MIND 03:42:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Conventions 04:07:30 DAVE GOES OUT
July 23, 2016 Playlist: “Snootie Little Cutie” (01:29:00; Manhattan Transfer). “I’m a Manatee” (01:32:30; Jim Gaffigan). “You and Me and a Manatee” (01:34:30; Ty Curtis). “Horny Manatee” (01:37:30; Conan O’Brien TV excerpt). “On the Highway of Love” (02:16:30; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change 1996 off-Broadway cast). “A Transparent Crystal Moment” (02:20:30; The Last Sweet Days of Isaac 1970 off-Broadway cast w/ Austin Pendleton). “Miracle of Miracles” (02:57:30; Fiddler on the Roof 1964 Broadway cast w/ Austin Pendleton). “Wanted Man” (03:13:30; Johnny Cash with Carl Perkins). “Cry a While” (03:16:30; Bob Dylan). “Quit Your Low Down Ways” (03:21:30; The Hollies). “Enter the Convention” (03:43:00; Professor Elemental). “Politicians – Republican Party Convention” (03:46:00; Will Rogers USA w/ James Whitmore). “Conventioner” (03:50:00; Shelly Berman). “Lobachevsky” (3:58:30; Tom Lehrer).
(Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention)
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of May 8, 2016.
Just over a year ago, I did a Rabbinical Reflection about the 2016 presidential candidates for the Republican Party. There were a dozen and a half of them—remember? Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Scott Walker—a veritable who’s who of who’s hooligans.
Almost as an aside, I included the candidacy of Donald Trump. I said, and I quote, “Donald Trump, who went bankrupt three times and yet brands himself as a financial genius. Donald Trump, who has a magnificent knack for self-promotion but spends money he doesn’t have like it’s going out of style—why isn’t he running as a Democrat?”
The idea of Donald Drumpf actually getting traction as a viable candidate, and the thought that more than a few flakes would vote for this narcissistic, self-aggrandizing Oompa Loompa was downright comical. And even if he did ride the cult of celebrity for awhile, you had fifteen other G.O.P. hopefuls with their own deluded followers. But then America happened. And the people rejected Chris Christie and his highway robbery. They rejected Marco Rubio the wind-up doll. They rejected Ben Carson, who didn’t need anaesthesia during heart surgery because he could put patients to sleep just by talking to them.
By the time the conservative muckymucks realized that Donald Trump was not just a fad but a movement—and I don’t just mean the kind of movement I have every other morning if I’m lucky and drink my prune juice—by the time the powers that be of the G.O.P. realized their conservative groundswell was getting dug up by a real-estate developer, it was too late to stop him.
My God, their best shot was Ted Cruz, a man who couldn’t find one person to like him—even when he was looking in the mirror. Ted Cruz was a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, vehemently pro-Israel (God bless him for that), and seemingly in line with everything the Republican party wanted to roll back from the last eight years. And yet, not a single soul in the House or Senate wanted to work with him. Former speaker of the house John Boehner called Ted Cruz, quote, “Lucifer in the flesh!” and “the most miserable son of a bitch” he ever worked with, unquote. This from Boehner, a man who always behaved like he had a stick so far up his tushie, you could see splinters on his uvula.
And yet, this loathed and despised senator, Ted Cruz, was the Republicans’ last hope of putting one of their boys into the White House. Oh, wait, I’m forgetting about John Kasich. Because we all forgot about John Kasich. The past three months, he should have just changed his name to something Chinese, like: “Oh Him Too.” Especially since his name was on ballots like those restaurants in Chinatown that keep items like putrefied eggs and pig bladders on the menu even though no one in their right minds would order them.
To be fair, Kasich seemed like he had a brilliant strategy compared to go-for-broke losers like Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz. Why spend money? Why knock yourself out in races you can’t individually win? Just keep treading water, don’t make waves, and when it’s time for the contested convention, make your perfect dive. What Kasich didn’t realize is that voters saw through his shabby chicanery with Cruz and voted straight up for the man who wasn’t endorsed by the party, wasn’t owned by the Koch brothers, and wasn’t a career politician.
So when the dust settled last week, and the delegate votes were counted, the only candidate with a clear mandate was the one with the cloudiest agenda: Donald Trump. The clown had become the clown prince. This despite—or maybe because of—his penchant for school-bully insults and his crazy, off-the-cuff statements about the Klan and Mexicans and ugly women and pretty women being punished for their abortions. They used to call Reagan the Teflon president because everything stupid slid off him. Well, Trump is Teflon sprayed with Pam, coated with goose grease, and dipped in K.Y. Jelly. Whatever he says, his followers counter with, “He really speaks his mind” or “well, he may say one thing, but we know what he really means.” Do we?
Look, I’m the first to admit—or, if not the first, maybe the 12,030th—to admit that Donald Trump’s wildcard, shoot-from-the-lip status has a visceral appeal. If the two parties running, and usually ruining, the country for the past 30 years don’t approve, he must be good, right? And being a great persuader, he appeals to our emotions—unlike Hilary, who appeals to, well, not even her husband.
But let’s not forget that Donald Trump is a man who promises a robust job market, and yet he grew famous from a TV show on which he fired everyone! This is a man who used to be pro-choice, but when he becomes a Republican, hup!, he suddenly turns anti-abortion. This is a man who vows to fix the country’s troubles by collaborating with the best and brightest, but he couldn’t even find enough intelligent minds to teach in a bogus university. This is a man who wants to keep out immigrants, unless they’re six feet tall, anorexic, and look good on a bearskin rug. This is a man who wants to help the little guy, by building casinos to take their money and hotel rooms that only movie stars can afford.
In other words, the wizard behind the curtain has done very, very well for himself. For others? Not so much. For better or worse, we’ve spent the last eight years led by a community organizer who, perhaps naively, thought he could bring everyone together to solve problems. Are we now ready, instead, for a semi-benevolent dictator who thinks he knows everything and whose answer for every crisis is, “It’ll be amazing. It’ll be beautiful. Believe me.”
We’d like to believe you, Donald. We’d like to believe in something. But 240 years of politics, not to mention the Bernie Sanders campaign, have taught us the futility of belief. And I’m a Rabbi saying this! So if the votes are counted on November 8th, and America chooses the bloviating, thoughtless TV star over the jilted, calumniating harridan, all we can do is what we always do every four years on January 20th: pray.
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).
Here is the 550th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, March 19, 2016. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guests: actress Alicia Dattner, friends Fred Cleaver & Wendy Highby & Jeff Goodman
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with comedienne Alicia Dattner(The Oy of Sex). Plus: Dave chats with Wendy & Fred Highby and former guest co-host Jeff Goodman, Inside Broadway, Saturday Segue (in the news), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (first & home), Wretched Pun of Destiny (Johnny Cash).
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN (DST, first pitch) 00:30:00 DAVE GOES OFF (politics) 00:49:00 GUESTS: Fred Cleaver & Wendy Highby 01:12:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – In the News 01:37:30 Sponsors 01:40:30 GUEST: Jeff Goodman 02:02:30 INSIDE BROADWAY w/ Jeff Goodman 03:34:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Alicia Dattner 04:26:30 Friends 04:36:00 Sponsors 04:41:00 THE WRETCHED PUN OF DESTINY #58 (Johnny Cash) 04:45:00 BOB DYLAN – SOONER & LATER (first & home) 05:02:30 Weather 05:05:00 DAVE GOES OUT
March 19, 2016 Playlist: “Aguas de Marco” (01:13:30; Antonio Carlos Jobim). “Dark Night” (01:17:00; Frank Sinatra Jr.). “Washington DC” (01:21:30; Magnetic Fields). “Springtime in the Rockies” (01:23:30; Tiny Tim). “The World Will Know” (03:28:30; Newsies 2012 Broadway cast). Stand-up excerpt (03:32:30; Alicia Dattner). “Freight Train Blues” (04:49:00), “On the Road Again {Take 1}” (04:51:00) & “Mr. Tambourine Man” (04:54:00; Bob Dylan). “Sex” (05:15:00; Ice T).
Click above to listen to the interview (audio only).
Dave Lefkowitz chats with friend JEFF GOODMAN
Topics include: Broadway, politics, Trump vs. Hilary, Las Vegas.
Segment aired March 19, 2016 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)2019 TotalTheater Productions
More information on Dave’s Gone By? Visit www.davesgoneby.com.
Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with musician Peter Yarrow
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
