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Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with author and editor JAMI BERNARD
Topics include: film, cancer, writing, Roger Ebert, John Simon.
Segment aired Aug. 21, 2021 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio/podcast program #812 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.
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #62 (4/7/2013): Roger Ebert
Aired April 7, 2013 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAn_bgyfJ7s
Shalom Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of April 7th, 2013.
Hail and farewell to the respected, prolific and popular film critic, Roger Ebert. On Thursday April 4th, two days after saying he wanted to take things a little slower, he instead came to a complete halt, with cancer doing him in at age 70.
Anyone who loves movies is going to miss Roger Ebert, not just because he warned you what was a stinker before you laid down your six dollars. And then $10. And now $19, or 25 if you throw in popcorn. And not just because Roger could talk intelligently without being patronizing – something I haven’t mastered in 53 years. And not just because Roger’s love for good movies came through even when he pooped on bad ones. The biggest legacy of Roger Ebert – and Gene Siskel – was in remaking the idea of “what is a critic?” Admit it. Before those two, you probably thought of a movie or theater critic as this dreary, sepulchral, Ichabod Crane type, with a Bostonian accent, his nose in the air and his pen in someone’s back. He was better than you, and he sure let you know it. Or he talked so far over your head, sparrows would crash into his verbs on their way to Capistrano.
But not Roger and Gene. Of course they were smart, but they were next-door-neighbor smart, not nuclear physicist smart. And when they explained why Blake Edwards was a genius and dead teenager films are a scourge – even if you didn’t agree, you appreciated their conviction and knew they were treating you like a grownup. Roger may have won a Pulitzer, but he never came off like a pudknocker.
Oh sure, Ebert’s weight made him an easy target for many years. At one point, he was so out of shape, it seemed a miracle he could even lift his thumb. And then, he had to give up TV because of the Big C. The first time I saw a picture of him after all those operations, my jaw dropped. Well, not as low as his, but it was still a shock. And yet, he continued to write. A man who came of age in a time of typewriters and telexes kept himself relevant in our age of tweets and tablets. In fact, he posted more movie reviews last year than he did any year before that. If I had to give that many sermons in a year, my brain would turn to gefilte fish.
And if my cranium did become an amalgam of whitefish, pike, sawdust and carp, would I have the guts Roger Ebert had in being so visible? Of going on Oprah with his new voice or on the internet with his fake chin? If I get a pimple on my nose, I hide for three days.
Among the many quotable quotes of Roger Ebert, he once said that “your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.” Well, I may not be able to follow another Charlie Kaufman movie, but I’m sad that we lost Roger Ebert. I think of Gene Siskel in heaven, waiting all these years for the day he could go, “Awright. No cameras. No censors. Rog, let’s really talk about `Cop and a Half’” Go at it guys; no one did it better.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches in Great Neck, New York.
Here is the 418th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, April 6, 2013. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with Eric Mittenthal, Vice President of Public Affairs of the American Meat Institute. Plus: Rabbi Sol on the passing of Roger Ebert, Saturday Segues (Phil Ramone, Tom Lehrer & Tiny Tim) and Inside Broadway.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: meat promoter Eric Mittenthal
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:12:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Phil Ramone 01:02:00 INSIDE BROADWAY (news (01:02:00) & Indianapolis (01:11:00): The Whipping Man (01:12:00), Indy Fringe (01:17:00), Twelfth Night (01:19:30), Michael Feinstein & Barbara Cook (01:23:00)) 01:32:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon & Eric Mittenthal 02:01:30 Sponsors 02:08:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later (meat) 02:34:00 Friends 02:38:00 RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #62 (Roger Ebert) 02:42:00 SATURDAY SEGUE – Tiny Tim & Tom Lehrer 02:58:00 DAVE GOES OUT
April 6, 2013 Playlist: “The Happy Hot Dog Man” (00:04:30; TV ad). “Minstrel of the Dawn” (00:14:00; Gordon Lightfoot). “You Don’t Own Me” (00:17:30; Lesley Gore ). “Poetry Man” (Phoebe Snow; 00:20:00). “Rolling Home” (00:24:30; Peter, Paul & Mary). “Take Me to the Mardi Gras” (00:28:00) & “Questions for the Angels” (00:48:30; Paul Simon). “Only the Good Die Young” (00:31:00; Billy Joel). “Rag Mama Rag” ({live version}; 00:35:00; The Band). “Half as Big as Life” (00:39:00; Promises, Promises, 1968 Broadway cast w/ Jerry Orbach). “Once Before I Go” (00:41:00; The Boy from Oz; 2003 Broadway cast w/ Hugh Jackman). “Gloomy Sunday” (00:44:30; Sinead O’Connor). “All That Meat and No Potatoes” (01:30:00; Fats Waller). “Meat City” (01:59:00; John Lennon). “Honest with Me” (02:08:30), “Quinn the Eskimo” (02:14:00). “Disease of Conceit” (02:17:00), “Tough Mama” (02:20:00), “Diamond Joe” (02:24:30), “On the Road Again” (02:28:00) & “Yea, Heavy and a Bottle of Bread” (02:30:30; Bob Dylan). “Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight” (02:42:30), “Mickey the Monkey” (02:47:30) & “Santa Claus has Got the AIDS this Year” (02:51:00; Tiny Tim). “My Home Town” (02:45:00), “Silent E” (02:49:30), “The Vatican Rag” (02:54:00) & “When You are Old and Grey” (02:59:00; Tom Lehrer).
Eric MittenthalMichael Feinstein & Barbara CookThe Whipping Man at Indiana RepPhil RamoneTiny TimTom LehrerRoger EbertThe Happy Hot Dog Man!
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 338th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, Jan. 8, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: Charles Fox
Featuring: Dave chats with songwriter & TV theme composer Charles Fox. Plus: Dave Goes Off on NPR, David Bowie birthday tribute, and Bob Dylan: “Sooner & Later.”
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:20:00 GUEST: Charles Fox 00:57:00 Dave – Friends of the Daverhood 01:12:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – David Bowie Birthday Tribute 01:50:00 Weather 01:55:30 DAVE GOES OFF: on NPR, part 1 02:03:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later 02:22:30 DAVE GOES OFF: on NPR, part 2 02:51:30 DAVE GOES OFF: on Ebert’s Tweet 02:54:00 Sponsors & Upcoming Guests 02:59:00 DAVE GOES OUT
Jan. 8, 2011 Playlist: “Killing Me Softly” (Roberta Flack; 00:15:00), “Happy Days” (00:11:00), “Love Boat Theme” (00:13:00) & “Love American Style” (00:54:00) (Charles Fox), “I Got a Name” (00:42:30; Jim Croce), “Golden Years” (01:12:30), “Because You’re Young” (01:16:30), “Never Get Old” (01:21:30), “Fill Your Heart” (01:25:30), “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (01:29:00), “God Knows I’m Good” (01:35:00), “Survive” (01:38:30), “Song for Bob Dylan” (02:03:00) & “Heroes” (03:00:00; David Bowie). “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (live; 02:07:00), “What Can I Do for You” (02:11:00), Obviously Five Believers” (02:19:30), “They Killed Him” (02:23:00) & “I Shall Be Free No. 10” (02:27:00; Bob Dylan), “Wallflower” (02:17:00; Doug Sahm & Band). “Everybody Wants My Fanny” (02:57:30; Benny Bell). (pictured: Charles Fox, NPR, David Bowie)
