Category Archives: Music

February 8, 2011 · 5:43 pm

A 3-Minute Brain Cleanse…

As the heroic democratic protestors in Egypt battle the dark forces of dictatorship for another tumultuous week, and we here in America must contend with the daily political insanity of John Boehner, Eric Cantor and the GOP House (who are busy trying to redefine rape rather than create jobs) — we can all be forgiven for being a mite news-weary.

Add to that the fact that we are still confronted by opinion polls handicapping Sarah Palin’s (remote) chances of becoming our next President – plus escalating flights of hagiography in celebration of Ronald Reagan’s centennial – and, if you’re like me, you can use a bit of a brain cleanse right about now.

As a balm to calm your cerebrum, here’s what my oldest daughter, Maura, was doing when she was just a kid…

If you enjoyed that — you may want to check out Maura’s updated version of “You Never Know Where You’re Going (So You Go To A Party)” on her new CD, “Reversible Lobotomy”.  For more info, click here.  Maura’s music will soothe you with some cool, moody grooving.

(Music video shot and edited by Angela Murphy.)

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January 30, 2011 · 4:48 pm

Weekend Fun…

Steve Rashid, Terry Barron,  Tom “Wolf” Larson and Rockin’ Ronny Crawford are a rather fab four themselves. Below, Brad Hall imagines what will happen when the boys make their iTunes deal.In fact, no sooner had Brad imagined it — then he saw this poster on Sunset Boulevard. From San Francisco to iTunes to Sunset — all in one weekend afternoon!

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January 21, 2011 · 11:17 am

Rock Me!

“ROCK ME!” — a Rock & Roll Musical written by Barrosse & Hall — will be performed at Northwestern University on March 7 and 8, 2011.

More details to come…

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January 14, 2011 · 11:14 am

Retro Rockme…

(Left to right) Ronny Crawford, Tom Larson, Larry Schanker, Rush Pearson, Peter Van Wagner, Casey Fox, Tom Kalicky, the author, Brad Hall.

ROCKME PHOTO FUN (Circa ’82-’83)

On a sunny day in 1982 (or perhaps the spring of ’83), the members of Riffmaster & The Rockme Foundation gathered for a photo session in the park next to the house I was renting on Sheridan Road in Evanston. (Someone will, no doubt, recall who the photographer was, so I can give him/her credit.) Luckily, theses photos are sharper than my memory.

Update: Rush Pearson informs me that the photographer was none other than Suzy Crawford!

In the photo above, we give joyous physical expression to our band’s motto: “Make the kids jump!”

In the photo below, we attempt our own version of a classic Beatles album cover.

And in this final photo, Riffmaster Peter Van Wagner proves that, yes ladies, sometimes a man’s guitar IS an extension of his……talents.

In the coming year, The Rockmes plan to return to SPACE in Evanston for our annual Rock & Roll Reunion. Stay tuned.

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December 8, 2010 · 11:17 am

John Lennon…

1940 — 1980 — Forever

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December 2, 2010 · 10:22 am

Maura’s New Music!

My daughter, Maura Murphy-Barrosse, has just released her latest recording, “Reversible Lobotomy”.

Maura’s first solo release showcases her marvelous voice and sophisticated songwriting. And it’s a family affair. Maura’s husband, Nicolas Fournier, is a brilliant producer, musician and engineer — and together they’ve crafted an album that blends blues, rock, pop, jazz, and good old fashioned torch singing with a very contemporary production style.

To hear a sample of “Reversible Lobotomy”, you can click here or on the album graphic above.  Then go to iTunes and buy it today.

They previewed it for me at Thanksgiving dinner — and it was better than stuffing with gravy!

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September 18, 2010 · 7:07 pm

My YouTube Channel

It’s hard to believe that YouTube is barely 5 years old.

It should be obvious to anyone with access to electricity that since the debut of YouTube, popular culture has changed dramatically. Whether it’s a dancing cat, a woman getting hit in the face with a watermelon, an Indy band with a homemade music video, or a too-comfortable politician saying something off-color at a fundraising barbecue – YouTube can make the trivial, the talented, and the downright terrible alike nationally known within hours and days.

This revolutionary online video portal was the founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim – but it was Hurley who studied design at my mother’s alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Chen and Karim were computer science geeks at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, or as we use to call it in Chicago, Champaign-Urbana.

YouTube’s early headquarters was housed above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California and the first YouTube video was was uploaded on April 23, 2005. That first video, Me at the zoo, features founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo. You can still find it on YouTube.

Me at the zoo has scored 3,597,873 views.

Now, even a dinosaur like me is aware of YouTube. In fact, as you’ve seen if you’ve been following this blog since “The Vic & Paul Show” ran in June, I’m gradually getting the hang of how to use YouTube to post video clips and embed video on this blog.

And now I’ve figured out how to create my own YouTube channel. It wasn’t hard. The technology was right at my fingertips. But since nobody uses technical manuals anymore, you’ve just got to stumble around until you figure this stuff out.

My YouTube channel is currently a place where “The Vic & Paul Show” clips live, plus other video treats that will accumulate over time.

You can access Paul’s Channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/58pab

But if you’re looking for videos of dancing cats, don’t look here. Our noble beast Caliban just isn’t the dancing type.

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September 10, 2010 · 12:29 am

A Salute to Walter Cronkite

“And that’s the way it is.”

Those of us who are of a certain age remember the days when there were only three TV networks (and those two weird UHF channels) – and network news was the Big Deal every night. In those years, back when the network evening news was an important daily event, Walter Cronkite was the Big Man Behind the Anchor Desk.

Walter Cronkite, the anchorman of CBS Evening News, was the most trusted man in America. Seriously. He really was. And he deserved our trust. After all, it was Walter Cronkite who went to Vietnam and said, essentially, game over: we’re losing and we should get out. (Can you imagine Wolf Blitzer going out on that limb?)

So, what’s happened to TV news since the days of the legendary Walter Cronkite?

Here’s a musical reflection on the gradual ruin of television news from “The Vic & Paul Show”, written and performed by Paul Barrosse and Victoria Zielinski — with musical director Steve Rashid.

The show was directed by Shelly Goldstein and performed in June 2010 at Push Lounge in Woodland Hills, CA.

This is the final installment of clips from “The Vic & Paul Show” available for free on this blog and on YouTube. The entire show will be available very soon on DVD. If you’re interested in getting a copy of the DVD, let me know by e-mail or via comment to this blog entry.

I’ll send you a copy of the whole show for $5.00 – which should just about cover the cost. (It’s the cheapest, coolest, and funniest Christmas gift ever!) You can send me a check when you get the DVD.

And that’s the way it is…

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September 8, 2010 · 8:34 pm

Rockme Music Goes Online!

Make the kids jump at CD Baby!

Just in time to fill those 2010 Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanza) stockings — the newest Riffmaster & The Rockme Foundation tunes — and a collection of all-time Rockme classics — are now available online at CD Baby:

Click here to be a part of Digital Rockme-mania…

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RiffmastertheRockmeFoundation

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August 25, 2010 · 2:09 pm

Scalia & Sotomayor: A Judicial Tango

In May of 2009, President Obama nominated an unheralded federal appeals court judge named Sonia Sotomayor for an appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing retired Justice David Souter.

Soon, there was the now-obligatory pre-Senate-confirmation-hearing political dustup. The right wing questioned Sotomayor’s objectivity – pointing to the following statement…

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

Before long, Sonia Sotomayor was a household name – and despite the “wise Latina” controversy, her nomination was confirmed by the Senate that August by a vote of 68–31.

But how would Sotomayor’s presence on the Supreme Court affect the court’s political balance?

And how would the court’s conservative “white males” deal with this “wise Latina woman” and “the richness of her experiences”?

Most interestingly, how would Justice Antonin Scalia react to the new woman on the bench? Pundits noted that Scalia and Sotomayor are both New Yorkers and lifelong Yankees fans. But would that common ground be all that united them?

Would Sonia help counter Scalia’s ultra-conservative power in the Supreme Court chambers? Or would Scalia draw Sotomayor to the dark side? As my wife Victoria and I began writing “The Vic & Paul” show in January 2010, we knew we had to address this supreme relationship question.

Here, then, is another musical sketch from “The Vic & Paul Show”, performed in June 2010 at Push Lounge in Woodland Hills, California.

Can love bridge the ideological gap between the Left and the Right? We take you now to the dark and shadowy chambers of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia…

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