July 7, 2007 by Steve.

What a night we had last night!  We KNEW that our show at Flanders Park was going to be rained out, but we showed up anyway at 6, like we promised.  By 6:10, they had canceled the show.

Instead of packing it in, Steve decided to call around to see where else we could play that night.  He ended up speaking with Rick at the Stonefire Grill in Randolph.  Through some gutsy maneuvering, he got Rick to agree to have us come on down for a 7:30 show.

After calling around to all of the Moderately Bright Fans we thought might be stopping by the park to alert them as to our new venue, up to Randolph we went.

… and WHAT A SHOW!  We had several compliments, a couple of job offers, and probably the most fun we’ve had in a bar in quite some time.

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July 7, 2007 by Ro.

January 2007
We sing at a private cocktail party at the North Maple Inn in Basking Ridge. This is a job we get from the AAUW performance we gave in December. Good thing we have those business cards!

We start working on
Pretty Little Angel Eyes
Till There Was You
Embraceable You

Our website has 1111 hits!

March 2007

We sing a show at Cedar Crest in Pompton Plains! Ro’s mom, Flo, is a resident there. The theater is beautiful. It is the first time we have a real dressing room backstage! We have a sound man! It is a good show and Flo becomes an overnight celebrity. She is interviewed for the Cedar Crest newsletter. She is kvelling.

We sing at the Temple Hatikvah Coffee House for the third time. We do:
Pretty Little Angel Eyes
Embraceable You
Sh-Boom

NEW OUTFITS!

May 2007
Brenda makes us FABULOUS Victorian outfits! She really does her homework and makes the girls some real live Victorian skirts, petticoats, and overthingies, complete with flounces and shirring and ruffles and frou-frou and hoo-hoos and bustle-type, um, fullness in the nether regions. We even have parasols. We look spectacular. We cannot sit down in them, but we look spectacular.
Thus resplendently attired, we sing at the Boonton Historical Society House Tour on a beautiful May day.

June 2007

Our website has 1250 hits!

We get wireless mics!!!
We work on The Lion Sleeps Tonight
When Will I Be Loved

The Lion Sleeps Tonight is so catchy that it gets Ro in trouble at the grocery store. For some reason she has Jeff’s bass part in her head as she is shopping, particularly the part where he makes a bass drum sound on the first beat of every measure (as Audrey is singing the verse). She notices that shoppers are eyeing her warily. Some are clutching their cell phones. She becomes aware that she is actually doing Jeff’s bass part ALOUD — so what the shoppers saw and heard was a blonde woman in Aisle 4 saying “DOOM!” “DOOM!” “DOOM!” at regular intervals.

NEW OUTFITS FOR THE CAR SHOW!

We get black and yellow BOWLING SHIRTS with our names on them!

We sing at the Blues Cruise Car Show on a gorgeous day in June. We start the car show with the Star Spangled Banner. Our sets include:
Why Do Fools Fall In Love
Under the Boardwalk
In the Good Old Summertime
Pretty Little Angel Eyes

Come Go With Me
Sh-Boom
When Will I Be Loved
Up On The Roof
Blue Moon

Longest Time
Blue Skies
In the Still of the Nite
Goodnight Sweetheart

The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Here, There and Everywhere
Surfin’ USA/Barbara Ann
Java Jive

Little Deuce Coupe/409
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
My Girl
Stand By Me

June 2007

We learn Who Wrote the Book of Love in one rehearsal.

July 3, 2007

We have a new website! Over 1300 hits! We have a BLOG! What fun!

NOT MORE RAIN!!!

We are anxiously watching the forecast for July 5, the date of our third appearance at Flanders Park. The weather has been perfect for about a month, but the forecast for July 4 and 5 is dismal. We are filled with gloom and sadness.

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July 7, 2007 by Ro.

September 21, 2006
We all return from vacations and start our third year together with a rehearsal and supper at Steve’s. We just got new vests!! They make us look a bit like waiters, and Audrey really wanted the purple ones, but we are generally quite pleased with them.

We continue to add to our repertoire. We work on:
Here We Come a-Caroling
Our Love is Here to Stay
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

Our website has over 900 hits!

September 29, 2006
We sing at the Mt. Tabor House Tour for the second time. It is another beautiful day and we are magnificent in our burgundy vests.

October 14, 2006
Rehearsal at Ro’s. We work on
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts) and When Will I Be Loved. There is much laughter.

Our web site has over 1000 hits!

We are doing a lot of singing! We sing at
The Temple Hatikvah Sisterhood Fashion Show
The White Meadow Temple dinner
The Ecumenical Interfaith Thanksgiving Service
The Mt. Olive Library Gala

November 11, 2006 We sing “My Girl” to Rachel at her Bat Mitzvah

December 2006

We’ve been working hard on our holiday repertoire. We’ve memorized
Here We Come A-Caroling (”bless you and send,” not “sess you and blend!”)
The Gloucestershire Wassail
White Christmas
Let It Snow
Winter Wonderland
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Deck the Halls
We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Ro spends a good deal of time trying to describe what a figgy pudding is.

December 9, 2006
We sing at Barbara Barre’s (Diane McCormack’s mom) holiday party. People love us and we look great in our burgundy vests (and some pants).

December 12, 2006
We sing at the AAUW meeting at the Basking Ridge Library. People love us and we look great in our burgundy vests.

December 23
We sing at Merry Heart Nursing Home

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July 7, 2007 by Ro.

June 2006
We work on
Our Love is Here to Stay
Lida Rose

Steve gets overly enthusiastic during a rehearsal of Sh-Boom and knocks over the table of snacks. The grapes fly. Luckily, the dip remains upright.

We sing a song for Becky Mason at her retirement party (to the tune of “My Girl.”)

We try to sing at the Cops ‘n’ Rodders car show in Flanders but get rained out.

We try to sing at the car show two weeks later, but we get rained out. We try car caroling instead…

July 4, 2006
We sing at Jeff and Audrey’s July 4th BBQ. It rains…

July 5, 2006
In the middle of a week of rain, we sing at Flanders Park. We have a small, damp, but devoted audience, all carrying umbrellas. We sing:

Sh-Boom
My Girl
Why Do Fools Fall in Love
It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday
Java Jive
Heart of My Heart
Coney Island Baby
In the Good Old Summertime
Stand By Me
Blue Moon
Little Deuce Coupe/409
You’re a Grand Old Flag
Hole in the World
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Here, There, and Everywhere
The Longest Time
Goodnight Sweetheart

July 22 - 23, 2006
We try to sing at Mt. Olive Twp. Day but are, of course, rained out. We succeed in singing to a small, damp, but enthusiastic crowd the next day, using our new sound system. We sing:

Sh-Boom
Up On The Roof
My Girl
Come Go With Me
Coney Island Baby
Lida Rose (debut)
In the Good Old Summertime
Blue Skies
Java Jive
Desperado (debut)
Blue Moon
Stand By Me
Surfin USA/Barbara Ann
Under the Boardwalk
The Longest Time
Helplessly Hoping (debut)
Why Do Fools Fall in Love

July 27, 2006
We try to sing at the car show for the third time, but it starts, of course, raining, after our second song… We are thinking of offering our services in drought-ridden countries as rainmakers.

August 2006
We work on “Straighten Up and Fly Right.”

THE SOMERSET PATRIOTS GAME — August 6, 2006
We sing the Star Spangled Banner to open the Somerset Patriots baseball game. It is a beautiful day and it does not rain. We have a wonderful section of Moderately Bright fans waving Moderately Bright fans, painstakingly and brilliantly made by Brenda. The sound is amazing in the stadium. We wear our red MB4 shirts. We don’t forget the lyrics. Our performance is projected on the gigantic stadium screen. People cheer for us. They wave their fans. There is much rejoicing.

Our website has over 700 hits!
We now include video clips of some of our songs!

One week later…

Our website has over 800 hits!
Must be because we now include video clips of some of our songs!

August 16, 2006
We sing at Heath Village for their Wednesday night music program. It is a return engagement and we sing two 25 minute sets (maybe a bit longer). For our second set we had the audience pull song titles out of a hat to determine our song order. It was fun.

August 17, 2006
After 4 rain-outs, we finally got to sing at the car show in Flanders!

A successful, if not terribly sunny, summer!

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July 7, 2007 by Ro.

We rehearse for the Temple Hatikvah coffeehouse.
Ro draws posters of a Deuce Coupe and a 409.
We continue to have unimaginable fun at our rehearsals.
We toy with changing our name to “Glottal Stop and the Secretions”

It is becoming apparent that we will sing just about anywhere at anytime.
We sing the Star Spangled Banner and Stand By Me at the Tinc Road Variety Show.
We sing in the Subway while waiting for our sandwiches.
We sing at the cocktail hour for The Newcomers Club of Roxbury and Mt. Olive.
We sing on Ro’s deck for her brunch.
We sing at Steve and Brenda’s fajita party.
We sing “Java Jive” in front of a Starbucks.

March 11, 2006: Club Hatikvah Coffeehouse
We sing:

Little Deuce Coupe/409
Here, There, and Everywhere
M-O-T-H-E-R (with full schtick)
Java Jive
Stand By Me

Our website has over 400 hits!

March 18, 2006
We have another intriguing opportunity. The Somerset Patriots baseball team is holding auditions for singers to perform the national anthem at their stadium this summer. We don our red MB4 shirts (and some pants) and go to Menlo Park Mall for our audition. We are terrified. It is being broadcast live on a radio station. Audrey and Ro are shaking so much, Ro has a vibrato. The mall is crawling with people vying for a chance to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Most are 14 year old girls envisioning an American Idol-type opportunity. We are older and wiser and have matching red shirts. Out of 100 participants, they picked 14. A week later we got a phone call, saying that we had passed the audition! There was much rejoicing! We are slated to sing on Sunday, August 6. There is much to do.

We start working on
Sh-Boom
Helplessly Hoping
Desperado

By May 2006 our website has 500 hits!

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