March 31, 2008 by Ro.

The aforementioned rehearsal brings a foray into choreography for Moderately Bright Four, or actually Three, as Jeff receives dispensation because he will be busy doing the solo on the song. The song so honored is “Silhouettes,” one of our numbers to be featured at the Temple Hatikvah Coffeehouse (their 9th, our 4th!). Jeff will be very busy telling the poignant and ironic story about a loser voyeuristic guy who is either so dim or so loaded he can’t remember what street his girlfriend lives on, and mistakes some unsuspecting couple with unfortunate exhibitionist tendencies for his girlfriend and some other guy, has a testosterone-driven fit, confronts the poor couple, realizes he is dim, loaded, and/or directionally impaired, then rushes to make up (and out) with his girlfriend (who totally lives on another block) and who must be quite shocked and perplexed by the behavior of this dimwitted hothead of a boyfriend. Undoubtedly they break up shortly after the song ends and become the subject of another teen angst doo-wop number I’m sure we’ll sing at some point.

So, with all this drama, Audrey, Steve, and Ro decide the song will be greatly enhanced by their terpsichorean skills. Unfortunately, they don’t have many. They press all their collective wits into action and come up with — very little. There is, as you might guess, much hilarity. We take to holding carrots as microphones, have difficulty discerning left from right, and memory loss issues abound. We err on the side of too little (in which we repeat the same lame movement over and over and resemble a bad tape loop) or too much (Audrey’s riotous specialty, in which she acts out every word as if signing the song for people who don’t speak English). Ro generally just gives up in despair and lurches around like a hunchback or imitates a flamingo.

Eventually we come up with a routine and we actually perform it at the coffeehouse without a hitch. I hope I never see it on tape, however…

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March 23, 2008 by Ro.

It is apparent that every member of MB4 needs a vacation, or perhaps therapy. We have a rehearsal/supper at Ro’s (billed bravely as “Dinner Italiano”) that immediately degenerates into a laugh fest before we even finish the first sip of our adult beverages. We laugh about everything. We laugh about nothing. We laugh at starting pitches. We try new songs and laugh about them. We try old songs and laugh. We attempt choreography and this only brings more laughter. In no time at all, Steve is on the floor, Jeff is snorting, Ro and Audrey are imitating flamingoes, and it is lucky there are four bathrooms in the house.

Yup, two snorts and a weenie. The rehearsal is a success, of sorts. It certainly is therapeutic.

Perhaps we do not feel a pressing need for a productive rehearsal at the moment. We are sitting nicely on a fairly versatile repertoire that is reasonably performance-ready. The only new piece we need to work on is “Hatikvah,” but we won’t perform that for another 6 weeks. We just had a very successful show a the Sacred Bean Coffeehouse (best audience EVER!) so perhaps we are resting on our laurels a bit and needed the laughter more than the singing.

We do try to sight read a few new things: “My Funny Valentine,” “If I Loved You,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Seems Like Old Times,” “Peter Gunn,” and “My Blue Heaven.” Perhaps at our next rehearsal we’ll get down to business on some of them.

Meanwhile, Steve is growing out his beard following his clean-shaven appearance as James Kirk at the Purim festivities, Audrey is busy preparing for next week’s coffeehouse, and Jeff and Ro are getting ready for their upcoming marathons (Jeff running, Ro doing the walkie thing).

4 days, 7 hours and 14 minutes till the next MB4 rehearsal! What will it bring? Be sure to bookmark this blog to find out!

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