| Apr 2007 | LDZ performs “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” at the Valley Spring Ring (Cupertino, CA). Lisa can’t find her music, and so essays a by-memory performance, only to have a momentary memory glitch. We all stop, agree – live and in concert – to start at the second ending, and make it to the end of the piece. Our friends are appreciative! |
| May 2007 | LDZ journeys to the Grand Finale Rogue Valley Handbell Festival in Medford, OR. To get there, we pack Kathy’s Suburban and Lisa’s Outback so full that there almost isn’t room for the six of us. Kevin, by this time, had decided to leave LDZ to focus on Bronzewood Paideia and JC had to be in school, so Stacey Boswell and Julie Vaquilar joined us. We played “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” in the solo concert (without a hitch this time!), and Doug Benton subbed for us on the D2 chime. When we finished with the Rapper’s Damp, Doug hugged his chime.On the way back from Medford, we stop to play in the morning service at Red Bluff United Methodist Church. Kare Hislop, the Music Director, plays egg shaker and train whistle for us in Spiritual Boogie, and we play Grapevine in the middle of the service. Afterward, we join our friends there for lunch, and one of the gents there tells us that he’d never known that Grapevine was such a great piece of … uh,… church music.LDZ also played “Grapevine” in the Bay Bells Large Ensemble concerts on May 19th, continuing the formation of a tradition of creating the weird and unusual.
After the festival, we join Shosh Meyer’s ringers from St. Matthew’s (Portland, OR) for dinner, and in the morning we drive south to play at Red Bluff First United Methodist Church. Kare, the Music Director there, asked us for two songs. Our signature song, “Spiritual Boogie”, was a gimme, and then we sort of got a bit stuck since we currently had two pieces available. But Kare said it was fine to play the other one. Imagine our happiness when one of the RBFUMC gents tells us that he’d never known how wonderful a liturgical piece “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” was! |
| Oct 2007 | We get started teaching workshops with a half-day event in Porterville, CA. About thirty people come to Paulette McFarlin’s church for the fun. Lisa Arnold, Julie Vaquilar, and Larry Sue do the teaching, including a short mass rehearsal of the arrangement of Standing on the Promises Paulette commissioned. Perhaps the most memorable moment of the workshop is Julie’s segment on “why directors want us to watch them”. The group’s first two answers are “self-centered” and “ego trip”! |
| Nov 2007 | LDZ and the Bay Bells Small Ensemble form a pickup group to play during the St. Francis High School Women’s Club meeting. We’re pretty much drowned out by the conversation, but get a chance to play something in the clear when one of the members asks, “Can we hear them while we all be quiet?” Linda Graham donates $500 to start the SFHS handbell fund. The “Bass Ringer’s Notebook” (text by Larry, photography by Lisa) is published by Above the Line Publications. Doug Benton calls it “the most complete guide to bass handbells [he's] ever seen”, and Kath Wissinger says that it “should be on all dedicated and aspiring Bass Ringers’ bookshelves.” Purchase it today! |
| Dec 2007 | LDZ and other Bay Bells ringers join to provide music for St. Francis High School’s annual benefit “Christmas at Our House”. We’re playing for free, but the CAOH organizers buy us lunch, leading to the idea that we (sometimes) do our thing for “P&N” (Pizza and Notoriety). |