There is just one more chance to see the bee! Thank you to all the volunteers, guest spellers, cast, and crew who have devoted their time to the bee and this blog. We hope to see you tonight and hope you have enjoyed this journey!
Apr
20
Weekend 2 of the bee!
If you haven’t had a chance to see the bee, be sure to come to one of our last 2 performances: April 23 and 24 at 8pm. If you have seen the bee, we would love to see you back! It is a unique experience every night!
April 23 features a special appearance by guest speller Kennedy from Karson & Kenn
edy in the Morning – Mix 104-1. Follow them on twitter at http://twitter.com/karsonkennedy
DO YOU WANT TO BE A GUEST SPELLER?
Get to the show early and look for the raffle table in the lobby to sign up for your chance to be one of the guest spellers who join in the on-stage fun for each performance. Purchase your raffle tickets cost $1 per name or $3 for 5. The raffle starts one hour before the show, people can sign up anytime up until 20 minutes before the start of the show. The winning participants are announced 15 minutes before the start of the show.
Apr
16
Celebrate!
The bee opens TONIGHT! Come cheer on your favorite speller!
April 16-17 and 23-24 at 8pm!
Apr
15
Pictures from the bee – Part 2!
Click on any picture below to enlarge it.
The bee begins tomorrow! Get your tickets now!
Apr
12
Meet Rona Lisa Peretti
Rona
Full given name: Rona Lisa Perretti
Hometown: Putnam Valley, NY
Zodiac sign: Capricorn
Special skills: Archery (always gotta keep your eye on the target!), declawing cats, speed dating, a member of the Putnam County Handbell Ensemble, bakes and donates alphabet cupcakes for local nursery schools. Since when do sweets have to be all about getting hopped up on sugar and flinging paint all over the classroom? Let’s put the learning back in dessert!
MAC or PC? PC
Ideal job: A global ambassador for Hooked On Phonics
Favorite word: Syzygy
Least favorite word: Alone
Most played song on your iPod: Somebody To Love
Last book you read: The American Spelling Book by Noah Webster
Last good movie you saw: Julie & Julia
Favorite game: Scrabble
Performer you would drop everything to go see: Celine Dion
Favorite meal: Diet Coke
Pet’s name: My white persian cat, Syzygy
Favorite junk food: Smarties
Who would play you in the movie of your life? Sandra Bullock
Apr
11
Preparing for the Bee: Mitch Mahoney
Meet Mitch Mahoney: The Official Comfort Counselor. An ex-con, Mitch is performing his community service with the Bee, and hands out juice boxes to losing contestants.
See how he prepares for this year’s bee:
Apr
09
Meet William Barfée
Barfee
Full given name: William Morris Barfée
Zodiac sign: Who cares? I’m a taurus if that matters.
Special skills: I have a huge assortment of special skills. Obviously pro-level spelling is among them. I will refrain from listing them all, but it is worth noting that all these skills I have mastered despite several mortal disadvantages, vis-à-vis my respiratory handicap, severe peanut allergy, etc.:
- extreme stealth
- ability to differentiate between individual sea anemone of the same species
- ability to train sea anemone using exclusively positive reenforcement
- excellent balance
- ability to surgically create a pop-tart/toaster-strudel hybrid for maximum nutritional benefit
- ability to detect trace amounts of peanuts
- familiarity with all-world-knowledge
- etc.
MAC or PC? BYO PC w/ Quad-Core AMD Phenom II 3.4GHz/6MB L3 Cache, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 graphics card
Ideal job: I would need to invent my ideal job. Possibly Commander-in-Chief of the Scientific Betterment of Mankind for All Time, where ALL the scientists and soldiers would report directly to me.
Favorite word: Onomatopoeia. Which, in case you are stupid, means a word which sounds like what it is, e.g. cackle. Because onomatopoeia ironically does NOT sound like what it means. If it did, it would probably be “smame.”
Least favorite word: “Barf.”
Most played song on your iPod: I have a Zune. The most often played track is a podcast from the MIT Electricity and Magnetism series titled “E = -grad V; More on Equipotential Surfaces.” It is a very difficult subject matter.
Last book you read: On my Kindle, “The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud and A. A. Brill”
Last good movie you saw: Iron Man 2. Yes, I know it hasn’t come out yet. Have you ever heard of the internet?
Favorite game: No-rules Civil War Reenactment
Performer you would drop everything to go see: Richard Dawkins. He’s an ethologist and evolutionary biologist and everything he says sounds even smarter because he has a british accent.
Favorite meal: My ideal meal would be sloppy joes with no onions, but with onion rings, catsup and mustard, a shamrock shake (it’s that time again, YES), ”Screaming Yellow Zonkers” — yes they are a FOOD and no they don’t make them any more (see http://farm1.static.flickr.com/78/336253223_d837e283d2_m.jpg) —- and for dessert chocolate cream pie. WITH NO PEANUTS.
Pet’s name: I have 16 sea anemone, their names are:
- Loretta
- Caesar
- Klink
- Ferris
- Tron
- Sir Galahad
- Bowie
- Newton
- Michelle
- Olivia
- Captain Idiot
- Grant
- Optimus Prime
- Puffy
- Gretta
- Poppa
Favorite junk food: Pepperoni Pizza Combos
Who would play you in the movie of your life? Does Anthony Hopkins have a son? If he and that older woman from “Mamma Mia” had a son, he could probably tackle the role. He would probably have to follow me around for a long time to immerse himself so it would have to be someone I would want to hang out with. No Baldwins.
Apr
07
Preparing for the Bee: Meet Leaf Coneybear
Meet Leaf Coneybear: The second runner-up in his district, Leaf gets into the competition on a lark: the winner and first runner-up had to go to the first runner-up’s Bar Mitzvah. Leaf comes from a large family of former hippies and makes his own clothes. He spells words correctly while in a trance.
See how he prepares for this year’s bee: