friday night, we went out to catch a movie downtown, at the Starz Film Center. we saw a phenomenal movie, Spellbound. it's not the 1945 Hitchcock thriller though. this Spellbound is about eight participants of the 1999 National Spelling Bee. it is such a great documentary! the kids that they chronicled come from all different areas: CA...NJ...CT...FL...MO...DC...TX...and PA. some of them come from well-to-do backgrounds, while others hail from more marginal, blue-collar origins.
it is such a cool movie. the first half of the movie familiarizes you with the participants and their families, while the rest is focused on the competition itself...which is really nerve-wracking. some of the words with difficult pronunciations had downright flabbergasting spellings! it brought me back to the 1981 citywide spelling bee (sponsored by the Rocky Mountain News) that i participated in as a fifth grader. the nervousness...the audience...the quizzical looks when they want you to spell a word you have never EVEN heard (of)...the crestfallen looks of those when they hear the bell (*ding*), signifying an incorrect spelling.
the movie captured all of the emotions that are brought out by the pressure put upon these young scholars. some of the looks on the kids' faces were priceless! if you do see it someday, just wait until they show the girl who has to spell 'chateaubriand,' her horrified look will make you howl!
you know, preparation is not the only factor that makes a national spelling bee champion though. it takes level-headedness...a little relaxation...luck...and patience. as for myself, i lacked all of those components (especially the last one) ;) my downfall was the word, 'carburetor.' i knew how to spell it, i just rushed and started...c-r...and knew i was finished; you can't go back and change the spelling midway through a word. ah well, it was better that i was just a big-eared, bowl-haircut, ten year-old who closed his eyes, sighed, and trudged off the stage because had i done that ten years later (or even now), the judges would have heard a very audible 'FUU-UUCK' too :P
Hopelessly Trivial Fact of the Day: Of the past seventy-six national spelling bee champions, seven of them were from Colorado.
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