Ella-Bella Bee Music
All about entertaining while educating about Bees and Hummingbirds--why you should care--cause they are amazing--why they make a difference--they feed us--and what you can do to make a difference! Enjoy some of the silliness, lyrical gymnastics and musical magic of this talented team!
Released August 12, 2022
Janet Rayor- Bee & Hummingbird vocals, lyrics & melodies; Clayton Murray- Bob-Bee vocals, harmonies, composer; Don Dieterich- Rob-Bee harmonies, castanets, all percussion, and drums. Photo and artwork Peter Shaw Photography. Hummingbird mask Kim David Hall. Sound Engineer Chris Spencer, SophiaHat Studio, Recorded 2022. All rights reserved.
Thanks to Jaspar Lepak who never doubted I could write this show, Cornell University entomology Professor Cole Gilbert who gave scientific okays to the lyrics, Victoria Sadowski who helped record the first rendition of the show, Victoria Millard for help with Betty Bat's song, Peter Shaw for hours of enthusiastic photo/artwork collaboration, Kim Hall for delightful inventions (Hummingbird mask and little bees), Steve Rice for publishing advice, and my sisters Diane and Linda Rayor and mother Connie Rayor who always believed in the project.
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Cut from SHOW for safety. . .
but fun information!
--We do NOT encourage purposeful stings, FYI!---
Bee All You Can Bee ©2018 Janet Rayor
I'm so proud of those brave bees
Who took it for the team
They died for their families
For people with their sting
Their stories should be told
For they did not die in vain
Those heroines in black and gold
Who battled through their pain
Flung down on invaders-
Thousands of us bugs
We fought medieval raiders-
Stung their ugly mugs
Though it cost our lives,
against foes we teemed
The village survived
Enemies were creamed
Chorus:
Our stings have been used, for so many things
Defenses, n' fences, medicinal inventions
Yes our stings have been used, for so many things
Stings are an amazing thing!
Farmers in Africa found a
way to save their crops
From hungry elephants
By Bees were stopped:
Tied rope between hives
At edges of plots
Keeps elephants alive
Scared by Bees, they're stopped!
Chorus:
Our stings have been used, for so many things
Defenses, n' fences, medicinal inventions
Yes our stings have been used, for so many things
Stings are an amazing thing!
King John used stings--For his worst aching joints
Painful zings-- at his arthritic points
Extreme inflammation rushed in blood
A healing sensation,
A relieving flood!
(Chorus repeats)
I'm so proud of those brave bees
Who took it for the team
They died for their families
For people with their sting
(a tempo)
Yes our stings have been used, for so many things
Stings are an amazing thing!
Where are we going with this?
Create communities that take action.
• We want Middle Schoolers to perform this for Elementary students. Elementary students to perform for their peers. Students become invested, their families become invested in pollinators and our future.
To do this we need to finish clear charts and have the script super clear. We need to point to all the ways the cast can be expanded. Some of this has been done. Recordings can help children and teachers.
• We need help, perhaps a specific person helper to contact schools to get it going. We need a grant to help this person.
The recording was expensive. Hopefully some of it will be made back. Right now we haven't reached $50 in pay back.
Having children performing this all over the English speaking world--or even just Washington State-- could change how much people use pesticides/insect-killers and herbicides/weed-killers. It could change how fast we do or don't have pollinators, how in danger or safe our food supply.
• We should be able to show Krogers (Fred Meyers), Lowe's, and Home Depot that we do not want them to sell glysophates, neonicotinoids, and such. These are bad for Bees, Birds, and Humans. Yes, they make for "perfect " lawns and "perfect" roses. But we should be able to have a delightful costumed crowd of human "Bees" demonstrating against these herbicides and pesticides around these Companies Shareholders meetings. We can get it in the media if there are enough willing participants.
Ella-Bella isn't a good organizer, but are you?