Before you watch my story, it might help to know that Jean Baptiste du Sable was the first non-native resident of what is now Chicago. I had thought that it was just one of those names that people would sort of recognize as a Chicago-y name. Like Anton Cermak or Italo Balbo -- you recognize the name, even if you don't know that they're an assassinated Chicago mayor and a Italian fascist who flew to Chicago once (respectively). In any case, some conversations after the show revealed that that had been an incorrect assumption.
Anyhoo, the judges (two apes and guest judge Jonathan Messinger of the Dollar Store) liked the story barely enough (21 out of 30 points) to let me slip just to second place despite Jarrad's 30 point surge.
Next week's challenge is to choreograph and perform a dance to a randomly assigned song, with a randomly assigned partner from one of the other contestants. I got Jarrad and we were assigned Jump, Jive an' Wail by Louis Prima. Now this is interesting because a) Swing is very much a leader/follower dance (at least the way I learned it) and we're two guys and b) the challenge instructions emphasized that we should "tell a story" and this is a song that doesn't have any sort of narrative built in. Now, we are fortunate that I happen to be related to a great swing dancer. That's gotta rub off somehow, right?
Oh, and the story I told was not the one I polished and practiced on Wednesday night. I scrapped that one Thursday morning and decided to go for a more "Paul Bunyan" feel than a Native American mythos style. But as part of polishiing, I typed the first story up and so, as a special bonus, I'll include it after the jump. But first, everyone's stories...
Amanda - "The Bunny"
Brady - "Nessie"
Erin - "My Mom Killed My Best Friend"
Fuzzy - "Jean Baptisite du Sable"
Jarrad - "Boondiggle the Peasant Boy"
Jenny - "The Ticket"
Kristen - "My Father"
Margaret - "Clare and Isabelle"
The Jean Baptiste du Sable story I didn't tell:
In 1779 when Jean Baptiste du Sable first came to the shores of Lake Michigan, he instantly fell in love with a beautiful Indian woman named Kittahawa. He went to her father the Chief and asked for her hand in marriage. Her father said, "Jean Baptiste, you are not of our tribe, so I must set you three tasks so that you can prove that you are worthy to marry my daughter." Jean Baptiste was in love and so he agreed. "First," the chief said, "you must bring me a wedding jewel worthy of my daughter."
So Jean Baptiste went out into the forest where he found Crow, who was resting in a tree, singing his beautiful song and cleaning his bright, white feathers. This was in the time when men and animals could still understand each other's speech and so Jean Baptiste said to Crow, "my friend I think you could do something for me, and I could do something for you." Crow agreed and Jean Baptiste hopped on his back and they flew high, high, high up into the sky. And Jean Baptiste stretched out his left hand and grabbed the East Star and reached out his right hand and grabbed the North Star. And they flew back down to the ground and Jean Baptiste gave the East Star to Crow, who stored it in his left eye. Jean Baptiste went back to the village and gave the Chief the star. "This is indeed a fine wedding jewel," said the Chief, "but you have promised me two more tasks. We must have a decoration for the wedding celebration."
So Jean Baptiste went out into the forest and found Crow, who was resting in a tree, singing his beautiful song and cleaning his bright, white feathers. "Crow," said Jean Baptiste, "I think you could do something for me and I could do something for you." And Jean Baptiste hopped on his back and they flew up high, high, high into the sky. And Jean Baptiste stretched out his left hand and grabbed the West Star and reached out his right hand and grabbed the Moon. They flew back down to the ground and Jean Baptiste gave the West Star to Crow, who stored it in his right eye. And he went back to the village and gave the Moon to the chief, who hung it high in the middle of the village. "Indeed, this is a fine decoration for the wedding celebration. But you have promised me one more task. We must have a way to cook the wedding feast."
So Jean Baptiste went out into the forest and found Crow, who was resting in a tree, singing his beautiful song and cleaning his bright, white feathers. "Crow," said Jean Baptiste, "I think you could do something for me and I could do something for you." And Jean Baptiste hopped on his back and they flew up high, high, high into the sky. And Jean Baptiste stretched out both his hands and grabbed the Sun. It was so hot that it burned his hands and so he jammed it into Crow's mouth. It smouldered and smouldered and by the time they reached the ground, both Crow and Jean Baptiste were quite covered in soot. Crow spat out the Sun and tried to sing his beautiful song, but all that came out was "Caw, caw."
Jean Baptiste carefully picked up the Sun and took it to the village. He placed it in the center of the village before the Chief. And the Chief was very impressed and said, "This will cook the wedding feast in an instant. You may marry my daughter." And scarcely were the words out of his mouth when the Sun caught the whole village on fire and burnt the whole place down to the ground. And the Sun, and the Moon, and the North Star all flew back up into the sky. And that was the first great Chicago fire. And Crow kept the East Star and the West Star in his eyes, where you can still see them gleam against his soot black feathers. And those two stars, with the Sun and the Moon and the North Star were the five stars of the Chicago flag, at least until Al Capone stole one of them. But that is a story for another day.
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