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The Terrible Burden of Destiny: Chicago and Waupaca

2010-10-04 · letter vlog · John, Amy Krouse Rosenthal · 2:40 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Books & writing) · mode: Personal update · tags: on location, civic or action cta

John's travelogue of driving from Chicago to the Waupaca Book Festival in Wisconsin, framed by Carl Sandburg's line about Chicago laughing 'under the terrible burden of destiny'; it ends with a party that falls quiet after an elderly guest is taken to hospital and then finds its way back to laughter.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Crowd greeting; waking in Chicago on a friend's couch; driving through Chicago, his favorite city, with Carl Sandburg's line

  • ★ John wakes up in Chicago on a friend's couch, borrows the friend's toothbrush, and hits the road in his station wagon. (playful) — 00:00:03 · Chicago (city)
  • ★★ John says Chicago has always been his favorite American city, a city of so many neighborhoods that you can never discover them all. — 00:00:19 · Chicago (city)

  • ★★★ John quotes Carl Sandburg describing Chicago as laughing 'under the terrible burden of destiny', the phrase that titles the video. — 00:00:20 · Chicago (city)

    “under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs”

00:00:31 — Drive north into fall; Waupaca; Brainard's Bridge Park and a walk (Frost parody, needing to pee)

  • ★ John drives north for three hours, during which it all at once becomes fall, and reaches Waupaca, Wisconsin, for a book festival. — 00:00:31
  • ★★ John says Waupaca is a city of 6,000 people with three independent bookstores. — 00:00:37
  • ★★ On a librarian's tip John visits Brainard's Bridge Park, saying he has found over the years that librarians make excellent recommendations; the park was no exception. — 00:00:41
  • ★ Walking a long, beautiful path, John jokes that he took the road more traveled to avoid getting lost and was mostly deciding whether to pee in the woods; he walked back to the park restroom. (playful) — 00:00:55

00:01:28 — Speaking at Waupaca High School, signing books, the public library's teen room with a Hank poster

  • ★★ John speaks at Waupaca High School and is given a cheesehead; after 10 hours alone talking to people felt weird, but a handmade DFTBA shirt always makes him happy. — 00:01:28 · DFTBA
  • ★★ John signs books and visits the Waupaca public library's teen room (a poster of Hank, a gaming space, a chandelier playing Hank's music), where he and teens play a complicated game of 'bunny murdering'. — 00:01:40 · Hank Green

00:01:53 — Festival cocktail party; Amy Krouse Rosenthal's 10/10/10 event at the Bean in Chicago and how to take part

  • ★★★ At the festival party John meets 'noted positive pranker' Amy Krouse Rosenthal, who is organizing an event at the Bean in Chicago, 'a kind of sequel to 8-8-08'; John will play a very minor role. — 00:01:56 · Chicago (city)
  • ★★ Amy Krouse Rosenthal gives the date and time of her event: 10-10-10 at 10:10 p.m. — 00:02:03
  • ★★ John tells viewers who want to take part in the 10/10/10 event to click the screen or read about it in the doobly-doo. — 00:02:12 · doobly-doo

00:02:16 — An elderly guest taken away by ambulance; the party falls quiet, then finds a way to keep laughing; sign-off

  • ★★ At the party a 91-year-old woman got sick and was taken to hospital by ambulance; for maybe half an hour afterwards it was quiet. — 00:02:16
  • ★★★ Then the party grew louder and louder as everyone, under the terrible burden of destiny, found a way to keep laughing. — 00:02:25

Humor (significant)

  • On a walking path John begins Frost's 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I...' — 00:01:00

    “I took the road more traveled by because I did not want to get lost in Waupaca, Wisconsin.”

  • Awash in the majesty of the woods, John reveals what he was really thinking. — 00:01:11

    “I need to pee and I can't decide if I'm adequately in the woods right now to pee here”

  • Over footage of someone's home on his drive (not described in speech), John speculates about the person who lives there. — 00:01:24

    “I'm gonna go ahead and wager that this person has Elvis flags for most of the major holidays.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Amy Krouse Rosenthal · Chicago (city) · Chicago (poem) · Waupaca Book Festival · Waupaca, Wisconsin

Also: People: Carl Sandburg · Elvis Presley

Works: The Road Not Taken (“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”)

Organizations: Waupaca High School · Waupaca Public Library

Terms: DFTBA · doobly-doo

Places: Brainard's Bridge Park · Cloud Gate · Wisconsin

Also centred on Amy Krouse Rosenthal: A Video about Videos · Positive Pranking: The TP Edition · SIGNING MADNESS · Beckoning Lovely · Because We're Here · Auld Lang Syne: The Anthropocene Reviewed

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