When I was growing up, Saturday mornings were all about the cartoons. For three hours straight, nothing but cartoons. As the cartoons were winding down, I would surf over to PBS. Public television had Bob Ross, the Frugal Gourmet, and Martin Yan’s crazy knife skills. The cooking shows transitioned into This Old House and the carpenter with the mustache and suspenders. Usually, Mom made me turn off the tv by that point. Bob Ross was a really important part of Saturday mornings for me. His happy little trees have been making a cult resurgence. The ability to stay relevant for this long is a testament to the character he gave us.
I love television. I love the characters. The cooking and the painting and the carpentry was cool but it was really about the characters that delivered those skills.
Every new artist/band starts with the same notion. Broad proclamations decree that “we don’t sound like anybody else, we are totally original.” It doesn’t matter how original your sound, we can all hear your influences. Everything new sounds like somebody, we need context. I consumed mass quantities of television. My biggest influences have been Papa Smurf, Gobo Fraggle, and Bob Ross.
My kids have never enjoyed the excitement of Saturday morning cartoons. There are as many available channels dedicated to 24/7 cartoons as we had in total. When I was little, there were limited and specific times that cartoons were available and this created some anticipation. Sometimes, I make my kids watch old episodes of the Smurfs on a Saturday morning. It’s great but not the same without the fear of missing an episode. We had to wait a whole week to see if Scobby Doo would solve another case. Spoiler alert, Scooby is always available on YouTube. I think the biggest attack to our societies core moral fiber is the constant availability of cartoons. We learned about patience and appreciating the moment by waiting a week for our favorite friends.
I started Breakfast with Brother Jack to try to figure out Facebook live videos. I am approaching this thing based on my years of television research. I am a self-taught expert in this field. I have spent hours and hours studying media and I am using everything that I have learned to develop this video-centric approach to being a musician. I am trying to be an engaging and sincere character. I know I won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. I am trying to make a show that is worth waiting a week to see. What story and a song will we do next? I will do my best to make it worth the wait. Grab a cup of coffee and set an alarm for Saturday morning at 8:30. For the time being, you can catch us over on Facebook. Check out some weird folk music and great story telling and then patiently wait till next week and we will do it all again.
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