Nice! I was wondering why some younger people that I follow on Twitter were suddenly going on about Bob Ross. I’m old enough to remember watch him when I was a kid.
His wiki page is some great reading:
You beat me to it! I’m on the same page–he was a freakin MSgt in the USAF!
Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, "mean" and "tough", "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work", Ross decided that if he ever moved on from the military, he would never scream again.Which makes me like him even more than I already do. RIP MSgt Ross, you were the happiest tree of them all.
EDIT: This guy, I tell ya. Awesomesauce all the way through:
Before the show launched, Ross would try to promote the painting technique but with little interest. He also had to find a way to cut back on spending, so he decided to have his hair permed, just so he could save money on haircuts. The perm hairstyle was not comfortable for Ross, but ultimately became an iconic feature of the painter.
No Tony Hart?
I know it doesn’t really matter to the purpose of the article, and it’s a great article, but the number of episodes is 403, not 408.
Thrilled to see this type of thing taking root and hoping to see it influence a whole new generation.
One wonders what Bob Ross would have thought of Gamergate… shudders
i had the best time watching the stream last night. as a devoted WoW player, the use of in-game jargon was definitely bringing a whole new level to the show and i laughed a ton. besides the “RUINED” and “GG” incidents you mention, i also liked people tossing in things like “PHASE 3” and “ENRAGE TIMER 30 SECS” haha. i remember watching bob back in the day, but it’s great that a whole new generation is getting exposure to him. while he may seem cheesy, it still is really damn magic to see him conjure his landscapes.
One of the things we shouldn’t forget about Ross, especially in our fairly cynical times, is that he radiated and spoke to things like love. Of his audience, nature, the process of painting and making art. The dude was just freaking chill! I wish more folks in the media these days were willing to show that empathic and loving side, especially men, who in many contexts are told culturally “don’t reveal that side of yourself, or you’ll be deemed a pussy.”
This is so wonderful. I am one happy little tree.
EDIT: had this on several hours now. Let me level with you all, I’m a long-time Bob Ross fan, having had a wonderful grandmum who watched the show with me and bought us some magic hwite and some paint knives and some prussian blue to try to do what HE does so well. It didn’t take, I can barely sign my name, let alone to a painting, but I still love being under the spell of BR’s voice of zen.
What amazes me tonight is this twitch channel - 56k people who both like his voice/zen AND want to mate it with completely irrelevant game-chat. The wallHAX jokes, the VAC, the GLFH at the top, the GG at the end, the “clutch” in the middle. And, what’s insane to me is this channel is exceeding the top MBL attendance per game. Crazy. The internet can let us humans connect in such wonderfully silly ways.
Bob Ross is cool and all, but that picture…
Warm, genuine smile below the dead eyes of a stone cold killer.
Now, let’s paint some nice little trees…
It makes me think of someone I hadn’t thought about for years, a guy I met 18 years ago in college, who was one of the best FPS players I’ve ever encountered. Air Force ROTC, iirc. When he was playing, he’d be playing Gregorian chants, be in a comfortable chair, and more or less be chilled out enough that you’d suspect he’d fall asleep. You try to DM to Emperor or Mayhem, and you’re going to be tense and do poorly.
I apologize if this seems like derailing and leads the thread to devolve into a series of animated .gif shitposts, but this was one of my biggest problems with “Male Tears” ironic misandry. I understand the intent, but I often see it leveled at guys who are (shock, horror) expressing their feelings. And when you’re using such things to genuinely shut down a conversation, aren’t you really ending up saying, “Men aren’t supposed to talk about feelings”?
Look, I don’t want to get too deep into this, but just keep in mind that I’m the kind of person who would never say, “Shut up and make me a sandwich,” not even ironically, so let’s just set that old, tired argument aside, m’kay?
PBS needs fresh blood of the likes of Fred Rogers and Bob Ross.
I honestly think one of the brilliant things about Bob Ross is that while his style inspired a few million shitty craft show and flea market paintings, he made it look so easy and fun. And I guess if those few million painters had fun with it, I guess I can’t judge.
And after I did some searching, thanks to this post, I might have to get out my Wacom tablet. Maybe we could all live-stream our painting, or something. (Or not.)
i don’t think it’s insane as much as it’s an indicator of where the future lies in entertainment.
My SO teaches painting classes, and I see this every week–“I can’t paint”, to “holy shit I can paint”. It is so cool. Deriving joy from art, even if it is something like painting Elvis on velvet, is effing cool.
My mother has had decades of… Paintings. I’ve had a few decades of… Music. And they both have given us joy and happiness. (I need to get my SO a nice wacom like a cintiq some day)
just get the new ipad pro yo. apparently the apple pencil is exceptionally good, even compared to a cintiq.
Is it Greek or regular? I like yoplait best, even though it’s loaded with sugar.
Being an ancient person I never saw Bob Ross, but this gave me a brain tickle. It threw me back to my boyhood and watching Jon Gnagy and “Learn to Draw” on TV. It was a must see for me on Saturday afternoons, especially in the winter.
