The Jaakola-Ripley family plays a song

 

In this music video, the Jaakola-Ripley family plays a song written by Jagger Ripley-Jaakola and Xander Ripley-Jaakola entitled "Couch Potato." About the video, Lyz (Elizabeth) Jaakola says:

"'Couch Potato' is a song we came up with during COVID-19 Stay-at-Home order. Hopefully our song and video will encourage others in our community to be safe, active, creative, practice social distancing when not with their families, and be kind to each other. The song lyrics were written by my 7-yr old, Jagger, and 13-yr old, Xander. Once they wrote the words, we put them to a rhythm. The rhythm inspired a beat made by the 20-yr old, Hunter. Then came the bassline, the chords followed and voicings in a jam session around the beat. We realized that these seemingly disjointed lyrics had a cool symbiosis with how we were trying to get through COVID self-isolation, especially after performing them for one of our nightly Isolation Band Facebook Live sessions. 

We are an active family. We began hosting a community run 10 years ago and have regular gatherings when we are able, often using our own personal school bus. Of course, all that is changed now. When the opportunity to make a music video came along, this song was chosen by the kids so we reworked a few of the lyrics to make them more pertinent to our real life experiences and kept the 'Couch Potato' mantra in the chorus because it is easy to lose motivation during these times and we need frequent reminders."

This video was created as part of COVID-19 response and outreach programming for the American Indian Community Housing Organization (AICHO) in Duluth, Minnesota. It is part of a Professional Technical Contract from the Minnesota Department of Health to share culturally relevant resources and education around COVID-19 in tribal communities.


 

 

 

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Stories of Wisdom from Bodies in Separation (SWaBS): Archiving the Coronavirus Pandemic Through the Lens of Humanities has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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