*promote

So this was that biographical video you were talkin about gwizzo...

I'm really not comfortable with you sharing my biographical info. Back in the the good old days we never would have done such a thing. But those were better times, better people. And lots of vampires.

>> ^HadouKen24:
>> ^fizziks:
I agree that the joke was poorly crafted and could have been phrased in a way that didn't open Maher to misinterpretation, but the truth behind his message is more important in my view: Palin is a gimmick VP pick.

Not actually true. It might seem like it from a quick survey of her biographical details on paper, but she's actually been under serious consideration for the VP spot for months.

I appreciate your thoughtful reply however I still disagree. You bring up valid points as to why Palin may bring McCain some votes, but by 'gimmick' I didn't mean ineffective at bringing votes. She may have been McCain's best option, but that doesn't mean she's not a gimmick either. In fact, she could have been the best choice BECAUSE she was a gimmick. He had many qualified candidates (including another women) who had more experience, yet he went with the new kid on the block. Why? Gimmick power!

The fact remains that despite some good short term work in Alaska, she lacks experience in pretty much EVERY area a VP (and potential President should the worst happen to McCain) requires to be effective.

Furthermore, just because Palin was under consideration for many months doesn't make her selection any less of a gimmick. At best it makes her a well contemplated gimmick.

I understand you're not endorsing her (or McCain, or anyone), but to me, McCain is being a big hypocrite by simultaneously criticizing Obama over "lack of experience" and then turning around and picking a VP who is the least qualified of anyone.

It's a blatant attempt at trying to bring a younger, "change-esk" image to the Frankenstein-Robot-Dance-Party that is the McCain campaign, and hence my belief she is a gimmick. Palin shamelessly went for the Hillary vote which should offend Hillary supporters as Palin is further from Hillary than McCain. She even contradicts some of McCain's viewpoints!!

She is a pretty face that McCain is using as a trojan horse to inject energy and interest in his campaign. And it's working, look at all the attention he has received simply by PICKING her. Obviously McCain is hoping she will help him get into the good books of those studying "the good book" without raising as much of a stink as some of the other choices would have. In many ways, McCain took Huckabee, gave him an awesome sex change operation, a pretty face, erased his job experience, and danced him-her out on stage as the VP.

She ran on a clean government ticket, and she's worked hard to excise corruption from the Alaskan government, even up to firing entire boards and replacing them with new members.

It should be pointed out that many of her decisions to fire government employees have also been criticized as being unfair. There are many sides to these stories.

At the end of the day however, I don't think we actually disagree on that much. You point out good reasons McCain asked her to join the ticket, and I agree with most of them. However, I don't think those reasons contradict the fact that she is a gimmick.

>> ^HadouKen24:
>> ^fizziks:
I agree that the joke was poorly crafted and could have been phrased in a way that didn't open Maher to misinterpretation, but the truth behind his message is more important in my view: Palin is a gimmick VP pick.

Not actually true. It might seem like it from a quick survey of her biographical details on paper, but she's actually been under serious consideration for the VP spot for months. I remember having a discussion with some well-informed Republicans who were crossing their fingers for Palin's nomination.




That being said, I find it highly suspicious that McCain's second meeting with Palin happened to be the morning before he introduced her to the public as his VP. If she was so high up on their short list, it may have been a good idea to figure out whether these two can actually work together or not. That in itself makes this whole decision seem like more of a last minute afterthought.

>> ^fizziks:
I agree that the joke was poorly crafted and could have been phrased in a way that didn't open Maher to misinterpretation, but the truth behind his message is more important in my view: Palin is a gimmick VP pick.


Not actually true. It might seem like it from a quick survey of her biographical details on paper, but she's actually been under serious consideration for the VP spot for months. I remember having a discussion with some well-informed Republicans who were crossing their fingers for Palin's nomination.

While her tenure as Alaskan governor has been short, she's actually managed something very impressive in such a short time: keeping her basic campaign promises. She ran on a clean government ticket, and she's worked hard to excise corruption from the Alaskan government, even up to firing entire boards and replacing them with new members. Electability does not seem to be the whole concern. Nomination of Palin seems to indicate a good faith dedication to cleaning up the corruption of the last eight years.

Which is not to say that she doesn't help his electability. She's very much a maverick with her own ideas about the way to do things, which works very well with McCain's reputation up until the last few years. She's extremely anti-abortion, which helps him shore up the religious conservative vote. I'm sure Hillary supporters are a major concern as well, but they can't be the main one. Once her sentiments regarding abortion are more widely disseminated, she'll cause McCain to lose a significant portion of their votes.

This is not to say I'm endorsing her, of course. A suspicious independent like myself has much to dislike about her. She has a government-from-the-top attitude, which can only translate to further support for legislation like the Patriot Act. Her position on abortion, again, causes real concern. If she becomes President, she'll almost certainly have many of the same blind spots as Bush the Younger.

She's an inspired choice from McCain's perspective, but I don't believe she's the best choice for America.

So vote for Obama. 'Cause he sucks less than McCain.

I was lurking and couldn’t resist posting a response to this deebub81. There is considerably more to Mormon theology than what is currently taught in Sacrament meeting or Sunday School every week. While the doctrinal points you cited from the video may seem salacious, they were not made up out of whole cloth. I will leave you with a few comments and choice quotes from Mormon publications. Many of these publications are available online – including the Journal of Discourses http://www.journalofdiscourses.org/– and I’d encourage you to authenticate the quotes from men Mormons consider inspired oracles of God for yourself.

A brief list of inaccuracies, requested of me on my profile (I don't mean to skip over anything or hide any doctrine. I just didn't want to write an essay. Let me know if you would like me to elaborate on anything.):

-We don't believe in any being higher than God the Father. We worship Him and His son Jesus Christ. Not countless gods.

We remember the numerous scriptures which, concentrated in a single line, were stated by a former prophet, Lorenzo Snow: 'As man is, God once was; and as God is, man may become.'" (Mormon Prophet Spencer W. Kimball in "Our Great Potential" from the April 1977 Priesthood Session of General Conference

-We don't teach about any unidentified god and his wives.

-We don't teach anything in our doctrine about where God came from or that he lives on a planet with His many wives or "endless Celestial sex."


"God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!...........It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God........yea, that God himself, the father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ himself did; and I will show it from the Bible...." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and History of the Church, 6:302-17)

"He [God] is our Father--the Father of our spirits, and was once a man in mortal flesh as we are, and is now an exalted being. It appears ridiculous to the world, under their darkened and erroneous traditions, that God has once been a finite being;" (Brigham Young in the Journal of Discourses, v. 7, p. 333)

-Only one God was present at the council spoken of in the video with Lucifer and Jesus. God the Father.

Don’t know about this one.

-Lucifer DID want the glory for himself but he wouldn't have forced us all to become gods. He wanted to force us all to obey.

Agreed

-It was never mormon doctrine that black people were neutral before this life. We don't believe that black people are inferior to white people.


Though he was rebel and an associate of Lucifer in pre-existence, and though he was a liar from the beginning whose name was Perdition, Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and those sprits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born though his lineage. He became the first mortal to be cursed as a son of perdition. As a result of his mortal birth he is assured of a tangible body of flesh and bones in eternity, a fact which will enable him to rule over Satan. (Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McKonkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp102)


-"White and delightsome" is never used to describe the faithful followers of Jesus in the pre-mortal life. We believe that ALL who live or have lived on Earth, regardless of race or color or religion, were faithful to Jesus Christ's plan and chose to be here.


And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.

And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.

And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey. (Book of Mormon --2 NEPHI 5:21)


-Adam is not Elohim. He is a child of God, as we all are. Eve was not a godess wife.


How much unbelief exists in the minds of Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed to me - namely that Adam is our father and God ..Then he said, 'I want my children who are in the spirit world to come and live here. I once dwelt upon an earth something like this, in a mortal state. I was faithful. I received my crown and exaltation...I want my children that were born to me in the spirit world to come here and take tabernacles of flesh that their spirits may have a house, a tabernacle...' (Brigham Young, Deseret Weekly News, June 18, 1873, page 308; Deseret Evening News, June 14, 1873)

-We believe that when Mary gave birth to Jesus, she was still a virgin. We don't teach anything about God having physical sex with her. We don't teach anything about how the miracle was performed, only that Jesus is Begotten of the Father.


"The birth of the Savior was as natural as the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood--was begotten of his Father, as we were of our fathers." (Brigham Young -Journal of Discourses, Vol. 8, p. 115).

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints proclaims that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in THE MOST LITERAL SENSE. The body in which He performed His mission in the flesh was SIRED by that same Holy Being we worship as God, our Eternal Father." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 6).

-We don't teach any specific doctrine about Jesus' marital status or children. Especially not that he had "at least 3 wives."


"Celsus was a heathen philosopher; and what does he say upon the subject of Christ and his Apostles, and their belief? He says, the 'grand reason why the Gentiles and philosophers of his school persecuted Jesus Christ, was because He had so many wives; there were Elizabeth, and Mary, and a host of others that followed Him.' After Jesus went from the stage of action, the Apostles followed the example of their master. . . The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, casing his crucifixion, was evidently based on polygamy,. . .a belief in the doctrine of plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus, and his followers. We might almost think they were 'Mormons' " (Jedidiah Grant, Second Counselor to Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol 1. ppl 345-346)"

"It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; . . .no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper to say the least of it."

"I will venture to say that if Jesus Christ were now to pass thought the most pious countries in Christendom with a train of women, such as used to follow him, . . .he would be mobbed, tarred, and feathered, and rode, not on as ass, but on a rail."

"At this doctrine the long-faced hypocrite and the sanctimonious bigot will probably cry, blasphemy! . . . Object not, therefore, too strongly against the marriage of Christ." (All the above statements: Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 4, pages 259-260)

"When Mary of old came to the sepulcher. . .she saw two angels in white. and they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She said unto them, Because they have take away my Lord, OR HUSBAND, and I know not where they have laid him." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, page 210)

". . .we apprehend that even greater troubles than these may arise before mankind learn all the particulars of Christ's incarnation-how and by whom he was begotten; the character of the relationships formed by the act; the number of wives and children he had. . ." (The Millennial Star, Vol 15, page 825)


-We believe that the Nephites and Lamanites are descended from Israelites. Not quite how it's said in the cartoon.

Agreed. Now if we could only locate some of that pre-Columbian Israelite DNA in America…..

-Joseph Smith was not a known treasure seeker. Neither was he known for any tales except his testimony about Mormonism.

Referring to Joseph as a young boy, his mother wrote "During our evening conversations, Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of travelings, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them."(Lucy Mack Smith - Joseph's mother, Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet 1854)

Joseph most certainly was a treasure seeker. Joseph met Emma while searching for treasure on the property of Josiah Stowell. In 1826, Joseph was taken to court for the crime of ‘glass looking’ which basically amounts to defrauding people into believing you can find buried treasure through a gift of second sight. There is a court document that has been recovered to prove this. Even later, after his ‘prophetic call’ when the Kirtland Safety Society illegal bank he founded was going belly up, he and a group of his inside circle headed back to Salem, Massachusetts to try to bail themselves out by finding a treasure that was supposedly located there. Although there is much to document these activities, interestingly, there is nothing to suggest he ever found anything.

-We believe that we will be judged by Jesus Christ because he was and is perfect, he suffered all, and atoned for our sins.

-I have never been taught that I will be a polygamist god.

While church leaders no longer allow the practice of polygamy here on Earth, they do allow a living man to be sealed to another woman after the death of his wife, or after divorce. This leads to the obvious situation of establishing multiple sealings on Earth that, according to Mormonism, will necessitate polygamy in heaven.

"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, p. 266).

Also, "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, page 269).

Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants- the revelation on polygamy remains canonized scripture. The practice of polygamy was suspended on earth, but will be standard practice in the Celestial Kingdom (heaven).

-Joseph Smith himself never claimed anything about doing more for us than any other man.

-We absolutely do not believe that Joseph Smith did more for us than any other man, including Jesus Christ.

“Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on the top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet.” (Joseph Smith sermon, May 26, 1844)

The video was obviously designed to be as scandalous as possible, but just because something puts your religion in a bad light, do not assume it is untrue.

From wikipedia:

"During the presidential campaign of 1800, the Federalists attacked Jefferson as an infidel, claiming that Jefferson's intoxication with the religious and political extremism of the French Revolution disqualified him from public office. But Jefferson wrote at length on religion and many scholars agree with the claim that Jefferson was a deist, a common position held by intellectuals in the late 18th century. As Avery Cardinal Dulles, a leading Roman Catholic theologian reports, "In his college years at William and Mary [Jefferson] came to admire Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and John Locke as three great paragons of wisdom. Under the influence of several professors he converted to the deist philosophy." Dulles concludes:

“In summary, then, Jefferson was a deist because he believed in one God, in divine providence, in the divine moral law, and in rewards and punishments after death; but did not believe in supernatural revelation. He was a Christian deist because he saw Christianity as the highest expression of natural religion and Jesus as an incomparably great moral teacher. He was not an orthodox Christian because he rejected, among other things, the doctrines that Jesus was the promised Messiah and the incarnate Son of God. Jefferson's religion is fairly typical of the American form of deism in his day. ”

Biographer Merrill Peterson summarizes Jefferson's theology: “First, that the Christianity of the churches was unreasonable, therefore unbelievable, but that stripped of priestly mystery, ritual, and dogma, reinterpreted in the light of historical evidence and human experience, and substituting the Newtonian cosmology for the discredited Biblical one, Christianity could be conformed to reason. Second, morality required no divine sanction or inspiration, no appeal beyond reason and nature, perhaps not even the hope of heaven or the fear of hell; and so the whole edifice of Christian revelation came tumbling to the ground.”

Jefferson used deist terminology in repeatedly stating his belief in a creator, and in the United States Declaration of Independence used the terms "Creator" and "Nature's God". Jefferson believed, furthermore, it was this Creator that endowed humanity with a number of inalienable rights, such as "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". His experience in France just before the French Revolution made him deeply suspicious of Catholic priests and bishops as a force for reaction and ignorance. Similarly, his experience in America with inter-denominational intolerance served to reinforce this skeptical view of religion. In a letter to Willam Short, Jefferson wrote: "the serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the human mind its improvement is ominous."

Jefferson was raised in the Church of England, at a time when it was the established church in Virginia and only denomination funded by Virginia tax money. Before the Revolution, Jefferson was a vestryman in his local church, a lay position that was part of political office at the time. He also had friends who were clergy, and he supported some churches financially. During his Presidency, Jefferson attended the weekly church services held in the House of Representatives. Jefferson later expressed general agreement with his friend Joseph Priestley's Unitarianism, that is the rejection of the doctrine of Trinity. In a letter to a pioneer in Ohio he wrote, "I rejoice that in this blessed country of free inquiry and belief, which has surrendered its conscience to neither kings or priests, the genuine doctrine of only one God is reviving, and I trust that there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian."

Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, but he had high esteem for Jesus' moral teachings, which he viewed as the "principles of a pure deism, and juster notions of the attributes of God, to reform [prior Jewish] moral doctrines to the standard of reason, justice & philanthropy, and to inculcate the belief of a future state." Jefferson did not believe in miracles. He made his own condensed version of the Gospels, omitting Jesus' virgin birth, miracles, divinity, and resurrection, primarily leaving only Jesus' moral philosophy, of which he approved. This compilation was published after his death and became known as the Jefferson Bible. “[The Jefferson Bible] is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw.”

However, early in his administration he attended church services in the House of Representatives. He also permitted church services in executive branch buildings throughout his administration, believing that Christianity was a prop for republican government.

Church and state:

For Jefferson, separation of church and state was not an abstract right but a necessary reform of the religious "tyranny" of one Christian sect over many other Christians - and of the interference of the state in affairs of religion. Following the Revolution, Jefferson played a leading role in the disestablishment of religion in Virginia. Previously the Anglican Church had tax support. As he wrote in his Notes on Virginia, a law was in effect in Virginia that "if a person brought up a Christian denies the being of a God, or the Trinity …he is punishable on the first offense by incapacity to hold any office …; on the second by a disability to sue, to take any gift or legacy …, and by three year' imprisonment." Prospective officer-holders were required to swear that they did not believe in the central Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

From 1784 to 1786, Jefferson and James Madison worked together to oppose Patrick Henry's attempts to again assess taxes in Virginia to support churches. Instead, in 1786, the Virginia General Assembly passed Jefferson's Bill for Religious Freedom, which he had first submitted in 1779 and was one of only three accomplishments he put in his own epitaph. The law read: “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

One of Jefferson’s least well known writings is: "Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make half the world fools and half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world"- Thomas Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia.

Jefferson sought what he called a "wall of separation between Church and State", which he believed was a principle expressed by the First Amendment. This phrase has been cited several times by the Supreme Court in its interpretation of the Establishment Clause. In an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, he wrote: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between church and State.”

Jefferson refused to issue proclamations calling for days of prayer and thanksgiving during his Presidency, yet he did do so as Governor in Virginia. His private letters indicate he was skeptical of too much interference by clergy in matters of civil government. His letters contain the following observations: "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government", and, "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own." "May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government". Yet, Jefferson advocated the influence of religion in abolishing the institution of slavery in America stating, "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice can not sleep forever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference!”

While the debate over Jefferson's understanding over the separation of Church and state is far from being settled, as are his particular religious tenets, his dependence on divine Providence is not nearly as ambiguous. As he stated, in his second inaugural address: “I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."

this is the best biographical movie ever.

I was going to save this for tomorrow, but as my last Bill Hicks Sift's doing so well - here's a biographical documentary of him:

A rare insight into the battle against censorship that the great Bill Hicks waged against corporate America and it's mainstream media for the better part of 15 years.

Hosted by Janeane Garofalo, it documents Bill's transition from a non-drinking, non- smoking, straight laced funny man, to a hard drinking, hard smoking, drug taking angry ranter, to the happy and finally, peaceful and insightful man of much wisdom.

After 11 successful appearances on The Tonight Show with David Lettermen, the 'powers that be' axed Bill's final performance from the show.

4 months later, Bill would tragically die from prostate cancer at the age of 32.

Hotel Rwanda is a 2004 biographical and historical drama film about the Rwandan Genocide, directed by Irish filmmaker Terry George. It is a co-production between Canadian, British, Italian, and South African companies, and the first ever co-production between the rival independent film studios Lions Gate Films and United Artists. It was filmed mostly in South Africa, with some second unit filming in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.

The movie is based on the true events that took place during the genocidal violence that erupted in Rwanda between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in 1994. The central character is Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), a Hutu who managed the four-star Sabena-owned Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali.

- More @ Wikipedia

Band of Brothers is an acclaimed 10-part television miniseries set during World War II, co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. The mini-series centers on the experience of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, U.S. 101st Airborne Division and one of its early platoon leaders, Richard Winters. It is based on a book of the same name written by historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose.

The events portrayed in the mini-series are based on Ambrose's research and recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans. Some literary license has been taken with the episodes, and other reference books will highlight the differences between recorded history and the film version. All of the characters portrayed in the mini-series are based on actual members of Easy Company; some of them can be seen in prerecorded interviews as a prelude to each episode. (Their identities, however, are not revealed until the close of the finale.) The mini-series first aired in 2001 on HBO and still runs frequently on different US TV channels — most recently The History Channel.

DreamWorks has confirmed a new 10-part miniseries from the creators of Band of Brothers (Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman) is in development as of August 2006. The new miniseries will focus on the Pacific Theater.

A favorite of mine as well. Great post Pyrex

From YouTube Description:

This clip is a early rough edit of the original biographical Jay Adams scene from the documentary "DogTown and Z-Boys."

Some of the footage is a little different than what ended up in the final film. And the section where Jay's innovations are mentioned does not appear in this early edit.

Includes commentary from Tony Alva, Wentzle Ruml, Bob Biniak, Stacy Peralta, Jim Muir, Shogo Kubo, Nathan Pratt, Skip Engblom, Craig Stecyk, and Glen E. Friedman, as well as Jay Adams himself.

Music from Neil Young and Jimi Hendrix.

...."Lying in the silken ground one day;
I shall sense the buggies wriggle as they eat me away, singin', I believe in bugs...."

Ivor Cutler, "I Believe in Bugs"
bio-@
http://www.issue.demon.co.uk/poetry/cutler/biograph.htm

Vickie/Equipoise here. This is in response to the Happy Rhodes thread in Sift Talk. I tried to post it there and it didn't go through, so I'm trying it here.

I understand the charge of self-linking, because we did put these videos on YouTube. I will point out that we did not post the very first one that appeared here on VideoSift ("Temporary and Eternal"), so please consider not deleting that one. That was posted by someone we don't know, and I only noticed it when I saw the link at YouTube. We were asked to provide more Happy by VideoSifters and so we did. I now realize we shouldn't have taken the requests to mean that *we* provide the videos, and I deeply apologise.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the spurious accounts James, but there are two accounts coming from this IP. My husband Chris, k8fan, has a computer, and I have a computer. He's the techie if you need details, but we're on a network, using an Ethernet and a wireless router and DSL (and cats, even). Since he has his interests and things to do, we both have our own accounts at YouTube, Yahoo, Slashdot, many message boards, various other places, and here. We've always been separate entities, ever since we first got on the internet in 1989, though we didn't get separate computers until the mid-'90's. Did you delete his account here, is that what you meant? There are no other accounts. I *have* several accounts, but I honestly can't remember posting here or voting here using anything but my Yahoo account. If I did it wasn't a calculated attempt to ballot stuff.

Come to think of it Chris would have posted either here from our home or using his laptop when he travels for business, which is often. I'm sure he didn't have two separate accounts though. His other IP would have come from EverestKC, the ISP he uses while in Kansas City (we live in Chicago). It's perfectly legitimate, but I can see how it might seem bizarre or suspicious. A lot of people could vouch for us, and I'd be happy to answer any questions and point toward more information about us.

If anyone's interested I'll explain about the videos, if you'll indulge me because I have to give a bit of Happy history for anyone to truly understand. It may bore, but it will explain. The relationship here is one of the purest you'll ever run across. Happy Rhodes (her real name) is a singer-songwriter-musician who has been making music for over 20 years and has 10 indie albums. I've been a fan for 18 of those years, after I discovered her and played her on a radio show I used to have called Suspended In Gaffa. I don't work for her, never have, never will, but I am her oldest, staunchest fan so she gives me permission to do just about anything I want regarding her music (cite from one of the serveral fan web sites I maintain: http://wretchawry.com/happy/samples which is a Song Samples site - Other web sites, to check my "credentials," include http://wretchawry.com/happy/rarities for, well, Rarities - http://www.rhodeshows.com Happy live shows - http://www.myspace.com/happyrhodes Happy's MySpace fan page. Happy is very cool about my sharing music and is also cool with the videos).

Happy *hates* self-promotion, with a passion, and would never make or submit her own videos anywhere for any reason. In fact, with 10 albums, she's never even made any videos. She's a true album artist, one of the very very few, wanting the music to stand on its own, so besides making no videos, she's released very few singles (only 2 actual CD single releases). There were a other few songs that got airplay and a flurry of attention in the '90's (she's been interviewed by Kimberly Haas for John Diliberto's radio show Echoes, if that means anything to anyone), but mostly she's just garnered a small but worldwide cult following. An internet mailing list dedicated to her, ecto, was started in 1991, which makes it one of the oldest, continuous fan mailing lists on the net. It's still going, and spawned offshoots such as the Ectophile's Guide to Good Music (http://ectoguide.org).

Happy's last album was released 8 years ago. She's had an album in the can for several years, but doesn't have the money to complete the mastering. She has no label and hasn't had one for several years. She got dropped by her last one because they didn't know what to do with her. She doesn't fit into any set genre and her music is hard to classify and "market." She lives on a farm in upstate New York and has a day job. She refuses to take money from outside sources to finish the album. She doesn't want to be beholden to anyone financially, so she's been working her day job to earn enough to record bits of tracks here and there. The album is recorded now, and 7 of the 11 songs have been mastered, but there's no ETA on when the last 4 songs will be mastered. There's no product to promote, so that's not what I'm doing.

I became a fan in 1988. In 1991 I traveled from Chicago to Albany, NY and Philadelphia, PA to see her live for the 1st and 2nd time. The next time I saw her live was in 1996, when Chris and I traveled to Philly to see her play 4 shows in 2 nights (manna from heaven for a fan). This time Chris brought along a camcorder and recorded the shows, though only 2 of the 4 came out well.

The thing to understand about why these shows are rare, is that Happy has never toured the US (or anywhere else), and has only done one-off shows (sometimes two a night), or as in 2003 when she didn't even have an album to promote, a small cluster of shows that stretched from New Jersey to Chicago. We traveled to see several other shows/showsets; in 1996 alone we made 3 trips from Chicago (May and October in Philly, August at The Bottom Line in New York). We traveled to Philly to see her again in 1997, 1998 (Philly, plus Troy, NY and New York City), and 1999. In 2001 she had an accident with her fret hand and it was unclear for a while if she would ever play guitar again. We just had to travel to a New Haven, CT house concert in 2003, her first show since the accident. In November 2003 she played a mini-tour and we saw the dates in Kenosha, WI, Toledo, OH and Chicago. In January 2005 we again went to Philly. Those were her last shows.

Every time I see her I think, "this is going to be the last time I see her live" which so far hasn't turned out to be true, but it's always on my mind. All told I've seen 24 live shows and we have 22 of them on video. For years this video has languished in a box. We made the occasional dub but there wasn't really anything else to do with it. Until recently. Chris got the ability to extract songs and make videos for YouTube, and I immediately thought of Happy. There are fans in other parts of the US and in other countries who have never seen a live clip and since she doesn't tour they will probably never see her live. It had to be done, and I made Chris do it (he's such a sweetheart). We just bought a used Digital 8 camera on ebay so we could access some of the older video that was shot with a Hi8 that died many years ago. Now I'm having a blast going through shows and picking out good bits.

None of this would matter if the music were average, but if you really listen to her voice and music, she's very special. If you (whoever might be reading this) haven't seen any of the videos, please at least watch "Temporary and Eternal" and her cover of "Space Oddity" or "Mercy Street." I know she won't appeal to everyone, but she's an important artist, one of the best artists you've never heard of. All these clips will be important to biographers and archivists, and music historians of the future.

We were zealous about uploading videos without having read the rules and I am very very sorry about that. I just don't want all this to end with people thinking that there's a cold, calculating attempt to spam, market, cheat or deceive. It's been a sincere, if fumbling, attempt to spread the music of an artist I care deeply about.

Vickie