Adapt in DC last week - Mystery Correspondent revealed!

Unfortunately we could not get to DC for the fun with ADAPT (or the House ADA Hearing, am *I* the only person that looks forward to legislative hearings with the same zeal as say, a concert?)

Oh and the mystery correspondent is Brewster Thackeray, who works for AARP, but more importantly (in my tiny mind...) whose house i conceived the idea for the movie "Million Dollar Bigot." Brewster is a great advocate for the disabiled, and it's totally awesome we got this photo.

Stream from Today's House Committee ADA hearing...

Today: Wednesday 09/13/2006 - 2:00 PM
2141 Rayburn House Office Building
Subcommittee on the Constitution
Oversight Hearing on "The Americans with Disabilities Act: Sixteen Years Later"
note: TIME CHANGE--- 2:00 pm (Previously scheduled at 3 pm)

here is the link to the Judiciary House: http://judiciary.house.gov/#

This Mp3 is missing the first 35-40 minutes due to issues with the stream. Provided here as an educational purpose, under the fair use doctrine in Copyright law.

Play this mp3

Because MDA's Telethon....(deleted.)

Due to a letter received thru youtube, we have decided to remove the video and the subject matter. sorry, us grassroots activists cannot afford lawsuits.

Mike R.

Check out Million Dollar Bigot's updated website.

I just added some more updates to the Million Dollar Bigot website. I was interviewed for the Maine Video Activist Network's series, which screens on public access throughout Maine, and somewhere online, but I'm not sure if it is done or not. Expect some coverage of the Maine People's Alliance Medicare part D forum (and some genuine criticism about the event) some mp3's about DIY media from the Maine Social Forum, and hopefully a new layout, because, like, John Hockenberry's blog is kicking my butt, and I find that rather disturbing.

get my movie on googles top 100 videos

Lewiston Maine – Michael Reynolds, filmmaker and webmaster, is proud to announce two new events surronding his documentary “Million Dollar Bigot.” The film will be screened on Saturday, July 29^th, 2006 at the Lewiston Public Library in conjunction with the Maine Social Forum Film Festival. Reynolds is also embarking on a campaign to have the film appear in the top 100 videos Wednesday July 26, 2006, on Google Video’s daily ranking, to coincide with the “Sweet Sixteen” anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act. The video can be viewed and downloaded at http://video.google.com and searching for million dollar bigot

(updated as it seems google was acting up on the original link.)

(please watch or download for sony psp or your ipod. There are ways to burn it for a DVD directly from this site, but the internet archive video may be easier.)

The video stands as one of the first grassroots based disability documentaries to been completed largely through online networking and collaboration. The inclusion on the Google top 100 daily video rankings would provide a needed focus on the struggle people with disabilities are still facinbg for full inclusion in our society.

The film chronicles the disability rights opposition to film “Million Dollar Baby” with insights from CSI Star Robert David Hall, Reporter John Hockenberry, disability publishing pioneer Mary Johnson, and many others. The film was completed with the support of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Not Dead Yet, and Maine Independent Media Center.

Reynolds, 32, considers this a “documentary film by accident.” While attending a conference in Washington DC, it was literally a “eureka” moment, when he realized most of the major players in the grassroots disability struggle over the movie were easily filmed. Networking with a friend who was taping with a DV camera and using his own stock footage, Reynolds set out to chronicle the disability resistance to the Clint Eastwood film.

Reynolds is also breaking new ground by working to establish a new distribution systems. Besides Google Video, the film is available through the Internet Archive. The film has been screened at the Reel Life Film Festival in Detroit, as well as an upcoming screening in collaboration with the “Dis This” film series in New York City in mid September. Reynolds will also be hosting a session on do it yourself media at the Maine Social Forum after his film screening. The media workshop will be at the Bates Mill in Lewiston.

Million Dollar Bigot, a website started by Reynolds, received international attention in 2005 before the Oscar Ceremonies. John Hockenberry graciously contributed an incredible essay, “And the Loser Is”, and the website was featured in a number of different media outlets, including Fair.org’s “Counterspin”, and Common Dreams.

About Uppity Disability dot Net.
Uppity Disability dot Net is a nonprofit web site/publishing entity promoting progressive views of disability rights and culture. Uppity Disability dot net has Resources for Organizing Social Change as its fiscal sponsor. Reynolds is 32, has Cerebral Palsy and other disabilities, and is a part time wheelchair user. Reynolds has a part time job in the teleservices field, is a graduate of the University of Maine and lives with his partner, Jim.

because we all need a cure...

ARGH! Sitting in the waiting room trying to get pain relief for my broken toe (silly accident details withheld) I came across this ad for "The Cleveland Clinic" which touts implants for brain activity for individuals with Parkinsons disease. Now, granted, it is a devasting disease, but do you really need to pour over how you can not play Cholin anymore? I mean, i began to wonder if this type of technology existed for CP, Then, amoungst the rediculous amounts of stuff that has been in my inbox - maybe we just need cures, because killing kids with autism makes no sense to me, but curing my cp doesnt either. Maybe, I'm the problem, *I* need to be cured. I dont know why I was so infuriated, but dammit, when kids are being killed because their mothers feel that mercury immunizations cause autism, yet people completely disregard the autism community in general, something is wrong.
The complete other side of this debate happened a few hours earlier, while listening to NPR's Joe Shapiro interview a man who has aspergers syndrome and is proud of it. i dunno why those depictions are so few and far between. I guess seeing the ad in a hospital waiting room is just appealing to their target audience...

I dunno...

mr. broken toe - it really freaking hurts!
MJR

Links:

The Autism Hub (a www feed of bloggers who reject cures for autism)

Npr.org (search joe shapiro autism)

Not Dead Yet (for mucho info on the string of murders of kids with disabilities.)

and yeah - the photo is from my cell phone. is this the "new internet?"

uppity disability dot net goes mobile - new laptop. Publishing Empire Coming Soon...

...well, Empire may be stretching it.

But a wonderful friend gave me her old laptop, it is running an ancient copy of win 95 (an yes, i AM running firefox on it...) A fresh OS, (yep, linux does run...) a couple pcmcia cards...and a usb wireless hub, and Well, we'll be doing the wifi media server. Give me a week or two. And a new head of hair because upgrading computers sucks. But no - it is really insane how cheap this can all be done, well under a hundred dollars... I hope to to explain the joys of diy media creation at a few events in the future, notably the Maine Social Forum and some sort of event in NYC in September. *I* even think i can upload video with the laptop. We will see. Tons more interesting stuff to post, like my review of 'Letters to Sam",some stuff about ssome local activist stuff and maybe a new design

Mike R.

Crip joins "Wired"

john hockenberry - the crip journalist we all love...

is a contributing EDITOR for wired magazine.

which is still extremely cool.

and he did some panel with al gore last night for them.

i was going to go - but he said it wasnt worth the trip - i guess the
afterparty he would have got me into if he knew about it WAS worth the trip...

and he edits his own site, which is soooo cool...

not bitter...(i can just imagine lindsey lohan and paris hilton at
some after party with al gore and hock...well, maybe i can't - that
is a stretch...)

maybe it went like this...

Hilton: global warming is so hot...

Gore: That's actually an oversimplification...(inane sputtering about
science and how he really doesnt want to run against hillary)

Hilton walks over to Hockenberry

Hilton: That wheelchair is, like, so hot...

Hockenberry: Uh. Thanks. its like seven years old, needs new
suspension and everything...but uh thanks (completely obvious to who
he is chatting with...

Reynolds: Ummm...that's Paris Hilton.

Hockenberry: Really, oh, that's right, i've been saving olivia's old
books so i can give them to help fight illiteracy...maybe giving them
to Paris counts?

Lohan: I'm a movie star what are all these old people doing here...

Reynolds: Uh, it's the former vice president

Lohan: Wow, I thought Reagan died.

(tongue planted firmly in cheek)

some dork named mike...with too little sleep.

MJR

army recruits autistic teen

note -
the only reason *I* had any idea about this story was because i was
listening to a cbc radio station - there has been very little
coverage in the us msm and nothing in the blogosphere

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1147229743197640.xml&coll=7

what is the world coming to these days...i mean autistic recruits?
Maybe i better be glad for dont ask dont tell, , cus CP probably wont
make me a guaranteed 4F

mike r.

Million Dollar Bigot now live on google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6312549118275450865

you can download it from archive.org as well, embed it into your
myspace acct, play it on your video ipod or psp (or even burn it to dvd)

i know there were streaming issues with the archive.org stream.
specifically synch issue between audio and video - those should be corrected...

more stuff as soon as i get a chance.

oh - go watch it or something - i am not too sure how that popularity
thing works, but i should be doing a uppity disability myspace page,
and hopefully will have mucb more stuff online soon.

and yeah, at some point i will have subtitles for the entire thing...

and yes, it should be screening at a nyc film festival in july...more
info on that as soon as we confirm a date.

dvd with covers and stuff hopefully with cool distro soon. go wild
downloading it - if you have a dvd burner and a windows based pc, i
can send you the info on how to make it a DVD.

mike r.
ps - more content soon...