Hot Sh#t,

[SeaCat]

Right now on ABC they are showing a special edition of Extreme Makeover. For those of you who don't know this show it is about a team of people who basicly travel around and redo peoples homes. Their work is usually known by the families they are helping out, but the finished product is a surprise. This time they threw a twist.

The family who wrote in was writing on behalf of their 8 year old daughter who wanted their help in renovating the hospital ward where she had undergone treatment for a type of cancer. The twist is that while they have a crew doing the hospital ward the main part of the team is secretly redoing the families house. Kind of pulls at the heart strings.

Cat

 

[minsue]

That was here. I cried like a baby when I read about it in the paper before they aired it.

 

[Guest]

I've seen that episode. It gets to you. They also have one where the woman has been widowed and left with kids. Another where a single Mom of teenage girls has been burned out and they are living in the garden shed, I think it was.. Another where a hard working family barely subsists in a two room hut in the Bayou.

That whole show is a huge tear jerker - if you do that sort of thing. I don't. Really I don't. What are you looking at?

 

[minsue]

I've seen that episode. It gets to you. They also have one where the woman has been widowed and left with kids. Another where a single Mom of teenage girls has been burned out and they are living in the garden shed, I think it was.. Another where a hard working family barely subsists in a two room hut in the Bayou.

That whole show is a huge tear jerker - if you do that sort of thing. I don't. Really I don't. What are you looking at?

You're right about that. The double episode where they built the home for the Piestewa family (Lori Piestewa was killed in the same ambush that injured Jessica Lynch) as well as redid the veteran's center on the reservation completely undid me.

 

[SeaCat]

I've only caught bits and pieces of other shows. This is the first one I've started watching from the beginning. I think I may have to start watching it. (If they come into this area I might just have to take some time off and help out.)

Cat

 

[Liar]

I've seen that it airs here too, but I haven't checked it out.

So, it's basically Pimp My Crib. For people who actually deserve it.

Sounds like good tv. Will check it out.

#L

 

[Guest]

So, it's basically Pimp My Crib. For people who actually deserve it.

They change lives for the better. Not many TV shows can say that.

 

[SeaCat]

Damn,
Watching the end of this show with tears running down my cheeks. It's not often that I'm moved like this by anything on the screen but this show did it.

Cat

 

[logophile]

That show is great, and I hardly watch TV at all.

And while I always wish they would come and do my house, I'm also always happy that my life's not bad enough that I would get picked!

 

[Guest]

 

[English Lady]

I've nearly started this thread a million times myself because my husband and I love it! We've watched most of 'em now, including the one you've mentioned seacat and each and everyone makes us cry. We're both softies and this programme touches us. I know there must be some money making going on somewhere for it to keep on keeping on, but they do make things better for real people in need and I think it's a breath of fresh air to watch.

 

[Liar]

I know there must be some money making going on somewhere for it to keep on keeping on, but they do make things better for real people in need and I think it's a breath of fresh air to watch.

It's a positive circle. They've found a good TV concept where good deeds became a crowdpleaser. A crowdpleaser means alot of advertising, and alot of advertising means that they can both make a fifty profit and spend more money to those families in need. And the more money they can spend doing good, the more people will watch, and the more they can charge for ads. Winners all around.

I've seen it now, a rerun episode was on this morning. The host is scary. There's just something about obnoxiously loud people that makes me want to slap them, but the concept made up for it. I won't zap by it next time.

#L

 

[English Lady]

It's a positive circle. They've found a good TV concept where good deeds became a crowdpleaser. A crowdpleaser means alot of advertising, and alot of advertising means that they can both make a fifty profit and spend more money to those families in need. And the more money they can spend doing good, the more people will watch, and the more they can charge for ads. Winners all around.

I've seen it now, a rerun episode was on this morning. The host is scary. There's just something about obnoxiously loud people that makes me want to slap them, but the concept made up for it. I won't zap by it next time.

#L

You're very right. Yeah Ty( Am I right?) is a bit bouncy, but I think he's a good presenter for this kinda thing. I love watching them, I'm a sap

 

[Guest]

I stand in awe at Ty's career. From carpenter, to a carpenter on "Trading Spaces", to host of a popular show.

Only Paul Hogan's career is more amazing--from a man on the street interview to a film career.

 

[SeaCat]

Yeah Ty is a bit much, but you can tell his heart is in it. The other one who made me wince was the Brit. (I'll be damned if I can remember his name.) I like his attitude and he must be able to do magic with what he can get his hands on but he kind of lacks common sense. (Come on, using AfterShave to treat burst blisters?) Even so you can tell these people truly enjoy helping other people. I think I'll have to watch this show a bit more.

Cat

 

[SensualCealy]

I love the show, Ty and all, he is loud cause he gets attention, who else would you want hosting your show, some quiet mouse that doesnt say peep?
When you flip around and you have a megaphone yelling, funky hair do-ed dude playing like a kid yet getting an awesome house built in a weekend, well raise your hands folks!

One of my most memorable showes was the female veteran one, the pride on the elders faces as they marched into the hall- PROUD!
The other, a family of 8 were living in a two bedroom trailer. They became a family of 8 because the ' Mom' took in her siblings kids.
Every darn show I bawl, and thats okay, it shows I have heart, and that my pills put me on an emotional roller coaster! lol Two more weeks and they are in the garbage! yeehaw!
C

 

[cloudy]

You're right about that. The double episode where they built the home for the Piestewa family (Lori Piestewa was killed in the same ambush that injured Jessica Lynch) as well as redid the veteran's center on the reservation completely undid me.

Indian Country Today had this editorial about that episode:

Nothing in the world beats kindness. Compassion - the ability to feel the pain or the joy of others, the volition to do something good for other people or beings - is, arguably, the definition of being human. When that volition becomes action, and when that action creates good will between groups of people, all of society is the better for it.

ABC's program ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,'' in which construction teams rebuild the homes of families, often from the ground up, provided a wonderful definition of humanity when they chose to create a new home for the family of Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa, the Hopi mother of two who was the first American Indian female soldier in the U.S. Armed Forces to die in combat. Piestewa died in an ambush in March of 2003, during the early days of the Iraq War.

The program's teams honored not only Piestewa with their work; they also built the Piestewa Native American Veterans' Affairs Center for local, mostly Native, veterans.

Piestewa's children, now being raised by their grandparents, are the object of great sympathy in Indian country, which has generously donated to their well-being and education. The grandparents' commitment to care for them and raise them as they did their mother is a symbol and an honoring to the many grandparents in Indian country who have done just such a double duty: actively raised two, and sometimes more, generations.

Throughout history, as warfare or deadly illnesses have at times decimated the working populations of adults, quite often grandparents have stepped in to fill the parents' role. These acts of kindness and commitment have reflected the continuity of traditional cultures and contributed in no small way to the preservation of tribal knowledge and cohesion.

The program and its premise worked very well in showing the living strength of Native peoples. No doubt it would have been hard to find a dry eye among the show's Native audience. As the home building teams made their plans and began their construction work, important elements of Native culture were incorporated.

We recognize the hard work and thoughtfulness of the ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition'' designers and builders: Ty Pennington, Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis, Tracey Hutson, Michael Moloney, Constance Ramos, Ed Sanders, Preston Sharp and Eduardo Xol. The care and consideration they showed in incorporating Hopi culture in their design clearly came from the heart, and their experience in Indian country visibly moved each of them.

Wherever possible, natural wood, stone and earth materials from the area were used; a Hopi medicine man conducted prayers to the four directions; and symbols of hope and regeneration, such as a pear tree, were included in the design. Most heartening, the Hopi and Navajo languages, along with prayer songs, were heard on national television.

Also deserving of recognition and praise is Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the best friend and compatriot who nominated Piestewa's family to the program's producers. Lynch, a symbol of honor and integrity, kept her word - a pact she had made with Piestewa to help take care of each other's families should anything happen to either of them in Iraq.

Humble, sincere, honest and decent, Lynch, who suffered her own painful ordeal, has consistently been forthright about her experiences in Iraq and has remained faithful to the memory of Piestewa. These two American women, hailing from different regions, circumstances and cultures, have nonetheless shown us all the meaning and power of friendship.

Two thousand miles north of Hopi land, in Minneapolis, Minn., at the Great Plains Indian Gaming Association conference, the morning program began with prayers for Piestewa and for six other Native soldiers killed in combat since that time. Ojibwa, Navajo and Lakota soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for land and country were honored as the Color Guard of the Sanford White Eagle Legion Post 556 from Baraboo, Wis., posted the colors and local traditional singers put up an honoring song for veterans. Prayers were made for the fallen veterans as well as for the families of the tragic victims at Red Lake, for whom special words were placed upon a sacred staff, to be taken to that severely traumatized community.

''Extreme Makeover'' was unique enough to warrant a mention and congratulations. The honoring in Minneapolis, on the other hand, is commonplace. Throughout Indian country, prayers and expressions of concern for people and communities undergoing tragic times are often heard. It is one of the strongest aspects of Native tradition and expresses a spontaneous cultural compassion that belongs among the peoples. As the ABC program concluded, a spontaneous act by a local woman elder brought this piece of Indian tradition forward.

Unannounced and unexpected, she came to the new house bearing a gift: a carefully woven basket of corn arranged in the four sacred colors - red, black, yellow and white - representing not only a core value of Native spirituality but a selfless gift of her own heart.

The country at large could use a huge dose of these kinds of gestures: that of a major broadcasting company that appreciates humanity coupled with that of individuals, both Native and non-Native, acting out the best dictates of culture and human dignity.

 

[LeahLo519]

Those people are so cool...seriously, spending your life helping people and being a rich SOB wouldn't be a bad way to go about things.