Current TV: Former Amazing Race winner thanks Castro for free health care.

[AtomicKitten]

Wiki bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_MacNiven

Tyler MacNiven comprised half of the so-called San Francisco "hippies" team that won the Amazing Race in Season 9.

He walked across Japan.

In his travels visiting Cuba, he became ill and experienced firsthand Cuba's health care system. At a press conference, Tyler thanked Castro for the free health care.

Tyler also explains his next documentary endeavor I-RAN IRAN and his plan to run across Iran to show Americans about the next country Junior is itching to invade.

Tyler explains it all in a video seen on Current TV: http://www.tylermacniven.com/index.htm

[xmas74]

1. I really liked that team.

I thought they deserved their win, compared to a few in the past.

[AtomicKitten]

2. I see them hanging around SF fairly regularly.

Really, really nice guys.

[xmas74]

17. They seem like they would be the type.

They just seem like the type you could approach and talk to.

[AtomicKitten]

24. Tyler's brother owns a restaurant on Market Street in SF.

The first time I saw Tyler after the race he was actually standing on the median island with a sign for his brother's restaurant. People were stopping to talk to him, giving him a high-five. He's really a charming, vivacious individual. I have seen him and his racing partner out and about SF since then.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/6/93270/San-Francisco/Castro/Woodhouse-Fish-Company.html
restaurant review: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/11/DDGRSKF12K1.DTL

[xmas74]

25. Sounds like a very down-to-earth person.

That's the kind of person you like to see on a show.

[Toasterlad]

4. I Really, REALLY Hated That Team.

Camera-hogging attention whores. I'd really hoped that I'd seen the last of them.

[AtomicKitten]

6. Did you view his video as seen on Current TV that I linked to?

If they were "camera-hogging attention whores," they would have corrected the misnomer that they were the hippies and another team the "frat boys." Turns out the frat boys were college drop-outs and the so-called hippies have advanced college degrees and speak several languages.

But they didn't. They let it slide.

Tyler's films are an important addition to the dialog currently. Free your mind from your preconceived harsh assessment of them and at least take a look.

[Toasterlad]

12. A College Degree Does Not Make One a "Non-Hippie"

Quite the contrary. Many become hippies on college campuses.

However, I'm not here to debate the merits of the hippies vs. the frat boys. All I said was, I didn't like that team, and consider them grandstanding attention whores. You're free to admire them if you wish.

[AtomicKitten]

13. didn't say it did

I'm just saying that they kept under wraps their impressive curriculum vitae, so IMO they clearly weren't grandstanding. They are happy, upbeat guys which sometimes annoys the crap out of people. Like you. People that wrongly attribute that demeanor to being "camera-hogging attention whores."

I admire Tyler for the content of his films. You know, the stuff that matters.

You're free to dismiss them based on stuff that doesn't matter. You know, fluff.

[Toasterlad]

14. Sorry...My Rationale's As Valid As Yours

I'm not interested in their actions after the Race, or their personal lives. My opinion of them is based entirely on their actions during the Race, which I found buffoonish, childish, and indescribably annoying demands for attention. Since you didn't know anything about their oh-so-wonderful achievements while they were racing, you based your like of them on the same things I did. If you like that kind of behavior, more power to you.

[AtomicKitten]

15. I admire Tyler's direction in film-making.

If you don't based on your impression of him on a reality tee-vee show, that's your prerogative.

Have a great day.

[Toasterlad]

16. It Sure Is.

I saw all I wanted of him during the Race. If I'm missing out on some really great things he's doing now, that's my loss, I guess.

Thanks for the good wishes. I hope you have a nice day as well.

[ikojo]

26. True.....most hippies came from the comfortable

middle and upper middle classes. They knew they had the resources to drop out with the class privilege of being able to drop back in when they were ready.

[John Q. Citizen]

29. ANd you base that on...that fact that you hang out with hippies a lot?

Or is there a study to that effect?

[ikojo]

31. I used to read many books about the 1960s and I am

also a Deadhead and have read a lot on the Deadhead subculture....Here is a clip from an article.


http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100587

Starting around 1964 and increasing steadily into the early 1970s, hippies began gathering in lower income, inner city neighborhoods (the same areas their parents had worked so hard to escape) such as New York's East Village and, particularly, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, and later formed communes and settlements in the countryside. Largely white, middle class, and educated, hippies whipped up their own philosophy of natural living, easy sexual and social relations, sincerity, and hedonism through a blend of Eastern mysticism, left-wing social critique, and Beatnik appropriations of African-American slang. To the hippies, "squares" were "uptight," out of touch with their feelings and with each other, and it was this isolation from human feeling which had made them such aggressive, authoritarian, and often brutal people. The hippie lifestyle, on the other hand, was not only more fun, it was morally superior.

[John Q. Citizen]

32. Hey now, Iko Iko all day! When I was 17 I hitch-hiked to the first Rainbow gathering

at Strawberry lake CO.

I saw the Dead close both the Fillmore West and Winterland among a zillion other shows.

The operative word in the article is "largely" because there were/are some trustifarians as well as people who came out of impoverished back grounds who are/were self identified hippies.

The dead head culture was pretty diverse with the common thread being they liked the music/scene. From born again Christians to Eastern religion adherents to athiests and everything in between, from drug addicts to tea totalers to AA/NA members. All colors and ethnicities and countries.

There are a lot of hippies who didn't particulary like the Dead music/scene and others who loved it.

But yeah. largely while middle class does ring a bell. Especially when contrasted to say hip hop or rap as a musical cutural identifier.

[xmas74]

18. I'd disagree with that.

They weren't the usual mactors or wannabe Hollywood types that try to get the attention. They were interesting people who had extensively traveled and treated those they came in contact with well. They were interested in their surroundings and wanted to learn about the place instead of just getting on television and making money.

Did they become competitive? Sure-who wouldn't. But I don't think they purposely put themselves out there in a way to take all the camera time.

Remember, this is the same show that has had in other seasons wannabe actors, wannabe models, beauty queens and the biggest attention whores of them all-Rob and Amber. They've never met a reality show they didn't like.

[Toasterlad]

22. It's Just My Opinion

I know a lot of people liked them. I didn't.

I used to love AR because it DIDN'T have the usual cast of "reality show archetypes". Then, somewhere around the fourth season or so, they all started creeping in. It's still the best of the reality shows, as far as I'm concerned, but it's much more like the rest now than it used to be. Now, we have a dickhead husband/putupon wife team every season, an airhead blond girl team, a flaming homo team, a dysfunctional child/parent team, etc. And there's always at least one "wacky" team that tries to monopolize the camera and create some kind of "persona".

I did not find Tyler and the other one "zany" or "refreshing" or "offbeat". I found them incredibly annoying.

[xmas74]

23. Some did find them annoying.

I enjoyed them because they weren't like the others from their season and they really were there for the race.

They got quite a bit of camera time because they were different from the other players and because others knew that if they weren't stopped they'd win the race. Remember who came in second place? Yep-mactors. Mactors tend to be on every single season now, which is why I'll root for the unusual ones.

(BTW-mactors is a term used on reality tv forums. It stands for model/actor, which seems to be the occupation of nearly have the reality show contestants nowadays.)

[DS1]

34. What, next to the two older texan women?

I wanted to see them drive off a cliff

[Toasterlad]

35. OMG, No...They Were Indeed Worse.

Their only purpose on that show appeared to be to shriek at the camera. It's a shame, too, because they had a couple of funny lines. But I was overjoyed when they got the boot.

[Bluebear]

5. I really, really liked that team

Smart, humorous, seemed like really good guys.

[xmas74]

19. They were.

Compared to so many other teams they really seemed to enjoy the race itself. Most were caught up in the competition or wanted to get as much camera time as possible. They wanted the experience of actually traveling around the world in a short amount of time.

On other seasons we've had teams fight nonstop, play dirty and even insult citizens of other countries. (Freddy and Kendra-if you've watched other seasons you'll remember KKKendra.) They didn't. They were always unfailingly polite to others and were gleeful about even being apart of the program.

They made great racers because, for the first time, we saw a team who really wanted to take in the full experience and we saw a team that truly deserved the win over the others.

[Bluebear]

20. Kendra, was she the "get me out of this stinking African country" one? nt

[xmas74]

21. And the comments about birth control,

about how they could live like that,etc.

Yep, that's her.

[KittyWampus]

3. Just read Tyler's bio. What an interesting fellow. He's making a difference in the world

and his next documentary sounds important.

[AtomicKitten]

8. I-RAN IRAN

What a great concept!

[blitzen]

7. I would like to thank Italy for free health care....My son got hit by a truck...

when we were visiting Rome a few years ago. No injuries, thank goodness. But they did keep him under observation by several doctors for several hours and give him a battery of tests before proclaiming him fine. The staff at the desk chuckled when I pulled out my credit card to pay--it was all free, no questions asked, no forms to fill out. And, by the way, our "waiting time" for service was all of three minutes.

[AtomicKitten]

9. punctuates the fact that our healthcare system is irretrievably broken

n/t

[blitzen]

10. and also shows that its not a "commie" vs. "capitalist" thing...

This was Italty under Berlusconi, a highly capitalist nation.

[jkg4peace]

27. The whole world is laughing at us

single-payor national healthcare is such a no-brainer. And the stupid argument they give "well, what about food, daycare, retirement". Funny thing is -- most of those countries do that, too. We are the only developed, democratic country that puts the interests of a few obscenely rich people over the rest of the population.

But I would be happy if we just did the healthcare. We can probably manage as concerned citizens on a local level to come up with bandaids for the rest. But healthcare - that is a whole 'nother ballgame. You can get anyone to donate to a foodbank or organize a daycare co-op -- but how do you organize grassroots healthcare for the non-insured or insurance-denied? You just can't.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

33. All (or nearly all) Western European countries have completely tax-funded good healthcare systems.

Plus quite a few in the Americas. With some exceptions that shall remain nameless.

Right wingers in all those countries DO want to dismantle such systems -- but they can't or they'll be rightfully eviscerated at the polls.

[Bluebear]

11. 1980 - Born; 1987 - Turned 7

From Tyler's bio

http://www.tylermacniven.com/Bio.htm

:rofl:

[Raine]

28. I LOVED the hippie team

they were my favorite and I was so HAPPY when they won! :-)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

30. Yeah that was a really suspenseful ending. They were behind but rocked the surfer/fratboy team on

the final challenge with the flags. Brutal. Although one of those runner up guys just won the All Star thing with one of the women from that earlier show.