Archive for the ‘videos’ Category

Justin’s 22 Month-Old niece Bee Montana Kanew learns every Kanew’s favorite song – our Camp Greylock alma Mater…

This is a pretty incredible, moving 14 minute video about a kid named Ross, whose “friend” shot him in cold blood to get into a gang. Ross survived, and lived to tell the tale… and says the incident gave him a new lease on life.

“I just look at what I got, I don’t look at what I don’t have.”

Also — sorry we’ve been bad about updating regularly. We’ve had some stuff going on, but we’ll try to do better now. We’ll be up in San Francisco for an AASCEND function next weekend, October 15th, if anyone’s in the area.

This is an amazing piece about Clay Marzo, a surfer with Asperger Syndrome.

As we’ve mentioned before, one of the things that’s been most apparent to Zev and I as we’ve met people on the spectrum – both high-functioning and low – is that many of them tend to have THAT THING – be it sports, bugs, chemistry, game shows, or in this case surfing – that they love and focus all of their ambitions on to an extent us “neuro-normals” can only dream of.

Clay shows that when someone on the spectrum does hone in on THAT THING and dedicate themselves to it, they’re capable of great things.

Let us know what you think of this – and please, if you know of more videos like this, or examples of people on the spectrum with unique talents… share it with us.

Thanks Tara for showing us this one.

Z & J

3 guys, 11 countries, 44 days, 18 flights, 38,000 miles. Sounds familiar.

Not a whole lot to say about this one. Just watch.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

This is a story from a few years back, but it’s one of our favorites…

Jason “J-Mac” McElwain, an autistic basketball player, got into a high school game in the 4th Quarter and tied a school record with SIX 3-POINTERS IN FOUR MINUTES. An incredible feat for anyone, let alone someone with autism.

We had the pleasure of meeting Jason when we went on CBS’ The Talk a few months ago. Great guy. Zev has a pretty nasty 3-Point stroke also – he’s been known to get on hot streaks of his own in our Men’s Rec League hoops games – so we asked if they could find us a hoop on the lot to conduct a little shoot-out… but there was no hoop to be found. The showdown had to wait.

But whenever J-Mac’s ready, Zev’s ready.

A few months ago Zev and I went to Venice, CA, just to hang out. I decided to film Zev because he’s funny to film. I figured the mix of Zev and a colorful place like Venice might be a good mix. You be the judge.

(Please excuse the format… I didn’t realize I was supposed to turn my phone sideways. Rookie mistake. Won’t happen again.)

-J

This is out-of-control, off-the-charts amazingness that shows what incredible achievements people on the spectrum are capable of…

‘BRAIN MAN’ Daniel Tammet – A high-functioning autistic savant –  recited a series of 22,514 numbers over a five hour period after seeing them once. His memory skills include learning to speak Icelandic in one week. Click on Brain Man video link to watch a great piece about him…

Brain Man video

This is a pretty amazing story about an autistic man who can draw an entire city from memory after a brief helicopter flight over it.

Our appearance on The Talk a while back… Zev kept his backpack on, and we announced that we’re looking for some lucky ladies to come on our trips with us.

Still haven’t taken the trips. Just sayin’.

-J

We went down to the CBS lot and crashed the Open Casting Call for The Amazing Race: Season 20.

3rd Time’s a Charm? They say that, right?