Athletes of the Spirit Video (from the '80's)

[T-Bone]

If you weren’t able to find a copy of Athletes of the Spirit – I was going to recommend the next best thing – Staying Alive. LCM said he received the original revelation for the idea but the Adversary beat him to the punch in production.

[mstar1]

Wasn't there actually a drive at the time to get AOS shown on public access channels?

I think you're right,

In Tampa, it had a showing in a regular movie theater on its release date. The 10th generation copy on Beta tape (or whatever they had) didnt work at all on a big screen--It was really bad

[Twinky]

Lava lamps are those lamps with a blob of something in the bottom that rises up through some sort of liquid uup a glass tube or container and then the blob falls down back onto the bulb. Very popular in the 70s and making somewhat of a come-back. Have had various names but you've almost certainly seen one.

[oenophile]

MiniRecruit,

I think Reefer Madness and AOS would make an awesome double feature.

RJ

[mstar1]

Heres a Lava Lamp of The Spirit

[Wanderer]

How about a showing with audience participation like "Rocky Horror Picture Show", we could all yell "A$$hole" every time LCM shows his face?

[sprawled out]

what were the other categories? I forget...Stately and powerful....There was a gloom and doom one, too.

brewer and shipley

rocky and bullwinkle

dazed and confused

that's all i can remember.

[Kevlar2000]

dumb and dumber

[TheInvisibleDan]

Pete and Repeat.

[What The Hey]

Only if we can play it all in reverse!

I often wondered what debil spurts were in the backward masked copy of AOS. Maybe Mike has mastered AOS to uncover it's secret hidden messages? Oh wait - that's PFAL not AOS!

[SafariVista]

what were the other categories? I forget...Stately and powerful....There was a gloom and doom one, too.

If you absolutely HAVE to know, the answer to this question and others are in one of several boxes in my basement...

Someone I know insisted on saving EVERYTHING... so, a collection of varied tapes, books, class material, posters, movies, pins, certificates, stickers, pencils, song books, sheet music...etc.... maybe that's where the strange sounds are coming from~

[oenophile]

If you absolutely HAVE to know, the answer to this question and others are in one of several boxes in my basement...

Someone I know insisted on saving EVERYTHING... so, a collection of varied tapes, books, class material, posters, movies, pins, certificates, stickers, pencils, song books, sheet music...etc.... maybe that's where the strange sounds are coming from~

When is Uncle Harry Day?

[Outin88.]

Does anyone know where I can get a copy of it?

Why would you want to see that pathetic "show"? Unless your looking for a good laugh!

What a wonderful "christian" play that was. Not! They didn't even mention Jesus Christ in it!

Seriously, I'm curious, why do you want to get a copy of it?

[Bolshevik]

I don't ever think I'll get the music out of my head. I occasionally start doing the moves when someone mentions the manifestations.

[doojable]

I don't ever think I'll get the music out of my head. I occasionally start doing the moves when someone mentions the manifestations.

I watched that fiasco ONCE - live. I barely remember it. Just how many times do you have to watch it to not be able to get the music out of your head?

I guess I wasn't "spiritual" because I refused to buy most of what Way Productions came up with. While I may have enjoyed some of the music, it always seemed to me that the recording quality was poor.

Now that AOS - well I never saw that as having any significance outside of the ROA. It reminded me of the shows my brothers and I used to do in the living room for our parents. They enjoyed it because we were family - but they never tried to take us to Broadway.

[TheHighWay]

Doojable, the answer in my case is that you need to live at a root locale for a couple of years during the AOS era... we heard that soundtrack as pre-music for every meal, every meeting, every sns, every event... yikes!! I'm quite sure I'll have to die to get those tunes completely out of my head.

[What The Hey]

I think I have a VHS copy of the AOS production and I was even thinking of copying it onto a DVD just in case something happened to the VHS tape. I don't think being an AOS is really a ridiculous concept, but the whole idea of illustrating the AOS concept by dance certainly is. (Dancing with the Devil? I was almost sure somebody had already thought of that one before.) Just what I always wanted to learn how to do - chicken kick a debul spurt! BTW, wasn't it Taylor O. who animated the amoeba for AOS?

I really think the whole AOS production was done more to showcase the WOW Auditorium rather than to "illustrate God's Word regarding every believer as an athlete in the spiritual competition" as per the blurb in the booklet that came with the video. I guess the booklet was to further explain what was being presented in the AOS production.

Wasn't the WOW Auditorium completed just shortly before this production? I think it was. TWI probably needed a production like AOS to make us believers think that we didn't waste all our abs on a huge auditorium with absolutely nothing to show for it. In the back of the booklet there is even a blurb by LCM saying to be ready for Athletes II! Gee, I wonder what ever became of AOS II? Oh well, just another one of those things that vaporized with TWI I guess.

Edited March 14, 2007 by What The Hey

[Bolshevik]

I watched that fiasco ONCE - live. I barely remember it. Just how many times do you have to watch it to not be able to get the music out of your head?

my folks had the video, I had the coloring book, I liked to watch the big blob, I joked around a lot about it with other young people.

[doojable]

Doojable, the answer in my case is that you need to live at a root locale for a couple of years during the AOS era... we heard that soundtrack as pre-music for every meal, every meeting, every sns, every event... yikes!! I'm quite sure I'll have to die to get those tunes completely out of my head.

Sorry HighWay,

I forgot that you guys were a captive audience while in rez or on staff. I think I just tuned out the music when I was in rez....

[hiway29]

I was working with Taylor O at the time, and animated the amoeba with him. Since I wasn't in the corps I was nameless and faceless, and I'd be more than happy to give Taylor all the 'credit' for it, but I spent too many hours drawing, painting, and hanging animation cels up to dry. In a way it was quite a feat for pre computer animation done on a shoestring budget.

[TheHighWay]

Hiway,

I actually liked the devil-blob... it reminded me a bit of the electrical monster from Johnny Quest!

Oh, and for those of you who saw the AOS production live I have a question... on the video there's this elaborate lighting sequence to introduce the One True God, culminating in.... a blank, empty stage. I always thought that looked so moronic on the video.

I was told that there were actually lots of white lights blazing onto the stage and it gave off a cool glow (IN PERSON). Can anyone confirm if this was true?

The (other)HighWay

[ExCorpsArtist]

Looking for one as well. Digital, VHS, whatever.

[Peruser]

Dang, that brings back memories.  I probably have a VCR tape somewhere.  Funny thing, while i've had the tape for many years, i never watched it.

Can someone help confirm my memory on this . .  was there a live production of AOS in early 1985 at HQ - maybe February or March?  Might have been the first live production?  I recall traveling to HQ in early '85 with my wow family for some big doo - maybe was AOS.

-per.

 

[chockfull]

Ah yes, the '80s.  

-  Athletes of the Spirit - (aka original Men in Tights)

- The Camaro

- The Femullet - (female mullet)

- Disco is fading to Hair Bands - (hence the style confusion in Athletes)

- the VHS vs. Beta tape war

- http://www.liketotally80s.com/

It was a day.  It was a time.  It was an era.    I'm glad I don't have to go back, and am praying if aliens land on Earth, the time capsule they find is not from then.

Edited April 11, 2018 by chockfull

[socks]

On March 7, 2007 at 10:39 PM, TheInvisibleDan said:

AOS is destined to become a "cult classic".

Wasn't there actually a drive at the time to get AOS shown on public access channels?

When I was a kid going to Cat'lic school, we used to get summer Movie passes to a local theater, and it included weekly cheep matinee showings.  Sold a lot of popcorn and soda, I'm sure. They would show all kinds of fringe stuff in the matinees with an emphasis on cheesy horror and sci-fi flicks.  (back when there were 2 movies plus cartoons and news reels) There  was a movie I saw then that I would bet you've heard of - "The Mask". It wasn't the Jim Carey movie but the plot was somewhat similar - there was this African witch doctor kind of mask that would give the person wearing it wild hallucinations, visions of alternate dimensions which of course had a scattering of weird looking women in tights and tattered colored clothing, dancing around being menacing - I don't remember all the details but I've never seen it shown anywhere since then. It was so odd - it could have been an early reference to the coming DMT and LSD movements.  It was in 1961 or so I saw it, and it's now available through some streaming services. 

Anyway - I wonder if anyone else has ever seen it? AOS and all the undulating dancing "spirits" reminded me of that movie's look and feel when it goes into the hallucination sequences when the person wears the mask. So few have ever seen that movie it barely qualifies for cult classic status but it's really a fringe-gem. Anyway, figured you might like to know, if you haven't seen it, might be worth a shot. 

Edited April 11, 2018 by socks
I had forgotten to put in the secret subliminal "send money to socks" encrypted code messages that no one knows about.