actually, I took the wheel apart, bent the rim back into shape, and relaced it with a cool 3-leading/3-trailing pattern you can see here:
http://www.terminalvelocity.demon.co.uk/WheelBuild/
seriously easy and fun. looks the snazz.
it was definitely the crap rim that was the problem. I put some *serious* weight onto it in bending it back into shape, and what I used to stress relieve it was nowhere near what was necessary to bend it.
the only thing that worries me is I bent some spokes lacing the wheel up (minor?) and some hub eyelets were a bit deformed and dimpled where the spoke elbows passed over them (major?).