this was easy! i copied the viewWebLog macro from radio.root and made it take a 'catname =""' parameter; commented out a few line of code where catname was set.. and bingo! my homepage shows just the contents of the NoSimpler category. done.
<%weblogdata.m.viewWeblog("NoSimpler")%>
extended m.ViewWebLog by giving it a new calculated macro to serve as a reference to the static and dynamic versions of the site regardless of where it is hosted.
%linkroot% is this new variable and it will be properly recognized on any page that you create from m.ViewWeblog. i'll need to clone and alter a few more things to render permalinks and recentposts in such a way that for single category posts (at least) i can use <a href="%linkroot%/gems/filename>cool file</a>.. but this its worth it.