Well Alpine came through with their promise to send another cord - and would you believe it - IT WORKED!
Here are some pics of the install. Since
this is a show car and will never see public roads 
I felt free to ground the park brake signal wire to a brace behind the radio. Worked great! No park brake issues.
A couple of notes: 1) The instructions are worthless. The wire colors are wrong and it is just hard to make sense of the wording and "instruction". The install is a piece of cake though - took about 15 minutes including soldering a wire end on the ground and notching the button blank to run the cord out of.
2) The video capability doesn't use the touch screen or the USB charging/input port. You have to work the I-pod itself to work your videos. The Apple cord that I used has a USB connection, but it doesn't work in the car (I stuffed it behind the dash).
Well I'ma happy camper - thanks all who replied to the thread, I'm glad this worked out.