When you Wish Upon a Frog (Book II of the Jim Henson at Disney saga)

[Ogrebear]

"by Bernie Brillstein (with Cheryl Henson) " - Hooray more Bernie!

"Not even the most resistant of Old School folks pushed back on the woman who signed Selena," - well that is good to know.

"He was a true polymath: a talented jazz and rock musician, a talented amateur scientist, a talented cinematographer," - he was? Hope something bad does not happen.

"but of late they were increasingly moving away from music and music videos and into reality shows and other non-music empty youth culture stuff." - guess it was going to happen even ITTL.

“What if we had the Rolling Stone name attached to it?” she asked." - killer line in a Pitch meeting!

"Taking advantage of NBC and Disney’s combined market share and cable distribution deals, we could launch globally." - damm that's one Big plan.

"Alton’s show, now called Long Plastic Hallway and hosted by Snoop Dog, would go behind the music" - Sounds like a fun, entertaining show.

"with various guests, even thematically-appropriate Muppets like Uncle Deadly and Zondra." - the Muppets get everywhere!

"and interviewed famous openly gay people like Freddie Mercury after he officially came out in ‘98." - wonder if George Michael will appear?

"deliberately tried to keep things fresh and hip by hiring young and diverse people who would never use words like “fresh” or “hip”. - heh heh heh

"Rolling Stone Television (RSTV) launched in the fall of ’97" - ITTL me might have picked that up depending on which UK company ran it.

"And yea, we forced MTV to start innovating again and quit resting on its laurels." - GOOD.

"Bambi become the President of Disney Music with a seat on the Disney-MGM board." - that should be interesting to see what effect she has.

"producing Rock the Table where various music folks and other stars cooked their favorite meals" - did they get Ozzy on to fix up bat soup?

"his famous Fixin’s starring Amy Sedaris and Shirley Corriher" - which sounds bonkers amazing.

"And as we continue in this new millennium and my career sunsets and I face the prospects of no longer being at the center of everything" - I am sure there is life in Bernie yet.

"It’s a lesson that Jim taught me." - and one some of the 'old men' in Hollywood need to learn it seems.

"Brian May will host an Alton Brown produced show called Existential that covers the confluence of science, technology, culture, and politics" - wonder if they got Mobile Phones right?

----

"a new Debate Show featuring the politically liberal comedian and writer Al Franken and the politically conservative economist and actor Ben Stein was practically a given." - Awesome idea of train wreck in process one thinks.

"Appropriately named Franken/Stein, this show is a monster." - someone in Marketing was having an 'on' day there.

"experts, most of whom, at least at this early point, are caught a little flat-footed by the comedic sociopathy of it all." - Oh some of that sounds precious, and meme fuel.

"we have a great personal and professional working relationship and I count him as a close friend[9].” - it is good they keep the antagonism only on screen.

Well that was a lively chapter @Geekhis Khan - Bernie as always is a great read, and the Monster show sounds a great addition to comedy AND news.

 

[Ogrebear]

"So in 1997 I was filming my Big Dramatic Breakout Role: 1998’s Talkies." - well this should be entertaining....

"Bob Weinstein thought that it was an Oscar “sure fire”. - Warning Will Robinson, Warning!

"Well, we failed." - SHOCK!

"They nominated me for the Worst Actor Razzie, but I didn’t even win that!" - Ouch.

"Yea, goodbye Hollywood Dreams. Back to B-movies and Shemping for Sam." - poor sod.

"At Sam’s insistence, Guillermo put me through a long regimen of physical abuse by muscular orderlies and electroshock." - one hopes that was acting and not real....

"Worse yet, Sam hung a poster for Talkies in my dressing room." - ooohhh BURN.

"making it a 1930s period piece" - lots of cool cars and sharp suits then.

"Needless to say, ancient horrors and madness await, framed by Nazi occultism, lunacy, and conspiracy." - std Lovecraft then!

"we went crazy with the sets and makeup and worked with ILM’s Alien Cantina on the Creature Effects" - going to look Awesome then.

"I got to work with Doug Jones," -cool. Just need Serkis, Jones, and Perlman in the same movie now...

"Sam also had me get made up into a creepy fish man for a few scenes." - work for that day rate mate!

"Guillermo did not hire Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise." - probably wise.

"the film did well. $192 mill on a $64 mill budget? Not shabby." - that is good bank. Might spark a Creature Feature revival?

"my next “big film” would be Krangoa 2." - yup classic 'B' movie there.

"I got to work, however briefly, with James Earl Jones, Jimmy Buffett, and two of the Pythons." - but maybe not with that cast?

"it was kind of liberating. B movies and TV paid the bills without the constant pressure of meeting that next career milestone" - I can see that appeal.

"Big Movies were never completely out of the question when your friend since childhood is an A-List director." - and puts you in everything somewhere heh?

"And I figured I’d need to hit the gym if I had any hope of Shemping for Brad Pitt." - good luck with *that* one Bruce!

Your Campbell chapters are always fun @Geekhis Khan - thanks.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Jim's diary on this one would be insightful one things. That is if he writes one.

No diary, but he did have his Red Book, and still does iTTL.

 

[WhovianHolmesianChap]

We have lost a legend. 💔💔

 

[LordYam]

Indeed. 66 is relatively young.

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Taoist Noir (The Buddha of Sunset Strip, 1998)
Post from Cinema Surrealismé Netlog, by Darque Tydd, November 12th, 2009

There are “Smart Dumb” productions, seemingly low-brow features that hide a subtle genius that makes it appeal to the high-brow viewer. The works of Matt Groening, Ben Stiller, and Mike Judge come to mind. Then there are “Dumb Smart” productions that have the façade of the high-brow, but overlay this on standard, cliched, lowest-common-denominator stuff that no amount of accurate physics equations, Tiffany armoires, or Kafka references can conceal. The shows Frasier and Ingenious come to mind.

And then there’s The Buddha of Sunset Strip. Smart, dumb, high-brow, and low-brow burn a joint, walk into a bowling alley, and The Sublime happens.

It’s, like…kinda this, man?

The Cohen Brothers already had a reputation for finding the absurd in real life. And this film continues that trend, taking the real-life characters that they knew on the streets of LA and tossing them into a Deconstructive Film Noir Western Stoner Comedy (yes, you read that right) and letting the magic happen. Full of Surrealisté visuals and deep-cut philosophical and religious references, along with subtle explorations of race, class, gender, and mental health, this film doesn’t just Transcend, it Abides. You’ll see what I mean about that soon enough, man.

(Image source QuotesGram)

The story follows The Dude, real name Jeff Leibowitz (Jeff Bridges), a stoner who wanders the Sunset Strip in LA, largely a directionless tumbleweed (with symbolic visuals and music to match). He’s gained a reputation as a “real chill dude” who “helps out where he can”, but whose lack of resources and focus limits him, with most assuming him to be homeless. In truth, he mostly ends up building ever more complex bongs in his shop, drinking White Russians, smoking pot, and bowling with his friends Walter (John Goodman) and Danny (a skinny post-fast John Candy) while dreaming of “doing, like, real good, you know, man?”

Many news reports will tell you that he’s based on John Henson, the “real” Buddha of the Strip, but this is not entirely true. While Henson is clearly a major influence, many of the characteristics for the character come from director and former activist Jeff Dowd in a sort of composite character. Similarly, Peter Exline, Lewis Abernathy, and director John Milius were composited for Walter while Danny is very much autobiographical for John Candy, being a formerly beloved actor who lost his career when he lost his weight in an emergency diet, making him a very sympathetic character[1].

The plot, which doesn’t really matter, is initiated when a dying gangster (Tupac Shakur) stumbles into The Dude’s drum making shop on the Sunset Strip, handing him a bloody demo tape, dying on his Persian rug, and incidentally ruining said rug (Danny: “That’s a real shame, man. It really tied the room together”). The demo tape is of some hip-hop music that everyone in the film admits is “total crap” (ironically written and performed by Tupac in a deliberately awful way). This drags The Dude and his friends into a twisting Chandler-style narrative involving a corrupt music industry executive (Gene Hackman’s Harry Hart Spade), German Nihilists, street gangs (in particular Biggie Smalls’ Da’ Phat Man), and a surreal performance artist played by Julianne Moore reportedly based on a composite of Carolee Schneemann and Yoko Ono. All interrupted by The Dude’s pot dreams, adding surrealisté visual philosophy and symbolic, often Freudian representation to help frame The Dude’s mental and emotional state.

(Image source Reddit)

But none of this is truly important. Instead, the plot serves as a vehicle for exploring the relationship between the Power Trio of the Abiding Dude, the temperamental and violent neo-Jewish ‘Nam vet Walter, and the melancholic and sympathetic Danny, who becomes a scapegoat and sink for any stress and frustration by The Dude and Walter (“Shut the fuck up, Danny”). We watch these three, all flawed in their own way, get pulled into something way out of their depth, and we behold as Hilarity Doth Ensue. And thus Ensuing, said Hilarity also serves as a vehicle for exploring complex themes of class, race, religion, gender, alienation, mental health, corruption, and inequality.

And framing it all, a Cowboy Narrator played by Sam Elliott, whose diegesis is in question, relates The Dude’s experiences, often in quasi-religious terms.[2]

And all with a host of epic needle drops from psychedelic rock to country & western ballads providing a fitting and occasionally ironic soundscape, often with accompanying surrealisté dream sequence.

The film explores some fairly deep philosophical and spiritual questions, albeit in rather indirect and comedic ways, leading to a tragicomic series of circumstances as our unwitting hero tries to sort out the mess with the “crap” demo tape[3] while still trying to make his bowling league tournament slot against a creepy pederast known as “The Jesus” (John Turturro), which has spun off its own series of religious speculations among the fandom.

But the plot, as stated, doesn’t matter. It’s all the larger framework for a quirky and surrealisté character-driven dark comedy that explores deeper issues in subtle ways that somehow merge into the sublime.

While critics had little idea what to think at the time (though most have revised their reviews in hindsight to recognize the genius), and mundane audiences often left confused, leading to an underperformance upon release, posterity and the power of the rewatch has allowed the film’s subtle-yet-sublime genius to be properly appreciated. Its endless quotability helps as well.

(Image source Gfycat)

Over time, this film has even given some a true spiritual, even religious experience, leading to the rise of Dudism, a recognized faith with hundreds of thousands of followers where questions of its “seriousness” are missing the point. One-part New Age Taoist, one-part Hippie Buddhist, one-part pre-ecclesiastical Christian, one-part Epicurean, and several parts self-aware, the Dudists seek to attain that truly enlightened state known as “Abiding”. Strangely, this has led the “real” Buddha of the Strip, John Henson, to become occasionally stalked, Life of Brian style, by Dudist Pilgrims seeking his wisdom, which he’s Abiding enough to share (he’s well-versed in multiple spiritual traditions) while also putting them to work on whatever charitable cause he’s supporting at the time.

Most are shocked to discover that he neither drinks nor smokes weed (not even White Russians, that’s a Dowd thing), and are even more shocked at how hard he works, and then makes them work!

There’s your first lesson on how to “Abide”, kid.

While The Buddha of Sunset Strip underperformed, it naturally, like so many Surrealisté works, went “cult” (some say literally) and has become for many the Cohen’s Magnum Opus that displays all of their quirky, Noir-tinged talents and cleverness. So, is this film worth changing your faith over? That’s a question you need to answer yourself. I will say that it is truly an Experience, an ingenious Surrealisté narrative and character study that does more than Transcend into the Sublime…

…it Abides.

---

[1] It also makes his character's subsequent fatal heart attack per our timeline’s film that much more tragic. Steve Buscemi, whose career has broken out sooner than in our timeline, will have a cameo, but is busy doing Tarantino’s Aimless Drifters, which is sort of a companion to this film. More on this later.

[2] As in our timeline, the Cohens have based everything on people that they knew in LA in the late ‘80s and ‘90s and on the stories these people told them, so it’s natural that there will be much parallelism in the characters, but that the plot will change wildly since while people change slowly, day-to-day experiences can vary highly based upon chaotic interactions. The addition of John Henson into their sphere has added a hopeful, “wants to help out, man” aspect to The Dude (and also the carpentry aspect, mostly building drums along with complex bongs and other pot paraphernalia) on top of Dowd’s stoner cynicism. John Candy gives some extra tragic dimensions to the Donny/Danny character, but otherwise the biggest change is to all of the stories and thus the plot.

[3] The “crap” song is the precursor to a top ten hit by a mainstream rapper and critical evidence in a plagiarism case, not that it matters. The handwritten label even says “Trax by DJ Mack Guff-N”.

 

[farmerted555]

Does Larry see what happens when he finds a stranger in the Alps ITTL?

 

[Clorox23]

The plot, which doesn’t really matter, is initiated when a dying gangster (Tupac Shakur) stumbles into The Dude’s drum making shop on the Sunset Strip, handing him a bloody demo tape, dying on his Persian rug,

Wow I felt a major chill run up my back just having read this...

 

[Shiny_Agumon]

The story follows The Dude, real name Jeff Leibowitz (Jeff Bridges), a stoner who wanders the Sunset Strip in LA, largely a directionless tumbleweed (with symbolic visuals and music to match). He’s gained a reputation as a “real chill dude” who “helps out where he can”, but whose lack of resources and focus limits him, with most assuming him to be homeless. In truth, he mostly ends up building ever more complex bongs in his shop, drinking White Russians, smoking pot, and bowling with his friends Walter (John Goodman) and Danny (a skinny post-fast John Candy) while dreaming of “doing, like, real good, you know, man?”

That's actually a pretty big change from the OTL Dude whose much less socially conscious. Cool how John had such an effect on people.

while Danny is very much autobiographical for John Candy, being a formerly beloved actor who lost his career when he lost his weight in an emergency diet, making him a very sympathetic character[1].

Man I hope John Candy gets his career back. Didn't know it was this bad

The plot, which doesn’t really matter, is initiated when a dying gangster (Tupac Shakur) stumbles into The Dude’s drum making shop on the Sunset Strip, handing him a bloody demo tape, dying on his Persian rug, and incidentally ruining said rug (Danny: “That’s a real shame, man. It really tied the room together”). The demo tape is of some hip-hop music that everyone in the film admits is “total crap” (ironically written and performed by Tupac in a deliberately awful way). This drags The Dude and his friends into a twisting Chandler-style narrative involving a corrupt music industry executive (Gene Hackman’s Harry Hart Spade), German Nihilists, street gangs (in particular Biggie Smalls’ Da’ Phat Man), and a surreal performance artist played by Julianne Moore reportedly based on a composite of Carolee Schneemann and Yoko Ono. All interrupted by The Dude’s pot dreams, adding surrealisté visual philosophy and symbolic, often Freudian representation to help frame The Dude’s mental and emotional state.

A far cry from the carpet shenanigans of the OTL film! But I like it

Also Biggie is in this film too? Cool
Tupac is doing a lot of Big Screen work these days so I wondered if Biggie would come up again.

And framing it all, a Cowboy Narrator played by Sam Elliott, whose diegesis is in question, relates The Dude’s experiences, often in quasi-religious terms.[2]

Love it, especially with the loseness of the fourth wall that can stemp from it.

this has led the “real” Buddha of the Strip, John Henson, to become occasionally stalked, Life of Brian style, by Dudist Pilgrims seeking his wisdom, which he’s Abiding enough to share (he’s well-versed in multiple spiritual traditions) while also putting them to work on whatever charitable cause he’s supporting at the time.

I hope it's not too distracting to him, but I guess you can't have enough volunteers.

Great chapter @Geekhis Khan

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Wall Street Journal launches TV News Network
Associated Press, May 5th, 1998

New York – The Wall Street Journal today launched an eponymous cable news network in collaboration with Time Atlantic. The news network will focus primarily on financial news, though many speculate that it may continue in the newspaper’s tradition of center-right editorialism and coverage of topics of conservative interest. The owning Bancroft Family and Editorial Board, however, have maintained that they fully intend to honor the Journal’s long tradition of journalistic independence and integrity[1]. “The Journal’s long history as a bastion of reliable financial reportage will be maintained, as will our commitment to integrity,” they reported.



Davydenko Visits White House with Mexican Diplomats
The Wall Street Journal, June 9th, 1998

Post by @ajm8888

At a diplomatic meeting yesterday, Monday June 8th, President Al Gore met with Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Rosario Green along with Finance Secretary Angel Gurria, Interior Secretary Francisco Labastida and Sunray Holdings Bank founder and CEO Valentyn Davydenko. The meeting was in part to ensure a crackdown on cartels, get US-Mexican trade closer, show new ways to shore Mexican economy that the Russian-born Davydenko has advocated. Davydenko is a close friend of President Luis Colosio[2] and has been an important advisor to the Mexican President and his administration. The Colosio Administration is still suffering from the arrest of Defense Secretary General Jesus Rebollo last year[3] in last year's legislative election's the Institutional Revolutionary Party did not get a majority[4]. President Colosio was unavailable for the visit due to a trip to the Vatican.

Davydenko insisted Mexico was safe and stable for investment but insists America and Mexico must work closely for economic and national security purposes of both countries. “We have far to go but we're closer than when we started at making the relationship between Mexico and America on equal footing, so let’s make that a true economic friendship.”

President Gore called it “A momentous event in our shared history,” and called on… Cont’d on A2



Gore signs Immigration and Border Security Act
The Washington Post, August 6th, 1998

Washington, DC – President Al Gore signed into Law the tri-partisan Immigration Reform and Border Security Act co-sponsored by Senators John McCain (R, AZ) and Angus King (Ref, ME). The new Law, which combines reform to America’s outdated immigration system with increased spending on border security, received broad tri-partisan support despite a push by the left against what they considered “draconian” border controls and a push by the right against the immigration reforms, particularly the “limited amnesty” provisions.

The immigration reforms will remove by-nation quotas and increase the availability and simplicity of educational and temporary worker visas, this last aspect a major Reform priority given the critical role of Latin American non-citizen workers in the agriculture industry. It will also offer limited amnesty opportunities to select illegal residents that meet certain criteria, including no criminal history, existing family and occupational supports, those with a plausible fear of violence in their home nation, and those brought across the border before their 18th birthday.

The enhanced border security provisions will include increased spending on Customs and Border Patrol and increased border fencing and monitoring technology, and comes amid a wave of terrorism fears driven by the increasing availability of Russian-made firearms in the Western Hemisphere[5]. Importers fear that the stringent new requirements, which will now mandate a Passport for even simple “day crossings” (it used to require a simple form of ID such as a Driver’s License) and will increase customs inspection requirements, will lead to delays at border crossings.

Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina lambasted the immigration reform, calling it “a recipe for a flood of poor, uneducated welfare sinks” while Representative Bernie Sanders of Vermont called the expedited deportation protocols “the stuff of tyranny.” Most, however, see the bill as a “reasonable compromise” that, in the words of President Gore, “keeps our nation’s borders safe and secure while allowing for those who seek opportunity in our Country to do so legally and in the open.”

“There’s something in there for everyone to love and hate,” said Post analyst… Cont’d on A4.



USR Struggles with Corruption, Power Balance
The Times of London, September 14th, 1998

Kiev – Governor Leonid Kravchuk[6] of the Sovereign State of the Ukraine today announced an agreement-in-principal for a “regional trade arrangement” with the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), a bloc of Eastern European countries that have made common cause financially and to a degree militarily. The deal will include tariff reductions and expedited customs on various agricultural and specialty goods as well as electrical power arrangements to sell nuclear-generated and renewable power from the Ukraine to the developing CEFTA nations. Special deals were reportedly also made with the Sovereign States of Dagestan, Chechnya-Ingush, and Azerbaijan among others to facilitate direct sales of Caspian hydrocarbons through the Ukrainian pipelines, though The Times could not independently confirm this.

This announcement comes on the heels of the recent mobilization of the Ukrainian Sovereign State Security Service earlier this year, a paramilitary force that Kravchuk likened to the US National Guard and maintained was “ultimately subservient to the federal government”, but which Russian Nationalist politicians derided as an extra-governmental military force “intent on insurrection”. Kravchuk downplayed these fears. “The Sovereign State of the Ukraine will continue to work with our Russian partners,” said Kravchuk, “Even as we expand our own regional Sovereign State interests.”

The Ukraine’s continued possession of Soviet-era nuclear weapons, though nominally under control of the Federal Armed Forces, added to the stakes of this announcement.

The twin-announcements were met with much discussion in Brussels, as much as in Moscow, and speculation abounds at whether this marks a continued decentralization, or even presages a disintegration, of the USR or is simply a rebalancing of regional autonomies in the still-developing federation. USR Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin’s office released a statement noting that Moscow-Kiev relations “remain strong”, and that the Security Service was simply a matter “of internal security for the Sovereign State”, though Eastern Watchers remain skeptical and independent surveys indicate that Yeltsin’s popularity is dropping while perceptions of him as a weak or unreliable leader are growing.

“What, me worry?” (Image source History.com)

Nowhere is this weakness for the USR President more apparent than with his PM and protégé Boris Nemtsov, whose once-laudatory comments on Yeltsin have regressed through muted praise and into muted criticism, and rumors persist that he is pressuring Yeltsin to step aside, likely for his own Presidential run. Gains made in the Duma by Russian Nationalist parties have threatened the shaky coalition government, which is already increasingly dependent upon support by the centre-left Yabloko. Overt corruption continues to plague the young federation, and international outcry over USR arms production, a post-Soviet industry being used as a national jobs programme, continues to grow as cheap USR-made weapons and munitions feed instability the world over, with uprisings in Latin America, Africa, and Central Asia continuing to spread unrest and feed growing international arms smuggling rings and other criminality. While the arms production and sales continue to prop up the post-Soviet economy, even despite the losses to corruption and theft, international calls to cease and desist are growing.

Russian-made arms continue to feed the brutal stalemate in the Afghanistan Civil War, with the Taliban in the south and the Northern Alliance under Ahmad Shah Massoud both armed primarily with USR-made weapons, in many cases bought with opium gum. USR weapons also feed the Zapista uprising in Mexico, which threatens to topple the Mexican government, and Maoist insurrections in The Philippines. Russian arms feed ongoing civil unrest in Somalia and arm the military of the de facto independent state of Somaliland to the north and exacerbate brutal ethic wars in the Congo. And USR-made weapons continue to feed terrorism in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, including the Aum cult in Japan and far-right militias in the United States, where federal agents were recently attacked in Mississippi with Ukrainian-built Kalashnikov assault rifles.

And complicating things further, one of the principal recipients of this flood of arms are the nations of CEFTA, who have been importing Ukrainian-made arms at a high rate despite no official arms sales permitted by the federal government, in many instances directly purchasing arms from industry leadership, in other cases relying on smugglers and resellers. “Do I love twisted irony for feeding the Hungarians and Romanians and Poles the very arms they would use against Moscow? Why yes, yes I do!” said a Ukrainian arms smuggler who goes simply by Yuri.

“Corruption and a severe lack of internal controls and accountability within the USR have made the proper accounting of arms and a full implementation of central authority nearly impossible,” said UK Foreign Minister… Cont’d on B2.



“One man truly can make a difference. His name is Yuri.” – Anonymous FBI source “Big Tuna”.

---

[1] WSJ TV will gain a reputation as a “small-c” conservative media outlet, gaining a wide viewership among center-right, business-minded, and libertarian consumers as an “alternative” to those who saw a liberal bias in most media outlets, but at the same time in keeping with its “independent and trustworthy brand” (and with a strong firewall between the news and editorial side), it will not devolve into a flagrantly partisan news source and maintain a reputation for integrity in publishing. As such, there will be less of a progressive news backlash such that MSNBC and other more flagrantly partisan leftist news sources will not spin up and CNN and other arguably “small-l liberal” news sources will not be pulled further left. There will still be plenty of debate about what network is “biased” or not, but the networks themselves will attempt to stay “above the fray” and at least try to maintain the appearance of objectivity (mileage will vary highly on how well they succeed or not). News Radio, underground newspapers, websites, and other non-mainstream sources will, of course, persist on the edges.

[2] From the Yuri no trama nada bueno... post, Colosio survives thanks to Davydenko's wanting to see a Mexican presidential campaign and Davydenko's wife insisting on bringing a security detail with him in Tijuana. The assassination is foiled in part by Davydenko being there.

[3] Rebollo becomes the Mexican defense secretary after his predecessor died in a helicopter crash. Rebollo was still in the pocket of Juarez Cartel boss Amado Carrillo Fuentes. He still goes down.

[4] The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has been running Mexico since the 1930s. The fact they did not win a majority is huge.

[5] Curse you, Yuri!!!

[6] In this timeline the more Moscow-leaning Leonid Kuchma became the first Governor of the Sovereign State of the Ukraine pretty much by default, appointed by Gorbachev after helping to negotiate the Ukraine’s privileged position in the USR and tamping down separatist sentiments backed by Moscow’s seeming power, but by the mid-1990s western-leaning nationalism and the popularity of the Ukrainian People’s Party (UPP), for whom Kravchuk was the face, made growing gains in the State Duma and Kravchuk won the first open Governor’s election by a notable margin.

 

[CountDVB]

Wall Street Journal with a tv news thing is a pretty unique idea there

 

[Denliner]

“One man truly can make a difference. His name is Yuri.” – Anonymous FBI source “Big Tuna”.

Yuri is definitely having a larger influence on this TL than I expected. He's like ITTL Quark, but far more scrupulous.

[6] In this timeline the more Moscow-leaning Leonid Kuchma became the first Governor of the Sovereign State of the Ukraine pretty much by default, appointed by Gorbachev after helping to negotiate the Ukraine’s privileged position in the USR and tamping down separatist sentiments backed by Moscow’s seeming power, but by the mid-1990s western-leaning nationalism and the popularity of the Ukrainian People’s Party (UPP), for whom Kravchuk was the face, made growing gains in the State Duma and Kravchuk won the first open Governor’s election by a notable margin.

I can't wait to see how the Sovereign Union will handle the EU. Maybe they'll embrace being part of the European community instead of drawing themselves away from it.

 

[Shiny_Agumon]

New York – The Wall Street Journal today launched an eponymous cable news network in collaboration with Time Atlantic. The news network will focus primarily on financial news, though many speculate that it may continue in the newspaper’s tradition of center-right editorialism and coverage of topics of conservative interest. The owning Bancroft Family and Editorial Board, however, have maintained that they fully intend to honor the Journal’s long tradition of journalistic independence and integrity[1]. “The Journal’s long history as a bastion of reliable financial reportage will be maintained, as will our commitment to integrity,” they reported

Not a channel for me but seems like it could be a good alternative to the polemic rightwing tv we are used to seeing. Wonder if it will have more programming outside of the financial market as time goes on. Maybe some kind of high brow entertainment?

At a diplomatic meeting yesterday, Monday June 8th, President Al Gore met with Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Rosario Green along with Finance Secretary Angel Gurria, Interior Secretary Francisco Labastida and Sunray Holdings Bank founder and CEO Valentyn Davydenko. The meeting was in part to ensure a crackdown on cartels, get US-Mexican trade closer, show new ways to shore Mexican economy that the Russian-born Davydenko has advocated. Davydenko is a close friend of President Luis Colosio[2] and has been an important advisor to the Mexican President and his administration. The Colosio Administration is still suffering from the arrest of Defense Secretary General Jesus Rebollo last year[3] in last year's legislative election's the Institutional Revolutionary Party did not get a majority[4]. President Colosio was unavailable for the visit due to a trip to the Vatican

The War on the Drug cartels is on! Hope it's not as heavy handed as in OTL.

The immigration reforms will remove by-nation quotas and increase the availability and simplicity of educational and temporary worker visas, this last aspect a major Reform priority given the critical role of Latin American non-citizen workers in the agriculture industry. It will also offer limited amnesty opportunities to select illegal residents that meet certain criteria, including no criminal history, existing family and occupational supports, those with a plausible fear of violence in their home nation, and those brought across the border before their 18th birthday.

Seems reasonable, not perfect obviously but it shows that the tri-partisan system works.

The twin-announcements were met with much discussion in Brussels, as much as in Moscow, and speculation abounds at whether this marks a continued decentralization, or even presages a disintegration, of the USR or is simply a rebalancing of regional autonomies in the still-developing federation. USR Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin’s office released a statement noting that Moscow-Kiev relations “remain strong”, and that the Security Service was simply a matter “of internal security for the Sovereign State”, though Eastern Watchers remain skeptical and independent surveys indicate that Yeltsin’s popularity is dropping while perceptions of him as a weak or unreliable leader are growing.

Ukraine seems like its basically a sovereign country in all but name already and I wonder how long it will take until they try to make this de facto independence into a de jure one.

The USR continues to be a mixed bag, in some areas it's better than if they broke up but in others not so much. Guess that's sadly very realistic. Also small question but are they still using the Soviet style flags and emblems?

Because I don't think that was ever specified and I doubt it, but they wouldn't use the current Russian emblems and flags to right?

Great chapter @Geekhis Khan

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Does Larry see what happens when he finds a stranger in the Alps ITTL?

LOL, well, different mystery, so no Larry, though someone else may be asked about finding a stranger in the Alps. Alas a lot of our timeline's classic bad censorship dubs will be lost. Since Die Hard is different with a different actor, we may lose "Yippie-kai-yay, Mister Falcon" and The Usual Suspects is completely butterflied with Brian Singer and Kevin Spacey both facing abuse allegations earlier, so no "Give me the keys you Fairy Godmother" either. Very unlikely we'll hear "I'm sick and tired of these monkey-flinging snakes on this Monday-to-Friday airplane" too.

Hmmm...I'll have to come up with new bad dubs.

That's actually a pretty big change from the OTL Dude whose much less socially conscious.

Yep, pretty much. Dudism will be a little less "excuse to fuck off" iTTL. Ironically Jeff Dowd, the real life inspiration for The Dude, was very socially conscious and politically active. Jeff Lebowski briefly mentions being in the "Seattle Seven" like Dowd, but is otherwise pretty much an aimless drifter in OTL.

Man I hope John Candy gets his career back. Didn't know it was this bad

Yeah, when your whole typecast is "loveable fat guy" and suddenly you're not the fat guy it can be tough. Hollywood is thankless. He's still got some good gigs in voice acting, and this role will help get him some gigs, even if just Adam Westing.

Yuri is definitely having a larger influence on this TL than I expected.

LOL yea, me too!!

Ukraine seems like its basically a sovereign country in all but name already and I wonder how long it will take until they try to make this de facto independence into a de jure one.

Yes, the USS/USR is a much less centralized state than the RF since there are so many more non-Russian votes and while the Gorby government didn't fully collapse, it very nearly did and is much weaker than it lets on. At the moment many of the states that left OTL that didn't here are pushing the bounds of internal sovereignty, The Ukraine in particular since they're more Western-leaning on average, relatively economically and politically secure, and have had some bad experiences with Moscow over the centuries. Easy for Russian Nationalists to love the USSR. Hard for Ukrainians given what Stalin in particular did to them. The Central Asian states are likewise pushing the limits, and Russia is working hard to stop many of the interstate conflicts that erupted iOTL.

The USR continues to be a mixed bag, in some areas it's better than if they broke up but in others not so much. Guess that's sadly very realistic. Also small question but are they still using the Soviet style flags and emblems?

Because I don't think that was ever specified and I doubt it, but they wouldn't use the current Russian emblems and flags to right?

I posted the flag in the first post on the USR back in the early 1990s. It's the one planned from OTL for the Commonwealth of Independent States.

I know a lot of you find it ugly and I have no strong opinions personally.

 

[TheFaultsofAlts]

Hmmm...I'll have to come up with new bad dubs.

Want me to help in that aspect?

 

[Geekhis Khan]

Robert Downy Jr. Killed in Auto Crash
The Los Angeles Times, June 14th, 1998

LA – Oscar nominated Superman actor Robert Downey Jr. was killed yesterday on the I-5 near the I-10 merge and downtown LA, the result of a traffic accident. Downey, who was sober according to toxicology reports, was deemed not at fault for the collision, which was blamed on a driver using their cellular phone. He was 33.

(Image source Amazon)

Downey, whose career had taken a major setback following arrests for substance possession and abuse, had been two years sober and by all accounts was turning his life around. “This is a truly tragic and utterly pointless death,” said friend and director Ron Howard. “The world has been robbed of a great man and a fantastic actor with so much ahead of him. He will be missed.” Downey’s current film, the drama Sober, has been put into indefinite pause while Warner Brothers reassesses production.

Downey, the son of a Hollywood actor and filmmaker, rose to fame in the 1980s playing a variety of “teen comedy” roles before moving into dramatic roles, culminating in an Oscar nominated performance as Charlie Chaplin in the 1992 biopic. He went on to fame playing Superman, starting in Man of Steel, where he… Cont’d on A2.



Chapter 18: Chairman of the Board (Cont’d)
Excerpt from Jim Henson: Storyteller, an authorized biography by Jay O’Brian

On a Thursday night in February of 1998, Jim was alerted to a message by his personal assistant Javier. The LAPD had called. Bob Forrest was in recovery at Cedars Sinai, and under police custody. He’d been picked up off of the street, in the midst of a severe overdose, and in possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia. Jim was listed as his “Emergency Contact”.

Jim went to see him the next morning, finding him recovered for the most part, but still handcuffed to the bed rail. He was smiling, but his skin was pale and sunken and his voice shaky. He was reading a People Magazine with actor Robert Downey Jr. on the cover. “Hey, Jim,” Bob said. “Just reading about RDJ here.”

“I never thought of you as a People person,” Jim joked.

Forrest laughed, a croaking wheeze. “Yea, not my first choice, but RDJ’s really speakin’ to me. ‘Live life, don’t run from it.’ You know, I can’t even remember much of the last six months.”

Jim didn’t know what to say. Forrest was relaxed and smiling, but he looked like one of the zombies from Kindred Spirits who’d lost the Angel Inside.

Bob Forrest c1998 (Image source YouTube)

Jim ultimately bailed out Forrest and hired a driver to take him to his court-mandated rehab. He didn’t expect much. How many times had Forrest been through rehab? Nurse Maria, who worked for John, considered him a lost cause. “I’ve seen folks that deep all my life. He ain’t the quitting type, no. Pray for recovery, but mostly pray for his soul because he’ll be seeing Jesus real soon.”

Jim was quite morose for the next few weeks, burying himself in his work as a distraction (in particular putting the finishing touches on the Studio Ghibli collaboration for What Dreams May Come), and spending far too much time alone in his “Hotel California” manor. One of those nights he took the time to read the People article. Yes, he could see why it was speaking to Forrest. It spoke to him too. The constant specter of mortality had always hung over him, and the ticking clock of time ever mocked him. But Downey had managed to push all of that aside and live in the moment, or was at least making of good show of doing so.

When Jim saw Forrest upon his return from rehab, he was shocked. Forrest was looking fairly healthy (he’d gained weight) and actually happy. And more than that, he looked relieved, like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. He’s always been distracted when Jim met him, anxious and impatient as if he had somewhere else more important to be (i.e. on a nod). But this felt different.

The whole ride back to Hotel California, Bob spoke nearly non-stop, a mix of excitement, promise, second chances, and melancholy for the “days I lost”. He spoke more than once about Downey. “You know, it really takes a junkie to reach a junkie. No offense, Jim, but you ain’t had to carry the monkey, so you can’t really speak to it, right?”

Jim asked Bob if he’d like to meet Downey.

“Well, fuck yea! We crossed paths back in the day, on the set of Less than Zero and all, but I never really got to know him.”

Jim called in some favors and set up a get-together, meeting Downey at a private beach club. Jim had briefly met Downey on the set of Less than Zero as well, but he mostly sat back and let the two recovering addicts talk, even excusing himself on occasion to let them talk in private. The two found kindred spirits in one another. Bob even got a job doing the score and soundtrack for Sober. The two soon became close and Jim felt glad to have arranged the introduction.

A couple of months later Robert Downey Jr. was killed in a car accident. Downey was clean and sober and driving responsibly. The accident was caused by an inattentive driver focusing on his phone. The sheer pointlessness of the death hit Jim like a punch to the gut. The man had overcome or at least tamed his demons, and a single, stupid jerk worrying more about his damned phone call than his driving killed him in an instant. The other driver survived and was facing manslaughter charges, but even this small “justice” felt hollow. Just another life destroyed for no point.

Jim also immediately feared for Bob Forrest. Downey was his, for lack of better words, idol and mentor and lifeline. Jim called up Bob and rushed to see him, half expecting him to already be on a nod or at least considering it. To Jim’s pleasant surprise, Bob was sober and actually in good spirits, if a bit melancholy, composing a song for Downey’s funeral.

“Yea, that’s life, Jim,” Bob told him. “Random as fuck. If there was a greater order or justice in life, I’d be dead in a ditch for my sins and Robert would be starring in his movie. Life is a meaningless abyss where the only point to life is living it. And I’m cool with that. No point to life but what you make for yourself.”

“But doesn’t it seem unfair?”

“Well, duh,” Bob laughed. “Life ain’t fair, and it’s unfair of us to expect it to be fair. What does the sun care about fairness? It ain’t shining for the trees’ sake and it don’t care that it’s giving the beach bunnies cancer. Rob’s dead. Ain’t no point. Just happens. Rob’s death don’t mean shit, it’s his life that matters, brother! What, I’m supposed to shoot a bunch of Turkish tar into my neck ‘cause he’s dead? Betray everything that he taught me ‘cause I’m fucking sad? Fuck that, I’m living ‘cause he can’t!

“Like Rob said, it’s not when you die that matters, brother, it’s how you’re living, right?” Bob concluded.

Forrest later discovered that Downey had left him a substantial amount of money in his will with the stipulation that he spend it on helping addicts. Bob didn’t hesitate and, underwritten by Henson Arts Holdings for business and administrative matters, founded Addict 2 Addict Advocacy with Flea and John Frusciante from the former Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dead Kennedys drummer D.H. Peligro. The advocacy and recovery assistance charity was dedicated to confidentially helping addicts without judgement or condescension and became one of the premier and most successful addiction treatment and advocacy organizations on the west coast.

But the event also had a profound impact on Jim. Mortality and the tyranny of time had always hung over him. Part of what drove him was the need to “beat the clock” and pack in all of his ideas within his most certainly limited time on the planet. He’d felt profoundly each and every early death, from Slovak to the Coreys to Anthony Kiedis and most lately Downey. It had always seemed like an act of theft by the universe, good people stolen too early. But at the same time, he was watching as Downey’s and Kiedis’ tragic losses were paying forward, saving lives one addict at a time.

Jim refused to believe in Bob’s “happy nihilism” philosophy and chose to believe that there was a greater order to the universe. He chose to believe that people had control over their fate. He loved the ideas in What Dreams May Come for “writing your own afterlife.”

But one thing that Downey and Forrest said kept resonating with him: “living life, not running from it.” He hadn’t exactly run from life, but he was sure as sunrise running through life. He’d been in such a hurry to pack it all in, even as each new idea spawned three more. He wouldn’t consider himself a math whiz, but he knew that his ideas were growing far faster than he had any hope of completing them. The chances of him accomplishing everything, even if he could live forever, were mathematically impossible for as long as his creativity inevitably spawned more creativity.

After several weeks of thinking about things, he called up Forrest. “Bob, you’re right. I need to live my life. Any advice on how to do it?”

“Brother,” Forrest replied, “you’ve already done the hard part: admitting that you have a problem. Carve a slot out of your big, important executive schedule and meet me on Catalina this Saturday. We’re going to start living, no chemicals other than coffee required.”

 

[Nathanoraptor]

Y'know when I said "this TL spared too many people"?

I take it all back now.

 

[Deleted member 165942]

Ehh still a better fate than what Player Two gave him, at least he died doing some good.

 

[Nathanoraptor]

Ehh still a better fate than what Player Two gave him, at least he died doing some good.

What happened to him there?

EDIT: Ah, I checked - and I totally agree.

 

[TrevorFromStarWars]

I really wasn't expecting RDJ's death!