Geronimo : What if Osama Bin Laden was killed prior to 9/11?
- Thread starter Iwanh
- Start date
Just caught up.
This is the equivalent of the HBO miniseries called Generation Kill? Which is also based on a novel of an embedded journalist during the OTL Iraq War.
I remember these games.
I never saw Target: Terror here in the Philippines but I did see the gameplay. It's funny in a badway.
Raw Thrills games are very prevalent in arcades here in the Philippines.
Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead, Terminator: Salvation, and Ridin' Cruise.
There's still 3 years left to TTL 2009
I hope Up released in 2D animation way at least😞
TTL people deserves this masterpiece as well
I hope Up released in 2D animation way at least😞
TTL people deserves this masterpiece as well
It's very possible Euromaidan might have happened way sooner, if Yulia Tymoshenko gets arrested and if democratic backsliding, corruption, and potential moves aligning Ukraine more closely with Russia's interests happens, Euromaidan would happened sooner in 2007-2009.
Part 69: Hips Don't Lie - Culture 2006
Part LXIX
Hips Don't Lie - Culture 2006
Back to more earthly issues in 2006, the world experienced a new year of music. One that witnessed the rise of new talents, while others retained their pop crowns, all while new technologies continued to revolutionize how people even listened to the media itself.
Some of the biggest sellers of the year included pop albums by Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, and Shakira. Hip Hop and dance music captured the radio waves with songs by Fergie, Nelly Furtado, and Chamillionaire alongside plenty of others.
One of the biggest new artists of the year was the British pop starlet Lily Allen who came to prominence on the online social media platform Myspace, she was widely seen as a strong and rebellious voice of the new generation, for her outspokenness and willingness to trash talk other artists. Allen’s emergence came at the same time as other newly popular young female artists like the Disney Productions backed pop artist Ashley Tisdale who soared to teenage popularity following the release of the Disney Channel Movie Hannah Montana, as well as the country-pop artist Miley Cyrus
Another ‘Myspace famous’ group emerged out from the UK, the Arctic Monkeys a Nu-Rave Rock Group who climbed the charts with the release of their album, which became a best-seller, and cemented the Nu-Rave genre as a dominant neon and glowstick-laden cultural brand.
Major controversy was kicked off when throughout her worldwide tour the ‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna used every opportunity to blaspheme every major religion, donning a crown of thorns, performing a mock crucifixion on a pope lookalike, and seducing religious icons including Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed. The move even caused several countries including Italy and Russia to debate banning her appearance fearing cultural outrage backlash, however suffering a stage injury meant the rest of the tour ‘Scandalous’ was canceled.
The year witnessed the ongoing pop rivalry of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears with dueling tours and endless gossip and media rivalries between ‘Team Justin’ or ‘Team Britney ‘and which side every major public figure or celebrity appeared to be on became a frequent topic of conversation for those so inclined.
Top 10 best-selling albums of 2006
The growing dominance of Myspace in the discovery and emergence of new bands led the site to unveil new features that let people directly download music for free or potentially for a profit, making it a major contender to the market leader iTunes. "The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there," Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe said. The site was set to dominate as it absorbed the userbase and infrastructure of its former rival Facebook and penned out expensive deals with record companies
Also, in that year an album was released, to generally positive reviews, but less than stellar sales. It had been designed to lean into the large audience of female country fans, but perhaps due to a mix of heavy market saturation and some criticism of its overly adolescent nature. It never rose in the charts past its release where it briefly lingered at the top 20. Though there was some buzz in the scene about this new artist and she toured for a time, in the end, other avenues opened. “I think about that a lot, I really thought that was going to be my life, I wanted a singing career bad, It's funny how things work out” according to an interview with Taylor Swift in 2011.
(Top left to right) Lily Allen, Poster for Hannah Montana Movie, Maddonah during the 2006 tour
(Middle left to right) Nu-Rave bands Arctic Monkeys and the Klaxons
(Bottom left to right) Justin Timberlake, the Taylor Swift album and Britney Spears
The new era of music was being dominated by two rapidly growing websites. Myspace which the previous year had swallowed its university-based competitor TheFacebook for $75 million dollars in stock and cash, from a young Mr Zuckerburg, incorporating its staff, data, and userbase. Contributed even more to the site's rise, quickly becoming the most visited site on the internet, signing up new users at a rate of hundreds of thousands a day, soon the company planned to expand and go global, but after its big spending spree and new music industry contracts, the site needed additional backing.
All this attention signaled to most of the tech and business world, that investing in the internet was now a safe and potentially extremely lucrative bet, following TheFacebook buyout, Myspace and its parent company Intermix explored acquisition bids running in the hundreds of millions of dollars, from big money companies like media conglomerate Viacom with an initial bid of $500 Million, then news giants like the Murdoch owned Newscorp with a subsequent bid of $650 Million but both firms were somehow outspent by the search engine behemoth Google for a monstrous $780 million dollars in stock, further consolidating both Google and Myspace’s role in the internet as we know it today, “It’s important to move Google to where the users are and where the user-generated content is” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt concluding the deal in May 2006 and further adding to Googles portfolio.
But where some saw opportunity in the online space, others saw a threat. The other dominant website in 2006 was WebTube which had similarly exploded in popularity through the year, a video-sharing platform averaging a hundred million views every day and controlling the majority of video traffic powered entirely by user-generated content things seemed bright, however, this system had serious downsides. Specifically copyright law, the scare stories came in quickly. The New York Times called it a “litigation-laden landmine” and many attributed its rise not to quirky content of grown men dancing or young children biting one another but to pirated content, it was 'Napster on acid'. And soon the eye of television networks, movie studios, and the music industry fell on the website for its role in facilitating this torrent of quasi-illegal content.
The legal train got moving in July when Robert Tur a Los Angeles reporter hit the site with a lawsuit alleging that news footage he owned including O.J. Simpsons freeway chase had been uploaded to the website without his permission, the lawsuit was supported by major television networks including NBC and the Universal Music Group who had got into a major disagreement with the website following the uploading of its content and sought significant damages for each illegal upload, a move that could result in billions of dollars of fines for the company. The snowballing legal morass quickly became a problem for the company which alongside other smaller sites struggled to introduce moderation systems and the battle succeeded in scaring away potential advertisers or investors the site badly needed, the site was in trouble and the internet would be shaped in its wake. [1]
New technologies emerged in 2006, to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, specifically an update to Sony’s line with the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo stunned the gaming space with a new product, dubbed until release of the ‘Revolution’ a ‘motion-controlled’ console the Nintendo Wii completing the main line up of seventh generation consoles. These releases spawned massive interest becoming fast-selling items of the Christmas season, aided in part by Sony’s decision to drop an expensive Blu-Ray player from the system bringing its prices down with the attempt to beat out Microsoft in the ‘console wars’, these new consoles were paired with new releases like the new Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, Zelda and the Best-Selling first-person horror shooter Gears of Evil and no living room was complete without a copy of Wii sports.
Other pieces of tech people got their hands on this year were the new edition of MacBooks and iMacs from Apple completing the transition to using Intel chips, and in the mobile phones department one of the exciting pieces was a Windows-powered “Smartphone” attempting to compete with the highly popular Blackberry, the Palm Treo 700, that packed a major punch able to access high data speed, do email, play music and stream television seen as an efficient yet clunk piece of kit, that could represent the way forward for the industry, that was matched by the Blackberry 8800, Samsungs BlackJack both trying to replicate their innovation however there was growing industry buzz surrounding Apple and rumors that it was preparing to unveil a mobile phone the next year.
(Top left to right) Illustration following Google's purchase of Myspace
(2nd from top left to right) WebTube home page, popular prated Youtube video SNLls Lazy Sunday
(2nd from bottom) 7th Generation Consoles, X-Box, PlayStation, Wii, and the Palm Phone
(Bottom left to right) Video Games, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Gears of Evil, Call of Duty 3 and Wii Sports
Plenty of films got released powering a box office resurgence from the previous year with big movies like the Second Pirates of the Caribbean film, the Da Vinci Code cinematic adaption, and the year also saw the release of the newest James Bond movie, Queen and Country
The release of the film, as it would turn out would be Pierce Brosnan's final role as 007. With uncertainty from the studios about his return given diminishing financial rewards and moderate critical reception, a fact mocked with comparisons to the new Bond parody film Austin Powers 4, which according to legend drew some of its comedy from an early draft of the Bond movie scrips which prompted last-minute re-edits to avoid embarrassment.
Some of the year's other major releases included Superhero movies which had quickly risen to regularly perform well financially, including an update to Fox’s X-Men Franchise and DC added to its new roster of heroes with Wonder Woman the biggest movie of the year which followed the Star Spangled gal (Played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) in a fish out of water action-comedy.
(Top left to right) Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Da Vinci Code, Queen and Country
(Bottom left to right) Austin Powers 4, X-Men 3, Wonder Woman
Other notable movies of the year included the mockumentary Borat, a film supposedly about a television presenter from Kazakhstan traveling the United States, but is actually following a fictional character fooling his interviewees and guests with his own ignorance, notable scenes include Borat fooling various celebrities, news presenters and politicians into thinking he really represents the country and tricking them into supporting fictional causes in a display that lead to reviewers criticizing the “over cynical view of Americans good-hearted nature, regarding the plight of even fictional countries and diseases abroad” according to Christopher Hitchens for Slate.
As for other comedies released in 2006 designed to lampoon the nation’s growing obsession with celebrity culture and growing self-obsession. Americatastrophe following a celebrity starlet who via backroom machinations becomes the President of the United States meant to characterize the new era of well-groomed, glamourous, egotistical made-for-TV politics, typified by U.S. politicians like (President Edwards and Governor Huffington), In the same vein the popular country band the Dixie Chicks became the latest in a line of attempts to turn musicians into film stars in American Dreamgirlz, a light-hearted comedy musical about country artists entering a talent show while crossing sleazy producers, television executives and reporters in order to win, the film flopped in part due to the trio’s lack of acting prowess, comedic timing and dismal writing.
The year saw several popular sci-fi films both sequels of sorts with vastly different receptions. One was the big-budget sequel to 1996’s Independence Day, Independence Day II, where humanity had to face off against an even more powerful alien force, 10 years after the events of the first film bringing back the old cast of characters to yet again barely save the earth from destruction, on a more introspective note director Alfonso Cuarón brought to life the 1992 novel ‘Snow Crash’ in a film that asked how the end of the world might actually look, like?
(left to right) Borat, Americatasrophe, American Dreamgirlz, Independence Day II, Snow Crash
There were also other serious dramatic pictures including the Spike Lee documentary When the Levee’s Broke about a post-Katrina New Orleans and the traumatic and heroic efforts to rebuild the city. Some powerful war movies emerged, one directed by British director Paul Greengrass 2 Days in October about the Vietnam War, specifically the Battle of Ong Tranh a US defeat but which commanders spun as a positive. The other two were both by acclaimed actor/director Clint Eastwood both about the Korean War, drawing directly from his own experience in one picture following American forces on the peninsula In Mortal Combat and the second from the Korean (North and South) perspective Letters from the Line following an all Korean cast And other historical events were cinematically revisited by Oliver Stone in the movie Waco, following the fatal 51-day siege between the U.S. and Texan state government and the Branch Davidian religious cult, in typical Stone style asking plenty of open-ended questions about the overzealous and chaotic series of events and fully prepared to blame the government as responsible for the deadly conclusion, an allegation that prompted the FBI, ATF and Texas police to refute the films version of events.
Additionally, the director Quentin Tarantino returned to the cinema screen to release his long-awaited kung-fu movie Shaolin Daggers filmed in Hongkong and entirely in Mandarin, dubbed over in the style movies of the past about two Hong Kong Police Officers fighting off drug gangs to save their girlfriends with all the expected Tarantino action, gore, and visual panache.
Domestic Box Office 2006
(Top left to right) When the Levees Broke, 2 Days in October, In Mortal Combat
(Bottom left to right) Letters from the Line, Waco, Shaolin Daggers
The culture of the United States changed outside of its media, following the appointment of liberal chief justice Kathleen Sulivan, the court's balance had shifted from leaning right to leaning left ushering what Republicans criticized as “left-wing judicial activism” making rulings on free speech, police procedure and environmental protection and a controversial death penalty case that upheld a lower court ruling that overturned Kansas’s and 15 other states laws regarding the death penalty requiring them to raise the standards of evidence and demanding retrials for current death penalty cases, including in states like Texas where the vast majority of executions were performed. The court was also accused by Republicans of intruding in the midterm election when it threw out Texas’s congressional map for being overly partisan which Texans argued resulted in a new map that unfairly favored Democrats according to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
The court's liberal majority opened up many avenues for progressive movements trying to make their stamp on the country while they could, and domestically there were ripple effects. Gay rights and the right to marriage in particular emerged as the critical cultural battleground of the era represented by the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain and in New Jersey where newly sworn-in Governor Chris Christie was forced into a lengthy legal and political battle after the court ruled that banning gay marriage in the state was unconstitutional and pushed to enact a marriage or civil unions law, a fight that the governor pledged to “bring all the way to the Supreme Court”.
(left to right) Brokeback Mountain Poster, Texas AG Gergg Abbott, New Jersey Governor Christie
In 2006, the business world was in a state of change, despite stock market highs there were growing concerns of a market bubble being created, especially in the housing sector, combined with growing pains in the American auto manufacturing base as they struggled to compete in the globalized world, oil prices fell from their 05 highs, but the world was becoming more concerned more with the environmental impact of purchases, and the Enron saga finally wrapped up with arrests and indictments for top execs accused of defrauding investors and state governments, and America’s top cop Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched a fledgling investigation into so-called ‘predatory lenders'.
One of the more curious stories of the year was the final collapse of Concorde, the supersonic airliner that had struggled through a downturn of the early 00s following a crash in 2000. After failing to meet an agreement, the final fleet of 10 jets was sold to the billionaire Richard Branson and his Virgin Atlantic Airlines who then vowed to revamp supersonic flight “for many years to come”.
In the entertainment industry, communications giant Comcast finally completed its mega deal to acquire the legacy media giant, The Walt Disney Company now renamed Walt Disney Productions, taking control over its many subsidiaries including broadcast network ABC, and cable channels ESPN, the Disney Channel, Jetix and partial ownership of Lifetime, History and of course Disney’s major cash flow in its parks. As part of the takeover Disney Productions acquired a new permanent CEO following the transition, the COO of Comcast Steve Burke, hinting that the new corporation would be focused primarily on its small screen output.
The first major changes involved the integration of the Comcast Sports Group into ESPN, including the Golf Channel and Versus network allowing Comcast networks to quickly bolster ratings with access to the Disney back catalog, with plans to rejuvenate ABC, Disney’s Animated Films Department, and its resorts and parks all struggling under years of financial strain, while investing heavily into the digital space. As a result of the lengthy deal process Disney’s relationship with the Pixar animation studio behind its major previous hits struggled, finishing out its 6-picture deal with the release of Cars in 2006 entering into talks and entering a new 5-picture deal instead with Sony Pictures as the new distributor, and the Marel Entertainment company began production of its own movie slate starting with Captain America.
(Top left to right) Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and Richard Branson with Conchord Planes
(Bottom left to right) Walt Disney Comcast, Pixar
Some of the most popular pieces of literature to release in 2006 included a sequel to Stephanie Meyer’s successful young-adult romantic sci-fi novel Blue Moon. And the curiously written World War M by Max Brooks, which tells the tale of a modern-day Martian invasion of Earth from the perspective of a reporter in the aftermath of a hard-fought human victory; and Cormac McCarthy’s epic The Road another piece of post-apocalyptic fiction instead pinpointing the human experience of a father and son narrowly surviving the experience until finally after a hard battle against the elements summer returns leaving their eventual fates uncertain but a little brighter.
(left to right) Blue Moon, World War M, The Road
And the years television was as packed as ever as digital broadcasts emerged into the world of High-Definition TV and new shows came to the small screen.
These new releases included the showtime series Dexter, a crime show set in Miami, where the eponymous detective Dexter Morgan a typical loose cannon hunts down serial killers originally a limited series in conception, the show’s popularity led to it being recommissioned.
The television show Lost, known for its twists and turns shocked audiences one last time with its sudden cancellation in 2006 following a battle with ratings and high costs, in a network move that sparked a considerable backlash from the fanbase despite consistently high ratings and awards nominations who organized in online forums to opine about how the show's mysteries would never be resolved, petition for its renewal and even crowdsource their own version.
However, in Lost’s place, NBC debuted its own spiritual successor Travellers focusing on an ensemble cast of accidental time travellers from various parts of history who become stranded in 21st century New York.
On top of that several comedies made their way or returned to the screen, like the comedy 30 Rock a satirical take on the behind-the-scenes of an SNL-like sketch comedy series, and another British adaptation in line with the previous years’ The Office came out Peep Show following two roommates the uptight Mark (Ed Helm) and the too loose Jerry (Joel McHale) the show was notable for like it’s UK original, being filmed entirely in the first person, popularising the format for various other comedy series.
The political drama The West Wing held its first season without President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) at the helm, replaced by President Owens (Christian Slater), many assumed the show would lose its popularity but instead, it opted to revamp itself under a new showrunner, as Owens reveals himself as a much more morally grey President than Bartlett. Manipulating his staff and political enemies to get his way, ending a judicial filibuster by pardoning a Republican Senators brother-in-law, and triumphing in the Presidential election by leaking the existence of an open bribery investigation into his opponent, winning in a resulting landslide (though we don’t see a full map Texas and Arizona are seen turning Blue).
In 2006 an animated program released, authored, and illustrated by noted Cartoon Network writer/artist Gerard Way titled The Black Parade a dark comedy about an undead rock band with the goal of harvesting souls through their music, though a child’s show it pushed the boundaries especially for its rather morose imagery, akin to the recently ended Invader Zim.
(Top left to right) Detective Dexter Morgan, Lost, and Travellers
(Middle left to right) 30 Rock, The Office Season 2, and Peep Show
(Bottom left to right) Christian Slater, The Black Parade
Rounding out the year, a new secretary general of the UN Ban Ki-Moon was elected, Anna Lindh won a generous victory in Sweden as its first female prime minister, Russian critic living in the UK Boris Berezovsky disappeared, Israel's legislature signed through a contentious West Bank withdrawal policy and People Magazine ranked Pierce Brosnan the sexiest man alive controversially putting President John Edwards the runner up.
(left to right) People Magazine Cover, Swedish PM Lindh, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Missing Russian Oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Time Magazine Person of the Year 2006: Me
[1] Took inspiration from this article on a similar POD https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/21145506/youtube-without-internet-fiction-alternate-history
Better late than never.
Hips Don't Lie - Culture 2006
Back to more earthly issues in 2006, the world experienced a new year of music. One that witnessed the rise of new talents, while others retained their pop crowns, all while new technologies continued to revolutionize how people even listened to the media itself.
Some of the biggest sellers of the year included pop albums by Justin Timberlake, Rihanna, and Shakira. Hip Hop and dance music captured the radio waves with songs by Fergie, Nelly Furtado, and Chamillionaire alongside plenty of others.
One of the biggest new artists of the year was the British pop starlet Lily Allen who came to prominence on the online social media platform Myspace, she was widely seen as a strong and rebellious voice of the new generation, for her outspokenness and willingness to trash talk other artists. Allen’s emergence came at the same time as other newly popular young female artists like the Disney Productions backed pop artist Ashley Tisdale who soared to teenage popularity following the release of the Disney Channel Movie Hannah Montana, as well as the country-pop artist Miley Cyrus
Another ‘Myspace famous’ group emerged out from the UK, the Arctic Monkeys a Nu-Rave Rock Group who climbed the charts with the release of their album, which became a best-seller, and cemented the Nu-Rave genre as a dominant neon and glowstick-laden cultural brand.
Major controversy was kicked off when throughout her worldwide tour the ‘Queen of Pop’ Madonna used every opportunity to blaspheme every major religion, donning a crown of thorns, performing a mock crucifixion on a pope lookalike, and seducing religious icons including Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed. The move even caused several countries including Italy and Russia to debate banning her appearance fearing cultural outrage backlash, however suffering a stage injury meant the rest of the tour ‘Scandalous’ was canceled.
The year witnessed the ongoing pop rivalry of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears with dueling tours and endless gossip and media rivalries between ‘Team Justin’ or ‘Team Britney ‘and which side every major public figure or celebrity appeared to be on became a frequent topic of conversation for those so inclined.
Top 10 best-selling albums of 2006
| No. | Artist | Album | Copies sold |
| 1. | Hannah Montana cast | Soundtrack | 8,500,000 |
| 2. | Britney Spears | Re-touchable | 8,350,000 |
| 3. | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Stadium Arcadium | 8,200,000 |
| 4. | Justin Timberlake | FutureSex/LoveSounds | 7,900,000 |
| 5. | Carrie Underwood | Some Hearts | 6,900,000 |
| 6. | Pink | I'm Not Dead | 6,500,000 |
| 7. | Beyoncé | B'Day | 8,700,000 |
| 8. | Daughtry | Daughtry | 5,650,000 |
| 9. | Nelly Furtado | Loose | 4,900,000 |
| 10. | Lily Allen | Alright, Still | 4,500,000 |
2006 WHEN NU RAVE CONQUERED THE WORLD – VICE
Few genres can lay claim to headlines quite like Nu-rave. There is little room for moderation, what was formerly a niche and underground movement, popularized in British nightclubs and attacked as a “perversion of the original 80’s sound” has broken through into the mainstream, and brightly colored jeans, trashed for their bad taste are flying off the shelves, the press smeared the music as ‘unlistenable and ‘unequivocally terrible’ somehow too pretentious and too stupid has formed the basis of many young peoples life experiences. Representing rebellion for a new era with the breakout band the Klaxons and even established acts like the French electronic duo Daft Punk have delved into the genre headlining Coachella this year.
But then there is the underside, the backlash, the newspaper stories of illegal drug-infested house parties, where kids meet up organized over Myspace. “It had to be drugs”, read an article in the Times, “after all without illicit substances, how else could people listen to this”.
The growing dominance of Myspace in the discovery and emergence of new bands led the site to unveil new features that let people directly download music for free or potentially for a profit, making it a major contender to the market leader iTunes. "The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there," Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe said. The site was set to dominate as it absorbed the userbase and infrastructure of its former rival Facebook and penned out expensive deals with record companies
Also, in that year an album was released, to generally positive reviews, but less than stellar sales. It had been designed to lean into the large audience of female country fans, but perhaps due to a mix of heavy market saturation and some criticism of its overly adolescent nature. It never rose in the charts past its release where it briefly lingered at the top 20. Though there was some buzz in the scene about this new artist and she toured for a time, in the end, other avenues opened. “I think about that a lot, I really thought that was going to be my life, I wanted a singing career bad, It's funny how things work out” according to an interview with Taylor Swift in 2011.
(Top left to right) Lily Allen, Poster for Hannah Montana Movie, Maddonah during the 2006 tour
(Middle left to right) Nu-Rave bands Arctic Monkeys and the Klaxons
(Bottom left to right) Justin Timberlake, the Taylor Swift album and Britney Spears
All this attention signaled to most of the tech and business world, that investing in the internet was now a safe and potentially extremely lucrative bet, following TheFacebook buyout, Myspace and its parent company Intermix explored acquisition bids running in the hundreds of millions of dollars, from big money companies like media conglomerate Viacom with an initial bid of $500 Million, then news giants like the Murdoch owned Newscorp with a subsequent bid of $650 Million but both firms were somehow outspent by the search engine behemoth Google for a monstrous $780 million dollars in stock, further consolidating both Google and Myspace’s role in the internet as we know it today, “It’s important to move Google to where the users are and where the user-generated content is” said Google Chairman Eric Schmidt concluding the deal in May 2006 and further adding to Googles portfolio.
But where some saw opportunity in the online space, others saw a threat. The other dominant website in 2006 was WebTube which had similarly exploded in popularity through the year, a video-sharing platform averaging a hundred million views every day and controlling the majority of video traffic powered entirely by user-generated content things seemed bright, however, this system had serious downsides. Specifically copyright law, the scare stories came in quickly. The New York Times called it a “litigation-laden landmine” and many attributed its rise not to quirky content of grown men dancing or young children biting one another but to pirated content, it was 'Napster on acid'. And soon the eye of television networks, movie studios, and the music industry fell on the website for its role in facilitating this torrent of quasi-illegal content.
The legal train got moving in July when Robert Tur a Los Angeles reporter hit the site with a lawsuit alleging that news footage he owned including O.J. Simpsons freeway chase had been uploaded to the website without his permission, the lawsuit was supported by major television networks including NBC and the Universal Music Group who had got into a major disagreement with the website following the uploading of its content and sought significant damages for each illegal upload, a move that could result in billions of dollars of fines for the company. The snowballing legal morass quickly became a problem for the company which alongside other smaller sites struggled to introduce moderation systems and the battle succeeded in scaring away potential advertisers or investors the site badly needed, the site was in trouble and the internet would be shaped in its wake. [1]
New technologies emerged in 2006, to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, specifically an update to Sony’s line with the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo stunned the gaming space with a new product, dubbed until release of the ‘Revolution’ a ‘motion-controlled’ console the Nintendo Wii completing the main line up of seventh generation consoles. These releases spawned massive interest becoming fast-selling items of the Christmas season, aided in part by Sony’s decision to drop an expensive Blu-Ray player from the system bringing its prices down with the attempt to beat out Microsoft in the ‘console wars’, these new consoles were paired with new releases like the new Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, Zelda and the Best-Selling first-person horror shooter Gears of Evil and no living room was complete without a copy of Wii sports.
Other pieces of tech people got their hands on this year were the new edition of MacBooks and iMacs from Apple completing the transition to using Intel chips, and in the mobile phones department one of the exciting pieces was a Windows-powered “Smartphone” attempting to compete with the highly popular Blackberry, the Palm Treo 700, that packed a major punch able to access high data speed, do email, play music and stream television seen as an efficient yet clunk piece of kit, that could represent the way forward for the industry, that was matched by the Blackberry 8800, Samsungs BlackJack both trying to replicate their innovation however there was growing industry buzz surrounding Apple and rumors that it was preparing to unveil a mobile phone the next year.
(Top left to right) Illustration following Google's purchase of Myspace
(2nd from top left to right) WebTube home page, popular prated Youtube video SNLls Lazy Sunday
(2nd from bottom) 7th Generation Consoles, X-Box, PlayStation, Wii, and the Palm Phone
(Bottom left to right) Video Games, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Gears of Evil, Call of Duty 3 and Wii Sports
Plenty of films got released powering a box office resurgence from the previous year with big movies like the Second Pirates of the Caribbean film, the Da Vinci Code cinematic adaption, and the year also saw the release of the newest James Bond movie, Queen and Country
Queen and Country: The End of James Bond? – Empire
★★★☆☆ - Kim Newman, Empire
Though we are told consistently throughout the film that this is a mission like any other, James Bond (helmed for the last time by now veteran agent, Pierce Brosnan). It is everything but, as for the first time in a while 007 himself becomes truly introspective and considers a way out of the MI6 lifestyle.
Though the film checks all the correct boxes for a typical Bond film: pre-credit action (a horse race at the derby), a loud and bawdy anthem (by Cold Play), mesmeric title sequences (as Bond faces hundreds of clones of himself), globetrotting (Cuba and Italy), master villains with henchmen and plots (initially the ‘Dealer’ played by Mads Mikkelsen tough a brilliant twist is in store), the girls (Just one this time the double agent Ms Fox played by Selma Hayek, and more explosions and picturesque scenery than I could count.
However, despite the ridiculous and overcomplicated plot revolving around a nuclear black market, Bond finds himself cut loose and on the run from his own countrymen, left to complete his mission alone and hunted down by other 00s. The film finds its heart in acknowledging Brosnan’s departure from the role, the second longest behind Roger Moore seeing him off properly in the finale by killing him, only to reveal he faked his own death to live a more peaceful life in Jamaica.
The release of the film, as it would turn out would be Pierce Brosnan's final role as 007. With uncertainty from the studios about his return given diminishing financial rewards and moderate critical reception, a fact mocked with comparisons to the new Bond parody film Austin Powers 4, which according to legend drew some of its comedy from an early draft of the Bond movie scrips which prompted last-minute re-edits to avoid embarrassment.
Some of the year's other major releases included Superhero movies which had quickly risen to regularly perform well financially, including an update to Fox’s X-Men Franchise and DC added to its new roster of heroes with Wonder Woman the biggest movie of the year which followed the Star Spangled gal (Played by Sarah Michelle Gellar) in a fish out of water action-comedy.
Movie Clash - X-Men 3 vs Wonder Woman – ComicBookNerd.Com
Eric - “Welcome to movie clash, today we will be discussing the two major Comic Book movies of 2006, X-Men 3 and Wonder Woman, these were high-powered films, one capping off a trilogy and one a debut, one helmed by a veteran of the series Bryan Singer and one by first time cinematic director Joss Whedon.”
Mateo – “What a year, I mean I really like both movies, and picking between them is so hard because they are so different The Last Stand is so dark, and especially seeing the Phoenix’s powers was amazing, compared to Wonder Woman which was a lot funnier than I thought it was going to be, probably the funniest film I’ve seen all year and I know there was that fanboy hate on the blogs about Gellar’s height and hair but who cares”
Eric – “As if wigs don’t exist”.
Mateo - “Exactly”
Eric – “But which film did you actually prefer?”
Mateo – “I would have to say that X-Men was better, I really liked Wonder Woman, but I think the battle against Strife just doesn't stand up against that final mutant battle, you can tell that the budget was more limited and the send-off for those X-Men was too great and I think we have to give credit to the X-Men movies for really renewing audience interest in Super Hero Movies”
Eric – “Once again we have to disagree, I loved the movie but there were major pitfalls, Cyclops is killed off screen for one, the cure plot is barely mentioned halfway through, and the fight sequences just weren’t as real as Wonder Woman”.
Mateo – “You can tell Whedon took note from Batman Born Again, but it was a little cliché ‘girl meets guy’ they fall in love etcetera”.
Eric – “With a worse script maybe but Gellar and Hartnett shined, and general audiences seriously agree, even as supposedly the studio were concerned with the film's overly comedic direction.”.
…
(Top left to right) Pirates of the Caribbean 2, The Da Vinci Code, Queen and Country
(Bottom left to right) Austin Powers 4, X-Men 3, Wonder Woman
As for other comedies released in 2006 designed to lampoon the nation’s growing obsession with celebrity culture and growing self-obsession. Americatastrophe following a celebrity starlet who via backroom machinations becomes the President of the United States meant to characterize the new era of well-groomed, glamourous, egotistical made-for-TV politics, typified by U.S. politicians like (President Edwards and Governor Huffington), In the same vein the popular country band the Dixie Chicks became the latest in a line of attempts to turn musicians into film stars in American Dreamgirlz, a light-hearted comedy musical about country artists entering a talent show while crossing sleazy producers, television executives and reporters in order to win, the film flopped in part due to the trio’s lack of acting prowess, comedic timing and dismal writing.
The year saw several popular sci-fi films both sequels of sorts with vastly different receptions. One was the big-budget sequel to 1996’s Independence Day, Independence Day II, where humanity had to face off against an even more powerful alien force, 10 years after the events of the first film bringing back the old cast of characters to yet again barely save the earth from destruction, on a more introspective note director Alfonso Cuarón brought to life the 1992 novel ‘Snow Crash’ in a film that asked how the end of the world might actually look, like?
Snow Crash: Dystopia Now, But Hope Springs Eternal – The Times
The end seems nigh in “Snow Crash” the superbly directed thriller by Alfonso Cuaron about a terrifying possible future, where most of humanity is in the thrall of malevolent corporations and plutocrats where gangs and private militaries roam freely. It’s a dystopia in every sense of the word
Based on the 1992 novel of the same name as a look into the fast-expanding world of personal computers and the growing strength of global capitalism, the film shows how the growing erosion of societal hope, forces people to find comfort in an online ‘Meta Verse’ or with more conventional drugs and substance abuse.
Americans have a morbid curiosity perhaps owed to the fatalism of an aging baby boomer generation, fears of global warming, and widescale corporate malfeasance but Cuaron manages to delicately weave many of these fears into a thrilling road trip through what is left of the American West coast.
(left to right) Borat, Americatasrophe, American Dreamgirlz, Independence Day II, Snow Crash
There were also other serious dramatic pictures including the Spike Lee documentary When the Levee’s Broke about a post-Katrina New Orleans and the traumatic and heroic efforts to rebuild the city. Some powerful war movies emerged, one directed by British director Paul Greengrass 2 Days in October about the Vietnam War, specifically the Battle of Ong Tranh a US defeat but which commanders spun as a positive. The other two were both by acclaimed actor/director Clint Eastwood both about the Korean War, drawing directly from his own experience in one picture following American forces on the peninsula In Mortal Combat and the second from the Korean (North and South) perspective Letters from the Line following an all Korean cast And other historical events were cinematically revisited by Oliver Stone in the movie Waco, following the fatal 51-day siege between the U.S. and Texan state government and the Branch Davidian religious cult, in typical Stone style asking plenty of open-ended questions about the overzealous and chaotic series of events and fully prepared to blame the government as responsible for the deadly conclusion, an allegation that prompted the FBI, ATF and Texas police to refute the films version of events.
Additionally, the director Quentin Tarantino returned to the cinema screen to release his long-awaited kung-fu movie Shaolin Daggers filmed in Hongkong and entirely in Mandarin, dubbed over in the style movies of the past about two Hong Kong Police Officers fighting off drug gangs to save their girlfriends with all the expected Tarantino action, gore, and visual panache.
Domestic Box Office 2006
| 1 | Wonder Woman | $423,081,192 | Jun 28 | Warner Bros. |
| 2 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | $385,317,154 | Jul 7 | Walt Disney Productions Motion Pictures |
| 3 | Cars | $244,082,982 | Jun 9 | Walt Disney Productions Motion Pictures |
| 4 | X-Men: The Last Stand | $234,362,462 | May 26 | Twentieth Century Fox |
| 5 | The Da Vinci Code | $217,536,138 | May 19 | Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) |
| 6 | Ice Age: The Meltdown | $195,330,621 | Mar 31 | Twentieth Century Fox |
| 7 | Happy Feet | $175,967,627 | Nov 17 | Warner Bros. |
| 8 | Over the Hedge | $155,019,340 | May 19 | DreamWorks |
| 9 | Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby | $148,213,377 | Aug 4 | Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) |
| 10 | Queen and Country | $153,531,944 | Nov 17 | Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) |
(Top left to right) When the Levees Broke, 2 Days in October, In Mortal Combat
(Bottom left to right) Letters from the Line, Waco, Shaolin Daggers
The culture of the United States changed outside of its media, following the appointment of liberal chief justice Kathleen Sulivan, the court's balance had shifted from leaning right to leaning left ushering what Republicans criticized as “left-wing judicial activism” making rulings on free speech, police procedure and environmental protection and a controversial death penalty case that upheld a lower court ruling that overturned Kansas’s and 15 other states laws regarding the death penalty requiring them to raise the standards of evidence and demanding retrials for current death penalty cases, including in states like Texas where the vast majority of executions were performed. The court was also accused by Republicans of intruding in the midterm election when it threw out Texas’s congressional map for being overly partisan which Texans argued resulted in a new map that unfairly favored Democrats according to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.
The court's liberal majority opened up many avenues for progressive movements trying to make their stamp on the country while they could, and domestically there were ripple effects. Gay rights and the right to marriage in particular emerged as the critical cultural battleground of the era represented by the Oscar-winning Brokeback Mountain and in New Jersey where newly sworn-in Governor Chris Christie was forced into a lengthy legal and political battle after the court ruled that banning gay marriage in the state was unconstitutional and pushed to enact a marriage or civil unions law, a fight that the governor pledged to “bring all the way to the Supreme Court”.
(left to right) Brokeback Mountain Poster, Texas AG Gergg Abbott, New Jersey Governor Christie
In 2006, the business world was in a state of change, despite stock market highs there were growing concerns of a market bubble being created, especially in the housing sector, combined with growing pains in the American auto manufacturing base as they struggled to compete in the globalized world, oil prices fell from their 05 highs, but the world was becoming more concerned more with the environmental impact of purchases, and the Enron saga finally wrapped up with arrests and indictments for top execs accused of defrauding investors and state governments, and America’s top cop Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched a fledgling investigation into so-called ‘predatory lenders'.
One of the more curious stories of the year was the final collapse of Concorde, the supersonic airliner that had struggled through a downturn of the early 00s following a crash in 2000. After failing to meet an agreement, the final fleet of 10 jets was sold to the billionaire Richard Branson and his Virgin Atlantic Airlines who then vowed to revamp supersonic flight “for many years to come”.
In the entertainment industry, communications giant Comcast finally completed its mega deal to acquire the legacy media giant, The Walt Disney Company now renamed Walt Disney Productions, taking control over its many subsidiaries including broadcast network ABC, and cable channels ESPN, the Disney Channel, Jetix and partial ownership of Lifetime, History and of course Disney’s major cash flow in its parks. As part of the takeover Disney Productions acquired a new permanent CEO following the transition, the COO of Comcast Steve Burke, hinting that the new corporation would be focused primarily on its small screen output.
The first major changes involved the integration of the Comcast Sports Group into ESPN, including the Golf Channel and Versus network allowing Comcast networks to quickly bolster ratings with access to the Disney back catalog, with plans to rejuvenate ABC, Disney’s Animated Films Department, and its resorts and parks all struggling under years of financial strain, while investing heavily into the digital space. As a result of the lengthy deal process Disney’s relationship with the Pixar animation studio behind its major previous hits struggled, finishing out its 6-picture deal with the release of Cars in 2006 entering into talks and entering a new 5-picture deal instead with Sony Pictures as the new distributor, and the Marel Entertainment company began production of its own movie slate starting with Captain America.
(Top left to right) Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and Richard Branson with Conchord Planes
(Bottom left to right) Walt Disney Comcast, Pixar
Some of the most popular pieces of literature to release in 2006 included a sequel to Stephanie Meyer’s successful young-adult romantic sci-fi novel Blue Moon. And the curiously written World War M by Max Brooks, which tells the tale of a modern-day Martian invasion of Earth from the perspective of a reporter in the aftermath of a hard-fought human victory; and Cormac McCarthy’s epic The Road another piece of post-apocalyptic fiction instead pinpointing the human experience of a father and son narrowly surviving the experience until finally after a hard battle against the elements summer returns leaving their eventual fates uncertain but a little brighter.
(left to right) Blue Moon, World War M, The Road
And the years television was as packed as ever as digital broadcasts emerged into the world of High-Definition TV and new shows came to the small screen.
These new releases included the showtime series Dexter, a crime show set in Miami, where the eponymous detective Dexter Morgan a typical loose cannon hunts down serial killers originally a limited series in conception, the show’s popularity led to it being recommissioned.
The television show Lost, known for its twists and turns shocked audiences one last time with its sudden cancellation in 2006 following a battle with ratings and high costs, in a network move that sparked a considerable backlash from the fanbase despite consistently high ratings and awards nominations who organized in online forums to opine about how the show's mysteries would never be resolved, petition for its renewal and even crowdsource their own version.
However, in Lost’s place, NBC debuted its own spiritual successor Travellers focusing on an ensemble cast of accidental time travellers from various parts of history who become stranded in 21st century New York.
On top of that several comedies made their way or returned to the screen, like the comedy 30 Rock a satirical take on the behind-the-scenes of an SNL-like sketch comedy series, and another British adaptation in line with the previous years’ The Office came out Peep Show following two roommates the uptight Mark (Ed Helm) and the too loose Jerry (Joel McHale) the show was notable for like it’s UK original, being filmed entirely in the first person, popularising the format for various other comedy series.
The political drama The West Wing held its first season without President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) at the helm, replaced by President Owens (Christian Slater), many assumed the show would lose its popularity but instead, it opted to revamp itself under a new showrunner, as Owens reveals himself as a much more morally grey President than Bartlett. Manipulating his staff and political enemies to get his way, ending a judicial filibuster by pardoning a Republican Senators brother-in-law, and triumphing in the Presidential election by leaking the existence of an open bribery investigation into his opponent, winning in a resulting landslide (though we don’t see a full map Texas and Arizona are seen turning Blue).
In 2006 an animated program released, authored, and illustrated by noted Cartoon Network writer/artist Gerard Way titled The Black Parade a dark comedy about an undead rock band with the goal of harvesting souls through their music, though a child’s show it pushed the boundaries especially for its rather morose imagery, akin to the recently ended Invader Zim.
(Top left to right) Detective Dexter Morgan, Lost, and Travellers
(Middle left to right) 30 Rock, The Office Season 2, and Peep Show
(Bottom left to right) Christian Slater, The Black Parade
Rounding out the year, a new secretary general of the UN Ban Ki-Moon was elected, Anna Lindh won a generous victory in Sweden as its first female prime minister, Russian critic living in the UK Boris Berezovsky disappeared, Israel's legislature signed through a contentious West Bank withdrawal policy and People Magazine ranked Pierce Brosnan the sexiest man alive controversially putting President John Edwards the runner up.
(left to right) People Magazine Cover, Swedish PM Lindh, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Missing Russian Oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Time Magazine Person of the Year 2006: Me
[1] Took inspiration from this article on a similar POD https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/21145506/youtube-without-internet-fiction-alternate-history
Better late than never.
Last edited:
Interesting. So Hannah Montana still exists but with Ashley Tisdale? So, who replaces her in Suite Life (if that still exists)?
A very different type of public fight between them from otl for sure
No Tay Tay??? Daaaaaamn that’s a big music butterfly
Also, I’m a bit disappointed that there was no mention of Eurovision and Lordi this year
It was an iconic year otl, and you seemed to have built up to it a little in an earlier update. Otherwise a fine update 
kernel
Gone Fishin'
No Taylor Swift! This is truly a pop culture utopia TL (except for Hammond dying)Interesting. So Hannah Montana still exists but with Ashley Tisdale? So, who replaces her in Suite Life (if that still exists)?
A very different type of public fight between them from otl for sure
No Tay Tay??? Daaaaaamn that’s a big music butterfly
Also, I’m a bit disappointed that there was no mention of Eurovision and Lordi this year
Speaking of Hammond, @Iwanh what happened to Top Gear after Hammond's death?
Also to all Swift fans out there, I was just making a joke.
Last edited:
What did Taylor Swift do in TTL ? What's her alternate career?
I think WebTube isn't looking good
Meanwhile, MySpace : Best day ever (With SpongeBob voice)
I think WebTube isn't looking good
Meanwhile, MySpace : Best day ever (With SpongeBob voice)
I know that this occurred in the early 1990s before the POD of TTL, but this was still quite interesting:
Man, imagine a CGI-generated graphic novel from 1992, it would have been Vaporwave galore.
So wait, does the infamous "Boomerang Controller" for the PS3 that was ditched early on IOTL actually becomes the standard controller for the PS3 ITTL?
Last edited: