Jim Morrison's Junk!
Charlie Crist Confirms the Lizard Kings's Candidacy for Pardon
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/crossfade/2010/11/jim_morrisons_charlie_crist_pardon.php
By S. Pajot
Nov. 17 2010
Really ... Why are boomers so obsessed with cleansing rock stars of
their sins?
Almost 42 years ago, chubby junkie, Doors mojo master, and FSU
dropout Jim Morrison showed up in Coconut Grove's Dinner Key
Auditorium, got extremely wasted, tried to sing "Touch Me," spiced up
incoherent rants with "fuck" and "shit," and allegedly flashed his
junk to 12,000 impressionable youths. More than 12 months later, he
was convicted of indecent exposure and profanity.
And now, stiffneck boomer and outgoing Governor Charlie Crist has
taken up the absolution of the Lizard King as his final official act,
confirming yesterday that he'll be seeking a (way, way, way)
posthumous pardon for Morrison from Florida's clemency board.
See the cut for more Lizard news, archival film of the scandal, and
an audio recording from the infamous Dinner Key concert.
If you ask Crossfade, drunkenness, bad language, and nudity are
prerequisites for rock outlaws, so the Miami conviction (though
probably bogus) does nothing to actually tarnish Jimmy Mojo's legacy.
(The ex-hippie petitionists would disagree.) But whatever happenened
to jamming up the status quo? Pissing off the pigs? Making a stand
for free love? News flash: Rock stars aren't supposed to be "respectable."
Yet, in an interview with the New York Times, Crist waxed weepy about
the whole thing:
"I've decided that today," Mr. Crist said Tuesday in a telephone
interview. "I've decided to do it, for the pure and simple reason
that I just think it's the right thing to do. In some ways it seems
like a tragic conclusion to a young man's life to have maybe this be
a lasting legacy, where we're not even sure that it actually
occurred. The more that I've read about the case and the more I get
briefed on it, the more convinced I am that maybe an injustice has
been done here.
"It just creates a lot of empathy, all these circumstances that add
up," Mr. Crist. "And my heart bleeds for he and his family that this
may not have even ever happened, yet it's unfortunately currently
part of his record."
The Florida Board of Executive Clemency's final vote on Morrison's
pardon will go down December 9, shortly before members Crist, Chief
Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and
Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson ALL leave office.
It's kinda impossible not to imagine the Lizard King looking down,
shaking his shaggy, bearded head at the absurdity of it all, and
giggling a bit at Governor Charlie's spray-on tan.
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Florida Governor Will Seek Pardon for Jim Morrison
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/governor-of-florida-will-seek-pardon-for-jim-morrison/
By DAVE ITZKOFF
November 16, 2010
"This is the strangest life I've ever known," Jim Morrison sang on
one of the hits he recorded with the Doors, but his afterlife
continues to astound, too.
On Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida said he will officially
submit Morrison's name to his state's clemency board as a candidate
to be pardoned for two convictions that the iconoclastic rock star
received after some outrageous behavior at a 1969 concert in Miami.
"I've decided that today," Mr. Crist said Tuesday in a telephone
interview. "I've decided to do it, for the pure and simple reason
that I just think it's the right thing to do. In some ways it seems
like a tragic conclusion to a young man's life to have maybe this be
a lasting legacy, where we're not even sure that it actually
occurred. The more that I've read about the case and the more I get
briefed on it, the more convinced I am that maybe an injustice has
been done here."
After a raucous performance by the Doors at Miami's Dinner Key
Auditorium on March 1, 1969, where witnesses said they saw a drunken
Morrison expose himself, the singer was arrested and charged with
lewd and lascivious behavior, a felony, as well as several
misdemeanors. Morrison was convicted at a 1970 trial of profanity and
indecent exposure, both misdemeanors, and fined $500 and sentenced to
six months in jail. But he never served the time: he was appealing
the conviction when he died in Paris in 1971 at the age of 27.
Mr. Crist, a Republican-turned-independent who lost his bid for a
United States Senate seat in November and whose term as governor
expires in January, seemed to side with many Doors fans in explaining
his decision to submit Morrison for a pardon. As Morrison's
supporters have long argued, Mr. Crist said no documentary evidence
presented at the singer's trial showed Morrison exposing himself, and
expressed regret that Morrison died before he could present his
appeal. (Mr. Crist also noted that both he and Morrison attended
Florida State University.)
"It just creates a lot of empathy, all these circumstances that add
up," Mr. Crist. "And my heart bleeds for he and his family that this
may not have even ever happened, yet it's unfortunately currently
part of his record."
A pardon for Morrison would still have to be approved by Florida's
Board of Executive Clemency, whose whose four-member roster includes
Mr. Crist. Its final meeting before Mr. Crist's term expires is
scheduled for Dec. 9, the day after what would have been Morrison's
67th birthday.
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Jim Morrison pardon by Gov. Crist:
Silly or symbolic?
By Michael Mayo
November 12, 2010
So, as one of his final acts, Gov. Crist is mulling a pardon for a
dead rock star whose life and times epitomized the
psychedelic/hippie/drug/sex excesses of the 1960s.
Jim Morrison, the iconic front man of the Doors, is a native
Floridian and former Florida State student who got busted for
indecent exposure during a 1969 concert in Miami.
He's been dead a long time, overdosing in Paris in 1971.
So what difference would a pardon make?
As a practical matter, none.
But this isn't about practical significance.
This is about symbolism.
For the departing governor, not Morrison.
Crist has been getting mocked in some quarters for considering this.
My Miami Herald counterpart, Fred Grimm, wrote a column saying,
"Chain Gang Charlie needs a legacy" and a Morrison pardon would be
"the emblematic achievement of (Crist's) insipid career."
Ouch.
But to me, there's something else at play here.
Something poetic, almost.
We all know that Crist lit a torch to his political past (and
possibly future) when he quit the Republican party and went
independent earlier this year.
A Morrison pardon would be the final flourish renouncing his
conservative roots.
Social conservatives hated the 1960s peace/love/hippie counterculture
movement. In many respects, it started the Culture Wars that have
raged on to this day between conservatives and liberals (or
progressives, as they're now known.)
Ever since going independent, Charlie has been getting more
progressive and less conservative (see: positions on gay rights/adoptions.)
A Morrison pardon would be Crist's final declaration of independence.
Maybe it's meaningless, but it also carries a message.
What it means for Crist's future is uncertain: Will he Break On
Through to The Other Side, or is this The End?
.
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