Kudos to all of you who braved the rain and cold—and turned your attention away from holiday shopping—to check out Let There Be Light at PVCC on Friday, the opening of The Drowsy Chaperone this weekend at Live Arts, some holiday theater at Four County Players and the Hamner, or any number of good concerts shows. Did we miss anything amazing? Let me know in the comments.
When big changes were planned for WTJU, part of the rationale was that fundraisers were falling short of their goals. So kudos also to all of you who were moved by 200th birthday celebrations for Schumann and Chopin and five-hour Beethoven salute to contribute to the station’s Classical Marathon, which ended yesterday. I called this morning to see if the campaign reached its $40,000 goal, and the numbers weren’t quite ready; but as of Saturday, they had raised an impresive $30,845, and were on track to face off against October’s Jazz marathon—excuse me, Jazz-tober—which raised a record $42,000. More on this to come.
And in other news…
Late last week Florida’s state clemency board approved a request by outgoing governor Charlie Crist to Pardon The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison on charges of indecent exposure nearly four decades after Morrison’s death. At the time, Morrison turned down at the time a plea bargain wherein The Doors would play a free concert in Miami, was sentenced to six months in prison, which he appealed. He was released on bond and died in Paris in 1971.
(thesmokinggun.com)
Members of the Doors had always maintained that Morrison had never exposed himself on that wild, wild night in 1969 (he was very drunk and exposed some parts, but not that part), and Morrison’s widow Patricia Kennealy Morrison was opposed to the pardon. She told CNN, "Since the original charges and trial were a publicity stunt to begin with, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that the pardon should follow in those footsteps."
Still, the pardon raises a lot of questions: If he were still alive (Morrison died at age 27), would we be talking about whether or not anyone saw a 67-year-old Jim Morrison’s junk? Is Morrison’s enduring legacy as an artist so valuable that he deserves to be pardoned? While we’re at it, what other celebrities’ records should be expunged because they were—as Crist said of Morrison—"essentially a kid," or under the influence of one thing or another?
A few come to mind. Bill Murray, for driving a golf cart under the influence of alcohol in Sweden (dude was in Caddyshack)? Ben Affleck for Gigli (under the influence of J. Lo.)? Martha Stewart for her enduring legacy as a homemaker?
Johnny Cash was pardoned for a public Starkville, Mississippi, drunkenness charge in 2007, and Lenny Bruce was pardoned by the state of New York for obscenity charges in 2003.
What other celebrity acts deserve to be pardoned?
