Charlie Crist's Road to Nowhere

The former governor and forever-tanned man-about-Florida Charlie Crist pays a heavy price for using a mediocre Talking Heads song in his failed re-election campaign.

More at Gawker; link via Garrett Quinn.

I'm all in favor of humiliating politicians on YouTube and elsewhere, but can we save some ritual abuse for musicians who agree to be used by politicians? For instance, I nominate Melissa Etheridge, for her performance of "Give Peace a Chance" at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, a moment that will not soon unsear itself from my brain-plate:

Previously, on geez-rockers vs. Republicans:

* Rush vs. Rand Paul

* Jackson Browne vs. John McCain

* Van Halen vs. John McCain

* John(ny Cougar) Mellencamp vs. John McCain

Comments

[Id]

I nominate Melissa Etheridge, for her performance of "Give Peace a Chance"

How'd that work out for her?

[Pablo]

Yeah is she gonna be singing that at the 2012 convention too? We've got 3 wars now, not 2, and by '12 I imagine there will be 4 going on.

[wylie]

4? You're leaving out at least 2 more, not-counting The American Civil War II.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why is Ellis Henican up there blathering on youtube about The Talking Heads?

Who remade "Better Things" for use as a campaign song in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate? I nominate that because it was a terrible, terrible movie.

[Episiarch]

Why would you even watch the remake? It was guaranteed to be horrible and would just sully your memories of the original.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Denzel was in it. He's usually solid, like he was in that train movie.

Although, come to think of it, he was also in the remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and that kind of stunk it up.

[Episiarch]

See my comment just above your comment? Read it again, but substitute The Taking of Pelham One Two Three for The Manchurian Candidate.

Are you some kind of masochist?

[Tman]

If there is more annoyingly stupid movie that was made in the last ten years than the Taking of Pelham please don't tell me. I don't want to know.

"HURR DURRR, WE'VE GOT 80,000 SWAT TEAM STORM TROOPERS SURROUNDING EVERY EXIT FROM THE SUBWAY TUNNELS EXCEPT FOR THE ONE ELEVATOR THAT GOES IN TO A RESTAURANT ON 5th AVENUE THEY WILL NEVER GO THERE HURR DURRR"

I stayed up late to watch the ending of that movie to see how it ended. Fuck you Denzel and your stupid half gallon of milk that you cheesily ended that stupid stupid film with.

[JW]

Could frumpy, dumpy Walter Matthau be a movie star today?

[octothorpe]

Yes ,but only if he was played by Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie

[Otto]

The original Pelham was awesome. How could it go anywhere but down with the remake?

[Hobo Chang Ba]

I dunno. It was a bit before the mad Hollywood remake marathon we currently remain in, and unfortunately Manchurian Candidate (while shit compared to the original) was really good compared to almost all the other remakes since. Meryl Streep was pretty good at least.

[R C Dean]

I generally like Denzel. I caught Man on Fire on the satellite recently. Melodrama, sure, but he totally sells it.

[Pro Libertate]

Ah, but that had The Walken.

[Paul]

Man on Fire was one of Denzel's better movies. Underrated in my opinion.

Much better than that trainwreck Fallen, and 100x better than that actual trainwreck, Unstoppable. Thing should have been called Unwatchable.

[sloopyinca]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and tie two threads together. Denzel's best may well have been the Civil War biopic, Glory.

[Pro Libertate]

Yep, that was a good one. And don't forget A Soldier's Story.

[Tulpa]

Why would you even watch the remake? It was guaranteed to be horrible and would just sully your memories of the original.

Exactly how I feel about Nicholas Cage being in talks to do a sequel to the film in which he played opposite John Malkovich.

[Pro Libertate]

You're making that up.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Don't toy with me.

[wylie]

ProTip: The cue-cards (or teleprompter) are supposed to be close to the line-of-sight of the camera.

[Mensan]

No shit. Or how about doing a second take, or at least reading through it once before recording. He sounds like when the teacher would have kids read aloud from the text book in high school. Actually, he sounds like when the teacher would call on the kid who could only actually read at a 4th grade level in 12th grade. I'm so glad my fellow Floridians had enough sense not to elect Ol' Windsock this last election.

[Irresponsible Hater]

Hmmm, I like this. I might need to rethink my opposition to IP.

[ClubMedSux]

Fuck, now I have that song in my head.

[Spiny Norman]

He should have used Psycho Killer.

[ClubMedSux]

Too obvious. How about "Don't Worry About the Government"?

[sloopyinca]

I would have gone with "Flowers."

"If this is paradise,
I wish I had a lawnmower."

[Paul]

You can say that again.

[sloopyinca]

I would have gone with "Flowers."

"If this is paradise,
I wish I had a lawnmower."

[Pip]

Life During Wartime would be my pick.

[Episiarch]

Yes.

[ClubMedSux]

Now I have that stuck in my head... It's a step forward, for sure.

[Michael]

...a mediocre Talking Heads song...

There are other kinds?

[ClubMedSux]

Come on... You seriously don't even like Talking Heads '77?

[Michael]

No. Seriously, I even went through a phase where I bought '77 and three or four of their other records in an attempt to try to like them. Their music just does absolutely nothing for me; especially when stacked up against the lot of their contemporaries.

[Michael]

Exhibit A:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCI24Lt9aNQ

[ClubMedSux]

That's some pretty cool shit, and I've never heard of that dude before.

Anyway, if you don't like the Heads, you don't like the Heads. I was just wondering if you were exaggerating, as I really dig their early stuff.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

James Chance was fantastic, but that still doesn't diminish Talking Heads at all. They were one of the most singular, intelligent and unique bands in history, without significant precedent, while The Contortions were pretty much James Brown meets Ornette Coleman meets Gang of Four. "Found a Job" would be in my top five 70s songs.

[SIV]

I knida felt the same way until I saw them live in about 1985.

[Mr Whipple???]

Never been to CBGBs, huh?

[TheSporadical]

Oh man...

I don't know what the hell I'm arguing here, but I love Talking Heads/David Byrne. Stop Making Sense is a great Concert Movie/Exercise Tape.

Road to Nowhere is beautiful...

(Nothing But) Flowers ?

His solo stuff is damn good if not better as well. Love the self-titled album...

The Knee Plays ?

*shaking head totally disbelieving of David Byrne (music) hate*
"Oh no no no..."

Curious what sits atop Matt Welch's music chart.

God damn adjectives and their effect on me...

[Greer]

I don't get what is so bad about the Etheridge performance. Other than the embarrassing audience shots of old fat people clapping off beat, it was fine.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Do you have ears? If so, do you have a soul?

[Greer]

I needn't justify my soul to anyone. I listen to Monk, Bill Evans, Blind Willie McTell among others, I know something about music.

It is a slick performance for a non-concert crowd, I just didn't think it was that bad.

[sloopyinca]

If I were running for Congress, I'd beg them to let me use "Burning Down The House."

Of course, that'd be my campaign slogan, not an accusation of the people already there.

[Pip]

"Burning Down The House."

I like taking off her panties,
When I can't I'm very happy,
Staring down her blouse.

[sloopyinca]

"Four.
Hund-red.
Thir-ty.
Five.
Dick-heads.
Burning Down The House."

[rather]

Where is the background music for the Charlie Crist video?

[ClubMedSux]

I nominate this.

[sloopyinca]

I'll raise you the only bad song in an otherwise brilliant musical.

[rather]

sloopyinca wins

[ClubMedSux]

I'll gladly concede.

[Tulpa]

Luckily Devo hasn't found out about me using "Whip It" as my calculus entrance song.

[Episiarch]

Well, shouldn't you be using "Mongoloid" instead anyway? Or at the least, "Be Stiff"?

[ClubMedSux]

If Devo sends you a cease and desist, you can always use this.

[Nathaniel]

Don't forget Rush Limbaugh vs. Pretenders

[Ice Nine]

Crist's unabashed reading of his apology really oozes sincerity. I suspect that Byrne is much more gratified by Charlie's coin in his pocket. Here's the Knee-Slapper of the Day, though: "I pledge that should there be any future election campaigns for me, I will..."

[Pro Libertate]

The man's destroyed his political career so thoroughly that he'd vote against himself if he ran again.

I don't know. Rick Scott has disenchanted people so rapidly they are already missing Charlie.

[Pro Libertate]

Really? Because I like Scott so far. Die bullet train, die!

That's good and all but pushing for drug testing all state employees is decidedly un-libertarian. Not to mention all the end arounds he's doing to undermine the rule of law. Because of this jackass nobody is going to vote for a candidate who advocates less government again.

Scott would lose a do over by almost 20 percent.

http://www.washingtontimes.com.....ion-poll-/

[Pro Libertate]

Bit early for that. I'm not in love with everything he's doing, but we'll see.

[SIV]

Firing all the government employees who can't pass a drug test would be a good start.

[Pro Libertate]

Followed soon after my the ones who passed.

Brilliant--using the WoD to our advantage.

[Hobo Chang Ba]

Actually that's a fine policy.

Libertarians would say private employers could drug test their employees. Since the relationship here is government and government employee (not as drug cop vs. private citizen), and we the taxpayers are paying for their salaries, and especially because their decisions have coercive power, police officers and TSA inspectors would not have the right to not be fired for being strung out on coke while on the job even if the WOD was ended.

The former governor and forever-tanned man-about-Florida Charlie Crist pays a heavy price for using a mediocre Talking Heads song in his failed re-election campaign.

Uhh he was running for Senate for the first time, not running for re-election to his post as governor.

[Lorenzo]

David Byrne looks like the son of Ricardo Montl-khan from Star Trek II.

[Brian from Texas]

Obama must have been dozing during Melissa Etheridge's performance. No peace in our time here.