Tampa doesn't get the spotlight too often when it comes to celebrity action so I was somewhat, uh, err prideful to see this recently released on the mugshot section of www.thesmokinggun.com: 

Janis Joplin was arrested in November 1969 in Florida and charged with disorderly conduct after yelling obscenities at police officers during a Tampa concert. Charges were later dropped after it was ruled that the singer's actions were an exercise of free speech.

It's hard to believe that was almost 40 years ago. Just a little namesake for my hometown, not to mention I love Janis. She was 26 in this picture and unfortunately died less than a year later. I often wonder what the face of music would be like if the icons of the 1960s didn't OD and die (maybe they wouldn't have been icons then?). Would Joss Stone be performing with Jimi or would he fly to the moon and write space songs? Would Janis take up Broadway or tell everybody to leave Britney Spears alone? Would Morrison be living in as a snake charmer in the desert? Or would they all be doing reunion tours, battling labels, separating and splitting from bands or having bratty celeb kids? How would they feel about CDs, mp3s and the digital revolution of music? I love to specualte this, but there is no telling except that the era died with them and all we have left are small reminders of what was and could have been.

Hail to the melody makers and drug takers forever held in the hippie hologram of the 60s.