Rebel, Rebel.

Images taken with Motorola RAZR CrappyCam technology.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet my new favorite band: The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. They're not black (but they do dress in black), they're not rebels, and they're definitely not a motorcycle club. But their name reflects the spirited rock 'n roll they play. I went to see them play in The Showbox and I was blown away.

Opening for the BRMC are The Morning After Girls and Elefant. The Morning After Girls, a deceiving name since only one of the members is female, play first. Their music can be described as a combination of seventies folk and hard rock with The Byrds' vocal harmony on top of Velvet Underground's wall of sound. As the second opening act, Elefant plays a more straight forward hard rock with some thumping rhythms from the bass and drums. Both openers were good, but not quite memorable.

Before BRMC takes the stage, I wonder how their set is going to be like. The BRMC are touring to promote their third release, Howl. In their first two records, BRMC were hard rock saviors. They played hard rock in the vein of Velvet Underground and their wall of sound, complete with distortion, reverbs, delays, and overpowering bass lines. With Howl, BRMC were more introspective. They exchanged their hard rock setup for acoustic guitars, slides, harmonicas, and even harmoniums to play old school rock 'n roll and soulful country blues. I honestly don't know if the new songs would have punch performed live.

My worry immaterializes as soon as BRMC takes the stage. Howl has several up-tempo tracks, including the hand-clap anthem "Shuffle Your Feet" and the steel guitar and harmonica heavy "Ain't No Easy Way." Played early, they help raise the audience's excitement. The other songs in the album, while more mellow, are far from boring and, in fact, very soulful. Songs like "Howl," "Devil's Waitin," "Fault Line," "Weight of the World," and "The Line" are played so beautifully. It's a rock show with country-blues songs played with acoustic guitars and harmonicas, but the crowd sure didn't mind.

The BRMC also play materials from their previous releases. Since the mellow quota was filled by songs from Howl, BRMC play the fast and furious tracks from their first two albums, BRMC and Take Them On, On Your Own. Tracks like "Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll," "Spread Your Love," "White Palms," "Stop," and "In Like the Rose" highlighted their signature sound: heart pounding rock 'n' roll with huge bass, distortion, reverbs, and delays. The powerful songs cap off a brilliant and impressive concert by one of the few bands that could proudly call themselves a rock 'n' roll band.

Idiot Alert: Parking

It is considered good practice to read instructions when parking your car in a parking garage. Details such as parking rates and hours of operation are boring but very beneficial to know.

Don't be the idiot that forgot to read them and couldn't get to his car because the garage was closed when he got back. Said idiot had to call his roommate to pick him up, wait outside in the cold until being picked up, get up early in the morning to go back to the parking garage, and pay twentyfour fucking dollars to retrieve his car.

The Vestige of the Vox Populi

This limited edition, hand-painted cold-cast porcelain replica measures approximately 10.5" high x 6.5" wide x 7" deep and is displayed on a sculpted base. This replica was constructed from a mold of the actual movie prop, includes a full-color Certificate of Authenticity, and is packaged in an elegant black gift box with foil stamping. Limited edition of 500. $195.00 US

I. Want. That.

Real Life Simpsons Intro

Bravo to the filmmakers. Bravo.

The Strange Case of Inspector Clouseau

The original Pink Panther is a classic British slapstick comedy movie starring the late comedic genius Peter Sellers. It's famous for the character of the French bumbling police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. It's also famous for the incredibly catchy theme song by Henry Mancini. Following Sellers death in 1980, the series is practically dead. There were several films made, but they were nowhere near as popular as the Sellers movies. Now, the series is being continued starring Steve Martin.

Peter Sellers' portrayal of Inspector Clouseau, is near and dear to many that was familiar with the original series, including revered movie critics James Berardinelli and Roger Ebert. In reviewing the remake, Berardinelli and Ebert particularly blasted Steve Martin's portrayal of Clouseau. Both feel that Sellers has become so identical with Clouseau, they see Martin's portrayal as a pale imitation of the original. Berardinelli even goes as far as calling the remake as a "travesty."

But how would someone who isn't too attached to the original series respond to the remake? I know of the original series' reputation, but only watched some parts of the first movie. Sellers' Clouseau is not ingrained in my brain like Berardinelli and Ebert. I watched the remake with a relatively clean slate.

Surprisingly, I find Steve Martin's Clouseau pretty amusing. His faux French accent is funny, although its usage in the hamburger pronounciation scene is overdone. His antics and his bumbling participation to the sight gags are hilarious; the first giant globe accident and the other one that happens much later are particulary funny. Martin is up to the task of supplying the slapstick. He's also capable of supplying the non-slapstick comedy with Clouseau's idiocy and tactless wit.

Martin is not perfect, of course. In fact, his major flaw is simply of him being Steve Martin, one of the most recognizable comic actors today. When you see his Clouseau, you know that it's really Steve Martin with a fake moustache. The genious of Peter Sellers is his knack for meshing in to his characters. Watch the cold war satire Dr. Strangelove to see how Sellers brilliantly plays three different characters, each with different comedic style, all believable as played by three different actors. Martin couldn't match Sellers' brilliance, but if you can get that out of the way, his portrayal of Clouseau is pretty good.

While Martin's Clouseau is enjoyable, the same can't be said about the rest of the film. The script is simply a mess. The mystery is resolved very, very weakly. The direction by Shawn Levy is forgettable. Of all the possible beautiful setting possible in Europe to shoot, the movie needlessly feature NYC's Times Square. The supporting actors are varying in quality: Emily Mortimer is charmingly funny, Kevin Kline is boringly bland, and Jean Reno is disappointingly wasted in a completely unimportant role. I don't even want to acknowledge whether Beyonce was acting at all in the movie. The gags, arguably the best part of the movie, even lose their initial momentum when they start misfiring in the middle of the movie.

In the end, despite Martin's good efforts, the movie as a whole fails. Clouseau's antics and sight gags couldn't save the lack of story, the illogical plot, and the bland directing. It's disappointing since this is really Steve Martin's funniest performance since his heyday in the eighties and early nineties. It won't stand up against the original series, but it's worth to check out for Martin's Inspector Clouseau.