Now Available in Rock Star Form

Understand: I never cared for Juliette Lewis, the Movie Star. Except for Kalifornia. That was a cool flick. Everything she's done since then has seemed a riff on the whole "white trash chick" thing, with movie after movie of diminishing returns.

That said, Juliette Lewis, the Rock Star is fucking spectacular. I confess; I thought Juliette and the Licks was a joke. And in many circles, it may still be. But seeing a recent televised performance left me enraptured. In a good way.

It really isn't a concert so much as an rock-and-roll actress playing a rock chick rocking out. There's a real band. And lots of tight clothes. And perhaps a new record set for the number of times a female lead singer can stick her ass out at the audience until the act actually starts to seem offensive. Of course, those who know me understand that in my book, that number is "never." Unless you're the fat girl from The Donnas.

A gimmick? You bet your ass. But in her effort to become, as she herself puts it, "the female Iggy Pop," she's reminded at least this typist of the sort of in-your-face sexuality that's been sorely lacking in today's music.

Do the math, people. Norah Jones plunking the keyboards, or Juliette Lewis shaking her ass in your face? Sheryl Crow chirping incessantly about how important it is to vote, or Juliette Lewis dry-humping her guitarist?

The lesson: Always bring the sexy. And when she plays Boston next week, I'll be there. It may actually make me a less intelligent person... but I'll be there.