Who's in charge of marketing in Minny?
I'm new to this thread business, and I'm hoping this might reach someone, who knows something about this so they can clue me in. I have been a loyal fan of TGR since 1998, and for that reason I feel the need to bitch and moan about the complete Dog and Pony show I had to endure this year at the TGR premiere of "Lost and Found" in St. Paul. I would have let the fantastically shwag experience swirl down the toilet the next morning after the event, but the heartburn I was left with for the past week reminded me of the equally disappointing slop op that took place last year for the "Anomoly" premiere in Minneapolis. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because the films are always the cat's pajamas. And there are alot of TMB's that work hard to make these events possible. With that said, let me shed some light.... Last year wasn't so bad but it was disappointing. The venue(First Ave) looked like it would be top notch and I was looking forward to Swollen Members. But the film started right after the doors opened so we missed most of it because we were next store having a pint waiting for the line to die down. Then Swollen Members only played for like 2 minutes and left...consequently Slightly Stoopid came on and played the rest of the night(these guys sound like Sublime, not my cup of Mate')....WTF? I let that one go last year. Oh and by the way I did see the TGR Jeep parked out front as I left so I did remember that I was supposed to see "Anomoly" that night. This year going into it I thought, well.... the venue seems a little worse but maybe that will mean more focus on the film, right? Wrong. There was a swap and some reps there, nothing really stood out. We walked in and the band was covering Metallica, Enter Sandman.....I thought "Holy shit, I'm morphing into Hasslehoff, it's 1990 and I'm on top of the world! Well at least it's not another Sublime cover band." After the band stopped playing, about 20 people grabbed a folding chair and sat in front of the screen, some Total Renegade was trying to give away some junk but you could tell people just wanted the film to start. They start the show, nobody dims the lights.... and immediately some of the reps, the band, total renagade and some others who are standing right next to the seating area start talking louder, so they can project their voices over the soundtrack, because they want the person they are talking to hear how awesome they are. The roadie for the band keeps the spotlight on him while he's tearing down the equipment. Keep in mind that not only is the spotlight strategically placed on him, but it is at eye level and is shinging directly across half of the audience's field of vision, some people had to get up and move because the skin on their faces was peeling off. The lights were still pretty much on at this point, and although the movie was super sick as usual we just couldn't take it anymore and had to leave. We went to Sally's down by the U of M where some locals were putting on a Rail Jam. It was packed and was twelve times better than what was supposedly billed as the "Midwest ski show and TGR's premiere of "Lost and Found"". So some of you will read this and say "shut up" but I had to get it out there, this shit was weak. Last year I went to Warren Miller's "off the grid" premiere in Minneapolis at a real venue, Jamie Pierre was there....good times. As a matter of fact I'm going to the premiere of Warren Miller's latest "Playground" tonight at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, and I can only hope it's as good as last year. I understand that TGR is a smaller operation than Miller's and I also think TGR's films relate to me more. Those 2 reason's alone are why I will never turn my back on TGR. But this is the time of year, especially in Minny where we don't getting puked on early(or ever) like Snowbird, all we have to look forward to is a TGR film to set the bar and give us that first real fix. So I.... as this forum is called, "Ask TGR" have to ask .....Why the buzz kill?
