In November of 2009, Rob MacDonald and I self-released a 12-song CD called Thundercrack! under our band name -- Chimp. Jason Rogerson helped with the production, my father, who is an artist, created a logo for us, and graphic designer Laura O'Brien designed the CD's artwork. Rob and I created a band website (it hasn't been updated in months) and Twitter account (ditto) and joined several online music sites. We held a launch at Baba's Lounge featuring a variety of musicians, each doing a couple of tracks from the album, and promoted the launch via posters, e-blasts and online forums, press releases (various media outlets printed them) and a radio interview with Matt Rainnie on Main Street. We sent CDs to college and university radio stations and to Canadian music publications, and sought the advice of a producer we know in the industry in Montreal. We put together a video for one of the tracks called The Living End and posted it on Youtube and other online video sites. We placed the CD in local music shops on consignment and offered it online via Amazon, iTunes and other online retail sites. We sent a copy of the CD to the Sloan guys and I delivered a couple of copies to Debbie Harry of Blondie. We then posted a video for a second track called Poot and I even sent mp3s and a link to Butt Magazine!

My expectation: If we could get the CD to the right person, maybe someone would be interested in recording one of our songs.

The actual result: Not much.

We've sold less than 50 copies, and managed to get one online review from an Amazon customer in the US. Giving us 3 out of 5 stars he writes: "Not a bad album for what it is, but to avoid confusion and possible disappointment: this is NOT the Chimp from Brighton, UK, who released albums title "Lowfer" and "Can't Stop On Fire. This Chimp is a duo of punk rockers from Prince Edwards Island, Canada...not that there's anything wrong with that, obviously, but don't be expecting the low key, multi-textured melodies and thoughtful lyrics of the UK Chimp."

I'll take that. We also got lots of positive feedback about the tunes from mostly other Islanders who've checked out our videos online. I'll take that too.

So what have I learned from my Thundercrack! experience? Nothing that I didn't already know: There are thousands of aspiring musicians out there self-releasing CDs in the hope of some sort of recognition or "next step", and very few of us ever receive it.

I'm happy that some of the tracks in particular are terrific ponk songs (a phrase Rob coined to describe the music as a cross between pop and punk), and I'm proud of the songwriting. So with no sour grapes and with a big thanks to Rob, I consider the recording and release of the CD as mission accomplished. Part of me though, still likes to think that at some point someone will stumble upon a copy of Thundercrack! by Chimp and decide that it'd be a great idea to re-record Pillow Talk or Boy Likes Girl. Afterall: Get on your knees / Burn all the trees / Screw who we please / We're Killer Bees!

Expectation is a killer. I go to City Cinema having heard nothing but praise for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the Swedish flick directed by Niels Arden Oplev based on the best seller by the late Stieg Larsson. I purposefully don't know much about the plot... I know it's a "gritty thriller" featuring a punk-looking girl.

The movie starts and the girl turns out to be a woman, a 24-year-old computer hacker.  She's been hired by a wealthy family to find out if a journalist (about to do jail time for publishing false information) is the right man to find a woman who was either murdered or "just" disappeared 40 years ago.

At first, I don't buy Noomi Rapace as "THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGOON TATTOO" (aka Lisbeth Salander).  It's an issue I have with a lot of movie punks... they just seem like they're from Central Casting.  However, Rapace proves to be terrific.  She and the journalist (Mikael Nyqvist) eventually team up to solve the murder/disappearance.  As the mystery unravels, I found myself thinking, "That's not much of a mystery", but then one of those Ah-ha! moments happen that make me feel stoopid: The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo is not so much about the mystery; it's about its characters and its themes. In Hitchcock vernacular, the mystery is a MacGuffin.

Those themes, the reality of violence against women and the ramifications of the past, are not so subtly handled, but they are effective. I like that we're only given hints as to Lisbeth's past rather than a full back story (I'm hopeful the sequels won't get too far into this; there are three books and already a second film and an America remake of this film on its way), but I was disappointed by the follow through of a scene that shows Lisbeth is bed with her lesbian lover.  Finally, I thought, there will be no romance between the female and male leads. Stoopid me. The film indicates that Lisbeth is only a lesbian because she was abused as a child, not because she's a healthy, well-adjusted woman who happens to be into women. Naturally, the understanding journalist can take care of all her bedroom needs, and your standard-issue older male-younger female romance develops, though admittedly with some dysfunction.

The scene, however, that thumbed its nose at good moviemaking the most clearly for me takes place during the single final minute of this 152-minute movie.  Suddenly, it becomes a Brian De Palma flick more appropriate as an Angelina Jolie vehicle, clearly setting the scene for the sequel (I'm a fan of both De Palma and Jolie, by the way). The change in tone is dramatic and damaging, seeming to say, "Forget all those themes and that 'big ideas' stuff we touched on for the last 151 minutes. How'd you like something trite, like 'espionage is cool' and 'living well is the best revenge'?"  It's something the US remake is sure to recreate faithfully.

To paraphrase the Showgirls poster, "Leave your expectations at the door", and you'll probably like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  It's long, but never boring. Obvious at times, but almost always effective. Full of interesting ideas that it sometimes undermines.  A good flick, but not a 4-star wonder.

The first Island Media Arts Festival ran this past weekend, from May 13-16.  Lots of stuff going on, with the intention of making the Island public at large familiar with what is happening, many times unbeknownst to them, in the film/TV/web/new media community all over PEI.  Sometimes, being a part of that community can feel like operating in a bubble, so it was encouraging to see the turn out for some of these events.

Over the course of the festival, there was a heap of well deserved recognition going out to people who made this happen, including Dave Ward, Mille Clarkes, Corin McFadden, Bill Harrington, and other key people whom I've inevitably just forgotten to mention.

My involvement: I wrote a press release for the fest.  Dave Ward took some of my “And Yet I Blame Hollywood” cartoons to schools early this week.  I moderated a Social Commentary in Comedy panel with Donna Davies, Jeremy Larter, Michael Kennedy, Joey Weale, and Jason Rogerson.  I co-hosted the sold-out Youth and Emerging Artist screening with another Dave Stewart.  And “Florid”, the short film I made with Rob MacDonald, was shown during the “10 of PEI’s Best Shorts” screening that closed the festival. 

The Social Commentary panel turned out much better than I’d anticipated.  The participants were great, and, working with a theme that’s potentially pretty dry, they were able to take my few questions (and some from the audience) and turn them into 90 minutes of pretty interesting banter.  Outstanding moment: Sandra Bullock's flick “The Blind Side” getting its just desserts.

In co-hosting the Youth and Emerging Artist screening, I got to meet yet another Dave Stewart whom had just graduated from the film program at NSCAD that very day.  He's an interesting guy, and I look forward to checking out some of his work.  Since it was sold out and I was attending a Special Olympics Bowling Tournament event, I bowed out of the actual screening, and some lucky ticket-buyer got to take my seat.

Matt Rainnie hosted the closing screening, and was perfect and personable.  He appears in “Florid”, so it was nice for it to receive an extra shout out on that count.  Overall, the films were terrific.  I got acquainted with the work of some filmmakers whose stuff I hadn’t seen previously, and I was able to reevaluate (for the better) some stuff I’d already seen.  Of the 10 flicks, I only disliked one and was biased in favour of one (my own admittedly flawed flick), so that’s an amazingly positive percentage.  Two of the best things that came out of this particular evening, however, were: 1) a new idea for a series of shorts with Linda Wigmore, and 2) Jason Rogerson won the CBC 3-2-1 Award, giving him a $12,500 license fee for a project called “Lucky 7” that he must complete within a year for broadcast on the nation’s TV network.  Yay!