Tamale Cup

Went down to SA to hang out and shoot with the Yarn Dawgz... again. They were doing an installation at the Tamale Festival in the Pearl Brewery. I was a little unclear on exactly what Dino, Billy and Sasha had in store but I was game.

One thing to know about San Antonio (and Austin to a certain degree) is that San Antonio loves having street festivals. Sometimes it feels like there's a street festival every weekend during the nice seasons of Texas. Even though it's December, it's still pretty nice outside in Central Texas. The Tamale Festival runs from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday. The fest celebrates local traditions associated with the holidays and feature cooking demonstrations, food from the roasting spit, and more than 30 vendors boasting traditional, sweet, vegetarian and other tamale varieties. The festival concludes with the River of Lights celebration, caroling, and music and entertainment for the entire family. (All proceeds benefit the Culinary Institute of America and local charities.) Why not have a festival celebrating tamales.

The Yarn Dawgz was going to be doing a public installation of a table, chairs, and dining set inspired by Mexican Serape blankets that would later be sold at the Melissa Guerra Tienda de Cocina. It was pretty relaxed shoot. I was mostly interested in film the Yarn Dawgz just hanging out and knitting. Dino had some work to do back at Jump Star so it was just Billy and I for most of the morning and early afternoon. After several hours, it became obvious the the installation was not progressing fast enough. Once Dino and Sasha showed up, I took a small break and walked around the festival. I am a people watcher so I relished in walking around all the fest's activity. I was super hungy but was completely overwhelmed by all the options. I honestly didn't even know what line I was in but I ended up getting two Tamale Cups, which is a tamale in a cup. I brought one back to Billy and we joked about the concept of tamale cup. He even dubbed "Tamale Cup" as my new nickname. I can't remember why.

As the afternoon progressed on, Dino and Sasha worked diligently on the table and chairs. I felt a little bad filming instead of helping so I decided to help out a little bit. I'm not sure where most documentary filmmakers feel about the relationship between the filmmaker and the subjects. I'm starting to think I'm too close to the Yarn Dawgz. I'm fine with it but I wonder what others think. I personally have never yarn bombed. I knit like a madman but I don't bomb. I'm trying to stay an observer in that world. So all I did for the Yarn Dawgz was knit. I didn't do the actual installation.

In the end, they didn't finish the installation but I got some great footage.