On Friday I went and volunteered pouring beer at La Fête de Marquette, a free music festival that benefits the Wil-Mar Center. I worked the early shift, happy hour when everything’s half price, from 4:30-6:45 (tho happy hour ends at 6:00). I biked home as the sky was getting dark and there was a pretty terrific downpour thankfully after I was inside. And the basement didn’t leak.
On Saturday I had two shifts at Art Fair on the Square, in the morning as a volunteer photographer, which is actually harder than it looks, and in the afternoon grilling brats and hot dogs and veggie dogs. In past years I’d done artist relief, where you mind an artist’s booth while they go take a pee and get something to drink and a hot dog, maybe. You can’t sell anything for them, and so most of them don’t want to go in fear of missing sales – that is, the ones who are by themselves, didn’t bring a partner. They have these little pennants they’re supposed to hang on the booth when they want a break, and volunteers in the dorky red vests we have to wear wander around vulturing for an artist. It’s gotten better the last couple of years, because the artists will call one of the Museum staff, and they’ll text the volunteers, “Deb, go to Booth #37”, but I wanted to do something different this time.
The reason the photography was hard was that of course my instructions asked me to get shots of “family groups, people of color, and people in their 20s & 30s” looking at art or talking with an artist. It was pretty crowded at 10:30 – and I was actually kind of surprised to see how many people were already enjoying their first beer of the day, including quite a number of women around my age. It’s Wisconsin. I did two times around the square and then stopped and had an iced coffee and a scone. I went back out and took about 15 pictures. It started raining, and my shift was supposed to be over in 20 minutes, so I went to my office and hung out until my brat-grilling shift began in an hour and a half. Here’s one of the better ones, and the best one is the overleaf.
My grilling shift went a lot faster. I worked with a young guy who was Museum staff, who kind of reminded me of Al, around the chin and smile, and a suburban dad type, who of course was good at grilling. I think I liked this work better because put me into any food situation, and I will either instantly learn the existing workflow and execute it, or come up with a different workflow that’s better. Much more gratifying then stalking cute young families trying to take their picture. And you know, Art Fair So White, didn’t see any people of color enjoying themselves anywhere in the vicinity. I think maybe I’ll do grilling again next year.