Chocolate and creativity

Last weekend I attended the annual chocolate and coffee festival in Albuquerque.  You'd think the event was tailor-made for me, but, sadly, no.  There's something about crowds of obese people, lining up for free tastes, that is.....shall we say, off-putting?

I also don't really have a palate for these things. I don't like dark chocolate, for example, so the whole 75% chocolate claim leaves me cold.  I did taste the blueberry in the Ethiopian coffee, but it wasn't a selling point for me.  And I was intrigued by the use of grass-fed cow butter in place of cream....it actually worked.

Still, there was very little chance to learn much or enjoy the process.  I discovered that Whole Foods and the local co-op sold most of the products, which was a big "duh."   I reaffirmed that chocolate-scented soap is just plain weird. You want to eat it, but you can't, and anyway, who wants to smell like chocolate?  Not surprisingly, chocolate with chili and caramel with salt are still hot ticket items.  But for the most part, we seem to have run out of ways expand the taste combinations. Someone capitalized on Breaking Bad by mixing waffles and turkey with chocolate.  It reminded me of chocolate-covered bacon:  two excellent tastes that just really don't do much for each other.

Maybe I just am not a festival kind of gal.  There's a certain kitschy quality, not to mention a horde mentality.   People roam around, looking for something to capture their attention, but it's all sound bites, and then off to the next thing.  You can't converse with the vendors, because their eyes are roving about, and people behind you are pushing for a place.  The quality offerings are rare, and there's a sad quality to those booths:  no one is going to buy those things at that venue.  Attendees don't even bother to gawk, it's out of their league.  People with real money don't go to these festivals.

I prefer craft fairs, where you have a fighting chance of seeing something interesting, and where you get some ideas for your own work.  But, it still depresses me.  There are a lot of people creating a lot of kitsch, and even more people with worthwhile products that aren't selling. I remember when my friend M was selling her jellies and lavender-in-handkerchief sachets.  She made the rounds of the fairs, and had a good time doing it, but it was mainly a break-even sort of thing for her.

Marketing and consumerism in general confuse me.  I don't know how to market my own skills, much less a product.  And I don't know how real artisans make a living in this Walmart society.  But they seem to be doing so.  Just today a German blacksmith was visiting the co-op, checking out the location:  K wants a railing from him, but of course he can't afford it.  The blacksmith said he'd think of something that was in K's price range, maybe work with a fabricator, whatever that means.

(It's funny, what a small place this is....I recognized the blacksmith from the demo I attended last summer at Chris Thompson's place.)

So the question is, how do I take something that lights me up, like chocolate, like music, like writing, and make a living at it?  Do I need to? Can't I just enjoy what I'm doing, without validating it in a consumer society?  It doesn't seem so.  Even the non-profits for which I perform have to pay attention to the bottom line.  For example, I have been recruited by the Santa Fe Chorus to swell their numbers for Beethoven's 9th.  The group that I sing with, Coro de Camara, will receive $100 in return, while the regular SFC singers have to pay for the privilege.  And I get no money out of it.  But, because there is a product that people pay for, it feels legitimate.  My other creativity does not.