When bacon news breaks, Jason Mosley is there to cover it. For six years he's been blogging all things bacon on his site, mrbaconpants.com. The Pittsburgh resident made a trip to Des Moines last year for the inaugural Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival, which happened to fall on his birthday. This year's he's back, camera in tow, to document the festival and the Iowa bacon industry. When he isn't bacon-blogging, Mosley is a Web designer (this year, he designed the site for Bacon Fest). I chatted with him via phone about his love of bacon, and his plans for this weekend in Des Moines.
How did the Mr. Baconpants persona come about?
I guess it was an inside joke. My job lets me travel to different conferences, and at my first conference ever we went to this fancy steak restaurant. We had to dress up and everything. They brought out our salad and there were two strips of bacon on top of it, stuck together. An associate picked it up and said 'Look, it's Mr. Baconpants!' and made them dance around. Now this is a fancy restaurant, and lots of people were looking. I decided to start a Web site inspired by that, and it grew from there.
After that I would get asked a lot "Where are your bacon pants?" I went to Goodwill, found some red Dickeys, got some white fabric paint and made some. I guess it was public demand.
What was your favorite part of Bacon Fest?
The bacon-eating contest. That was just the craziest time ever. I still talk about it. Seeing people wolf down three pounds of bacon is out of control. The video I made is probably the most clicked on-link on my blog. People love seeing a bacon-eating contest. During the contest people sang "Happy Birthday" to me. It was an unforgettable birthday.
What do you hope to accomplish with your documentary?
We want to document a bit about the area where the event occurs and Bacon Fest itself. We're going to see if we can get into a butcher shop, a pig farm, a bacon-processing plant and just capture the sites and sounds around Des Moines. I think it's feasible we might try to submit it to a festival or something like the Travel Channel. Last year CMT contacted me about using the bacon-eating footage for a video show, but the format wasn't good enough. Media outlets are interested in getting bacon on TV.
Why do you love bacon?
One of my first bacon memories is my dad making me a BLT, and it turned into my favorite sandwich. Before that it was peanut butter and jelly. Once I had one, it was all I wanted. As I got older, I realized there are more ways to eat bacon than for breakfast and in BLTs. Through blogging, I've found things like bacon ice cream and bacon vodka. I just like it because it tastes good, and reminds me of a childhood memory. It puts me in a good place.
