SM T-shirt contest: Making a Fashion Statement at the DNC

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Folks, it is time to get excited about the fact that we will have greater South Asian participation than ever in this year’s Presidential election. Through this blog we also hope to provide a perspective from the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Denver next month that has been missing in previous years. This has been one of the long term goals of this blog after all. I will sniff out every conceivable brown angle I can find once I get there (especially if Huma is there). However, I would like to make this event as bi-directional as possible. I don’t want to show up there and simply write about what I want to write about. I want you all to send me ideas for what you’d like to learn. I’d like you guys to get me in touch with other South Asians you know will be there. I also want to know what you’d like me to communicate to the other bloggers and citizens I meet while I’m there.

In the spirit of that last point, and so we can have some fun with this, I am asking you guys to dress me. That’s right. You, the SM readers get to decide what I will wear on the convention floor next month. It is simple really: design a t-shirt that features a political or social (but non-partisan) message and I can order it using Café Press, Threadless, or one of many other internet t-shirt companies. Send me the design at abhi [at] sepiamutiny dot com. I will narrow it down to the best entries and have SM readers vote on the finalists. I will be at the convention for three full days so I will purchase up to three winning t-shirts to wear on the floor. The more clever/funny/relevant/socially conscious your t-shirt, the more likely it is to grab attention and communicate your message to all the varied citizens expected to be in Denver (the picture below is a perfect example of what I’m looking for). Let’s have some fun with this. My mom (retired from a major department store) has been dressing me all these years. It’s time for you guys to have a turn.

Just a clarification: I am looking for full t-shirt Designs, not merely slogans or catchphrases.

48 thoughts on “SM T-shirt contest: Making a Fashion Statement at the DNC”

  1. I’ll be in Denver for the DNC. I know of 4 South Asians working for the Obama campaign in Colorado.

  3. I had sex with Scarlett Johansson and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.

  10. “Already balanced. Just trying to be fair now”

    “What can brown do for you?“

    “Prospicience predicts an Elegiacal Logorrhea in this Milieu, requiring a Demarche with an Appoggiatura to not be Pococurante“

    Also, Abhi, “SM T-shirt contest” sounds like a spring break event involving ice water and whips.

  11. 8 · louiecypher on July 22, 2008 12:14 AM · Direct link · “Quote”(?) “I took yer jobs!!” “Free consolation luvin for Hillary supporters”

    HAHAHA. “I took yer jobs!!”

    I laughed so hard, I think I woke the room partners up.

  12. “Prospicience predicts an Elegiacal Logorrhea in this Milieu, requiring a Demarche with an Appoggiatura to not be Pococurante”

    Brother, what is such t-shirt meaning?

    CCC

  14. sorry i can’t unfreeze your mac

    or

    no i can’t feel your lymph nodes for inflammation, i’m not a doctor

  15. Just a clarification: I am looking for full t-shirt designs, not merely slogans or catchphrases (although some of the ones above are funny).

  16. Thank you come again.

    —First Desi president to first Desi intern.

    [Yes I know this is not a design. Just couldnt resist]

  17. ROFL, great slogans…Ok, couldn’t resist either NOOOO!, I am not a Hindi and I don’t speak Indian

  19. Brother, what is such t-shirt meaning? CCC

    The words given to all the desi Spelling Bee winners starting from Balu Natarajan, fashioned into an approximately grammatical sentence.

  20. Strong rumors around today (see Washington Post) that McCain is going to announce Jindal as VP today or tomorrow.

  22. 18 · Anil said

    That “who you callin a Macaca shirt” is great.

    Btw who are those kids ? I suspect each one of them are some of the mutineers from their childhood days suitably modified by some photoshop software 🙂

  24. Ek ho gaye hum aur tum to ud gayi neendein re Aur khanki paayal masti mein to kangan khanke re

    Huma Huma Huma Huma Huma!!!!

  26. The words given to all the desi Spelling Bee winners starting from Balu Natarajan, fashioned into an approximately grammatical sentence.

    Thanks bro, sweet!

  27. 13 · malaika said

    no, i don’t know the kamasutra (for us girls who get unwanted attention)

    Brilliant. And needed.

    “who you callin a Macaca shirt” – so funny it makes me weep.

    Been lurking for a few weeks, is there an SA equivalent to Emily’s List? I’ve been volunteering in Dem politics for a bit (worked the 1996 convention in Chicago) and there is a need for coordinated presence, or greater awareness of existing networks as I should know these things and clearly do not… thank you.

  29. Is there a deadline for the t-shirt thingy? I mean obviously you need it before the convention. But when do you stop taking entries?

  32. (So, I know you need designs but I’m hoping maybe one of our slogans will inspire some artistically minded person to make something into a design…I sure can’t do it!)

    Pakora Power! What will Brown do for you? Greetings from the World’s Biggest Democracy (Some retro postcard design, maybe) Bharat Obama

  33. Um, okay, so that last one is not very non-partisan. But Pakoras can be political! Just ask my nani.

  35. Btw who are those kids ? I suspect each one of them are some of the mutineers from their childhood days suitably modified by some photoshop software 🙂

    Nope, the kids belong to Subodh Chandra (who will be in Denver also)

  36. 13 · malaika said

    no, i don’t know the kamasutra (for us girls who get unwanted attention)

    I would heartily recommend the Kamasutra for its sheer absurdist hilarity and non-stop WTF-moments. Here’s an excerpt (full text here) from one of the introductory chapters:

    Now the householder, having got up in the morning … colour his lips with alacktaka, and look at himself in the glass. Having then eaten betel leaves, with other things that give fragrance to the mouth, he should perform his usual business.

    “Usual business” = “Chomp chomp chomp thoo”. Who would not find spitting betel leaves attractive?

    Or take this for instance:

    After breakfast, parrots and other birds should be taught to speak, and the fighting of cocks, quails, and rams should follow…. After this the householder, having put on his clothes and ornaments, should, during the afternoon, converse with his friends.

    Rams fighting cocks sounds painful enough, but the ones that suffer most are the parrots being taught to speak by an unclothed and unornamented householder.

    In the evening there should be singing, and after that the householder, along with his friend, should await in his room, previously decorated and perfumed, the arrival of the woman that may be attached to him, or he may send a female messenger for her, or go for her himself. After her arrival at his house, he and his friend should welcome her, and entertain her with a loving and agreeable conversation. Thus end the duties of the day.

    There were female messengers to summon girlfriends who may also be attached to the householder. Duct tape and velcro not included.

  44. I am no artist, but what I visualize is some amalgamation of one of the SM banner designs, with a reference to the “macaca” fracas, and referencing Browncoats – hmm, perhaps featuring Serenity‘s thesis – “Can’t Stop the Signal”

    Totally cheesy. 🙂

  45. I might have said this from an previous post, but these three adorable kiddos are making me crazy with their cuteness.

  46. Here is a caption.. Brown is the new “beautiful”..Smart is the new “sexy”..Thanks to Barack Will send the design ASAP, when is the deadline?