Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

Advice for Huma Abedin, i.e. Stay Home and Have Babies

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Dear Ms. Keller,

To be honest, I really have had no desire to write a single word about Weinergate. Our guest blogger, Razib has been keeping tabs on the story for us here at Sepia Mutiny. Other than my girlcrush on the fashionable lady married to the man in question and my well-wishes for the future success of the individuals involved, I didn’t really care to comment on the matter. After all, who knows/cares what goes on in the boudoirs of a married couple.

Those are exactly the sentiments you express in your post for Vanity Fair. In “Advice for Huma Abedin, Wife of Representative Anthony Weiner,” you write, “We’ve never been able to fathom the laws of attraction, and we haven’t a clue what goes on in other people’s relationships. She says she’s staying. So we’ll take it from there, and give her some tips to help make it work.” Then you go on to comment on their relationship. Well, what’s a little gossip between us ladies? Right? Right. Let me start by saying how much I admire your five tips for Ms. Abedin Mrs. Weiner. Stay home. Focus on the family. Lose lame-o mentors like Hillary (with her goshdarnawful contagious marital problems). Make awesome babies. All fabulous tips that my grandmother has been telling me for years. Continue reading →

Russell Peters: One freedom Americans don’t have

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Comedian Russell Peters was interviewed yesterday on The Current, a news show on Russell Peters.jpgCBC Radio (the NPR of Canada) hosted by Anna Maria Tremonti. He had some interesting thoughts on freedom of speech in America — or the lack of it.

AMT: “So you’re living in the States now … Can you feel free to speak the same way you speak other places?”

RP: “No, in the States, you’ve really got to watch what you say. In Canada too, but not as much. But in the States, you really do. You’ve got to think about what you say before you say it. I don’t know where they get off saying that America has this freedom of speech thing. That’s the one freedom they don’t have … is freedom of speech. Nobody says what they want to say. And when people do, they get labeled as crazy or out of their mind or whatever or renegades … They don’t respect you if you actually say what’s on your mind.”

Continue reading →

“First You Must Say Hello”

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ZeroBridge4.jpg

The film “Zero Bridge” is a film set in Kashmir and, therefore, the word “terrorist” is used in the film. But only once. This happens when a couple of young white men, tourists, lounging on a shikara on the Dal Lake have the following exchange with the film’s central character, Dilawar:

  • Western tourist 1: What does “Dilawar” mean? Your name?
  • Dilawar (with a smile): It means a terrorist.
  • Western tourist 1 (laughing): I knew it!

  • Western tourist 2 (also laughing): Yeah, you look like a bad guy.

    Continue reading →

A Rome Memorial Day

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Memorial Day #MusicMonday is the album Rome by Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi and featuring one of our favorite Desi songstress, Norah Jones. I was going to post up the YouTube video for my favorite song on the album featuring Norah Jones – a song called “Black” – but I decided to post this video which basically allows you to stream the whole album in one straight shot.

Sorry, no free downloads today. Just an awesome album to soundtrack your Memorial Day. Continue reading →

Got to be taught

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airport.line.jpgImagine you work for the TSA. You might be all too aware of public criticism of airport security procedures like pat-downs and removing shoes. You might feel proud to serve your country. You might be glad to have a job in this economy.

Being brown, you might also be required to play the role of terrorist in a training drill, taking a mock bomb up to a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport security checkpoint. And, oops, your boss might forget to tell airport police that the drill is happening, prompting an armed response.

According to information released Monday by MSP airport police, the May 12 security test included a device in a shaving kit made to look like a bomb. It was a cylinder with wires connected to a wrist watch. The device was brought to a passenger security checkpoint, according to airport Police Sgt. Mark Ledbetter, one of the responding officers.

“Upon arriving [at the checkpoint],” Ledbetter wrote in his report, “TSA [Transportation Security Adminstration] screeners were out with a male who appeared to be Middle Eastern in descent or Indian/Pakistani.” (StarTribune) Continue reading →

The Ultimate Dhaba Roadtrip

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Clearly what resonated the most with my California Desi population map wasn’t the population. It was the fact that I said, “I’d love to do a Cali road trip based on this map, and hit up the Indian restaurants along the way.” Y’all a bunch of foodies, aren’t you?


View Ultimate Dhaba Roadtrip in a larger map

So let’s do this again, crowdsource style. This time the google map lists those to-die-for hole-in-the-wall dhabas in the middle of nowhere. I’ve already taken the liberty to map the ones listed in the previous comment thread. Do you have a Desi food place that is a must hit up place on a “kao, kao, kao” summer road trip? Do you have an interesting picture at one of these places? Please list it in the comments and I’ll drop it into the map as soon as possible. and it doesn’t have to be Cali centered. I only ask that you make recs for food that is good, places obscure and with a great story.

Photo credit: Me, taken somewhere off the I-40 in between Arizona and California on my ultimate Taqwacore roadtrip in ’09. Continue reading →

Inhale Some Gotham Green

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Gotham Green.jpgToday’s #MusicMonday comes out of NYC via LA via TX…via NYC. Gotham Green has traversed the nation, picking up flow, styles, and beat makers along the way. His beats have an easy going West Coast vibe to it, with a bit of NYC in your face grit mixed in. Quick on the heels of his last album, The Haze Diaries Volume 3, Gotham Green has just dropped more music, this time as an EP with El Prez called, Inhale. You can download the EP for free right here.

I sat down via gChat with this hip hop charmer to talk about his journey with music and life. And of course, weed. Here’s what Gotham Green had to say.

Taz: Gotham Green! You have an EP out w/ El Prez that just dropped?

Gotham Green: Me and the homie El Prez released a six track EP on May 5th, presented by ashleyoutrageous and djbooth.net. It’s called Inhale. The songs on Inhale are all basically just a product of two friends smoking and joking around and then, making it a reality. It was dope because I recorded my shit in NYC, then he recorded his shit in LA. This dope producer duo Twigg & Stone produced five songs and Quickie Mart did one song for it.

T: Does it sound like the The Haze Diaries ? “Tell Me Something” on Haze Diaries Vol. 3 is my favorite. Nice video for it too.

GG: I wouldn’t say it does, but all three volumes of The Haze Diaries sound different to me. Thanks, people love that song. It seems to be a lot of peoples favorite. Shoutout to my homie Freddie Gibbs. Yeah, that video came out beautiful. Michael Stine and Nick Vedros really killed that and the “Dirty Filthy Liar” video. Continue reading →

Junk Science for Fun

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Arvind Gupta has won national awards for his many contributions to science education in India. But when he introduces himself, he calls himself a toymaker. He’s not developing the type of toys that you would buy in a store or order online. His toys are the kind people can make using trash and other everyday materials.

Got a straw? Make a flute! A couple of foam cups or a CD? Turn them into a helicopter or a hovercraft! Gupta’s videos, which I saw posted on MeFi, quickly show how to make nifty toys from trash and simple materials. They also demonstrate scientific principles in action–a coin and an old hanger are used to show centrifugal force, for example. Continue reading →

Giantlike Young’ins

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I stumbled up Young the Giant when the adorable 21 yr old lead singer Sameer Gadhia’s image graced one of my most favorite Tumblr pages. I had to see what kind of music he played and after watching the six “Open Session” video on continuous repeat, I was simply hooked. Here’s my favorite of the mix for your #MusicMonday.

Young the Giant’s self titled debut album just dropped ($5 for month of May at Amazon!), and I can’t stop listening to it. With a clearly California sound, the music takes you through on a road trip of sounds through desert romance to beachy carefreeness. No surprise, considering the band is from Orange County and has just made it big, selling out shows as they tour across the country.

The group won a contest on music-marketing website Sonicbirds to open for Kings of Leon at a January 2009 concert at Chicago’s House of Blues…. That show piqued label interest, and the group played music showcase South by Southwest a couple months later… The band ended up signing with Roadrunner Records, which released its self-titled debut digitally in the fall and physically this January (22,000 copies sold to date). [usatoday]

Sameer also has talked about his Indian background influencing his sound.

I’ve been around a lot of Indian classical. My sister is an amazing singer, and my mom and my dad’s mother used to sing, so Indian classical is something that I grew up listening to. Even though I started getting into different American styles early on, I still had that influence in the back of my head, so when I’d start writing, some of the melodies would twirl along that axis. [lamusicblog]

The band heads out in an international tour in May, but hang tight – they’ll be back Stateside to play Lollapalooza this August. If I was in Chicago, I’d definitely check them out. But if you can’t, this one is for you. Continue reading →