You say you are pissed because there hasn’t been a north-of-the-border SM meet-up in 3 YEARS in 2 YEARS, eh? Well we are going to have to do something about that now aren’t we, eh? My passport is ready and Neha (a.k.a.Currylingus) is coming out of hiding to co-host (I know, I am excited about that too). There will be a Sepia Mutiny meet-up this Sat at 5p.m. in Toronto!

When: Saturday May 24th at 5p.m.

Where: The Epicure Café. Neha says, “It ain’t desi but the head chef is Sri Lankan so that counts for something ;-)”

Who: Abhi, Neha, and SM readers from Toronto or elsewhere in Canada. Readers, lurkers, commenters, and their friends/family welcome

What: Food, drinks, mutinous socializing, torrid affairs. Don’t be nervous, none of us are intelligent in person.

Why: We can’t tell you until we see you.

How: Hell, ride with a Mountie if you need to. I don’t care, just find a way.

RSVP to abhi at sepiamutiny dot com

179,470 visitors in the past year (20,093 from Toronto alone). We know you are out there. Come for Canada.

Hey folks – A quick note to say thanks to the mutineers who came out last week for the first ever Las Vegas SM Meetup.

Our first target, V-Bar, turned out to be a bit too loud and over the top for my / our convention weary self. So, we grabbed a drink across the way at David Burke and hung out for a couple of hours….

In attendance –

• Chi_Diva – representing Chicago and new to the depravity that was Vegas.
• Arun – like a total Roca, he’d just flown in a few hours before but couldn’t let a meetup go by.
• Amit – An Old Skool friend whom I hadn’t seen in a few years and managed to get married and have a baby girl in the interim.
• Sandhya – who joined us at the beginning but was swiftly whisked away by coworkers who feared our swarthiness.
• Dale – Amit’s friend / co-worker there to keep the peace

It was good seeing you all and particularly impressive that you guys came out on such short notice. Chi_diva in particular gets props for suggesting the meetup in the first place…

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Hey CTIA-ing mutineers – Just a quick note that it looks like our impromptu Las Vegas Meetup will be 1030pm – midnight, Wednesday night @ the V-Bar in the Venetian hotel.

No cover, no line, no list. And may I add, no pretension, snobbery or attitude. V Bar recently went where precious few clubs have gone before by celebrating its five-year anniversary. Many a Vegas nightspot’s lifespan can be clocked from grand opening to grand closing in mere months or in the time it takes to enjoy just one cocktail. But as with a fine wine, cheese or an unpaid parking ticket, this small bar has gained complexity over time.

Sounds perfect for a bunch of convention-weary mutineers

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Hey folks – I’m shipping off to Las Vegas this week for the annual CTIA wireless show. As much as I hate trade shows, they are FANTASTIC at bringing together an interesting mix of people from all across the world (while we’re at it, I’m not a fan of Vegas either but it has grown on me a bit over the years).

Tech shows, in particular, tend to pile a LOT of desis together. In the past I’ve run into so many old friends & mutineers that I’ve had to explain to my coworkers that “yep, most desis really do know each other.” For ex., and on a somewhat sadder note, Sameer & his lovely wife Reena were a couple of those CTIA “regulars.”

This time around, I got a note from mutineer Chi_Diva that she was planning to hit CTIA as well so I figured we should get ahead of things and try to do the first ever Las Vegas SM meetup.

So, 3 questions for the mutiny –

1. Who else is gonna be there?
2. Given tradeshow chaos, and perhaps in grand Vegas tradition, I think our best bet is to try to do the meetup late Wednesday night, Apr 2 around 10 pm or so.
3. Anyone got a recommendation for a bar, ideally at a hotel in the middle of the strip, that we can meet up at?

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p>Since we’re in Vegas, of course, we oughtta make sure this is the most Glam meetup ever .

That’s the Freer Gallery pictured above. Beautiful, nah? 🙂 That is where I’ll be meeting some of you, in just over an hour! If you can’t make it there for the 2pm movie* we are going to watch, try and attend the second half of the meetup, which will occur at 5pm, at Vapiano restaurant (near the Caribou Coffee on M street which no one goes to). We’ll leave from the Smithsonian at around 4pm.

The movie is just under two hours, but I’m allowing an hour for metro-ing back to the unholy triangle, since it’s the weekend and recently, they’ve been doing more maintenance, so there could be slight delays.

Vapiano is veg-friendly, not pricey and a lot of fun. I went to the DCist photog/DC Flickr meetup there last week and it’s an excellent choice for such gatherings. 🙂 We’ll be there from 5-7pm, though if past performance is an indication of anything, that could easily be something like 8 or 8:30. See some of you soon!

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Achtung: if you’re interested in attending the whole meetup, and you want to watch the phillum with us, you must procure FREE tickets for the show, which are given out at 1pm. Continue reading →

UPDATE:  I just got off the phone with the Freer Gallery– they apologized profusely for sending us on a wild ticket-chase.  It is only possible to reserve "free" tickets for CONCERTS.  Never for films. They weren’t supposed to include the ticketmaster information with this listing.

The good news is, the official I spoke with said we should be fine IF we show up at 1pm for truly free tickets.  We are allowed two per person. He said that the Sri Lankan films generally don’t "sell-out", if such a thing can be said about free events. 🙂  The reason Born into Brothels did is because it won an Oscar.  Got that?  No reserving tickets– it’s not possible.  PLEASE GET THERE EARLY TO REQUEST FREE TICKETS AT 1PM, ONE HOUR BEFORE THE SHOW.

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After our left-coast counterparts paint the town Sepia on Saturday night, DC is going to get its culture on via our ninth meetup. Quality AND quantity…that’s how chocolate city do. 😉

First, we’ll head to the (Smithsonian) Freer Gallery, which is screening the Sri Lankan film “Against the Tide” in its Meyer Auditorium. Tickets are FREE. Once we’re spiritually nourished, we’ll head to Vapiano restaurant (1800 M Street N.W.), where we can drink wine, poach the free gummi bears or actually order Italian food (and the strawberries and cream, because it’s the best dessert there):

Vapiano is an innovative European concept serving made-to-order fire roasted pizzas, fresh, house-made pasta and hand tossed gourmet salads. [v]

The unique thing about Vapiano is that everyone who walks in gets a card, which tracks what you choose from the various salad, pasta, pizza, dessert/bar areas; when you leave, you return the card, they scan it, and voila– separate checks, no muss or fuss. 🙂

That’s an extra welcome concept considering what happened at our last meetup, at the underwhelming Nirvana. Three of you forgot to leave money before you left (though one of you realized this and apologized profusely and tried to make it right). That is the ONLY time that has EVER happened at a DC meetup, though, and all the remaining mutineers immediately chipped in and covered for you so I wouldn’t have to. See? Vapiano. Brilliant.

Okay, more to this post soon, but here are the barest details, so you can sharpie this in to your schedule:

Meet at 1 pm (that’s when they distribute the FREE tickets to the film).

See “Against the Tide” at 2pm.

Meet outside at around 4pm.

Take Metro to Vapiano (red/blue/orange lines) and eat. 🙂 Continue reading →

Our meetup has been set – we’re meeting at the desi-owned Redwood Bar and Grill at 7PM on Saturday March 1st. It’s downtown, across the street from a metro station and it’s … pirate themed.

Arrrrr or Arre, you decide

I’ve heard left coasters talk a lot of smack about how the LA meetups are the biggest and best we ever hold, yadda yadda yadda. All I can say is: bring it. I’d love it if we could have the sort of turnout we saw in 2006, as in September 2006 and December 2006.

Here’s the location:

The Redwood Bar and Grill
316 W. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Vinod, Taz and I will all be there, so there will be a lot of mutiny all in one room. I’m looking forward to meeting the best and brightest that the LA mutiny has to offer.

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I will be travelling to the City of Angles (when you’re that skinny, the only curves are silicon) over leapday weekend, and thought a meetup would be in order, hosted by yours truly and Taz. I’ve heard stories about the LA meetups, so here’s your chance to show me that you can party better and harder than your brethren and sistren in NYC, DC, SF and Chicago. The meetup would most likely be on the westside, at a location TBA.

Please RSVP so we have a sense of how many people will be coming, and also suggest good venues. I’m not from LA, and Taz is hyper-busy with the election season and all, so while we’ll be there with bells on, we need your help in choosing a location and getting a head count.

UPDATE:

We’ll be meeting at 7PM @ the Redwood Bar and Grill

The Redwood Bar and Grill
316 W. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

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