A big thanks to everyone (~20 people) that made it out to the first southern meet-up (Texas-sized) that Sepia Mutiny has had. I kid you not, a few readers drove in from Austin (2.5 hours drive) and San Antonio (3 hours drive). The weather was as absolutely perfect as it ever gets in Houston (we sat outside) and the Hobbit Cafe had great beer that kept coming (as you’d expect in The Shire). The official meet-up lasted until 9 p.m. but the unofficial meet-up went well past 1 a.m. It might be a couple more months until the next Texas meet-up, but it will either be in Austin or at the SM Bureau Offices in Houston. Hope to see some more of you next time.

Actually, it’s less than three days away, but who is being pedantic…not me, especially not when there is gluttonous dosa and vada consumption to anticipate in my near future.

D.C.’s sixth meetup will occur this Saturday at Amma’s Vegetarian, in Georgetown at 1 o’clock isharp. Since none of you read that, I’ll restate it, this time with formatting:

WHERE: Amma’s Vegetarian Kitchen, 3291 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20007, 202-625-6625

WHEN: Saturday, 1pm

WHY: Because you asked for it!

Lakshmi, MuraliMannered, Ashu, Arun, Coffeeface, Portmanteau, Sriram and at least three others have all tentatively RSVP’d– what about you? For all of you who are thinking, “There’s always next time”, don’t. There may not be. Besides, brunch this weekend sounds enticing, doesn’t it? Yum. Carpe dosa! Continue reading →

I’m a little nervous about hosting my first meet-up solo. So far every meet-up I’ve attended has been co-hosted by Anna or Taz (who are far better organizers and bring name tags). I think my fear is that at the meet-up I will be expected to give a speech like William Wallace did right before he yelled FREEDOM! I can’t be expected to sound mutinous on demand. In truth, we don’t really talk much about Sepia Mutiny at meet-ups. We do share good eats, merry drinks, and take scandalous pictures (none of which shall ever see the light of day) with good peoples. All bloggers, commenters, and lurkers (and friends of the three-aforementioned groups) are welcome. The meet-up details have finally solidified and it is time for Texas to represent.

Where: Hobbit Cafe

When: Sat, May 19th @ 6.p.m.

PLEASE RSVP BY THURSDAY SO I CAN MAKE ACCURATE RESERVATIONS:

abhi [at] sepiamutiny dot com

The reason for meeting relatively early in the evening is so those that want to (count me in) can move on to a second venue to continue the good times in a less “Shire-like” environment. Perhaps something more like the dive bar at the “Inn of the Prancing Pony.”

Now, the real question is have I scared people away by all my Lord of the Rings allusions?

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…because one date or the other, it’s going to happen. In solidarity with the twangier mutineers who are going to paint the dirty dirty all Sepia and whatnot, DC will be hosting its sixth meetup on the very same weekend. If you missed the last one, you are lucky because that means you didn’t laugh so hard that you wet your pants a little and really, who wants to smell like soo-soo? That’s a trick question; you TOTALLY do. I’m practicing my Sunny Leone-impersonation right now, just so I can treat everyone, new and old, brown and white, pre-pubescent and post-pubescent to the goodness of PORN.

You have the choice of Saturday, May 19th or Sunday, May 20th. If it’s the former, we’ll probably do thayir sadham and sambar vada (and MADRAS COFFEE!) at Amma’s; if it’s the latter, brunch at Heritage sounds nice enough to do thrice. Unfortunately, Heritage India only does brunch on Sunday or we’d be contemplating just one venue and two dates.

I’m open to other suggestions beyond Amma, but if you hate on that venerable font of Malayalee goodness, when I give you your inappropriate hug at the meetup, I’ll cut you. So be nice. And just so you know– I stick with these two places not because of the food, but because they are the most indulgent of rowdy-kundi’d mutineers and they have always treated us so graciously.

You may not realize it when you’re sitting there, giddy from giggling and happily making new friends, but doing so would be much more challenging and far less fabulous if we were constantly getting interrupted or badgered to shut up or, well, leave. After hosting nearly a dozen of these in three different cities, I can truly appreciate how special such a chill attitude towards us is (ahem…La Lanterna in NYC) and I want all of you to stuff your pretty faces and be worry-free…that’s how these six-hour marathon conversations work best.

So, vote for your preference in the comments below. 12:30 pm on either May 19th or May 20th (or much later on a Saturday), what do you-all say? Continue reading →

Question: What is hotter than the Rodeo?

Answer: The first ever Houston, TX meet-up!

When: Friday, May 18th or Saturday, May 19th (TBD)

Where: Suggestions welcome

Who: Texas boasts the third highest concentration of Sepia Mutiny readers in the world after 1) California and 2) New York. I expect y’all to represent.

Why: Because you should never underestimate the South’s mutinous potential

This is the first time I am ever hosting a meetup alone. I have always had either Anna or Taz co-host with me. Sepia Mutiny’s Houston Bureau Offices have been up and running now for four months so it is time for the bureau chief to cease with his shut-in ways. Commenters, lurkers, randoms, all welcome. And remember…everything is bigger in Texas.

Check back at this post and our Events Tab for the final date and location. I will post another reminder a few days before.

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Sixteen of you showed up to one decadent brunch at Heritage India in Dupont on Sunday afternoon; afterwards, most of us meandered over to the Cosi across Connecticut Avenue because we couldn’t bear to stop listening to and laughing with each other. What a FANTASTIC meetup (click the picture above to enlarge it, if you’d like proof of that). DC’s fifth was easily its best and that’s saying a LOT.

That makes what I have to type next even worse. I know. You mutineers are disappointed in my lack of prompt meetup writingup; if it is any consolation, you can’t possibly be as irritated as the actual attendees, some of whom came all the way from New Jersey and Florida, all of whom watched me type furtively and furiously, only to later wonder, “WTF?” as references to one of the BEST events we’ve ever hosted in any city popped up on my diary blog and my ancient fotolog. Will you reduce the number of spankings I deserve if I point out that I flickr’d the album of photographs from the meetup that same night? All 72 of them? No? Damn.

Well, here’s the cringe-inducing story, morning glories. I am an idiot. I am so used to Microsoft word saving, checking and wiping my kundi for me that I have become ridiculously lazy. I no longer do any of the above on my own (okay fine, maybe I do one of them) because I just assume it will all be taken care of…and by assuming…oh, how I’ve made an ass out of you and me. Or maybe just me.

I lost everything, because I no longer HAVE MS Word on my uber-adored iBook. I have whatever no-nonsense word-processing crap it comes with…and while it worked just dandy for my purposes, it taught me a very expensive lesson by not spoiling me via auto-save. Le sigh. If only I had been able to get online to liveblog all the mischievous merrymaking…

I’m not exaggerating– this was one of the funniest seven-hour conversations this website has ever inspired and it’s awful you won’t get to read any of it.

Here’s an example of what went down:

PORN!

This still reduces me to giggles. Ok, I’m going to summarize for the benefit of the poor people who were unable to share in the joy that was Sunday’s DC Meetup. Be warned, the following description is NSFW or children.

At a certain point in the conversation, our beloved ANNA decides to STAND UP and wax eloquent about this great new reality show she’s discovered…”Debbie Does Dallas Again.” She relates this great moment wherein our favorite brown porn star, Sunny Leone, is seeking career advice FROM HER BROTHER, and actually begins to mimic a certain act. “Should I start doing boy-girl?” our Anna yells, “because if I do, it’ll mean I have to do double-penetration,” and here she pantomimes with her hands…um…well…fellatio and spelunking the small hole, if you will. One hand forward, one hand back, so to speak.

Now, this wouldn’t be so bad if we’d had the restaurant to ourselves, which we did right up until roughly that moment. But fortuitously, a largish gaggle of desis wandered in at JUST THAT POINT, children in tow. While the parents were discussing whether to park themselves at a table, two or three 8-to-10-year old boys walked to the door, then froze there, utterly stunned, mouth agape, transfixed by Anna’s enthusiastic rendering of her new favorite TV show.

This led some of us to comment that Anna had more-or-less kick-started puberty in a few kids that day, and that there would be some interesting Q&A sessions with the parents in the Accord / Camry on the way home that night. “Mommy, I feel funny…in my pants.”

I still get the giggles when I think of the total expressionless intent stare on the faces of those kids while watching you, AJ. Pure gold!

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As of Wednesday SM will be closing down its L.A. offices. But…not before we had a rockin’ meetup in a den of vice.

As usual, the West Coast represented the best. We had at least 40 people show up including Sunny of our British cousin Pickled Politics. You can see all of the (non-censored) pictures here. That isn’t a pink shirt I am wearing in the photoset by the way. It is Sepia. And if you think it’s ugly, too bad…because the rest of my clothes are in boxes. To all the bloggers, commenters, lurkers, people who we’ve blogged about, and groupie that showed up, thanks for making LA such a great city to live in (except for the traffic)! Keep representing. West siiiidddeee.

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“This is Rasika, who were you holding for…”

“Hi, my name is Anna– I had reservations for this Saturday which I was just discussing with–“

“Ah yes, for 10:30 pm.”

“Well, I was told that it would be closer to ten and that we could do drinks in the lounge for an hour before.”

“A group of ten? You may try, but I don’t think that will be possible–”

“But the hostess just suggested that very course of action, since the lounge empties around then–“

“I can’t hold any tables in the lounge for your party.”

“I didn’t ask you to, I’m sure we’ll be fine there, at that hour.”

“No, I don’t think so, I’m sorry.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“It’s a Saturday evening, it will be very busy, very full.”

“Okay…FINE. I guess we’ll try our luck and just look forward to dinner, which again, I thought was at ten.”

“Madame, I will have to push two tables together. It will take time. I cannot seat you until 10:30, I have to use two tables.”

“Oh…well, would it help if it was just a party of eight? Some of my RSVPs weren’t firm…”

“Is it a party of ten or a party of eight?” Continue reading →