well, the bitter-sweet, smokey end of yet another Meat Week has arrived. and at the close of our 5th year of sauce-slingin' celebration, we can't help but face the rest of the year with heavy hearts. (mainly because our arteries are clogged.) must we really wait another full year to experience the camaraderie and meatcraze of the season?! i suppose. otherwise our health might really start to suffer.

but hey! let's pull ourselves out of the dumps (insert poop joke here) and take a moment to recognize those who contributed a little something extra to this year's holiday! check out the Meat Week Honors to see who went above and beyond the call of doody in the LA chapter this year. (captains of other cities, we'd love to post yours too if you have em!)

and, when the post-holiday blues come a-knockin', get a little dose to tide you over by visiting one of the Meat Week Best Ofs! check out the best of the best according to those who sampled a wide range throughout the week. the votes are in and the results speak for themselves. "Meat on!" they exclaim, "MEAT ON!" (once again, any other city who did a vote can send us your results!)

and we, the admirals, would like to extend a very special thanks to each and every one of you who participated, whether you partook of meats or just showed support online. the two of us have always known BBQ as a communal experience with our families, but we didn't realize the degree to which BBQ brings people together. thanks for making us feel a part of all the other chapters by sharing your photos and new traditions online. it was great meating a lot of new faces.

now kick your itis and get back to work with a clear conscience, knowing we've done our part to stimulate the meatconomy this year! we leave you with this food for thought:

"feed a man BBQ for a day and he will become hungry again in a week. feed a man BBQ for a week and his soul shall never hunger again." --gandhi

Liezl is an artist. she makes things of clay and then makes really cool pictures of them. she has made a special series of cool clay sculptures in honor of meat week!



you can see more here

thanks, Liezl!

here's a big, greasy hand to welcome one of our own youngins into the fold. Mackenzie Walls, (sibling of original Weeker Adam Walls) has caught the meatfever so hard, she just had to start her own chapter! and she's hit the ground running with a strong following in Savannah.

ahoy, Kenzie and pals! we're glad you're onboard.

well, the glorious day is finally upon us. and in these final hours before the slaughter begins, i'd like to share with you who haven't seen it a classy little article the LA Times food blog posted about our sacred holiday!

please enjoy this as you prepare your hearts and minds for meat.

each year there are a few brave meaters who have no backup, no camaraderie to drive them into the most remote BBQ havens, no acquaintances to goad their adventures onward. and yet...they go anyway. this year we've finally created a spot for you loners to post pictures of your own. renegades or road-travelers who can't commit to a chapter no longer have to be excluded!

so if you've ever sat by your lonesome and snapped a picture of yourself biting into a giant rack of ribs, check out a little spot called Flyin' Solo. this page will look much like the other chapter pages, with a spot to post any exciting adventures or experiences you want to describe in words, and your very own photo album for when words fail to convey the grease-stained sentiment.

and who knows, maybe your solo efforts will inspire a new chapter! if they do, and you're interested in taking the helm as a Captain, just let us know here. we just need your schedule, your name and your city, and you're on your way to sailing the high seas of meat!

--the admirals

hold on to your haunches partners, cause we've got a whole slew of new chapters to welcome into the Meat Week fold!

this year, we'll be joined by a fantastic little town you all know as Boston, home of tea parties, Celtics, and massacres! and, lucky for us, home of Shannon Sweetser, who has bravely taken the helm as the founder and captain of this erudite, historic, hungry city.

from New England we travel down to the Carolinas to find our next new chapter: Charlotte. seeing as both us Admirals have our family roots in ol' NC, this is an especially exciting addition. welcome, Captain Spence "Spank" Taylor!

now, some of you may think Florida is a diverse, culturally-rich (and benjamin-rich) glittering, tropical peninsula. and you're right! unless you've ever been north of Orlando, in which case you know that Florida is Southern. As. Hell. and as such, has produced amazing BBQ culture. so welcome our old pal Frank Moya as the Captain of the Tampa branch!

and of course, what BBQ celebration would be complete without the inclusion of the nation's BBQ Capitol itself: Kansas City! we're not sure how Captain Carlos or first mate John found us, but boy are we glad they did. welcome, gang!

now, we're not ones to get pushy about BBQ, either you wanna put it in your face or you don't. we don't have an evangelical agenda to force Meat Week into the dark corners of the earth. but for years our hearts have been heavy over the lack of a strong representation in our hometown, the very place that formed our love of BBQ: Jacksonville, Florida. so it seemed like divine intervention when we got an unexpected call from an enthusiastic stranger who wanted to head up the Duval chapter with a fury! welcome, and thank you for stepping into our world, Cash Carter! we can't wait to see what new traditions you bring to our beautifully dirty ol' Duval.

well, the sheer amount of exclamations in this post should give you an idea of how excited we are to expand the brotherhood of meat. we extend a greasy hand to all our new pals across the states, and we can't wait to see your shiny faces start showing up in the photos next week.

welcome aboard the S.S. Meat! let us sail forward into uncharted territories...

--the admirals

Hey Folks,

We set up two PayPal buttons for the shirts. If you pre-ordered (before we posted the cut-off message) then go ahead and use one of the buttons below. If we told you that you were on stand-by then we'll email you individually as we have more of them.

FOR THOSE THAT WANT PRIORITY SHIPPING This button is for those who would like us to ship to them via Priority Mail. The shipping will calculate based on the quantity you are paying for but it should be roughly $5 for every 2 shirts. We hope to mail them by Wednesday. This should put them in your hands by Saturday (hopefully).

FOR THOSE IN LA This button is for those who can pick them up locally in LA. We plan to bring them all with us to the first night of Meat Week so just make sure you've used the PayPal button before then and you'll be set to grab your shirt from us. But we know it's hype week now and you're itchin' to hype so shoot us an email and we'll try to arrange for you to pick yours up after Tuesday.

Thanks everyone for your awesome response to the shirts! We're really glad we get to share our meat-joy in clothing form.

We sent them off to the printer this morning which means we should have them in our hands by Wednesday of next week! This also means that we have to stop taking orders (for now). We've ordered a few extras so feel free to keep posting your requests. Just know that we'll have to keep you on standby until we make sure all of the pre-orders were filled or until we order more.

We're as excited as ya'll are to cover them in merit badges of grease so check back here this weekend for information on getting your shirt. We'll be posting a PayPal link to make the whole process a little easier and we'll be collecting addresses and shipping preferences from meaters outside of LA.

it was a tough fight, it was a long fight, and in the end there emerged not one, but TWO slogans which we thought so beautifully and catch-ily proclaimed the sentiments of Meat Week, why the hell not combine them?! so here are the two slogans which rose, like so much water on grease in a jar, to the top:

"Eat Meat. Repeat." (by Brad Leroy Cartwright, Captain of the Baltimore chapter) and

"Meat Week: Because Meat Month Might Kill You." (from LA's own Meat Sorcerer, Mike Rose).

and of course, no contest is complete without a prize at the end. and so, we anxiously present to you, dear friends, our Meat Week tshirt design! hope you like it!

front	back

HOW TO GET T-SHIRTS:

"I WANT A TSHIRT BY THIS HOLIDAY": PLEASE RESPOND ASAP WITH THE COLOR/SIZE YOU REQUEST. (we need to submit to the printers tomorrow.)

"I THINK I WANT A TSHIRT BUT I CAN'T MAKE UP MY MIND BEFORE TOMORROW": we are going to order some extras, based on the size and color requests we get tonight. but we can't promise how many, so responding immediately is your best bet to get exactly what you want.

"HOW MUCH WILL I PAY FOR THESE SICK THREADS?": we wish we could make them free, but alas, we are not rich mogules. so the printers say $16 for this fine-lookin' piece of work. (those of you not in LA, we will ship to you. two-day priority is about $5, could cost less if you don't mind getting them a little later.) we will set up a paypal site for orders.

we know this is last-minute, but we wanted to surprise you guys, so sorry for the urgency! and thanks a million to everyone who submitted. a lot of your slogans have been re-surfacing to interrupt our work days with fits of laughter.

now sit back, hype up, and prepare for the on-slaught!
--the admirals

UPDATE: the initial order has been placed, but fear not! we will have a few extras on-hand, and if enough people ask for shirts, we can place another order in the future. so let us know if you're interested!