Awesome New Venue, Same Great Taste

Friends,

After a couple of months off–as witnessed by our tragic inactivity here on the Conversation Blog (sorry about that…)–Symposium is back.

And we’re bringing the show to a grocery store.

This Saturday night at 8pm, join us at Whole Foods, 95 East Houston at Bowery in New York City. There’s a large open room in the dining area on the second floor of this Whole Foods, and it’s fairly begging to be occupied by the sorts of earnest truth-seekers that comprise our audiences.

One word of warning: Unlike our past digs, boozing is sadly discouraged at Whole Foods. What’s encouraged, then, you ask? That would be buying delicious Whole Foods food/beverages and enjoying them during the show. Personally I know nothing that better stimulates my think-brain than a good, over-priced samosa…

See you there, then.

T-Minus 64 Minutes

San Francisco, there we went!

Symposium convened in San Francisco two nights ago and the conversation was typically lively. Topics we touched on included (but of course weren’t limited to):

• Celebration, Florida;
• whether Olympic swimming should take place in the nude;
• middle school dances;
• Camden, New Jersey (again!);
• and our first-ever mid-show looking up of the law (special thanks to copyright.gov).

It’s about an hour until showtime here in Berkeley, so it’s time to get on over to the Ashby Stage…but more soon, after tonight’s Symposium has concluded.

The MetroNorth iPhone Story

This is a story from the April 15 show about a train ride I’d taken the previous weekend.

I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

The only things I’d add are:

1. I really enjoyed the whole ride—both the spontaneous conversation with my new friend and the mini-soap opera’s hilarious conclusion;
2. I really *didn’t* feel competitive with the iPhone man at all…but he certainly did seem to feel competitive with me, which was pretty absurd; and
3. I really wish I knew how the whole thing had turned out.

Incidentally, this story/video already has at least one fan…Carina Renner linked to the video on her blog, Singing While Moving.

Mercenary Wingmen

I don’t know what’s funnier: That people pay to have this done for them, or that other people fall for it.

Unsurprisingly,  the internet is full of all kinds of nonsense about how to pick people up…from the obvious, not that upsetting, and probably not that effective to the not obvious, somewhat more upsetting, and evidently quite effective.

Symposium Tomorrow Night at Parkside Lounge in NYC!

Yep, Symposium convenes tomorrow night. Here’s the skinny:

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 10pm.
The Parkside Lounge
317 East Houston St., between B and C
Free Admission
2-drink minimum
(Never fear—beers are cheap)

As always, the topic of our conversation will be chosen by you, our audience.

Join us.

Go West, Young Man…

…have brain, will travel.

Symposium is headed to the West Coast at the end of this month, with dates scheduled in San Francisco and Berkeley, and more in the works in LA, Seattle, and other spots, too. Check our website and Facebook Page for more info.

On May 24, Symposium convenes at 7pm at the SF Comedy College’s Clubhouse Stage at 414 Mason (at Geary) in San Francisco.

On May 26, Symposium convenes at 8pm at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby (at MLK) in Berkeley, courtesy of the Shotgun Players.

And if you’re anywhere on the West Coast and would like to see a Symposium in your town, drop us a line; we’ll be out your way through the end of June, and we’d love to make it happen.

See all of you out there real soon.

Is That a Ring on Your Finger, or Are You Just Glad to See Me?

This clip—about a particular Craigslist post, introduced at the 1:25 mark, seeking actresses to engage in various tactics in order to expose unfaithful men—pretty much speaks for itself.

Here is the job posting for anyone interested in being profressional infidelity bait.

And here’s one of those radio show set-ups from the beginning of the clip. (NB: the audio on the linked page starts playing automatically.)

Also, this clip/post/concept was picked up and discussed on another blog! The blog writer, a St. Louis-based fellow who goes by the handle “Mizenerd,” wonders about the potential ramifications of this scheme for all involved. Mizenerd, if you’re reading, we’re right there with you…this way must lie madness…

The Weirdest Things on Craigslist

The conversation at our last show moved to Craigslist, at which point we asked our audience to try and recall the weirdest things they could remember seeing on Craigslist. The couple of examples that followed—which you can watch described in the clip above—were definitely quite strange.

This led us to consider the fact that Craigslist is a site that thrives on the existence of tremendous amounts of need and desire. By providing a way of anonymizing desire—allowing people to try and fulfill desires that they might otherwise be shy about expressing—Craigslist naturally attracts a great many people who consider their desires inexpressible in social situations. Thus despite its size and mainstream-ness, Craigslist simultaneously clears markets in both the commonplace and the marginal.

Back to the….Past?

At our last show, the conversation moved to a notion held by seemingly every generation: an oft-hysterical worry that the ensuing generation will be so ensconced in technology that it will lose touch with essential skills. Check the 1:00 mark in the clip above.

Our parents, for example, might admire our facility with desigining a website from scratch but malign our inability to balance a checkbook due to reliance on online banking.

Call it Kids These Days Syndrome: Every generation considers itself the final vanguard of civilization before the young people take over and everything goes to hell.

You’re a Rowdy Bunch, You Are…

Last night’s show was, as usual, a thoroughly enjoyable romp…and was the first time we found ourselves blushing since we started doing the show.

Perhaps that’s because the first thing we talked about was overuse of the word “orgasmic”…

This time around, our topics included:

• The statute of limitations on the term “Post-coital”;
• The rate at which the human body digests chewing gum;
• Which internet company is most likely to become (or already be…?) the real-life Skynet;
• How free gifts are used to expose philanderers;
• The weirdest stuff we’ve ever seen on Craigslist;
• and much, much more.

We’ll be posting followups on several of these topics—as well as a few more from last week’s show—so stay tuned!