Yesterday (Saturday) was an extraordinary day filled with all kinds of geeky fun. Thank you Ryan Mandelbaum, Emily Lipstein and Rosemary Mosco for blowing up my brain!

The day started in Central Park where I got to hang out with an amazing group of young urban birders led by Jeffrey Ward from the Audubon Society and a great team from Gizmodo who, besides being birding enthusiasts, also happen to run the programming at this new place on the Lower East Side called Caveat.

Caveat is dedicated to “intelligent nightlife” and their programming is brilliant. Highly recommend you check it out if you’re interested in nerdy, smart, quirky events. It’s like TED Talks but a hundred times better! And a lot of it takes place in the early evening or weekend afternoons which makes it even better in my opinion.

Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

• Our core creative team includes a recovering theoretical physicist, a renegade museum tour guide, and a one-time Moth StorySlam champion. That love for science and unconventional storytelling is at the heart of Caveat’s booking philosophy: we regularly host comedy, science talks, storytelling, concerts, trivia competitions, live recorded podcasts, and special events that defy description… you’ll have to come experience them for yourself! Ticket prices range from $10 to $20 for most events.

Yesterday, there were 4 speakers on birding. All were fantastic but my two favorites were Emily Lipstein whose topics was Bird Sex and The City and Rosemary Mosco whose insights on the bird scene, and its oddities, are hilarious. You’ll never look at birds the same way again, I promise you!

 

Scroll down for the day in pics.

 

9AM:  Getting started…..

Spotting birds….except I was lousy at it

4PM:  Later in the day ….at Caveat…..

More examples of Caveat’s programming….

The crowd and the venue…..

The speakers….here’s Rosemary….

 

Bottom Line.

Caveat is a game changer for me. I discovered it through birding but I will be back for more of their programming amazingness.

I feel like I have been given entree to a whole new world of smart, geeky fun. Basically all the stuff I love about documentaries and podcasts is now available to me – right in my neighborhood, just steps from my door.

I’m aiming to make this a new (monthly?) hangout with all my friends – game nights, trivia competitions, music, all kinds of quirky events. All right there for us at 21A Clinton Street (basement level).

And finally, if you haven’t gotten enough of birding, here’s a post I wrote back in May about the trend to Urban Birding and its appeal to millennials. Link here.