Noice.

CULTURE: London Dating Scene: Brains, the New Black: "Tired of looking for your soulmate in sea of drunken louts at a bar? Or trying to have a talk at a club pounding music out at 150 decibels? Perhaps the new 'intellidating' scene is for you!

Speed dating and clubbing just don't seem to fill the void for many lonely hearts any more. 'Intellidating' is being acclaimed as the hot new way to romance.



Debating societies, art classes and poetry readings -- all are thriving in the British capital as dating turns cerebral.



The trend has been spotted by a wide range of social commentators and even prompted the heavyweight magazine The Economist to declare: 'Seriousness is booming.'



The appropriately named Sebastian Shakespeare wrote in London's Evening Standard newspaper: 'Debates and poetry readings are fast becoming London's most romantic nights out.'

OK, I'm not so hot on poetry readings, but a break from the typical dating schemes is a welcome change according to Ginny Greewood, who runs a club dedicated to cerebral lonelyhearts.

'You are not concentrating on what is happening from the navel to the knee -- you are connecting to the gray matter,' she told Reuters.



'They have got the income and the intelligence: they just need someone to organize their social diaries.'



'I think intellidating is a great phrase,' she said. 'I'm sure it will end up in the dictionary. If you are an intelligent person in an important position at work, you are not going to hang out in a bar or go speed dating.'

John Gordon and Jeremy O'Grady have set up a similar scene -- a debate club called Intelligence Squared that has sold out every night they've organized.

So cerebral daters out for rarefied seduction are treated to mind-stretching debates like 'Better rough justice than another 9/11' and 'The rise of China spells the decline of the West.'



'Whether it is dating or debating is debatable but this represents an opportunity for people who want intelligent dating,' O'Grady said.



'There is such a lack of institutional fora other than the dance floor or the club for them to meet. It is all so hideously difficult.'

Sounds like my cup of tea.

(Written by: Noctua)

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(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)