Pre-weekend Weekend Lunch Invite 57. So marks the start of the Lanthanide Series

Only a couple more days to Valentine's Day, and my bipolar relationship with the holiday rears its head. Choose your sides...read both if you want, read just one. I'll stand on both sides. :-)

Just a look. Your eyes meet for the first time or the millionth, from up close or across a crowd, and nothing else matters. As everything else disappears but your lovers eyes, a spark strikes at the very center of your being. Your face changes just a little as your muscles make the slightest smile. A soft, smooth warmth grows from the spark. Your entire body relaxes as the warmth fills you from inside. You breathe. You feel every molecule of air pass through your nose yet your are completely oblivious to it. It seems like a whole minute passes before you start to breathe out but you are still unaware. All you know is you and your lover. There is nothing else. The warmth in your soul continues to grow until you think it can't get any larger. Then it does. Briefly you feel your heart beating. The three beats you are aware of are the strongest you've ever felt. Then the warmth pours out from the top of your head and tumbles down like water. As it spreads across your shoulders and down your body, you feel the hairs on your arm stand briefly then lay back down like a gentle wave. You are radiating it as if the sun itself were caught in your chest. All with just a look.

Love is a sham. It's for those weak people who need to have somebody at their beck and call (as long as it's mutual, of course) -- for whom admiration, respect, and caring just isn't enough. Simply put, it's a chemical addiction -- when you have it it's great but when you don't, you feel bad until you do again. When you first experienced love, you thought it was the best thing in the world, and it is. That's it. As good as it gets. From then on, you can't feel it the same way, and if you wait long enough, you've narrowed down and out everyone you might have been attracted to. Your tastes change. You learn what you like in a lover. You learn what you like in a person. You learn who you want to be around. Pretty soon there's nobody left. To add insult to injury, the demonstration of true and lasting love is to commit yourself to another for the rest of your life. Heck, you might as well call yourself dead at that point. You're not allowed to grow anymore -- if you do, your partner might not go in the right direction and then what? Try this little exercise: think back five years to what you wanted to be doing now and think about everything you learned in that time, and how your opinions changed. Do you trust your past self to have made a lifetime decision? Think about it.

Movies

Movies this week:

• The Beach - Leonardo DiCaprio's frozen form floats south on prevailing Atlantic currents until he thaws on a beach and is unfortunately not afraid of the mighty taker of life and love that is the ocean.
• Snow Day - Nickelodeon Movies (who brought us 1997's smash hit Good Burger) rewards us with another piece of film. Despite an ordinary snow storm which closes schools in an upstate New York town, utilities and phones continue to work because RG&E and Frontier are nowhere to be found. Perceived motion ensues when a series of still images are projected in rapid succession. The apparently moving flickers of light hint at a story that the town's single snowplow is hi-jacked by a group of students to keep schools closed until the National Guard is called in to restore order. Chris Elliott, Chevy Chase, Iggy Pop, Pam Grier, and John Schneider star.
• Tigger Movie - Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo, and Rabbit try to get Eeyore's winter home prepared, but Tigger's tiggeresque behavior encroaches on their efforts until Rabbit suggests he try to find other tiggers. Tigger reconsiders his presumed singleton existence and heads off into the Hundred Acre Wood on a rewarding journey of self-discovery.

Thursday

Loam (remember the up-and-comer from a few weeks ago?) with California is not an Island are at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.)

Just to compete with themselves, Monty's Korner (363 East Ave.) is having a free port wine tasting and lecture. Don't expect to find any way to get in there at all unless you get there at 4:00 p.m. even though it starts at 6 ('till 8).

WBER's Alternative Music night at Red (171 St. Paul.)

Friday! Milestones (170 East Ave.) is hosting Intrepid Traveler and Buddhahood. It really isn't clear who is opening for whom.

Meanwhile, and probably very entertaining, Amy's Comedy Cellar is at 7:30 at Christian's Cafe in Village Gate Square (274 N. Goodman St.) This is in some ways an extension of the open mic comedy on Tuesdays (Amy is one of the comics), but this fringe group of them is going to do stuff more in line with sketch comedy. No cover, no alcohol, no smoke -- you can however bring your own act and get on stage.

Karaoke at Boston Brew Company (251 Exchange Blvd.)

If you're last-minute on every holiday, but still want a date for the 14th, you might have some luck at the Flower City Friends Singles Dance at the Burgundy Basin Inn (1361 Marsh Rd.) I've got no details beyond that ... just as it appears in Freetime.

Saturday

O'Bagelo's, 165 State Street, noon.

Gaylord is at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) tonight. They're a solid band as they demonstrated at their CD release party a few weeks ago.

Sunday

• Futurama: Put Your Head on My Shoulder - When Fry's head is grafted onto Amy's body, they are forced to spend Valentine's Day together.
• King of the Hill: High Anxiety - The startling (sort of) conclusion to last week's cliffhanger (sort of). After Hank is framed for Debbie's murder, he must defend himself to Peggy, as well as Sheriff Mumford.
• Simpsons: Alone Again, Natura-Diddly - The Simpsons console a grieving friend when he loses a loved one to an untimely death. Who could it be? Watch and find out...
• Malcolm in the Middle: Malcolm Babysits - Malcolm enjoys baby-sitting for a normal family, until he realizes that he has been under camera surveillance. (Despite having a horrendous pilot, this isn't a half bad show.)

Valentine's Day

For those into something unknownly different, a show called Audience Quiz is at The Old Toad (277 Alexander St.) Your guess is as good as mine, unless of course you know.

Tuesday

Open mic comedy at the Colosseum Caffe (262 Park Ave.) starting around 9:30.

Open mic poetry at Java's (16 Gibb Street) starting around 9:30.

Wednesday

South Park today at Rohrbach's at 315 Gregory Street at 10:00. Still in rerun territory: Clubhouses - The boys decide to build rival clubhouses; Stan wants Wendy to play a game of truth or dare.

If that doesn't float your boat, The Life of Brian is at the Dryden Theater at George Eastman House (900 East Ave.) See you all there. :-)

Meanwhile, at the Harro East (400 Andrews Street), Lords of Acid with Praga Khan will perform. Later, you can catch the freaky-ass after-party at Red (171 St. Paul St.)

(I need a link archive card.)