And as if on cue, at almost the exact moment I hit “publish” on my “Valentine’s Day Manifesto”, one of the women in my office gets a dozen roses delivered to her. FEH.

It’s Valentine’s Day, and if I could channel Louis Black for a moment, all I have to say is…

FUCK Valentine’s Day.

I forgot to wear my traditional all-black outfit today, mainly because most of it is in the laundry, but the spirit is still there. Valentine’s Day is a bogus holiday, dropped on the calendar by the greeting card companies and FTD so they can move more product between Christmas and Mother’s Day. It’s designed to make people in love spend money on each other, and make lonely people (like me) jealous and unhappy.
Well nuts to that action. I’ve been lonely for 25 years, and I’ll probably be lonely for another 25, if my luck runs true to form, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to feel miserable today just because I don’t have someone to buy flowers or chocolates or stupid little kissing bears for. And anyway, if you really, truly love someone, why would you need a silly, contrived, commercial holiday like Valentine’s Day to prove it? To hell with the whole thing.

Simpsons quote of the day:
“Mom, romance is dead. It was acquired in a hostile takeover by Hallmark and Disney, homogenized, then sold off piece by piece.” – Lisa

Whoever wrote those Levi’s “Karma Chameleon” commercials is quickly incurring my wrath.

Razzies.com – Home of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
Oh yeah, there were some other nominations announced this morning too…

From the “…the HELL?” department:
BBC News | ENTERTAINMENT | Sir Elton to partner Eminem
Eminem & Elton John to perform together at the Grammy Awards. Huh.

The Complete Bushisms
“They misunderestimated me.” You got that right, Mr. President.

Good morning, Random Thoughts readers. I hope everyone had a good weekend.

A quick update on Big Fun Comedy Weekend:
Friday Night, Lewis Black at The Stress Factory in New Brunswick:
As funny as this man is on television, he is ten times funnier in person. He opened with a killer bit about NJ Transit and went off from there. He didn’t rely too heavily on the material I’ve heard before (from his Comedy Central Presents specials and his live CD) – there was a lot of fresh material, particularly on the recent election, and I swear I nearly fell out of my seat a couple of times. Lewis stuck around after the show, signing copies of his CD and generally being a nice guy, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to say hello.

A quick note about the club: The Stress Factory is probably one of the nicest comedy clubs I’ve been to. Very casual atmosphere, friendly (and attentive) wait staff, and very reasonable menu prices. The in-house host, Vinnie Brand, does a good job working the crowd before the show, and is also a nice guy (I ran into him leaving the men’s room), and opening act Brian Williams (not the guy from NBC News) got the evening off to a great start. I had never been to the Stress Factory before, but I intend to go back quite often.

Saturday Night (Sunday Morning), Janeane Garofalo at Caroline’s On Broadway:
Janeane did a good set, but was hobbled by several factors:
1) the sound guy lost a piece of music that was crucial to her opening bit. Not only that, but in an effort to find the music (which had dropped behind the console), he disrupted Janeane’s mic and basically stopped the show. She did a good job covering, but no one should have to tolorate that sort of treatment – especially when you’re the only one on stage…
2) The host for the evening was pretty lame, and Todd Barry, the opening act, while funny, used this odd pacing that was (in my opinion, anyway) killing his routine. Truth be told, neither man really did a good job of setting the table for Janeane.
3) The start time. The show was supposed to begin at 12:30am, but I’d say it really got going around 1, since the show ended around 3am. I couldn’t help but wonder if the crowd would have been more receptive if the show had started earlier.

But the point of the evening was to see Janeane, and she was great.

One last thing: If you go to Caroline’s, be prepared for a mugging. While the cover charge of $28.50 was reasonable for a comedian of Janeane’s caliber, the menu prices were astronomical. (And you can’t use food items toward your 2 drink minimum.) Also, be sure to go with people you know well and like A LOT, because you’re going to get very close to them in the supper lounge waiting for the doors to the showroom to open.

Let the hoarding resume:
CNET.com: Crucial Napster decision to be issued Monday

BBC News | BUSINESS | Sega chief’s $700m gift
“Now the company has confirmed that its president Isao Okawa has returned his entire shareholding in the business – almost 20 million shares – along with holdings in related Sega firms, NextCom and Ascii Corp. The donation amounts to some 85bn yen ($731m).” Holy crap!