Valentine’s Day by Daniel Rosenthal

The widely cherished by the loved and in love while extremely disapproved of by the heart broken, lonely, and some might even say, heartless Valentine’s Day feels too close for comfort. I, however, have as much anticipation as skepticism this year. It isn’t every year I am dating someone around this time. Heck, it isn’t every year I am dating someone period. I am going do what I do with every holiday, think about all the things I want to happen and then convince myself that none of it will. In other words, I am lowering my expectations so I don’t drive myself crazy trying to out do anyone or even myself.
When I was in high school I wanted to show the girl I was with how much I really liked her. I got my friends together, made a band, and learned “That Thing You Do,” from the movie of the same title. We set up in the auditorium, with monitors, and closed the curtain. To get people in the band I told them to invite their girlfriends to the concert of one song for one person (which ended up being about 8 girls by the time the band was together.) Not everyone in the band had a girlfriend so I told the guys to invite someone they liked because this would grease the wheels. We all wrote letters to A) tells the girls right off that we liked them and B) to get these loves to meet us at the theatre entrance. Ushers met the girls so we could be revealed when the curtain opened. In the front row were flowers for each of them. I also bought a balloon, which in the end wasn’t cared for. The great drape opened, we smiled, and I counted off, 1, 2, 3, 4. When it all over a teacher, Leland Burbank, jumped out of the seats and clapped yelling, “where’s the camera? You had to of video taped this. This was great,” and he went on. He had to have been the most excited. I can’t say the girls didn’t care. They did. My ex-girlfriend once told me that her next boyfriend didn’t do anything for her on Valentines Day and she told him, “This is ridiculous. Someone put a concert on for me before. Step it up a notch,” she laughed.
The point is none of us ended up happily ever after so why go to all the effort as side from it feels go to make someone happy. Even if they will take your heart out and throw it away later (I don’t feel like that but maybe some people do).
I’m just saying to be cool boy, real cool. It is just another holiday. In fact they also came up with Sweetest Day, so you can mess that one up too.
Good Luck. Remember we’re all in this together.

Conan O'Brien: Let the man do his thing (or NBC, Let Him Be!)

I assume by now that you've heard about the Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, NBC time-slot debacle, but if you haven't, here's a fine article on it from ABC news: (link)

I'd just like to ask a question: Why the grief, NBC? I can understand attempting to keep a personality who has a marketable (and solid) draw in a certain economic sector of the network's viewing public. That makes sense. However, Jay's previous show has such horrid ratings that it's confusing as to whether the audience that responds to him is even viewing him anymore. Or perhaps the audience is much smaller than anticipated.

That being said, Conan O'Brien has had a steady career in a time slot usually viewed by a younger crowd, many of his fans having aged with him through his career as a writer and host. He has a very dedicated audience who continue consume his output hungrily. With only seven months under his belt at the helm of the Tonight Show, his residency has only just begun and it's a shame to see it be in danger of getting cut short.

The ratings for The Tonight Show experienced a dramatic increase yesterday night (a 1.7/7 up from a 1.2 the night before (link)) as viewers flocked to television sets to support Conan and The Tonight Show franchise in an apparent effort to send a message to the network. Hopefully this message works, but it may require a shift in consistent viewing habits of a demographic that is able to have content delivered in ways that are not included in Nielsen ratings. Perhaps the section of Conan's audience that consumes it's media with less traditional means (such as delivered over the net from websites like Hulu or downloaded from bit-torrent sites) is small enough to be considered statistically negligible for now but the further development of technology and ideas about media consumption could cause problems for decisions made by NBC if based strictly on Nielsen numbers.

I'm just sayin, is all.

I personally would like to see Conan get a fair shake of the deal by being allowed to continue his tenure at The Tonight Show and build a faithful following over-the-air. And while we all may have a great amount of respect for Jay Leno, perhaps it is time for him to step aside for awhile and allow the growth of another personality that can be adored by the United State and the world.

Rock the boat, Conan. (Don't tip the boat over)

-Nate Bellon(bass)

A short aside: Here's some interesting information on how Nielsen ratings operate, as well as a decent history on the Nielsen ratings empire. (link)

-NB