Falling In Love

Scientific research wouldn't necessarily suggest the basis for a love story to many people. But exploring the question of whether love is magical chemistry or just basic biochemistry was an idea that caught the fancy of the makers of the indie film Dopamine. "It's geeky, I know," co-writer and director Mark Decena says sheepishly. "That dialectic of two opposing views of what love [is] -- that conflict -- I just felt there could be a story in that." So did the Sundance Film Institute, which invited Decena and co-writer Timothy Breitenbach to work on the script at its screenwriting lab. The result was their debut feature, which opens tomorrow in Baltimore, Washington and eight other cities as part of the Sundance Film Series.

Tonight started with a shower scene and a CHEST! 4,582 -- yep, that's about where I lost count of the times ABC blessed us with close-ups of our Bachelor Sean Lowe's bare, shirtless, glowing, absolutely amazing chest. I'm sorry, where was I? Had I played a drinking game tonight while watching, this recap would've been a bit more ... colorful.  Doing a shot for each time Sean bared his beautiful pecks for the camera (and another shot for each time the camera showed Sean's hand on one of the ladies' knees)

Chocolate contains chemicals such as phenyl- ethylamine, which the body produces naturally and which can elevate your mood. Phenylethylamine may even play a role in the chemistry of falling in love. -- National Geographic's Everyday Science Explained

Orioles fans often hear about the Oriole Way, "Orioles Magic" and the three World Series titles during the team's glory years in the '60s, '70s and '80s. Even 20-somethings who missed the last title, in 1983, have playoff appearances in 1996 and 1997 and the historic career of Cal Ripken Jr. to hold onto. But for many, being an Orioles fan has been nothing but disappointment, a streak of 14 straight losing seasons and teams that have started out hot, with plenty of players showing lots of promise, only to find new ways to crush our spirits.

WATERMARK.Joseph Brodsky.Farrar, Straus & Giroux.135 pages. $15.Falling in love with certain books can be like falling in love with certain human beings. At first, there may be indifference, incomprehension and even dislike. Then -- gradually or suddenly -- the bandages of misunderstanding unwrap themselves to reveal one's touchable fate: the luminous doom of recognizing the almost intolerably high value of something or someone outside of oneself.At this point, I am no more than half in love with "Watermark," Joseph Brodsky's abrasively lyrical book on Venice.

Title: "The Queen and I"Author: Sue TownsendPublisher: Soho PressLength, price: 239 pages, $22"The Queen and I" starts with a wonderfully hilarious premise -- what if the British royal family were thrown out of its palaces, and Queen Elizabeth and her clan were forced to live like commoners? Clearly, the pampered ex-princes and princesses have no marketable skills, so they'd need to go on welfare. Sue Townsend's sadistic scenario sends the Windsors to Hellebore Close (Hell for short), a squalid public housing development.

Theater workshops set for children, teens TheatreworksLive! Inc. will offer summer musical theater workshops for children this summer. Available programs include: *Advanced Theatreworks: Created for teens ages 14 to 18, this workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday at County Ballet Dance Studio, 2232 Old Emmorton Road, Abingdon, and 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. June 23 to July 11 at St. Mary's. Students will learn advanced scenes, songs, dances and monologues and prepare material for a performance.

Washington. -- Even a hopeless news junkie gets tired of Bosnia, the budget babble and the inanity of Washington politics. So I got away from the madness and meanness and just languished in love -- the joy of discovering it, the heaven of being in it and the bittersweet sorrow of seeing it slip away.Over the holiday weekend I turned on my CD player and didn't stop listening to music until I had chosen the 30 best love songs ever written. Today I write about falling in love -- choices only you who are cold of heart could disagree with.

"Prelude to a Kiss," the Craig Lucas comedy-fantasy in production at the Colonial Players of Annapolis, is actually two plays in one.For most of the first act, it is a sassy, engaging, fast-paced romantic comedy that features a most engaging pair of lovers.Rita, played by Katherine Ruttum, is a feisty, leftist insomniac who is a great pleasure to watch as she falls for Peter Hoskins (Jim Gallagher), the intelligent, earnest product of a dysfunctional family who has lived to love another day. As he experiences that "blissful, psychotic first blush of love," we are with him every step of the way.But following a strange incident at the wedding, Rita undergoes a dramatic transformation on their Jamaican honeymoon.

"Anatomy of Love" isn't an anatomy lesson at all. It's a show-and-tell about love and marriage from an anthropologist's point of view.In the four-hour documentary that begins at 8:05 tonight on cable channel TBS, that means we are studied as primates are studied -- or birds, elephants or almost anything else with DNA to pass on to offspring.Tonight's first two hours are almost academic enough to watch with your children. The only naked body parts shown are arms.But the second part, which airs tomorrow night at 8:05, covers adultery, breaking up and staying together.

Walk around Baltimore today and you could see Jenn Wasner's big eyes staring up at you. Wasner, who plays guitar and sings in Wye Oak and now by herself as Flock of Dimes, is the cover star for b's latest "10 to Watch Under 30" issue . In 2011, Wasner, an Owings Mills native, lived on the road, playing more than 200 shows alongside Wye Oak drummer Andy Stack. When she returned home to Baltimore, she was burned out, and even considered moving away from the city. But don't ever underestimate the power of rest.

Sucker for romantic movies with goosebump-inducing music? "Like Crazy" is for you.   I had never heard of "Like Crazy" until today, even though it won major awards at Sundance. IMDB's description of the film sounds very dramatic: "A British college student falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa. " Drama! But I'm a sucker for the trailer, which hits all my secretly romantic heartstrings: Cute British girl, fun American guy, indie-ish music, frolics in the sunset, whispery bedroom talk.

I'm a recent graduate of a college in downtown Baltimore, and for four summers I have occupied Baltimore, working downtown and trying to understand its workings. I feel as if, despite my original discomfort about living downtown, Baltimore itself has adopted me into its community and made me feel a wholehearted Baltimorean. Now, instead of saying I've "occupied" Baltimore for several seasons, I say, without hesitation, that I live here — and couldn't imagine living elsewhere.

Willie Don has passed. There is no denying, the world is a less colorful place. He invited me to his house in the governor's mansion because I wrote him that I missed Maryland and equated him with Maryland. I lived in Baltimore for 10 years (1978-1988), and then Rockville, but moved to Iowa for a husband and his job. We moved back to Maryland. I always think of him nostalgically as "Mayor Schaefer. " He made me fall in love with Baltimore and its Inner Harbor, revitalized, and Maryland, when I moved to there to attend the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.

Theater workshops set for children, teens TheatreworksLive! Inc. will offer summer musical theater workshops for children this summer. Available programs include: *Advanced Theatreworks: Created for teens ages 14 to 18, this workshop will be from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday at County Ballet Dance Studio, 2232 Old Emmorton Road, Abingdon, and 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. June 23 to July 11 at St. Mary's. Students will learn advanced scenes, songs, dances and monologues and prepare material for a performance.

You don't want to drink alone, especially on Valentine's Day. So I set out to find some wines that couples could cozy up to, even if they have differing tastes. In short, I was looking for white wines that weren't fluffy, red wines that weren't scruffy and a sparkler that was not too pink or cloying. Louis Latour `Duet' Chardonnay-Viognier 2005 Vin de Pays des Coteaux de L' Ardeche, France$11. (Distributed by Monsieur Touton Selections) A happy union of chardonnay and viognier grapes yields a wine with a bright apple body and lingering acidity.

Are you in love with your mutual fund? Watch out it doesn't break your heart. That's not a comment on where the market is headed; it's an observation on the tendency investors have to humanize funds, to see them not just as an investment vehicle but as a friend and family member. Investment experts routinely warn against "falling in love" with a fund or a stock, yet individuals frequently miss the message and let emotions get in the way. In fact, fund firms count on it, which is why so many fallen angels (funds that were stars but whose performance has faded badly)

I love you, I love you, I love you. From the first time I saw you, I loved you. I will never hurt you. I will never lie to you. I love you. We know what you're thinking, hon. Last year Melissa promised her heart to you, but she proved to be just a passing computer virus, a real pain in the hard drive. You weren't even her only love. Melissa the minx turned out to be promiscuous, and no one wants to have to hear that. Eventually she went away without hurting anyone else. You were a fool for love.

If you're looking for something different to do on Valentine's Day, check out a Baltimore Chamber Orchestra concert devoted to one of the most famous composers you may never have heard of -- Ignace Joseph Pleyel. He barely registers on the public consciousness today, but this contemporary of Haydn's and Beethoven's enjoyed heady celebrity status, thanks to his tuneful, graceful compositions and some major business ventures. The music publishing house he founded in Paris in 1795 was a leader in its field for four decades.

In the movie Love Actually, a widowed father played by Liam Neeson asks his morose grade-school son what's bothering him. Is it his mother's death? Problems at school? Bullies? "You really want to know?" answers the boy. "Well, truth is - actually - I'm in love." His father is surprised but expresses relief that it's not "something worse." The son fixes him with a look of disbelief: "Worse than the total agony of being in love?" Prepubescent boys aren't supposed to be tormented by romance, and neither are their adolescent brothers.