The drugstore aisles are awash in Pepto-Bismol pink and the diamond industry is turning up the volume on its love=consumerism coercion. Valentine's Day is coming!

We promised to keep you in the loop on pre-VDay events, so here are a few to add to your calendar.

It looks like yet another bill to ban smoking in Virginia's restaurants and bars is doomed to failure in the House of Delegates. But while the state is preserving patrons' right to smoke with a beer or a meal, individual restaurateurs are deciding to take the matter into their own hands and declaring their restaurants smoke-free.

Capitol City Brewing Company and Clarendon Grill were among the popular bars that voluntarily banned smoking last summer. Velocity Five, the best sports bar to open in Northern Virginia in years, was nonsmoking before it served its first customer.

Now two more names are joining their ranks. Mango Mike's, the Alexandria beach bar where rum drinks flow and pina coladas are served in coconut husks, will go smoke-free on Valentine's Day. "We've been talking about it for the last two years," says owner "Mango" Mike Anderson. "We hoped the state legislature would push a bill through, but we just decided it was time for a change."

Anderson says that it's a polarizing topic, noting that "about 80 percent of the bar customers smoke. They're not happy about it, and there's grumbling, but most of them say 'Well, we've seen it coming.'"

For now, customers who want a cigarette can step out onto the tropical-themed Boat Bar on the patio, but once the weather warms up, Anderson says he might make the outdoor areas smoke-free too.

And Eventide, the new bar and restaurant from the team behind Clarendon's Liberty Tavern, will follow its sister establishment and ban smoking when it opens later this month. (The only exception will be at the bar on the rooftop deck, though smoking won't be allowed at the roof's dinner tables.)

With this trend in mind, we've put together a list of our favorite smoke-free Virginia bars and restaurants. Have your own picks? Add them in the comments. (Smokers, we haven't forgotten about you - here's the list of D.C. bars that welcome cigars and cigarettes.)

-- Fritz

If you missed out on tickets for blog buzz band of the moment Passion Pit's show tomorrow night at the Black Cat's backstage, you're in luck. The show has been moved upstairs, so it's no longer sold out. If you want to hear some bleepy, breezy, agreeable electro-pop on a possibly-snowy Tuesday night, you still have that opportunity.

Whenever a band sells out the Black Cat's backstage in advance, I take notice. Over the past couple years this has been an accurate way to predict which bands are ready for a big-time breakthrough. Plenty of shows on the backstage sell out the night of the show, but it's those advance sell outs that portend big things. The four shows that come immediately to mind are Girl Talk, Yeasayer/MGMT, Fleet Foxes and Ra Ra Riot.

Girl Talk was a special guest DJ at Bliss back in October 2006, before the Black Cat started selling advance tickets for the backstage. It was sold out very early in the night, and within a couple years Girl Talk was packing the 9:30 club.

Last January's sold-out Yeasayer/MGMT show spawned some (unsuccessful) online petitions to get it moved upstairs; It stayed on the backstage because headliners Yeasayer wanted to keep it small, plus the band was coming back to town just a few months later. While Yeasayer has had plenty of indie success, it turns out the real draw that evening was openers MGMT -- the backstage sure didn't feel packed to capacity when Yeasayer was on stage.

In July, Fleet Foxes managed to turn a backstage sell-out into a mainstage sell-out. Since then, they topped Pitchfork's year-end album list and performed on "SNL."

Ra Ra Riot almost pulled off the same feat, with a Sunday night backstage show nearly turning into an upstairs sell out.

What's my point? If you like to say "I saw them when," then consider this your heads up.

-- David

The big news this month in the theater world is the grand reopening of Ford's Theatre. Just in time for the Lincoln Bicentennial, the theater where the 16th president was shot will hold a multi-day open house from Feb. 11 to 16, including an extravaganza for Lincoln's birthday on Monday, Feb. 16. The first performance in the renovated space? It will be about Lincoln, of course. "The Heavens Are Hung in Black" opens tomorrow and recounts Abe's life during the five months leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation.

Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre brings "Hell Meets Henry Halfway" to Woolly Mammoth. (Pig Iron Theatre Company)

But one promising premiere occurs even before Ford's great unveiling. The dark comedy "Hell Meets Henry Halfway" at Woolly Mammoth brings Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre to D.C. A new take on a Polish horror novel, the play involves a dying prince, a conniving secretary and a tennis coach (of all things).

Every week, the Going Out Gurus suggest ways to enjoy Washington's cultural scene without spending any money. Have an idea for us? Send it to events@washingtonpost.com.

Monday
Howard Zinn at Busboys and Poets
Renowned historian Howard Zinn is the author of "The People's History of the United States," the groundbreaking work that showed American history as it related to the working class, slaves, Native Americans and the urban poor -- those whose views are missing in most history books. At Busboy and Poets, he'll discuss the historic nature of the election of Barack Obama and what it means for the country.

Tuesday
'The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington: Picturing the Promise' at the National Museum of American History
More than 100 images of black America from the 1920s through the 1950s, taken by Addison Scurlock and his sons, who ran a photographic studio on U Street.

Wednesday
Fuzz at Cafe Saint-Ex
Holy guest stars! Geologist of the highly-rated indie group Animal Collective joins DJs DJs Neville C. and Provoke at Fuzz, Saint-Ex's monthly night of psychedelic rock, freakbeat, folk and '60s rock.

Thursday
An American Conversation With Henry Louis Gates Jr. at the National Archives
The Harvard professor and founder of The Root discusses geneaology and his book "In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past."

Friday
Moneytown at Dahlak
Attention, fans of cult free-form radio station WFMU: Mr. Fine Wine, whose weekly show "Downtown Soulville" has highlighted outstanding American soul and funk records for the past 15 years, is making a special apprarance at Moneytown tonight. He's no stranger to dance clubs; he's got a residency at New York's APT and guest spots all over the globe. DJ Nitekrawler hosts the all-original-vinyl party.

Saturday
Lincoln Family Day at the National Archives
Meet Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln, listen to songs of the Civil War era, deliver the Gettysburg Address and decipher secret telegrams at the Archives' all-ages celebration of Abraham Lincoln.

Sunday
'Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraits' at the National Portrait Gallery
This weekend is your final chance to see this retrospective of the ways in which publicity helps shape celebrity, and vice versa, from John Wilkes Booth to Bob Dylan.

Monday
Gallery Talk: The Shaw Memorial at the National Gallery of Art
As part of the Lincoln Bicentennial, National Gallery staffers lead daily discussions of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens's "Shaw Memorial," which honors Colonel Robert Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment -- the African-American regiment immortalized in the film "Glory."