Views - displaying block content based on event start date

I've got a view which shows events occuring at a specific location. I would like to apply a filter, so that the view will only display upcoming events (the block currently shows all events regardless of the date of the event relative to today's date).

I was thinking I would update my custom content type (location event) and add a CCK date field, but thought I would see if there is a way I can expose the "start_date" in the events table, so that I can simply filter by that existing field in my view.

Is that an option? I've been trying a few different approaches in my view (creating relationships, etc., but nothing seems to reveal that start_date as a field I can apply any logic against).