Today's featured event: The First Monday Art Talk celebrates a birthday with veteran Denver artist Steve Altman

Local artist and supporter of the arts Eric Matelski started his First Monday Art Talk program three years ago, and since then, it's grown comfortably into itself: The monthly artist talk-cum-social gathering, which showcases a different local artist (or, like Matelski himself, a mover within the local art world) in multi-disciplinary terms, is a party and a lecture and a concert and schmoozer all at once, where faces old and new mingle with ease and friendly curiosity.

Matelski will celebrate his event's third anniversary tonight by featuring well-regarded artist Steve Altman, who will entertain questions from the audience and mix with the crowd over a grazing buffet provided by Dazzle. But before that bit of nitty gritty unfolds, John Common's People's Kazoo Orchestra and the inimitable Little Fyodor will perform in his honor along with mystery author Joe Abramo as a way of telegraphing Altman's cultural milieu.

All in all, it's just good fun and games. The art talk kicks off at 7 p.m. at Dazzle, 930 Lincoln Street; get details at First Monday Art Talk on MySpace.

For more ways to rock the night and kill the day, go to westword.com/calendar.