Last year, a cadre of Denver's finest noir fiction writers skulked their way over to Juanita's for Denver's inaugural Noir @ the Bar fiction event. The success of that first edition was measured in viscera: "The uninitiated left Juanita's bleeding from the ears, and unsuspecting diners were found vomiting in the gutters of Broadway for hours afterwards," they reported.

In the year and change that followed, the noir genre has continued its literary renaissance, and anticipation grew for a a second set of live authorial readings of red-meat crime stories. Sadly, the past year also witnessed the death of organizer Cortright McMeel, a promising writer whose career was cut tragically short.

See also:
- Noir at the Bar comes to Denver Thursday
- One chapter book reviews: Cort McMeel Short, chapter 18
- Westword Book Club: Ryan Demers on filmmaking, furries and Gone Girl

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Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

Planned Parenthood promotes its annual Get Yourself Tested campaign.

In what U.S. state is it illegal for a man to have sex with a fish? If you want to know the answer -- and are looking for something both fun and educational to do Thursday night -- Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains has you covered. It's hosting a sex-trivia night at Hamburger Mary's Club M as part of PP's annual Get Yourself Tested national campaign.

The event will feature trivia questions both humorous and informational on topics ranging from anatomy to pop culture, and proceeds will go to support the GYT low-cost testing days coming soon to a PPRM center near you.

See also:
- Miss Queen of Aces pageant will choose the next ambassador of glam and good works
- 10 things to do for $10 in Denver this weekend (8 free!), February 8-10
- Lesbian Inspired Poetry is taking poems out of the drawers and onto the streets

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As we inch our way toward the glory of summer comedy festivals, Denver has already begun heating up with a variety of shows featuring whip-smart young comics and world-wise icons of days past. We've got a DIY music and comedy festival (with a bouncy castle!), two feature players from Chelsea Lately, some foody-humor at Deer Pile, and some Missed Connection weirdness at Voodoo Comedy Playhouse. Click ahead to see what spring has in store for the Denver comedy fans emerging from a six-month hibernation of Kids in the Hall DVD's and classic Nintendo games.

See also:
- Kickstarter campaign for Denver comedy documentary, Joke Life, now live
- Fred Savage: Horrible romantic advice from Wonder Years to Ladies Night
- When Obama appears as Satan, where's Stephen Colbert?

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All photos by Kate Gibbons.

Theology on Tap MCs pose with Reverend John Riley.

A priest walks into a bar.

This isn't beginning of a joke. On Monday night, Reverend John Riley walked into Katie Mullen's Irish Restaurant and Pub for the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver's monthly Theology on Tap gathering.

On loan from the Archdiocese of Arlington, Virginia, Reverend Riley, a Guinness drinker, opened with a prayer as the people in the packed bar bowed their heads. The crowd, mostly in their twenties and early thirties, and presumably Catholic, had gathered to listen to Riley address the night's topic "Confessions From the Other Side of the Screen." In the middle of the Lenten season, it was an appropriate topic.

See also:
- Katie Mullen's crew takes over former Rockstar Bar
- Wanna keep track of your Catholic Lenten guilt? There's an app for that.
- Guess where I'm drinking...with Catholics?

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Graham Elliot scribbles notes at a local bar

Not long ago, Graham Elliot moved to Colorado to chase a girl. Unfortunately, his quest for love didn't conclude with a picturesque Hollywood ending. So Elliot did what most spurned lovers do: He wrote a novel, of course. In 2012 Elliot released A Pact for Life, a story about a hot-and-cold Denver couple who make a potentially eternal (or rather, "paternal") decision after a casual night of drinking. Now in the process of writing a second novel, Elliot sat down with Westword to talk about what drove him write in the first place, why Kurt Vonnegut has had such a profound influence on his life, and everything in between.

See also:
- Richard Melnick, author of Parents Who Don't Do Dishes, talks Breaking Bad and clairvoyance
- Gary Reilly: Prolific novelist's debut published year after his death
- Denver author Ryan Moehring's Fried Twinkie Manifesto makes the Amazon top ten

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Noir fiction is full of seedy bars where desperate people make bad decisions to do worse things to each other. So it makes sense that if you want to offer a place for noir writers to read their work and interact with the public, you'll skip the bookstore and go straight to the source: Noir at the Bar.

Noir writers and publishers Jedidiah Ayres and Scott Phillips kicked off the first Noir at the Bar two years ago in St. Louis, and have since expanded the program to Los Angeles, as well as put out two collections of short noir fiction under the Noir at the Bar name. Now, with the help of a handful of local writers, Noir at the Bar is coming to a bar near you: Juanita's.

See also:
- One Chapter book reviews: Short by Cortright McMeel
- The ten best detectives in classic film noir
- Kop to the future: Warren Hammond fuses two genres

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A Denver Cruiser Ride in the heart of December has to have a reason -- or at least a reason more urgent than the usual "because." And in fact, tonight's DCR Retro Ride is getting in gear for a great reason: It's destined to be part of a locally produced Travel Channel pilot with Bert Kreischer of the cable network's Trip Flip. Tentatively called It's Five O'Clock Somewhere (like the Jimmy Buffet song), the show will presumably follow fun-loving Bert on nightlife adventures.

See also:
- Denver Cruisers: Winter Olympics
- Twenty best costumes from Denver Cruisers: Pirates, sea men and nymphs
- Photo: Denver Cruisers take over shut-down I-25
- Denver Cruiser Ride launches safety campaign, tells cyclists to follow laws

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All photos by Elyse Mitchell

A year after he opened the 1UP arcade/bar in LoDo, business was so good that Jourdan Adler took over the former Monkey Bar on East Colfax and turned it into the 2UP. Inspired by the "barcade" trend, Jesse Gossett and Mike Boselli recently took over the former Round Midnight -- which closed after a three-decade run at 1005 Pearl Street in Boulder -- and rehabbed it in a week and a half, doing most of the construction themselves. Earlier this month, it opened as Press Play.

See also:
-Let the games begin! 1Up now open in LoDo
-Denver's ten best new bars
-The 2UP will move into Pete's Monkey Bar space

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Opera in a bar: The two go together well, as Opera on Tap demonstrates. The New York-bred monthly pastime has conquered Denver in its first year here, and has done so well it's now spread to Boulder. "We have introduced so many people to opera -- and shown how accessible it really is," says founder Eve Orenstein. "And it's a great opportunity for the local singers who perform with us, too."

See also:
- Go Figaro
- Opera on Tap taps the popular, tonight at Bender's
- A Night at the Opera

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It seems like every weekend in Denver there's another fun run with a theme, which is great, really. Sure, there are themed runs (often involving beer before, during or after) in other cities, but probably not with the frequency, participation level or gusto as we can boast here in Colorado. It's an active culture in Denver, and that translates right into dressing up like an idiot, meeting up with other idiots dressed the same, and hitting the bars. After a 5K, usually.

So with the plethora of themed events in Denver, how do you know which one is right for you? We've devised this service-y flow chart for you, Show and Tell readers. And one other thing: If you think you've landed on an event that's suited to your tastes, click your mouse on it and you'll be taken to a slide show with photos so you can be sure.

Happy hunting!

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