It's hard to ever really recover from losing a spelling bee: You remember the terror as you tentatively said another letter, that awful buzzer sound, the eternal shame that you misspelled the word "satellite." But now the first annual Denver Bee this Saturday night is offering a way to put to rest the ghosts of misspellings past (or relive your spelling bee prowess), all while supporting a local literacy organization.

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What's better than Santa Claus coming to town? John Waters coming to Denver. He's a lot like Santa, except his bag of toys is for adults only, his trademark mustache is neatly trimmed, and his elves include Patty Hearst, Traci Lords and Liz Renay. Waters will be presenting An Evening with John Waters -- his one-man vaudeville show based on his spoken word, "This Filthy World" -- at the Mary Harris Auditorium, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD) on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 7 p.m.

But Westword has been promised some facetime before the event -- and we want to know what you'd like us to ask him.

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Meghan Throckmorton, who opened Rakun at 1147 Santa Fe Drive last June, has designs on Denver: She's holding a fashion competition for students, asking them to create a woman's look. "As long as you're in school and sew your own clothes," she says, "we want your submissions!"

But you'll need to hurry: The deadline for submissions is tomorrow, and applicants can drop off both garments and sketches at Rakun.

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© Heather Oelklaus

Colorado Springs artist Sean O'Meallie and the Business of Art Center put on a once-in-a-lifetime show last October, when they brought the Manitou Chair Project -- a 600-chair conga line down the middle of the main drag in Manitou Springs at sunrise -- to fruition. We liked it so much we named it one of our favorite Fifteen Arts Events of 2012, and apparently they did, too. Because while the chairs are gone, the show goes on in Manitou.

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Here's something to ponder in 2012: The new year will mark, among other things, the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. And, as Chris Loffelmacher of the Denver Public Library's Fresh City Life program points out, "How often does a shipwreck turn 100?"

That's why, when Loffelmacher rolls out the library's biannual Frock Out Independent Designers Challenge next April, its theme will be dedicated to the Titanic tale, unlike the spectacle of 2010, which came down the runway like a Fellini movie. "Denver has every right to claim our part in the Titanic's drama and story, and we want to give it a nod," he notes.

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Calling all photo students! Village Voice Media (Westword's parent company) is recruiting undergraduate photography students for its Fall 2011 Photo Intern Program.

By "student," we do not mean " student of life." There's no cash offered with this gig, only credits. Don't bother applying if this doesn't apply to you.

Still interested? Read on!

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Fall comes on under a curtain of darkness and, conversely, a celebration of the harvest and beautiful angled sunlight; this week's calls for entry occur somewhere around the place where it all intersects, suggesting Halloween, colorful ofrendas, wine labels and sharp visions from behind the lens.

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Summertime and the living is easy...not. Here are five ways for local artists to stay busy during the dog days. Because -- wink, wink -- we know you're all lying around the pool sipping lemonade all summer long.

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Artists: See your work up in lights!

Looking ahead to the citywide Create Denver arts blowout in May, the Downtown Denver Partnership and Denver Theatre District are teaming up to put the work of some Denver digital media artists up in lights -- really big ones -- on the giant outdoor LED screen at 14th and Champa streets at the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

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