While it often gets overshadowed by the music scene, Denver actually has a rich history of underground literature. From the Kerouac-inspired bohemian coffee and bookshops of 1960s Colfax to the Yellow Rake readings at Old Curtis Street Tavern, our city has been spawning independent works of fiction and poetry for decades. And there are few locals today more closely associated with DIY publishing than Charly "The City Mouse" Fasano. Whether hustling his books of poetry or impressively crafted audio-books, or giving one of his now iconic readings (he once opened a sold-out show at the Gothic -- an audience size almost unheard of for a live poet), Fasano has rooted himself in this city, becoming as much a part of the creative fabric as home-brew or cutesy indie-folk bands.

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It's Tuesday, not exactly the day of the week when you expect a downtown parade, especially one that's just for the hell of it, put on seemingly for no reason except to spread some fun. But that's what you'll get this lunch hour, when the award-winning Montbello Drumline marches down the 16th Street Mall, beginning at 11:30 a.m. at the Denver Pavilions.

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Scott Russell

Scott Russell expected to find stories, and he did. On bike rides between Denver's alleys and street corners, he found twenty of them, eleven of which will be on display this weekend at Wazee Union at Cardboard & Concrete, the project that resulted. But there were a few surprising turns in his attempt to turn Denver's sign-fliers into works of art, to put a few faces on the city's homeless issues. He didn't expect to change his mind, for example.

"I'd go around on my bike, and I'd feel drawn to people," Russell says. "There are just so many stories out there, and I felt changed by all of them. What I didn't expect was a new perspective -- on homeless people and on people in general."

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Roboticist Jeff Lieberman.

Now in its 64th year, the Conference on World Affairs is a five-day mental fest that fires up at the University of Colorado Boulder campus today. Since the first CWA in 1948, thinkers from the forefront and fringes of science, politics, spirituality, medicine, academia and the arts have convened every April to share and spar over the emerging ideas of the times.

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Slither up to Boulder tonight to hear herpetologist Robert Jadin lecture on "Venomous Snakes," including a new breed of pit-viper snakes belonging to the genus crotalus. "Many different biodiversities exist and have yet to be discovered," he says. Earth has just as much to be discovered on the surface as in the ocean."

Jadin has always been interested in snakes, and says he has no fear of them. But he confesses to being afraid of large felines and mammals, having encountered a growling jaguar during his studies in Peru.

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The University of Colorado Denver is firing up its College of Arts & Media this week by bringing in iron sculptor and performance artist Matt Toole for a lecture tonight and live pour tomorrow.

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If you are kinky, want to be, or are just curious about sexuality and different lifestyles -- check out KinkForAllDenver, a full-day conference taking place tomorrow at the Community College of Denver's Auraria Campus. The conference will be a hands-on (crack a joke here, pervs) teach-in with presentations by sexual freedom and education advocates, including local kinksters, and it's free and open to all ages.

Westword spoke with Rebecca Crane of KinkForAll Denver about goals for the event, how she feels about anti-kink detractors, and how Denver stacks up with other cities in terms of kink-friendliness.

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Get ready to place your paws on DIBS, or Denver Independent Boutiques, this Saturday. Because come sunshine or snowfall, DIBS creator and Rakun owner, Meghan Throckmorton, along with her contemporaries, will host an event called Sweetheart Boutique Crawl.

"This event is one way that we can encourage shoppers to buy from local fashion designers and support local business owners," she says. "We formed DIBS last November as a way to help each other grow and expand and cross-promote our stores. We will have an event at least once a season."

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The cast of The Read World Denver.

I didn't wake up Tuesday morning thinking I'd stop being polite and start being real, but that's how I ended my day. MTV held an open casting call for the new season of its infamous reality show, The Real World at downtown bar Suite 200 and, against my better judgement, I decided to see if I had that certain je ne sais quoi its producers look for in a housemate. I even started getting a little excited about the idea, thinking that, at worst, it'd be a few hours of free drinks and, at best, I'd get a call back. In the end, it was the hot mess most would expect from an MTV casting call.

A friend of mine tagged along to experience the once in the lifetime chance to see where MTV finds people like Puck, Ruthie and the girl from the Philadelphia cast who got scabies.

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The Wildlife Experience's Extreme Screen Theater is one of two advance screening locations for The Grey, the film opening nationwide on January 27 in which Liam Neeson plays an unlikely hero who leads a group of roughnecks in their fight to survive after their plane crashes the remote Alaskan wilderness.

Now you can enter to win an admit-2 pass to a special advance screening at 7 p.m. at the Wildlife Experience.

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