All photos by Britt Chester

There was great fashion, loud music and heavy-pours, and probably some hooking-up and broken hearts: Yes, it was Derby day again in Denver! Apparently, there was also a horse race in Kentucky or something, but those people are all backwoods rednecks, anyway. There were giant hats to be worn, people!

Did we mention there was great fashion?!?! Below are a few memorable outfits, fits and faces of the Kentucky Derby parties we snuck into over the weekend.

Also see:
- Downtown Derby Debauchery
- 138th Kentucky Derby at Chloe and the Lobby

Now, onto the memorable Derby'ers.

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Number 5

Depending on who you're listening to, the world is going to end in 2012, or the world will undergo some sort of transformation. Either way it's spiritual. What's not spiritual, however, are these cold, hard numbers: The top ten posts on Show and Tell during 2011, which may or may not be the last full year the human race will sweat, cut each other off in traffic and debate the nationality of its leaders. In that spirit, here are the final numbers, the top ten posts of 2011. Read on for David Sedaris' Denver appearance, 50 reasons why Colorado is the best state in America and why it's always been on like Donkey Kong.

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Jews like me are always finding ways to pass the time when the rest of you are putting up and taking down your trees. Sure, we light our little candles for eight nights (whenever those might fall), exchange gifts, and share latkes and chocolate gelt and other holiday delicacies, but it just doesn't seem quite as time-consuming. In my case, that means there's plenty of room for the great equalizing pastime of Christmas-light peeping, something I never get tired of, though it drives my husband and child nuts.

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Denver Public Library

It's been carilloneur Robert Gift's thankless task each Christmas for the last thirty years or so to whip the City and County Building's recalcitrant Robert Speer Memorial Chime into shape: Comprised of ten mannerless and hopelessly untuned bronze bells, the instrument -- if you can call it that -- has, let us say, some quirks. Yet Gift will do his damnedest to sculpt holiday tunes on request for a few brisk hours in the belfry both tomorrow night and on Christmas Eve.

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Jeremy Burns, "Little Friends," Black Book Gallery.

You know you're in trouble when you're still shopping and Christmas is just a little more than a week away. Though the most organized folks have finished their gift-buying and are now focusing on tree-trimming, wrapping and baking, procrastinators can breathe easy: You can still snag hip, edgy, arty gifts.

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If performance-on-the-fringe is your cup of tea, here's a great way to support it -- Silver and Gold: A Holiday Extravaganza, hosted by Band of Toughs at Naropa University at 7 p.m. Friday, focuses on a handful of qualifying Boulder fringe ensembles and their friends buy presenting three-minute, holiday-tinged introductions to their respective upcoming seasons.

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The inimitable Westword cover boy Rick Griffith and his ink-spattered crew at Matter Studio normally toil with their sleeves rolled in a letterpress world that bridges classic craftsmanship and modern design, hand-running hip posters and other printed matter on the old-fashioned machinery of another time. But once a year, they throw open the doors to put prints on sale at a holiday party that runs throughout the night in increments friendly to different age groups. Tonight's the night for this year's shebang, and Griffith says it'll be even better than the average Matter party.

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Eric Ronshaugen

We can all get behind Toys for Tots, the perennial U.S. Marines-sponsored holiday toy drive that provides gifts for kids who might not otherwise have anything under the tree to unwrap. But artists and hipsters like to do things in their own arty-hipsterish way. Going to Walmart to buy the required new, unwrapped toy just isn't on the agenda for folks who live and work in warehouses by the railroad tracks. Perhaps that's why Space Creators and the arts communities at their Wazee Union and Walnut Workshop studio enclaves decided to help in a different way.

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Yes, Virginia, you still have time to make a holiday gift that comes straight from your heart. Or, if you're the industrious type, you can swap your handiwork for something equally wonderful. AIGA Colorado and Fancy Tiger are hosting tonight's Craftworks Trading Party, which mashes up the making and the trading, so everyone goes home happy.

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If only I was the Criss Angel of retail.

When I'm not interviewing drag queens, reviewing concerts and rating Santas for Westword, I'm working at Shirt Folding Store. For twenty hours a week, I fold shirts (and, more important, jeans) alongside other part-timers, who in their other jobs might be bank tellers, professional eBay auctioneers, art-history majors and spoken-word artists.

I have held my position at Shirt Folding Store off and on since 2006, and to a surprisingly great degree, have very much enjoyed telling customers how cute she (or he, if/when a man is forced into Shirt Folding Store by his wife/mother/girlfriend to try on clothes) looks in the jeans I have so painstakingly helped them pick out. For a non-commissioned salesperson, I go to great lengths to make sure my customers leave Shirt Folding Store in love (or at least in like) with a perfect pair of jeans. I love my job.

This is why I get so pissed off when I encounter an asshole.

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