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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Update, 12:30 p.m. Monday:
Watch the video of Sunday's flash mob at FlatIron Crossing below and see photos from the "Party Rock Anthem" flash mob.

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Denver Flash Mob organizer Eric Rosenberg.

​Eric Rosenberg calls it the "Rick Saga" on his blog, where the Denver Flash Mob co-founder writes about con-man Rick Strandloff, aka Rick Duncan, the way a betrayed friend would.

"I think with the flash mob thing, he genuinely did like and enjoy it," Rosenberg says of the Denver Flash Mob's co-founder, who turned out to be a notorious Denver con man.

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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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Tear it to shreds, America.

​It's Black Friday in America. When flat-screen TV's at deep discounts cause annual madness. It's like that scene in 28 Days Later, when a cluster of people become infected with rage and turn on one another like mindless flesh-craving monsters.

Here's a compilation of videos from today, Black Friday 2011.

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Corepower Yoga

​With many of us surrounded by family and a huge, high-pressure meal to cook, Thanksgiving can be stressful. Lucky, a number of yoga studios around town had the same thought: People might need a way to relax. We've put together a guide to places to practice the stress-relieving, centering art in between basting that turkey and keeping the peace among your oddball relatives so that you can savasana your way to a less tense holiday.

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You will experience sadness. Also, happiness.

​This holiday season has taught me two things: one, that people are heliotropic as daisies, and two, that they love to celebrate it. Essentially every winter holiday relates somehow to the planet's descent into darkness and to the eventual return of light. Most of the time, this is a metaphor for hope and despair, not a literal longing for the sun, but the droves of solstice-related festivities around town prove that this is not always the case. 

To commemorate the longest night of the year, I hit up a few local psychics, many of whom, I knew, would be plenty aware of the solstice and some of whom, I hoped, would say something useful about the cold months ahead.

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Yep, that exists.

​It's 2010. We demand a solution to our seasonal movie needs that doesn't require leaving the house. Netflix Instant Streaming is our usual go-to in these sorts of occasions, but holy crap, have they dropped the ball on this one. There is no convenient way to browse what's out there, but that may have just been a subtle way of discouraging you from looking. Because Elf Bowling: The Movie is one of the better options. And it's among the worst movies we've ever seen.

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Dave Parsons/Denver Zoo

This dragon is en fuego.

​ What does the Denver Zoo have in common with Jerusalem? How about with a thirty-foot tree made entirely of Legos? Or a bridge in Branson, Missouri, a city best described as Las Vegas for Christians? Stumped? We'll tell you. Bing (if you don't know what it is, Google it) included all of them in a recent top-22 list (22?) of the best holiday lights in the world.

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Matthew Novak

Participating designer Baily Rose of Maison de Rose

​In the soul-sucking spirit of this pointedly consumer holiday season, The Fabric Lab and Beauty Bar have come up with a better way to shop without bringing the mall into the equation. Starting tonight, the local fashion facilitators take over the bar from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. for the Shopping After Dark Holiday Market -- a bazaar of local clothing designers, jewelry makers, artists and the like.

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​Ah, the holidays, that special time of year when we turn on a ridiculous amount of very small light bulbs to comfort us, because it gets dark too early, and also because this is America, and by gum, we can. Still, there's no denying the austere beauty of the snow all illuminated, making halos around all those trillions of megawatts of wasted electricity -- and really, what better than needless gratuity to ramp up the Christmas spirit? After all, isn't it what baby Jesus would have wanted? Don't let baby Jesus down. Here's our guide to this year's best and brightest light-related activities.

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