Serious Texas Barbecue’s smoked meats are stand-up-and- say-hallelujah, pass-the-paper-towels kind of good.

If you’ve had Joy and Cookie Swanson’s ‘cue at their two Durango locations, you know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, it’s OK, because their son, Hunter Swanson, has brought some of the best barbecue on the west side of the Continental Divide to the Front Range.

Serious Texas Barbecue III opened just off Loveland’s main drag in January and word is spreading like mesquite smoke up and down Highway 287. “We opened in the middle of a bad economic time, but we’re paying the bills and staying busy,” says the younger Swanson, who built the barn-like space from the ground up, with the help of his folks and five partners. It’s a bare-bones operation — all about the (pork) bones, in fact.

“We have a real limited menu. We concentrate on doing one thing and doing it well. That’s kind of how it is in Texas. Our meat is all slow-smoked. It’s not a fast process — some of our stuff cooks for 22 hours,” says Swanson, who grew up in Pflugerville, Texas, north of Austin.

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Comedian Josh Blue, photo courtesy of Comedy Central.

People instantly notice a few things about Josh Blue, usually in this order: He’s not normal. He’s hilarious. He has no shame. He’s hilarious. He’s got sweet hair. He’s hilarious.

Blue comes by the “not normal” honestly, since he works his cerebral palsy into his act and uses it as a jumping-off point for the humor in his daily life. But Blue isn’t easily pigeonholed. Once you get sucked into his world – as millions were when he won season 4 of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” in 2006 — you’re helplessly stuck.

We spoke with the Denver comedian before the premiere of his first-ever Comedy Central special (an achievement few Mile High stand-ups have reached) on Friday, March 27, which he’ll celebrate by appearing with friends Zebra Junction at the Toad Tavern in Littleton.

Check out our chat below.

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“I was told there would be lemonade.”

Times are tough, and wallets are light, but Denverites are still finding ways to be generous. Charity events are always happening, and this week two of them will mix big fun and worthy causes.

On Friday, the Fired Up for Kids organization is hosting the judging event for its 2010 firefighter calendar. Proceeds from the event and sales of the eventual calendar benefit the Children’s Hospital Burn Center.

To accommodate the turnout — last year’s sold-out party attracted more than 1,000, according to organizers — the event is being held at the cavernous Exdo Event Center (1399 35th St.). The general-admission ticket price is $30 at the door, which isn’t bad considering what you get: an evening of good-looking, good-doing firefighters workin’ it to become calendar boys and girls.

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There is no shortage of pizza-and- beer taverns along the Front Range. Most every neighborhood has at least two, enough to foment dozens of healthy local pizza-joint rivalries. Pizza patrons cling to their favorites like fans to football teams.

But few engender the kind of loyalty enjoyed by McKinners Pizza Bar in Littleton. At once divey and clean-scrubbed, McKinners sits on Main Street welcoming walkers-by with its in-window pizza kitchen, populated at mealtimes with flour-covered cooks tossing dough overhead and trading barbs.

Inside, the room is darker and moodier, but unmistakably friendly. A long bar sits along the west wall, a row of elevated booths stretches along the east, and a row of bar-tables and stools fills the center aisle. At peak times, every seat in the house is filled — with young families, old-friend groups, klatches of Nuggets fans, overworked office rats, and post-ride cyclists, un-selfconscious in their body hugging kits and awkward clip shoes.

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What up, bro? The Smothers Brothers have been performing together longer than you’ve been alive. Seriously.

It’s taken a long time — 40 years, to be exact — but the Smothers Brothers have lately gotten their due as the fearless entertainers they were in the late 1960s. Fired from their groundbreaking CBS variety show for their liberal views on Vietnam, Nixon, drugs and other topics, the brothers have been vindicated in recent documentaries (“Make ‘Em Laugh,” “Smothered”) and, this fall, the new book “Dangerously Funny.”

Clean cut even now, Tom and Dick Smothers will bring the gentler side of their comedy-music stylings to Boettcher Concert Hall on Saturday, with locals Dotsero ($15-$73. 303-623-7876 or coloradosymphony.org). We talked to Tommy in advance of the show about how they’ve managed to stay relevant for more than half a century, the challenges of performing with family , why they’re better than ever now and, of course, wine.

Check our exclusive Q&A below.

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