I didn't mention any of those libraries in my reply to your original comment. To help alleviate callback noise, there's
https://github.com/caolan/kanso , which Fenn mentions in his blog post's comments, and there are EventEmitters, and there is Function.bind() and Backbone.js-style async, where you have methods that describe what each callback does. (Backbone is usable in Node.js but perhaps not as practical on the server as it is on the client.)
Also callbacks to me are kind of like parenthesis in Lisp. They're annoying but they're for the greater good. :)
