MOVIES
If your kids can listen to profanity without needing to imitate it, take them to the warts-and-all documentary “Rock School” for an education about alternative teaching methods. Music teacher Paul Green believes coddling kids does them no good, especially if they want to become gods of rock. Green liberally drops his f-bombs on his spirited students, and you’ll have to see “Rock School” at the Mayan to learn whether anyone is still standing when the dust clears.
– MICHAEL BOOTH
TELEVISION
Anthony Michael Hall is the psychic with a cane on “Dead Zone,” which has its fourth season premiere at 8 tonight on USA. Last season’s cliffhanger left Johnny Smith (Hall) passed out on the floor thanks to increasingly terrifying visions of a future catastrophe. He has been framed for murder and must stop another murder before being nabbed by the feds.
– JOANNE OSTROW
NIGHT LIFE
Bass Nector has been described as Radiohead, Massive Attack, The Crystal Method and Thievery Corporation rolled into one. The DJ – a staple performer at the annual Burning Man festival – joins other beat junkies, including Denver night-life tastemakers Friends in Stereo featuring PJ Stroller, Satori-C and orange peel moses, for a show Saturday at Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom. Tickets are $10 in advance at Twist & Shout and Sweat Records, or $15 at the door.
– ELANA ASHANTI JEFFERSON
VISUAL ARTS
They aren’t well known, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important. One of South America’s most resilient indigenous people, the Mapuche of southern Chile and Argentina, withstood the onslaught of the Incas and Spanish, and their influence continues unabated. They will be spotlighted in “Nehuen: Mapuche Power,” an exhibition opening Friday at the Museo de las Américas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, with a reception 6-9 p.m. Call 303-571-4401 or visit museo.org.
– KYLE MACMILLAN
POPULAR MUSIC
This show is tailor-made for highbrow music fans: indie rock pioneers Wilco return to Colorado on Friday in support of last year’s critical success “A Ghost Is Born.” The opening act for the Red Rocks show reflects pop music’s beautiful move toward eclecticism: hip-hop’s most popular band, The Roots, landed that slot. Tickets: $36.50-$43.50 via Ticketmaster.
– ELANA ASHANTI JEFFERSON
STAGE
Carousel Dinner Theatre has set the bar reasonably high as the first company within 200 miles of Denver to mount its own version of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.” If one does not expect Broadway’s extravaganza of lights, dance, magic, costumes and pyrotechnics, the visual artistry on display is still fairly impressive here. And as Belle, Michelle Anton is the elegant embodiment of a classic Disney heroine. Showtimes 7:45 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 1:45 Sundays (dinner 90 minutes before) at 3509 S. Mason St. Tickets $34-$38 (970-225-2555).
– JOHN MOORE
WORLD MUSIC
Not into the piano or violin? How about the didgeridoo? Ash Dargan, one of Australia’s premier exponents of the instrument, will appear at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts, 200 E. Baseline Road, Lafayette. Dargan, who also plays the flute, will perform a body of his own music, titled “Stories of Wind.” Admission is $15 for the general public and $10 for seniors and students. Call 303-665-0599.
– KYLE MACMILLAN
