MOVIES
What better way to spend the year’s toughest hot spell than in an air-conditioned theater watching adorable birds hike across the frozen Antarctic? Appreciating the amazing child-rearing habits of the emperor penguin will make your own troubles seem smaller. “March of the Penguins” is one of the best movies of the season, a fascinating and restrained documentary about the indomitable emperors and their dedication to procreation. At a cool, sweet 80 minutes, it avoids the sleep-inducing qualities of “Winged Migration” and other well-intentioned wildlife portrayals. At the Mayan Theatre.
– MICHAEL BOOTH
TELEVISION
The disturbed and alienated teens on ABC’s “Brat Camp” (premiering Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Channel 7) aren’t acting, they’re just acting out. They are disturbed/strung out enough to have been dumped by their families into emotional boot camp at the SageWalk Wilderness School in Oregon. Their responses to the grueling therapy program make for riveting television, spread over seven weeks.
– JOANNE OSTROW
POPULAR MUSIC
Robert Plant’s hair is still really cool. And his music is too. When Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation take the stage at the Universal Lending Pavilion on Tuesday, it will be impossible to avoid the Led Zeppelin comparisons. And that’s OK. The Strange Sensation, which is the band Plant put together for 2002’s “Dreamland,” is filled out here and fully worthy of sharing the stage with the legendary vocalist. And while “Dreamland” will surely be represented on Tuesday, the newish “Mighty Rearranger” will be at center stage.
– RICARDO BACA
STAGE
Su Teatro has brought back its surprise comic hit, “Doña Rosita’s Jalapeño Kitchen.” This production expands Rodrigo Duarte Clark’s one-woman comedy into a full ensemble piece starring Debra Gallegos about a saucy woman who dishes out advice to her friends and neighbors as she ponders whether to sell her restaurant. Showtimes 8:05 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through July 23 at 4725 High St. Tickets $10-$13 (303-296-0219).
– JOHN MOORE
VISUAL ARTS
More than 40 galleries from around the world, including Denver’s Rule Gallery, will take part in ART Santa Fe 2005, the sixth biennial edition of the contemporary art fair. The event will run 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and July 17 and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday in the Sweeney Convention Center in Santa Fe. A day pass is $8, and a weekend pass is $20. Call 505-988-1234 or visit artsantafe.com.
– KYLE MACMILLAN
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Like the works of Benjamin Britten, the operas of Czech composer Leos Janacek are growing increasingly popular. The Aspen Opera Theater Center will present a new production of Janacek’s “The Cunning Little Vixen” as part of the Aspen Music Festival. Performances are set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in Aspen’s Wheeler Opera House. Tickets are $26 and $72. Call 970-925-9042 or visit aspenmusicfestival.com.
– KYLE MACMILLAN
NIGHT LIFE
The reason to catch electronica songbird Esthero Wednesday at the Soiled Dove (1949 Market St.) is not that everything she’s released in her eight-year recording career is spectacular. Her latest CD is winning new fans, but the pièce de résistance is that this Canadian-born club queen is responsible, in part, for one of the best down-tempo dance albums of the late 1990s, “Breath From Another.” Her Denver date should draw an inspired crowd.
– ELANA ASHANTI JEFFERSON
