MOVIES
Pixar is like the most gifted student in a classroom full of talent. Even its weakest effort has a gleam. “Cars” idles at times. And more than any other Pixar treat, the ‘toon could easily exist in a live-action version. Yet this G-rated ride about Lightning McQueen, a cocky race car who takes a wrong turn into a dusty burg and gets an attitude tune-up, revs in its final laps. And the carbureted citizens of Radiator Springs are a car lot of fun, especially a battered tow truck with an aw-shucks demeanor named Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy). Whatever you do, stay through the closing credits. | Lisa Kennedy
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Opera Pops, Central City Opera’s annual showcase of veteran and apprentice singers, returns for its 21st year with two big changes. The concert moves to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, and, for the first time, concert-only tickets will be available for $38 – a bargain by opera standards. A dinner and concert package is $135 per person. The event is set for Tuesday with dinner at 6 p.m. and the concert at 7:30 p.m. 303-292-6700 or centralcityopera.org. | Kyle MacMillan
STAGE
What would you ask of your lover if you were suddenly given just three weeks to live? In Steven Dietz’s “Fiction,” Linda wants her husband to read her private journals after she is gone. But first she would like to read his. The play asks whether it’s better to live blissfully unaware of a hurtful lie than to die fully apprised of a hurtful truth. A bit of a contrived premise but an astonishingly acted piece starring John Hutton, Martha Harmon-Pardee and Karen Slack. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through June 24 at the Curious Theatre Company’s Acoma Center, 1080 Acoma St. $20-$30 (2-for-1 Thursdays); call 303-623-0524 or go to curioustheatre.org. | John Moore
TELEVISION
Kyra Sedgwick and her sweetly Southern-accented Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson is back with a second season of “The Closer,” Monday at 7 p.m. on TNT. The first case involves the murder of an off-duty LAPD detective. And Johnson is still spending ambivalent time with FBI Agent Fritz Howard (Jon Tenney). As the hour begins, she’s sworn off processed sugar. But you know that can’t last. | Joanne Ostrow
VISUAL ARTS
Denver collectors Jan and Frederick Mayer have assembled one of the finest bodies of Spanish colonial art anywhere. Forty works drawn from the holding, including some on public view for the first time, will be shown as part of “Heaven and Earth.” The exhibition opens Friday at the Museo de las Américas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. and runs through Oct. 8. 303-571-4401 or museo.org | Kyle MacMillan
POPULAR MUSIC
It’s impossible to deny the importance of the lineup at this year’s Telluride Bluegrass Festival, which starts on Thursday and runs through June 18. The regulars are there – Sam Bush, Yonder Mountain String Band, Nickel Creek and Bela Fleck, who is celebrating his 25th year at the festival – but the festival is also smartly incorporating some outsiders this year. Names such as Neko Case and The Decemberists are more familiar to indie rockers than bluegrass fans, but that won’t stop this audience from falling in love with these non-Bluegrass acts. Also playing the festival: Bonnie Raitt, Barenaked Ladies, John Prine, Jerry Douglas, Drive-By Truckers, Missy Higgins, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Del McCoury and others. | Ricardo Baca
NIGHT LIFE
With considerable competition from Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado Springs doesn’t always make the list of hot night life spots on the Front Range. Still, the Springs will give those cities a run for their money when Club Icon hosts platinum-selling MC and vocalist T-Pain with Black Pegasus and Yessurr tonight. Pain, born Faheem Najm, started out as one-fifth of hip-hoppers Nappy Headz. He went solo and ascended the charts with club-shaking singles like “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper).” Tickets are $20 for general admission and $50 for VIP, available at groovetickets.com or at any Independent Records. 9 p.m. at 5917 N. Academy Blvd. in Colorado Springs. | John Wenzel
