MOVIES
Everything about “Nancy Drew” says anachronism, in capital letters. A teenage sleuth who would rather read dusty library clippings than build a MySpace page? A 16-year-old admirer of cashmere sweater sets who wouldn’t be caught dead in thong underwear? A family movie with creaky floorboards and secret passages that actually sends chills up an 11-year-old’s spine? And then there’s star Emma Roberts, supposedly old enough to drive and attend Hollywood High, but looking about 12 years old and 80 pounds soaking wet. But it all works, and for the millions of girls around the world who found a worthy role model in Nancy Drew, the new movie version is a relief: They didn’t ruin it.|Michael Booth
CLASSICAL MUSIC
The familiar and unfamiliar will come together as the 23rd season of Colorado College’s Summer Music Festival continues with a concert featuring a student orchestra led by Scott Yoo, music director of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. The first half of the eclectic program will pair “Applachian Spring” with Michael Daugherty’s “Spaghetti Western,” an English-horn concerto inspired by Ennio Morricone’s haunting music for Sergio Leone’s famed Westerns. The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the college’s Packard Hall, 5 W. Cache La Poudre St., in Colorado Springs. Tickets are $20. 719-389-6607 or coloradocollege.edu. |Kyle MacMillan
STAGE
It will be two years (and another $5 million) before the 116-year-old Elitch Theatre reopens to live theater. In the meantime, the new Center for American Theatre is staging the first play on those grounds in 17 years. The nearby Carousel Pavilion makes an idyllic setting for a play titled, “The Pavilion.” It’s a thoroughly narcissistic – and thus wholly identifiable – story of high-school lovers who meet up at their 20th reunion. It’s expertly acted, watching it a quintessential Colorado summer evening. But fair warning: Wear a baseball cap. The staging includes two optic-searing follow-spots that leave a big blind spot on the whole experience. Dusk start (approximately 8:30 p.m.) Thursdays-Sundays at 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street. ($5-$15, discounts for neighborhood residents, 720-985-7938 or |John Moore
POPULAR MUSIC
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival always makes for a thrilling weekend. This year’s lineup ensures that good times will again be had at the festival, which takes over the mountain town Thursday through June 24. Some of the acts playing this year are Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Bela Fleck, Chick Corea, the Sam Bush Band, Yonder Mountain String Band, Guster, Los Lobos, Counting Crows and Chris Thile of Nickel Creek. If that weren’t enough, the Avett Brothers – who are behind one of this year’s most exciting new records, “Emotionalism” – are also playing a key slot on Thursday afternoon. Tickets and camping spots are still available. More information can be found at |Ricardo Baca
TELEVISION
If you admire Tenacious D and their mock rock, if you’re not put off by salty language and if you share or admire the slacker sensibility, you’ll enjoy “Flight of the Conchords,” premiering tonight at 8:30 on HBO. This pair of New Zealand comics fuse geek humor and music in a heady mix over a 12-week run as they try to launch their careers in New York.|Joanne Ostrow
VISUAL ARTS
While still a student at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, Tiffany Kennedy-Carroll sparked attention in Fall 2005 with an exhibition at Pirate: Contemporary Art, 3655 Navajo St., that revealed an artist brimming with potential. Now married and living in Lubbock, Texas, she returns to Pirate with a show titled “Catawampus.” It opens with a reception from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and runs through July 7. While the works in 2005 were rooted in the figure, her latest creations are brightly-colored, pure abstractions. Hours are 6 p.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.|Kyle MacMillan
DVDS
Months later, we can still say it: “Breach” remains the best big Hollywood drama released so far in 2007. Out this week on DVD, “Breach” briskly and pointedly tells the true story of the worst FBI betrayal in U.S. history, when a top counterspy named Robert Hanssen sold deadly secrets to Russian agents. Chris Cooper is pitch-perfect as the intensely brilliant and weird Hanssen, playing a cat-and- mouse game with a young protégé played by Ryan Phillippe. Director Billy Ray (“Shattered Glass,” another engrossing true story) keeps things moving without sacrificing truth – in fact, Hanssen’s bizarre nature was actually more sordid than what appears on screen here.|Michael Booth
NIGHTLIFE
Now that it is warm outside there’s no excuse to sit on your hands – even on your day of rest. Here’s your chance: Sunday Jazz Dance at Denver’s Mercury Cafe kicked off earlier this month, featuring some of the metro area’s hottest jazz plus affordable dancing lessons. Queen City Jazz Band, Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra, The David Booker Swingtet and Rumble Seat are slated for future installments, which run through Sept. 30. This Sunday offers swing and jitterbug classes at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m., with Peter Yellen’s Dressed in Black performing at 8 p.m. $6 for lessons and the show, 2199 California St., 303-294-9281 or
mercurycafe.com.|John Wenzel
