1 "Rock of Ages" aspires to be the "Grease" of '80s hair metal. It ends up being "Mamma Mia!" with a dash of "Glee." The Broadway musical transferred to the big screen is a fine backward-looking, trivia- centered guilty pleasure. With Tom Cruise as an Axl Rose-like wasted rock star sex god and other actors including Catherine Zeta-Jones and Alec Baldwin singing, there are plenty of grins and giggles in this sweet-spirited rock 'n' roll fairy tale.
2 As happened with the past season of "Mad Men," we're having a bit of a hard time getting into the peculiar new Fiona Apple album -- but we're confident it will grow on us. Her first album in seven years lands Tuesday with high expectations and another highfalutin paragraph-sized title ("The Idler Wheel ..." for short). The reclusive, deep-bellowing singer/songwriter certainly didn't shy away from experimentation, with clanking metal pots, masking tape and looped vocals part of the sonic tricks. She stockpiled plenty of evocative lyrics, too, and turned things surprisingly intimate in parts.
3 "Gilligan's Island: The Musical," now at Illusion Theatre, is faithful to the 1960s television show on which it's based. Actually, the musical is really just a series of sitcom sketches and comic bits, full of corny dialogue, holding together a meager plot. But Minneapolis Musical Theatre artistic director Steven Meerdink creates an endless series of increasingly outrageous and clever slapstick bits that add up to a delightful piece of fluff, light summer escapist entertainment that captures the spirit of the original series. www.aboutmmt.org.
4 Country music great Dwight Yoakam is finally the subject of a book that explores the first 30 years of his career in all its greatness and contradictions. (Never has a teetotaler sang so many drinking songs so effectively.) "Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles From Nowhere," by former Chicago Sun-Times music critic Don McLeese, gives Yoakam the kind of respectful treatment that's more No Depression magazine than Us Weekly. Instead of focusing on stuff like the singer's relationship with Bridget Fonda -- his own movie career is detailed only where it relates to music -- the book chronicles his years cruising the L.A. roots scene and his partnership and still-festering feud with producer/guitarist Pete Anderson.
5 Say what you will about the bro-bar nature of Cowboy Jack's, the Twin Cities chain knows how to treat its audience. Its brand-new location in downtown Minneapolis boasts one of the bar scene's best rooftops, complete with a full central bar, multiple fire pits, bean bag courts and swings (yes, swings!). The owners are calling it an adult playground. With the sun out and the baseball season in full swing at nearby Target Field, it couldn't have come at a better time. 126 N. 5th St., Mpls., 612-224-9950.
