‘Feel That Fire’ (music)

Few contemporary country stars rock as ferociously as Dierks Bentley, as he proves on “Life On The Run,” the introductory song of the singer’s fifth album, “Feel That Fire.”

Bentley recruited Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready to play on the tune, and he opens the album with a slide guitar run that sounds like a motorcycle revving its engine. Likewise, few current Nashville country rockers would close an album with a bluegrass song, “Last Call,” with help from mandolinist Ronnie McCoury. No other country star out today could pull off such wildly diverse arrangements and sound so authentic — and so engaging.

The tension between rock’s restless freedom and country’s time-honored values emerges in Bentley’s songwriting, too. The songs on “Feel That Fire” vary from spirited party anthem “Sideways” to steamy romanticism of “I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes” to spiritual reckoning on “Better Believer.” Bentley manages to make them all ring true.

’13 is the New 18′ (book)

Beth Harpaz figures there will be no generation gap when her kids become teenagers. After all, she grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, so she’s seen everything, right? But once her son turned 13, suddenly she realized the perils of raising a teenager in the age of Facebook and MySpace, when $100 shoes might mean the difference between being accepted and being an outcast. Harpaz, travel editor for The Associated Press, recounts some of her parenting stories — and the help she received from “The Sopranos,” Erma Bombeck and Google to get her through.

‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ (DVD)

Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) have developed wildly contrasting definitions of love and what it entails, with the former engaged to a mildly interesting husband-to-be (Chris Messina) while the latter hunts for something more dangerous. Now, with the two embarking together (and sans fiance) on an extended, loosely-defined vacation to Barcelona, the table is set for those separate philosophies to endure some simultaneous, real-world testing. Like the premise that sets it up, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a bit predictable by design: Unless you’re new to watching movies, you’ve likely seen shades of this conflict and these situations before, and you probably can take a pretty educated guess as to where “Barcelona” plans to take them. Don’t worry; that’s fine. “Barcelona’s” investment in familiarity leaves it with two (and counting) superbly developed characters whose distinctions rise above convention and whose fates easily are worth the 97 minutes of engagement they request.