Brother Ali featuring Justin Timberlake?! Have stranger words ever been tweeted? On Monday, Twin Cities rapper Brother Ali reported on his Twitter account that a beat-boxing Justin Timberlake had crashed the Minneapolis rapper's set the night before in Jackson Hole, Wyo. In the rush of things, Ali didn't recognize the pop star's famous face and proceeded to snatch the microphone from Timberlake (or so Ali tweeted). After Ali finished his song, his DJ, BK-One, told him: "That was Justin Timberlake." Ali said he brought JT back on stage, where the two freestyled and beat-boxed for 15 minutes. In Ali's (tweeted) words: "Sorry JT. Thanks for rockin with us." Sounds too crazy to be true? Check the video evidence on YouTube. Search for "Brother Ali and Justin Timberlake." I.W. wonders: Is an album collaboration in Ali and Timberlake's future? We can dream, can't we?

TOM HORGEN

Let's go crazy An avowed Prince fan, Nick Jonas enlisted three former New Power Generation members for his new group, Nick Jonas & the Administration. But the presence of Michael Bland, Tommy Barbarella and Sonny Thompson hasn't been attracting Purple fans to Administration shows. "It's been mostly screaming girls," said Bland, who will perform with the group Thursday at the State Theatre, "and us trying to avoid them."

JON BREAM

Hello, goodbye The lesson from Monday's roast of Dominic Papatola: If you're a critic, do not retire and never agree to put yourself at the mercy of theater people on a cold January night. Actors Zach Curtis and Joseph Scrimshaw emceed an evening at the Jungle Theater designed to skewer and honor the soon-to-be erstwhile Pioneer Press theater critic, who will go to work for the Bremer Foundation. Actor Steve Sweere had the best rips of the night, but when we ran them past the Profanity Committee at I.W. headquarters, they blushed. Shanan Custer reminded Papatola that a show he panned as "populist piffle" was the show that "fed my daughter for a year." And Mixed Blood's Jack Reuler reminded Papatola that he'd organized two previous roasts for retiring critics, both of which were held at the 1,200-seat Guthrie rather than the 140-seat Jungle. Zing! Only nit: When I.W. found out that Papatola will continue to write reviews as a freelancer ("Goodbye everyone, I'm still here!") we wanted our $5 cover charge back.

GRAYDON ROYCE

Have we got a shack for you Brad Paisley is famous for his fishin' songs but he's never gone ice fishing. "I've fished in Minnesota many times but I've never done that in the winter," he said. "I hear it's a blast." What if Paisley's bus were to arrive early on Saturday before he plays at the Xcel Energy Center? "That would be a tempting thing. I know who to call." That, he told I.W., would be WCCO Radio chief Mick Anselmo, Paisley's fishing buddy since the days when Anselmo was the kingpin for country station K102. "I'm sure he has a little hut somewhere," Paisley said.

JON BREAM

A 'genius' lights up a multiplex Just in from San Francisco, sculptor Camille Utterback beamed as light rippled through her interactive sculpture "Aurora Organ" at its dedication last week in St. Louis Park. The $95,000 piece consists of six long light tubes dangling from the 80-foot ceiling of the atrium of the ShowPlace Icon moviehouse. "Aurora's" RGB LED lights are controlled by custom-designed software via sensors in the wooden railing of the theater's grand staircase. When visitors tap or touch the sensors, bands of color flow through the tubes, moving faster or slower, up or down, depending on whether the sensors are tapped or held. As a 2009 winner of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship -- the so-called "genius" grant -- Utterback has a pretty flashy aura of her own these days. Kudos to the city of St. Louis Park, which commissioned the piece with the assistance of the St. Paul nonprofit Forecast Public Art.

MARY ABBE