Purple angel Jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding dedicated her encore Saturday at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival to "a special friend. Don't know if you're here. If you are, we love you." She then sang Minnie Riperton's "Perfect Angel." That friend, that angel, may have been nearby, sitting in a long black limo parked behind the stage at Mears Park. After her performance, the limo driver handed his cell phone to Spalding so she could talk to Prince, with whom she has worked. She was going to dinner, but promised to stay in touch in case they wanted to get together later at Paisley Park.

JON BREAM

Barefoot boy with cheek A barefooted Garrison Keillor tapped a wine glass to call the "congregation" to attention Sunday in honor of photographer pal Tom Arndt and his new book of Minnesota images, "Home." About 100 Arndt friends munched church-supper food (potato salad, brats 'n' burgers, apple crisp) around the grand piano in Keillor's living room on St. Paul's Summit Avenue. "Photography is the enemy of writing," Keillor joked, commenting that Arndt "takes pictures of urban angst, which means vacant faces. So when you're around Tom, you need to stay focused and interested or you will end up, slack-jawed, in an exhibit somewhere." Answering questions, Arndt said he sometimes got into trouble taking pictures: "A few years ago, I begged five gang-bangers for my life, literally. I'd just been to the gym and was feeling pumped so I figured I could take one of them. But that still left four. When they let me go, the head guy said, 'Happy birthday. This is the beginning of the rest of your life.'"

MARY ABBE

Phoenix burns Not only did French buzz band Phoenix live up to its hype Tuesday night at a very sold-out Varsity Theater gig, but it also lived through one of the hottest, sweatiest rock shows this town has seen since First Ave upgraded its air-conditioning (maybe First Ave can pass along the name and number of its guy to the Varsity). The ugly gig did shine a light on the sweet side of singer Thomas Mars, perhaps part of what endeared him to Sofia Coppola (they have a 2-year-old daughter). At one point Mars took time out to towel off drummer Thomas Hedlund's head. He also politely praised the crowd: "I don't think I've ever been this hot before. Thank you for standing through the heat with us."

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

A 'Simple' plan You might not recognize it from the setting or the title, but Chinese director Zhang Yimou's next feature, "Amazing Tales: Three Guns" is a remake of Joel and Ethan Coen's debut feature, "Blood Simple." Zhang, whose visually stunning films include "House of Flying Daggers," was the mastermind behind the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. His redo moves the locale from Texas to northwestern China's Gansu Province. Producer Zhang Weiping suggested the idea after the director said he was a Coen fan. But "Blood Simple" wasn't their only option. The director also considered the Coens' Oscar-winning "No Country for Old Men." The adaptation will be Zhang's first crime thriller, a tale of adultery, double-crossing and death with a strong dose of black comedy. Anybody know Mandarin for "He was alive when I buried him"?

COLIN COVERT

Don't make me use this banana The scene: Saturday's Rock the Garden concert at Walker Art Center. The setting: The "Gorilla Garden" VIP area, in a small patch of green between Angus Fairhurst's bronze statue of a gorilla gazing into a mirror, and a tent where Trader Joe's employees were handing out fruit, veggie sticks and pretzels. Mary Lucia, afternoon drive DJ for the Current, was taking a cigarette break from her duties as concert host. Suddenly a voice intruded on her hazy reverie. "Please don't smoke near the art!" said a T-shirted volunteer, gripping a Trader Joe's banana in a vaguely menacing way.

TIM CAMPBELL

Comic or critique? Both Cartoonist, illustrator and former Minneapolis guy Ward Sutton is branching out into what could become a new form of arts criticism. Sutton, best known in these parts for his alt-weekly comic strips "Ward's Cleaver" and "Sutton Impact," is now drawing/writing graphic-style book reviews for Barnes & Noble. His fifth, most recent review, of Robert Boswell's story collection "The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards" (published by St. Paul's Graywolf Press), drew praise from the author: "You capture the atmosphere of the stories perfectly," Boswell e-mailed him. Uh-oh. As if America's reviewers aren't beleaguered enough these days, what with every blogger and his dog assuming the critical mantle, now they have to learn to draw, too. To see Sutton's illustrated reviews online, go to barnesandnoble.com/bn-review and click on "gallery."

KRISTIN TILLOTSON