Went to the theater last night, saw a Japanese production, in English, of this Sondheim show set in Japan. (Last summer I saw the same theater company do the Japanese production in Japanese.) Terrific production -- minimal but high-energy sets, costumes, lighting and staging -- of what I think may be a perfect show, in terms of all the things a show needs: character arcs, overall story arc, and relationship between the two; great music and lyrics. How can you not love a show with lines like "If the tea the Shogun drank will/Serve to keep the Shogun tranquil...?"

Japan's been on my mind anyway lately because I recently reread a lot of William Gibson to prepare for an interview I did of him at the Y. He sets a lot of his work in Japan, a future high-tech Japan but recognizable in a straight-line extrapolation. The interview was great -- what a brilliant, unpretentious guy. So much so that I've added a link to his blog, above. Also to two other blogs, political ones, for anyone who wants to carry on the kind of political discussions I'm ill-equipped, by nature and inclination, to host here. I also took down the link to Jim Russell's architecture blog, because he stopped doing it. When that arts-blog site gets a new architecture critic I'll link to that.