To Do: Japan WOW!
* Xiu Xiu at the Rock and Roll Hotel with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Shearwater. $12 at 8PM. [ R&R Hotel ]
* U of M professor Benjamin Barber is always on NPR talking about shopping and he's funny and not sanctimonious. His book is calledConsumed. He'll say "Capitalism has created an adolescent culture rooted in instant gratification" tonight at Politics & Prose. Free at 7PM. [ P&P ]
* "For 500-plus years, the Yamagata area farmers, tradesmen, merchants, and Kasuga Shrine parishioners doubled as actors and progressively infused the performances with the local dialect and outlook to make Kurokawa noh distinctive." It's a form of Japanese theater that uses masks. Part of the Smithsonian's Japan WOW! program, $18 at 6: 30PM. [ Smithsonian ]