Japanese Art

THURSDAY HIGH ZERO FESTIVAL: These classically trained and self-taught musicians think way outside the box. Their avant-garde improvisations can be heard around Baltimore through Sunday. Though it might sound like noise to some listeners, these performers are visionaries whose exploration of the fringe will one day influence the mainstream. Thursday performances start at 8:30 p.m. sharp. Tickets are $10-$12. Go to highzero.org. 'THE MERCY SEAT': Neil LaBute's play takes place the day after 9/11 and concerns two World Trade Center workers who survive the attacks and consider using the event as a means of escape to start a new life together.

Glenelg High School will hold an orientation program for freshmen from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 14. Included are a scavenger hunt, Class of 2005 T-shirts, games, school-survival skills and a picnic lunch. Students will need their fall schedules and should be dressed for physical activity. Lunch will be provided, but students are being asked to contribute additional items based on the first letter of their last names: A-K should bring a large bag of chips or pretzels; L-R, a bag of cookies; and S-Z, two liters of soda.

Picnic plates leave no trashForget paper and plastic. You can't have an eco-friendly picnic without Botanika Leafware. Made from the leaves of deciduous trees in India (the tree isn't hurt), leafware is (x completely biodegradable -- you don't even need a trash can when you're finished eating. Just bury your plate.This isn't the sturdiest dinnerware you've ever used, but it works very well for traditional picnic fare -- sandwiches and chips, cut-up vegetables and fruits. Ten 12-inch plates are $7.95; four -- 8-inch-round serving bowls, $6.95.

In a speech to Baltimore's newest lawyers, Orioles owner Peter Angelos fired a high, hard one at big corporations that criticize lawyers and seek to limit the awards they can win for their clients.Angelos, a 1961 graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, told the 1996 class yesterday that corporations have long waged a systematic campaign to discredit lawyers in hopes of depriving citizens of basic liberties.He told the 303 new graduates to fight back."That's the purpose of the legal profession, to ensure that justice, that all-important concept to freedom, is available to everyone," Angelos said.

The first clue that "The Tale of Genji" by the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company is going to be the Reader's Digest Condensed Book version is that the piece occupies only half the program.To stuff Lady Murasaki's 11th-century classic novel of Japanese art, culture, politics, history, magic and romance into a six-part, 50-minute dance is a little like the time John Huston made a film of "The Bible" that quit after the Book of Genesis, overwhelmed by so much material.Ichinohe's New York-based company performed what was called the premiere of "Genji" at Towson University on Friday.

As the world gets steadily smaller, cultural cross-influences grow ever greater in the field of design. In fact, it's fair to say that most U.S. interior design today is visibly influenced by traditions other than our own.While the rise of globalism has to be seen as a positive development, since it can lead to better understanding among peoples, there are some aesthetic purists who lament all this mixing and mingling out of fear that it will lead to...

Claudia Stevens in one-woman show at Theatre ProjectIn her one-woman show, "Playing Paradise" -- opening Wednesday at the Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St. -- Claudia Stevens tells the story of a young woman's discovery of her parents' hidden past as Holocaust survivors and her coming to terms with her own Jewish identity. Ms. Stevens portrays a variety of characters from different time periods in this music theater piece, performed to a live score.Show times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

John Yoshio Naka, 89, the world-renowned bonsai master who was credited with bringing the art to Western culture, died Wednesday at a hospital in Whittier, Calif. Mr. Naka was regarded as one of the greatest bonsai masters of his time. The Japanese art that dates to the 13th century -- although it originated in China several centuries before -- involves dwarfing and shaping miniature trees and shrubs with wire and careful pruning. Mr. Naka's talent was to create landscapes, such as his remarkable Goshin, which means "protector of the spirit."

Ryu ou DiaKo, a Japanese drum group which uses sea shells, horns and drums to approximate the sound of an orchestra, will perform at several Maryland sites this week as part of Kanagawa Week, which celebrates 10 years of friendship between Maryland and its sister state in Japan. Performances are scheduled tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Hagerstown Junior College, Thursday at 10:30 a.m. at Notre Dame College, Friday at noon at the Harborplace amphitheater and Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Perryville High School in Cecil County.

The art of Hon'ami Koetsu, the 16th-century Japanese master who has been compared to Leonardo da Vinci for the versatility of his genius, has the deceptive simplicity and deep mystery of a haiku. An aura of sublime perfection seems to permeate the three galleries that make up the Philadelphia Museum of Art's exhibition "The Arts of Hon'ami Koetsu, Japanese Renaissance Master." The show of more than 100 objects, ranging from delicately painted hand scrolls and lacquer furniture to ceramics, decorative screens and Koetsu's exquisite calligraphy, is the first comprehensive retrospective of the master's work ever mounted outside Japan.