Clocks sprung onto our radar early this year when we got very excited by the incorrect idea that 90s dance 'pioneers' Clock had reformed. Instead we were presented with a fun, new poppy indie band from Epson making the type of music that puts a spring in your step and a summery smile on your face. Genuinely feelgood - we went to check what they were all about. Have a look at the video......

After the (non-)scandal of (un-)banned Tube posters, the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder are now well and truly on show at the Royal Academy. Painter, print-maker, illustrator, businessman, propagandist, and huge fan of the female nude, this is Cranach's first major exhibition in Britain. And while you're gazing at all the nakedness, remember; this was a mate of Martin Luther, and those erotic female nudes are all about Protestant devotion. Honest. Openings Ahoy!......

Photography courtesy of "> beatdrifter via the Londonist pool on Flickr Interested in your foodie photos appearing on Londonist? Click here.......

As winter's days grow increasingly numbered, it's the time of year when our thoughts must turn toward formulating a survival plan for the most gig-loaded two days we know: the Camden Crawl. Back for its 7th year from 18 - 19 April, Camden Crawl 2008 will see 130 artists playing across the festival's 25 venues along with, for the first time, the addition of an outdoor stage. A variety of daytime activities are planned......

Just as London spring begins to break beautifully over the city, the Flamenco Festival is charging into Sadlers Wells to make us all long for the heat and sultriness of a Spanish summer. The fiesta spans the spectrum of the dance form from the Farruquito family presenting traditional gypsy flamenco to one woman and one man pushing flamenco into the 21st Century. There's a showcase homage to the great women of Flamenco, tributes to......

This week saw Londonist Get Scientific when we previewed We Are Scientists playing Soho Revue Bar this Tuesday, get excited about Eurovision and get cosy with Portico Quartet. A busy week all in all! Looking ahead to this week however, we have Eels playing Royal Festival Hall on Monday night. They've invited the Queen too, so it could be an amusing evening. Austin, Tx stars Spoon play a sold out show at Scala and rising......

Following the Oscars this weekend there are free film screenings all over town this week. Edify thyself and make new friends running across 5 different genres of movie for no expenditure whatsoever. Monday: The Duke Mitchell Film Club is holding heist night at the Cross Kings Bar on York Way with a long lost Italian heist movie "Seven Golden Men". The film starts at 8pm but there's also a "trailer trash" collection of vintage......

Ahh, art or money? It's something we ponder daily here at Londonist. (Can't we have both?) The big question is also being asked over at the Old Vic by none other than Kevin Spacey and his mate Jeff Goldblum in Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. We're also pondering how to get our hands on tickets for this sure-to-sell-out show. Previews run til Saturday; the show's booking until April. Also Opening Photography fans should pop along to the......

Happy February, FOBGs. Another healthy serving of book groceries awaits you this week. Stick to a well-rounded book diet, and you’re sure to stave off a winter cold. We have no actual data to support this contention – we’re book geeks, not science nerds – but it certainly sounds promising. So eat your greens, drink your grains, and check back later this week for a bonus edition of the Book Grocer especially dedicated to......

As this Thursday’s the first Thursday, you’re likely thirsting for some First Thursday activity. Fortunately for you First Thursday thirsters, there’s a first-rate event worthy even of your chock-full diaries (you might even note it in ink, but we’ll leave that difficult decision to you): The Museum in Docklands keeps its doors open late this week – we’re going to be coy and let you guess the day – with a lineup that will......

As we ease out of the austerity, self-denial and penny-pinching of January, so too the arts world comes even further out of its shell. This week sees a whole host of exciting openings. Take your pick; payday's passed and February's just round the corner! Be the first Gilbert and Sullivan's hilarious opera about love, corrupt local government, marriage, executions and heroics, The Mikado comes to the Gielgud Theatre from Wednesday. Alistair McGowan stars as......

A conspiracy is afoot. Literary London is listless and lethargic these next few days – after back-to-back Burns Night and Australia Day outings this weekend, we can relate – yet there’s an explosion of midweek activity, leaving us paranoid that the powers-that-be are plotting to drive us crazy, leave us whimpering and indecisive, cursing our inability to be in two places at once. Yes, between this and the stock market madness, we’re a short......

Be there first: After all the brouhaha over the From Russia paintings, this is surely the show to see in its opening week. Stunning, inspirational works by the likes of Renoir, Cézanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Tatlin and Malevich come to the Royal Academy from Saturday. This is jaw-dropping art you'd normally only get to see with a deep, heavy, carbon-footprint inducing flight to Russia, we're lucky enough to have it on our doorsteps until......

Three weeks into the New Year, probably one week until payday and telly's rubbish (except for new CSI), the weather's grey and the detox is wearing thin. Don't give in to those January blues! Here's what can get you out of the house for not a lot of wonga this week. Monday: This is the most depressing day of the year. We've said it before but we're going to say it again because we......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, the Coens’ masterful noir No Country For Old Men, the dire AVPR (don’t ask), a spoof musical biopic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Gwyneth Paltrow in The Good Night. No Country for Old Men arrives in the UK soaked in rapturous Stateside reviews. It’s the latest from critical darlings the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona, Fargo etc.)......

Right, so you're either saving up to blow the last of the December salary on one helluva NYE out or you're just stony broke after Christmas/sales shopping. Either way, unless you're happy to simply hibernate for the week here are some ideas for New Year jollity on a budget. New Year's Eve: Follow our top tips and gird your loins for the massive fireworks display along the Thames, focusing on the London Eye and......

Every day this month the Londonist team will be pointing you in the direction of a Christmas present that (with a bit of luck) you won't already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we'll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings... It seems that everywhere we’ve gone recently, we’ve had the opportunity to buy environment-friendly souvenir and decorative tote bags. Gone are the days when......

Our weekly roundup of film reviews continues, courtesy of James Bryan… This week, Bee Movie, Enchanted, We Own The Night, Youth Without Youth, Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and It’s A Wonderful Life. And if you’re too busy to even read a review of reviews then just go and see the masterpiece that is It’s A Wonderful Life. Simple as that. Since the last episode of the Greatest Sitcom Ever™ nine years ago, Jerry Seinfeld......

Josh Rouse might not be a well-known name, but he fills the Shepherd’s Bush Empire with ease tonight. In fact everything seems to come naturally to him, from the relaxed shuffle onstage to his casually turned-out country-pop gems. Opening the bill is Sweden’s Jens Lekman, playing a solo set except for a girl who joins to play bongos and occasional piano. Lekman’s bittersweet tales of small-town romance sparkle with lo-fi pop hooks mixed with......

Formally half of the much loved and missed Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton's solo career revealed unexpected pop sensibilities. Sure, he's no happier, and he's just as foul mouthed, but this time he does it with added melody and pop hooks. Tonight's show at the Scala comes a week ahead of his unexpected stab at the Christmas number 1 with his typically jovial "We're All Going To Die". Originally the gesture started as a joke,......

The provocative title is not simply a cheap trick like putting "SEX!!!!1!" across the top of a flyer to catch people's attention for carpet cleaning equipment. The One Night Stand With... series is quite literally one night with a specially commissioned artist at VINEspace, an inquisitive East London gallery in Bethnal Green Each month, an artist is invited to present an exhibition for one night only. It is taken down in the morning so......

Curious and curiouser: we got a tip-off from a mysterious source that the District Line had a distinct lack of advertising over the weekend. Could this have anything to do with Buy Nothing Day, which took place on Saturday? Those baffling adverts coyly suggesting you need more fibre in your diet - or maybe it's oestrogen or hair that you're lacking - all seemed to have disappeared, leaving the carriages refreshingly blank and clear.......

There have been many suggestions for women's safety at night: travel in groups, don't get minicabs, always walk facing traffic, carry a rape alarm, make sure you're home before it gets dark and stay indoors until daylight. All really helpful - for putting sexual equality back to the dark ages (so to speak). Women should be able to be out and about at night without fear of being attacked, raped or sexually harrassed which......

In celebration of their 25th anniversary, avant-garde music magazine The Wire will be keeping the capital busy this month with a series of gigs under the banner Wire 25. Whilst many of the events are up our street, we were most excited to hear that two of the gigs were being organised by one of our favourite promoters, [no.signal]. Their evening with Tony Conrad this past June at St. Giles-in-the-Fields was the most fun......

Remember remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot... We know that today is Halloween and Bonfire Night is not until next week, but the truth is, most of the fireworks displays in London will happen before the big day. We've already told you about the display on Clapham Common and we wouldn't want you to miss out on the rest of......

The London International Comics Festival is halfway over, so if you haven’t seen any of it yet you owe it to yourself to investigate some sweet action with paper, ink and speech bubbles. The festival continues to tackle a nicely wide range of topics, so this week the highlights we’ve chosen offer Halloween horror, an indie invasion and germane geopolitics. If the festival were a comic book itself, it would be coming to the......

Well, we hear you say, haven’t you reviewed this event already? Shouldn’t you get another hobby, say crocheting? Fun as crocheting may be, after one Londonista’s outing to the Red Death Late Nights following her participation in The Mask of the Red Death at BAC, this Londonista decided to try to see if one could attend the Late Night extravaganza without having seen the previous show. Would it be as fun as crocheting*? Well,......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

Just one day to go until the third FREE Londonist guided walk. In a nutshell, it's a tour of the more macabre side of Bloomsbury starting at 7pm tomorrow (Fri 11 Oct) outside Atlantis Books, Museum Street. But more details here. We've also negotiated discount tickets for a remarkable and related event taking place later that evening. Curzon Soho are screening several films about London at night, interspersed with readings from the awesome Night......

The stage was a veritable bed of white roses as Montreal-based Stars trooped on stage this Monday at the Scala. From the first note it's an extremely relaxed, professional sound – Pat McGee hardly misses a beat on the kit, meanwhile Evan Cranley and Chris Seligman are making sublime noises in the guitar and keys departments. They might've left the orchestra at home, and the new material is obviously less-rehearsed, but overall it's impressive......