A fairly quiet time for Londonist music, but this week saw us introduce you to The Wave Pictures on Thursday, catch indie up-and-comers Parka at the Borderline on Tuesday, and suggest you catch "J-Dilla changed my life" at Cargo this evening. Throughout the week, NME favourites play their three week series of Awards shows, and this week sees Babyshambles play Brixton Academy on Monday night, Richard Hawley and Mercury nominated Maps play the Astoria on......

The fourth in our series of spooky, kooky guided walks is almost upon us. Wander Lonely Streets Part IV takes place on Friday, from 7.30, beginning at the north end of Green Park's Queens Walk (pedestrian route on the East side of the park). This is between the Tube exits and the Ritz. Do drop us a line if you'd like to come along (londonist - at - gmail - dotcom). It's free, and......

The Chinese New Year Celebrations in Soho are undoubtedly one of the highspots of London’s cultural calendar, and this year there’s a load of extra stuff (some would say hype) going on ‘cos of the Beijing/London Olympic connection. Last year’s ceremonies were the biggest outside China, and this year’s look set to be even more impressive. So here’s a special Londonist round up of where to see and what to do…. 6th February: kick......

Announcing the fourth Londonist guided walk. When: Friday 8 February. What: Piccadilly warriors, sapphic Royalty, bonkers fashion, nazi dogs, naval heroes and lovesick gardeners are amongst the cast on this dysfunctional relationship stroll through St James. Who: Chris Roberts, your genial guide from our previous walks is back. Chris is a veteran tour guide, author of Cross-River Traffic, resurrector of the Penny Dreadful with his One Eye Grey, and all-round top bloke. Where: Meet......

Just in time for Halloween, global dark art peddlers, Strychnin Gallery, opened its East London doors Friday night with the “Kings and Queens and Childhood Dreams” exhibition. The show, which still runs for at least a few more weeks, features the works of dozens of artists from throughout the world. Much of the exhibition’s subject matter has a creepy and somewhat sinister edge. By “childhood dreams,” we assume they mean nightmares, creatures under the......

If you happened to stroll into Room 420 of the Trafalgar Hotel during the recent Bridge Art Fair, then your eyes were treated to some excellent art exhibited by the ‘low brow to high brow’ cool kids from Strychnin Gallery. With locations in New York and Berlin, it was probably only a matter of time before Strychnin set up more a permanent camp here. Luckily for us, that time is now. Strychnin is opening......

In the early hours of this morning a burst water main on Maida Vale caused chaos as roads, homes and businesses were flooded with rushing brown floods. 40 firefighters were called to the scene to evacuate people, divert and pump out the water. Evacuees were taken to the safety of a local pub. Whether the landlord flouted licensing laws to warm everyone up with a snifter has not been reported. Thames Water engineers stopped......

If you've spent any amount of time at all in East London, then you’re no doubt familiar with graffiti artist Tek33’s chunky, spray painted pitchforks. Asked what motivates the artist to “throw-up”, he explains that he does it for the buzz, that he has a passion for spray painting walls and not to getting caught, and that he has a deep love of graffiti art circa 1980's New York. Recently, Londonist corresponded with the......

Londonist was deeply shocked and saddened at the weekend when we learned of the death of promising Queens Park Rangers striker Ray Jones. Tomorrow would have been his nineteenth birthday, but just after midnight on Saturday morning a car he was travelling in collided with a double decker bus in East Ham and Jones, along with two of the four other occupants of the vehicle, Idris Olasupo and Jess Basilva, died from their injuries.......

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

QPR 1 Leyton Orient 2 Loftus Road Tuesday 14th August, 2007 It seems every time Londonist attends Loftus Road, the visitors score two. On Tuesday night John Gregory, manager of Championship side Queens Park Rangers, was left to rue the injuries, loan arrangements and appendix operations that left him with only one pair of fit strikers as his lacklustre charges struggled to chase a League Cup tie that visitors Leyton Orient, from the division......

Huge hangover? Spent all of your money? Yep, us too. So we can't go and watch Barbara Streisand (though we don't think we'll ever be that rich) and we can't go and see Elling. But, here's a few things you can do this week to make things a little easier on your pocket. Monday: Been a while since you've seen a good film? Then the Canary Wharf Summer Series at Canada Square park should......

This year’s Wireless festival kicks off in style on Thursday for their third year in the centre of the capital at Hyde Park. Four days of quality music from big bands you know and love, and plenty of bands you won’t know but can grow to love. This year they’ve got one of their best line-ups ever, with such names as Faithless, White Stripes and Daft Punk all gracing their stage, and plenty of bands......

I've discussed my disinclination to leave my house to see live music in this column before, along with the irony that I expect others to do the exact same thing to see me play. What can I say, I'm a fickle artist! It's not that I don't love and appreciate human beings making music right in front of me, but that there are so many factors that can get in the way of my......

As bands start to warm up for the festival season, London gets a series of one-off special "warm up" gigs before the bands start to disappear off around the country to various muddy fields. The first of these warm up shows come early next week, when The Fratellis play Scala on Monday and White Stripes play Rivoli Ballroom on Tuesday. The Fratellis show is a rescheduled date from last month when they were meant to......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......

What's the skinny? Wolf & Cub are Joel Byrne, Adam Edwards, Thomas Mayhew and Joel Carey, four guys from Adelaide who make a big stompy rock noise. What have they done? Their website says: Wolf & Cub have shared stages with TV On The Radio, The Killers, The Music, Wolfmother, Queens of the Stone Age, Hot Hot Heat, Futureheads, and Death From Above 1979… played blistering sets nationwide on this years Big Day Out…......

It might not be a vintage season in the league, where many of the capital's football clubs are looking nervously over their shoulders at relegation, but London seems determined to have at least one finalist in the first FA Cup showpiece at the new Wembley as yesterday's draw offered the possibility that as many as 44% of the fourth round matches (seven out of sixteen) could be played on our collective doorstep on the......

Bend it like Bikram... How does 90 minutes of yoga in a room heated to 40 degrees sound? If you haven’t already shuddered in horror then welcome to Bikram Yoga, an extreme form of yoga that leaves practioners elated (if not a little dehydrated). We at Londonist decided to check out this invigorating craze and so armed with towels and water bottles we set our yoga mats down at Old Streets’ Bikram Yoga Centre......

When he was running through what he would say in the run up to his side's match with Queens Park Rangers last Saturday, we're guessing Coventry City manager Micky Adams, once in charge at nearby Fulham, hadn't reckoned on the above request. Fans often have transport problems in the last few miles before reaching a big game, but, when one of the sides playing is marooned, bold actions are called for. Coventry's team bus......

So here's one way to settle the old 'which is better: London or New York' argument once and for all - over a chess match. (Using traditional pieces would give New York an unfair advantage - we have just have one queen, while they have Queens. It's a fair toss up who has the most pawn.) Keep sending in your photoshopped imagery of London - there's a prize at the end of the year......

Now you see it, now you don’t. The surprise announcement a week ago that Leyton Orient’s Matchroom Stadium would host an international for the first time ever proved to be a touch premature as the Congolese Football Federation yesterday announced that their proposed game with Albania had been called off. Leyton Orient’s own website said: The game's promoters were unable to agree terms with the relevant authorities, leaving them with no option but to......

As we predicted last week, amidst the South African media’s prophecies of doom, the Mandela Challenge Match against Egypt will indeed go ahead next Wednesday, 15th November at Brentford’s Griffin Park with a 7:45pm kick off. Brentford now formally acknowledge the fixture and organisers Star Meridian say one thousand tickets have already been sold in the twelve thousand capacity stadium. However, the showpiece occasion ran into unexpected competition on Tuesday when it was announced......

Hang on a minute. Wasn’t Gary Waddock unveiled as Queens Park Rangers permanent manager a mere three months ago? After a four month trial period? So is it some kind of record that he’s already making way for former team-mate John Gregory? More chillingly, is Londonist starting a trend? Forty-five days back we were sat in an optimistic press conference where Waddock was looking forward to the season ahead. On Wednesday his opposite number......

The man who cut his wrists in Malcolm Rifkind's Chelsea office before trying to daub slogans on the walls with his own blood, has been found guilty of criminal damage. For the two or three people who haven't heard this incredibly bit of important news yet: Lindsay Lohan had her handbag half inched at Heathrow airport. It contained a ton of diamonds and some asthma medication. Pete Doherty has put in a request to......

All the best stuff from our sister sites around the globe: Breaking the law, breaking the law We -ist folks love us some crime, and no misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week, join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged. Gothamist gets us started with "Law & Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking pictures on the MTA. So,......

Queens Park Rangers 2 Leeds United 2 It will have dawned on Gary Waddock by now that, despite the elation he felt on Tuesday night, he is still yet to record a win as manager of Queens Park Rangers. However, for now, he is justified in basking in the sunshine generated by a double comeback against Leeds United that bodes well for the rest of the season. The early minutes were one way traffic......

The Premiership hasn't even started but already there's a lot to say about this season's football in the capital. Tonight sees most of our professional clubs in competitive action as the six Football League sides are joined by Arsenal playing their Champions League qualifier away to Dinamo Zagreb (live on ITV, 8pm) minus the 'keeper (suspended) and half the defence from their appearance in the final three months ago as everybody continues to work......

It looks like it’s a season of extremes ahead for the capital’s Football League clubs if the predictions at www.statto.com are to be believed. The site showcases an index based on 25 years of league results and claims a 92% correlation between its forecasts and the results of actual matches. On the eve of the big kick-off the index is predicting that Crystal Palace, Millwall and Brentford will be pushing for promotion while Queens......