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GIVE BLOOD: Today's donor centre is at St Olave Parish Hall, Fenchurch Street. Free, just turn up, 9.30-11am and 12.15-4.15pm
NORTH KOREA: Goggle at rare photos of North Korea's Arirang Games, taken by Jeremy Hunter and on display at Atlas Gallery from today until 16 February. Free, just turn up, 10am-6pm
INDOOR CLOUDS: See the remarkable photos of artificial clouds by Berndnaut Smilde at Ronchini Gallery, from today until 16 February. Free, just turn up, 10am-6pm
ART TO BUY: The annual London Art Fair opens to the general public today and runs through till Sunday. 130 galleries and around 1,000 artists are represented. £16, prebook or turn up, 11am-9pm
ZEBRAS: Ever wondered how they got their stripes? UCL’s Andrea Sella gives a Gresham lecture at Barnard’s Hall, Holborn on with some kind of genetic-chemical explanation. Free, just turn up, 1pm
DEATH: A fourth-generation funeral director gives a talk about the various requests from the diverse population of the East End, at Wellcome Collection. Free, prebook, 3pm
TV: Totally Serialized celebrates the best TV serials at Ciné Lumière at Institut Francais in South Kensington (pictured). Tonight, join a panel discussion on TV writing, tickets £5/£3 concs. Starts 6pm.
BOOKS: Andrew Kaufman, author of All My Friends Are Superheroes, talks at Waterstones Piccadilly. £5, prebook or turn up, 6.30pm
GIG: First, an admission. We have absolutely zero idea what we're recommending here, other than it's described as a 'genre-fuck' and takes place at Power Lunches Arts Cafe on Kingsland Road. It could be shite...we just like the band names: Petrol Bastard, Mortalitech and Brutes, with DJ Zara Skumshot. No idea what to expect, but we reckon it won't involve pan pipes. Free, just turn up, 7.30pm
COMEDY: New sketch group Tasty Combo are doing their debut show at the Horse in Lambeth. £5, prebook or turn up, 8pm
Plaque Of The Day
With the demise of music purveyors HMV, it seems only apt to feature this plaque, commemorating the store's original site at 363 Oxford Street from 1921. As the plaque records, the store was opened by Sir Edward Elgar, and played an important role in the early recording career of the Beatles. This is how it looked in the 1960s. Today, it is a Foot Locker, which sells shoes and partly explodes. Image courtesy of London Remembers.
Charity Shout-Out Of The Day
A new section in which we highlight a different charity, good cause or appeal you might be interested in. Send ideas to [email protected]
Today, we'd like to mention Localgiving.com...not a charity itself, but a great portal for finding local charities and community groups. Popping in our postcode (E1) brings up nine charities within a mile of Londonist Towers, including Otesha Project (creating green jobs for young East Londoners), the Spitalfields Crypt Trust (rebuilding local lives), and Hackney City Farm. LocalGiving helps you find such local projects, provides information, and has a simple donation interface should you feel like lending a financial hand. Have a play and find out how you can help those in your local area.
London Weather
Stepping out into the cold this morning will feel much like walking into your fridge-freezer — minus the painful imprint of a wire shelf on your forehead. Temperatures will go as low as —1 or, for those who prefer their atmospheric conditions expressed in imaginary numbers, i squared.
