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FOLK MUSIC: Spitalfields Music Summer Festival will be bringing you a daily dose of folk at lunchtime in Bishops Square. Today's music is from Martynas Levickis & friends. Free, just turn up 12.30-1.45pm
SUFFRAGETTES: Find out how the Suffragettes got their message into people's minds in the Gresham College lunchtime lecture at Museum of London. Free, just turn up, 1pm
BEETHOVEN & BRITTEN: The Brodsky quartet play the BBC Monday Lunchtime Concert at Wigmore Hall. Tickets £12/£10 concession (tix available in the back stalls), book in advance, starts 1pm
RADIO RECORDING: Be at the live recording of a new BBC Radio Four show, Pop Up Ideas, in the Clore Ballroom at the Royal Festival Hall. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm
AFTER HOURS: Jerwood Visual Arts’ exhibition After Hours showcases what graphic designers would create if they were free from clients, briefs and fees. Tonight a selection of the designers give an insight into their ideas and ways or working. Free, prebook, 6.30pm
FILM: The Terracotta Far East Film Festival, celebrating the diversity of Asian cinema, continues. Tonight the festival teams up with Japan Underground for the ultimate Asian music night. Advance tickets £5, £7 on the door, 7pm
JAZZ: City University London hosts an eclectic 18-day festival from today. Performers, composers and students will all be gracing the stage. To mark the launch, City’s Big Band put on a Rat Pack-esque jazz night. Free, prebook, 7pm
BOOKS: William Dalrymple discusses the 1839 British invasion of Afghanistan at Daunt Books Marylebone. £8, prebook, 7pm
OPEN-MIC: Comedians, musicians, magicians, dancers and linguists are all welcome at AllSortz, an open-mic night at RichMix. Go along to enjoy the variety or email in advance to book a 10 minute slot for yourself. Free, just turn up, 7pm
CULT OF THE DEAD: The Neapolitan Cult of the Dead is a practice in which devout Catholics adopt anonymous skulls and pray to shorten that soul's time in purgatory. Tonight's illustrated lecture, part of The Last Tuesday Society Lectures and led by Chiara Ambrosio, will situate the cult within the rich death culture of Naples. £7, prebook, 7pm
Good Cause of the Day
Calling all mad scientists, space nuts, eccentric inventors and lovers of things that go ZOOOOOOOOM SPLISH!! The National Physical Laboratory's annual Water Rocket Challenge takes place on 19 June. The challenge is simple — design, build, test and launch the best water rocket you can. Score points for how long the flight lasts, and an accurate landing. If you can come up with a punning team name and ace uniforms, all the better. The competition takes place in Teddington on 19 June, with schools competing in the afternoon session, and anyone else in the evening. Registration is £25 a team, spectators watch for £2 entry, and all the money's going to The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice in Hampton.
Be warned, the standard is high. Have a look at last year's amazing entries in this video:
Random Little Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Londonist
There used to be Londonist t-shirts. We produced a batch of 200 and gave them to our team, our London mates and some lucky readers. We always meant to get them reprinted, but we didn't. So that means if you've got one, then it's a limited edition and may well fetch a a number of pounds on eBay at some point in the future when an editor realises she's lost hers and flaps around looking for a replacement. We also have/had badges — logo ones (pre- and post-Shard), and ones where the buildings are replaced by drinking vessels for dishing out at our pub crawls. These will probably never be worth anything, but they're cute.
Have you got a piece of Londonist merchandise? Let us know in the comments to this article.
London Weather, by Inclement Atlee
The changing hue of Gandalf's bristles is a well-known and reliable indicator of London's cloud cover. They use it at the Met Office, and everything. So what does the wizarding weather beard have in store for us today?
This morning's grey blanket of clouds will transform, at the turn of the tide, into a fluffy white covering. Somewhere a balrog lays vanquished. By evening, the clouds will diminish to such an extent that you'll be able to see Sir Ian Mckellen's chin poking though, or else the sunshine. In summary: you should never have left the Shire.
