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Listings
BLOOD: Today's opportunity to donate blood is at Brewers Hall in the City of London. Free, see site for terms and conditions.
MUSIC: Four nights of live, outdoor, free music start tonight at Under The Stars in Central Park, East Ham. The genre changes each night, starting off with jazz and finishing with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. What a treat. Free, just turn up, from 6.30pm each evening until 18 August
FOOD: Rentokil (yes, the pest control organisation) hosts a pop-up restaurant (tantalisingly named Pestaurant) at One New Change, serving up a selection of free, edible insects. BBQ grasshoppers anyone? Free, just turn up, 10.30am
ARCHITECTURE: An exhibition celebrating the work of architect Richard Rogers is taking place at the Royal Academy, and tonight a hands-on family workshop is on offer to inspire any budding London architects. £10 adult/£3 children, prebook, 11am-1pm
FROZEN BEACH: A "frozen Caribbean beach experience" pops up in Potters Field, near Tower Bridge today. Apparently it is to celebrate National Shorts Day and there will be frozen palm trees and cocktails. Free, just turn up, from 11am
LISTEN: Experience Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? album on a high-end audio system at Audio Lounge on Wigmore Street. Free, just turn up, 6-8pm
SCI-FI FILM: The Royal Observatory Greenwich ends its sci-fi film series with a screening of the 1957 technicolour sci-fi bonanza film, This Island Earth. A short talk exploring the film's depiction of advanced alien technology will follow. £7/£5, prebook, 6.45pm
NOVELS: Meg Wolitzer and Tessa Hadley discuss the novels The Interestings and Clever Girl atLutyens & Rubinstein. £8, prebook, 7pm
TIME: Watch circus dance performance artist Iona Kewney and musician Joseph Quimby respond to the Timepiece installation at the Roundhouse. Pay what you like, just turn up, 8pm
Please contact [email protected] with any suggestions, solutions or contributions for the following sections.
Good Cause of the Day
This Sunday, Oxjam Brixton Takeover extends an invite to all for their Rooftop Launch Party at The Lambeth. There will be hot tubs (!), an all-day barbecue, and a fantastic musical line-up including Elly Jackson (AKA La Roux), Maxi Jazz from Faithless, and turntablist Patrick Carpenter. This is a mini-fundraiser in advance of the big Oxjam Music Festival month in October, and all proceeds raised go towards Oxfam. £15/£10 prebook for cheaper tickets, Sunday 18 August 3-10pm
London Connection Puzzle
Today's clue-word is KARL. On Tuesday we gave you TERESA and yesterday it was GIACOMO. Email [email protected] if you think you know the London connection. UPDATE: Several people have now guessed the connection, so no need to write in. Final clue tomorrow.
From Londonist’s Archive
This very month three years ago, we must have got a bit obsessed with London's street names. We bummed ourselves out with London's top 10 most depressing street names, we got cultural and compiled a list of London streets with cultural references...and we took it back down a notch by sniggering at London's rudest street names. Bellenden Road. Ha.
London Weather by Inclement Attlee
As a meteorologist I get all kinds of enquiries from the general public. This strange letter came, some time back, from three anonymous Scottish hags, of witchy persuasion. They wanted to know whether their planned meeting with the Thane of Cawdor (scheduled, they told me, 'ere the set of the sun') would take place in thunder, lightening or — mayhap — in rain.
Turns out that my forecast ("take a brolly") came a little too late for all concerned. A bit of probing revealed that their planned liaison — one, Macbeth, upon the heath — was killed in battle exactly 956 years ago today, and was later immortalised by some rogue called 'Shakespeare'.
What this has to do with the weather, I do not care; yet hover through the fog and filthy air.
[Editor's note: Inclement Attlee has not been of sound mind since his return from holiday. We're currently looking for a new weather person, who can get to the point.]
