The Silent Twins, the opening production of the Almeida Opera Season, is a story that sorely reminds us how cruel and intolerant society is. June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical twins born in 1963 to Barbados emigrants, refuse to communicate with the outside world from age three. Instead, they develop their own secret world of imagination and story telling. The opera's narrative concentrates on the period when the sisters, after being failed by teachers and psychologists, commit petty crime and arson and at age 19 are sentenced to life at a high security mental institution in Haverfordwest. Surprisingly, the medium of opera works brilliantly to illustrate the story of solitude and isolation. Music, composed by Errollyn Wallen, helps the audience to enter the forbidden world of June and Jennifer and to understand their complex love-hate relationship. The libretto, adapted by playwright April de Angelis from Marjorie Wallace's novel, makes the challenging medium of opera more accessible and easy to explore.

NB: The Silent Twins runs till 16/07. This production is one of six new commissions that will be presented during the Almeida Opera Season (runs till 22/07).

Networks are central to cultural and social theories, or so the story goes. With this in mind the Tate has pulled together leading speakers to consider real time interaction within new electronic media. Mark Amerika introduces a cast of fictional characters: his "postproduction artist" is a maverick of alternate distribution networks, while his "remixologist" embraces new technologies and moves away from ideas of art being about objects. Andrea Zapp explores the experience of actual and remote encounter through gallery presence and web detachment. Drawing on surveillance technologies she navigates large-scale installations and their remote screen-based equivalents. Alex Galloway considers counter-protocol; questioning aesthetics, he looks at the possibility of curating an exhibition of computer viruses. As archive, open platform, or something other. Kate Rich talks about Feral Trade, her Bristol-based import-export grocery company that sidesteps conventional methods of distribution. Utilising social rather than commercial routes of exchange it operates through a unique set of hybridised networks. Other speakers are Kate Southworth, Kelli Dipple and Paul Sermon. The symposium includes a panel discussion, and running all day lots should emerge from the colliding networks of such wild trade routes.

Symbolising wealth, abundance and adding to mythologies of time past and present, public fountains are a calming antidote to busy city life. Intended to instil serenity in the passer-by, they also act as meeting points for the disenchanted late at night, as much as the inquisitive tourist. Investigating and pushing the often unspoken boundaries of the contemporary landscape, Klaus Weber suggests a potential of individual action. Acting as a craftsman, he engages with the fabric of culture, gentle manipulating it to present a hyper-reality to the participant. These gentle transgressions create an "imaginary potential"; whether in the form of flowing LSD or the fictional staging of a car crashing into a fire hydrant, the artist contradicts the association between public monuments and social structures. In The Big Giving we are reminded of the less pleasing elements of public life. Influenced by the native North American potlatch ceremony, water gushes continuously from body parts. While referencing the excessive giving and receiving of the ceremony, a comment on earlier histories, the vomiting, urinating, crying characters that make up Weber's sculptures presents the reality of a continuously conspicuous consumptive society, and ask what the real public is.

NB: Klaus Weber will discuss his work with Hayward Director Ralph Rugoff. This event is free but booking is recommended via the box office on 0871.663.2519. Also of note at the Southbank is Jeppe Hein's outdoor fountain Appearing Rooms (till 16/09) and a series of models, maps, home-ware and various sculptures relating to the project Boardroom by Dutch artists' collective Atelier van Lieshout (till 27/08).

Doug Fishbone is the "best man" of the art world. Just as the best man can affably pick out the least appealing, most embarrassing and generally undesirable traits of the members of a wedding party in jest, eliciting sheepish grins in place of the perhaps more deserved beads of sweat and gasps of horror, so can Fishbone lovingly and in good humour "roast" the prevailing attitudes of the West. His dry and quirky monologues accompany a giddy yet glib volley of images and ideologies that are well suited to the state of overstuffed queasiness one experiences after a large meal or a long day. While watching one of Fishbone's trademark performances, you can sit back, relax and ponder the deeper meanings of all things political and philosophical, with only the occasional interruption from an unexpected and explicit flash of hard-core porn or other incongruous synapse, just to keep you on your toes. But his work is not without its sharp edges: his gentle jabs mask sincere and disarming questions about prevailing social mores, and as you realise while you are chuckling to yourself, when he talks about society, he really means you.

Tits Of Death is hardly a record label's dream band name -- as this bolshy five-piece admit -- but if you're going to put it out there, so to speak, you better have some pretty aggressive, razor sharp tunes to back it up. Sounding like Peaches' younger sisters playing Le Tigre covers a la Spinal Tap isn't a bad place to start. Strangely enough they manage this without a real drummer, thanks to amps screwed up to ear-bleeding point and some pulsing synths. The launch of their single "Iron Nipples", promises to be a yelling, fuzzy assault on the senses, particularly those of sensitive young men. Marni, Debra, Kitty, Synthia and Titania have been known to "get them out", but we suspect that was an onslaught borne out of exhibitionism and certainly not "for the lads", so don't even think about it. They say they're going to "rock the shit" out of unsuspecting Hoxtonites, and since they've already managed to convince Primal Scream guru Jagz Kooner, they might be right. It would be hardcore titillation indeed to hear these girls given the production treatment to match their gigantic busts of energy.

Maybe now, post grime, the UK has some standing in the global rap wars, but around the time KRS-One cut "South Bronx" the only people who seemed to take hip-hop seriously here were the kids. But, apparently it's paying off and UK artists are no longer the joke over the pond that they once were. But it has taken nearly a generation. So in the meantime, with all the new talent springing up, what has happened to the statesmen? Well, obviously, when KRS comes to London and plays the Jazz Cafe, you know he's not there simply because he's a long way from home. All in all there's a subtle poignancy about the situation. Although they'd beg to differ, the Jazz Cafe don't really cater for emerging talent; their prime audiences, who can afford the prices, like to know what they're getting. Nevertheless, consummate performers regularly turn the situation around, as many a so called "over the hill" jazz master has done. After all, to be worthy of the accolade you've got to earn it. Let's just hope that KRS is not just here to pick up a welfare cheque.

Theatrics, literature, film, jazz, folk music, fashion, poetry, puppetry... cabaret, comedy, art, acrobatics and... some serious rockin' out on roller skates. The Hackney Spice Festival is really kicking some eclectic ass this summer. Basically, it's a case of "We're cool, we Hackneyites, and we're not afraid to flaunt it." In style, of course. Names to drop include Steven Berkoff, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, Dirty Pretty Things, Al Murray, ... and so the brazenly diverse list goes on. The cherry on the cake, though, is the glorious cheese- fest that is Guilty Pleasures, which is invading the Hackney Empire for Saturday nights of roller disco. The so-naff-it's-cool night has, quite frankly, been garnering too much mainstream support recently, so hopefully the fact the organisers are hosting a night more than a stone's throw away from the West End/Camden will mean that some of the naff-it's- so-not-cool crowd that's been creeping in lately will drunkenly stumble somewhere else. Fingers crossed. Don't miss it. That said, if something less harebrained is your thing, trip down to Spice On The Square, a carnivalesque day of more tame, although no less fun, family fare.

NB: the Spice Festival runs till 22/07 and the Roller Disco runs on both 14/07 and 21/07.

East London promoter types Sick of Nature continue their "Summer of Hate" at the 333 this Saturday with a Transatlantic face-off of extra special proportions. In the American corner is heavyweight Kid 606 from the Tigerbeat label, a man whose twisted musical output more than justifies his god like status in electronic music. This is reason enough to attend, but Sick of Nature have gone that extra bit further and roped in speaker worrying Drop The Lime from New York's Trouble & Bass imprint. DTL has been responsible for some absolutely nasty bass related tracks over the past year and his Curses! Project has just been signed to hot Paris imprint Institubes. Representing these shores are rising DJ tagteam Skull Juice. From the humble beginnings of posting rather impressive mixes on their blog, in the space of a year they've become very much in demand (check their upcoming gigs list on MySpace) and been featured in Time Out. Joining them is Nasty McQuaid from Extra Special and Brighton's own bass enthusiast Genuine Guy. Best invest in some earplugs 'coz this night is all about the noise!

Like a runaway train, Thomas Brinkmann's productions propel the listener into a Rubik's Cube frenzy of minimalist spasms. With his breakthrough variations of Richie Hawtin's Concept 1 series of vinyl releases in 1996, where he used his customised turntable with additional tone arm, his work has continued to explore a sonic groove minimalism, a music lost inside the pulse. Expanding the palette by releasing a monolithic series of dub-techno singles using female names, as well as more exploratory, tonal works under the pseudonym Ester Brinkmann, and a more playful deconstruction of soul music as Soul Center, he continues to release materials that ignite an idea of dance music as dirty, deep and stripped bare. For a very rare visit to the UK, be prepared to sweat.

NB: also part of the line-up at Fabric are Slam and Craig Richards.

Two films in which sartorial style and drinks orders play integral parts. In The Big Lebowski Jeff Bridges plays "The Dude", a layabout who wears clothes that have been used to clean the kitchen floor in a squat. Directed by the mercurial Coen Brothers, the narrative is leavened by cameos from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tara Reid as a spoilt rich girl (basically playing herself). The Dude consumes White Russians throughout, which lubricate his hangdog charm and the most quotable script of recent times. On the flip side Humphrey Bogart infuses the pulp fiction of Raymond Chandler's source novel with some enigmatic silhouettes and dark calm. If there was ever an advert for smoking then it's Marlowe who balances his snoot between his lips like it's been airbrushed in by a painter. It makes being a detective in Chandler's world look like the most enviable profession bar none.

NB: the screening will be introduced by Ben Walters, Time Out's Deputy Film Editor and co-author of the new BFI Film Classics on The Big Lebowski. Also of note this week is the special screening of Tell No One at the Curzon Soho that includes a Q&A with Harlan Coben on 17/07 at 9pm.

Few people will be unfamiliar with the music of Philip Glass, although it is more often his orchestral and film scores we come into contact with. The quartets, written in the mid-'80s and very early '90s, at around the same time as much larger scale works such as his violin concerto, retain an immediacy and sensitivity of intent sometimes lost in the orchestral setting. The quartets have also been called his most deliberately "classical" work, with many of the motifs evoking familiar themes that are continually re-worked and re-contextualised in a patchwork of new colour and harmony. The Smith Quartet should also deliver exceptional performances, having gained an enviable reputation interpreting work by many of Glass' contemporaries. If you were unable to catch one of the many performances of his work that marked his 70th birthday earlier this year, this may well prove a worthy calm after the storm.

NB: this event is part of the Almeida Opera Season (runs till 22/07).

They say that when the last Holocaust survivor dies, history will be up for grabs. That is with no eyewitness, memory, even recorded memory in this age of Photoshop and computer enhancement, can be put to question. Now the EU,with all its ratifications, is bringing along a law that will make "genocide denial" a crime. Is this right? As a liberal society, could we be more tolerant of this sort of "thought crime"? The Holocaust and its denial are very 20th century ideas, and hence very much a part of our modern era. In fact, the very word "genocide", a combination of the Greek "genos" (race) and the Latin "cide" (killing), was coined in 1943. You may wonder for what reason. Hence the arrival of Deborah Lipstadt, author of History On Trial: My Day In Court With A Holocaust Denier, the defendant in Holocaust denier David Irving's libel case, to throw some real experience on the matter.

NB: other speakers include David Cesarani (Eichmann: His Life And Crimes), Frank Furedi (Politics Of Fear: Beyond Left And Right) and Francesca Klug (Values For A Godless Age).

Jonathan Barnbrook must be a hero to graphic artists and designers everywhere. Employing social conscience in your work can be a tightrope many would rather avoid negotiating. The Barnbrook Design studio seemingly exists solely for this kind of challenge. With a great sense of humour, his studio consistently manages to combine a moral message with a clever wit and economy of style that never tires. The work can take on heady subject matters and add something to these debates; the ideas never run dry and always manage to hit their mark. Addressing consumerism, international politics, wars, alongside album covers and t-shirts, Barnbrook's original typography has been ubiquitous across the last 15 odd years. The studio has perhaps remained relevant because they bravely engage with the issues of the day. The Design Museum is hosting an evening featuring Barnbook in conversation with Alice Twemlow to discuss the output of his studio as well as talking about the current publication Friendly Fire that accompanies the Design Museum retrospective exhibition of the same name, which runs till 10/10.

NB: also of note at the Design Museum is the Zaha Hadid retrospective (runs till 25/11).

A worthy experiment by theatre artists Greg McLaren and Neil Bennun (Rotozaza, Signal to Noise), The Robot Show is a spectacularly, hilariously strange performance that references John Gray's Straw Dogs, Raymond Kurzweil, Paul Granjon and W Heath Robinson. The robots, made from cardboard and discarded white goods, have convened a meeting of the last human beings on earth to explain to them a thing or two about consciousness -- and they're not particularly grateful to their creators. In the performance, a final candidate for this year's Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award, the company bring their trademark texts of ambitious quality, imagination and skilful performances to bear on a dark evisceration of geeks and the fruit of their geekery, making a folk history of robots and re-inventing Asimov's famous Laws of Robotics (now including the words "Die puny humans die"). The show also features music by Ollie Bown (Icarus, Not Applicable).

NB: The Robot Show is part of the Spice Festival which runs till 22/07.

The words of the poet transcend time. At least this appears to be the case for Shakespeare's plays which have gone through numerous reincarnations since the good old days of the original Globe Theatre. Baz Luhrman, with his dizzying Romeo And Juliet, can probably be credited as the first director to have given The Bard's words a cool and popular 21st century spin. Although there are well over 50 film adaptations of the tale of madness, Geoffrey Wright, director of the acclaimed Romper Stomper, has made Macbeth his own by setting the action in present day gangland Melbourne. The result is along the lines of a bloody psychological thriller with glimpses of supernatural sex. Wright and screenwriter Victoria Hill -- also Lady Macbeth -- have cut down the text quite a bit but still managed to keep the narrative flowing. Although this might not be the interpretation that will shed new light on Shakespeare's genius, the disquieting goth/rococo aesthetic is suitably lush, the sheer violence and darkness of the narrative hasn't lost its ability to stun and the cast is replete with enough beautiful people to keep one interested for over 100 minutes.

NB Macbeth is released in London on 13/07. Also of note is the special Tell No One screening at the Curzon Soho with a Q&A with Harlan Coben (17/07, 9pm).

The afterlife can be a desperately morbid subject if tiresomely social gasbags have their way with the topic, but this certainly won't be the case when the ebullient Mary Roach and the neurotic, nervy, brilliantly funny Guardian columnist Jon Ronson come together for a chin wag at Miller's Academy. This louche, literary, hotchbotch den (stuffed to the gills with antiques, curios and extraordinary ephemera) will be rather a perfect setting for an exchange of ideas on the possibilities, pleasures, pitfalls and potentials of life after death. If indeed there is any life to speak of. Roach gained critical plaudits all round for her oddly amusing book Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers (2003), so it'll be interesting to see what soulful nuggets she'll proffer when talking about how the other half (of the body) lives.

Two years in the making, Inside The Smiths stylishly re-visits the story of the legendary '80s band's acrimonious split nearly 20 years ago. Drummer Mike Joyce and bassist Andy Rourke speak out for the first time about what life in Manchester's most famous indie outfit was like for them. Joyce, all chubby and cuddly, and Rourke, looking like some middle-aged Gallagher brother, spill the beans on how Morrissey's aloofness gave the band its edge, how an experience with mushrooms led Joyce to see a Saturn V Rocket going underneath his legs while bashing away on the drums and how Rourke's heroin problem led to the band's split after their fourth album, Strangeways, Here We Come. Unsurprisingly, there's no co-operation from The Smiths songwriting duo Morrissey and Marr, as Joyce was locked in a bitter legal wrangle with them at the tail end of the '90s over unpaid royalties. But there's plenty of graveyard shots, fitting for The Smiths and their so-called miserablist brand of music, and wonderful guest appearances from the likes of Mancunian buddies Peter Hook and Mark E Smith. Diehard Smiths fans will gobble it up. Like the documentary says, Can you imagine what the '80s would have been like without The Smiths?

NB: post-screening there will be a Q&A with Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce.

In recent years we have witnessed quite a few stage attempts to deal with modern day Iraq. Sadly, most of them only from a western perspective. Baghdad Wedding, directed by Lisa Goldman, is one of the first that gives voice to the other side. The play, a confident stage debut by London-based Iraqi playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak, gives an interesting outlook on a war-torn country through the eyes of the young generation. Set in London and Baghdad with the plot covering a period between 1998 and 2005, Baghdad Wedding focuses on the friendship between opposites, Marwan and Salim, London educated well-off boys, who find themselves emotionally lost back home in the US occupied Baghdad. As many plays before, it repeats the old truth that a "just war" is a utopian concept. However, it is appealing and seems well-timed. It gives voice to the young western-educated Iraqi middle class, a product of the global world, often more comfortable quoting rock music lyrics than the Koran. The production's heavy subject matter is well balanced with a sense of humour. Although some characters slip into stereotypes, the play is cleverly written and engaging.

NB: Baghdad Wedding runs till 21/07.

Despite Levine's dislike of the term "appropriation", it is hard to come up with a word that better suits her methodology. On show, among others, are the photographic series from 1981 called Untitled (After Walker Evans) and the 1991 bronze sculptural work, Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp). It is hard to miss the references. And even where the art historical citations are not written in bold font on the wall, the formal resonance between, say, Black Newborn and Brancusi or Untitled (Lead Checks/Lead Chevron: 4) and Malevich is glaringly obvious. Themes of repetition, duplication and restatement are further explored in a work from the early '70s, Shoes, a presentation of 72 pairs of children's shoes, polished and tied together. Like a young Duchamp, Levine's early work explores notions of commerciality and mass production in relation to the art object. In a twist Duchamp would have been proud of, Levine re-addresses questions surrounding the authenticity and autonomy of art using that old chestnut. A urinal.

NB: runs till 28/07.

Littered amongst tree trunks and giant rocks Goshka Macuga presents an eclectic collection of objects, from shells and broaches to works by other artists, books and ephemera. For months the artist has been trawling the archive at Tate Britain, gathering together letters, artworks and artefacts pertaining to the artist collective Unit One founded by Paul Nash, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore in the early 1930s, which heralded the development of British Surrealism. The faded type-written letters and scribbled notes from the group's correspondence and meeting minutes seem to provide some sort of logical, historical framework for Macuga's presentation. But peering closer at the objects displayed on shelves, cut directly into tree trunks or high up on the wall, it becomes clear that Macuga's installation is more poetic exploration than mere mimicry of museum practice. With incredible slight of hand, Macuga provides a curious yet edifying environment where a scrap of paper might be given the same reverence as a perfectly carved piece of stone or a naturally hollowed tree trunk discovered in the woods. Visitors are invited to sit next to a deep-sea diver and listen to seminal lectures by leading surrealist figures, or simply dig through the collage of references brought alive from the dusty archive.

NB: runs till 14/10.

KultureFlash is a free, weekly newsletter covering contemporary culture in and around London. Each week we track down some of the more unusual and interesting events taking place in the capital and deliver them straight to your inbox. Featuring art, gigs, films, talks, clubs and more -- we are committed to bringing you an eclectic mix of the most stimulating events in London.

If you want to tell us about an upcoming event please do so by sending an email to: events@kultureflash.net. We receive many emails and thus please realise that sadly we cannot reply to all of them. Every single email receives attention and we will contact you if we need anything further. Please note that KultureFlash is not a listings ezine and we do not receive any payment from venues, artists, managers or promoters.

Please send all press releases, invites, books and CDs to:

KultureFlash Ltd.
52 Cranmer Court
Whitehead's Grove
London SW3 3HW