Tuesday 12 November (6.15pm)

@ Prince Charles, Leicester Place, WC2 (0901 2727 007) Tube: Piccadilly/Leicester Square

Shakespeare is a common occurrence in cinema, usually in the form of a teen comedy or drama adaptation, as in 10 Things I Hate About You and the recent O, or in the often long and drawn-out Kenneth Brannagh playing God of Shakespeare productions. It is therefore refreshing to see a modern day Shakespearian adaptation coming from Don Boyd -- critically acclaimed producer of Scrubbers and director of Lucia. My Kingdom is inspired by King Lear and Liverpool provides the setting for this genuine little British crime drama. Featuring Richard Harris -- in one of his final performances -- alongside Lynn Redgrave, My Kingdom is The King Is Alive meets Guy Ritchie.

NB: A Q&A with director Don Boyd will follow the screening.

Tuesday 12 November (7:30pm)

@ Barfly Monarh, 49 Chalk Farm Rd., NW1 (020.7691.4244) Tube: Chalk Farm

My Computer are in town and bouyed up by the drooling of critics, they should be out to impress. Their new album Vulnerabilia is at its best when subtly blending acoustic rock guitars with basey-beaty-freaky samples and house beats in the context of "proper" songs with words in. It's a bit like drifting in and out of concsciousness in your car parked outside a rave but with early Pink Floyd on the stereo. This innovative record only disappoints when the lads get busy with the dreaded vocoder, leaving their impressive bittersweet songscapes sounding like Cher. Hopefully they'll leave the vocoder at home tonight, either way they're one of the most interesting bands of the moment and well worth a try.

Giveaway: We have 2 copies of Vulnerabilia to give away. They'll go to 2 randomly picked subscribers who can tell us which famous artist is also on the 13 AMP label.

Tuesday 12 November

@ Somerset House, Strand, WC2 (020.7845.4600) Tube: Temple

Orlando Figes (pronounced Fy-jeees) made his name with A People's Tragedy, a brilliant account of the Russian revolution. Tonight he talks to The Hermitage Club, the young friends of the exquisite Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House, about his new book Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History Of Russia and what it means to be Russian. His book gets its title from a scene in Tolstoy's War and Peace, in which the young, aristocratic heroine, Natasha Rostov, enters a rural hut and almost instinctively breaks into a peasant dance, proving that at the heart of every Russian there is a peasant instinct. If the book and its excellent reviews are anything to go by, the talk should be a fascinating and inspiring look at a country that has never quite figured out whether it is more Oriental or European.

NB: Tickets can be purchased on 020.7845.4635.

Wednesday 13 November (6:45pm)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly

Jean-Luc Godard has a rare aesthetic talent seldom matched -- and certainly never surpassed -- by any other filmmaker. In his most recent project, Eloge de L'Amour (2001), Godard reflects, with his viewer, on history, culture, society and life -- in what has been deemed his most autobiographical work to date. It's highly critical of our modern society, and as always, of the Americans. As experimental and unconventional as ever, Eloge de L'Amour, can of course also be classified as the most pseudo-intellectual glorified film of recent time due to the constant name-dropping and pseudo-philosophical comments, but nobody can deny Godard's visual mastery.

Thursday 14 November (7:30pm)

@ Heaven, Under the Arches, Villiers St., WC2 (020.7930.2020) Tube: Charing Cross

Sparse robotic analog electrocult that is Ladytron (who "rock like the '90s never happened") performs alongside Gold Chains. The latter, who's appearance could be more described as that of a mild-mannered, bespectacled accountant from the Financial District, is actually a San Francisco rapper, who thrusts his Run-DMC-a-like poetry atop stampeding rhythm tracks. Also in attendance is the ever popular Andrew Weatherall . Tonight's evening delivers quality acts from points separated by orders of magnitude in the spectrum of alternative listening.

NB: Tickets can be purchased on 020.7287.0932.

Thursday 14 November (See Website for details)

@ Electric/Gate/Ritzy

A global touring film festival, RESFEST will be in London this week. This little known digital film festival started by the RES Media Group -- a company at the forefront of digital filmmaking -- RESFEST has something for everyone: an extensive international selection of shorts (including one by Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze) divided into six different programmes, two feature films, a special on Chris Cunningham, and two extensive music video programmes separated into electronica and rock. For more information, visit the RESFEST site.

NB: The festival starts on Thursday 14/11 and ends on Tuesday 19/11. Films will be screened at three locations -- the Electric, Gate, and Ritzy cinemas

Giveaway: We have one pair of tickets to the Cinema Electronica at the Ritzy on Monday at 10pm. It'll go to one randomly picked subscriber who can tell us in which London blockbuster show did Chris Cunningham exhibit in (hint: Sensation).

Friday 15 November (7:30pm)

@ Wiltons Music Hall, Graces Alley, E1 (0870.842.2200) Tube: Tower Hill

Here is something for even the most jaded Londoner or London visitor. Wilton's Music Hall, the world's oldest surviving music hall, and certainly one of London's most atmospheric buildings, is a 19th Century gem hidden in an alley in Tower Hamlets. Laurence Olivier, Liza Minelli and John Betjeman were just three of the many people who have campaigned to keep the hall alive over the years, and if you go, you will immediately see why. If you were foolish enough to miss The Mysteries there, before it transferred to the West End, then here is your chance to witness the music hall coming alive to over 40 catchy tunes in this South African version of John Gay's 18th century satire, Beggar's Opera -- known in this case as Ibali Lootsotsi. As with the highly-acclaimed Mysteries (which are still on, on alternate nights), the voices are pure, raw and have to be seen to be heard, and you will be thrilled by this tale of beggars, prostitutes and thieves. If you know the song Mack the Knife, you already know one tune.

NB: Run ends Friday 13/12.

Friday 15 November (7:30pm -- run ends Sat 23/11)

@ Lyric Hammersmith, King St., W6 (020 8741 2311) Tube: Hammersmith

Peepshow, the latest offering from physical theatre company Frantic Assembly comes to London for a short run. The company, best known for their innovative brand of highly physical expression with anthemic soundtracks have teamed up with Lamb for this piece. By the admission of Frantic's artistic directors, Scott Graham and Steven Hogget, Lamb has been the rehearsal room inspiration for the company since their early days. Frantic's style certainly shares a largesse found in Lamb's back catalogue and exemplified in their new album What Sound. Peepshow describes the lives of the inhabitants of four tower block flats, ingeniously presented on stage, doll's house style. The performers craft themes of embittered and unrequited love, boredom and loneliness with increasingly stylised choreographies. Comedic predicaments give way to the frustration of routine, which is crushingly reinforced by their very obvious containment within the set. But this is a collective with a strong urge to explore the corners of their world, namely through the borrowing of corkscrews and boyfriends. The result is moving at times and awkward at others. The whiff of MTV music video is blatant but loving, and makes for very compelling theatre. (Run ends Saturday 23/11.)

Giveaway: We have one Peepshow goodie bag (2 tickets to Saturday's 16/11 show, a T-shirt, a copy of Lamb's What Sound...) and runner up prize (copy of What Sound). They'll go to 2 randomly picked subscribers who can tell us where Lamb hail from.

Saturday 16 November (7pm)

@ The Spitz, Old Spitalfields Market, 109 Commercial St., E1 (020.7392.9032) Tube: Aldgate East/Liverpool St.

The eclectic and tributary clubsters at Strange Fruit present a celtic influence on alternative indie music this Saturday as part of their festival at The Spitz. Headlining are Scottish "indie-pop perennials" The BMX Bandits (from the Bellshill stable that bred Teenage Fanclub and Eugenius, amongst others). This is a rare chance to hear the guys playing all the Bandits' endearing and funny songs again, Duglas can now usually be found working for BBC Scotland, Norman is in Teenage Fanclub, as is Francis (but he also runs the lovely Shoeshine label), while Sushil has been found playing in the Soup Dragons, latterly in Future Pilot AKA and also works as a driving instructor! They are supported tonight by the wistful Welsh Cardiganesque lamentation of Melys (who won the coveted topspot in John Peel's 2001 Festive Fifty), and the "smart and sweet" rock of Dublin's Dudley Corporation.

NB: The Strange Fruit festival runs from Wed 13/11 through to Sat 16/11 -- For the full line-up go the website.

Saturday 16 November (Sat 16/11, Sun 17/11, Sat 24/11 & Sat 30/11 at 3pm )

@ Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 (020.7887.8008) Tube: Southwark/Blackfriars

Since it's invention film has intrigued the artist, for it's immateriality, for capturing light, for replicating reality, for it's time-based qualities, and of course, it's sheer novelty. Now with highly-mediated artists like Douglas Gordon and Matthew Barney you can also add narrative, glamour and deconstruction (glamourous philosophy) to the mix. However, between '66 and '76, a group of mainly New York-based so-called "Minimal" artists, took method and systems -- in other words a more empirical approach to art-making -- to film. It added dimension to their heavy metal, performative, thought-full agendas. Flashing Into The Shadows, originating from the Whitney Museum of Art, is a series of films by these artists. Note that Richard Serra, Mel Bocher, Vito Acconci , Bruce Nauman et al made these works just as Hollywood was hitting it's own kind of "avant-gardey" stride, but if you really want to check out the avant-garde and film, then best to make this pit-stop at the Tate.

Programme: Flashing In The Shadows will be screened over 4 thematic nights: Topologies (Sat 16/11), Serialities (17/11), Film As Performance (Sun 24/11) and Counter-Narratives (30/11). See the Tate website for the full programme.

NB: Topologies will be introduced by co-curators Chrissie Iles (curator, film and video, Whitney Museum of American Art) and Eric de Bruyn (indepent scholar).

Sunday 17 November (3.30pm)

@ Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd., SW7 (020.7942.2000) Tube: South Kensington

The RIBA and the V&A are promoting architectural appreciation to the widest possible audience with the Architecture for All project, and who could better contribute than Shigeru Ban? During his 15 years of practice he has managed to become both a minimalist favourite of wallpaper* readers and the saviour of displaced refugees. He wants beauty to be attainable by the masses, inlcuding for the poor of the underdeveloped world. He constructs everything from pavilions and museums, to emergency shelters for earthquake victims from pioneering cardboard and paper tube structures. With environmental and social issues high on the political agenda the timing is impeccable for "Works and Humanitarian Activities" where Ban will be discussing his system as material for relief projects. Since the disasters in Kobe, India, and Turkey he has been providing a dignified place for refugees to begin rebuilding their lives.

Monday 18 November (7pm)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly

Little known film events take place quietly in London during the cinema happening of the year: the Regus London Film Festival. One of these events is Film Salon 20, where the work of new, up-and-coming British talent in the film industry are picked apart for the benefit of every other young filmmaker yet to be considered talented. Tonight's discussion will be hosted by Jonathan Walker and will include the directors Asif Kapadia (The Warrior), Metin Huseyin (Anita And Me) and Billie Eltrigham (This Is Not A Love Song). Also taking part in the debate is the writer and filmmaker Jonathan Romney. The discussion will centre on the road to making a first feature film through advertisement and shorts, as well as on funding and distribution.

NB: A networking session will take place in the bar from 8:30pm to 11pm following the discussion.

Ends Saturday 5 January (Daily 10am - 6pm, Tue & Wed until 8pm)

@ Hayward Gallery, South Bank, SE1 (020.7960.5226) Tube: Waterloo

Douglas Gordon is famous for 24 Hour Psycho -- Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) slowed down to 24 hours -- but the inevitable tension of this film as it unspools, the first thing you see is nothing compared to the torments that lie ahead: hand fighting hand, scarfaced self-portraits, and pentagram-shaped black rooms. Don't let the form of the material deceive you, psyche -- his own and perhaps yours -- is under-question here. Between Darkness and Light (after William Blake) is a screen with The Song of Bernadette (Henry King, 1943) and The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) both projected over each other... two films in one. It's the Virgin Mary in the ring against the Devil and their back to back or face to face. Who will win? well... the Devil is in colour. It's either compelling -- especially if you consider that Red Dragon, the latest Hannibal Lector epic, has a villain thinking that Blake is speaking to him -- or an easy way to see two films. On the top floor, a dark room plays 30 songs from 1966 that may have been playing while Gordon was in the womb... Think what you may, but there're some nice tunes to end your journey. (what have i done. runs until Jan 05/03.)

NB: Monster-drawer Margarita Gluzberg will speak with Tom McCarthy on monsters and doubles on Wednesday 13/11 at 6:30pm. Also check out the what have i done mini-site created by Airside.

Tuesday 19 November (7.15pm)

@ Design Museum, Butlers Wharf, Shad Thames, SE1 (020.7940.8790) Tube: Tower Hill

When the word "designer" prefixed any consumer product worth its label, Ron Arad was one of the first to make sure that it wasn't just fashion designers who could claim celebrity from their signatures. These days pretty much everyone will be familiar with at least one of his designs, whether it's a chair by Vitra or Capellinni, an Alessi accessory, a particular style of black hat or even the Belgo restaurant interiors. Arad brings a refreshing level of creativity to the mainstream -- which every designer will know is a hard thing to do. Maybe at this talk he'll divulge just how he does it.

NB: Talk takes place Tuesday 19/11 at 7:15pm.

Thursday 21 November (7pm)

@ ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020.7930.3647) Tube: Charing Cross/Piccadilly

According to John Maeda, artist, computer scientist and associate director of the MIT Media Lab, you're reading this through an artistic medium: your computer. Maeda's understanding of the fusion of artistic endeavour with the binary logic of the computer machine represents a fascinating challenge to the traditional division between the arts and science. Maeda inhabits the blurred space between science and art. This is an ever expanding space, which is also home to digital design, interactive advertising and the computer game. You can always count on the ICA to host challenging events that champion the cause of new art forms and this year's digital festival, whatdoyouwanttodowithit? has been no exception. If you've ever resented the backward division of arts and science in British culture, if you've ever looked at a web page and seen beauty, or if you've ever held a mouse and just wondered, then go to the ICA and listen to Johan Maeda ask the question "to digital or not to digital?".

Thursday 21 November (7pm)

@ Dingwalls, Middle Yard, Camden Lock, NW1 (020.7267.1577) Tube: Camden Town

Once known for starting Teenage Riots, J, like contemporaries Paul Westerberg and Evan Dando, now feels more at home chilling with a homespun, camp-fire burning, anti-folk style acoustic vibe than a rocky one. This tour finds J alone with his nylon six string belting out tunes from his new album (with his band the The Fog) Free So Free. With a back catalogue so strong, these songs stand up whether they're surrounded by a wall of feedback or stripped down to their bare essentials. Just don't request any Sebadoh songs and everyone will be happy.

NB: Tickets can be bought on 0871.2200.260.

Ends Saturday 23 November (Tue to Fri 10am - 6pm; Sat 11am - 5pm)

@ Stephen Friedman, 25-28 Old Burlington St., W1 (020.7494.1434) Tube: Picadilly Circus

Sven Goran-Eriksson, together with Abba, Saab and Erikson mobiles are probably Sweden's most famous exports -- oh and blondes... but there's more that lurks in this country. Like the beautiful but harsh Swedish landscape, Mama Andersson's paintings torment. They are difficult, perhaps even inscrutible... well most certainly, weird and difficult. These are paintings of woodlands, artful interiors, wildlife, still-life, grown-ups; however what's tormenting here is not only the troubled paint-handling, but the dreamy-Hitchcockian tension that seems to envelope them. Perhaps it's just northern painting, but down here it's a show appropriate for approaching Xmas in it's cool paint-thinking and cold, cold themes. It's really that Manet-like sense of time that turns the knife. This show doesn't have the spectacle of Douglas Gordon but the dark shadows that brew here will still chill you to the bone.