Tuesday 25 February (6 - 8pm)

@ Anthony Wilkinson, 242 Cambridge Heath Rd., E2 (020.8980.2662) Tube: Bethnal Green

It's strange how the Seventies are still trying to perculate through the artworld, perhaps Beatriz Milhaz is doing the best for us Seventies kids by waving that banner of decorative hedonism. On the other hand, Julie Henry's recent videos, This Sporting Life and Out of Time documents and augments a certain period and generation. The former, a now MTVized version of original seventies technicolor TV footage of a skittles -- a formerly popular pubgame -- finals, is both an anthropological and masterful video re-editing. While Out of Time is a recording -- camera fitted into her hair -- of the Outside Boots Brigade in Cambridge, a club formed by people who stood outside Boots, dancing to their theme tune Out of Time by Chris Barlow. In the multi-faceted, multi-everything world we co-habit now, it is weird how we achieve identity and find belonging. Julie Henry's hilarious but pertinent videos scratch at this particular itch. See this show or we're gonna Sixmilliondollarman yer ass!

NB: Show ends Sun 30/03.

Tuesday 25 February (6:30pm)

@ Architectural Association, 34-36 Bedford Square, WC1 (020.7887.4000 ) Tube: Tottenham Court Rd.

Jan Kaplicky together with his partner Amanda Levete, founded the architecture and design practice Future Systems in 1979. Fusing a concern for environmental issues with technologically imaginative solutions (including research proposals for NASA), Future Systems are responsible for a diverse range of projects such as the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground (which won a Stiling Prize in 1999) and the bridge linking West India Quay and Canary Wharf. Their 1996 classic book, For Inspiration Only is a collection of visual references gathered over the past 30 years, and judging from the title of this speech ("Future Systems: 360 Slides"), Kaplicky is set to overwhelm us once again with a projection of mind-blowing images.

Tuesday 25 February (7:30pm)

@ Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, SE1 (020.7960.4203 or 4242) Tube: Embankment/Rail Waterloo

David Eggers wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Nick Hornby (who's 31 Songs is just about to be released) fictionalised his own maleness and in so doing created a new genre, while Eggers' (also the editor of McSweeney's) debut is almost genre-defining in that it's a memoir in the style of a novel, unfictionalised, but delivered like fiction. So there are parallels that should allow Hornby to draw much from Eggers, and vice versa. Yet it's the differences between the two that should make the evening's talk worth while. Hornby's a well established writer and arch English bloke, and here speaks to Eggers, the latest literary upstart from the States. The subjects are life, laughter and music, so this should/will be a literary pub conversation worth earwigging.

Wednesday 26 February (8pm)

@ Union Chapel, Compton Terrace, N1 (020.7226.1686) Tube: Highbury & Islington

For a glorious night of moody, emotional, and atmospheric music, you could do worse than head for the heady cultural environs of the Union chapel for a downbeat trip into psychosis with Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia (MBICR), and Byrne, in this double-headline performance. Peel favourites MBICR are a female-fronted Arab Strap producing word-saturated post rock, backed by the crashing guitars of Mogwai at their noisiest to display their emotional underworld. Their album, My Elixir, My Poison, is full of dark observations of growing up, twisted relationships, tales of unexplained bruises, anorexia, bad sex, and depression. Lead singer Emily spits her vocals with a biting vitriol, whilst being consumed by a powerful wave of guitar noise. The band have been responsible for some stellar live performances, and supported Pulp in the past. Signed to Rocketgirl, home to Piano Magic amongst others, Byrne's last headline show at The Spitz was completely sold out. And with good cause -- the band produce achingly emotional music. This is a chance to catch the band in an intimate venue, be awestruck by singer Patrick's melancholic vocal, and experience a truly heart-rending set of songs.

Wednesday 26 February (9pm)

@ Jazz Cafe, 5 Parkway, NW1 (020.7916.6060) Tube: Camden Town

Terri Walker is one sexy lady. During her appearance at Black Lilly earlier this year, she sported a plunging-front dress that left little to the imagination and the guys in the audience salivating. Combine looks with a sassy-yet-sweet persona, a superb voice, and an impressive song repertoire, and you can see why record labels on both sides of the Atlantic were cat-fighting to sign her up. Def Jam came out trumps, so her debut album is released on sub-label Def Soul (Untitled out on 03/03). All but three songs on the album have been written by Walker, and she demonstrates talent and maturity belying her youthful years. Her songs on the one hand, recall greats like Nina and Ella; on the other, contemporary neo-soulsters like Badu and Scott. Subject matter ranges from how everyone needs a bit of inspiration every now and again ("Brand New Day"), to how a man's annoying habits can be detrimental to an ongoing relationship ("Drawing Board"). This is progressive Soul music at it's finest, and what's more she's British, so show her some support and witness a soul star in the making.

Thursday 27 February (7pm)

@ Whitechapel, 80-82 Whitechapel High St., E1 (020.7522.7888) Tube: Aldgate East

So much of the avant-garde has become acceptable, from splattered paint to get-naked performances with candles, yet true art film still seems difficult. This is no doubt due to the highly easy-listening, MTVised culturescape we now inhabit. So Pete Gomes' mini film fest should warm yer bums, numb yer eyes and fill yer little Avant-Garde hearts up real good. Pete -- not Nuno -- Gomes works in that twilight 2001: A Space Odyssey space of effects, sound and film, the net result being one of flow, for him a Jungian one at that. Influenced by '60s and '70s cybernetic and expanded cinema, and armed with the latest digital -- combined with analogue -- technologies, Gomes re-works and re-shapes the structure of film-making. As a result, this should re-shape the way we see film and thus, time. Like the work exhibited at the Mies show, Scape, a 40 minute one-shot, real-time, colour desaturated and colourized unveiling of South London's Greenwich skyline and Summer of Lo(ve)ss which presents a Super 8 colour-saturated summer garden, both deal with themes of love and architecture. So prepare to be detourned!

NB: The Mies van der Rohe show ends this Sun 02/03 -- so if you've not seen it make sure you do this week.

Thursday 27 February (7:30pm)

@ South London Gallery , 65 Peckham Rd., SE5 (020.7703.6120) Tube: Oval

There are as many kinds of artists as there are people: shamans, artist's artists, concept artists, mud-men, anthropologists, performers, educators, politicians... Simon Starling is a recycler or perhaps a transubstiater. Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Djungal takes a tree from Trinidad -- felled in New Grant on the 22/03/03 -- bits cut into printing blocks then, improving on the designs of 1920s Swedish designer Joseph Frank's fabric patterns (Starling works directly from the plants rather than the children's books which Frank based his prints on), block-prints a gigantic curtain. On show are the remainder of the tree, the block, improvised printing table and, spanning a substantial part of the gallery, the curtain. Also on view, is a new piece created specifically for the SLG, a functional chain-saw powered bicycle. Is he drawing our eyes to the environmental situation or speaking of recycling? Whatever else this Habitat aesthetic does, the piece also serves as a good metaphor for the creative process, seek and study, recycle and re-think. Somewhere along the way, art occurs.

NB: Simon Starling will be in conversation with Charles Esche at 7.30pm 27/02. Show ends on Sun 16/03.

Giveaway: We have two catalogues from the show and two tickets to the talk to give away. They'll go to two randomly picked subscribers who can tell us what language the word "djungal" comes from.

Thursday 27 February (7.30pm)

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

The Spitz is great, we know that, they have good bands, nice drinks and great food. Also everyone loves The Wire, and they said Super Collider were "A potent... electronic... cathartic experience on the right side of spectacular". So if its at The Spitz and Wire like it, we reckon it's gotta be "on the right side of", worth the money and good fun. With Jamie Lidell on vocals, studio maestro Christian Vogel on the other stuff, prepare yourself for a sprinkling of the unusual stuff, sprung with funkness and unusual noise. These guys don't live here anymore 'cause they've found Barcelona and Berlin to be less influenced by the press and more able to bridge outta the commercial so lets show them that in this Great Land there are still people who enjoy the risky, and a dirty slice of the cutting edge.

NB: Support from Si Begg (who opened up for Amon Tobin last week).

Giveaway: We have two Super Collider CDs to give away. They'll go to two randomly picked subscribers who can tell us the name of their first album.

Friday 28 February (7pm - 3am)

@ Cargo, Kingsland Viaduct, 83 Rivington St., EC2 (020.7739.3440) Tube: Old St./Liverpool St.

Cargo's weekly Friday night adventure, BARRIO with host DJ Stuart Patterson, continues with the finest in Afro, Latin and vocal-infused house, this week accompanied by the legendary musical genius that is Earl Zinger. An air of mystery surrounds the man Zinger with some saying he began working in NYC in the late forties mentoring the likes of Burroughs, Kerouac, Perry, Marley, McLaren & Dylan, while others believe him to be Rob Gallagher, founder member of acid jazz funksters, Galliano and more recently the man behind the Two Banks of Four project -- the choice is yours. With a wry smile and enthusiasm, Zinger explores the lighter side of Dub, Jazz and Hip-Hop, evident on his Red Egyptian releases, his mutated covers of Duran Duran and Kylie, Girls on Coke & Can't Get You Out Of My Bed, and the album Put Your Phazers On Stun Throw Your Health Food Skyward. Confusing, chaotic and highly entertaining, Zinger's live shows twist and meander through a whole host of story-telling, crowd interaction and highly infectious grooves that should make for a fun and energetic evening.

Friday 28 February (8pm - 2am)

@ 93 Feet East, 150 Brick Lane, E1 (020.7247.3293) Tube: Aldgate East/Liverpool Street

Eat your own ears if you like, but only AFTER you have experienced a live set from perennial Deutsche electronica uber-guru Thomas Fehlmann. This is a rare opportunity to catch a performance from someone who has, in the past, provided an answer to the question "Who will weave me a lush groovy aural atmosphere?" (come on -- we've all asked it...). Having worked with The Orb (amongst others), he has the distinct ability to release much of the head-pressure we may experience at urban-level with fresh atmospheres from a higher ambient altitude, generating a laid-back groove with pleasant waves of drums and non-intrusive melodies. This set is, however, reported to provide something significantly more upbeat. Fehlmann is accompanied this evening by another live set from The Modernist (Jorg Burger) which promises to churn out some more crisp and spiky pop-tronics. Meanwhile, back in the Braindance Room some tight and fulsome mixes are sure to be served up by Manitoba and the rest of the line-up (featuring K-Rock and Cougar "Maddog" Wallace, Cylob and Source Records DJs). In all, this suggests a beautiful pulsing, waving evening of tunes from some revered mixmeisters.

Friday 28 February (Daily 10am - 6pm; Tue & Wed until 8pm)

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

We think we are going to join the queue to give the French credit where it's due. They've wined and dined us, given us some of the best Art and Cinema, and continue to set setting fine examples in design. Following in the footsteps of Phillipe Starck (Starck hired her as Head of Design for Thomson Multimedia), Christophe Pillet and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Matali Crasset has marched onto the European scene, armed with a Joan of Arc hairstyle, the sword of irony and a stab of informed social critique that alludes to well known cultural objects. Everything she designs is based upon a concept of what the product is or what it could become. Her work is very French, very feminine, challenging, and plays poetically upon your senses with space, light and scent forming a link between very different disciplines. This is her first exhibition in the UK.

NB: Show ends Sun 23/03.

Friday 28 February (8pm)

@ Cine Lumiere, 17 Queensberry Place, SW7 (020.7073.1350) Tube: South Kensington

There are tales that one never forgets, stories that fascinate us while leaving our minds and hearts in utter and complete disbelief. L'Adversaire is one of them. On the 9th of January 1993, Doctor Jean-Claude Romand killed his wife, his two children, his parents and attempted to put an end to his own life. It turned out that he had never been a Doctor and had never worked for the World Health Organisation, as he had claimed to for the last 18 years. In a tragic stroke of fear, he preferred to kill the people whom he could not bear to disappoint, sparing them from the unbearable truth. Emmanuel Carrere's representation of this true story follows the construction and collapse of this intricate composition of deceit and the unfathomable tale of a man trapped in the weavings of his lies. Carrere is an acclaimed master of psychological suspense and author of screenplays as well as novels such as the award-winning Class Trip. Nicole Garcia, after having brought us the highly acclaimed Place Vendome, turned Carrere's novel into a fascinating and deeply perturbing film which is showing tonight at the Cine Lumiere.

NB: The film will be followed by a Q&A with Emmanuel Carrere.

Giveaway: We have a pair of tickets for this event to give away. It'll go to to one randomly picked subscriber who can tell us which famous french actor plays the lead in this film.

Saturday 1 March (Mon to Sat 10am - 5pm)

@ Hales Gallery, 70 Deptford High Street, SE8 (020.8694.1194) Tube: New Cross

Making paintings seems like the easiest thing in the world.... stretch canvas over wood, prepare a white surface, then apply paint. Oh, the trick is to transform paint into painting! Such a simple formula and yet there are so many different paintings out there, even with the simplest approach, the results do surprise. Sonita Singwi's paintings seem like the results of a scientist and mathematician gone awry... a smooth, white canvas upon which swatchs of paint are applied one at a time. Each swatch determines the colour and location of the next, and that's where the artist's intuition sets in. The net effect is a flurry of colour, like a snow storm, or an exploded DNA matrix... measure and consideration shakes booty with chaos theory. However, where her paintings seem the slacker version of a post-sixties process painting à la Bernard Frieze, her wall installation of coloured tape is an explosion of colour and line. In opposition to the cosyness of her paintings, the installation has a free-wheeling quality, it's a choice dear KultureFlasher, whether you prefer Rock 'n' Roll or Hip-Hop! As in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, each brushstroke a painting doesn't make, but a continued agglomaration of brushwork a flurry of art occurs.

NB: Show ends Sat 08/03.

Sunday 2 March

@ Various cinemas all over London

Oh for a portal into Spike Jonze's life -- heir to the Spiegel fortune, maker of maverick award-winning music promos, husband of Francis Ford Coppola's director-daughter, director himself of an extraordinary debut and Executive Producer of Jackass (ok, so no one's perfect). But what keeps a man, whose first film achieved the extraordinary feet of getting Mr. Malkovich to take the piss out of himself, awake at night... his second film. And that's kind of what Adaptation is about. Though not Jonze's story, it's Charlie Kaufman's, writer of Being John Malkovich. Kaufman has written himself into this film, which shows him grappling with adapting Susan Orlean's book The Orchid Thief. There's a stellar cast with Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Brian Cox, Tilda Swinton and Chris Cooper. Cage, who plays both Kaufman and his (fictional) brother Donald, is good (not a mandolin in sight) as is Streep, but Cooper shines as an eccentric orchid fancier. It's an incredibly inventive film, although Jonze possibly looses it a bit tonally towards the end (it feels sacrilegious writing this). Nevertheless it survives any criticisms of self-indulgence because it's funny and deserves the Oscar Kaufman and his brother (!?) are up for. It was worth that struggle. OK Jonze, on with the difficult third film...

Monday 3 March (6:30 - 8pm)

@ The British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1 (020.7412.7332) Tube: Kings Cross

In a world in which the work of the writer is routinely credited to the director and actors -- who, it can be argued, are just following a set of instructions called a script -- it makes a refreshing change for screenwriters to be given a platform from which to pour scorn on every preening actor, megalomaniac director and swindling producer who's ever crossed -- or double crossed -- their path. Except, they probably won't, they'll probably take the opportunity for the more socially acceptable (and creatively useful) purpose of talking about the art, craft and process of writing for the cinema and sharing the secret of their trade. The fools! The latest in the Orange Word season of conversations with BAFTA and Oscar winning screenwriters features one of those Hollywood rarities, a writer that people have actually heard of, whose credits range from the obscure and downright bizarre (The Rapture, which he also directed) to stone cold classics (The Player) via big, bad mainstream blockbusters (Deep Impact). Next up will be The Hulk which, with his record, and that of director Ang Lee's, could well turn out to be a fantastic combination of all of the above. We hope so.

Monday 3 March (8pm)

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

When you leave art college, you make loads of plans, and if Family Fortunes did a poll on the subject we reckon it would go something like this: No. 4, 3% of surveyors planned to squat in an EC1 warehouse and fund art by having pay-to-party parties yah. No. 3, 11% planned to find an art partner in a Gilbert & George type manner to work with forever and ever. No. 2, 32% said they'd start a cultural mag of some kind like the fabulous KultureFlash (nudge nudge wink wink). And the Biggy, at No, 1, 54% of our surveyors said that they want to be ROCK STARS. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard are doing it all, exploring stardom, nostalgia, the authentic and the non-authentic any way they can while dressing up as their fav punk and indie stars. Their idols The Cramps shot a video in 1978 at Napa Mental Institute, wand with their performance File Under Sacred Music, Iain and Jane are directing a re-enactment of the bootleg this week. After it, a discussion with the pair and various brilliant people from the world of mental health and the arts will give you the chance to pose some seriously great questions. Unpretentious, accessible and truly inspirational.

NB: The panel discussion on the set of the production will include rushes from the day's filming plus speakers including Iain and Jane, Paul Monks artistic director of Core Arts, psychiatrist Estela Welldon MD, music journalist Everett True, chaired by cultural commentator Matthew Collings. The night will be webcast live by the BBC on Shooting Live Artists. Plus special DJs: Trash Money, The Parkinsons and Careless Talk -- in the bar until 1am.

Giveaway: We will have a signed limited-edition photograph to give away. It'll go to one randomly picked subscriber who can tell us the name of The Cramps song which is also the title of a famous early seventies porn film.

Friday 7 March (8pm - 1am)

@ 100 Club, 100 Oxford St., W10 (020.7636.0933) Tube: Tottenham Court Rd/Oxford Circus

Boom Bip returns to London following his Union Chapel gig of late last year which sadly suffered at the hands of a "twatty b*stard" saboteur sound engineer... This time however, you'll find Mr Bip safely ensconsed in the legendary halls of the 100 Club where his sound is certain to be nurtured. Not just Hip-Hip and not entirely Electronica, it is an abstract click-hop soundtrack created using live instruments (from guitars to theremins, toys and drums), effects pedals and boxes, and surprisingly very few samples. If you haven't bought the stylishly packaged and beautifully crafted Seed to Sun album yet, then shame on you and get to the shops now in preparation for this gig which is sure to sell out FAST.

NB: Tickets are available in advance from Rough Trade and Smallfish.

Giveaway: We have two copies of Seed to Sun to give away. They'll go to two randomly picked subscribers who can tell us who else is on the Lex label.

Ends Saturday 15 March (Tue to Sat 10am - 6pm)

@ White Cube, 48 Hoxton Square, N1 (020.7930.5373) Tube: Old St.

Back-comb those mullets, and take a trip up to Hoxton to see two great artists...

Since the late '60s Chuck Close has been making "portraits", that are monumental, un-shirking representations of friends and family using methodological techniques that absorbed the language of Minimal and process artists. Each work develops from an impassive, closely cropped, frontal, head and shoulders photograph of the subject. These are copied systematically with meticulous attention to detail, using various painterly styles and incremental processes, to build up an intense recognisable whole. Moving away from his earlier photo-realist style, these new works (2000-02), a self-portrait and portraits of friends shimmer: each segment is painted with an abstract shape or motif. Attention is drawn away from the usual focal points of portraiture, such as the eyes and mouth, to reveal an obsessive questioning and analysis of the human face. Eerie. (Show ends Sat 15/03.)

Inside the White Cube -- the project space added to the White Cube given over to an international curator for 12 months -- features a series of diminutive yet powerful sculptures by Louise Bourgeois. A former studio assistant to Miro, Bourgeois, now a significant presence both sculptor and printmaker, has continued to produce aloof, autobiographical works well into her nineties. Here she expertly cuts, joins and stuffs everyday household materials into intricate, three-dimensional anatomical forms, and then fits these headless, truncated, or dismembered mannequins with whole or partial kitchen utensils, incorporating feminist and psychological concepts into sculptures of emotional and erotic intensity. The result is a series of menacing, truly disturbing figures, debating femininity, desire, and emotion. Don't have nightmares... (Show ends Sat 01/03.)

Ends Saturday 26 April (Tue to Sat 12 - 6pm)

@ Shine Gallery, 3 Jubilee Place, SW3 (020.7352.3669) Tube: Sloane Square

Snow, like earthquakes, fire and rain, are natural phenomena. It happens -- we always hope around Christmas -- yet like all phenomena, it can be as graceful as it is deadly, just as Art can be abstract and representational. Given that these are just tiny flakes of frozen water, Thomas Flechtner and Bradford Washburn's simultaneous photography shows provide an interesting contrast in capturing just this event: snow, or one should say, the breadth of Snow. Where the 42 year-old Flechtner's large colour works are more artistic, the work of Washburn, the 92 year-old American explorer, geographer, cartographer and mountaineer is represented by a group of small-scale, black and white, mostly aerial geographic photographs of mountains -- shot with a large format aerial camera from the sixties. What both achieve is a different rendition of man's relationship with nature. For Dr. Washburn, snow and mountains are just AWESOME, while Flechtner's cheekier, more interactive one shots, point to it's mass and pliability. Some of the latter's photos capture his performances of patterned-drawing with skis on the snowscape. Yet in both, it is the sheer physical mass and beauty created by nature itself that proves poignant.

NB: Thomas Flechtner's Snow (until 26/04) is on the second floor at the Shine Galler, while Bradford Washburn, From the Edge (until 19/04) is at Michael Hoppen Gallery below.