Tuesday 3 February (8pm)

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

Kathy Temin's art can be found in the strangest of media. In the past she's used fuzzy felt and even middle-class flat-pack emporium Habitat as a vehicle for her ideas about memory, adolescence and suburbia. In the latest project, nice-bummed camp princess Kylie is the vehicle, but with more than a nod to the anything goes ethic of Fuxus, Temin is inviting the public to bring their Kylie obsessions into the open by performing one of the mini songstresses' hits for the enjoyment of the ICA crowd. What this amounts to is kind of performance art version of Stars in their Eyes, where the performers are judged by deputy editor of Art Monthly Andrew Wilson, artist Jessica Voorsanger and a "surprise guest". It's an idea as pert as Kylie's legendary rump, but whether the evening is a sly comment on our vacuous celebrity-obsessed times, or just another symptom of it will depend entirely on whether Temin can forge art from the chaos of the moment.

Wednesday 4 February (6:20pm)

@ National Film Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020.7928.3232) Tube: Embankment/Waterloo

Dan Graham, recognised the world over for his interdisciplinary theories of contemporary culture, continues to bridge the existing chasms between the various means of artistic expression in all forms of his work -- and here's your chance to hear him talk about it. Although well known for his exploits in the world of visual art -- some of which has recently been unveiled as a permanent installation at the Hayward Gallery -- Graham has also achieved a wide-reaching influence within the realm of music and youth culture. This talk is an excellent opportunity to gain insight into the multiple applications and germinal nature of Graham's work in the context of his film, Rock My Religion, a seminal piece of cultural criticism that identifies latent issues of contemporary social behaviour with music and its offshoots.

NB: Additionally, for those extra-zealous punters, there is a special ticket available (for a nominally increased fee, of course) to the talk, the film, and the mysterious Artists' Film on Music Culture (Wed 11/02).

Thursday 5 February (Daily 10am - 6pm, Fri & Sat until 10pm)

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

Call it "ABC Art", "Primary Structures", or even the more common Minimalism, Donald Judd's (1928-1994) re-imagining of the entire sculptural enterprise, both from a practitioner's and critic's point of view, created -- for some -- the first great and true American art. His use of colour, simple structures (that is, objects without parts; e.g. arms and legs), mathematical repetition, and a scrupulous attention to the physicality of his industrial materials, resulted in objects that sat both in time and space but were exceptionally visual. Judd, who'd been a painter for 15 years, saw the relation of his "Specific Objects" closer to the iconoclastic paintings of Pollock, and engaged with questions of visuality rather than sculpture-in-the-round. Now on the eve of this major survey celebrating the 10th anniversary of his death, one should not forget the completeness of Judd's aesthetics, from art to furniture to modifying buildings, even almost owning an entire Texan town. This show should put to rest the easy formulas of Pawson's aesthetic and demonstrate the relative complexity of Judd's thinking.

NB: There will be a symposium on Judd's writings on 28/02 (2 - 6:30pm) and art historian Mark Godfrey will be speaking on "The trouble with Judd" on 27/02 (6:30pm).

Special Offer: Print and present this web page to the Tate Modern ticket office and receive a "two for one" admission to the Donald Judd exhibition (ends 25/04).

Thursday 5 February (6pm)

@ Astoria, 157 Charing Cross Rd., WC2 (020.7434.9592) Tube: Tottenham Court Rd.

Eclectic is the diplomatic word used on My Morning Jacket's website to describe the bill at this NME Awards show. How successfully Danish coconut-shakers Junior Senior will segue into long-haired Kentucky rockers MMJ is anyone's guess. MMJ's gig at the Mean Fiddler last year had the audience in rapturous silence as they swept through a set that riffed and jammed like the heaviest Zeppelin. Crystal-clear singing with the reverb turned up to ten is the trademark sound of It Still Moves, which was one of the most acclaimed albums of 2003, and live reviews confirm that they're nothing less than awesome. Opening act Keane are being widely tipped as ones to watch in 2004. A conspicuously guitarless band, early arrivers might be rewarded with a smug "I saw them months ago" story to tell if they reach the heady Coldplay-type heights that have been predicted. IMAROBOT promise "sex-rock insanity", or so they say in their website's journals, but they also sound generally mentally unhinged, so we'll see. It'll be an interesting evening and hopefully there won't be any need for diplomacy, as it'll just be brilliantly eclectic.

Thursday 5 February (7pm)

@ London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, WC1 (020.7269.9030) Tube: Holborn

Tobias Wolff looks like a very nice man. He has a lovely moustache and looks a bit like George Clooney playing someone's granddad in a Western. However, KF doubts he resembled Leonardo di Caprio as a child; so we'll put that down to inspired casting in 1993's A Boy's Life, the star-studded adaptation of Wolff's first memoir that shot him firmly into the "acclaimed" bracket of his agent's filing cabinet. Actually, the smooth-talking Stanford prof. was already acclaimed as one of America's best living short story writers, just not Famous. Perhaps concluding that short stories are to novels what thesps are to the A-list, Wolff has now moved beyond memoir, stretching the bracket further with yet more undeniable acclaim for his first "proper novel", Old School. Wolff somehow embraces the paradox of academic respectability and popular success as only Americans seem able and one expects pearls to emerge whenever a quotation mark raises its descender. All wannabe writers should be in that audience, along with anyone who loved the book. So expect a sell-out.

Thursday 5 February (7pm)

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

It's worth persevering with the complex and slightly arcane language in which Jeffrey Kipnis wraps his architectural writing. As the founder and first director of the Graduate Design Program of the AA, there are few who have been around the post-structuralist block, with as many architectural big-hitters as he has. As teacher, writer, architect and current Professor of Architecture at Ohio State University, he has moved and shaken with the godfathers of so-called deconstructivist architecture -- Koolhaas, Eisenmann, Libeskind, and Gehry who've have all formed the subject of Kipnis' numerous books, talks and exhibitions. The evening event doubles with a rare screening of A Constructive Madness (1pm), a film by Kipnis and others which documents the bizarre building (or rather failure to build) of Frank Gehry's house designed for millionaire insurance magnate Peter Lewis in 1986. Nine years and eighty million dollars later, the project remained only partially built, but on the positive side allowed Gehry to explore ideas later developed in the Bilbao Guggenheim and Disney Concert Hall.

Thursday 5 February (Thu, Fri and Sat 7:30pm; Sun 2:30pm)

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

"Kodo" translates as "heartbeat"... If drumming is the pulse of music, then this is music at its most raw and direct. Much more than just a recital, this Japanese ensemble, as impressive visually as they are to hear, will be one of the most intense, precise and graceful live acts you'll ever behold. The secret of their power as performers is rigorous mental and physical discipline -- all 20 Taiko drummers live and train in Kodo village, a rural commune established on Sado Island in 1971. Their year is divided equally between training, international tours and a tour of Sado, where they stage the spectacular Earth Celebration Festival each year. Taiko drumming is an ancient art in the Orient, originally used to intimidate the enemy in warfare and to inspire religious feeling in Buddhist monasteries. Kodo use traditional Japanese style and costume, but borrow ethnic rhythms from all over the world, and the solos are all improvised. As for the venue, you can't get better acoustics than the Royal Festival Hall.

NB: Kodo runs for four nights from Thu 05/02 to Sun 08/02.

Friday 6 February (see press for times and ticket prices)

@ The Other Cinema, 11 Rupert St., W1 (0207 734 1506) Tube: Piccadilly Circus/Leicester Sq.

A regular on critics' polls of all time greats, this classic from Cinema's Silent Era has been cited as influential to many and was a key inspiration for Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. Made in 1927, it was German director FW Murnau's (Nosferatu/Faust) American debut and won him three Oscars. Like Moulin Rouge it is a story of archetypes and although it's full title is Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans, it's really one young married farmer's tale of redemption -- which begins with him attempting to drown his wife (at the suggestion of his evil "city woman" lover) and ends with him delighted to have her back in his arms. It is a film of opposites -- good and evil, night and day, the idyllic country and vibrant city... and can be humorously melodramatic in parts for the modern audiences. However, what keeps it within the cannon is its impossibly inventive camera work and the stunning mix of lyrical/witty visuals. All of this creates a film that is astonishingly fresh and technically brilliant. See this newly restored print, if only to catch one of the best performances by a drunken piglet on film.

Friday 6 February (7pm)

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

Desire is what links us, from our bestial-primal selves to other species, across continents and races; nationalism need not apply. We're referring to the desires to eat, defecate, savage others, and, finally most powerful of all, the lure of reproduction. Part of the bfi and Tate Modern's classic film cycle for the Passionate Encounters season -- which screens a series of films that show the links between design and art, fashion and culture -- Isaac Julien is himself presenting Kenneth Anger's highly stylistic classic Scorpio Rising and his own study of black male desire Looking for Langston. Predominately urban and urbane films, the classics in this series also trace the underlying passions that rage through urban life. Anger's references from the occult to leather-clad bikers in his 1963 sado-maso Blue Velvetish torso flick put him on the cultural map. While Julien's short but charged study-homage to the African American chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes. Again like Anger, Julien's combination of music, film and dialogue result in a style that is true to the subject. Although these films are not long, expect the experience to stay a while.

NB: The screenings will be introduced by Issac Julien himself. And in sync with this bfi/Tate collaboration, there will be a Passionate Encounters: Film Fashion Art Architecture international symposium on 21/03 (2 - 7pm).

Friday 6 February (8pm - 1am)

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

A good start to the weekend could well be as you end it with this Flo-Motion live event at the ICA, hosted by XFM DJ Nick Luscombe. The Broadway Project top the line-up here, providing proof of their recent critical acclaim. A conventional pop tune is not on the menu here -- the other essential musical criteria of timbre and rhythm are favoured instead. The Project demonstrate that whilst that you can take the notes out of a Polish folk tune and play them on another instrument, something will always be lost in the translation; that is, they hold true to the relationship between an instrument and the melodies it plays, and prove that groovy music need not always be made out of tired lifts from Blue Note and the Bee Gees. The results are some sonically powerful samplistic soundscapes in a genuine live performance; and the cinematic ambience that is created would sit comfortably between DJ Food and Goldfrapp (although the mix goes far deeper and is instrumentally more vibrant than they). With support from the comfortably easy-listening-tinged and calmingly repetitive drift of Pedro and the acoustic folk-fi of The Memory Band, this event would suit any groove-minded followers of modern electro, jazz and experimental music.

Friday 6 February (9:30pm - 5am)

@ Fabric, 77A Charterhouse St., EC1 (020.7344.4444) Tube: Farringdon

... that Madlib is a heavy caner is undisputed. Anyone who witnessed his recent appearance, lost in a gloriously monged oblivion at Cargo, could see the man had indulged in a rather heavy smoke beforehand. Fortunately there was no detrimental effect on his music. Instead, it has been a prolific and highly successful year for the man. With his Shades of Blue album, Madlib (aka Otis Jackson, Jr.) has really established himself as a peerless producer of blunted beats, effortlessly switching between dark hip-hop and more soulful flavours before hitting upon and tampering with some raw jazz originals. Madlib is a true originator at work, completely at ease creating radically innovative sounds of his own, coupled with incredible, deep and balanced interpretations of old standards. On the most recent album, the hallowed Blue Note catalogue was gloriously mangled, and DJ-ing in the flesh, along with the mighty J-Rocc, we can only expect some deep, hard and sumptuous sounds. Sampler extraordinaire, spliffmeister supreme: Fabric live will be H-E-A-V-Y.

Saturday 7 February (4pm)

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

If you don't know Carl Andre, most of you will at least be familiar with his stack -- not "pile" as the media so often portray it -- of bricks that the Tate acquired for a substantial lump of money in the '70s. Equivalent VIII -- vandalised in 1976 -- is frequently cited as an example of the waste of public monies on the visual arts, but the radicality these simply stacked, austere 120 bricks is so often forgotten. Part of 8 sculptures (I-VIII), the Equivalent series explored mathematical permutations of arrangement, spacing and the simplicity of the material itself. Like fellow "Minimalists" Judd and Sol Lewitt, Andre brought an ordered scientific and concrete poetry to sculpture and art-making in general. It's so easy to dismiss him now as a mere historic figure in the unfolding of Modernism, but of late poetic whimsy has been added to mathematical order, without any loss of rigour. Andre will be speaking here about his work and current exhibition of graphite sculpture and a set of one hundred sonnets from 1963. See if you can bring the Bard out in the man.

NB: Andre is exhibiting at Sadie Coles HQ from 07/02 till 20/03. The private view takes place on Sat 07/02 from 6 - 8pm.

Saturday 7 February (7pm)

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

Kyoto-based producer Nobukazu Takemura's career has followed an unusual trajectory for an artist sprung from the club scene. A hip-hop DJ in the '80s on a short-lived journey when he released records on Mo'Wax, Lollop, and Bungalow under the names DJ Takemura and Spiritual Vibes, he began releasing his own material applying the rules of trip-hop and acid jazz with an exploratory touch. Whether recording with Yamatsuka Eye of the Boredoms or Aki Onda as Audio Sports, his interest in the union of live instrumentation and electronics has been a constant in his output. A 1996 album, Child's View Remix featured mixes by Aphex Twin, Coldcut and Wagon Christ, which arguably fed his desire to create the work he's recognised for today -- seamless digital static, hopping and scratching digital graffiti textures across lilting corrupted vocal samples. With releases on Tortoise's label, Thrill Jockey, his sound became clearly defined. Mixes and collaborations with Roni Size, Steve Reich and Yo La Tengo, recording with Brokeback and Isotope 217; seemingly endless laptop adventures beyond the screen. For this tour Takemura presents two contrasting sets: an improvised laptop set followed by a live band with some of Chicago's finest musicians: Matt Lux (Isotope 217/Plush) and Michael Jorgensen (Wilco). Video captures of the artists will feed the screen projections, a blurring of the real and the (un)real. It seems set to be an an innocent concord of a skeletal acoustic world with gossamer light electronics.

Saturday 7 February (Sat 07/02 and Sun 08/02 at 8pm)

@ Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Avenue (020.7863.8000) Tube: Angel

It's a shame Wim Vandekeybus and his distinguished Brussels-based dance company Ultima Vez (the epitome of Central European dance-theatre) are only in London for two nights; their new creation Blush presents them as explosive and high-impact as ever. In 1999 they created an all-male piece, followed up in 2001 by the all-female Scratching The Inner Fields. And now at last, together: ladies and gentlemen. Even from this short video it's evident that despite the rather sweet title, their meeting is hardly bashful. It's an absolute head-on collision, with bruises very much included. Vandekeybus will be in there too somewhere, although "because of several accidents on stage, I don't have any ligaments in one knee -- or a meniscus" he'll be rather more subdued than the others. His dance language is very particular, and completely overwhelming (performers dive, jack-knife, cork-screw into each others arms, across the floor, through screens and straight into brick walls) -- a raw, dramatic vision very far from any idea of pure dance, though still totally intuitive. The battle goes on for two sweat-soaked, illogical hours -- it might not be easy to sit and watch, but as WV himself declares, "I don't want the people in the auditorium thinking: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! the whole time. No, I want them to hate what they see, and think: No! Wrong! And only at a given moment, after they have had to fight for it within themselves: Yyyesss!''

NB: Blush will be performed on both Sat 07/02 and Sun 08/02 at 8pm. Also of note, the music, lyrical and rock-based, was composed especially for Blush by David Eugene Edwards who for the Sadler's Wells shows sings live with his band Woven Hand.

Saturday 7 February (Sat 07/02 at 8:45 pm & Wed 11/02 at 6:30pm)

@ National Film Theatre, South Bank, SE1 (020.7928.3232) Tube: Embankment/Waterloo

By taking part in a martial arts tournament, Bruce Lee, who'd been recruited by the British secret service, busts up an opium racket... Oops, did we give it all away? One often forgets that it was Lee who put the "socky" in Hollywood's "chop socky" love affair. The first Chinese actor to get above-the-line credit in a Hollywood movie, Bruce Lee also created the series Kung Fu as a vehicle for himself, but the studio got cold feet over a Chinese lead. Long before Chow Yun Fatt, Jackie Chan and Jet Li went West, Lee was most certainly the first Eastern leading man. It is hard to imagine today that simple action movies could be so politically charged; yet in his native Hong Kong, the TV series The Green Hornet was called the "Kato Show". Unlike The Big Boss aka Fists of Fury or Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon -- recently remastered with excluded scenes -- is his most complete movie in effects, cast, gore and most especially a demonstration of Lee's own fluid fighting form, Jeet Kun Do. Like any martial arts flick, this 1973 Robert Clouse classic isn't strong on dialogue, but then Lee does speak with his fists, feet, legs, fingers, body... So we say, "Hee-YaaAAH".

NB: Enter the Dragon will also be screened on 11/02 at 6.30pm. For fans of Asian cinema, Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together will be screened on 14/02 and 21/02.

Saturday 7 February (10:30pm - 6am)

@ The Premises, 201-205 Hackney Rd., E2 (020.7729.7593 ) Tube: Old St.

Wending their happy way between the twin evils of anaemic mainstream clubbing and the squat party circuit, WANG continues to be the finest way to meet your new best mates. The tender loving care and camera shy attitude of residents Electro Elvis and Lula means that the couple of hundred through the door can enjoy that perennial elusive -- the "house party" vibe. Granted a house party wherein Squarepusher is DJing, but a house party nonetheless. Yes -- this week, Wang flips a coin and guesses "noodly jazz" or "frenetic junglist mentalism" as Tom Jenkinson confounds preconceptions in the main room. Elsewhere, Pure Plastic's Mark Broom and Rephlex's D'Arcangelo ensure that the quality is maintained. As ever, the Good Vibes Soundsystem dominates the third room, as Zion Bru delivers conscious reggae and master selector Lukey Roots pumps digital riddims through his beloved stacks. Call out for current favourite -- Unity Sounds' "Lean Boot" -- and you may even receive an affectionate v-sign from engineer and Tokyo Windbag Chris Rotter. "We don't want no, we don't want no lean boot!"

Ends Saturday 14 February (8pm)

@ Riverside Studios, Crisp Rd., W6 (020.8237.1111) Tube: Hammersmith Broadway

DIE -- charming! You walk into the theatre, sit down, the performance commences and you think, "Shit, I'm in a god damn kids comic show". Uh-uh, how wrong you'd be. The Evening Standard describes this as "the stuff of small children's nightmares!" DIE is a brilliant tongue-in-cheek satirical romp letting-rip at evil consumerism, media moguls, corrupt judicial systems and celebrity puppets. Yes, puppets. Combine the raw vulgarity of South Park with the cuteness of the Muppet Show, throw in the bloody glam of the Rocky Horror Show with a twist of arty-camp dUCKIE and the porn-rock of Gobsausage, stage it in Hell with a live TV audience, and voila -- you have DIE. Anyway, the plot. Deathrow Jethro is sentenced to death, gets electrocuted, goes to Hell (rebranded as the DIE Corporation). On arrival we learn through a myriad of flashbacks how he reached this sad ending. Bless. Nasty tormenting freaks including a slurping Elephant Man, Elvis, a fly, Johnny Vegas and a horrific assembly of other terrifying characters conjure an inferno sideshow. Loaded with social and cultural references this theatre-cum-TV-show, designed and directed by Paul Garner and featuring three "real" characters in divine PVC costumes, is a sharp and witty reflection of the world, as we know and adore it. Jerry Springer and Jim Henson -- eat yer hearts out! (Run ends 14/02.)

NB: Contains strong language. Not recommended for under 12 years!

Tuesday 17 February (17/02, 19/02, 23/02 and 24/02 at 7pm)

@ Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam St., WC2 (020.7930.5115) Tube: Embankment

We live in a time where voyeuristic reality TV "design" shows heralding the decay of popular culture have dumbed down media so that people no longer watch anything challenging, with substance or that makes them think. A place where mainstream music is dominated by manufactured formulaic clones murdering old favourites and pushing musical visionaries into the MP3 sidelines. So from the forefront of architecture, design and popular culture reportage, "in the spirit of openness and provocative debate", are Blueprint magazine hosting 'The Blueprint Sessions' to challenge how conventional awards are allocated by using a new set of parameters? Or are they simply fiddling as Rome burns? Readers have voted for three finalists in each of four categories to have their cases presented by a "high-profile design industry advocate". This is a 15-minute Celebrity Death-Match in front of an icon-promiscuous paying public that will be casting the deciding votes as they leave.

Nominees are from suitably diverse and almost incomparable practices:

Architecture -- Zaha Hadid, Adjaye Associates and Herzog & de Meuron (17/02)
Interior Design -- Eldridge Smerin, Jump and Matali Crasset (19/02)
Product Design -- Jonathan Ive and the Apple Team, Tord Boontje and Marcel Wanders (23/02)
Graphic Design -- Elliot Earls, Laurent Fetis and MadeThought (24/02)

NB: The sessions run over four nights (17/02, 19/02, 23/02 and 24/02) and the winners will be announced at the Blueprint party on 25/02 at the 291 Gallery, London E2.

Wednesday 18 February (1 - 2:15pm)

@ RIBA, 66 Portland Place, W1 (020.7580.5533) Tube: Regent's Park/Portland St.

Rem Koolhaas, the Dutch architect who runs his office under the name OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), has, it is fair to say a cult following among the architecture profession and students. His publication in conjunction with the Harvard Research School S, M, L, XL has become the architectural bible for the design-aware. His most significant project to date is the Chinese state TV headquarters in Beijing to be completed in time for the Olympics starting in 2008. Development is taking place in the Chinese capital at a rate unseen in any other city. Europe's architects are vying to get a piece of the building action, Herzog & de Meuron are designing the Olympic Stadium with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and even the son of Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, is trying to persuade the government to design a Haussmann-like alley cutting a 24 km axis across the city, and of course Norman Foster in on the action with the commission to design the city's airport. The CCTV will be Koolhaas' largest project with 553 000 square metres and some say most controversial, likening it to building a headquarters for say Pinochet to house his propaganda machine, a slightly mis-fired comparison as China embraces both high capitalism with a mix of diluted totalitarian values. One can only observe how China will weave a combination of cultural influences and economic strategy as varied as its choice of architects.

NB: If you cannot make this lunchtime lecture then catch him at the Union Chapel on 19/02 (7pm).

Ends Saturday 6 March (Thu to Sat 12 - 6pm )

@ domoBaal Contemporary Art, 3 John St., W1 (020.7242.9604) Tube: Holborn/Chancery Lane

Bob Matthews is best known for his meticulous digital renderings of imaginary cabins and log huts. Painstakingly drawn on computer using colours scanned directly from examples of flora and fauna collected on his various mountain excursions, Matthews slowly pieces together new worlds that evoke the solitude and awe usually associated with the Romantic painting tradition. His new series of inkjet prints leave us stranded along dark and misty roads, cowering under the shadows of overbearing pine trees. Coloured stage spotlights line the edges of these paths; above, traces of streamers, fairy lights and ephemeral drapes signal the trajectory of our route. These abandoned stretches call to mind the stranded outposts in Apocalypse Now, where desperation and panic are intermingled with a celebration of hallucinogenic light and fireworks. Contrasting Matthews' hazy horizons, Mark Monaghan reverses the scale and affords us a miniature adventure through his neatly crafted, hand-drawn models of anonymous industrial units. The occasional open window or door left ajar reveals a similar attention to detail on the interiors of his constructions. The thick and wobbling black lines that describe the brickwork, roofs and barbed wire refute the muted hand of typical architectural plans, hinting instead at the unlimited imaginary world of cartoons.

NB: Show ends 06/03.