Wednesday 9 June (runs till Sun 13/06)

@ ICA and Institut Francais

Art Spiegelman has described how he despises the fact that there's no place for the comic book as artwork. Neither word nor image, it sits in that wonderful place that's both serious and playful, great art and wonderous pop, both high and low. Yet childhood's escape is now slowly being infiltrated by more adult, existential questions with images that are more for the artistic eye than the youthful one. With Comica, the ICA is doing what it does best: reaching out to culture's fringe. In collaboration with the Institut Francais -- and in its second edition -- this is an opportunity to see, read and hear about the latest hot things working between image and word.

Here are our picks:

Tintin Animations
Institut Francais -- Wed 09/06
The Shooting Star (2pm), The Secret of the Unicorn (3pm) and Red Rackham's Treasure (4pm)
For you KidtureFlashers a day of adventure with the famous Belgian adventure journalist Tintin and gang. Also on display will be sketches and drawings from his creator Herge (ends 13/06), and The Adventures of Tintin at Sea is at the National Maritime Museum (ends 05/09).

Family Secrets: Craig Thompson And David B. In Conversation
ICA -- Wed 9/06 (8:30pm)
For Blankets, Time Magazine awarded Craig Thompson the graphic novel of the year, while David B.'s autobiographical Epileptic, full of intense imagery, should make this talk compelling.

Dupuy & Berberian With Posy Simmonds
Institut Francais -- Fri 11/06 (7pm)
Soon to be a live-action movie, Phillipe Dupuy and Charles Berberian, creators of Monsieur Jean, bring that French Dad, with the problems and angst of daily life, to London. Here with our own Posy Simmonds, expect this conversation to be more of ordinary things than Benoit Peeters' (12/06, 5pm; Institut Francais) or Alan Moore's.

Blueberry
Institut Francais -- Sat 11/06 (8:30pm)
Mike Blueberry's back, this time in the flesh. Following the success of Michel Vaillant, the French film industry is chasing le Hollywood by turning its BD heroes into stars. With Vincent Cassel, Juliette Lewis and Michael Madsen, the wild west Marshall's adventures should come to life. Director Jan Kounen (of Doberman fame) will be present for a Q&A after this UK premiere.

Comic Factory: Getting Your Hands Dirty
ICA: Sun 13/06 (12pm)
Ever wondered how they do it? Thought it was easy? Here's a chance to see a group of artists and big-name guests working on new frontiers for "comic-ing".

NB: Comica 2004 Comica 2004 runs till Sun 13/06. Check the ICA and Institut Francais sites for details.

Wednesday 9 June (6:30pm)

@ The Bloomberg Auditorium

The City is slowly devouring London. It's doing it subtly -- a tastefully understated Foster building here, an award-winning Eric Parry office there -- but definitely expanding... that is, on the move. Witness how the City of London, once content with its solitary Square Mile, has jumped Bishopsgate and is now invading the East End. Spitalfields market has already been half-digested by a big Foster-thing currently under construction. (Smithfield's meat market -- the last bastion of the non-pinstriped in Farringdon -- may also not be long for this world.) Come to think of it, it's the same story in Southwark where the City literally wants more. Wednesday's debate is a part of, and a much-needed antidote to, the New City Architecture series/show, which so far has been rather too much of a clinical celebration of glass and steel over diversity and eclecticism. No prizes for guessing their conclusions, but a notable panel including David Adjaye and chair Sir Richard MacCormac is definitely well worth a trip into the heart of darkness.

Wednesday 9 June (8pm - 12pm)

@ Catch 22, 22 Kingsland Rd., E2 (020.7729.6097) Tube: Old St.

Sonic resistance is coming to Kingsland Rd. armed with anti-American-imperialism lyrics. Botanica del Jibaro are the hip-hop arm of the Miami based Beta Bodega Coalition, and in a world where it's so easy to feel depressed, pessimistic and generally peeved about what's going on, this collective of labels, artists, designers, DJs and producers are a force for good. While most of us find it hard enough to even register to vote let alone getting down the polling station and showing ex-chatshow hosts and other rotters the door, these guys have taken their message against the abuse of Third World workers, and the dangers of an American Empire on the road. Now we know it sounds a tad scary, and the thought of mixing global politics and your sunny Wednesday evening may make you suck air through ya teeth, but this is quality racket making. Chilean master re-mixer and DJ, Manuvers performs alongside founder member video-artist/DJ La Mano Fria. They will be adding weight behind two v v clever MCs, Soarse Spoken (in Spanish and English no less) and Stres. So if you believe in the cause, and you know you won't be making your cross in a school hall near you this Thursday, then go, get drunk, dance and know that in some small way you could be part of a revolution.

NB: This gig and tour is a warm-up for Beta Bodega Coalition's label showcase at Sonar 2004.

Thursday 10 June (7:30pm)

@ Poetry Society, 22 Betterton St., WC2 (020.7420.9880) Tube: Covent Garden

Lee Harwood is one of the gentlest voices in English poetry and maybe that is why he has never achieved the notoriety that the imaginative quality of his luminescent verse calls for. The intransigence is all beneath the surface. Harwood's ars poetica? Possibly these lines from the recent "Five Pieces for Five Photos": "To listen to what's said, / understand the language / that makes things work." It sounds simple but the discipline that makes it possible is rare. Perhaps now that Shearsman Books is observing Harwood's 65th birthday with the publication of his Collected Poems, finally gathering together the contents of all those fugitive publications since Harwood's first in 1965, the voice of Brighton's quiet bard will be heard more clearly throughout the land -- as it certainly will be at this celebratory reading.

NB: For those poetry Flashers out there, catch David Dabydeen and Amitav Ghosh on Thu 10/06 (7:30pm) at the Royal Festival Hall.

Thursday 10 June (Thu 10/06 and Fri 11/06 at 7:45 pm)

@ Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank, SE1 (0870.401.8181 ) Tube: Embankment/Waterloo

The enigmatically named Ballets C del la B returns to the South Bank on the strength of previous form. While C once stood for "Contemporains" and B for "Belgique", Ballets have never had much (except in the spirit of anarchy) to do with the Nutcracker or Swan Lake. Founded in '84 on the impetus of Alain Platel, this is no traditional dance company. Referring to itself as a "choreographic collective", C de la B's several house choreographers take turns to devise work for its diverse band of singing, dancing and (can it be said?) "musicing" players. (Film buff? They say, think Lars Von Trier's Dogme 95). A follow-up to Rien de Rien, Foi has further raised ratings on Belgian-Moroccan Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui as one of Europe's most exciting and iconic up-and-coming choreographers. It's a work about "survival and tradition," he says. "A complete picture of human behaviour." Sung live by the Capilla Flamenca, Larbi uses the angelic music of 14th-century Ars Nova to catalyse confrontations between humankind's past and present, its beauty and its horror.

NB: Ballets C de la B perform on both Thu 10/06 and Fri 11/06.

Friday 11 June

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

Edward Said was described as Arafat's man in New York, before their ideas of Palestine took divergent paths. It was Said's critical stance on, and Arafat's involvement in, the Palestinian-Israeli peace accord that brought them to the crossroads. Very simply this screening is the intellectual's final interview before succumbing to his long battle with Leukaemia, and in its candour it serves as a fine peregrination through his thinking over the years. Ranging from early life to his goals in writing -- the now Postcolonial classic -- Orientalism to his journalistic commentaries on Palestine, this simple interview -- do not expect anything but an orange jumper visually -- serves to further underline the unusual position of "being Said". Raised in Palestine within the English system, then studying in America, his "we" applies to both the West and the Middle East. Seeing himself in the unique position to facilitate an understanding between the two peoples, Said -- really a lecturer on literary and cultural criticism, and lover of Conrad, Vico and classical music -- has spent a life explaining differences and alterities, but in pragmatic, simple terms. Ultimately it is about reading and paying attention, minute attention, to what you read.

NB: runs till 24/06 (and for a period in July -- check the ICA site for details).

Friday 11 June (Fri 11/06 till Sun 27/06)

@ Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, SE1 (0870.401.8181) Tube: Embankment/Waterloo

Either mugging with his rockabilly chums on every other TV programme, or glowering beneath that still vertiginous quiff from a newsstand's-worth of magazine covers, Steven Patrick Morrissey is practically ubiquitous currently -- even his curious, contentious and by no means flawless, new album, You Are The Quarry is gracing the upper echelons of the UK charts. Long Californian exile notwithstanding, Morrissey remains as eclectic as he is arch and continues to represent a nexus at which such disparate elements as Joe Orton-esque Englishness, Algonquin set word poison, glam rock insouciance, '50s Hollywood exotica, sexual abstinence, vegetarianism and Mancunian working class resentment all congeal into a kind of gaudily compelling misanthropy. Thus, his curatorship of this year's Southbank Meltdown Festival ranges happily from the sublime to the ridiculous, so much so that if you add up the various ingredients the only thing you'll make is Steven Patrick Morrissey.

Highlights will doubtless be the first ever UK appearance by (what's left of) '70s punk progenitors The New York Dolls (Wed 16/06 and Fri 18/06); a unique show by Mozzer's Beverly Hills neighbours Sparks, in which they plan to essay tracks from glam benchmark Kimono My House and the recent Lil' Beethoven albums (Sat 12/06); and rare-as-hen's-teeth UK performances by Nancy Sinatra (Sun 20/06 -- sadly not in conjunction with erstwhile cohort Lee Hazlewood, who is also due back on a London stage later in 2004) and Gainsbourgian chanteuse Jane Birkin (Sat 19/06). An audience with tweedy, biscuit tin bard Alan Bennett (QEH Thu 17/06) is clearly the non-musical highpoint, and only an acoustic evening with reformed Smith's manque Gene (QEH Fri 25/06) seems ill judged. Morrissey and his burly band will be opening and closing proceedings (Fri 11/06) with The Libertines in support (Fri 25/06 and Sat 26/06 -- sadly, only returns available for all three shows), while a mooted Elton John homage to forgotten glam casualty Jobriath seems to have fallen by the wayside. Shame.

NB: Meltdown 2004 runs from 11/06 till 27/06.

Saturday 12 June (Sat 12/06 and Sun 13/06)

@ Squares across the Capital

In this, the Royal Horticultural Society's Year of Gardening, Open Garden Squares Weekend offers unprecedented access to many of the 600 patches of green that characterise our city. Over the weekend, private residential and institutional spaces will be unlocked, uncovering oddities including bomb shelters, pergolas, follies and tombs in addition to numerous well-tended beds. This horticultural year has received quite some recognition in arts establishments: the V&A's Other Flower Show looks at the bit Chelsea leaves out, with garden sheds from Tord Boontje, Tracey Emin and others; Tate Britain's Art of the Garden has just opened; and within the walled gardens of Brockwell Park, 20 contemporary artists show fantastic visions of The Garden of Earthly Delights. It's good to have earthy pleasures on the cultural agenda, but Open Garden Squares reveals the nitty-gritty of what these gardens represent for Londoners. They serve noble purposes: lungs for a smoggy city; visual relief from unremitting bricks and concrete; and social spaces for community bonding. And more to the point, many eager plebeians like us are delighted with an opportunity to poke around the grassy knolls in these stately squares.

NB: runs for two days on Sat 12/06 and Sun 13/06.

Saturday 12 June (7:30pm)

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

As the spring fades away -- hopefully leading the way to a beautiful summer -- so does the LMC's special spring season, Steal Softly Thru Sunshine, with this the last of three events, at the Spitz. After presenting last month a "historical" reunion of improv maverick Steve Beresford and musician-writer-critic-curator David Toop last month, this closing event will bring the "noisy French radical turntablists" Dustbreeders, who tend to play high-tension improvised noise using magnetic tapes, guitar, effects and amps. They will be joined by crazy Japanese vocalist Junko Hiroshige (formerly of Japanese noise band Hijokaidan -- with whom they have recorded Mommy Close the Door -- to offer us a mixture of hardcore jazz, hard-rock and exotica! Joining them on the event's bill are Dutch electronic improvisers duo Static Tics and the London-based Broken Consort, which includes Sound 323's Mark Wastell (who recently released the wonderful +minus album with Gunter Muller and Graham Halliwell), Rhodri Davies and Matt Davies. Not only is it worth going to such an (noisy) event, it is also the best way to help support LMC and ResonanceFM's work in promoting experimental/improvised music.

Saturday 12 June (10pm - 6am)

@ The Speaker Box , 14 Andre St., E8 Tube: Hackney Downs/Rectory Rd. (Train)

All good things come in threes: first came the 29 degrees sunshine, followed shortly by the jingle jangle of the ice cream van, and now you know it's gonna be a great summer when you can kick it off with the demanded return of Sud (and they haven't even let the kids out yet)! More laptop techno minimalism from electronic music's darling and aptly named Portable (so much sexier slipping out a shiny notebook comp than trudging around with 50 record bags). Anyhoo, blips, crackling, shissing and dwips aplenty slipping back into the UK after a run around the world and a critically acclaimed album Cycling (Background Records). Also playing live is Lump with a little less concept and a garnish more of groove, plus Lakuti and Jonathan playing tunes the turntable way. Visuals by Brittski and the atmosphere of the last day of school ensure a welcome intervention into those holiday blues. You won't get another chance till September -- so get yaself some sunglasses, do ya fake tan and make a little holiday spirit in Hackney.

NB: For information call 07931.248.733 and for the excat location click here.

Sunday 13 June (DSC at 12:15pm and SL&V at 2:20pm)

@ Curzon Soho, 93-107 Shaftesbury Ave., W1 (020.7439.4805) Tube: Leicester Sq./Piccadilly

Do you know what transgressions are for? It's that naughty little frisson that makes life worth living, like copping a feel, drinking champagne through a straw, taking the month off to enjoy a footie tournament -- such are the less trouble-making ones... For the more hardy, frissons come packed with relieving guilty, alleviating anxiety or even, just simply, getting into trouble because one has too much free time. While, in Drugstore Cowboy, Matt Dillon leads his rat pack crew down the road of crime and addiction, both for better and worst. Possibly Gus Van Sant's best film, it contains the ultra-cool cameo of William Burroughs -- basically being himself. On the other hand, withheld passions dominate Stephen Soderbergh's first feature, Sex, Lies and Videotape. A cult film for Soderbergh's ability to conjure so much from so little -- both in production and in the film itself -- here, it is conversation that proves dangerous. Both Dillon and Soderbergh's star James Spader are anti-heroes, speaking to the everyman in us... flawed and needing to transgress. As with all transgressions, it leaves you with that question: where is your erogenous zone?

NB: In conjunction with Jason Wood's 100 American Independent Films, the author will be present to introduce the films.

Tuesday 15 June (Mon to Fri 9am - 5:30pm; Sat 10am - 5pm)

@ Albion, 8 Hester Rd., SW11 (020.7801.2480) Tube: Sloane Square

Hot on the heals of Haunch, Spruth Magers Lee, Hauser & Wirth and Gogo's, home-grown talent, Michael Hue-Williams is doing us proud with his brand new space. A 11,000 sq. ft. gallery opposite Cheyne Walk, designed by Norman Foster, with lighting by Arnold Chan and details by India Mahdavi, Hue-Williams is taking off just as -- we hope -- the national team hits their peak to bring home glory. To aid the opening bash, American heavy-metaller Mark di Suvero is finally going to exhibit in this country with 25 works, three of which will be typically monumental, two installed on the riverbank itself. Born in Shanghai, the welded girders, that form the basis of his structures, seem deeply engaged with notions of balletic anti-gravity and concrete flow. It's as if David Smith were having a deep discourse with Chinese brush painting. Of late, the septuagenarian has moved away from the more architectonic into a playful lyricism... Still, get ready to have your breath taken away. And, Jay, with Turrell and Goldsworthy to follow, it's time to watch your back!

NB: runs till 10/09.

Tuesday 15 June (Tue to Fri 11am - 6pm, Thu until 7pm, Sat & Sun 2pm - 6pm)

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

For everyone apart from Tom Friedman, excursions into sublime and imaginative mental states while contemplating household items do not come easy. Rarely have plastic cups, tinfoil or toilet paper been considered as more than a means to an end, and each of these invaluable commodities must live with the certainty that they're headed for either the bin or a sewer. Those chosen to make up Friedman's solo exhibition at the newly refurbished SLG must therefore be feeling very special. His art is funny, even ridiculous, but also extraordinary. He transforms the mundane into the exquisite through painstaking hard work and attention to detail. Previous projects have included a self-portrait carved out of an aspirin pill, and a geometric structure built with 30,000 tooth-picks. His method and choice of materials have helped blow artistic distinctions apart, mixing the aesthetic with the functional, domestic and scientific. All the pieces in this show were made specifically for it, as parts of a group, though no two works resemble each other. Few exhibitions reach into our daily lives; this one will definitely change the way you do your household chores. (Runs till 01/08.)

Talk: On Mon 14/06 (7pm) catch Tom Friedman in conversation with Sarah Kent (Time Out) at Bloomberg SPACE.

NB: Runs till 01/08. The SLG is re-opening following an expansion and refurbishment closure. The building project -- which will expand the original Victorian building, and create studios, cafes and gardens, will be completed over the next five years.

Giveaway: We have two copies of the show's catalogue to give away. They'll go to two randomly picked Flashers who can tell us the name of the naughty New Museum curator that is having some legal troubles (hint: see this week's editorial).

Tuesday 15 June (6:30pm)

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

Victor Burgin's lecture focuses on Hopper's painting Office at Night and its influence on his own series of photographs of the same name. Burgin themed his work on what he termed "the organisation of sexuality for capitalism", represented by the painting. As a teaching artist with an expertise in theory, from Freud to Foucault and beyond, philosophising Flashers can expect to have the painting interpreted to within an inch of its life. This could be a double-edged sword with over-analysis wringing the emotion from the work, but a lecture delivered with love and respect for the original might just lead to a meeting of minds that will help save us all from the isolation and muted feelings so often portrayed by Hopper.

NB Edward Hopper curator Sheena Wagstaff will lead a personal tour of the retrospective on Mon 14/06 (7pm).

Tuesday 15 June (7pm)

@ British Museum, Great Russell St., WC1 (020.7323.8000) Tube: Holborn/Tottenham Court Rd.

It's difficult to think of the British Museum as a politicised institution... Well, except for the annual fuss over the Elgin Marbles. Yet any place with hundreds of employees dealing with objects and exhibitions from across the globe will be involved at some level of politics. With the 4,000-year-old terracotta Babylonian goddess, Queen of the Night, from Southern Mesopotamia here before her tour, the BM together with The Guardian are putting on a public forum, Baghdad to Babylon: can the past help build a future for Iraq? Mesopotamia -- at least the Southern bit, that old cradle of civilisation -- is now more known to us as Iraq. And unless you've been in a cave or abandoned in some jungle, Iraq of late has been the centre of a rather large furore. With BM director Neil MacGregor on its ancient history; academic and author Kanan Makiya on the present; Peter Galbraith a former US ambassador and Iraq expert; and chaired by broadcaster Jon Snow, let us see if some "critical" and historical perspectives can bring to light things that politicians have not been able to see.

NB: This event starts at 7pm but make sure that you get their early (from 6:15pm onwards) so that you can pay a visit to the Queen of the Night, in the Assyrian Galleries. Tickets can be booked via the BM's website or by calling 020.7323.8181.

Ends Tuesday 15 June (Daily 10am - 6pm, Tue & Wed until 8pm)

@ V&A Museum, Cromwell Rd., SW7 (020.7942.2000) Tube: South Kensington

Like many great men before him, animal farmer George Orwell had the misfortune of working for the BBC in a poky little office in Broadcasting House. Such was the psychological trauma he suffered in Room 101 (from the poo-brown-and-bile-green Beeb carpet, no doubt) that it was later immortalised unforgettably as the torture chamber in Orwell's dystopian novel 1984. Before the office was demolished, and in advance of the spin-off telly show (in which Paul Merton encouraged c-grade celebs to banish any dislikes to an imaginary Room 101), subtle sculptor Rachel Whiteread cast the original hellhole itself. In casting not the concrete walls but the threatening space between them, she sculpted the feeling of the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end and made a menacing portrait of claustrophobia. Untitled (Room 101), as the piece was titled, is glowering among a load of other forgotten dead shells -- including Michelangelo's Moses -- in the V&A's Cast Court. An ingenious casting of aspersions. (Runs till 15/06.)

NB: Rachel Whiteread's Ghost -- which narrowly escaped the fire -- is on display at Gagosian's King's Cross gallery (till 31/07).

Friday 18 June

@ Various locations across London

June promises saturation levels of architecture, due to the wilful coincidence of Architecture Week (a UK-wide phenomenon) and the very first London Architecture Biennale (a Clerkenwell-wide phenomenon). The Biennale's focus could be viewed as an unnecessary celebration of that fashionable area of east London, but in its defence, the director argues that the area has a history of creativity, from its origins in the print and graphic trade through to the contemporary creative industries. The programme guarantees to have something for everyone: picnics and roasts will spill out from St. John Bar & Restaurant onto a grassed-over St John street, there'll be talks by eminent figures, as well as architectural tours, discussions and exhibitions. The Biennale promises to celebrate architecture not just for the cerebral, but also for all those interested in the built environment and beyond.

With Architecture Week events piled on top of this, you'll surely be overwhelmed by the feast, so here's KF's tasty choices from both:

BIENNALE (Sat 19/06 to Mon 28/06)

Cattle Drive & Family Picnic
Sat 19/06 (10:30am - 5pm)
Go on -- you've got to go along just to see the cattle drive (for the benefit of us true urbanites, the cows will be the black and white things with milk nozzles underneath).

AJ Charette: Future Smithfield
Sat 19/06 (11am - 5pm)
Worth dropping in to see crack teams from Alsop, Vinoly, Hadid, FOA and SOM brainstorming on the Smithfield Market question: should it stay or should it go now?

Open Practices
Tue 22/06 (4pm - 8pm)
Clerkenwell's finest open their doors for the architecturally minded (and the just plain nosy). Last year AHMM were giving out free beer -- just time for a swift half before rushing off to see Zaha in action...

Zaha Hadid's Pritzker Prize Lecture
Tue 22/06 (6:30pm)
KF fave Zaha Hadid reveals the secrets of her long-delayed success and thanks all those who made this award possible...

Tour of Finsbury Health Centre
Fri 25/06 (6pm)
A rare chance to see arguably Britain's (and Lubetkin's) best early modernist building.

The Breakfasts
Mon 21/06 to Fri 25/06 (8:30am)
The best place for that hangover recovery, aided by a meaty breakfast, and hosted in turn by designers/critics/celebs Deyan Sudjic, Harry Handelsman, Stephen Bayley, Janet Street Porter and Peter York.


ARCHITECTURE WEEK (Fri 18/06 to Sun 27/06)

A Critic's View at The Royal Academy
Fri 18/06 (6:30 - 8:30pm)
The quality of the art at the RA's Summer Exhibition 2004 may be open to debate, but these days it's the architecture rooms that are worth seeing -- enjoy a private view from the likes of Eva Jiricna, Ted Cullinan and Piers Gough.

National Theatre "Architours"
Sat 19/06 (10 - 11am), Tue 22/06 (12:30 - 1:30pm and 3 - 4pm), Sat 26/06 (10pm - 12am)
Full behind-the-scenes tours of Lasdun's brutalist icon, with Roger Zogolvitch, Mark Foley and others; they'll also be partaking in a "Brutalist Beauty" debate on Tue 22/06.

Visionary Living
Tue 22/06 (7:30 - 9pm)
Alsop, in conversation with artist chum Bruce MacLean at Sir John Soane's Pitshanger -- expect the unexpected. Worth going, especially if you've never visited the house itself.

Sense & The City III
Fri 25/06 (6:30 - 10pm)
Last year's bash was fab, even though no excuse is needed for a party in the V&A's Pirelli Garden. Loads of events, including tours by Eva Jiricna and Eric Parry. Don't forget to bring your own CDs!

NB: The London Architecture Biennale runs from 19/06 till 28/06. Architecture Week 2004 runs from 18/06 till 27/06.

Thursday 8 July (Thu 08/07 and Fri 09/07 at 7pm)

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

Q Tip is a committed New Yorker, rarely leaving his hometown. However a trip over to Europe beckons next month, when, as well as a much-anticipated appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the man of many pseudonyms will be treading the boards of the Jazz Cafe. This session will most likely sell out, even with the rather exorbitant ticket prices for a solo gig in a small venue: now that's feverish anticipation for you... However, to be positive, a true innovator, creator and wordsmith of modern music will be in full effect: not so much in the house, as in the cafe... Q Tip first came to prominence with A Tribe Called Quest, around the same time as De La Soul were unleashing their jovial hip-hop on an unsuspecting and adoring public. ATCQ's brand of hip-hop was always going to be slightly unusual because of the importance they attached to the accompanying music. Often jazzy and funky, incorporating raw samples into crisp beats, and complementing the immense flow and often socially relevant raps of Q Tip, they cruised through the '90s with effortless grace and success. Having split up, Q Tip launched a very successful solo career and continues to this day as a purveyor of deep, musically varied and sublime hip-hop. There's now talk of an ATCQ reunion, but aside from that here's a chance to watch their main man in all his splendour.

NB: Q Tip performs at the Jazz Cafe on both Thu 08/07 and Fri 09/07.

Ends Saturday 17 July (Tue to Sat 10am - 6pm )

@ Hauser & Wirth, 196A Piccadilly, W1 (020.7287.2300) Tube: Piccadilly Circus

Ever wondered what people who didn't like fireworks did when they were caught within range? Anyway, how could you not like fireworks?! Enter H&W and you find yourself in a dark hall, with a small monitor with bright sparks and loud music blaring. In Mixed Behaviour Anri Sala recorded a DJ spinning tracks to the New Year fireworks on a rooftop in Tirana, Albania. Bringing to mind CNN's Peter Arnett reporting from a Baghdad rooftop during the first Gulf War, Sala and the DJ had to take cover on occasion to avoid the "hard rain". This is all part of the Albanian, Venice Biennale prize winner and Hugo Boss finalist's ongoing study of the complex relation between sound and image, and its ability to constantly allow us to find narrative flow, as well as touching upon notions of identity. Downstairs, Lakkat takes a different approach; a recent video of Senegalese children repeat words in Wolof ranging from black to white, that is words relating to skin and race. Also on view upstairs is a group of photographs. (Runs till 17/07.)

NB: Anri Sala is also participating in Artists' Favourites at the ICA and is featured in our book review below. While in the neighbourhood, drop into Donald Moffett at Stephen Friedman (till 17/07), Tracey Emin at Sketch (till 10/07) and Taryn Simon at Gagosian (pv 10/06 and runs till 31/07).

Sunday 18 July (Sun 18/07 at 7pm)

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

Despite having the showbiz aspirations of a hermit with a skin condition, Belle and Sebastian have, by all accounts, cracked it. Their bumbling folksy oeuvre has secured them the status of "popular cult" -- that paradoxical tag that so many bands covet, but so few get their mitts on. It's no surprise, then, that tickets for the band's Somerset House gig are flying out the door faster than rejects from Hell's Kitchen. Expect them to do justice to their new single, "Books", and deliver choice cuts from their six albums with trademark woolly charm. They are joined by New Mexico outfit The Shins -- bristling with Brian Wilson melodies and Chicago grunge. Professional hobo Devendra Banhart brings up the acoustic rear. The man has a beard you could lose a badger in and a bag full of warbling ballads from a dark, dark place. Somerset House just got interesting.

NB: This event is part of Somerset House's summer gig series, running from 13/07 till 19/07, and features PJ Harvey (sold out), Lemon Jelly (sold out) and Bebel Gilberto (16/07), among others. From 04/08 to 08/08 catch another series of concerts at Somerset House: the Grolsch Summer Set. Line-up includes Air (04/08), Turin Brakes (05/08) and Basement Jaxx (06/08) among others.