London agenda for Thursday 20 December 2012
1. Attend the the most bizarre office Xmas party ever at Xmas Starty [Le Cool]
2. Get a head start on partying for the end of the world at Proud Galleries [Run Riot]
3. Search for death in Battersea [Don’t Panic]
4. Ask the Royal Observatory Christmas Lecture, Can We Reach the Stars? [Ian Visits]
5. Watch Crushed Beaks for free at The Lock Tavern [London in Stereo]
London in the year 2000 as seen by the 1960 film, Beat Girl
Islingtongue has found this vid of the 1960 film, Beat Girl. Press play to see an architect tell his wife about the fantastic world of tomorrow, a London, where “Grime, filth, poverty, noise, hustle and bustle, these things will be unknown.”
The whole film is there – it’s actually a cracking good exploitation flick.
From YouTube
Paul, a divorced architect, marries Nichole, a woman from Paris. His teen daughter Jenny has fallen in with the English beatnik scene and likes to hang out in cave-like clubs to listen to jazz and rudimentary rock’n‘roll. Jenny takes an immediate dislike to her mother-in-law, who is not that much older than she, and goes out of her way to make life miserable for Nichole. When Jenny discovers that Nichole is a friend of one of the strippers from the dance hall across the street, she investigates and uses Nichole’s sordid past to embarrass her father. Meanwhile Jenny attracts the lecherous eye of Kenny, the owner of the dance hall.
Hat tip to The Great Wen
Ken Livingstone slipping behind in transport battle
Ken Livingstone is losing the battle on transport in the Mayoral election, a new BBC poll suggests.
Asked which candidate has “the best ideas so far” on transport, 36% chose Boris Johnson and just 31% chose Ken Livingstone.
Previous polls by other polling organisations, have given Ken Livingstone a significant lead on transport related questions.
Ken’s policy of cutting fares is still overwhelmingly popular with 72% of those polled supporting it.
But the headline figure suggests that he has not done enough to set out a broader agenda for transport in the capital.
It also suggests that headlines such as “London’s transport would face collapse” under Ken Livingstone may have had an effect.
The launch of Boris’s new bus could also have had an impact on the results, although it is impossible to tell from this one poll.
Other results suggests that Boris Johnson’s campaign to portray Ken Livingstone as untrustworthy is having little effect.
The public believe Ken and Boris to be almost equally trustworthy with 31% thinking Boris the most trustworthy, 30% thinking Ken and 20% thinking neither.
Ken Livingstone is also still well ahead on the question of “who most understands the concerns of ordinary Londoners?” 49% of Londoners picked Ken and just 26% picked Boris.
The poll will make dismal reading for Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick.
Paddick, who is a former policeman came in fourth place behind Green Party candidate Jenny Jones on all issues apart from crime.
Even on crime, just 8% of Londoners believe he has the “best ideas” on the issue.
Update A new YouGov poll has just come out showing that Boris has widened his lead over Ken.
London agenda for Thursday 6 October
1. Ride over to the Barbican for the Bicycle FIlm Festival [Le Cool]
2. View Holly Falconer’s first solo exhibition, Technicolour Hymns [Run Riot]
3. Have a Q&A with Paddy Considine on his feature directorial debut, Tyrannosaur, a dark and challenging portrayal of troubled lives in Leeds [Don’t Panic]
4. Is it National Poetry Day again? Celebrate at Southbank [Time Out]
5. Donate a brain to science [Ian Visits]
6. See William Pye’s Curlicue [Tired of London]
London agenda for Friday 9 September
1. Shake your arse to a faceoff between Deadly and Club NME [Le Cool]
2. See more avante-garde dance than seen all week at Touchwood [Run Riot]
3. And now, the future, at Immatereality [Flavorpill]
4. Bowling joins foces with ping pong? We’re through the looking glass, people [Don’t Panic]
5. Listen to Mark Kermode discuss everything that’s wrong with Hollywood from his book, The Good, The Bad, and the Multiplex [Time Out]
6. Mediate between the mods and rockers at Quadrophenia in Poplar [Ian Visits]
7. Admire One Great George Street [Tired of London]
London agenda for Friday 19 August
1. Suspend the kayfabe and watch some sort of Mexican wrestling dance party at Lucha Britannia [Run Riot]
2. Have a much smoother evening with ?uestlove at East Village [Flavorpill]
3. Fly to the moon, or at least, look inside the Apollo 10 capsule [Time Out]
4. Watch the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre clean and sort items [Ian Visits]. Actually, that doesn’t sound as much fun.
5. Watch a selection of early work by the award-winning Japanese avant-garde artist at the BFI [Don’t Panic]
6. Drink at South London Pacific [Tired of London]
London agenda for Tuesday 26 July
1. Check out vintage fashion, Art Deco homewares and bar stuff at Broken Down Doll Bar Boutique [Le Cool]
2. Look at street art inside at Gossip Well Told [Run Riot]
3. Shit & Shine at Madame JoJo’s [Don’t Panic]
4. Walk around Waterloo Station in the dark with old maps [Ian Visits]
5. See the Government’s Art Collection [Tired of London]
London agenda for Friday 1 July
1. Check out the work of hundreds of design graduates, who will be showing everything from wooden lampshades to risque tea-sets at Artsmart [Le Cool]
2. Dress up and dine at Prangsta [Run Riot]
3. Float on a boat and watch films [Time Out]
4. Recreate a 300 year-old fair at Fairlop [Ian Visits]
5. Find the Wanstead Park Grotto [Tired Of London]
Dont
First hearing about a band on the lineup of Iceland Airwaves festival comes as a positive recommendation. Snipe didn’t catch Danish upstarts When The Saints Go Machine at that particular festival, but a few months later at London’s Ja Ja Ja night – a monthly showcase for the best new Scandinavian bands breaking out of their home countries. They thoroughly justified the distinction. Icy electronica is set off by the hypnotic presence of their frontman, who stares into the distance through saucer blue eyes as if transfixed, twitching, crooning and yelping his way through their set. The band reconfigured at several points, surrounding a table full of effects units and sequencers, effortlessly switching from dark pop into rhythmic dance music. Here they support Wolf Gang, but they’ll be headlining their own London shows before long. John Rogers
London agenda for Tuesday 15 February
1. Do a little Death Drawing at the Victoria, which is like life drawing but about a gazillion times more interesting [Le Cool]
2. Watch challenging, uplifting and surprising dance with Resolution [Run Riot]
3. Hear some music that unravels with Kayo Dot, Tartar Lamb, and Bilbao Syndrome at the Vortex [London Gigs]
4. Get a little bit country with The Slight Aches w/ The Wagon Tales [Flavorpill]
5. Final day to see Postcards from Vegas [Lauren Down]
