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This week there's a winter village popping up in Vauxhall, a shellfish soiree happening in Brixton, a French film festival at Ciné Lumière and a Paul Nash exhibition to catch at Tate Britain! Have a cracker with our list below.
Things to do
Popbitch Presidential Party, Shoreditch Yard, Tue, £53. This election-themed get together will see ten straight hours of presidential partying take place at Dinerama as the USA finds out its fate.
5x15 On Aliens, Conway Hall, Wed, £25. Jim Al-Khalili guest curates an evening of alien investigation with speakers including astrobiologist Louisa Preston and Inside Science presenter Adam Rutherford.
Sip + Press, Shinola, Wed, £20. Create a wall hanging made from pressed flowers with Ro Co and drink some floral cocktails made by Joyeux Bordel. Tickets include two drinks and a goody bag.
Kenneth Grange x Edwin Heathcote, Second Home, Wed, £3. Hear multi-award-winning industrial product designer Sir Kenneth Grange in conversation with Financial Times critic Edwin Heathcote.
Poet in the City - Frank O'Hara: In the Heart of Noise, Kings Place, Wed, £14.50. A special evening of poetry, music and art in celebration of Frank O’Hara, 50 years since his death.
magCulture Meets...Put A Egg On It, magCulture Shop, Thu, £6. Co-founder of 'Put A Egg On It', Ralph McGinnis crosses the pond to talk to mag lovers about his fabulous food-focussed zine.
Vauxhall Winter Village, 6A South Lambeth Pl, Thu, free. From the same people who made Vauxhall's street-food garden comes a ski village in the heart of London with its own apres-ski stalls for fondue, a cable car photo booth and a winter sports bar.
Draw Haus Workshops: Spoken Word with Kojey Radical, 8 Frederick's Place, Thu, £30. Learn the fundamentals of spoken word, listening and performing, with MOBO-nominated Kojey Radical.
Lucy Sparrow: Shoplifting, Lawrence Alkin Gallery, all week, free. Artist Lucy Sparrow returns with another felt-focussed exhibition and this time around she's recreated commonly robbed items from UK supermarkets.
…or check out more events happening in London this week.
Eating and drinking
Oyster Masterclasses, Outlaw's at The Capital, Wed, £60. Seamus Heaney called them 'the philandering sigh of ocean': now Outlaw's bar serves them raw, grilled, crispy, pickled and baked as part of an hour-long masterclass on how to prepare them.
Lobstar, Express Cafe, Thu. Topofthepopups return with a seriously tasty sounding shellfish party in Brixton, serving dishes that include whole boiled lobster and mac n cheese with crabmeat and crispy onions.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Live music and nightlife
Cass McCombs, Scala, TONIGHT, £17 adv. A Californian singer-songwriter, McCombs is probably better known for his unusual lifestyle – constantly moving from place to place, taking part-time jobs, conducting interviews by post, spending long periods living anonymously – than for his music.
Bear's Den, O2 Academy Brixton, Tue, £16.50. Anyone allergic to banjos or beards, be warned: this trio of hirsute Londoners have supported Mumford & Sons live and one of them co-runs Communion Records with the Mumfords' Ben Lovett.
Margaret Glaspy, Village Underground, Wed, £12.50 adv. Vocally Glaspy is a delight, managing to combine the cutesy, indie quirk of Joanna Newsom with the gut-wrenching sincerity that Laura Marling's tonality holds.
The Cinematic Orchestra, Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, Thu, £35. Jason Swinscoe's Ninja Tune project mixes up jazz improvisation, sampled soundtrack music, film images and dance music tropes, and really cuts the mustard in a live setting.
Lip Sync Ldn, Queen of Hoxton, Thu, £5 , £4 adv. Ever dreamed of a karaoke night with all the moves and swag... but none of the singing? Then join a live night that's just like Lip Sync Battle.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this week.
Film
Socialist Film Club: ‘Pride’, The Five Points Warehouse, Tue, £6, £4 concs. Slip into your Red Wedge t-shirt and your scuffed combat boots and head along to this new regular film-night fundraiser for the Hackney and Stoke Newington Labour Party.
Black Star: ‘Stormy Weather’ + Clarke Peters intro, BFI Southbank, Wed, £8.35–£11.75. The BFI’s Black Star season celebrates the work of cinema’s finest black actors, from Sidney Poitier to Will Smith.
French Film Festival: ‘Slack Bay’, Ciné Lumière, Thu, £12, £10 concs. The French Film Festival’s run at the Cine Lumiere comes to a close with Bruno Dumont’s brilliantly grotesque class comedy.
Or at the cinema...
The Light Between Oceans ★★★☆☆ Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander sprinkle star dust on this weepy about a couple living in an Australian lighthouse who discover a baby in a rowing boat.
You've Been Trumped Too ★★★☆☆ Anthony Baxter returns with a sequel to his 2011 doc about Donald Trump's bid to build a golf course in Scotland – bulldozing natural beauty and local opinion.
…or see all of the latest releases.
© Ellie Kurttz
Theatre
Cymbeline, Barbican Theatre, Thu, £10-£75. The RSC's grungy update on Shakespeare's late play has unavoidable Brexit parallels.
Comus – A Masque in Honour of Chastity, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, all week, £10-£62. A brilliantly larky update of a masque by John Milton.
Dead Funny, Vaudeville Theatre, all week, £15-£75. 'Dead Funny' takes place entirely in a suburban living room over two Wednesdays in 1992.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
Felicity Hammond, 'Unveiling the Facade', 2016. Courtesy the artist and Space In Between.
This week's best new art
Felicity Hammond: Public Protection, Private Collection, Space in Between, Wed-Thu, free. For her first solo exhibition, London-based artist Felicity Hammond throws us into an apocryphal building site/neon-tinged shanty town/post-apocalyptic metropolis.
Paul Nash, Tate Britain, all week, £16.50. At times, this is a gruelling show: Nash is a tightly wound artist and his variations on his themes can be hard to engage with. But it’s a rewarding one.
Flaming June: The Making Of An Icon, Leighton House Museum, all week, £12, £10 concs. The obvious star of this exhibition is ‘Flaming June’. It’s such an oddly shaped work, its perspective folded towards you: it looks like it should extend forever but it’s all scrunched up in the foreground.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win... a holiday to Walt Disney World in Florida
Grab... a ticket to an evening exploring the life of the iconic Emma Hamilton on Thursday November 17
Book… these gigs while you still can
Best of the blog
Here's a quick Q&A with our new Night Czar
In pictures: we tried out the new pop-up curling club on a rooftop in east London