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Sip on spiced booze at a mulled wine festival in Covent Garden, get your peepers on those pics of Kim and Kanye at Juergen Teller's latest exhibition, or celebrate Red Bull Studios' fifth birthday with a week brimming with parties, workshops and events. Enjoy!
Things to do
The Happiness Project, Roundhouse, Tue-Thu, £12.50, £5 16-25s. Six scientists and academics have joined forces with a group of young artists to create (and perform) this piece of contemporary theatre which explores our understanding of happiness and well-being.
Birdies Crazy Golf Club, The Vaults, Wed-Thu,£9. The people behind Rooftop Film Club are turning Waterloos underground railway tunnels into a nine-hole crazy golf course this winter featuring loops, half pipes and plenty more to challenge putters.
Country Living Christmas Fair, Business Design Centre, Wed-Thu, £18. Gather the ideas, inspiration and materials to turn your home into a festive paradise at the Country Living Christmas Fair, an annual event offering entertainment, workshops and pampering sessions alongside the usual gifts and supplies.
Carnaby Christmas Shopping Party and Christmas Lights Switch On, Carnaby Street, Thu, free. The pedestrianized shopping haven in Soho is always inventive with its Christmas decorations, and this huge event featuring discounts, live music and free in store activities is a fitting celebration for their 'switch on'.
Grant Museum After Hours: Adventures in Gibbon-ology, Grant Museum of Zoology, Thu, free. Join Professor Helen Chatterjee MBE to celebrate these charismatic apes that are so often overlooked in favour of their larger cousins.
Tintin: Hergé's Masterpiece, Somerset House, Thu, free. Held in the Terrace Rooms, this free exhibition will use artefacts from the Hergé Museum in Brussels to explore both Tintin and his creator.
…or check out more events happening in London this week.
Eating and drinking
Mulled Wine Festival, Covent Garden Piazza, Thu, free. Just when you thought the capital couldn't get any more Christmassy, London's first mulled wine festival fills Covent Garden with the comforting smell of spiced booze.
Dinerama, Shoreditch Yard, Thu, £3, free before 7pm. Street Feast's Shoreditch street food mecca has had a Winter makeover so that we can continue to eat, drink and be merry no matter what the weather.
Billingsgate Festive Canapé Class, Billingsgate Seafood School, Thu, £50. If you're planning a festive shindig this Christmas but aware you need to improve on that sad bowl of peanuts you served last year, book yourself on to one of these courses at the Billingsgate Seafood School where you'll learn to rustle up delicious canapés that will wow your party guests.
Le Bun at Le Zetter, Zetter, Thu. The Zetter Hotel's restaurant and bar is being turned into a neon- and meat-filled diner by street food favourites Le Bun for a five-week residency.
…or check out the latest restaurant reviews.
Comedy
Helm's Angels, Ape & Bird, Tue, £10. British Comedy Award-winning bombastic comedy force Nick Helm hosts this intimate, monthly club at the fancy Popla Ape and Bird restaurant.
Alfie Brown: Ism, Soho Theatre, Wed-Thu, £12.50, £10 concs. Stand-up Alfie Brown – easily one of the bravest voices on the comedy circuit right now – unapologetically tackles difficult topics with profound intelligence and sharp wit.
Vyse Squad, Camden Comedy Club, Thu, free. Batshit crazy character comic Beth Vyse hosts this experiment night, where her comedy pals can try out whatever they want, or just make stuff up on the spot.
Mike Wozniak: One Man Dad Cat Band, The Invisible Dot Ltd, all week, £7-£8. 'Man Down' star Mike Wozniak says his new stand-up show is a mix of 'personal horror, outrage and facts'. But it's best to take that all with a pinch of salt.
…or check out all the critics’ choice comedy shows.
Live music
Joanna Newsom, Eventim Apollo Hammersmith, TONIGHT, £30.50-£33.50. Captivatingly weird and wondrous singer-songwriter Newsom has proved over several albums that she’s much more than a harp-plucking folk pixie. Don’t miss out as on her run of UK live shows following ‘Divers’, her first album in five years.
Ms Mr, Electric Brixton, Tue, £15. NYC’s girl-guy duo MM come off like a depressed Florence Welch making out with Poliça and The XX on a bed of crushed velvet, which is good.
Dan Croll, Hoxton Hall, Wed, £12.50. Breezy beat-popper Croll headlines with tracks from his debut album 'Sweet Disarray' and newer stuff too.
Tala, ICA , Wed, £12.50. Trippy R&B from Anglo-Iranian singer-songwriter-producer Tala, who’s well worth keeping an eye on – particular if you’re a fan of MIA’s culture-mashing club bangers.
The Fall, Clapham Grand, Wed, £25. Sarky Mark E Smith and his freaky bunch of post-punk renegades return to the capital.
Kurt Vile & The Violators, Electric Ballroom, Thu, £17.50. Formerly best known for collaborating with Philadelphia noise-rockers The War On Drugs, Vile's brilliant last album 'Wakin on a Pretty Daze' has made him a major live draw in his own right.
…or take a look at all the live music events in London this week.
Nightlife
Minimalism with Juan Atkins, XOYO, Wed, £15. Mighty Detroit techno futurist Juan Atkins leads this innovative, ace-looking event, hosted by Gabriel Prokofiev's Nonclassical label/event crew and Paris team Marathon!.
Night Tales: Tokyo Nights, Red Market, Thu, £3-£5. A Tokyo-themed pop-up party and cocktail bar in a Shoreditch market space, with top DJs, plus Japanese-inspired food and drink.
Red Bull Studios Fifth Birthday Week, Red Bull Studios, all week, Free, but tickets required for individual events. What did you do for your fifth birthday? Chances are that it probably wasn't anywhere near as fun or cool as the programme of events and parties that ever-innovative recording facility and music hub Red Bull Studios has lined-up.
…or see all the parties planned this week.
Brooklyn
Film
‘How I Live Now’ + Kevin Macdonald Q&A, Highgate Library and Civic Centre, Tue, free. ‘Last King of Scotland’ director Kevin Macdonald introduces his startling, powerful teen movie, one of the most underrated British films of recent years.
Mycenae Film Club: ‘The Tailor of Panama’, Mycenae Community Cinema, Wed. Smuggling, larceny, character assassination and subversion: John le Carré and director John Boorman get away with murder here.
Or at the cinema...
Brooklyn ★★★★★ Colm Toibin's novel of Irish immigration to the US becomes a devastating melodrama with a soaring performance by Saoirse Ronan.
…or see all of the latest releases.
© Johan Persson
Theatre
Harlequinade, Garrick Theatre, Mon-Wed, from £15. This sparkling Terence Rattigan double bill is the strongest of the opening plays in Kenneth Branagh's West End season.
Anita and Me, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Tue-Thu, £7-£23.50. Meera Syal’s bestselling novel gets a thumping Bollywood soundtrack in this big-hearted new musical.
As You Like It, Olivier Theatre, all week, £15-£55. An endearingly eccentric production of Shakespeare's maddest comedy.
…or see our theatre critics’ choices.
This week's best new art
Juergen Teller, Phillips, Tue-Thu, free. Covering three of Teller's recent projects, the big draw of this selling show will undoubtedly be the bizarre series of images of Kim and Kanye taken this spring in the grounds of Château d'Ambleville, France.
Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, Tate Modern, Wed-Thu, £14.50-£18. The man who made sculpture a truly moving experience gets his first major UK show for over 50 years. Alexander Calder (1989-1976) came of age in the early decades of the twentieth century and, capturing the era’s fascination with speed, he created an art of movement for a dynamic new society.
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors, The Vinyl Factory Space, Wed-Thu, free. Ahead of the Icelandic artist's major survey at the Barbican next year, The Vinyl Factory present his nine-screen installation, 'The Visitors' shot on location in a grand dilapidated house in New York state.
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Thu, £4. The prestigious photographic portrait award returns with a showcase of the most talented photographers presenting an ambitious approach to portraiture today.
…or see all London art reviews.
And finally
Win... a £1000 cottage break and Virgin Experience Days voucher or win 25 pairs of festive tokens for the opening night at Winterville
Grab... tickets to 'Beautiful – The Carole King Musical' plus a post-show Q&A on November 17
Book… these gigs while you still can
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