Naomi Klein, in conversation with Madeleine Bunting Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 13th September 2007 "I am not a conspiracy theorist", insists Naomi Klein. Twice, in quick succession. Followed each time by a nervous laugh; a telling laugh. We are in the spacious surroundings of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, where Canadian journalist and activist Klein, whose 2000 book No Logo became a minor phenomenon in the halcyon days between the Seattle riots......

It might be September, but it’s looking like this week will be summery and gorgeous, which should let us all forget about a dismal August. However, if you don’t fancy nights in a beer garden in the warm weather, here are a few things to check out at home. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 10 September Dispatches: The Olympics Cash Machine (Channel 4, 20:00-21:00) Interested in learning how much the Olympics is really going......

Extremist literature in our libraries. Filed under 9/11 in the Dewey Decimal system? Man makes 15,000 nuisance phone calls. By way of community service, he's been given Bob Crow's number and unlimited calling credits. Alcoholic jockey tells court "Don't tag me, I won't be able to get my riding boots on". Sir Ian Blair receives another grilling over Menezes shooting. Image of the closing New Piccadilly Cafe courtesy of buckaroo kid via the Londonist......

Camden Fringe gig #3 finds us upstairs at the Liberties Bar for our first stand-up comedy show: Paul Kerensa with "Genesis". This is his first night of 6 at the Camden Fringe before he's off up to that other place, up there. No, not heaven. Edinburgh. As you might expect this is a comedy take on the many ludicrous stories in the first book of the Old Testament whilst pulling together comedy strands that......

Apologies for the first-person perspective - normal service will resume after this post. About a year ago, Phil, a friend of mine, had a run-in with the British Transport Police over the use of a four-letter word - "shit" - when describing the accuracy or otherwise of a metal detector set up at Highbury & Islington station. I witnessed the whole thing and wrote about it on Londonist; the story was then picked up......

This week - Adam Sandler's family were killed in 9/11 (Reign Over Me) and Ryan Gosling is a crack addict high school teacher (Half Nelson). Before we push on, it is only right that we warn you that Peter Bradshaw hasn't written any reviews for the films that we feature today. Even geniuses like him need a week off, even if he can watch a 2 hour film in 3 minutes superman stylee then......

If Islam had confessionals like the Catholic faith, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's imam would be a busy man. "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z." "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew Daniel Pearl." "I was responsible for planning, surveying and financing for the operation to destroy Heathrow Airport, the Canary Wharf building and Big Ben on British soil." These and around 30 other admissions......

Londonist loves a good protest; they're excellent for the constitution. Nothing like a nice amble all the way from Speaker's Corner to Trafalgar Square with 60,000 (or 2,000, or 100,000, depending on who you listen to) of your fellow Londoners, while carrying an "amusingly" modified placard expressing your outrage about something or other. Yes, Saturday was Stop Trident/Troops Out Of Iraq/Don't Attack Iran marching day, and so march we did, from that symbolic home......

Pakistan's president has claimed in his memoir that the Al Qaeda 'mastermind' behind 9/11 was also connected to the 7 July bombings. A 22-year-old man is being questioned by police over the death of Lucy Brahamm who was found stabbed to death at her parents' house in the grounds of Harrow School ten days ago. Looks like Frost/Nixon is going to make its way to Broadway and the big screen (with Ron Howard directing......

A particularly silly article entitled Is London the New New York? Or Is It the Other Way Around? appeared recently in the New York Sun. The main arguments for the immediate twinning of our two cities put forward by the hackette what wrote said article seem to be: A) Paul McCartney, Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna all own homes in both cities; B) sushi-lovers can choose to eat from at least two Nobu restaurants; C)......

With all the news of bomb plots and terrorist alerts over the past week, it's easy to forget that there are some innocent, vulnerable, mildly famous people out there who just aren't equipped to deal with all the stress. Take Bob Hoskins for example: Bob Hoskins was left terrified by last week's airport alerts after flying into Los Angeles from London, oblivious of a thwarted terrorist attack. The Mona Lisa star was on one......

This week - A documentary about Mongolian nomads (The Cave of the Yellow Dog), a music documentary about a hip hop concert in Brooklyn (Dave Chapelle's Block Party) and a teeny flick with Lyndsey Lohan and McFly (Just My Luck) You know that it is a week to go to the ice rink when the first film reviewed on Friday Film News is about the zen-like simplicity of the lives of Mongolian nomads. It......

This week’s roundup includes the terrorist highjacking of a plane (United 93), a huge capsizing oceangoing liner (Poseidon) and, as if to save us from all this calamity, a couple of french policemen (36). Interesting the theme for this week's crop of reviews is consensus amongst the reviewers. As a result, if you can't be bothered to read the rest - United 93 is very good, Poseidon is very rubbish and 36 is slightly......

While Bollywood still seems set to make their own London bombing movie, closer to home that colossus of insensitivity Alan Partridge is leaving the subject of London and terrorism well alone according to Twitch: the original script was scrapped as insensitive following the London subway bombing. Now, insensitivity is kind of the point of Partridge, so what put them over the edge? The film was intended to revolve around an Al Qaeda seige. I......

An article in yesterday's Observer has created quite a stir, with Cameron's mob now calling for an independent London bombings inquiry. The leaked report into July 7 seems to make clear that the bombers acted alone and had no direct connection with al-Qaeda: A Whitehall source said: 'The London attacks were a modest, simple affair by four seemingly normal men using the internet.' Today's Independent underlines the fact that the report paints a picture......

Paul Dadge, the ex-fireman who helped survivors of the July 7 bombings has criticised the ambulance service for its response to the attacks.. The Review Committee heard from 13 survivors and is expected to reveal its findings at the end of May. Police investigating the murder of Sally Anne Bowman are now trying to trace one of her regular customers.. The man who visited the hairdressing salon where she worked is not considered to......

These listings appear every Wednesday. If you want to let us know about any upcoming science or technology events, you can contact us on LondonistSciTech@Gmail.com Event Of The Week Tomorrow’s Tower Blocks: the Dana Centre Here’s a strange thought. Many Londoners can recall a time, only a little more than 40 years ago, when nothing was taller than St Paul’s. Now, there are around 20 structures that outreach the cathedral, with many more on......

There seems something oddly obscene about ITV's decision to make a programme about the public's favourite images of death, destruction, mayhem, murder, pain, suffering, and general shittiness (ITV 50: The Shot That Shook The World, Tue 9.45pm ITV1). So, which is your favourite picture of disaster - the man standing in the path of a tank in Tiananmen Square, or the little Vietnamese girl crying as her body is engulfed in flames? Vote now......

Neil Young - Prairie Wind As prodigious as he is unpredictable (this after all is a man whose record company once sued him for not sounding like himself), Neil Young's 41st solo record, just shy of his 60th birthday and recovering from an aneurysm that almost killed him earlier this year, finds him in a gentle, reflective mood on his strongest and most affecting album in ten years. Returning to his country folk roots,......

Charles Clarke seems determined to out-Blunkett his predecessor as much as possible and is preparing a new wave of anti-terrorism laws that go as far as offering a five year prison sentence to anyone who "glorifies, exalts or celebrates" any terrorist act committed over the past 20 years. This of course all hinges on the debate over what exactly constitutes an act of terrorism and the old chestnut of terrorist vs. freedom fighter. To......

Everyone has fond memories of Hi De Hi. Londonist used to watch, mouth agape, dumbfounded by the idea that anyone would consider enforced jollity and strictly regimented 'fun' to be their idea of a good holiday. The best thing about Hi De Hi was how it made this Londonista's usual holiday - a week in a tent in Wales - look like the epitome of holiday freedom by comparison. Sheep trying to eat the......

Is it yet possible to write something about German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen without mentioning his little 9/11 faux pas? (Oh wait, the Guardian just did...) For those of you who might not remember, just five days after September 11, that wacky Karlheinz declared at a press conference that the attack on the World Trade Center was, in fact, "das grosste Kunstwerk, das es je gegeben hat." For those of you with rusty German, that......

Julius Caesar has never been Londonist's favourite slice of Shakespeare, but a mouth watering preview of Deborah Warner's new production in yesterday's Observer grabbed our attention. First off, the onstage action makes a nice foil for the dull political shenanigans going on in the real world - although Warner herself believes the play to be the perfect tool to help us analyse Westminster and beyond: "This is a moment to look at issues of......

This week, if you're thinking of going to the pictures you've got a choice between a crazed asssassin in Washington, gun crime in Hackney...and Matthew McConaughey taking his shirt off in the desert. At least you can't complain that the choice isn't 'varied'. So first up: The Assassination of Richard Nixon. In the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw likes this one but not enough to give it more than the 'industry standard' three stars. "Sean Penn......