Is it just us or was January rubbish? Nice then that February, with its special extra day this year, commences with Brazilian Carnival, yummy pancakes and Chinese New Year... it's like a whole new start for 2008 and lots of it totally FREE! Monday: Get some Monday Love at the Inspiral Lounge, Camden Lock as UK Indymedia host their radical film, talk, and music night. Free entry for all those who still believe in......

Strictly Come Dancing may be but a glitzy, Christmas twinkle in the memory banks but for all of you that fell in love once more with the heat and hustle of the latin section, Samba Dance Club night at Sadlers Wells is something you need to know about. Starting at 7.15pm with a beginners class (ie you don't need to know ANYTHING) then progressing to intermediate at 8.15pm (for those of you with a......

The Christmas turkey is cold and in sandwiches. A few of us have struggled back to work, carrying surplus chocolate to the office in a desperate attempt to stop our expanding waistlines. Which must mean it's about time to start panicking about what to do on New Year's Eve. Aside from rammed pubs, pricey nightclubs and awkward parties in someone's frontroom, the main focus for London will be squarely on the London Eye. Since......

Anyone looking at this case for the first time would be dumbfounded. Were the Metropolitan Police Force in breach of health and safety laws when they shot an innocent man seven times in the head? Health and safety laws? Isn't that like prosecuting Genghis Khan for illegal immigration? Terminology aside, the Met were yesterday found guilty of endangering the public when, on 22 July 2005, they misidentified Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes as a......

Tutankamun's coming to town! First we had Anubis and now pyramids are popping up all over London. Created by Brazilian pop artist, cheeky looking Romero Britto, with the help of 1500 school kids, the biggest - a colourful 45fter - was unveiled at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park yesterday whilst its smaller sibling, just 25ft, will sit outside the O2 on Peninsula Square, guarding access to the first major exhibition at the sweetly named Bubble......

Londonist spent all of its money this week getting drunk at its 3rd birthday party. Hopefully, you were one of the many people who decided to join us. As a thank you, London On The Cheap is back (hurrah!) showing you what fun and fabulous free stuff you can entertain yourselves with next week: Sunday: We had an extra hour today so you get an extra day of news from us. Out to Lunch......

The Barbican's love of all things Brazilian continues this week, as it launches into a week-long season of Brazilian cinema that picks up where last year's Tropicalia left off. Cinema of Brazil: Literature into Film, presented in conjunction with the Embassy of Brazil, aims to 'celebrate the bond between literature and cinema in Brazil'. It's a neat idea, allowing curator Adriana Rouanet to cast her eye across the length and breadth of the country's......

In part two of our follow up to last year's article on which player's our Premiership clubs should buy we cover Tottenham, West Ham and Fulham. Click here to see yesterday's piece on Chelsea and Arsenal. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR What was the problem position? Left wing. What did the club do about it? Like rivals Arsenal over their goalkeeping situation, not much. Indeed, Spurs eventually sacrificed England world cup winger Aaron Lennon to the ol'......

This time last year, in the final few days before the closure of the international football transfer window, we took a look at where London's Premiership clubs needed strengthening and offered some friendly advice about a player we thought might fill a key squad gap for each of them. One year on we review what actually happened to both clubs and players and make our suggestions for this year's late purchases, once again taking......

After numerous appearances on the Continent, as well as performances at such legendary festivals as MUTEK and Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, we were beginning to think perhaps we smelled bad. Why else wouldn't Gui Boratto come to visit our lovely island? Thankfully we no longer need to be concerned about our possibly poor hygiene, for the kind souls at Allez-Allez have once again teamed with the Kompakt label, this time to bring the Brazilian......

What we now know about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes- * The stories that Jean Charles acted suspiciously by running away from the police and jumping the barriers at Stockwell tube are untrue. * He was not wearing a bulky jacket or a bomb belt with visible wires hanging out. * Members of the police force knew this (for instance, the ones that followed and shot him.) * Senior officers knew that......

If you're anything like Londonist, you're saving up to go on holiday somewhere sunny (well let's face it, it's not going to happen here any time soon). So, like us, you'll be watching the pennies this week. This means we can't go and see David Suchet at Theatre Royal Haymarket, or go and watch the new Simpsons Movie. We're very annoyed about this, so we've found some exciting free stuff to do instead: Monday:......

Londonist ask that most pressing of daily concerns: where to go on your lunch break. Canela Café 33 Earlham Street WC2H 9LS Map Average Lunch Price: Ranges from less than £2 to more than £10 Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Just up from Covent Garden, Canela offers a range of lunch options with Portuguese/Brazilian sensibility. Londonist had the feijoada, the national dish of Brazil featuring black beans and rice with smoked meats, accompanied by......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

Well this was kind of inevitable: A drama about a Brazilian man killed by police in London is being filmed... Mango Films will focus on events before the death of Jean Charles de Menezes - mistaken for a suicide bomber - and the impact on London's Brazilian community. Hmmm. For every great movie like United 93 there seems to be a complete mess like World Trade Center so it's a worry as to how......

This is a tricky one. Do we really need a permanent SAS unit on standby 24/7 in London? Well, we've got one: The basing of a unit from the elite special forces regiment “in the metropolitan area” is intended to provide the police with a combat-proven ability to deal with armed terrorists in the capital. The small unit also includes surveillance specialists and bomb-disposal experts. Although the Metropolitan Police has its own substantial firearms......

"Can we turn the lights red?" asked Nouvelle Vague singer Phoebe Killdeer during last Saturday's concert at the Bloomsbury Ballroom. "Deep red, passionate red, blood red," she intoned melodramatically. As the lights stayed candy pink, she replied gothically, "...or pink will do". The quip characterises the French band's wry take on New Wave. Covering angsty guitar and synth songs with a whole other new wave, Brazilian Bossa Nova, jazz and sixties pop, the resulting......

It's a kid-friendly crawl this weekend, by which we mean there's lots of stuff to see and do that would please children and the perpetually nostalgic. Get your scarf, woolly hat and mittens and go out to play. Until 3 December Toys@Oxo 2006 is the annual show from the British Toymakers Guild and everything on display is also for sale. The automata, dolls, teddy bears, puzzles and games, glove puppets, hobby horses, wooden toys......

The clubbing part of Londonist are about to jump in a car and head down to dance to Sasha and only the bloody Pet Shop Boys at Bestival (thanks to everyone who entered our competition to win tickets, but you should have read the date - it was 2005!). Before we whizz down to Portsmouth though, we thought we'd better fill those of you left in London as to what's going on this weekend.......

Watch your step this weekend: there is a veritable feast of festivals for Londoners starting from tomorrow until the last person stands partying on Sunday. You're very likely to just trip over one. Cardinal Place Carnival This new shopping and dining area in Victoria is putting itself on the map as a chic and unique place to spend your money and eat well. It is very definitely not a shopping centre and attempts to......

The Portobello Film Festival started in 1996 and it has grown and expanded to become the UK's biggest independent film festival, going from 1,000 visitors back then to over 15,000 last year. Every film submitted is screened, entry is free to all events and there has never been a fixed venue: each year, the organisers book themselves into places ranging from church halls to night clubs to parks, tents, cafes and bars. Starting from......

Last Friday night, a 35-year-old a Brazilian man, was stabbed to death yards from his home in Fairbanks Road, Tottenham. Yesterday morning a huge fire broke out on the set of the new James Bond movie at Pinewood Studios. Thames Water is going to tap into the city's underground water reserves for the second time this year. They usually only have to resort to the aquifers once every ten years. A married, British Transport......

The sun is shining, the music is high... why walk when you can dance? There are loads and loads of events taking place between today and the last night of the Big Dance Festival on Sunday, so many that we can't list them all here. Most events are free and range from taster classes in ceroc, lindy hop and tango to dance displays at places like the Trocadero to big shows at Sadlers Wells......

Note: I am breaking with the Londonist 'no first person singular' rule thing because this is an account of a specific incident that affected me and may not represent the views of the entire Londonist team. Also, this post contains naughty words that might warp your fragile little mind; be warned! I read Thursday's edition of the Independent - the article that could get you arrested - and was vaguely worried by its evocation......

Okaaay...there's lots to do that isn't football or Europride, so start crawling with Londonist from tomorrow... Friday 30 June The Sprite Urban Games start today - three days of extreme sports at Clapham Common. The world's best BMX, Motocross and skateboard riders will be present as well as opportunities to breakdance and freestyle all over the place. Even if you're not competing or body-popping, there's the latest of all urban outfitters and stalls for......

Relatives of Jean Charles de Menezes joined with protestors in voicing their criticism over the handling of the recent terror raid in East London: Mr Menezes' cousins Alex Pereira and Patricia Armani wore Brazilian football shirts with Menezes and the number 27 on the back. They spoke at the rally, criticising police tactics during the raid on the two brothers. Yasmin Khan, a spokeswoman for the de Menezes campaign, said: "The family are here......

You could be forgiven for thinking that Spain qualify for each world cup finals tournament and then always collapse spectacularly in the first two matches, going home early despite scoring a truckload in game three. Just goes to show how France '98 seared itself on the public consciousness. In fact that’s the only time in the last six world cups that they’ve failed to escape their group. However, they’ve not been to the last......

We at Londonist enjoy a shock prediction as much as the next tournament previewer, but Brazil are going to win this group. Comfortably. We just don’t think they’ll win the cup. It’s likely they will score eight or more goals in the opening three games such is the awesome nature of an attack that will critically puncture most opposition, but in the knockout stages the better teams and the more sophisticated coaches might start......

We gave you the schedule for Friday and Saturday yesterday and you shouldn't be either bored or out of pocket by the end of it (just keep an eye on the time and keep going). If you're still thirsting for things to see and do, we've got a few more suggestions and a useful timetable to make sure you fit it all in... Saturday 27 May Though we mentioned lots of things to do......

With world cup nostalgia beginning to surge across the media you might have been watching all that retina-etchingly vivid footage of Mexico '70 and thought to yourself, "I wonder where that promising young lad, Pelé is now?" Well, dear Londonist reader, wonder no more! The world's equal best footballer of the last century (it's complicated... ask Fifa and Diego Maradona) is making himself available to shake you by the hand in the capital this......