If so, you’re probably better poised than we are to win a contest kicking off today. So listen up artists, armchair critics, and wannabe designers: HarperCollins, in collaboration with the Saatchi Gallery, are sponsoring a competition to design a book cover for the forthcoming The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal, Sean Dixon’s debut novel. To all our artsy readers: opportunity knocks (though we’re not making any claims about fame and fortune). The collaboration......

He’s climbed the world’s most iconic structures from the Eiffel Tower to the Petronas Towers. But French ‘Spiderman’ Alain Robert chose a curious challenge during his trip to London yesterday: Portland House on Victoria Street. Here’s the brute. As in, here’s Portland House, not Monsieur Robert. He’s much more gorgeous, see ---> The Gallic climber scaled the 320 ft building as a protest against climate change. On reaching the top, he was arrested for wasting......

Heads up people: the East London Line closes this Saturday. It will undergo a magical transformation that will take rather a long time but the line will reemerge from a 3 year chrysalis as a beautiful section of the newly tangerine London Overground network, linking the North and East London railways. You'll eventually be able to travel from Richmond in the West all the way round in a massive arterial horseshoe via the existing......

Many thanks to our friends at Torontoist who have sent us this link to a fantastic panorama plaything of the 02 centre. Created by Torontoist's panoramaist Tony Makepeace, this wonderful thing was part of his trip to see Led Zeppelin play in our fair city and it's quite a joy to zoom in, swoop about and fly around the venue. Check it out here. It's a pleasure and a very nice Christmas gift from......

View Larger Map So what happened to all those lovely new towers we were promised? The Shard, the helter-skelter, the cheesegrater and their friends have been around as designs for years. But where have they got to? If you've checked the City skyline lately, you'll notice it's all cranes. Things are finally happening and everything's in place for a new-look London for 2011. Here's a tour of five of the more prominent sites, all of......

The breathlessly international Bicycle Film Festival is seven years old this year and it is rolling into London with a string of cool films and even cooler parties and exhibitions, from Wednesday 17 October to Sunday 21 October. Films about two-wheel transport range from modern-day radicalism in Canada to gruelling fundraising cycle hikes over the Alps, from the factory floor in America to changing lives in Ghana, a helmet-camera tour of several international cities......

It's entirely in the nature of ducks that they can fly under the radar, but only in fairy tales do kings arrive unannounced. Nevertheless, even those who would count themselves fans of ice hockey may be surprised to learn that the O2 Arena this weekend hosts not just one, but two clashes between a pair of North American professional teams. And not just a pre-season slapabout, mind you. These are the opening fixtures of......

Finding venues for Friday and Saturday's fixtures was a piece of cake compared to this! But no nation should be left out - what with the world being in union and all that. Fiji v Canada Sunday 16, 13.00 UK time from the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Canadians! Seek the Maple Leaf. Drink Molson. Forget hockey. Fijians - listen up. We have important news for you and your Polynesian rivals below. Meet us one paragraph down.........

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

Huge hangover? Spent all of your money? Yep, us too. So we can't go and watch Barbara Streisand (though we don't think we'll ever be that rich) and we can't go and see Elling. But, here's a few things you can do this week to make things a little easier on your pocket. Monday: Been a while since you've seen a good film? Then the Canary Wharf Summer Series at Canada Square park should......

We don't talk about opera enough on Londonist so here's a double-whammy of high notes and hollering... For the full Royal Opera House effect without going to the Royal Opera House, the BP Summer Screen brings Tosca to the masses tonight. Puccini's tale of love, murder, deception, jealousy and all the other standard opera elements is being broadcast live from the Royal Opera House on big screens in Canada Square (Canary Wharf), Victoria Park......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 25th June 1953: John Christie is sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, whose body was found with several others hidden beneath the floorboards of his house in Notting Hill, West London. His conviction casts serious doubts on a previous murder trial that resulted in the conviction and execution of his fellow tenant Timothy Evans, who would be posthumously pardoned in 1966. The resulting controversy......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

London's running schedule is hotting up next month. Alongside the capital's tussle with Liverpool and Glasgow on the morning of Sunday 3 June, workers in The City and Docklands have their own chances to nip out, buy some emergency trainers and get some kilometres under their belts (which might be straining if they've been investing their inflated xmas bonuses in too much rich food and Krug). First up we have the Canary Wharf Jog......

Those of you familiar with the superb Canada-based band Metric (see here and here and indeed here for past mentions) will know that frontwoman Emily Haines recently released a solo album full of deliciously dark piano ballads called "Knives Don't Have Your Back". You'll also know that she's playing songs off that album at Bush Hall on Saturday 2nd June, and that you can get the cheapest tickets here. For the rest of you, see......

Britain's largest ever property deal has seen HSBC complete the sale of their headquarters at 8 Canada Square, Canary Wharf for a whopping £1.09 billion to Spanish property firm Metrovacesa. HSBC will pay £870 million over the period to Metrovacesa in return for 20 years lease of the tower and have options for a further five years. 8 Canada Square is the joint second tallest building in the UK at 199.5 metres and has......

With One Canada Square already taking the award for the tallest phallic symbol in the country, it’s not as if Canary Wharf was short of innuendo in its mighty structures. So what’s the deal with this new erection in Jubilee Park? Seriously. Do all those suited boys and girls really need to get any more sexed-up than they already are?......

From the Beeb. The cast and creators of Monty Python musical Spamalot are hoping to set a new record for the world's largest coconut orchestra...The public will be given a pair of coconuts to "clip-clop" in time to the Python classic Always Look On The Bright Side of Life. Gallop over to Trafalgar Square (site of a former royal stables) on St George's Day (23 April) to take part, followed by a screening of......

This Day In London’s History 1916: Prolific actor Eric Christmas is born in London. OK, so it’s slim pickings this week in terms of interesting London-related events that have taken place on this date. But we did discover that the wonderfully-named Eric Cuthbert Christmas was born on 19th March 1916 in London, and in the absence of anything more interesting occurring on this date in London we thought we would find out a little......

John Inman has died at the age of 71: "John was known for his comedy plays and farces which were enjoyed from London's West End throughout the country and as far as Australia, Canada and the USA." Inman's Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "John was one of the wittiest and most inventive actors I've ever worked with. "He was a brilliant, brilliant pantomime dame and he......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the opportunity to gossip about it.......

Congratulations to Stef Penney on winning the Whitbread Costa book of the year prize. Her novel, 'The Tenderness of Wolves' set in northern Canada in the 1860s was written and researched at the British Library. Walworth is not the best place to buy cosmetics unless you're a sucker for side effects. West Ham have been told they can't play in the new Olympic stadium. Iron Maiden will not be pleased. And bad news too......

We were going to write a long detailed explanation of why we're once again doing a weekly blog roundup and then realised that only a few days (and a few centuries) ago Samuel Pepys had done the job for us: (Lord’s day). Lay long in bed, and then up, and being desirous to perform my vowes that I lately made, among others, to be performed this month, I did go to my office, and......

Today is Australia Day. Tonight there will be a huge amount of drunken Australians celebrating in this city. Here are three stereotypes about Australians living in London: 1. They see their homeland as some kind of utopia. If home is so perfect, then why are they HERE?? 2. They have a collective gang mentality that sees them mix only with their own and contribute nothing to the wider community, adopting the very worst aspects......

Eurovision Song Contest. Those three words have garnered so much undeserved scorn. And all because a bunch of singers representing countries come together on a big stage somewhere in Europe to sing some songs with poppy, up-beat melodies and sugary lyrics. What could be more fun? Hello. I'm Adrian, and I'm Londonist's shiny new Eurovision correspondent. I'm in love with Eurovision for its cheesy music, its wonderful sparkly spectacle, its joyous nationhood and its......

Morden’s Good Shoes have spent the past 2 years since their formation in 2005 traipsing around the UK and Europe with their brand of two-and-half-minute guitar pop with a hint of a punk edge. Comprised of lead singer/guitarist Rhys Jones, guitarist Steve Leach, bassist Joel Cox, and drummer Tom Jones, they have already released 3 singles, played at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and been mentioned in the NME (but then again, who hasn’t).......

Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways has announced a new London-U.S. route to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to begin on 23 April, 2007. This will help open up Virgin to the midwest and heartland of the U.S. It will also be a convenient hub for travel to and from Canada and the north and northwest of the USA. Currently the only direct flights to Canada Virgin provides stop at Ottawa and Quebec, leaving the western......

While the London Film Festival was having its gala opening in Leicester Square, a decidedly less glitzy and less James McAvoy-related film gathering was taking place down at BAFTA headquarters over on Piccadilly. Just Watch Me: Award Winning Canadian Short Films brought together some classic National Film Board cartoons with newer shorts by David Cronenberg, Guy Maddin and Chris Landreth (who won the Oscar in 2005 for his animated film Ryan). Also, there was......