Our weekly roundup of film reviews returns, courtesy of James Bryan… As we wallow in the truly miserable news that Aliens Vs Predator made more money at the box office last week than No Country for Old Men, we sigh and turn our attentions to this week’s offerings. The three biggest releases this week are all stamped with Oscar. We’ve got Johnny Depp singing in Cockney and slicing throats in Sweeney Todd, Tommy Lee......

It’s almost Christmas! Over the Christmas holidays, we’ll be here every day recommending the best of what’s on television. We’ll do the hard work, slogging through the TV listings, and let you sit back with a nice hot drink and a mince pie. Enjoy! On TV, Londonist likes: Strictly Come Dancing (BBC1, 17:50-19:15 and 21:25-22:10) While we haven’t been keeping up with the excitement of this year’s dancing fun, we know lots of you......

30. Phantom Assailants: Part Two One hundred years before the fog-saturated reign of Jack The Ripper there was the London Monster of 1788 (see previous episode). Fifty years later came the bewildering spectacle of the iron-clawed Spring Heeled Jack (episode 11), another tormentor and slasher of females. Fast-forward almost thirty-years and gasp at the horror of the Phantom Skirt-Slasher Of Piccadilly, who for a terrifying reign of six-months prowled the London underground like some......

"Non Stop Neurotic Cabaret" is a good tagline to attract our interest but calling a club Big Sexy Land? Well the name enough has put a few of our friends off coming to this great night at The Phoenix on Cavendish Square, merely because they thought we were taking them to a dodgy strip club. That is not the case. Instead it's a monthly club night held in both London and Manchester set up......

Not only is Steven Lindsay in possession of a spellbinding voice that's as rich in tone and nuance as a vintage claret, there is also a queue of admirers for the cinematic songs he fashions for it. Keane’s Tom Chaplin and novelist Ian Rankin joined a chorus of critical praise for Lindsay’s 2004 solo debut, Exit Music, and now the urbane singer/songwriter from Glasgow, once leader of chart act The Big Dish, is preparing......

Robin Ince is a stand up comedian and writer. By all accounts he is very good and has had his fingers in many pies. Robin is also the founder of The Book Club, a nomadic club night. The club has proved to be so successful that Robin took it on a full UK tour this year and also won the Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy. This weekend, on the 17th December,......

If you haven't already heard, The Woodentops are back, reforming for their first live dates in 14 years. Unlike other reformed bands, The Woodentops line-up will be the same people - front man Rolo, Benny Staples on drums, Frank de Freitas on bass and Simon Mawby on guitar - that scored a string of hits in the 80s, including Good Thing, Well Well Well and Move Me. They disbanded in 1992 but the enduring......

A week or so ago, we were trundling down Tottenham Court Road underground station dreading the face-sweating levels of heat that were about to hit us when we heard something we thought was rather wonderful. While buskers have got much better since the Underground introduced their licensing laws a few years ago, most of the time we don't pay attention to them unless they're drunk and they're the bongo man at Bank. This time......

The Astoria, one of the very best British venues and a favorite haunt of any live music loving Londoner is apparently doomed: Late last week, development company Derwent Valley struck a deal with Mean Fiddler worth almost £24m, and are rumoured to be planning to turn the aging theatre into a new development of shops, office space and flats. Derwent already own much of the land and buildings surrounding the Astoria, and could develop......

LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes. DCist rides the Metro in Caracus, Venezuela and sees a few similarities to the District's Metro. The city also mimics L.A. by expanding its Scientology presence and attempts to make like an actual State with votes in Congress and everything. Austinist......

And so it was decreed that on the 23rd day of January after having taken Christmas off to let the punters indulge themselves in X-Factor winners and soft rock compilation albums, proper music would rise again from the ashes of the yule fireplace, shake out it's lurid feathers and start rocking. Should we read today then as an omen for what's to come? Who cares. First up (in true bad punning style) it's Ricky......

We figured after yesterday's love of The JCB Song you may be worrying that Londonist is getting a little soft. To rectify that we decided to trawl up some METAL* news for you and prove we're still caught in the proverbial mosh. First up hands up everyone who remembers Poison. Nice. They were of course the straight to video version of Motley Crue - Christ knows what that makes Tigertailz (from Wailz). Anyway we......