Tra la, it’s May, the lusty month of May – and we, apparently, feel like singing. Is it the gorgeous weather? The lovely literary events in our diary? Our trips up and down the too-hot-to-trot Northern Line? The Pimm’s coursing through our veins? (No, surely not that.) Need to ramp up your own book lust for the week? Then have a gander at our groceries: Wednesday: Your choice of poetry events today: As part......

Cadbury creme eggs! Don’t you just love ’em? Ha ha, the book grocer sure does! Advance apologies if this week’s serving is full of even more exclamations than usual – we just might be hyped up on milk chocolatey goodness right now. Eventually we’ll crash, feel a bit ill, and begin to suspect that the beady little eyes on those choco bunnies are watching our every move. If the same happens to you (or......

Beware the pornographic perils of Bluetooth Chelsea Barracks sold for incredible £959 million - expect imminent Sloane explosion as 2000 luxury apartments move in Afghanistan soldiers' exhibition up for award at National Army Museum Home time warning - trains between London and Milton Keynes are suspended Happy birthday Thames Barrier, 25 today! Image courtesy of Simon Crubellier via the Londonist flickr group.......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 5th November 1605: Following a tip-off, a party of armed men led by a Justice of the Peace discover Guy Fawkes guarding a large amount of gunpowder and incendiary materials in the vaults under the House of Lords. Tuesday – 6th November 1869: Queen Victoria opens Blackfriars Bridge, and then Holborn Viaduct. Wednesday – 7th November 1783: John Austin, having been convicted for ‘cruel highway robbery’, becomes......

London Ambulance Service is the best. And it has the best blogger, too. Just as well, because gun crime has risen 10%. Free wifi on London to Milton Keynes bus route. At last, a reason to go to the new town. Securitas robbers sported 'false noses, chins, moustaches, stubble and hairlines'. Putney's rear of the year fought off 'rear-ly tough competition' by showing off 'her best ass-et'. Image of Primrose Hill courtesy of ignacio......

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......

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, will talk about her new book The Shock Doctrine tomorrow evening at the South Bank Centre. Sounds like it’s going to be a big seller… Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting, Klein reveals that our world is increasingly in thrall to a little understood ideology that is conquering the globe by systematically exploiting moments of disaster and trauma. This is the shock doctrine.......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 4th June 1762: A newly installed peal of ten bells at St Mary-le-Bow church in the City is rung for the first time to mark the 25th birthday of George III. Tuesday – 5th June 1734: The Bank of England’s current premises on Threadneedle Street are opened for business. Wednesday – 6th June 1997: Another anniversary for the Bank of England, which uses its newly granted independence......

Maybe it's the heat, but May in London has become a veritable political gay-fest. Last week, a gay man took the helm of Richmond Borough Council for the first time, and announced 'diversity' as a key theme for his year in office. This happens just as rumours intensify that popular gay copper Brian Paddick might run for London Mayor. And now, to complete the hat-trick, the leader of Westminster Council came out in some......

Bugger the football, the only thing the music kids here at Londonist are bothered about at Wembley is when it will be ready for gigs. Bon Jovi, Take That, and Robbie Williams were all shunted off to Milton Keynes Bowl when the stadium failed to open in time for their planned concerts over the summer, but now another band are staking a claim that they will be the first people to play at Wembley......

As far as comebacks go All Saints making their mark back on the pop scene is our favourite. Yeah sure, we were there at Milton Keynes screaming along to Take That back in the summer, but when we're talking new material our favourite fighting girl group have taken the edge with Rocksteady. After our Lily Allen giveaway last month, our friends at 3FrontRoom have offered us tickets to their next special event, and yup......

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 Download, The Isle Of White Festival and Bon Jovi's Milton Keynes shows all coming this weekend, festival season is well and truly upon us. For agrophobics everywhere else, may we suggest the following for consideration. Tonight: Upbeat, uncynical quirky Brit punky pure pop from Circuits upstairs at the Garage alongside Popular Workshop and LR Rockets. £5 in, doors at 8. Tuesday: From those nice folks who bring you Rock'n'Roll Soul and Health and......

La forza d'un bel viso a che mi sprona? C'altro non è c'al mondo mi diletti: ascender vivo fra gli spirti eletti per grazia tal, c'ogni altra par men buona. Se ben col fattor l'opra suo consuona, che colpa vuol giustizia ch'io n'aspetti, s'i' amo, anz'ardo, e per divin concetti onoro e stimo ogni gentil persona? We're currently lucky enough in this town to have the chance to see Michelangelo's drawings in the Michelangelo......

Dear Sir, I wish to complain, in the strongest possible terms, about the amount of cockfun on general show in London. You recently highlighted a case, highly disturbing to my mind, of the Victorian pub windows etched with images of spasming cream cannons. Imagine my disgust, therefore, at encountering this foul window display in the Covent Garden area. I am highly concerned with the flagrant exhibition of stud undies, willy soap-dispensers and drinking bottles......

With news that Wembley's Take That concert has been moved to Milton Keynes Bowl, 90s pop fans across London must be feeling a bit grumpy. But have no fear, for tickets have today gone on sale for what sound like two of the most unnecessary come-backs going... First up, it's the street version of Take That, London's very own East 17. Clocking up twelve top ten hits including a Xmas number 1 between 1992......

It's not a great news Friday what with Wembley not being Wembley, tube lines closing and the fact that there's going to be a huge shortage of coke this weekend. So here's one to warm your wellies as you wait for the weekend to wash away your working worries. A Wycombe pensioner has been given a bus pass valid for 203 years. Sprightly seventy one year old Elizabeth Bateman's pass, issued as part of......

The money pit known as Wembley Stadium is now not due to open until 2007. Bon Jovi, Take That, Robbie Williams and the Rolling Stones have now been cast to the four winds - they'll probably relocate to Twickenham and erm Milton Keynes. Anyone who has tickets for those shows - your band and your stadium sucks. Little setbacks like blowing £757m on a glorified playground have not dampened our enthusiasm for the Olympics.......

Since the tube map of music failed to give Heavy Metal it's own line, even though we Brits practically invented the bloody thing, we thought we'd redress the balance by concentrating this week on a couple of shows that will echo as much to the sound of creaking limbs as they do to that of screaming electric guitars. First off there's that contentious additional Bon Jovi date at what will by then be the......

Detectives are now putting up £5,000 for information leading to his arrest. Officers warned people not to approach him as he is considered dangerous. Earl White, wanted for murder. "The shots started firing and all I could hear was my baby brother calling me, trying to save me". Barrington Williams-Samuels, killed by submachine-gunfire. "Of particular importance are children and those trafficked both from abroad and within the country". Police raid brothels, including two in......

Now that the Pop Kid, the Noisy one and the Club Londonista have all had their say, it falls to Ricky to throw in his two cents. For want of a better pseudonym, let's call him RiotRicky. More appropriate job titles on a postcard please, along with your pick of last year's music. Top Ten Singles: Bloc Party - Pioneers Green Day - Holiday The Eels - Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) Weezer......

Every minute of receeding daylight heralds the approach of the end of the year list and the NME kicked things off in their paper issue today with their top 25 gigs of the year, as voted for by you, the reader. Well it says that but with categories of Most Pissed (The Duke Spirit in Cheltenham), and Best Costumes (Circulus at the Tapestry Festival which as far as we can tell had only the......

They may not have made it into Channel 4's greatest gigs of all time but for the 130 000 who made it, it was probably pretty damn close, for the rest of us there's this: Green Day - Bullet In A Bible (Live CD/DVD) (Reprise) With American Idiot, Green Day pulled off what will probably become known the most emphatic comeback in music history, probably even eclipsing that of Tony "Amarillo" Christie (sorry, Tony).......

Londonist is as addicted to buying DVDs as everyone else, so it made sense that we should start a regular column to highlight the little laser-etched treats coming your way over the next week or so. Let us know what you think in the comments. Well folks, it's getting to the time of year when the likes of Chegwin, Biggins and Daniels descend begrudgingly upon [enter the name of your hometown here] to switch......

Those are the words of Mayor Ken Livingstone, one of the quotes etched into a plaque commemorating the victims of the July 7th bombings. It also reads: "Under this tree people of all faiths and nationalities, united in grief, laid wreaths in memory of those killed on 7th July 2005, following the attacks on London's public transport system." Along with Ken's quote is this from Simon Milton, the Westminster Council leader: "For all Londoners in......

So it was the week that the Crazy Frog beat Coldplay to the number one slot, and suddenly everyone cares about the singles chart again! Still at least Coldplay's X&Y was leaked on to file sharing networks (not free music sites as you might like to call them) before Froggy has even hit the studio, so kudos to the band there. Of course it will mean that EMI's share prices will fall through the......

Have we moaned about the transport system in London enough today? Maybe...but, hey, if the news is there we have to report it right? Today a new study by the RMT union has revealed just how much more expensive travel in London is compared to other European cities. The study compared combined rail and metro fares across different regions. Here's what it found: - An annual travelcard covering London's 15-mile radius costs £1,580. In......

As it's Friday we're playing a little game here at Londonist towers, and that game is Guess the loactions in Kylie's new video. Now we'd just like to stress that this is a serious exercise in the psychogepgraphy of London as it relates to popular culture in the contemporary age, and not just a poor excuse to watch an oversized Kylie strutting about the streets pouting a lot. So now we've cleared that up -......