When it comes to major American pop stars fetching up in our lovely city, Londonist sometimes thinks that the Eighties never ended. Following Madonna's permanent move here, and Prince's celebrated 21 shows last year, the third in the triumvirate of pop megastars from the Decade That Style Forgot is to join them - Michael Jackson is reportedly coming to town, and he'll be on a nice little earner if he does. Like Prince, Jackson......

It looks like summer might actually have arrived in London this week, but if you're determined to stay inside, here are a few things to help you bide the time. On TV, Londonist likes: Monday, 3 September – Wednesday, 5 September Dumped (Channel 4, 21:00-22:00) We’ve already told you about this interesting concept involving contestants living on a rubbish dump, and since you’re no doubt looking to fill the Big Brother void in your......

This is a new weekend column brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 3. Moustaches and Manifestos So far, it’d been a pretty action packed day. First we’d seen the Shadow Minister for London, who had suggested that regard for issues of respect and social responsibility appeared to be on the rise after a period of neglect over recent years and decades. We’d then encountered the......

You see a hearse with a coffin laid out nicely in the back coming towards you. You see several cars containing the mourning family and friends of the deceased following the hearse at a slow, respectful pace. Do you a) take off your hat and bow your head as the cortege passes? b) pretend not to see it and carry on as you were? c) whip out your little notebook, start recording all the......

Seven songs down, here are this year's next seven Eurovision semi-final songs! Switzerland send the improbably named DJ Bobo performing the reminiscent-of-Aqua dance-pop songVampires Are Alive. The stage show for this should be ace, so watch out for the Bobo. Moldova's entry, Fight, soars and grinds, with angry guitars that remind us of goth-poppers Evanescence with added synthy lightning strikes and high female vocals. Wind machine, ahoy!The Netherlands send the potential Eurovision classic, On......

When our exclusive email interview with Middlesex and Ireland batsman Eoin Morgan arrived in our inbox late on Friday we were sorely tempted to post it there and then given Ireland's spectacular tie with Zimbabwe the previous day, but we reluctantly decided to hang on to it until regular posting resumed on Monday morning. In the wake of Ireland's frankly earth shattering demolition of former world champions Pakistan on Saturday night, possibly the biggest......

To the Working Men's Club in Bethnal Green last night for The Idler winter 2006 edition launch party. This issue has an 'eco' theme about it – it is dubbed 'How To Save The World Without Really Trying' – but taking centre stage at last night's event at the club on Pollard Row was the humble ukulele. The Idler editorial appear to have gone ukulele mad this season. The Idler Ukulele Orchestra seems intent......

Breaking news of the highest musical form here on Londonist: Jarvis is back and is gigging. A few weeks ago the brilliant former Pulp frontman quietly snuck onto myspace with a new track C***s Are Still Running The World and messages of how he was putting the finishing touches to his solo album in Greece. Anyway, we don't want to take too much time writing this entry because the marvellous man himself has just......

After last week’s foray into skeletal monarchs, our eye was caught by these equally cadaverous lollipop people. The stickers have appeared all over town lately, and seem to be especially concentrated in the Holborn area. Turns out it’s yet another example of using street art for advertising (is nothing sacred?). But it works. At least for suckers like us. We followed the URL, which leads to the site of ‘Various’, a confusingly named duo......

It's another packed weekend for those of you not already booked up for Architecture Week or otherwise engaged for the football. The schedule for this weekend's sunny Culture Crawl involves a lot of outdoor entertainment, some indoor events and as always, not a lot of money. Thursday 22 June Opening night of the Greenwich and Docklands Festival - all events are free and open air. For this event, you have to go to Woolwich......

There's not a day goes by when we don't listen to something by The Ramones so we're not sure if THIS is the best news ever... or the worst: Gabba Gabba Hey!, the world’s first punk rock musical, takes 18 mini-masterpieces of bliss, longing and despair by seminal New York rockers the RAMONES – including the classics I Wanna Be Sedated, Beat On The Brat, Blitzkrieg Bop, 53rd & 3rd and Sheena Is A......

The London Architectural Biennale and Architecture Week kick off proper tomorrow. Don’t be put off by the user-unfriendly names. Most of the events are aimed squarely at us everyday Londoners, and you’ll need no architectural knowledge to enjoy the activities. However, you will need very good organisational skills if you don’t want to miss out. There are such a staggering number and variety of events to consider that you might want to hire a......

LAist is flashing a sad peace out to their editor Carolyn Kellogg with one hand and bumping knuckles with their new head typist L.A. blogger king Tony Pierce with the other. Where do ist editors go when they hang up the 'editorial we'? They take on MySpace, apparently. At least Ben Brown does. Austinist reminds of the just rewards of less savory careers this week and then they witness the Arctic Monkeys and We Are......

Given that we're actually due some sunshine this weekend, we have our doubts that attending a film festival will be at the top of many people's lists. Especially when they learn that all the films being shown are about FOOTBALL. For most, the only cinematic football offering that approaches anywhere near an acceptable level of quality (and then only in an ironic 'this is shit but in a good way' fashion) might be 'Escape......

Just a mini Troll this week, fans, as we're addicted to the Big Brother (every damn day, 9pm C4) crackpipe and neglecting such things as eating, sleeping and, indeed, moving. Shahbaz hiding all the food was one of the funniest things we've ever seen, all the while muttering about how "it's all their fault" and "send me to Coventry, will you" and "nobody loves me boo hoo hoo". We are hoping against hope that......

Formed out of members of Art of Noise & The Auteurs, we first came across Infantjoy while wallowing in 'OMG SARAH NIXEY IS BACK!!!111!!' induced glee a few months ago. Guest starring on their working of 'Silent Night', we were intrigued by this duo who seemed to produce mesmerizing, elegant instrumental music. Almost cinematic sounding, their concept album Where The Night Goes is based on the idea that 'each track takes place at a......

Channel 4 is going mad for the cock this week - more so than usual, even. We hope Armin Meiwes is tuning in from his prison cell - in between trying to sue Rammstein, that is. Es ist mein Teil, but a man's relationship with his dick isn't as straightforward as all that, or so TV Troll understands. 4's willy strand will explore the conflicting emotions that arise (aha ha ha) from this tricky......

The shortlist for the 20th annual Arthur C Clarke Award was announced earlier today and we're glad to see that this is pretty much the first all-British shortlist in the award's history (we say pretty much because although Geoff Ryman is Canadian he's a long term UK resident which is close enough for us). For our money the best book on the list is Charlie Stross' 'Accelerando'. We have no qualms at all in......

It seems that Londonist has found its true calling - as a slightly less scary version of Mystic Meg! Yesterday, we predicted that more scandals were sure to follow in the Lib Dem leadership contest, and we were right! Today, it has been revealed that Simon Hughes, yesterday the favourite to become the party leader, has come out as bi-sexual. Apparently, the Taxi-driving M.P. has had both homosexual and heterosexual relationships, and has made......

The time has come. The waiting is over. Desperate Housewives (Wed 10pm C4) is back, and are we ever excited. We'll trot out the tired old cliché about how its acid-bright façade hides a surprisingly black heart because, hell, it's true; something is rotten in the state of Stepford ... even if we all know that the show doesn't quite have the courage of its convictions and there's occasionally a touch of the hugging-and-learning......

Sundays are no longer anything to shout about for me, sadly, because on every Day Of Rest, I have to go to work. Hence my perfect Sunday may involve a touch more fantasy than those of my comrades. Bear with me... I wake early enough to catch Match Of The Day on the box. Much to my surprise, my girlfriend has become a football fanatic overnight, thus relieving the need for me to shuffle my......

Before we get onto the subject of this week's telly recommendations, let's remind ourselves of Saturday's miscarriage of justice, when Maria was voted off X Factor. Even Simon admits he made a mistake in choosing the Conway Sisters (for those who don't watch X Factor, the Conways are like standing knee-deep in the Irish Sea on a wet Tuesday in October while someone slaps you in the face with a rotting plaice, except rather......

There are a lot of questionable addresses to be found in the Londonist browser history, but we had good reason in sinking to a new low yesterday when we typed in www.newsoftheworld.co.uk. It seems that the tabloid helped finger a 27 year old man in connection with the July 7 bombings - after they ran an exclusive interview with him The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: "We thank the News of the World......

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......

As pop pundits continue to get things wrong by consistently voting OK Computer, Pet Sounds or Something by the Beatles as the best album of all time we all know that Jeff Wayne's epic musical War Of The World's is in fact the greatest thing ever laid down on vinyl. Or even cd, but the booklet with the black plastic version rocked big time. So how excited were we to hear that he's taking......

Time once again to leave the week's big releases (The Rolling Stones) behind and take a listen to some of the more esoteric releases that have dropped into the Londonist Music team's mail box recently. The Oggs - Radiotherapy If we were to say The Oggs hail from NYC, with an album title like Radiotherapy, chances are you'd expect something on the punkier side of The Strokes. Not to be. Instead what we have......

Well, he is. Like one of those overcoated codgers who inhabit Wetherspoons pubs and mutter into their lagers about things not being what they used to be. No shit, Grandpa. The only response to bitter misogynists like Mr Buerk is to ignore them, and certainly not to watch the television programmes they appear on (Don’t Get Me Started, Tue 7.15pm Five). Let’s turn our collective back, shall we? Good idea. Make your dinner while......

Something strange is happening down here in the Londonist dungeon. Editro's decreed the Londonistas wear nothing but leather jerkins, pvc crotch high boots and 'plug in' horses tails. Everyone's getting a little hot under the collar: the news team are a tad friskier than usual (which is pretty damn frisky ladies and gentlemen) and the literary guys are arguing the relative merits of The Story Of O as a life style choice. It can......

Londonist is always partial to a little bit of celebrity house-snooping, especially when the celebrity in question is 'media mogul of media moguls' Rupert Murdoch. Thanks have to go then to The Age who have summarised Wallpaper magazine's "rare tour through the Mayfair penthouse in which Mr Murdoch, wife Wendi Deng and two preschool daughters plan to spend about 10 weeks a year." So what's to see? Well, there's a bookcase on which stands,......

To paraphrase a pentameter from Poe: "the Proms, the Proms, the Proms, the Proms, the Proms!" They are upon us! It is the greatest classical music festival... in the wo-o-o-orld! It has to be true, because we read it on the side of a bus! Seriously, though, the Proms really are amazing. It is, in fact, too big to write a preview of. Just so we're clear: there are seventy-four regular Proms concerts in......