Flower Power

You've got to hand it to the ICA. If any other gallery asked a load of artists to donate something that it could then auction off to celebrate its 60th birthday, what would they get? An old print that some YBA had found under their bed, or a broken table signed by Banksy?

Well not the ICA: it's holding an auction at Sotheby's at the end of October and before that you can view the works that'll be on sale. A quick roll-call of some of the names should be sufficient to persuade you how impressive the ICA really is: Peter Blake, the Chapman Brothers, Martin Creed

South East London blues pop duo Wildbirds and Peacedrums not only possess probably the best name we've heard all year but also the ability to melt hearts even as relentlessly cynical as ours.

Tonight the couple play Industry, plugging their latest release 'Heartcore'. Should be quite a treat.

A truly enticing prospect at the Trafalgar this month sees the West End directorial debut of alternative film hero Philip Seymour Hoffman, who besides starring in such films as Charlie's War, The Big Lebowski and Capote is the director of the Labyrinth Theatre Company in New York.

He directs a brand new Andrew Upton play about a rock band reforming, full of dark wit, sharp dialogue and crackling tension. His lead man (the former frontman of the rock group) is John Hannah, the Scottish crumpet from Four Weddings and The Mummy

Everyone's favourite garage punk destroyers return to these shores with what promises to be a riot of a gig at Heaven.

Hailing from Atlanta, Black Lips have a reputation for going absolutely buck wild, and have been banned from several venues in their native Georgia. Expect all sorts of mayhem at this one.

Also make sure you get there early and catch the support acts: one of our favourites Lovvers is first up as they kick off a tour in support of their début mini album on Wichita and King Khan and the BBQ Show are similarly awesome

Set in Joan's dressing room backstage at the annual Oscars ceremony, Joan is preparing for one of her legendary TV catwalk commentaries on the fashion hits and disasters at Hollywood's biggest night of the year. But all is not well... her dressing room is B, not A; her complimentary cheese is puny, not plentiful; and her producer is the bigwig's nephew, not the bigwig!

The tension and drama are the catalyst for an introspective look at aging, going through life's ups and downs and being a woman in Hollywood. After Joan's five amazing decades in showbusiness, the topics fly by - some familiar, some not

Platinum Pied Pipers' music has a soul based foundation which branches out into pop, funk, house, Detroit techno and hip hop.

Their album, 'Triple P' is essential listening. Tonight will be ace.

The simply wonderful vintage guru Nino supports – along with excellent live funksters the Baker Brothers.

Nothing beats a good pun, and - in our opinion at least - 'Drawerings' is pretty good. (Although it'd probably be better if the exhibition whose title it is actually included drawings, but hey ho, who are we to quibble?)

Anyway, it's a show by Chosil Kil over at Riflemaker and it looks really cool. A load of drawers have been removed from their original cabinets and used as frames for a range of apparently unrelated found objects.

Like a lot of this kind of work it's all about the re-contextualisation of the object and the creation of some fictional narrative

Scratch is the renowned and largely successful improvisational theatre workshop based at the Battersea Arts Centre.

Over the years the format has been widely copied: it takes a group of aspiring writers, dramatists and actors and pitches a few situations their way, with only the merest direction or instruction, and encourages them to create something dramatic for an audience, usually on a couple of hours turnaround. The process works because of creative energy meeting a tight deadline, and results are coherent, and fun to watch as well as take part in.

The Scratch Festival is three long weekends of free-form cabaret, comedy and drama overseen by invisible hands but mainly directed by the participants. Given the long format there'll be some dross in there, and a tendency towards vogue-ish burlesque, but it's sure to be an exciting event, even if you don't want to get involved in the performances. There's beer

New York anti-folk hero Jeffrey Lewis headlines his biggest UK show to date at the Scala tonight, plugging his latest record '12 Crass Songs'.

Yes, it was an album of Crass covers, which is great. The last time he was in London, his two Windmill shows sold out in minutes.

Nothing grabs the attention of Culture Editors like a really unwieldy exhibition title, and Panel 2: 'Nothing better than a touch of ecology and catastrophe to unite the social classes...' is up there with the best of them.

It's the name of Martin Beck's first UK solo show and it's taking place at Gasworks this month. The titular quotation comes courtesy of good old Jean Baudrillard: he was criticising his fellow leftie thinkers for skating over the big issues to focus instead on 'rivers and national parks'.

Beck's work looks at the contemporary obsession with glib eco-wankery in the light of this quotation and spans a wide variety of media

We've never been, but Iceland must be a county of 300,000 music experts. For 10 years now, they've been showcasing the best in experimental music in an annual festival called Airwaves.

To celebrate the fact they're breaking into double figures, the guys are spreading the love with a night of cutting edge music and culture in and around the East End. Bless

It's the launch of a new night at Corsica Studios, with Trouble Vision plucking a handful of acts from various elements of London's club scene.

There's clearly a discerning eye or two at work here, because the result is a fine-looking goodie-bag of a night. Highlights include dubstep's ever-popular Rusko, up and coming DJ Oneman, and the Skull Juice boys, who this time play separately.

There's even a silent disco in the third room

Rocky was considered a god after re-challenging and finally beating Apollo Creed in the second film of the series. However, wouldn't you be a great deal more impressed if he was able to pause the match, beat him at a game of chess and then continue to pulverise him. I know I would.

Meeting twice a week at the Islington Boxing Club, chess training is done on a individual and quite casual level for absolute beginners to the pros.

Described as 'a combination of premier thinking sport and the premier fight sport', competitors engage in alternate rounds of four minute chess and three minute boxing. The winner is first to either checkmate or knock out

Decasia host an unusually classy shin-dig at the Black Gardenia tonight which promises all the White Russians we can get our grubby mits on.

Whilst the choice of venue is enough for props alone, the guys deserve extra kudos for putting on slum rockers Graffiti Island – we frickin' love those guys.

OMG! Livin' Proof celebrate their birthday tonight with the simply excellent Mr Thing, plus a whole host of DJ shiznizz designed to completely rock you.

Both Livin' Proof residents Mr Thing and DJ snips have birthdays toinight too – so expect a lot of dancing, plenty of boom bap and a whole pub full of sweaty debauchery.

Richard Herring returns to the Lyric to host a stellar line-up of comedians including a regular slot for his old partner Stewart Lee.

Best known for their cult comedies Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard not Judy, Lee and Herring have gone on to enjoy huge individual success on stage and TV.

Comedy Nights have seen sets from Harry Hill

Spent present an all-day session of live bands, with electro-pop's next big thing Micachu and The Shapes heading up the bill.

There are further sets from My Toys Like Me and Futurecop, as the Lock delivers yet another quality Sunday.

What goes on at I Love Acid is pretty much what you'd expect – no, it's not a psychedelic drugs party, dumbass, it's London's long-standing showcase for the beautiful sound of the Roland TB-303. With a new home at Ginglik, every month some some fine electronic musicians will be getting busy on the silver knobs

It's the annual Turner Prize exhibition at Tate Britain this winter. This year's shortlist is less confrontational or obviously controversial than some, with the focus, at last, shifting to the actual work on display. Cathy Wilkes and Goshka Macuga are the ones to watch

Famed New York no wave pioneers Liquid Liquid are one of the most important bands of the post punk movement, being one of the first groups to combine the sparse angular rhythms of punk rock with heavy percussion taken from the cities then vibrant funk and disco scenes. Reforming for a one off show tonight in celebration of Domino Record's Crystal Anniversary, this one should not be missed

Ralph Fiennes heads an all-star cast in this new version of Sophocles horribly dark tragedy, adapted by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness and also starring Alan Howard and Clare Higgins. That's quite an array of talent and this version should have audiences electrified. Oedipus is pretty much edge-of-the-seat stuff anyway, as the people of Thebes look to their king to find the cause of their terrible curse, and his bloody, ruthless inquiry takes him in a horrible, inevitable direction

Following on from the sell out success of their debut tour, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt return to the live stage with their heady brew of music and surreal comedy.

Vince Noir and Howard Moon will be joined by a host of characters from their hit TV show. Expect punks and yetis, and monsters with elbow patches, in a psychedelic meteorite of music and mayhem