Flower Power

An exhibition of amazing photography at Atlas Gallery this month. The images were originally taken on the Apollo and Gemini space missions but have since been electronically tinkered with by Michael Light to produce the sharpest images of space that man has ever seen.

Head to the Natural History Museum this winter and skate away to your heart's content.  Ice is natural and has a history after all, so where better for an ice rink than the appropriately named Natural History Museum? Plus, there's a cafe and Christmas Fair so you can buy gifts and drink coffee at the same time. Not literally at the same time obviously. You'd end up dropping all the prezzies and spilling coffee on yourself, but you know what we mean...

Held in the multi-award winning club, Moonlighting, in Soho, Amused Moose nights never fail to deliver. With secret gigs by big name comedians prepping for tours and festivals to frequent appearances of Perrier winners and T.V. comedians, the line-up is always quality-controlled. More plus points: discounted beer, wine and champagne before and during the show, followed by aftershow comedy cocktails in the VIP area and a late night licence till 5am with DJs and dancing till dawn.

On the third Saturday of every month, BGWC turns into a 1950s prom night with tea, cakes, Lindy Hop lessons, burlesque performers and there's even a tattoo parlour, in case you require a pin up plastered on your arm. Come dressed to the nines!

 M.O.T play superfine pop punk expressed through the kind of tunesmithery you'd associate with Motown as much as The Undertones.

Based on the format of Whose Line is It Anyway? this show is a hour's whirlwind of improvised comedy games and sketches. The audience is encouraged to participate in helping by submitting ideas for scenes and characters such as writing down professions and insults on paper (ice skater, rocket scientist and baboon's backside have been used in the past).

The Puppini Sisters are a musical trio specialising in 1940s-style close harmony vocal music. Join them for a musical extravaganza at The Queen Elizabeth Hall tonight.

The British Museum have asked a selection of big name contemporary artists to do stuff that responds to the institution's amazing collection of statues and sculpture. With Hirst, Gormley, Mueck, Quinn, and Noble & Webster all involved this is quite a departure for the venerable old museum.

Join the Hampton Court Palace scheduled guided tours with a BSL interpreter through the Palace's rooms and gardens. The itinerary for the day will be tailored to the group's needs. The interpreter will commence the day of tours at 10.30am, with the first tour to join the scheduled costumed guides around the site.

In A Dark Dark House again features clever characters who don't really like each other, but it has a much darker subject matter, namely, child abuse. Full of brilliant insight, with believable characters and great one liners, this is trademark LaBute and should be a hot ticket despite the grim subject matter and mixed reviews in New York.

If you're looking to celebrate New Years with bourbon, snakes and rock'n roll, then you can't do much worse than Gypsy Hotel's bash at Bardens. After all, it's what they live for.

Elton John is having a New Year's Eve Party, and you're all invited. Having been wowing audiences with his Red Piano show in Las Vegas since 2004  this enormous shin-dig will see him perform his greatest hits at the biggest party in town.

Up The Creek have a splendiferous line-up for their New Year's eve party with top black comedienne Ninia Benjamin from BBC3's 3 Non-Blondes headlining, supported by cockney geeza Jeff Innocent, sharp and slick Aussie Matthew Hardy and impressionist and beatboxer Stefano Paolini.

The King's Crossover is a joint party between Big Chill House and Camino over the road. Camino will be transformed into a retro Latin fiesta courtesy of White Mischief. Expect Spanish snake dancers, sword fighters, tango dancers and fire breathers. A jazz, blues and rock 'n' roll soundtrack will keep you hotfooting it on the dancefloor. Carnival kings Sancho Panza are in charge over at the Chill House, with resident king of funk Aldo Vanucci doing a special NYE set plus Eren (the man behind Candi Staton's You've Got The Love) will be playing. Once you've got your wristband you're free to flutter between the parties as you please.

Grab a Stein and head down to The Fest this new year for "The closest thing to a beerfest outside of Munich." Whether it's for the house Oompah band, the beautiful beer maidens or the Drinking Olympics The Fest has plenty to offer on this fateful night. With heaps of giveaways including a free dinner for two, table beer kegs and Jagermeister goodies prepare yourself for one riotous evening.

Three party gangs meet at a secret location (probably in East London - you know the score) to shake it down to the ground. Eastern Electrics, Man Make Music and Mulletover - the fancy dressed freaks - join Tayo for his tracksuit party. Phillipp Jung (M.A.N.D.Y) headlines the mulletover room alongside Geddes, Simon Morrell and Damian Lazarus. Man Make Music have got Jacob Husley, Noel Mas and Sketchy. High class house and techno.

Yikes and Cripes combined! It's New years day 2009 - and it's quite likely that you're hammered. In fact, I'd bank on it that the only thing you are actually capable of doing right now is staggering, holding a full glass at a dangerously tilted angle and gurgling. So then! Where better than the Cube - with its helpfully illuminated dancefloor - to bust out the first moves of this shiny new year? This is a special party for special people. The stars of London's disco renaissance are playing. Join them!

Several times voted the best tourist attraction in the world, it is typical of Londoners that we were initially a bit embarrassed about the addition of a giant ferris wheel to our iconic skyline. Once she opened, we were hooked and this huge, impressively engineered and rather stately fairground ride is now part of the city's soul. Ride her in the gloaming if you can. The best time to step on is just before sunset, with a beautiful view of the Houses of Parliament and the whole of London spread out before you, morphing into a carpet of lights as you reach the summit. Having said that, don't be disappointed if the morning you've booked turns out to be wet and windy- the height of the ride and beauty of the city will still leave you breathless. A brilliant way to see London with new eyes for tourists and locals alike. It's also a dead cert for a date- very romantic...

Viva Circo Loco! Since moving to The End they have been responsible for some of the most loco parties this side of the White Isle. And after a solid week of last of's, with every promoter ever to be graced by The End coming out of the woodwork to throw their final bash, it is only right to save the best till last. Circo Loco's last ever party at The End, on the first day of the new year. That is going to go skyhigh. Most of the finest DJs ever to have played Circo Loco will be there tonight. You really should go.

'Listening Post' is split into seven separate scenes, each one displaying uncensored samples of text lifted from live internet chatrooms. Constantly shifting, this work highlights both the beauty and the spontaneously sprawling aspects of the internet, and, indeed, of much of the modern world.

A festive slice of social satire at the Orange Tree this Christmas sees a revival of Henry Arthur Jones' social-climbing farce, which is sadly as fresh and relevant today as it was in 1913. It belongs to a rich tradition of class-obsessed satires which includes Spoonfed favourites To The Manor Born and Keeping Up Appearances. Mary Winchello and her husband are at the social pinnacle of Warkinstall life, but when their arch rival Thomas Bodworth gets a knighthood their position is threatened. There's obviously nothing for it but to throw a party, at which Lady Bodsworth will make a sitting target and during which hilarity will of course, ensue.

A major new show at the Design Museum examining the development of contemporary design through the contributions of seven important cities. From the 1851 Great Exhibition in London to Adolf Loos in Vienna in 1908, the Bauhaus in Dessau in 1928 and Le Corbusier's Paris of '36. Then on to Charles and Ray Eames in LA in 1949, Milan in 1957 and Tokyo in '87. Then, full circle, back to our fair capital, which is once again the centre of design - or so we like to think. There's loads of amazing stuff in this exhibition: furniture, fashion, prints and industrial objects. With work by William Morris, Eileen Gray, Achille Castiglioni and good old Issey Miyake, this is set to be one of the major shows of the year.

Hmmm. Leslie Grantham returns to panto this Christmas as Captain Hook in the Beck's celebrity-studded version of Peter Pan. Hopefully there'll be no repeats of his online finger-sucking exploits behind the scenes... he could do himself a nasty injury with that hook. (Although it's alleged he dressed up as the self-same character during the original cyber-tryst.) Also starring Toby Hull and Emu off CiTV, this promises to be a silly, camp spectacle with plenty of bluer material directed over the kids heads. Classic panto fare.

Just a bit wacky, or totally brilliant? A bit of both, we think. This winter The Wapping Project is celebrating the Season, darling: the Great British countryside, tweeds and twelve-bores, mallards, polo, debs and racing. And good god, are they going the whole hog! There's a hundred bird houses filling a tree, an installation of porcelain deer heads, a lily pond created by the Viscountess of Harewood, and Fredrikson Stallard's Veuve Cliquot-commissioned 'Portrait'.

Kevin Spacey assumes his Director's Hat once again at the Old Vic for this brand new, contemporary satire/thriller about a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who suddenly falls foul of the authorities and finds himself facing a dilemma of his own creation, in front of the Supreme Court no less.

Loney, Dear hits all the right buttons with his beautifully crafted songs about love and despair and everyday anxiety. A one man band with nine members, Loney, Dear is the alter ego of multi-instrumentalist and DIY expert Emil Svanngen.

The beautiful acoustics of St Giles will provide the perfect environment for Emil’s unique voice and personal style of delivery.

Crikey! This really is a hot ticket. Man-of-the-moment and 'the future of Shakespeare' Rupert Goold directs a brutal King Lear. This show has a lot of elements to appeal to the youth demographic. Pete Postlethwaite (Lethal Weapon 2, The Usual Suspects) graduates from playing terrifying henchmen to bring the mad King to life as a tragic industrialist. The setting is the dawn of the Thatcher era, giving the show a retro backdrop and an excuse for the cast to wear leather trenchcoats and strut around like greedy gangsters. Not only that, it's directed at cracking pace and whips through this enthralling, exhausting descent from glory to madness in around three hours.

Our advice, is to book early for this one. With a flashy, visceral feel, great effects and outstanding performances, it was a sensation in Liverpool.

The Paradise has pulled out all the stops to ensure you beat those Monday blues. The Guide to Better Yourself is a range of classes, either dance-orientated or creative, run by experienced teachers with the aim of learning a new skill each week. On the first Monday of every month you can join a burlesque master class, where you'll learn the art of seduction. With emphasis on flirting more than revealing skin, these classes are relaxing and always fun.

Ah look, zee Svedes are coming to London, wiz zer trëndy designer clözing and zer flowing blonde hairs. How åbsolutely super! Since the mid '90s Sweden has emerged as something of a hotbed of contemporary fashion, with a swathe of young avant-garde designers displaying a relaxed calm elegance mixed with a more experimental edge.  Designers like Ann-Sofie Back are household names now, but London ought to pay more attention to people like Sandra Backlund, Helena Horstedt and Nakkna.  This exhibition at Zandra Rhodes' Fashion and Textile Museum promises to open our eyes to this exciting pool of talent.