Cress to Impress

Watercress - undoubtedly one of the finest herbs (botanically speaking) to make the successful transition to salad staple. It's actually a tougher journey than you might imagine. Not only that, but watercress is also an excellent addition to many a sandwich – ham, mustard, tomato and watercress? Why, thank you very much. To celebrate all this, National Watercress Week kicks off this Sunday. Interesting huh?

And if that wasn't exciting enough, then (this weekend at least) the art world is. Tate Modern is celebrating its 10th birthday in style, whilst across the UK museums are staying open all night for 24-hour cultural fun times.

Plus, Udderbelly Festival is returning to the Southbank, Fatal Attraction is coming to the West End, and the wonderful Adam and Joe win some awards. Oh, and apparently the tube is cool now.

Thursday 13th

Launched in 2008 to celebrate East London in all its ostensibly gritty glory, Concrete and Glass is a 16 day festival of live music and arty happenings taking place across 18 music venues, a load of galleries and over 30 'alternative sites' - i.e. disused shops, warehouses and the like. Although the East does seem to spend a lot of time celebrating

World-renowned electronic live party-starters Booka Shade land at Koko this May for their first live show since 2008.

The musical project of two gnarled veterans of the Frankfurt electronic music scene, Booka Shade make a type of techno/house that harkens back to a time when it was OK to make dance music that was intelligent and literate. Their fifth studio album 'More' will be released on 3rd May.

Read our interview with Booka Shade.

Friday 14th

Behind every great man there's an even greater, wiser woman, and the same line of comparison works for artists too. Sort of. Since the muse is a bit passe, this latest run of paired exhibitions at bearspace will team one established artist with an emerging one to create an exhibition. The two The Assistant shows will see Maria Fusco and then

Master of the one-liner; be it silly, clever or punny, Milton Jones brings his latest show to Southbank's Udderbelly Festival.

With a penchant for daft jumpers and bizarre props, this multi award-winning stand-up can make an hour of short gags fly by.

Saturday 15th

Ever fancied yourself as something of a flâneur? Ever starved yourself in a garret, stopped traffic due to your headwear, or gilded your pet tortoise and covered it in so many jewels it actually died? For all you budding Baudelaires or hopeful Huysmanss out there, this is the party for you. From the same people who put together The Blitz

The Canal Party rocked West London last Summer - and tonight they are back with their first of the year. They welcome secretsundaze DJ par excellence James Priestley to see in the summer season, joining the residents outside on the house terrace. This is a brilliant, popular party which will sell out quickly so the smart money's on advance tickets

Colony return to the Russian with another banger. Headlined by Bristolian Al Tourettes who is 'Mr. In Demand' at the moment. Joining him and taking it deep is Chicago's M50 a.k.a Area. This is his first trip to the capital so yet another exclusive for the Colony crew, good stuff. Expect deep forward thinking, house, techno, dubstep, D 'n' B and

Sunday 16th

The influential krautrock institution Faust plays one of their rare performances tonight at the South London venue.

Dadaist in their attitude and furiously free in their music, those avant-garde agitators belong to the German "kosmische" royal family of the '70s along with Can or Gong. Not to be missed.

Monday 17th

A work-in-progress show featuring BBC6's Jon Richardson, charming beardy-man Dan Atkinson and up-and-coming Welsh comic Lloyd Langford.

Expect new rounds, improved razzmatazz and all round gitography.

Tuesday 18th

Two stalwarts of the American lo-fi scene come to play Cargo this evening. Both signed to the Woodsist label that has been so prolific in releasing new talent, Real Estate and Ganglians both released records last year that featured prominently in the best of year end lists.

Expect a mix of lo-fi freak folk and psychedelia on the night that is one of the best double headliners London has seen in a while.

From Michael Ondaatje's book, The Collected Works of Billy The Kid comes a night of poetry, prose, song and eyewitness accounts performed by Gordon Peaston.

This promises to be a gripping evening full of adventure and a eccentric, characters with stories to tell. Expect savagery, sensuality and a touch of utter madness.

Wednesday 19th

Dive into the archive. Rummage there, amongst the papers and the past. Systems, structures, numbers, words: bureaucracy, documents, categories, knowledge. "Archive Fever, Archive Fever. We know how to do it," as Derrida's Bee Gee's covers group may perhaps have sung.

What? Oh yes, art. The splendidly entitled Making Ships in Bottles is an exhibition exploring the approach that contemporary artists take to the notion of the archive. How is information stored, categorised, understood, maintained and re-accessed?

Curated by Claire Shallcross, artists including Gail Pickering and Olivia Plender explore these and otehr issues. Sounds like a cracker.

Thursday 20th

An Anglo-Dutch design alliance? Well, things sure have moved on since the trading wars of the eighteenth century. Good that we can put all that behind us huh?

Anyway, yes, Studio Glithero is an Anglo-Dutch enterprise and they've got an exhibition of work at The Garage in Kensington this May.

On display are a series of sumptuous ceramic works that utilise blueprinting, a technique usually reserved for making copies of architectural plans. The results are crisp, elegant and really rather wonderful.

The legendary Factory label's legacy will never cease to fascinate, as proved by the release of another book about its "rise and fall" that's being launched tonight at Rough Trade East.

For the occasion, Factory-related jazz-post-punk band Blurt (they only released a few tracks on the label because they were unsatisfied with its constant delays!) will perform a short in-store gig.

A rare opportunity to experience in real life their frenetic no-wave jazz, and to realise that their frontman, Ted Milton, may in fact be a British and slightly less funky equivalent of James Chance.

Friday 21st

At the Comedy Store's 30 year anniversary last May, Terry Alderton took the headline spot ahead of Jack Dee, Jimmy Carr, Alan Carr, Phill Jupitus and Paul Merton. It may have come as a surprise to some but the ex-Southend footballer has developed from a run-of-the-mill observational comedian to something really quite special.

Hosted by over 20 venues in the East End of London, this year’s Stag and Dagger one-night-only mini-festival looks set to be a night of fun, frolics and of course the inevitable dance every now and then.

The event is sure to attract many a cool dude in a Barbour coat and turned up jeans, but don’t worry if that’s not your thing, as the artists lined up for the event range from dubstep DJs to folk bands.

Sonic Lab launch with a massive line-up from the fields of IDM and breakcore. Planet Mu take over the main room, with Luke Vibert, Shitmat and the Ceephax Acid Crew doing the business.

The Centrifuge and Organix are on board as well. This is going to kick you squarely in the muzzle.

Saturday 22nd

This romantic comedy musical is based on the novel The Tale of the 1002nd Night by Joseph Roth.

The Shah of Persia wants to cheer himself up so he runs off to Vienna hoping for an adventure. It's not long before he falls for the Empress, which rather angers her husband. There's a brothel and a spot of the old switcheroo but whoever it is he's sleeping with, she's in love with someone else who's probably sleeping with someone else.

Directed by Harold Prince and Susan Stroman and set to the music of Johann Strauss.

The brilliant live funk-electro-disco outfit Crazy P land at Camp tonight. To see them live is a beautiful thing...

Jim Baron and Chris Todd originally formed Crazy P back in 1996, but back then they called themselves Crazy Penis (ooo-er). Since then they have enlisted Matt Klose on drums, dropped the 'enis' from the name, changed record labels and released a couple more albums. They currently tour worldwide and are enjoying it quite nicely thanks.

Sunday 23rd

Extreme Prevention is a series of comedy sketches set against the backdrop of the governments' 'Preventing Extremism' strategy that includes radio campaigns warning us, 'If you suspect it, report it'.

Expect a reformed extremist desperate to educate the Muslim community on how not to be a fundamentalist, as well as a doctor using ultrasound scans to search for extremists in the womb.

As part of this theatrical double bill, theatre company MUJU will also present a new piece from award winning playwright Alia Bano, Walls, a drama exploring the relationship of two best friends, one Muslim and one Jewish.