What to do in London this week

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Relax and enjoy: Ruby Blue has a great menu and ambience

New light: see Kevin Spacey's Larger than Life picture

On show: one of Titi's pieces

Look here too

• A Night Out in London
• Best blue-chip chippies

VISIT
Shoreditch Shuffle
Where: Shoreditch
When: Saturday & Sunday
Cost: £20 (day ticket) £30 (weekend)
Tube: Shoreditch
shoreditchshuffle.wordpress.com
Pearl Lowe, Rufus Hound, Kid Carpet, Johnny Vercoutre, The Great Cake Escape and 5 O'clock Heroes are just a selection of the artists on the bill for the first ever Shoreditch Shuffle. Created by Who's Jack, a trendsetting music, art and lifestyle magazine, The Shoreditch Shuffle will boast names from a variety of creative arenas.

Spanning two days and set in one of the most creatively flamboyant areas of London, the Shoreditch Shuffle will showcase old, current and new talent through music, fashion, art, short film, comedy and poetry and literature in more than fifteen venues.

MEET & EAT AT
Ruby Blue
Where: Leicester Square
Cost: About £35 for one with wine.
Tube: Leicester Square
In the heart of Leicester Square, Ruby Blue couldn't be better located for a fun evening in central London. With a bar on the first floor and restaurant on the second it's ideal for combining post work drinks with a delicious dinner. If it's the weekend and you feel like making a night of it you could always return to the bar, nab a booth and enjoy a cocktail or two – there is an extensive drinks list to choose from.

The food menu also has plenty of options. For starters the Avocado and Crayfish is a favourite. Served with a citrus Marie Rose sauce and wild rocket, it is delicious. A tasty vegetarian alternative is Mushroom in a Peppercorn Sauce. On toast ciabatta bread topped with melted blue cheese it's mouth-wateringly good. For main course Ruby Surf and Turf or Ruby Mixed Grill come highly recommended. If you're in the mood for something lighter though try Crisp Skinned Sea Bass. It is pan-fried and served with chive mash and seared cherry tomatoes. The Wild Mushroom Ravioli is a must if you prefer creamy dishes.

Make sure you leave room for desert as the Naughty but Nice profiteroles are divine. Ice cream filled choux pastry with Baileys and white & dark continental chocolate sauce make it the perfect (if a little unhealthy) treat. The Eton Mess, which consists of crushed meringues and strawberries in whipped cream, is also scrumptious.

Ruby Blue's relaxing atmosphere is enhanced with live musical entertainment. Pianists and singers perform on a regular basis. Fancy overlooking Leicester Square, tucking into a delectable dish while listening to a smooth crooner? Then this is the place to visit.

SEE
Larger Than Life
Where: Seven Dials
When: Until September 20
Tube: Covent Garden
www.sevendials.co.uk
An outstanding collection of images of Hollywood actors will be exhibited in Seven Dials, Covent Garden for the Larger Than Life exhibition. Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum, along with a selection of international icons including Barry Humphries and Ricky Gervais, have all contributed by having their photograph taken for this unique event helping to raise funds for London's Trinity Hospice. There is a limited edition of 50 of each of the prints which are available to buy at largerthanlife@trinityhospice.org.uk

ENJOY
Adventure Film Festival
Where: Selected Vue Cinemas
When: Until 23 September
Cost: £5
Tube: Various
www.adventurefest.co.uk
The third Nissan Adventure Film Festival is already underway at Vue Cinemas around the country. Showcasing the very best short-form and feature-length films over five themed evenings, the festival will take arm-chair adventurers on a journey from the heights of Mount Everest to the shark-infested waters off the coast of South Africa. Films start at 6.30pm each evening and tickets can be purchased online via www.adventurefest.co.uk

EXPLORE
Peter Friedl/ Titi Freak
Where: Spring Projects, NW5
When: 12 September – 25 October
Tube: Kentish Town
Titi Freak
Where: OContemporary, 193 Wardour Street, W1F
When: Until 4 October
Tube: Oxford Circus/ Tottenham Court Road
In his first exhibition at Spring Projects, Berlin-based artist Peter Friedl presents work that explores the photographic gaze—the relationship between document and artifact—in different ways. Pictures from newspapers and magazines, which Friedl has been collecting and exhibiting since 1992 for his archive project Theory of Justice, are the subject of his most recent black and white photographs (2006–2008). The series addresses questions of originality and historicity—and how these give rise to new pictures. Or for something a little different take a look at Titi Freak's London solo exhibition. Self-taught on the streets of Sao Paulo, Titi Freak's distinctive style combines his Japanese ancestry with the spontaneity of his native Brazil. Japanese Pop culture, fashion, illustration and comics further inspire his work, along with the urban environment around him. The exhibition includes 20 new works, priced between £2,500 to more than £10,000.

READ
Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton: An Autobiography
by J G Ballard
(HarperPerennial, £7.99)
J G Ballard first became famous for novels depicting mysterious cataclysms - The drowned World, The Crystal World, and the like. Only when he published Empire of the Sun in 1984 did the source of those visions become clear - his childhood in Shanghai and three-year internment during the Japanese occupation, 1943-1945. despite the privations - "skin infections covered my legs, malnutrition had prolapsed my rectum" - he loved the Japanese camp. Now he thinks he may have lived in the same small house in Shepperton for 50 years because it reminds him of that time.

He remains puzzled why it took him 40 years to write about it - perhaps, he says, because he was waiting for his own children to grow up first. They are the "miracles of life" of the title of this touching memoir - written, he reveals at the end, after he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
David Sexton

 

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