We bring you our guide to living well in the world’s capitals, from exhibitions to cinema, food, drink, fashion, music and beyond. Just call it culture and take it, it’s yours.

LONDON, FRIDAY 5th JUNE – SUNDAY 7th JUNE 2015

“Hey, pretty girl, time to wake up.”
This week lose yourself in the winding roads and distant city lights of Mulholland Dr. (2001), a love story set in the city of dreams. Drift away East of Eden to the world of David Lynch, a place occupied by ghostly cowboys and teary dreamlike singers in front of blood red curtains.

The film is a hypnotic fairytale that flutters between dream and reality, conscious and subconscious. Formed on a feedback loop of recurring themes, the narrative takes you on a ride through the dark twists and turns of Los Angeles’ most coveted road. We’re keeping information to a minimum as that’s always the best approach with a David Lynch film, but the gist of the plot centres around two women; Betty Elms (Naomi Watts) is the bright and talented newcomer to Los Angeles, and Rita (Laura Elena Herring) is the mysterious Lynchian femme fatale. But that is simply the bare bones of just one narrative within the film.

Mulholland Dr. creates so many more questions than it answers; how is Diane, the failed actor, related to Betty, the fresh-faced wannabe? What was in that mysterious blue box? Was the end really the beginning? And who the hell was that cowboy? The whole film is one big tease, a mental workout begging to be understood and yet the answer always seems to be stuck on the tip of your tongue.

To call Lynch cryptic would be an understatement, to call him a genius would be far closer to the truth. Watching the film is simply half the fun, we guarantee that straight after watching it you will be scouring the internet for hidden meanings and conspiracy theories surrounding what it all really means. It’s one of those films where each time you watch it you understand it a little bit more, and then all of a sudden you’re back to square one: optimum confusion. But in the best way possible.

Mulholland Dr. 147 mins. Showing at Dalston Rio on Saturday 6th June at 23:00
Book tickets here

Geneva via King’s Road
Patek Philippe has an illustrious history and the 175-year-old Geneva watch brand is flinging open its archive doors for a one off exhibition in London, cogs ‘n’ all.

The new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery re-imagines the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace at Hyde Park, and features timepieces owned by European royal families as well as rarities from the house’s vaults – including one of the first keyless pocket watches, owned by Oscar II, the King of Norway, no less.

With over 400 exhibits in 21 themed rooms, the Watch Art Grand Exhibition is the largest Patek Philippe exhibition in the world. Make a beeline towards the Napoleon Room where you will be transported to the magical Patek Philippe Salon on the Rue du Rhone, Geneva, via an incredible live view over Lake Geneva.

A true horological immersion, not to be missed.

Patek Philippe Watch Art Grand Exhibition runs until 7th June at the Saatchi Gallery, SW3 4RY

Park life
What better way to spend your weekend than in a field being serenaded by the likes of DIIV, Mac Demarco and Patti Smith? No prior plans can live up to this, so cancel all yours and head down to Field Day festival 2015 this weekend.

Grab some bevvies and some mates and descend onto Victoria Park for two days of killer live acts from across the globe. Always a major date in the festival calendar this year’s line up is a belter, including the likes of Ride, FKA Twigs, Allah Las, Toy and Eagulls, as well as the ones mentioned above.

Weather Report: The latest report is predicting a mini heatwave this weekend, perfect timing, dig out those shorts, we’ll meet you in the pit!

Field Day takes place on June 6th and June 7th at Victoria Park

Fever pitch
To put you in the Field Day mood head to The Old Blue Last on Friday evening for So Young magazine’s 2nd birthday, to celebrate they’ve put together a killer line up. P.S. it’s free, so all money goes towards the booze fund.

Glaswegian trio Baby Strange are on headline duties with their hardened riffs and spit wet lyrics. Named after the title of a track from T-Rex‘s 1972 album The Slider, their latest track VVV has that signature Bolan thrusting guitar but with the added snarl of Punk’s finest.

Fever join Baby Strange on the night, a nascent four piece from Southampton. With only two tracks currently floating around online they are keeping their cards close to their chest, but if the driving force that is their debut single Shell Shock is anything to go by these lads will be heading up ‘Ones to Watch’ lists ASAP.

Baby Strange w/ Fever play at The Old Blue last on Friday 5th June
Admission is free

Distorting Perspective
In the summer of 2013 David Hockney packed his bags and made the move from sunny Bridlington to sunnier Los Angeles. After almost a decade painting the evolving landscapes of North Yorkshire Hockney is now focusing his eye on life in the City of Angels, utilising new techniques.

Playing with perspective the artist’s latest exhibition addresses the issues and problems around representing a 3D world on a flat surface. There’s Cezanne-inspired paintings of card players, portraits of friends and the star of the show, what he calls “3D photographs without the glasses”. These are images created digitally with Hockney taking hundreds of up-close photographs of heads, jackets, shirts, shoes, walls, tables and so on and then putting them together like a collage or jigsaw puzzle.

At 77 years old Hockney is prolific as ever, never one to sit still for too long his ambition is unrelenting.

David Hockney: Painting and Photography is at Annely Juda, London, until 27 June.

Look to the future
It’s that time of the year again when the latest bunch of creative graduates from across the country are let loose in to the real world. First stop, Shoreditch’s Truman Brewery to present their work to the public.

Around 3,000 of the hottest prospects in art, fashion, design, graphics, illustrations, textiles and photography will be exhibiting their work in a free exhibition. Here’s your chance to scout for the-next-big-thing. Running for seven weeks the programme is chock-a-block and changes every Friday, so it’s well worth going back week after week.

Free Range Shows take place between 27th May and 13th July at Truman Brewery, Shoreditch
Check out the exhibition list here

Climbing the walls
Like so many of its clientele who eat there, notorious celeb hotspot The Ivy has had a facelift, and this week it reopens ready to show off the new look. Those trademark harlequin stained glass windows are still present, along with the green leather seats, but they’ve given the interior a spruce up, making the most of their speed dial list there’s new artwork from Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Maggi Hambling, Tom Hackney and Simon Leahy-Clark hanging on the walls as well as a new central bar and ‘sumptuous loos’, yes, sumptuous apparently.

The Ivy is so iconic that when Andrew Lloyd Webber commissioned Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, to paint an epic picture of London society along the lines of a Victorian panoramic social scene, he chose The Ivy as the setting, populated by the likes of Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall, Melvyn Bragg, Alan Yentob, Tom Stoppard, Kate Moss and Joan Collins.

And Sir John Mortimer, novelist and playwright, used to dine there, beginning lunch with a glass of Moët et Chandon and then going on to a plate of liver and bacon. Bacon and champagne, lunch of champions right there.

The restaurant is notoriously difficult to book a table at, so if you can’t manage to book and are having trouble trying to sneak in through the back door, our favourite Soho boozer Dog & Duck is just round the corner. Pub’s a pub, right?

The Ivy, 1-5 West Street, London WC2H 9NQ

TOP GALLERY IMAGE CREDITS:
1. Still, Mulholland Dr. 2001 © Universal Pictures
2. Still, Mulholland Dr. 2001 © Universal Pictures
3. Still, Mulholland Dr. 2001 © Universal Pictures
4. Still, Mulholland Dr. 2001 © Universal Pictures
5. Patek Philippe Watch Art Grand Exhibition
6. Mac DeMarco in cigarette heaven. Image by Danny Cohen
7. DIIV. Image courtesy of Captured Tracks
8. Baby Strange. Image courtesy of band
9. The Group by David Hockney. Acrylic on canvas. Photograph- Richard Schmidt
10. Perspective Should Be Reversed 2014 by David Hockney. Photograph- Richard Schmidt
11. The Ivy, image courtesy of The Ivy