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 14th AUGUST – SUNDAY 16th AUGUST 2015

“There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie and Dim and we sat in the Korova milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova Milk Bar sold milkplus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence.” – Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

When Anthony Burgess published his seminal novel A Clockwork Orange back in 1962 it was met with public outrage due to its candid depiction of violence. However this public outcry was nothing compared to the response to Stanley Kubrick’s 1972 film adaptation.

The dystopian story of ultra-violence focuses on Alex, his dear droogs, and their day-to-day life in London, which includes opiate-enhanced nights at the milk bar, sprees of sexual and unprovoked violent crime, and other unsavoury activity.

In his movie adaptation Kubrick vividly brings the characters to life, wholeheartedly embracing the nihilistic aestheticization within his own stylish vision. Using the fictional slang, Nadsat, created by Burgess, the film creates a whole world that draws you in and leaves you dazed and bruised.

A Clockwork Orange, 137 mins, is being shown at Hackney Picturehouse on Sunday 16th August at 12:30pm. Book tickets here

Plug in and go
Ultimate Painting are a favourite over here at HERO HQ, just check our Spotify play count clocking up.

The duo break down into Jack Cooper and James Hoare, of full-time bands Mazes and Veronica Falls respectively. Putting their day jobs on the back burner they meld together their distinctive styles with bold panache.

Having released their eponymous debut album in October last year they are already back with their sophomore record. Impressive, right? And this is no rush job, it’s a charming and refined take on a vintage sound, and a record everyone should own.

Cooper and Hoare (they’d make a great 80’s cop duo) are booked for a two night residency at Power Lunches on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th. On stage their sound really comes alive, we’ll meet you at the front.

Ultimate Painting play at Power Lunches, E8 4AE on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th, tickets are available here

The night is young
P.S. afterwards head to The Shacklewell Arms for a late night DJ set from Yak’s Elliot Rawson. If it’s anything like their own tenacious sound, it’s going to be a good’un.

YAK DJ set at The Shacklewell Arms on Saturday 15th August from 23:00

Zine this?
Zines first emerged from the punk scene in the mid 1970s – the likes of Search & Destroy and Sniffin’ Glue – as a result of the movement’s DIY ethos and as a means to express fringe ideologies. During the 90s independent publications reached an iconic era as they circulated widely amongst participants in the Riot Grrrl movement, in parallel to bands such as Bikini Kill, Bratmobile and Babes in Toyland.

With the nascent wave of widespread feminist engagement, this prominent zine movement is back in full swing with publications such as The Chapess, OOMK, Grrrls in subculture, Girls Get Busy and Pretty Bitch.

In celebration of this resurgence, this Sunday there’s a Grrrl zine all-dayer over at The Shacklewell Arms featuring zine and comic stalls and a stellar line up of feminist and queer bands to soundtrack the event. Make room on your shelves, we can guarantee you won’t go home empty handed.

Grrrl Zine runs from 3pm on Sunday 16th August from 15:00 at The Shacklewell Arms, E8 2EB

Too hot to Handel
Originally devised as a contemporary alternative to the famous East Sussex Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Grimeborn (top marks for that pun!) is an opera festival, but not as we know it. It’s aim is to reimagine classics, perform little known masterpieces and encourage new work, making opera more accessible and take it out of the opera house and into places such as the Arcola in Dalston.

Opera is a visceral performance platform, but one that has grown rather stale in today’s culture, so Grimeborn hopes to shake it up and create an inclusive environment for people to access Opera in an entirely unique manner.

This year’s programme is a great opera tunity (sorry, not sorry) to see some not-to-miss performances for next to nothing prices. One of the highlights includes Ergo Phizmiz’s GALA, the story centres around the affair between Jeff Fenholt, a twenty-one year old actor, playing the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway and Gala Dali, the aging wife and muse of Salvador Dali. After watching the performance we advise delving further into Fenholt’s story, he once fronted Black Sabbath, post Ozzy. Living the dream.

Grimeborn runs until August 29th. GALA will be performed on Sunday 16th August, book tickets here

TV dinner
Perched atop the BBC’s former White City HQ rooftop is a brand spanking new pop-up food heaven called Storeys. Over two floors of the old BBC car park there will be a rotating roster of street foodies including Le Bun, White Men Can’t Jerk and Crabbieshack.

But it all goes further than just food, over each weekend there will be brunching, day beds to crash out on, early morning yoga, outdoor film screenings and DJs spinning a sunset soundtrack. It’ll also be kitted out with murals from budding young artists and more established street artists. Here’s your chance to be ‘on’ the BBC.

Important reminder: Sunday is national rum day, have one on us.

Storeys is located at Television Centre, W12 7RJ