Top image: ‘14.11.65’ by John Hoyland

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 16th OCTOBER – MONDAY 18th OCTOBER 2015

Love can be found in the strangest places
Let’s kick off the week with a bit of a mindfuck to switch it up. Yorgos Lanthimos, author of the darkly stylised Dogtooth, is bringing his latest work of deadpan surrealism to the New York Film Festival, his first English-language feature.

Starring Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and Ben Whishaw, The Lobster addresses our universal obsession with finding ‘the one’. Set in a warped alternative present where adults who are single must check into a hotel with other singles and find a genuinely compatible partner within 45 days, or they are transformed into an animal of their choice and released into the forest. Extra time can be sourced for via hunting trips into the forest to ‘bring down’ rebellious singles who have escaped into the wild there, living as singleton outlaws.

It’s Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie for the social media generation, a twisted satire with Fellini-esque lucidity. Prepare to witness our society’s cultural subconscious candidly smeared across the big screen.

The Lobster, 118 mins, out now

Breaking the rules
It’s that man again, Damien Hirst. The love-him-or-hate-him artist has opened his own Lambeth based gallery.

No, he’s not showing his own work, he’s not that vein, well… He’s actually he’s showing work by John Hoyland (1934–2011), one of Hirst’s favourite artists, and a major inspiration to his own artistic career.

Sheffield born Hoyland challenged conventional practice. Renowned for his bold use of colour and scale he would use the floor as a base to make paintings, measured in yards not feet. He then poured, sculpted, threw and squirted, the paint on to stretched as opposed to loose canvas, maniupulating colour and form.

The big Frieze
This week Frieze takes up its annual spot in London’s Regent’s Park London, and with that, swathes of art lovers flock.

The fair is a great opportunity to see works from a tightly curated mix of both emerging and long established artists from some of most innovative and influential galleries across the world. As always the line up proves to be a hotbed of art nuggets, from rare works from contemporary video and sound artist Bill Viola’s early career at Blain|Southern, to Jon Rafman’s immersive installations at the Zabludowicz Collection, through to talks by punk royalty Viv Albertine and Vivienne Westwood.

Here’s your annual chance to gorge on all things art. And, just to save you some time and effort, we’ve picked out the gems from this year’s festival. Dig in.

Frieze Art Fair runs from 14th to 17th October at Regent’s Park, London

Bop in time
Signed to Cali’s Burger Records – those loveable purveyors of surf garage fuzz – Peach Kelli Pop is Canadian Allie Hanlon’s rock ‘n’ roll pseudonym.

Hanlon’s quirky popwaves pop with sugar rush energy, instantly transport you to West Coast beaches. With that lo-fi wall of sound reverberating around your head you’ll be instantly transported away from the big chill that London has become this week.

Peach Kelli Pop is in London this weekend playing at Dalston’s Victoria. On stage her snappy tracks fizz with an added intensity, imagine The Ramones sucking on lollipops rather than cigarettes, got it?

Falmouth’s blistering four piece The Black Tambourines will be supporting Hanlon on the night, so get there early for prime position.

Peach kelli Pop w/The Black Tambourines play at Dalston’s Victoria on Friday 16th

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows”
Walking through Shoreditch today you’ll probably come across many bearded actor types. Well rewind to the 16th Century and yes, there may not be as many pop-up bars and cereal shops, but you’d probably still be surrounded by theatrical types. As before the West End and South Bank, this was London’s theatre district and most of the actors were residents. The very first playhouse, The Theatre opened in New Inn Broadway in 1576 and then The Curtain nearby in Curtain Rd in 1577.

The Curtain would often show performances by a certain William Shakespeare, who allegedly lived nearby. It was here where Henry V and Romeo and Juliet were first performed, before the playwright moved to the iconic Globe Theatre.

It’s currently Literary season for Footprints of London, and to celebrate they have set up a series of talks and walks to celebrate the great literary names who lived and worked in London town, including a Shakespeare in Shoreditch walk this Saturday.

Footprints of London: Literary season runs from now to 7th November, check out the programme here.

You’re bard!
Follow in Shakespeare’s footsteps even further and go for a drink at The George Inn on Borough High Street. Dating from the 17th century this public house, is London’s last remaining galleried inn and it’s said to have been a favourite watering hole of Shakespeare and Dicken, also Geoffrey Chaucer began The Canterbury Tales in neighbouring pub The Tabard back in 1380.

It’s also rumoured that Churchill once took his own port to the George and was charged corkage by the landlady, rookie mistake there Winston.

In the words of Shakespeare himself, via Macbeth, “Drink sir, is a great provoker of three things… nose painting, sleep and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire but takes away the performance.”

The George Inn, 75-77 Borough High Street, London SE1 1NH