Take me out: best weekend events
It's the last chance to get your skates on at Somerset House, scruffy indie types will be gathering for XFM All-Dayer and you can catch our food critic Toby Young at Book Slam...
LAST CHANCE: SOMERSET HOUSE ICE RINK
Somerset House, The Strand, WC2. Daily 10am-10pm until Sunday. Tel: 0870 166 0423. www.somersethouseicerink.org.uk
Just as the cold snap makes the conditions perfect for skating, the handsome ice rink at Somerset House is closing for another year. The last session is on Sunday at 10pm - so you'll have to, ahem, get your skates on.
XFM ALL-DAYER
Barfly, Chalk Farm Road, NW1. Saturday, 2pm. Tel: 020 7691 4244
A promising selection of scruffy indie types gather for this afternoon party thrown by Xfm, the alternative outpost of Capital Radio. Shy folkie turned electronic extrovert Patrick Wolf, neo-gothic fops The Horrors, ear-bleeding wastrels The Blood Brothers and the splendidly named Dananananakroyd are among the performers.
BOOK SLAM
Neighbourhood, 12 Acklam Road, W10. Tonight, 7pm. Tel: 07909 977 838
Transatlantic laughing stock, thanks to his book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, and ES Magazine food critic Toby Young will perform at Patrick Neate's popular monthly night of poetry, music and literary fun. Also on the bill are singer-songwriter Echo Sierra and Scroobius Pip, winner of Poetry Idol and selfstyled master of "unspoken word".
MATT MULLICAN UNDER HYPNOSIS
Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1. Saturday 10pm. Tel; 020 7887 8888
In the Turbine Hall, American painter and sculptor Matt Mullican will create a painting while hypnotised. Mullican has long been a fan of mesmerism and its effects on the subconscious, and tries to create a lot of his art under the spell. The rest of the Tate Modern collection is open until 10pm - last go on Carsten Holler's slides is at 9.30pm.
