Paul in London

Today I was mentioning to colleagues how I was going to the theatre tonight to see Bent and they were a little surprised with my excitement in seeing a revival of a play set in Dachau about two gay men. Well Martin Sherman's play is still well regarded, and the reviews from this new revival with Alan Cumming at the Trafalgar Studios have been good. I was also seeing it with A who insisted that we sit up close to appreciate the show, and its full-frontal nudity, without having to rely on opera glasses. It was not a light night out at the theatre however... Not that it wasn't watchable, but the full-frontal nudity gave soon gave way to blood-spattered walls and trashed apartments. The play opens in Berlin on the "Night of the Long Knives" when Hitler executed Ernst Röhm and his gay stormtroopers. Suddenly it wasn't good to be gay in Nazi Germany. The play then follows, step by squeamish step, the fate of the three main characters. The first half was a bit distract...

Scenes from the Southbank Saturday 18:47 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ .

P1010231 Originally uploaded by pink_ego_b0x . Trafalgar Square today was packed with people all waving placards and flags urging for a global treaty to cap global warming. It wasn't just the usual suspects of young impressionable revolutionaries but hoards of what the media are calling a 'mainstream protest' . One wonders if these are the same mainstream people who are enjoying the bonfires and fireworks all this weekend to coincide with Guy Fawkes Day... Best placard was the one lampooning George Bush (does anybody in London respect that man?). Although it was a little startling to be walking around a find George Bush's head bobbing along right beside you (as above)... Like YIKES!

Brazilian: Do you take Viagra? Man: No... Brazilian: How do you expect to keep a boyfriend if you don't take Viagra? Man: Oh...

Sunday night I caught Marie Antoinette . I would warn people not to watch this film on an empty stomach as there are an astonishing array of desserts in this film. After ninety minutes I kept looking at my watch as I really fancied a tart or something with cream and berries. Unfortunately the film had another half hour or so to go so it was a bit of a long wait. And all I could get at the end of the film was a Magnum . Kirsten Dunst is great in any film she is in, although here she just had to play herself. Style triumphs over substance here but everything is so gorgeous (including the tarts) and was similar in tone to director Sofia Coppola's other films that it was watchable enough...

Scenes from a SW2 Bar Friday 21:12 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . After a jug of cosmopolitans, I started photographing anything around me... Last time I was at this bar (just a few days earlier) there was this fifty-something woman making out with a twenty-something man on the very same seat that these ladies were sitting on. It was so bizarre. Anyway, the ladies didn't mind the attention. Oh and that is a projection screen behind them...

Scenes from Jubilee Bridge Thursday 22:18 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Conversation taking this photo went something like this: Paul : I'm not sure about using the flash on this camera as I will look really white... F : But you ARE white... Paul : Oh yeah...

I received a bit of flack this week from an anonymous poster connected somehow to the West End production of Cabaret saying I was such a bitch for what I wrote about Cabaret and that I should stick to watching Daddy Cool or some other jukebox musical as that would be all my intelligence could cope with. Those creative types can get so touchy... Anyway, I had already bought tickets to see Caroline Or Change for Thursday evening so I couldn't take them up on their suggestion. I had been looking forward to this for some time. Listening to the Broadway Cast Recording over the past couple of years it has grown on me to be one of my favourite musicals of recent years. With a book and lyrics by Tony Kushner (who also wrote Angels in America) and music by Jeanine Tesori (who wrote the musicals "Violet" and "Twelfth Night" and the new music for "Thoroughly Modern Millie" when it was adapted for stage) it received raves when it opened and the UK production ha...

Scenes from the Northern Line Southbound Monday 22:45 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Freebasing on the Northern Line...