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The agony and the misogyny: Banging Denmark @finborough

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Banging Denmark, the comic play by Van Badham, answers the question, what lengths does a misogynistic pickup artist go to date with a frosty Danish librarian? It may be an uneasy farce given the subject matter, but it is made more palatable by the cast assembled to convince you of it. It's currently having its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre .  It opens with Guy DeWitt (Tom Kay) at one end of the stage. His real name is Jake, and he's a part-time podcaster whose expertise is misogyny and playing the role of the pickup artist. That is, someone who attempts to coax women into having sex with a mix of flattery or manipulation. His podcast attracts a variety of involuntarily celibate men (or incels), so call in asking for advice. And while he gives the impression of living the high life, he is in a grimy flat strewn with empty pizza boxes.  At the other end of the stage is feminist academic Ishtar (Rebecca Blackstone). She lives out of the photocopy room, losing all her

Scenes from Soho Sunday 18:25

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DSC02255 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . The World Cup final still had over half an hour before it started but it was ground zero for fans who were shouting EEE-TAL-YA, EEE-TAL-YA, EEE-TAL-YA... Having a three syllable name for a country makes it all the more exciting really...

Scenes from Bedford Square Sunday 18:09

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Scenes from Bedford Square Sunday 18:09 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . WC1 is home to many beautiful squares. This one - Bedford Square - is famous for its historic homes and crack dealers . The square has just been tarted up a little as well...

Scenes from Piccadilly Circus Saturday 23:56

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Scenes from Piccadilly Circus Saturday 23:56 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . Piccadilly Circus is popular around midnight if you are lost, drunk, trying to get a mouldy hamburger from Burger King or all of the above. Speaking of mouldy food (or perhaps food with a bit of tarmac on it), I nearly got knocked down at Cambridge Circus by a flying hotdog stand. Two men obviously desperate to avoid Westminster Health Inspectors, raced across the road with cart of sizzling sausages and nearly crashed into me. In their haste they also let a tray of hot dog buns fly across the road. Somehow before the lights changed they managed run back and pick the buns off the road before the traffic could mow them down... They were last seen heading east on Shaftsbury Avenue with buns back on cart ready for unsuspecting diners towards Holborn...

7/7 One year on

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7/7 One year on Originally uploaded by finkangel . Kings Cross at noon today. Taken by a Flickr user (click the link above to see more images) or see the BBC coverage ...

Opera: Tosca

Monday night I caught the new production of Tosca at Covent Garden. There are two casts so I did not see the now infamous (non)star turn by Angela Gheorghiu but a fantastic performance by Catherine Naglestad who could act and had the voice for such a dramatic role. I got the ticket as A decided to swap his tickets for tonight with Saturday's final performance with Gheorghiu (and thankfully ignoring the advice from the opera house staff that he already had tickets to the better performance). The opera sinks or swims on the strength of the soloist in playing the title role. Thankfully Naglestad was a tiger and not a Romanian kitten . Perhaps she turned up to rehearsals so she knew what to do with the heavy dress she was burdened with for the second and third act. She also was never drowned out by the orchestra. These were things you would think you would take for granted when going to see something at Covent Garden, but apparently they were missing at Saturday evening's perform

Scenes from Soho Saturday 19:50

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More images by clicking on the photo. So another year another pride, although this year was bigger given it was Europride swelling the numbers to somewhere around half a million people... Marching down Oxford Street was fun. Mind you the group I was walking with (not under any banner just the assortment at the end) were tempted to ditch the parade as we passed John Lewis thinking of all the bargains we were missing out on in the half-yearly sale. I went back on Sunday however...

Scenes from Soho Saturday 16:47

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Old Compton Street. England may have crashed out of the world cup , but at least there still was a party going on...

Scenes from Selfridges Saturday 14:06

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Outside Selfridges young gentlemen wearing Aussiebum cosis were giving out sweets on sticks... Who could resist such an offer? And yes that is "What a gay day" written on the Selfridges window...

Scenes from outside Selfridges Saturday 13:56

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Just another day on Oxford Street really... Sales have started... Oh and there was Europride ... Not all the bargain hunters were expecting that (judging by the startled looks on their faces - particularly when horns and whistles started going off all over the place)...

Scenes from Soho Friday 23:42

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Scenes from Soho Friday 23:42 Originally uploaded by Pauly_ . A man in a bear suit on a bike (with a bear). It is going to be one of those weekends...