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Cash
Jun 28, 2020 13:23:00 GMT
Jon likes this
Post by Phantom of London on Jun 28, 2020 13:23:00 GMT
You have Apple Pay on your internet enabled phone now, so the card isn’t a physical thing now. As I touched on earlier when I am out on my bike I don’t take my wallet out, less chance of losing in it, I just pay for everything on my phone.
Every card in your wallet/purse I guess it would be possible to put in you Apple Wallet, from your library card to your ATG card, membership cards and maybe your Nectar Card? So do you really need to carry a bulky wallet/purse now?
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 28, 2020 0:50:45 GMT
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 27, 2020 22:17:10 GMT
I cannot remember the last time, I have wrote a cheque. Even my window cleaner, he drops me a text to say he has done by windows - I then transfer the money straight in his bank account.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 27, 2020 20:13:14 GMT
In Feb of this year I was mugged and my cards took a week to come. Thankfully I borrowed spare credit cards from a neighbour and my partner - but not everyone can do that. Yet I am in favour of generally going cashless. It's cleaner and safer. Sorry to hear you were mugged, hope you are alright and must have been a horrible experience for you. I booked an appointment for my two kids to get their haircut the week that it all opens. I normally pay cash and asked what they’d like- cash or card- and they still prefer cash. No doubt want cash for one reason only and that is to pay less tax, on the little tax they pay anyway. I'm not in favour of cashless although I don't use it that much. It is increasingly difficult to open bank accounts and there is increasing fraud with cards, especially on the net. Neither am I in favour of any dogmatism which seeks to force others to change their lifestyles to suit someone else. Live and let live. But you don’t to the best of my knowledge get fraud in shops with card readers. People need to be careful when doing transactions on line, fraud on-line is 100% preventable. When I go out on my bike, I don’t even bother carrying my wallet now, just carry my phone and use that, less chance of losing phone.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 27, 2020 14:31:50 GMT
Cash is very expensive item to administer and is also very dirty, as you don’t know who handled the cash before. With this pandemic it was a good time to go partial cashless, the government should of outlawed businesses that handled food, from accepting cash. Good example in the heatwave my local ice cream man, was dispensing food and handling cash, needless to say I didn’t queue. Incidentally I created a thread on this subject, a while ago. theatreboard.co.uk/thread/6471/cash
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 26, 2020 21:31:59 GMT
Putting any musical into the Coliseum is madness. Unless you're going to cast someone like Hugh Jackman as Higgins, you're going to be playing to lots of empty seats and that can't be sustained over a run. It's just too big. Didn't The King and I do incredibly well though? X x x Hmm that's surprising 🤔 x x x
Not particularly, given that it played at the Palladium.
The Coliseum is only 73 seats more than the Palladium (albeit not really seen as a musical house any more). The King and I was marketed incredibly well given that they made the show and production the hero and the two excellent Broadway stars weren't really West End names. It seems to have been a big hit on tour too - it was packed in Dublin. If My Fair Lady was publicised as well I think there would be a huge appetite for a limited season of a big, luxurious production in a big house. Hopefully that would take the pressure off for casting stars - maybe a star Higgins and a brilliant lesser known Eliza of the right age. The King and I was brilliant at the Palace of the London Palladium, Kelli O’Hara was brilliant in the role and should have won the Olivier, when she sung ‘Hello Young Lovers’ she was like a peacock with feathers fully spread. But they still struggled to sell tickets and it was very easy to get a £25 rush ticket from TodayTix on the day. Hence why producers don’t like the big theatres now.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 25, 2020 23:16:07 GMT
Impossible to fine people for not wearing a mask in a shop. Unenforceable. O my mask is in me bag, just slipped off, on the floor, left it in the toilet. I’m asthmatic. And so on.. yes people will try their best. No, a lot wont bother and wont pay a jot. Every example you give, should be fined and the issuing authority should go hard - they won’t be saying the mask is in my bag, just slipped off, on the floor of the toilet, I’m asthmatic and so on again. Or you don’t the “R” rate will rise again and this wry infectious and killer virus will surge again, just like they have in the southern states in the US where they put health before wealth, incidentally 14 states that have mandated wearing masks in the US they have generally done a good job of controlling the virus, especially New York. Maybe they can get away with that they were testing their eyesight.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 25, 2020 17:33:07 GMT
Simple if you don’t like wearing a mask, then you will not like to wear a ventilator. Wearing a mask when you're not close enough to other people for disease to pass between you is like wearing a condom when you're not having sex. Masks are a method of last resort when you have no other method available. They're not even a particularly good method: some masks offer very little protection, as opposed to the 100% protection offered by distancing, and when you wear a mask you don't even know how much safer it makes you. Some of you are treating masks as though they're magic and should be our first line of defence, and that's a dangerous way of thinking. You can wear a mask and put yourself at risk if you like. I'll carry on doing my best to stay away from other people whenever I can. Everyone understand that if you distance yourself from people, then catching Covid becomes more vanishing small. Wearing a masks in indoor areas also protects you and I don’t buy the government line that mask only stop you from spreading Covid 19, I wonder if the government will change their stance once supply outstrips demand and not the other way round. The government dissuaded the public to buy masks, to safeguard supplies for the NHS. A hairdresser in the United States, where Covid is raging again in the southern states, because they rushed to re-open and didn’t listen to the science, anyway I digress, a hairdresser Who had Covid and when they contact traced all her customers and tested them, all tested negatively, why? Because both wore a mask. South Korea where there have been less than 300 deaths and there is a good reason for that and that is because they test and wear masks. Law now says you must wear a mask, when on public transport, but no point making laws if you are not going to enforce it. It should also be unlawful to not wear a mask in shops and other indoor areas. People who do not should be hit with a big fine £200 for the first offence.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 25, 2020 0:06:25 GMT
t confounds me the people who do not wear masks There's not an infinite supply of masks and only the more expensive ones can be used for more than a few hours. If you keep distant from other people then wearing a mask is superfluous, and if you wear one anyway then all you're doing is wasting a mask. They should certainly be worn where distancing is impossible — nobody should be using public transport without one — but distancing must remain the primary method of controlling this disease and masks are very much a fallback to somewhat reduce the risk when the primary method isn't available. Interestingly, when I've been shopping the people who aren't bothering to keep their distance and feel free to barge past others are the people with masks. People seem to be acting as if wearing a mask means you don't need distancing, and that's wrong. Simple if you don’t like wearing a mask, then you will not like to wear a ventilator.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 24, 2020 21:13:54 GMT
The original Eliza (in the play) was Mrs Patrick Campbell. She was born in 1865 and the play was first performed in 1913...the role having been written for her. I think we can cope with a slightly older Eliza! Mrs Patrick Campbell would be no good in the role, she’s been dead for 80 years.😉😉😉
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 24, 2020 17:29:22 GMT
Also remember reading that as spectacular as The Phantom of the Opera is, it doesn’t actually have that much physical scenery.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 24, 2020 17:27:53 GMT
Some new thoughts today. Let's accept that changes are going to happen to the orchestra. Don't know if you've look into the pit or been down in there, but it's very cramped down there. To the extent the 3 keyboard players live in the Her Majesty's boxes stage left. Social distancing measures are going to be around for a long while. It's probably likely and to an extent beyond producers control that the number in the pit will be reduced. Reductions will probably be seen in the doubled instruments like strings etc. Wouldn't be surprised if percussion gets halved too. Heart breaking for those who have been with the show longer than some of the cast members will have been alive. Again, substage Her Majesty's is quite tight. IF they're talking about changing the set, upgrades to automation from hand driven, then this is going to be a huge overhaul. The equipment driving the set in Her Majesty's is Victorian and eats up most of the space under the stage. To fit brand new automation and rigging is going to require all the antique, victorian equipment (some of the very last left in London - correct me if I'm wrong but isn't some of it listed) to be ripped out. This would be an upgrade on the scale of Theatre Royal Drury Lane's 'restoration', would take months of planning and construction. This show wouldn't reopen in 2021. I wonder with such a long shut down, as you suggest, whether they will bring in the scraped UK tour into another West End theatre as a stop gap?
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 23, 2020 23:20:01 GMT
It confounds me the people who do not wear masks, it enhances our economic freedom, it doesn’t curtail it - gets the economy open quicker and makes that opening more sustainable.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 23, 2020 20:05:30 GMT
Cameron Mackintosh is a billionaire, like Andrew Lloyd Webber, in Andrew’s case he wanted to move this musical into the London Palladium, Soon after it opened -but Cameron Mackintosh vetoed it, both have made a handsome fortune from this musical and more than likely still do, I’ve got no problem updating if the set is life expired, but here I can smell a rat and there is a ulterior motive to bring in a watered down version in to save money and this will look just as atrocious as the new Les Miserables does, done just to save money.
I am sorry but I don’t buy for 1 moment that because of Covid, it has allowed consultants to do a more detailed survey, that is hogwash, it doesn’t that long to do a survey and Cameron and Andrew would have had regular feedback from back of stage staff (Craftsmen) on the poor condition of the set.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 22, 2020 17:10:37 GMT
Angel scene
Is that the scene where the Phantom is lowered down from the fake proscenium arch, whilst listing to Christine and Raoul sing on the roof of the Paris Opera House?
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 22, 2020 14:48:37 GMT
I haven’t heard of the chandelier being condemned before, however a chandelier few Several pyrotechnics going off in a whimper, doesn’t cut the mustard. The chandelier needs to come crashing down ‘behold to bring down the chandelier,’ this is what makes Phantom iconic, now possible to have several pyrotechnics, so the audience looks up, then the Chandelier comes down.
With the enforced shut down.
A great starting point would be to do a complete refurbishment of the front of house.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 21, 2020 18:51:02 GMT
Grateful to be in the company of so many theatre lovers who also are such knowledgeable epidemiologists, sociologist, and public policy analysts.
It's a pity more people don't read. This is Andrew Slavitt, who was in charge of implementing the Affordable Care Act under the Obama administration, on CNN last week: "Look at the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic wore masks for a very short period of time. And now they have basically eradicated the virus at least for now, and they're able to go back to the work, go back to their jobs without masks. I have been a proponent of saying if President Trump did one thing, if he wore a mask and encouraged supporters to wear a mask for three weeks straight, he would be - we would be sitting here four weeks, about five, about six weeks from now with much of the virus behind us.
And so, that's the kind of leadership that I know he doesn't want to put forward for a variety of reasons, but if he did it would be one of the simplest things that could save a lot of lives and get the economy back."CNN Newsroom transcript, June 11th 2020
There's a New York Times article covering similar ground, but I've misplaced the link.
Fake Flu Trump and his Republican State Governors needed to get the economy up and running again by all means for any chance to win the election in November, however looking at the Southern states where they reopened with great gusto the virus has came back to bite them, with record new cases. The President doesn’t where a mask in the, but you can bet your bottom dollar that everyone else has to and anyone in contact with the president will be tested daily in the White House or On the day before the President arrives, if he is doing a remote visit.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 12, 2020 0:36:57 GMT
"A spokesperson for LBC did not fully explain why Farage had left" I think "Well duh!" is about the only explanation anyone would need to offer. Why they engaged him in the first place, however... What's the betting that he's hired by TalkRadio within a couple of months. That’s where ex LBC presenters end up.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 12, 2020 0:31:25 GMT
Amen
katie Hopkins, Rees Mogg, now Nigel gone.
A long standing LBC listener, heard him several times and he was just coming out with the same repetitive garbage.
He hasn’t being replaced as yet, the political nerd and Brexiter Iain Dale show has just been extended by an hour and he is doing his Sunday morning show, saying that apart from being a Brexiter Iain is a nice bloke, I used to see him on Charing Cross Station, going home from LBC about 10:15 sometimes.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 10, 2020 21:33:53 GMT
Another slave trader statue removed : I have no issue with that statue coming down and now a good time to bring other statues down that traded in the currency of human misery. Also I include in this portraits of Slave Traders in the Tate and National Gallery.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 9, 2020 0:19:59 GMT
Candace Owen is the American equivalent of Katie Hopkins.
They both make arguments with vile hyperbole than facts.
Well Dave25 you certainly have nailed your colours to the flag and quoting Candace Owen and other posts in other threads, just validates who you rally are.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 7, 2020 21:40:09 GMT
Whilst talking about racism in this thread it is also worth noting that;
American Soldiers were sent to the Vietnamese villages to win the locals hearts and minds, unfortunately it was the Vietnamese that won the heart and minds through prostitution and opium, essentially what Miss Saigon is about. The American soldiers were conscripted and were mainly not like Chris but John, by being black as a lot of white Americans avoided the draft, just as the current President did.
What Miss Saigon did well and that was make America finally take ownership of the problems they left behind and that was the Bui Doi children the ‘dust of life,’ who were despised and abhorred in Vietnam, ‘conceived by a pig,’ It made the president At the time of Miss Saigon and I believe it to be George Bush Senior, to allow the Bui Doi generation to settle in America and start a life a new, one that is free, peaceful and not judged..
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 7, 2020 19:55:00 GMT
Protests in the US this week have already led some to adoption of some significant policing reforms in several major cities, including my own. It works. And we will keep doing it. Everyone has to make their own choices, but one can be out protesting and remain masked and social distanced. That matters to me, and I've selected protests where it is possible to so and remained vigilant while participating. Which is welcome, but is it enough? in the US serious crime only can be convicted if the jury is unanimous. Also when all the hullabaloo dies down, the trial gets moved to where a jury is more sympathetic, this how guilty cops, backed by the all powerful American Police Federation walk. A good thing that came out of the Stephen Lawrence murder, if I can really say that - is the end of the double jeopardy law, where if new evidence come to light the defendant can Now stand trial again, hence why two scumbags that murdered Stephen Lawrence got convicted of murder because of that deed.
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Post by Phantom of London on Jun 6, 2020 20:01:06 GMT
The thing is, I haven't seen any ideas as to what would be better than the current form of protest. For me, it's the other way round. Whilst I completely understand valid concerns about mass gatherings, so many people feel so angry that they have no choice but to protest. Personally, I don't think protesting in the streets does a single thing. I mean it's a proven fact it does nothing. It does. What happened in Minneapolis and I have to say it is one of the worst things I have ever seen, along with people jumping for their lives at the World Trade Centre, a citizen executed in the street, by the very people employed to keep them safe. Especially as the citizen hadn’t committed a crime, that makes it even more appalling and abhorrent. if this wasn’t caught on video, the 4 officers would have likely been suspended on no pay, then when all the mayhem died down the all powerful American Police Federation would have campaigned to have their job back, which going on past history would have very likely been successful and their lost pay would have been backdated. As it was caught on video - 4 policemen got sacked. If people didn’t bother to protest then the cop with the knee on the neck, probably wouldn’t have been charged with third degree murder, then if the protesters didn’t continue to protest then the 3rd degree murder charge wouldn’t have been upgraded to second degree murder and the other officers charged with aiding and abetting. This isn’t the first time a major injustice has happened against the BAME community in the US and has also happened in the UK, hence black people have died in Police custody, that is why the protests have spread over to here and just shows how furious and passionate people are if they are willing to protest and catch Covid. The US police are what our police were pre Stephen Lawrence and that is institutionally racist.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 29, 2019 13:55:30 GMT
Read back this thread and see it was announced a while back that Thriller was closing and all the hyperbole over Thriller, I seemed to missed all that and just points out the problems when the moderators merge threads, as I just skip the conventional Thriller thread, as it is no interest, however a Thriller closing thread is, would draw my attention.
I have more issues with the person represented than the show, than the show, sure Thriller isn’t great but has some breathtaking. choreography and employs a large non white cast, it is perfect for non English speaking tourists as there is no dialogue and the music is universal. Not the worst show the West End has seen, but definitely has overstayed it’s welcome.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 29, 2019 13:38:35 GMT
I can't imagine many theatre owners wanting it TBH. The Playhouse is unavailable as is the Vaudeville. I hope you are right. However does the Vaudeville have another show after the Vaudeville? Duchess is possible, but The Play That Goes Wrong is not going anywhere, anytime soon. The Lyric is in desperate need of restoration, it was in a dreadful state, when I was there a couple nights back.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 28, 2019 22:53:53 GMT
Anyone know about Thriller playing it’s final performance at the Lyric on the 26th April?
Is it moving to the Vaudeville or Playhouse or something? Or have they lost their first class rights due to MJ opening at the Neil Simon Theatre?
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 28, 2019 1:25:26 GMT
Sad A great musical visionary. However apparently he has managed to dodge a bullet for a number of years, as I read somewhere that he has been living with the HIV virus, but it didn't affect his immune system? where many other tragically it proved fatal? Modern HIV medication means that people can live full lives these days. Its not a death sentence. Its a controlled illness. I am well aware of ART medication that heals HIV but still is no cure, however when he got infected was a long time before ART medication was available, he didn’t go on and develop AIDS, where opportunistic illnesses simply finish you, this killed a lot of his peers and was rife on Broadway at the time, so that is where Jerry dodged a bullet. He was immune to the HIV virus. When Hello Dolly, Mame and La Cage get mentioned, no superlative is necessary to justify these musicals.
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 27, 2019 23:42:23 GMT
I hated the 3D aspect of this. If you compared this new one to the original 3, then sure you are going to be disappointed, but if you don’t then it is alright and nothing special. However every Star Wars always follows the same theme, where the good guys are on the point of losing, {Spoiler - click to view} then pull it back from the brink in the last scene
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Post by Phantom of London on Dec 27, 2019 15:47:01 GMT
Sad
A great musical visionary.
However apparently he has managed to dodge a bullet for a number of years, as I read somewhere that he has been living with the HIV virus, but it didn't affect his immune system? where many other tragically it proved fatal?
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