Gather your pocket change and hold your head high. There's some place to be every day of the week, no matter how skint you think you are. London provides.
Friday: Jeremy Hutchinson has filled a Southwark gallery with his Pantoned collection of off-cuts from the acrylic signage industry, and everything must go. It's a thought provoking anti-supermarket where value comes and goes like a fickle teenage crush, leaving us rather confused about what it's all really worth, but this slice of commercial negative space does look good on our wall.Saturday: For a more utilitarian choice of recycled goods, show up at Spitalfields with some unneeded but stylish clothing for a 'swish,' or fashion swap, running from 1-4pm as part of the East Festival. Sure to be a fertile crowd for some wardrobe cross-pollination.Sunday: Let The Bellboys (Les Grooms) be your guides through the ins and outs of the Barbican. They probably won't take you through Frobisher Crescent, but when has a brass band ever led you astray?Monday: Whitechapel's Rhythm Factory are bringing change to the open mic scene with a new night of variety called Obama Plays Pop. Who knows what special guests might turn up? We're not saying the new President of the United States has necessarily booked a slot, but it's probably likely.Tuesday: One of the distinguished societies headquartered around the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, the Royal Astronomical Society run under-publicised public lunchtime lectures every month. This month it's Professor Bell Burnell, President of the Institute of Physics, sharing her collection of astronomy-inspired poetry from throughout the ages.Wednesday: Fancy holing up in a pub with South London's friendliest comedy club? Comedy at the Kirk have the inherent humour of Tooting on their side; they promise "merriment and chuckling," and we're holding them to it. £5/£4 concs tickets, and it all goes to Comic Relief.Thursday: Historian David Boyle speaks to the SE London Folklore Society at the Old King's Head on the folklore of fairies, an indigenous community on whose existence he professes to keep an open mind.
