One half of the night will be given over to a discussion of transhumanism with four special guests – Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing blog hero and author of Little Brother), Gwyneth Jones (author of the Arthur C.Clarke Award winning Bold As Love), Ian Watson (co-author of the screenplay for A.I., and a former Stanley Kubrick collaborator) and Matthew de Abaitua (author of The Red Men). 

The other half of the night will be spent, as usual, chopping and dissecting stories submitted by guests in an intensive process of live editing by the BAD IDEA team – if you’d like to submit stories of 350 words or less for inclusion, written on the transhumanist theme, then send them to info@badidea.co.uk or via our Facebook page, before September 4. The two best stories will be edited live on the night, and the best five will receive a limited edition print of the Future Human poster pictured above, designed by Bryony Lloyd.

It’s in the same place we’ve always been, the Old Operating Theatre Museum near London Bridge. If you haven’t been before, this is a beautifully preserved Victorian operating theatre, with all the disturbingly wrong-headed medical equipment, pungent herbs, and scary mannequins that entails. And as usual, Hendrick’s Gin are going to be providing delicious cucumber-laced complimentary cocktails all night.

More details: It runs from 7-9pm of Thursday September 10, the admission price is £12, and tickets are available here. Tickets will also be available from the venue on the night, but places are limited, so it’s best to buy them beforehand. Tickets will be held at the Old Operating Theatre and not mailed out before the event. The address for the Old Operating Theatre Museum is 9a St. Thomas’s St., London SE1 9RY – click here for a map.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

For those who missed episode three, BAD IDEA editors Jack and Daniel pitched a website business idea to the managers of Trustedplaces.com, but were told they’d have better chances approaching a sacked banker than a venture capital firm. They also met book publisher Malcolm Croft, who told them there was next to no money available – even for the authors he was commissioning (“I’m not going to use the word cheap but… inexpensive“). It left Daniel wondering if they weren’t headed for “some kind of cataclysmic career suicide.”

In episode four, Jack sets up a meeting with entrepreneur Ben Caulfield, and the duo decide to pitch him a business proposal for creating an “open university” styled online creative-writing community. It’s a big opportunity – but can they make it pay?

To catch up on all the other episodes, visit www.badidea.co.uk/printomortis.

We’ve also invited news editors Alyssa McDonald (New Statesman), and Jean Hannah Edelstein (BAD IDEA) to pore over one lucky story and investigate what makes recession rage translate into good feature journalism!

Special guests from CompletelyNovel.com will also be in attendance to lead a debate about HOW TO SAVE PUBLISHING FROM ABSOLUTE ANNIHILATION BY THE 21ST CENTURY’S DIGITAL TSUNAMI!!

Apart from that, BAD IDEA’s editors Jack and Daniel will be doing their usual “Gunther von Hagens for the literary elite” (KultureFlash) thing, and editing your work in a lively environment where “… you can expect the shouty Victorian atmosphere to increase towards grammatical brawling as the night goes on” (Guardian). To buy tickets click here.

Sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin, who will provide complimentary cocktails throughout the evening, The Butcher’s Shop is held in the atmospheric environs of the Old Operating Theatre (behind London Bridge station). 

For more info on the event, check out www.badidea.co.uk/thebutchersshop. And for a sample from one of our recent events, take a look at the clip  below, which features the live drawing skills of illustrator James Nash.

If you missed episode two, BAD IDEA magazine editors Daniel and Jack faced up to a crunched advertising market by brainstorming new moneymaking ideas. These included a digital agency for the sons and daughters of celebrities, ‘artsex.org’, and an application for grant funding to create a “kabuki theatre for the disabled.”

In episode three, Daniel goes to pitch a website business idea to the managers of Trustedplaces.com, and gauge the chances of securing funding from venture capitalists. Afterwards, Jack and Daniel meet book publisher Malcolm Croft as they look to convince him their proposal is worthy of a big advance. They have less than six weeks to save their business – could this be their moment of redemption?

To catch up on past or current episodes, visit www.badidea.co.uk/printomortis – and watch out for the concluding episode of the series, which will arrive in the next week or so. 

For those of you who missed the first episode, BAD IDEA magazine editors Daniel and Jack received some bad financial news from their bank,  giving them a mere six weeks to rescue their business or face “downsizing,” a process which has grim implications for employee Ben, as “overheads walk on two legs.”

In episode two, the team face up to a crunched advertising market. Realising they need to come up with moneymaking ideas, and fast, they decide to have a brainstorming session. 

To catch up on past or current episodes, visit www.badidea.co.uk/printomortis.

PRINTOMORTIS is directed by the super-talented Channel 4 filmmaker Bronwen-Parker Rhodes, and written by BAD IDEA editors Daniel Stacey and Jack Roberts.

Today, we’re posting the first episode of this new web-only series (see below), in which bad financial news forces BAD IDEA’s editors to face up to the fact that they may have to make brutal changes.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be posting more episodes at www.badidea.co.uk/printomortis, so watch out for those if you want to find out where this apocryphal tale is headed. 

(Episode 1 follows after the jump).

Many thanks to Bronwen, Ben and Dicky for their help with this.

Meanwhile, here’s a taster video that features some of the 14 events we put on that night…

Oh, and if you’re wondering who the scratch DJ is at the beginning of the clip, it’s none other than the legendary Green Gartside of Scritti Politti fame.

Unquestioned genius. Thanks Green.

Thanks also to Tom Roberts, and the excellent Oliver Beattie and Natalie Brady, for the V&A clip.

Enjoy people…

Special thanks to Tom Roberts & Sebastian Meyer for your help with this.