Badaude

Tentative d'infographer un Petit-déj

I had fun working out the perfect formula for breakfast for the London Review of Breakfasts. 

(The fact that I wrote it in Paris is neither here nor there.) 

Here's an excerpt - if you'd like to find the solution to breakfast, read more here.

Breakfast is a matter of proportion.

Any proportion can be expressed and analysed mathematically.

Take the four basic breakfast ingredients: egg, bacon, tomato, sausage.

The first thing to notice is that they can be eaten in various combinations. The taste of each ingredient is enhanced by combination with another. This is one of the chief pleasures of breakfast. Some people prefer the taste of sausage with egg; others, bacon with tomato. Fewer will eat sausage with tomato, and almost none, tomato with egg or sausage with bacon. This can be expressed thus:

Interesting results can be gained from converting this into a Venn diagram showing the most popular combinations, which expresses a fascinating and pleasing circularity accounting, perhaps, for the continuing popularity of the four basic ingredients (please ignore the central shaded area on the diagream below, which we shall come back to later).

 

Un voyage vers...

"Something you never thought might happen: after a certain number of years the being who has read all these neglected books will step from your bookshelves, will sit down at your table (conveniently adjacent), will make a cup of coffee at the machine, having seen you use it so many times, especially when about to tackle a book, and will light a cigarette, insubstantial as steam, the odour of which will affect neither your carpets nor curtains. It will be the opposite of you, your inverse."

On 11 March I talked a bit about Oulipo with Lauren Elkin and read a story (extract above) at Shakespeare and Company Bookshop Paris. My story was inspired by George Perec's Voyage D'Hiver and its many responses, some of which can be found here, and also by Perec's and contemporary Oulipian Anne Garréta's essays on bookshelves. Referencing the Voyage D'Hiver tradition as well as hinting at Oulipo's obsession with 'potential' literature, I called it 'Un Voyage Vers...' (A Journey Towards...)

I made a limited edition of signed and numbered prints of the story, hand-lettered, with the above illustration. A few of the sepia edition of 10 are still available at the till at Shakespeare & Co. I also have an edition of 10 in rust as shown above. The print comes in the form of an A4 size booklet with the pic on the front so you can put it on your wall when you've read it if you feel inclined. If you'd like one, they're £7 - or a if it's easier buy me a book from here. The price includes postage anywhere in the world. Please get in touch by leaving a message below or emailing badaude-at-gmail-dot-com. 

Here's pic from the event. Seems like we had a lot of fun.

(thanks to Shakespeare & Co for the photo)

 

Eat Your Words...

I did a thing for the London Review of Breakfasts (the site has a fine-looking book out later this month).

Here's a bit of it. 

It's not much about breakfast really (unless you like eating your words)...

Click here for the whole thing.

The Kelley Scarf - (50 Shades of) Giveaway

Here's a Valentine's giveaway for a pocket square (35 x 35cm) version of this design I did for Age of Reason scarves as part of their Boudoir range. This is a sample of a scarf not yet in production so, if you win it, you'll be the only one wearing it. The 100% silk square can be worn as a head or neckscarf, and also looks very good as a bag, hair or wrist tie.

This is Kelley who inspired the Scarf. She's wearing the large (90 x 90cm) version and it looks quite demure. As with so many things it all depends how much you want to reveal...

I've been wondering what to ask you to do to win - this could get quite steamy. OK, don't be bashful and tell me below why you'd like this scarf for you, or for your Valentine, or how you'd wear it, or whatever. You don't have to leave your real name...

The giveaway finishes at midnight on 11th February so I can post the scarf to you to arrive - hopefully - in time for Valentine's day.

And if you don't win, I'd also like to mention Katherine Angel's book, Unmastered, an investigation into voicing/writing the erotic and, I'm pretty sure, a more exciting Valentine than 50 Shades.

Bookgame, Berlin!

I ran a bookgame at the wonderful English language bookshop, Dialogue, Berlin, last weekend.

The principles behind the game are here. 

I had an impressive list of contributors: as well as friends of the bookshop, writers Jenny Diski, Olivia Laing, Ben Moor, Masha Tupitsyn, Suzanne Joinson, Clare Wigfall, Drew Minh, James Hopkin, Abigail Docherty, Susana Medina, Nicholas Royle and Tod Wodicka, sent 5-part pieces. Many many thanks!

Darran Anderson, who also contributed, called the game, Cutups, which is such a good title I think I'll steal it...

Here are some photos:

I will be running another bookgame in 2013. 

If you're a bookshop - or other book-related organisation/event/whatever - and would like me to run the game with you, please email badaude-at-gmail-dot-com. 

Midnight Tourism

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Midnight Tourism. 

OuVaPo, the Ouvroir des Vacances Potentielles (The Workshop of Potential Holidays) is inspired by The OuLiPo, the French Ouvroir de la Litterature Potentielle (workshop for potential literature). We are the subgroup dealing with travel literature and, as such, are a hugely successful worldwide organisation. We are responsible for every single holiday brochure that pops through your letterbox. Yes, every one.

The great thing about our holidays is that that you haven't taken them yet. And this is why our holidays are better than anyone else's. Ours are the holidays of the turquoise swimming pool, the white beaches, the shady villas you see in the brochures. Our destinations are never ruined by mosquitos, nearby building sites, local diseases or military coups. On our holidays your rental car will always start. Your waiter will always be polite. You will never, never miss your connection.

Come holiday with us as we take a journey on foot through the city. With a palindromic departure time of 11.11pm, and an estimated landing time of 00.00, the tour is followed by a midnight breakfast with Seb Emina, editor-at-large of The London Review of Breakfasts.

Please ensure you arrive in time for the check-in procedure. Travel cannot be guaranteed if you miss check-in time. Baggage allowances will be charged. Forbidden luggage items will be confiscated.

Our current voyage, leaving from the Royal Festival Hall on Friday, is nearly sold out. You might still be able to get a ticket here. 

 

 

 

...and the map winner is...

Anastasia!

I have 7 prints left from a strictly limited edition of 40 (ie there won't be any more). If you'd like one, signed, numbered etc, they're £35 + p&p (£5 in Europe, £10 rest of the world). Please get in touch if you'd like one: badaude at aol dot com.

Inspiring Women - Emmeline Pankhurst

My second in a series of five postcards (first one here).

Google some photos of the WSPU: they were a stylish bunch, never sacrificing fashion for comfort or the ability to get away quickly from the authorities. I've tried to stick to their colours here: green, white and purple (I had to commute the purple to a kind of burgandy here which worked better for late Victorian bricks...)

Please let me know your most inspiring woman below and I'll send one of you a set of the five postcards I designed for the Southbank Women of the World festival.

Inspiring Women - Mary Seacole

To celebrate International Women's Day I drew five postcards for Fuel Theatre Company who are currently running events at the Southbank Women of the World Festival.

If you'd like to contribute your own inspiring woman to their site, click here (see if you can find mine).

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I didn't choose the women on the postcards but Mary Seacole is one I'd like to know more about. 

Contrary to her rather dull schoolbook image, seems she was a consummate high Victorian: a self-publicist, in and out of the debtor's court, whose Crimean 'hotel' (and, some thought, brothel) was run for profit as well as charity; an outrageous character who flaunted her self-awarded medals when she discovered the British state had overlooked her, due to her sex and race. I'm disappointed she never turned up in a Flashman novel.

I know it's confusing to run two giveaways at the same time but I have a set of all five postcards (which I will be posting on this site over the next few days) to give to someone who adds a comment, on any of my postcard posts, about her (or his) most inspiring woman. 

Think carefully about the word 'inspiring'. It doesn't mean someone you admire because she has done 'good' or 'achieved'. An important part of feminism, for me, is throwing out the concept that women must behave correctly in order to be admired. Pick a woman who has had a direct effect on your life or on the way you see or do things - and go for it!

Age Of Reason Scarf Giveaway!

I'm so utterly proud and delighted to see the 'Londoners' scarf I designed for Brighton's Age of Reason on the studio's website.

Here's a preview of my design, which will also be available to buy from The Tate online and gallery shops in mid March.

Unless you'd like one right now, that is...

The design comes as an oversized 140x140cm chiffon wrap; a 90x90cm scarf, and 35x35cm pocket square that can be worn as a neckerchief, headband or, as I tend to wear it...

 

...around my wrist as a bracelet.

I have one of the pocket squares to give away.

If you'd like one, it would be nice if you could mention the competition on Twitter or Facebook (you can skip this step if you hate social media so much you don't have an account on either), and leave a comment below letting me know how, when, or where, you'd wear your scarf so that I'll have your email address to contact you if you win.

The closing date for entries is midnight on friday 9th March. Good luck!