Where We're At

It's 83 days to go until the Fattylympics. 83, as you will know, is an auspicious number, according to Wikipedia it is the natural number following 82 and preceding 84. Whoo! Hot stuff!

This is where we're at:

Lots of people have volunteered including a brilliant musician, who has offered to compose the Fattylympics Anthem; someone in Germany who is going to make some bunting; people who want to document the day; people who want stalls; someone who is making gorgeous posters; builders and makers of all stripes. We have an official Fattylympics Torch on the way, and medals made of doughnut hair forms, and wooden disks. Kay and I have been planning the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and we might just have enough events, more about them later. We have sublime Fattylympics mascots in the form of Egg'n'Spoon, custom Fattylympics sweatbands, and we've bought insurance too.

There's still room for more volunteers, why not offer your services?

The bad news is that we realised that the Fattylympics clashes with Pride, and probably some other things too. This is a shame. But we've decided to keep going because not everyone likes Pride, not everyone is gay, lesbian, bi or trans (true!), and maybe at least some people will prefer to be hanging out in a park in East London messing around with us.

In other news, a group of fat people in Los Angeles are going to organise their own mini sister-event in solidarity. The Fattylympics is an international affair! More about that when we have pics and video.

Finally, there's The Weigh In, a new fat-friendly social space that takes place in London once a month. Come along, no doubt there'll be some Fattylympics talk there later this week.

Over and out.

Introducing the OFFICIAL Fattylympics Mascots: Egg'n'Spoon

There couldn't be a Fattylympics without a pair of cheeky, loveable mascots for everyone to fall in love with. We wanted mascots that would fire the imagination, inspire and empower, and truly represent the values of the Fattylympics. We knew that we had to have the best, so we approached Becky Sanchez and Corinna Tomrley, kingpins of the Bad Art scene in the UK, and they produced your new best friends: Egg'n'Spoon, an egg in a leotard and a spoon with a whistle.

Egg'n'Spoon: first concept drawing

Here are some concept notes by the creators of Egg'n'Spoon by Becky and Corinna, who are part of the Bad Art Collective and are always up for a bit of crap drawing and crafting.

Egg'n'Spoon: the bio

Egg’n’Spoon met at school sports day, where they found that they both had the rare talent of being able to neck more cups of orange squash than is usual. Although not advocates of violence, if pushed, Egg'n'Spoon would smash Wenlock and Mandeville into oblivion.

Egg has the largest collection of leotards of anyone in the UK. He likes walks on the beach, spring rain and the music of Mr Neil Diamond. Spoon was not inspired by an iconic London taxi-cab.

Egg'n'Spoon: the creation

Egg'n'Spoon came about because we were inspired by the general ethos and feel of the event: fun, celebration of crappness and having a go. In their chat about the Fattylympics Kay and Charlotte mentioned School Sports Days and we instantly thought of the best event in a SSD: the Egg and Spoon race. While browsing clipart for inspiration we saw a gymnast and so Egg’s leotard outfit was born. Another piece of clipart showed a teacher with a whistle and so Spoon's accessory was sorted. Corinna was particularly amused when Becky drew Spoon's face on the thin end of his anatomy. Becky explained that it was because otherwise Egg would be sitting on Spoon's face, and The Fattylympics is, after all, a family event.

Egg'n'Spoon: Official Mascots for the Fattylympics

What to do with Egg'n'Spoon

a) Download the picture, print it, colour it in, take a picture of it and send it to us beefergrrl@hotmail.com

b) Make your own Egg'n'Spoons: drawings, sculpture, outfits, comic strips, poems, critical commentary, go wherever your fancy takes you.

Unlike the You Know Whats, Fattylympics does not keep a litigious rein on its symbols, we support copyright liberation. Egg'n'Spoon are released upon the world under a Creative Commons licence (see blurb below). This means that you can share and remix Egg'n'Spoon non-commercially, as long as you attribute Becky, Corinna and Fattylympics and, you know, let us know about it so we can promote your work here too. What are you waiting for?


Egg'n'Spoon by Becky Sanchez and Corinna Tomrley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.fattylympics.blogspot.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.fattylympics.blogspot.com/.