For the second year running the what what bros have become mo-bros to help raise money for prostate cancer and mens health charities. All of Sunday was spent baking Movember cupcakes and making special moustache biscuits. Please support us by donating here on the official Movember site.
Some Photos from a recent trip to Beijing. Lots to see in the amazing city. One of the highlights was the 798 Art Zone which had some amazing galleries, sculptures and excellent graffiti. One of the funny things was seeing three separate photo-shoots going on with the colourful graff acting as backgrounds. Judging from the rest of Beijing graffiti doesn’t seem to be tolerated anywhere else. More can be found here.
Matt Alt recently wrote about the tsunami characters he’s spotted around Japan which warn of the dangers that everyone should be aware of when living near to the coast. Near where I live is a river which has a number of anthropomorphic waves who aren’t necessarily warning of tsunamis but illustrate the danger of playing in the water. Every 10 of so meteres theres a different sign with slight variations to what I imagine was the original template. Perhaps school children each painted one and gave their own unique stamp to them.
» Read more: Mad Waves
Our second book is officially out! I photographed, wrote and designed the thing over a long torturous year. Big up to Miki who provided loads and loads of translation skills, expertly written emails and limitless patience. Very happy its out and it looks fantastic. To see for yourself check it out here.
» Read more: Fuzz and Fur
Do you want to win a signed copy of Idle Idol and also help a charity at the same time?? During the month of November we’re growing moustaches for Movember and raising money for the fight against cancer. To stand a chance of winning the book all you have to do is sponsor us, please donate money to John or Edward via the movember website. At the end of the month the person who has made the largest donation will recieve a copy of the book. Any donation is greatly appreciated, thankyou.
We’ve also put together a special Idle Idol post on the subject of Mascots with Moustaches.
Lots of new posts on the Idle Idol site including the most comprehensive look on the whole of the internet at everyone of Japan’s police mascots. Find out everything you’d ever want to know about them and vote for your favourite one. If you’d like a large version of the image above its available to download here.
Japan’s police mascots
Big Boy
Construction barrier animals
Astro Boy
French fry guy
Elephant slides
Zakumi the world cup mascot
Ronals McDonald
and many many more.
Recently got back from a great trip in Bali, there was lots of great graffiti in Kuta and some great idle idols dotted around the beautiful island. To see more check out my flickr set.
Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot is officially out and to celebrate we’re offering the chance to win a copy of the book. All you have to do is take a photo of yourself or a friend with your favourite mascot. The entries will be judged by ourselves based on the awesomeness and bizarreness of the mascot and how cool the pose of the individual is.
The Prizes:
1st Prize: A signed copy of the book with a goody bag including Kero-chan and Koro-chan finger puppets, a Satoko-chan mobile phone strap and two badge sets.
2nd prize: A signed copy of the book with a badge set.
3rd prize: A badge set of your choice.
How to Enter:
There are four different ways to enter. Please also let us know where the photo was taken when submitting your entry.
1. Email your photos to comp@idleidol.net.
2. Join the Idle Idol facebook group and add your photo.
3. Upload your photo to flickr, post it to the Idle Idol flickr group and tag it with “idleidol”.
4. Follow whatwhatjohn or whatwhated on twitter and include a link to your photo along with #idleidol in your tweet.
We look forward to seeing your photos. Winners will be announced on the 22nd July and the winning entries will be displayed on the idleidol.net.
Edward with Nyanta
John meeting Crayon-chan
Remo Camerota’s new book Drainspotting hits the shelves soon. I’m really pleased that two of my photos from Okinawa made into the awesome collection. I met Remo last year and got chatting to him about his great Graffiti Japan book and I’ve got him to thank for inspiring and encouraging me in making Idle Idol happen.
To see more of my draincover photos check out my collection at flickr.
Lots going on over at Idle Idol, here’s an update of some of the links
Plastic Pigs
Native American Store Standers
Japanese Robots
Elephant and Castle
Big Crabs in Japan
Face Off
Sento-kun
Lastly you can now see what the book looks like here
