The Baillie Bugle

Hey there, and thanks for joining me just in time for this weeks informative Journal posting.

Do you know what a Flash Mob is kids?
If not look here.
If you can't be arsed clicking (I know how you feel - web lethargy is getting more and more common) then here's a quick tin definition:
A Flash Mob is a web spawned phenomenon, where people arrange to meet at a specified place and a specific time, hang around for a bit (sometimes doing something interesting like hop around like frogs) and then all leave at once.
There was one in London recently that wasn't terribly successful, but still sounded like fun.

The latest twist comes from a very clever dude called Rob Schamberger who is interviewed at Newsarama. Basically he's organising an international comics-giveaway Flash Mob. So everyone meets at one of the nominated meeting spots all over the world at the same local time, with a couple of comics, and when the second strikes - they give a comic to a complete stranger.
Some people in the comics-fan-community think it's a stupid idea - I think it's fantastic! I'd be there myself if I didn't have a wedding-type engagement already in my diary for this Saturday.
Check it out at sixshootercomix.com

There's also an interesting story behind the inspiration for the event.
Rob has a friend with epilepsy whose memory is quite badly affected by the illness and has trouble doing stuff that we take for granted, like reading books. Interestingly when Rob gave his friend a copy of Garth Ennis's Preacher collection he had no trouble keeping up with it, and remembering plot threads and characters.

Which is an excellent example of what Alan Moore says in this interview:
"I've got ideas about what the comic strip is, that have developed over the last few years. I've always understood that the comic-strip is apparently the form that is most useful for presenting information in a way that's likely to be absorbed and remembered. But it only struck me recently a possible reason why this might be. Maybe the word is the unit of currency of the left brain, maybe the image is the unit of currency of the pre-verbal right brain. Maybe part of the reason for the efficacy of comics is the fact that they simultaneously engage both lobes. You're firing on both cylinders. Now that strikes me as an interesting principle, and one that could stand some application to magical subject matter - which is very much about the interaction between the rational left lobe of the brain and the magical right lobe of the brain. The right lobe is the dark side of the brain, we know nothing about it. It seems to be the seat of the unconscious, the underworld if you like."

Interesting stuff. I'm going to revisit this.
And now... Back to sleep...