Caption Contest III: Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween! I think this photo is hilarious, but I think you can make it funnier. SO you know the drill, we want to here you funniest family friendly caption ideas in the comments.

Geroge Cloney as G.I Joe's Duke?

IESB.net is reporting that George Clooney is hard pressed for a blockbuster after the disapointing numbers put up by Michael Clayton. Word is Clooney left Carnahan’s White Jazz is to save the world from Cobra as Duke of the upcoming G.I. Joe movie. It's just a rumor at this point but I think it's a great idea. I know critics will roll their eyes and whine about smart rolls for accomplished actors and tell you how they were the first to say the bat-nipples were a bad idea. All I know is I just got a little excited for the first time about the G.I. Joe movie. I was and still am a big G.I. Joe fan, but without some fun casting, the movie will feel like so many generic un-memorable clones before it. I don't care if they rehire the entire casts of oceans 13 and mission impossible 3, give them paintball guns, catch phrases and close ups and call it a movie as long as it doesn't bore me.

Check it out Here

Arnold says NO to drugs...leaves are ok!

Everyone's favorite homicidal robot from the future disguised as the Governor of California sat down for an interview with the British GQ. When the Govenator told the Brit mag. he hadn't take drugs, they cited the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron" which supposedly (I haven't seen it) shows Cali's Repub. Gov. smoking a joint. He responded with "That is not a drug. It's a leaf." He assured British readers "My drug was pumping iron, trust me."

He goes on to list former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, South African President Nelson Mandela, Presidents John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev among the greatest leaders in history. When asked about America's current President George W. Bush, Schwarzenegger said "I would say that I was ... very fond of his father. I worked for President Bush Sr., and he was a great man."

Ouch! I wonder if Ben Stiller ever gets that?

Don't take my word for it, check it out at:

BBC News UK

The Washington Post

The AP
Fox News

Breaking News!: Ark of the Covenant found in Japan!

I know many stories have the Ark in Ethiopia, but one of our Japinese correspondents submitted this photo. Now I was told by the same correspondent that it's from a Buddhist shrine and loosely translated into "The Ride of God", but come on, thats the ark! Besides I happen to know that the ride of God has spinning rims. Here's some more pictures, you be the Judge. And Special thanks to our Japanese correspondent Naoto (He's the one in the hat)

Must See TV, no really you gotta see this episode of 30 Rock!

I am a huge Sitcom fan, and right now I think the best sitcoms are once again on Thursday nights on NBC. It's hard to decide which is my favorite, I guess it depends on which episode of My Names is Earl, The Office or 30 Rock aired that week. Well after last weeks episode of 30 Rock we have a new front runner. I did like both the episodes of The Office and My Name is Earl last week but tis m be the funniest episode of 30 Rock yet. If you haven't discovered NBC's Thursday night line up or are to busy with Ugly Betty (I know it's funny too, I own the season 1 DVD) then you need to check out the shows on NBC.com. Please Check out the latest episode of 30 Rock Here!

And remember, Never go to a second location with a hippie!

Hollywood Strike, Bad for TV, Bad for Movies, good for Comic Books?

If you haven't herd of the foreboding Hollywood writers strike, let me give you my synopsis and analysis. If I'm way off base, please set me straight in the comments. The Hollywood writers currently aren't getting any revenue off digital media, (i.e itunes, the internet, etc...) and they want some. They also feel like they deserve more revenue from DVD sales and I think they want a disclaimer anytime they have to write in product placement. There's more too, but I'm having a tough time finding what else. Well, the Studios disagree, and if there is not an agreement by the end of this month the writers will walk out.

The last time writers picked up to picket, was in 1988 and lasted for 22 weeks. It had, what most agree, turned out to be inevitably bad for both sides. News magazine shows like 48 Hours gained in popularity while some shows like Moonlighting never regained their feet. David Letterman tried writing his own jokes, including his top ten list for awhile, so I'm actually excited to see what the late night crowd will do, this could separate the funny men from the funny boys and propel one or two talk show hosts to a clear favorite.

I think this strike will be very bad for good television. Scripted shows, documentaries and games shows, are the only television I enjoy, with the exception of Who Wants to be a Superhero? I fear a prime time world with even more Idol and Survivor spinoffs. Or possibly we'll see new episodes of old favorites like Elimidate or Who wants to marry a millionaire? and by favorites, I mean shows I never want to see again.

The effect on Movies could range anywhere from slight delays and annoyances, to profound and expensive, depending on how long the strike lasts.

In my opinion the writers have some very valid claims. I think as long as the studio is making a profit on the writers work, the writer should receive a cut, no matter how it's distributed. I for one love to time shift and watch my favorite shows online. I frequent NBC.com to watch Heroes, Chuck, 30 Rock, My Name is Earl and The Office whenever I miss an episode (BTW NBC 30 Rock and Chuck weren't working on last weeks episodes, so get on that!) I don't mind the adds, I know people should get paid for their work, but pay everybody who worked on it. As far as the disclaimer, I think the writers should let that go. With digital media too often pirated it may be the only way to ensure that sponsors product will be seen. The could add a disclaimer when the writers aren't forced to write product placement in, use it a selling point. "No adds were written in during the filming of this motion picture." Get the same guy to voice it as the PETA disclaimer.

My only hope is that if the writers do strike for long, they will earn their money by writing comic books. Jeph Loeb could introduce many a good TV writer to the DC universe and I'm sure a letter of recommendation from Neil Gaiman could land some solid stories at any comic company (and please please please for the love of all things holy somebody get Frank Miller off All Star Batman, come on man, WTF!?)

So Long Story Short,
The Strike is...

Very Bad For TV!
Bad For Movies?
Good For Comic Books?
We shall see...

U-Haul Sucks!

This is a place holder for my anger, when I calm down and can express my anger and frustration with U-Haul in a family friendly manner I will update this post, in the mean time DO NOT RENT FROM U-HAUL, they will rip you off!

We need more great crab raps, but not crab rappers!

As you might imagine with the Palaba's Post HQ located in lovely Baltimore Maryland, we love us some steamed crabs! I realize most of the country does not share our joy, but we know the people in Camden County sure do! And not just New Jersey, Missouri, Georgia or North Carolina, no I'm speaking of all the lovable folks of My Name Is Earl. (We love Earl too, just not as much as crabs.) Crabman, Randy, and crew (Yes Earl too) shot this music video expressing their deep admiration and respect for that delicious crustacean.

So Check out the video Here
And if you can't get enough Earl, Wikipedia has a great Wiki for his list Here

Scare the crap out of your friends!

Ok This is one of the most fun pieces of marketing I've seen in a minute. Check out the site SliceoflifeTV.com, there is a little prank you can play on your unsuspecting loved ones, while at the same time do a little advertising for Showtime's Dexter. (I've never seen Dexter or really herd anything about it, so if you've seen it let me know what's up in the comments.) All you need to do is head over to SliceoflifeTV.com enter you victim's e-mail address and Name, answer a few questions and the rube of your choice will receive an e-mail from you with a link to a fake news story. The fake news story tells of a serial killer in Miami who is not so subtlety targeting your prank victim. I recommend sending it to yourself first so you can see in what context the answers to your questions appear, but it's some great Halloween fun so what are you waiting for? When your done come back and tell me how your victim reacted.

Try it Here

A new Captian America!

Before I get started I feel the need to tell you that I have not always been the biggest Capitan America fan. As a kid I thought he was kinda corny. Not until the Ultimate redo of the Avengers into The Ultimates in Marvel's Ultimate Universe did he start to Ultimately grow on me. (?) I liked the view as a super soldier again I thought Cap was too one dimensional Follow the flag right or wrong, which I suppose is what a "good soldier" does. I always like to see him in battle though, flinging that shield and disshin' out some grade A but kicking. So I really start getting into Cap and the whole "Civil War" thing starts over in the Marvel U, and what comes next? The go and kill Capitan America or Steve Rodgers that is. I think he's been "dead" before, there have been other people filling his shoes (Really though, why is U.SA.gent still wearing that I wanna be cap outfit and calling himself U.S.Agent while running around saving Canada? I know If I was told that my country needed Capitan Maple Leaf or Mr. Mexico to defend it, I'd been insulted.) So the Capitan America book has been really good since Steve-o kicked the bucket, and now as we all knew they would they've found a replacement. I don't know who's behind the mask and Marvel isn't telling. But by the look of the pic's they put up Cap is again Caucasian, ruling out Sam Wilson aka the Falcon, who I was rooting for. I wonder what it does to those Will Smith as Cap in the next movie roomers? Oh and I guess some people are upset over the gun. Well the rest of the world thinks Americans are a little to gun crazy, so I guess it fits. According to the article over at Marvel Alex Ross git the inspiration form the 1940's movie serial. I must say I'm not sure about the shiny outfit but time will tell. What do you think of the new duds? Let us know in the comments...

Oh and as Always You can find a comic store in the US Here
and in the UK Here

Check out this Tokyo Party Boat

Check out this party boat I spotted over at Gizmodo. It's the Jicoo "Floating Bar". They call themselves a "Floating Bar" but we have a few here in the Baltimore Harbor we call Party Boats. Anyway, I'm going to try and get one of out Japan corrispondents to check it out and mabie get some Video. The bar cost ¥2,500 or $21.30 and includes your first drink, so I think we can work it into the Palaba's Post budget this month, but only if they take the train home. Drinking, driving and boating is way too much in any language. So if you'r trying to check out the secinic view of Tokyo from the bay, the boat leaves Hinode Pier every hour. The Hinode Pier is a short walk drom Hinode station on the Yurikamome line from the Shinbashi station, or so I've been told. Or call them yourself at 0120-49-490

Here's some more picks

Via Jicoofloatingbar.com
And Via Gizmodo.com

Just in case you havent seen it yet!

This is just too funny!
Honestly the funniest thing I've seen on SNL since, well since they started to suck.

The flight of the X-Wing

Well here is the result of the X-wing we showed you earlier. It didn't go too well for the X-Wing, I can only wonder what happened to R2. I was however happy to see one of my other favorite "Wings" make an appearance, the Y-Wing. Neither "Wings" got too far, but the launch looks great! Also there another rocket shaped uh, rocket that did quite well, only bashing my hopes that maybe just this once that Star-Wars physics could beat out out actual science. But than I remember I'm in the real world and am thankful my boss can't shoot electricity from his fingers. (Video contains mild language)

Who Want's to Kill some Zombies?

I think the better question is, who doesn't want to kill some zombies?

I found this great flash game over at Armor Games. Armor has a ton of fun flash games but the zombie killing fest know as The last Stand has got to be the best. Just a little advice, if you want to make it through this game other survivors are essentual. I tried to make it through solo, thinking "Search for survivors, why would I do that?" But without other people to help fix the barracade it's just too much. After a few tries I made it all the way through, the game is no subsittue for Resident Evil or Dead Rising, but it can make for a fun half hour.

Give it a try Here
Or Check out other Armor Games Here

Also I found some great Zombie links right here on Blogspot.
Check out Analog Medium's Encyclopedia Zombica, these guys are attempting to review and surmise every Zombie movie ever made. Quite an undertaking especially seing as there are some real bad movies in the Zombie genre. I have a good friend who loves Zombies and I can probably attribute most of my current love of zombies to him, the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, the lovable British romantic comedy in a zombie setting (BritRomZomCom?), Sean of the Dead and Robert Kirkman's killer comic The Walking Dead.

Please be advised The Walking Dead comic deals with some VERY adult issues so please read EACH issue before you pass it on to your young ones. But for the adults without a weak stomach I highly recommend it!

Good luck, had fun and enjoy zombie killing (or reading)
When your done come on back to Palaba's Posts and let us know how you did!

In the US, to find a comic store near you click Here
In the UK or Ireland click Here

Looking for New(er) Comic reviews?

So here at Palaba's Posts we usually only review comics that have been published in the trade paper back form. We are however looking for someone to review comics hot off the shelf. So if you or someone you know keeps current with todays comics and want to blog about it drop us a line at PalabaBMS@gmail.com. In the meantime, check out Shawn Douglas' reviews over at Cosmic Comix. I don't always agree with his reviews, but they are well written and insightful.

Check out his reviews Here.
Check out the the rest of Cosmic Comix Here

(Still Having) Trouble, finding a canidate to back? Here's Some (More) help!

Ok I found another of those fun "Candidate Match" games. This one is a little nicer looking flash based with a fancy slide rule, for which issues mens more or less to you. There are 11 questions spanning the topics of the Iraq War, Immigration, Health care, Same Sex Marriage, Tax Reform, Global Warming and Experience. USA Today did a real god job on this one, but hey that's why they make the big bucks. I still was not happy with all the possible answers to their policy questions, for question 11 I really wanted a don't care option, but that's why it's A GAME and should not be used to actually pick your candidate. For me it picked Republican Sam Brownback as my number 1 choice. Which I thought was odd, but but I digress, till after the primaries since I'm neither a registered Republican or a registered Democrat. S0 Have fun and let us know who "the media" is telling you to vote for.

The Link is Here

Omar Little vs. Frank Castle (The Punisher)

Ok so this may be old news , but if you haven't heard Dominic West has been signed to play Jigsaw in the new Punisher Movie. For those of who's don't know either name heres a visual guide, thats Dominic West on the left and Jigsaw on the right. If you don't know Dominic West you NEED to watch, buy, rent The Wire. I am excited to see West play a crazy comic book bad guy, instead of that conniving comic book bad guy from 300. I'm looking forward to seeing him in this role and will undoubtedly write more on my excitement about this movie in the post's to come.

Ok so this got me thinking about two of my most favorite gun toting anti-heroes and what would happen if crazy, must kill mob 'cause they killed my family, Frank Castle aka The Punisher and crazy, farmer in the dell whistling, drug dealer robbin' because it's Baltimore and the game is game Omar Little aka uh.. Omar (Played by Michael Kenneth Williams) were to cross paths . I started thinking about what would happen and in my fictional universe they meet, have a face off style shoot out, both realize they bit off more than they can chew, and escape. Only to stand off similar to the season 3 episode of the wire when Omar and Brother Mouzone meet again. When they realize they both have similar objectives and team up to take on the the Deadliest villain team up every of Joe Stewart aka Prop Joe and Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin.

But what do you think would happen? Would they fight to the death? Who would win? Or would they team up and Run on an Independent ticket in the '08 Presidential election? And if so Who would Vice and what would their platform be? Tough on crime I guess. Let me know in the comments.

Check out Lexi Alexander's (The Director of the Punisher War Zone) Blog Here
Or the Official Site of HBO's The Wire Here

Indeed!
-P

From The I Want One Department: X-Wing

OMG! I'm dorking out a little too much right now, but this is really cool if your a big Star Wars freak like me. Basically this team built a rocket powered X-Wing that will actually fly. I don't think that the R2 unit we see here helps, but if they didn't have one I'd complain about it. Click the picture or the link to see the whole gallery and background over at Gizmodo

Caption Contest II

OK it's that time again, and so soon! We wanna hear you funniest family friendly caption for this pic, top 5 entries will be voted on at a later date.

Happy October!!! Heroes, Batman and Beer!

Yes, yes it's the merry month of October. Whats so great about October? You may ask. Well for starters it's fall! I know fall has officially begun a few days ago, but in my corner of the world we have lots of trees and now they start changing colors. The air is getting a little cooler, and much crisper, not nearly as humid. The Palaba's Post HQ is located in scenic Baltimore Maryland. At least once you must see Maryland's Eastern Shore in the fall. Annapolis is nice too but I like to get as far from a city as I can once in awhile.

What else is so great about October? Heroes!
I'm two episodes in and already I'm on the edge of my seat.
I think one of the reasons I originally got excited about Heroes is some of the talent behind My second favorite Television Series. (If you have to ask you need to see the Wire.)

So if your a big Heroes fan like myself Check out this October appropriate trade from Jeph Loeb (Heroes' Co-Executive Producer and writer)
and Tim Sale (The artist behind all Issac Mendez's paintings)
BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN

Some reviews Here, Here, Here and Here

Now I'm really not the biggest Halloween fan around.
Something about the smell of walking around in a rubber mask
makes me think I'm working at a Spencer's or my local dollar store.
That thought is just frightening, and I am big baby when it comes to Horror.
I do enjoy all the stories that accompany the sugar charged holiday, ET, Great Pumpkin, Garfield Odie and the Pirates, you know the scary stuff. All kidding aside I'll be publishing some great trades for October, so while were on the topic of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale here's one more monster tale form them, Hulk Grey.


But my favorite thing about October can be surmised in one
word, beer! Happy Oktoberfest, get drinkin', those crafty Germans
start there Oktoberfest in September (I blame the metric system)
But Remember to drink safe and bring a designated driver or a bus pass.

All the books should be found easily online,
but I like to support local comic shops. Here's mine.

Need help finding the trades?
U.S. use the Comic Shop Locater.
UK use this one Here.


Happy Haunting
-P