WHAT YOU SHOULD BE...

<=====ROB REILLY and BRYAN GLASS prepare for battle.
See Mary Move!
Hello all - it's been a crazy couple months but Ze Brickthrower is now in a new state (uhh...COUGH dirty jerz COUGH!), a new apartment, a few months into a new job...I just wanted to give a shout out to my awesome EIC - T Daniel for rocking the wbz like no one can. And a big thanks to the Oeming Message Board who helped a weakling like me raise a bloody couch up a one story via a metal coil, some rope and some spare 2X4s!!! You guys rock!!! And now, onto some POP CULTURE goodness!

WATCHING -- NINJA WARRIOR on G4. This show is already a fave in many a mind of the urban fanboy. I recently was introduced to it by my dearest friend Loretta Gogetta (that's 1967 to you!) and I must say that while THE UNBEATABLE BANZUKE is a tad more insane in skill, NINJA WARRIOR is the perfect combination of reality and video game. 100 contestants are pitted against 3 manic courses atop the lovely MOUNT MIDORIYAMA in Japan. Each course grows progressively harder, it is rare for more than 10 to make it past the 1st round (WARPED WALL kittlings!) and to watch the pure strength, agility and sometimes pure dumb luck will take this competitors to the most absure and entertaining challenge available on TV today. G4 plays this in excess...and I just can't get enough!

LISTENING TO -- FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - the BBC RADIO SESSIONS. 3 part series on CD that pre-dates the HBO show but is basically the same thing. I am in complete awe how these guys can be doing the same thing for literally YEARS now and I am still rapt on every folk novelty song. Be delighted as FotC has 2 fans, instead of 1 obsessive girl, a manager named BRIAN NESBIT but still Murray through and through. And oh - that little Bret...he is the cutest, especially when dressed up like Legolas...YUM~!

BUYING -- SPACED, the complete series - FINALLY available in the US dvd format!!! I have had bootlegs of this show for a couple years now and have shown anyone that stops long enough around me and a tv, or now my laptop. EDGAR WRIGHT and SIMON PEGG, prior to SHAUN OF THE DEAD fame teamed with JESSICA STEVENSON to create a comic book/pop culture based sitcom about 20-somethings with some witty banter. Spot NICK FROST as military-centric best pal "Mike" and a short cameo by Mr. Brit-Com 2000, RICKY GERVAIS. This is my favorite sitcom EVER. And I'm glad it was only 14 episodes. AND I'm staunchly AGAINST an Americanized version. Dammit!!!

(((Finally - here is the intro to my Thursday column, a little food tour of my favorite city to the North, Toronto, Ontario!)))
Come for the Paradise Con - stay for the grub! Toronto is for restaurant-tourists!
This past weekend Toronto, Ontario hosted the PARADISE CON, Canada's gem of a comic book convention. I was invited by my friend and co-writer for Hidden Robot, Jeff "Boss Hogg" Brown, along with my bestest Jersey friend, M. Sean McManus of THE LAST SIN OF MARK GRIMM writing fame. As both of us are fans of the Ontario metropolis it seemed a comic-con was a great excuse to check out that city up north once again.

My last excursion to T.O. was several years ago for the CANADIAN NATIONAL EXPO, a con that was both huge and disappointing whereas Paradise con always aims to please and usually does. The convention was held in the Holiday Inn on King Street, a mere few blocks from the CN Tower and Lake Ontario as well as the hippest street in the land, Queen Street West.

While I wish I could say my column this week focuses on the convention goings-on, it really doesn't. I used this vacation to take an eating tour of Toronto, with stops to various restaurants around the city. While my FOO (Friends of Oeming) bretheren was out full force, I leave the real con details to my fellow columnist Boss Hogg to relay to the Hidden Robot readers while I whisk the rest of you hungry lot to the best food in Canada's most awesome city. Bon Appetit!

STAY TUNED FOR THURSDAY'S FULL COLUMN!!!!!

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~Till Next Time Kittlings...