TorontoIAM: Maple Leafs’ Promising Streak Has Gone Sour, Ingenious Bike Tube Proposal Unlikely to be Developed

This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from TorontoIAM where you will find the best blogs from Toronto, Ontario as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring

Maple Leafs Have Little Chance of Post-Season Play

Blogging for The Star’s Spin on Sports, Damien Cox summarizes the Maple Leafs’ standings, noting that they have “very little chance of qualifying for post-season play.” Currently in 12th place in the Eastern Conference, the Leafs have “only briefly been among the top eight teams in the conference since the season began.” Their recent 5-1-1 in seven games didn’t move them up much, “and now they've gone cold again, including last night's 4-1 loss to a Philadelphia Flyers.”

In his post, Cox points to all the signs the Leafs’ promising streak has gone “sour.” First, our two best attackers Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov “have gone cold and have been split up as linemates.” In addition, Darcy Tucker has gone from a top-six forward to a “seldom-used fourth liner and has three goals in 30 games.” Off-season free agent pickup Jason Blake has “developed a penchant for costly giveaways” and hasn't been able to mesh with the other forwards. To top it off, goalie Vesa Toskala is out with a “mysterious groin problem” and backup Andrew Raycroft has “given up eight goals in two games.” Cox writes that “only two teams - Washington and Los Angeles - have fewer wins than the Leafs' 15 triumphs in 38 games.”

Ingenious Bike Tunnel Proposal Unlikely to be Developed

On Reading Toronto, Peter Fruchter, who teaches in the Division of Humanities at York University, writes an impassioned post from a bicyclist’s perspective about how “taking car trafficking reflexively for granted has turned us into the roadkill civilization.” What he reveals is an intriguing, and “absolutely brilliant,” alternative to the traditional road and bike-lane called velo-city. Velo-city is “a sustainable rapid mobility system for the City of Toronto” envisioned by engineer Joseph Adler and architect Chris Hardwicke. The idea is to create “elevated bike tunnels” that would inevitably “transform every aspect of Toronto’s transportation culture.”

Fruchter states in his post, that bike lanes “only perpetuate and entrench the myth that only motor vehicular traffic is realistically viable grownup transportation.” For “mere fractions what the subway extension to York University alone will cost,” Toronto could develop the proposed elevated bikeways, which would be “enclosed in tubes to provide protection for all season cycling.” Velo-city is a “high-speed, all-season, pollution-free, ultra-quiet transit system that makes people healthier.” The only problem with it, states Fruchter, is that it is “tragically unlikely to get implemented.”

Bosh Needs Team Support to Take on the Spurs

From Raptor’s Talk we get a pre-game post and a review of Toronto’s  current standings. The Raptors are 15-14 and 1-3 on their current seven game road trip. It will be tough going, however, when they play defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs (20-7), who have won six straight home games against Toronto. “The Raptors will attempt to avoid dropping to the .500 mark, but it won’t be easy.”

The post states that “the Raptors have lost three in a row after winning five of six.” Just before the Christmas break, Chris Bosh “scored a career high 42 points in a loss to the Phoenix Suns.” Bosh was a hero in the Suns game, “but didn’t get the support from his teammates.” Bosh is playing “some of the best basketball in his career,” but he’ll need “secondary scoring from his teammates or the defensive minded Spurs will shut him down.” On a separate note, there is still no word as to when TJ Ford will be able to return.

Theatre-School Student Directs One of the “Best Shows” of the Season

In a recent post from Now Toronto’s Stage Blog, Jon Kaplan takes a look at recent productions by local theatre-school conservatory programs at George Brown and Ryerson. This fall Brown staged Jean Giradoux's The Madwoman Of Chaillot, about a countess and her friends battling the greed of money-hungry capitalists in Paris. It was directed by Jason Byrne, who wowed audiences with his work on the Company Theatre's Whistle In The Dark.” The script is “too full of whimsy” for Kaplan’s taste, but Byrne “encouraged an edgy physical style” and Alex Paxton-Beesley as the “countess” has “a fine stage presence.”

Ryerson offered Judith Thompson's Lion In The Streets for one evening and a double bill of Will Eno's The Flu Season and Harold Pinter's The Dwarfs the next. Director Richard Greenblatt's production of Lion let us “rediscover” the author’s extraordinary language. Kaplan states in his post that the “second act was especially strong, and Thompson's pungent words have never been better.” The double bill was directed by “extraordinary talent” Jennifer Tarver. And although The Flu’s script “sometimes loses dramatic tension… the cast and director gave it enough shape to hold the audience.” The highlight was The Dwarfs. Tarver coaxed “expert performances from her young cast… exploring the playfulness and the darkness in and underneath Pinter's words.” Kaplan calls it one of the best shows all season.

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