Crowd Goes Berserk for Video Games Live, Raptors Leave Timberwolves Howling: TorontoIAM

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Two Thousand Gamers Pack Massey to Hear Video Games Live

Adam Schwabe, blogging on blog T.O, reviews Video Games Live’s “near sell-out performance on Saturday night.” Two thousand gamers packed into Massey Hall

to hear an orchestra and choir play renditions of their favourite video games. Schwave called it “a spectacular rendition of some of the most memorable and epic music in gaming.” It was VGL’s second concert in Toronto, “having been circling the globe for a few years now.” Gaming icon and music composer Tommy Tallarico “has family in the area and insists the Toronto crowd is his favourite.”

According to the post, “Tallarico brought the show together with legendary game composer Jack Wall (of Myst, Splinter Cell, and Mass Effect fame).” Wall conducts the show, “bringing the orchestra and choir to life,” and “energizing the crowd with his unconventional conducting style.” One of the highlights was “famed YouTube superstar, The Blindfolded Pianist, whose hands moved so fast during his Mario medley you could barely see them.” And the crowd went “absolutely berserk” for the classic titles like Pong and Space Invaders. “The climax of the show was most certainly the pieces from Halo and Final Fantasy VII, where Tallarico himself broke out a guitar to perform solos alongside the orchestra and choir.”

Raptors’ Aggressive Defense Keeps Timberwolves Down

From NBA.com’s Raptors News, our blogger writes that the “Raptors learned their lesson about overlooking so-called lesser teams.” After losing to the last-place Los Angeles Clippers last week, they “clearly didn't overlook the Minnesota Timberwolves,” who they took 105 – 82 last night. Commented All-Star Chris Bosh, “We can't just show up and expect to win… you look at some teams' records and you just think you are going to show up and get crowned the winner. It doesn't work like that.'”

Toronto was a “model of offensive efficiency,” states the post. Five Raptors hit double figures against the Timberwolves, and our top two point guards combined for 23 assists. Calderon and T.J. Ford “combined for more assists than the Timberwolves as a whole.” Ford took seven points and 13 assists, “his highest totals since returning to the lineup from injury Feb. 4.” Bargnani scored 16 points and Calderon “had 15 points and 10 assists for his second consecutive double-double.” The game against the Clippers last Friday was tough, said Bargnani, “We played good almost the whole game, then lost at the end on very bad luck.” Like that game, “the Raptors built an early lead before allowing the Wolves to pull even in the second quarter.” But this time, The Raptors responded with aggressive defense.

Theatrical Tribute to Tommy Douglas this Week in Markham

CHEV Local News announces an “entertaining and enlightening” theatrical tribute to Tommy Douglas playing tomorrow (February 12) at Markham Theatre for Performing Arts. The one-man show featuring John Nolan took 18 years to create. It “follows the story of a Scottish-born Baptist minister who became a prominent Canadian social democratic politician.”

The show demonstrates that “Tommy Douglas’s legacy as a social policy innovator lives on.” Douglas helped maintain the ideas of social welfare, universal Medicare, and old age pensions, “watching as more established political parties eventually came to accept these once-radical ideas as their own.” The post encourages readers not to miss the opportunity to see this show.

Toronto has Big League Envy

Today, Kevin Plummer from the Torontoist reflects on the anticipation of the Buffalo Bills coming to Toronto, and the disappointment of the fans around the announced ticket prices. Many were looking forward to the Bills’ eight games they'll play in Toronto over the next five years, what “could've been the perfect complement to our existing football diet of live Argonauts games and televised NFL matches.” But now, many of us “have been priced out of attending,” with the majority of tickets averaging $350 per game and “only available if you ante up for all eight games at once.”

The arrangement could “lay the groundwork for Ted Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum to bring the NFL to Toronto full-time.” And although it’s unlikely, Bills owner Ralph Wilson isn’t exactly denying “the possibility of eventual relocation.” Toronto has a “long-running soap opera love affair with ‘big league’ American football,” and desires to be “validated as a ‘big league’ city.” Our attempts to “lure American-brand football to Toronto have” sometimes seemed like “anxious sentiment that anything American is better than anything Canadian.” Plummer writes in his post that it's nice to imagine there's “30,000 die-hards who'll continue to cheer on every Argos home game, and that the league can remain a viable and competitive business.” But “status anxiety” also prevents us “from supporting any team that isn't perceived as big-league.”

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