Photo by Stephanie Fysh in the blogTO Flickr pool.

A clever wordsmith, an advertising guru, and even a self-proclaimed "Sneaky Gay" grace our stages this week. To complete the kaleidescope, watch me shoehorn in a Mobb Deep joint from '97 on This Week In Comedy.

MON JAN 7 / ALTdot COMEDY LOUNGE / RIVOLI / 332 QUEEN W / 9PM / $5

ALTdot gets even better this week with two of my personal favourite out-of-towners, John Hastings and Jon Schabl, dropping in for a set. Hastings moved to England last year, and I'm interested to ask him how his joke about looking like Hitler's wet dream (on account of his translucent eyebrows) goes over across the pond. Schabl probably has a ton of new jokes given his new residence in the big city of dreams (but everything in L.A. ain't always what it seems / you might get fooled if you come from outta town / cuz we comin from Queens and gets down), but I'm hoping he does his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bit, which is one of my favourite jokes from 2012. Shout out to Mobb Deep, Capone & Noreaga, and Tragedy Khadafi.

TUES JAN 8 / THE JOKE CLUB / LOT / THE GARRISON / 1197 DUNDAS W / 9PM / FREE

This show features Nick Flanagan, Tom Henry, and Sarah Ford. When I first got into comedy, Nick Flanagan--the guy who looks like David Carradine's genitals (watch the clip)--was one of the first acts I saw. To be honest, I didn't really take a liking to him. I'd never been to a live comedy show before and thought it was really weird that he constantly referred back to his notepad when telling jokes on stage. But after seeing him a few times, I realized that his use of the notepad was somewhat different than the other comedians. As my friend Quinn C. Martin put it, "He owns it." Said another way, he doesn't apologize for looking at his notes, and whether intentional or not, it's part of the act. Once I got over the paradigm in my head of how a comedian should act on stage, I was able to take in his material, and as a fan of smart comedy, clever wordplay, and genuine improvisation, he's become one of my favourite comedians in the city.

WED JAN 9 - SUN JAN 13 / SCOTT FAULCONBRIDGE / YUK YUK'S / 224 RICHMOND W / 8PM / $11-20

One of the best things you can say about Scott is that he's been chosen to be a regular on CBC Radio's, "The Debaters." That means the pantheon can count on Scott to be convincingly funny, time and time again. Accordingly, Scott's toured around the world alongside the world's best, including working alongside Chris freakin' Rock and Bill freakin' Maher. Enough said.

SAT JAN 12 / MONKEY TOAST / COMEDY BAR / 945 BLOOR W / 8PM / $10

I hate late night talk shows. They're more like late night monologue shows with, if you're lucky, a moment or two of people actually having a real conversation. Fortunately, Monkey Toast has done away with the idea that you need a pantheon of writers to make a show work. The show consists of three guests interviewed by Ron Tite, who was named one of the Top 10 Creative Canadians by Marketing Magazine. For comedic variety, improvised sketches are injected in between the interviews, drawing their inspiration from the topics discussed. It's unreal. You have a sketch troupe improvising a sketch based on what they hear seconds before they take the stage. Come early because this show sells out!

About the Author: This is Michael Jagdeo, and I refuse to write about myself in the third-person. My blog, Diary of a Stand-up Comedian, walks you through the up's and down's (they're mostly down's, really) in my quest to become a killer comic in Toronto.

On the last day of 2012, urbanism blog Atlantic Cities published a list of worldwide city trends it hopes will not last another year. At a glance, several of the activities on the naughty list seem to apply directly to Toronto; casinos, tacky marketing schemes, and large-scale sports development for a single, grand event.

OK, so I'm a little biased towards forever banishing most of these trends to a black portfolio somewhere in a leaky storage container in the basement of city hall. Anyway, let's hear your thoughts in the comment thread below.

DOWNTOWN CASINOS

According to urbanist Richard Florida, "politicians and cities see [casinos] as economy boosters, but often the social costs outweigh the economic benefit." Right now, a cluster of gaming companies are flirting with the city for a potentially lucrative deal to build a downtown complex. I'm willing to bet any casino will be a hideous turd on the city whoever builds it so this one is firmly in the reject pile.

SPONSORING SUBWAY STATIONS

In July 2011, the TTC approved a new ad contract with Pattison Outdoor Advertising that laid the ground work for the sale of naming rights to subway stations. Commercial advertisers are apparently frowned upon so Ryerson University was one of the first to express a real interest in renaming Dundas station. Its location next to the stop might have made it a little more palatable - the proposal seems to have died - but this is a trend that really should vanish before something horrendous, like McDonald's Spadina or St. Coca-Cola station, happens.

FANCY BIKE LANES

According to the Atlantic Cities, elevated, heated, and brightly painted bike lanes are being proposed in various cities around the world, and this is a problem because it focus on style over practicality. In Toronto it's hard to scorn any new bike lane, whatever form it takes, if it means making the roads safer. Who knows - maybe an ambitious project will help us find some sensible middle ground.

FAILING TO FUTURE-PROOF SPORTS DEVELOPMENT

The original list cites the Olympics as the prime example, but Toronto and the GTA could also be heading for trouble with development ahead of the 2015 Pan Am Games. Milton is getting a world-class velodrome, Markham is building a pool complex, and U of T is working on a new high-performance sports centre. Here's hoping that these venues serve some real practical use once the games are over. In Hamilton, the replacement for Ivor Wynne Stadium will host the Tiger-Cats once Pan Am soccer wraps up.

COMMUTERS FIGHTING COMMUTERS

Recent years in Toronto have been marked by disputes between users of various modes of transportation: cars vs. bikes, bikes vs. pedestrians, streetcars vs. cars, etc. That needs to stop if this city is going to ever provide a sustainable and efficient way of moving everybody where they need to go, and back again. Writer Emily Badger describes the partisan disputes in other cities (it's not just us!) as resembling "warring Balkan tribes." It's time for a truce, guys.

DITHERING ON FOOD TRUCKS

They're delicious, they're fun, but quite why Toronto isn't willing to make it easier for food trucks to operate in the city is baffling. It's not just us; Columbus, Ohio is leisurely working on new laws for its 150 food trucks over concerns about where the vehicles are allowed to park. It can't be that hard to work this out, can it? Afterall, the National Post recently predicted mobile eats to be one of this year's big food trends.

DOING AND UNDOING

Plastic bags were out, then they weren't. Transit City was dead, then it wasn't. The Jarvis bike lanes survived then vanished. This year let's make the right decision the first time around and stick to it. Sadly, this is the one resolution that most likely won't come true.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photo: "in the lane" by 'Xander @416cyclestyle from the blogTO Flickr pool.

Somewhere in the murky depths of Lake Ontario around Prince Edward County lies several test models of what was once the most technologically advanced fighter aircraft of the 1950s, the Avro "Arrow." Since the models lacked engines and pilots, the prototypes were blasted into the air by booster rocket and observed as they flew (or fell in style.) Once spent, the shells crashed into the water, never to be seen again.

But that hasn't stopped a team of enthusiasts looking. Arrow Recovery Canada, a trust that users SONAR to scour the lake bed, has been trying for more than a decade to find any trace of the aircraft project that was abruptly and contraversially scrapped in the late 1950s amid accusations of Soviet espionage and political conspiracy.

The Arrow and other fighter jets in its class have their roots in the post-war suspicions of long-range nuclear missile exchanges between the Soviet Union and North America. To counter the threat of an incoming warhead, Canada and the United States developed high-speed interceptors capable of catching and destroying incoming threats.

A.V. Roe Canada Limited, developed as a subsidiary of the British Hawker Siddeley Group - the "H" in many of Toronto's older subway cars - operated out of Malton Airport, now Pearson, and was charged with developing two types of interceptor craft: the sub-sonic CF-100 Canuck and a prototype jet capable of breaking the sound barrier.

Supersonic flight would enable an even quicker response to military aggression and was a target pursued on both sides of the Atlantic. "Wave drag," a phenomenon encountered by conventional aircraft approaching the speed of sound led to the development of new wing designs that appear on the famous Concorde airliner and other high-speed jets.

The first prototype Arrows underwent wind-tunnel and computer model testing in 1954. Giant IBM supercomputers provided telemetry data to engineers, as boasted in a full-page ad in the Toronto Star from 1957. It was during this stage of development that the first engineless vessels were strapped to Nike rockets at Point Petre in Prince Edward County for real-world aerodynamic tests. Similar launches took place on the Atlantic coast of Virginia.The Arrow officially went into full-scale production in 1955 and the first completed plane, marked RL-201, was to be presented to the public and media on Oct. 4, 1957. Unfortunately for Avro and the Canadian government, the launch of Sputnik, Earth's first man-made satellite, by the Soviet Union the same day overshadowed the new fighter somewhat.

First world war Polish-born fighter pilot Janusz Żurakowski was at the controls of RL-201 when it took its first official test flight on March 25, 1958. As engineers grew more confident with the design, the plane would be pushed to Mach 1.98 - 2,426 km/h - on subsequent runs. Pilots including Żurakowski consistently reported good handling, though on two occasions the landing gear collapsed on landing at Malton Airport resulting in minor damage.Behind the scenes, things weren't looking good for the Arrow. New Progressive Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker was elected in 1957 on a platform of spending cuts that put costly projects like the development of the Arrow firmly in the spotlight. Shortly after entering office, Diefenbaker signed the agreement that established NORAD, the missile-defense program that still monitors all traffic over Canadian and American soil to this day.

With NORAD came a commitment to two different methods of protecting the airspace above North America: an automated system of interceptor missiles developed by the US or aircraft-based defense via the Arrow project. To keep the defense budget down, Minister of National Defence George Pearkes repeatedly recommended the Arrow project be scrapped in favour of automated defense, especially as the threat from space was deemed to be escalating with Sputnik.

The Cabinet Defence Committee, a forerunner to the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, twice refused the cancellation but, controversially, killed the Arrow at the third asking without review in 1959. At this point, five of the aircraft were flight-ready and another, RL-206, was nearing completion. Almost 15,000 staff involved with the project lost their jobs in the aftermath, earning the day of the decision the title "Black Friday" in the aviation industry.

Ostensibly to protect design secrets, all of the aircraft, spare parts, and engines were destroyed. Well, almost all. The nosecone section and two wing panels of the sixth Arrow was, amazingly, smuggled out of Malton Airport and kept hidden at CFB Downsview for many years. The parts and a salvaged engine are on display in Ottawa.

Rumours that an entire aircraft had been spirited to safety went largely unfounded until Air Marshal Wilfred Austin Curtis, the former head of Avro, suggested in a 1968 interview that the location of a hidden plane could only be revealed in a more favourable political climate. He died in 1977 and no surviving Arrow has ever been publicly acknowledged.

With suspicions between the governments of North America and the Soviet Union reaching their chilly nadir in the early 1960s, it was often hinted that a spy had infiltrated Avro and the Arrow project on behalf of the Soviets. That theory was lent some credence in the early 1990s with the release of the Mitrokhin archives, documents obtained by the defection of a top Russian spy. The extent to which Avro may have been compromised is only hinted at and there has been no other confirmation of Soviet espionage within the company.

Quite how destroying the original materials could protect information that may already have been stolen isn't clear, but the lack of a surviving aircraft is likely what spurs "Arrowheads," devoted fans of Canada's first supersonic fighter, to literally plumb the depths for tangible evidence of what was widely considered to be one of the world's most advanced vehicles that nixed before its time.

So far they haven't found much, but the search continues.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Images: Library and Archives Canada,

Photo by Proletar1at in the blogTO Flickr pool.

Toronto likes to collect unusual mayors. In the last ten years an eccentric furniture store owner and a former labels and tags salesman have held the top office. As of Friday, former Blue Jays and Oakland A's all-star Jose Canseco became a future contender for inclusion on that list after making a surprise announcement about running for Toronto's top job.

OK, one gets the sense he isn't entirely serious, but in reality Canseco would be a horrible candidate for mayor, if only for his lengthy list of legal troubles and saying nothing about his "policies." Below is a list of Canseco's run-ins with the law since 1989.

Also this week: a look at the Windsor power transformer at John and Wellington that Toronto Hydro is making a renewed push to replace and a map of all falling concrete incidents under the Gardiner Expressway over the last 15 years.

CANSECO FOR MAYORIn a move straight out of left field this week, former Blue Jays slugger, American League MVP, and self-confessed steroid user Jose Canseco pitched a genuine curve ball by declaring his intention to run for mayor of this fair city. The seemingly bizarre, off-the-cuff Tweet (something of a trademark from Canseco it seems) caught the attention of Star reporter Daniel Dale, who extracted a brief manifesto from the Cuban-born hitter.

Canseco would, apparently, "fix budget, traffic, get new $ not from taxes, get more businesses, and help schools" as "someone from outside the system" with a fresh perspective. If not entirely serious, he's clearly thought about this beyond the "wouldn't it be funny if..." level. Sadly for Canseco - happily for Toronto - as a Cuban-American he's not eligible to run for public office in Canada.

To throw further cold water on the admittedly hilarious prospect of another bonkers mayor, here's list of Canseco's legal troubles since 1989. Certainly puts Ford's run-ins with the law into perspective:

RECKLESS DRIVING: In Florida, Canseco was spotted driving his 1989 Jaguar 125 mph on Interstate 95 in the early hours of Feb. 10. ''He was very reasonable. He did not deny it or say he did it,'' a Florida Highway Patrol said. ''He just accepted his ticket.'' He was fined $500.

POSSESSION OF A FIREARM: Canseco's red Jaguar was again the centre of attention on the campus of University of California-San Francisco when a passer-by spotted a loaded semi-automatic handgun on the driver's side floor. Returning from a medical exam, police arrested the hitter for possession of a loaded firearm on state university property. He was bailed for $2,500 and pleaded no contest.

AGGRAVATED BATTERY: Back in Florida, cops picked up Canseco on Feb. 13, 1992, after he rammed his Porsche into his then-wife's BMW during an argument. The charges were reduced and Canseco plead not guilty but later entered counseling and served community service.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: After another domestic altercation. Canseco was charged with misdemeanor battery for striking his second wife Jessica while the pair were in the process of arranging a divorce. The outfielder was sentenced to a year's probation after pleading no contest in 1997.

AGGRAVATED BATTERY: A night in a Florida nightclub with his brother Ozzie, a fellow major-leaguer, ended in trouble in 2001 when the pair were involved in a fight with two other men. The pair pleaded guilty and Jose accepted 200 hours community service and agreed to attend anger management classes.

PAROLE VIOLATION: In 2003, while on parole over the nightclub incident, Canseco tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He had already been cited for violating his parole over a missed court appearance in March of that year. He spent a month in jail without bail.

DUBIOUS BORDER CROSSING: Canesco plead guilty in an American federal court in 2008 to smuggling a fertility drug across the Mexican border into the US, a misdemeanor offense. The drugs were, apparently, to help with hormone replacement therapy he was undergoing to recover from his steroid use. A judge ordered Canseco be placed on 12 months' unsupervised probation.

ELECTRICITYToronto is hungry for electricity, and every new condo tower, office building, or structure of any kind in the city places a little extra strain on the existing grid. This week, Toronto Hydro warned that without a proposed new transformer station at Bremner Boulevard, south of the Rogers Centre, a failure at the aging Windsor plant at John and Wellington could leave much of the downtown core in the dark for days, even weeks.

Trouble is some of the equipment at the site opposite the CBC headquarters, some of which dates from the 1950s, is totally obsolete. No new replacement parts are on the market so Hydro Toronto currently cannibalises parts from decommissioned transformers to service the station. The situation is so dire that the electricity company can't switch off much of the equipment for maintenance without cutting the lights to the city.

Here are some facts about the Windsor station:

ENTERED SERVICE: 1956
OUTPUT: 300 megawatts
SERVICE AREA: Western downtown
CURRENT USAGE: 92%
OTHER DOWNTOWN STATIONS: Terauley, Esplanade, Cecil.

GETTING ITS ROCKS OFF

View Concrete Showers in a larger map

Since 1997, there have been at least 15 recorded incidences of concrete cladding falling from the Gardiner Express onto laneways, streetcar tracks, and Lake Shore Boulevard. These aren't just pieces of gravel, either. Chunks ranging in size from that of a baseball to a television have, miraculously, so far failed to land more than a glancing blow on anyone's property.

This week, more pieces fell from a streetcar tunnel near the Humber Loop. To put the latest incident into perspective, above is a map of each incident reported by the press in the last decade and a half.

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

• Snowy Toronto looks mighty pretty from outer space
• Two Toronto horses will march at Barack Obama's inauguration [The Star]
• The Pan Am Games mascot, designed by kids, is likely to be its biggest earner [National Post]
• Ontario could get beer in its supermarkets via LCBO kiosks [National Post]

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Images: "Stairway to Heaven" by cookedphotos from the blogTO Flickr pool, public domain, and Hydro Toronto.

This week in theatre rounds up the most noteworthy live theatre playing right now in Toronto. It includes just-opened shows as well as productions that are about to close.

This is War / Tarragon Theatre / 8:00pm / 2:00pm / $27-$53
One of the most anticipated plays of the winter is Hannah Moscovitch's This is War, directed by Richard Rose. The play focuses on a conflict zone in Afghanistan where Captain Stephen Hughes is tasked with anticipating the next major threat. The resulting story unfolds from the perspective of three soldiers and a medic stationed at the camp. Moscovitch will undoubtedly bring her unique and compelling voice, as well as draw from her experience writing for the CBC's radio drama Afghanada.

Someone Else / Berkeley Street Theatre / 8:00pm / 2:00pm / $22-$49
Kristen Thomson's I, Claudia is one of the best Canadian plays of the past decade and it continues to delight audiences here and abroad. Once again collaborating with Chris Abraham, Thomson's newest play Someone Else premieres at the Berkeley Street Theatre this week. Focusing on middle age, the play considers the eighteen year marriage of Cathy and Peter that seems destined for failure until an encounter with a stranger changes everything.

The Penelopiad / Buddies in Bad Times / 8:00pm / 2:00pm / $25-$49
Nightwood Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times present a well-deserved revival of Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad. If you missed the play the first time around, this is your second chance to catch one of the best shows of 2011. Penelope looks back on events during the Odyssey, life in Hades, her relationship with her parents, and the murder of her twelve handmaidens by her husband Odysseus.

Next Stage Festival / Factory Theatre / Various Times / $10-$15
Your first theatre festival of 2013 comes courtesy of the Toronto Fringe, who launch their annual Next Stage Festival this week. The twelve-day affair features ten shows spread throughout the three stages of Factory Theatre. With these productions chosen from some of the best independent theatre in the city, the calibre of the shows is strong and the beer tent will be bustling. Check out our festival preview.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch / Drake Underground / 7:30 / 3:00pm / $25-$35
The Drake Underground is the home of cult favourite Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which appears on Toronto stages just in time to warm up your winter. John Cameron Mitchell's wildly successful tale is, by now, well known. Transexual punk rocker Hedwig and her rock band tour the US on a quest to track down former lover and song stealer Tommy Gnosis. Seth Drabinsky stars as Hedwig in this production from breathe.feel.love.

Photo of This is War

A long-time contender for the ugliest building in Toronto could be about to get some interesting neighbours. A huge proposal to develop much of the Toronto Star lands at 1 Yonge Street into a cluster of giant, optically-confusing towers is currently percolating among architects and developers.

Though the plans are in their very earliest stages and haven't yet been filed with the city, these drawings that first surfaced at Urban Toronto are an indication that developer Pinnacle International wants something eye-catching for the area currently occupied by a low-key print facility and an open air parking lot.

Central to the site are two dog-legged towers sketched midway up the block between Yonge and Freeland streets. Though they are smaller than the more conventional structures planned for the Lake Shore Boulevard elevation, these two are the most memorable and the ones likely to see revision at the hands of the city's Design Review Panel.

At street level, judging by the renderings, the complex will have retail space on Queens Quay East (note the confident appearance of a streetcar) that would tie in nicely with the redevelopment work currently underway in the area. Over the next year, the city is working to rejig much of the street to be more pedestrian and transit friendly.

There's not likely to be any relief for enemies of the brutalist Toronto Star building, though. Its leaden presence on the corner of Yonge and Queens Quay is likely to linger on for some time yet, albeit in the shadow of something a little more modern.

What do you think of these plans - would you prefer the developers kept it sensible on this site? Whatever happens, the waterfront location means these buildings won't be lost in the forest of the city's flourishing condo scene. How could this plan be improved?

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photo by Jack Nobre in the blogTO Flickr pool

CULTURE | Trampoline Hall
Trampoline Hall hits The Garrison again tonight, folks! This well-attended lecture series is a TO favourite, and always delivers some head scratching and often humorous moments for those who attend. A carefully curated selection of speakers discusses topics that range from the mundane to the insane, but with under one condition: the subject must reside outside of the speaker's area of expertise. Tonight Sarah Treleaven discusses The Backyard Of Chicken, Mitch Smolkin will rivet you with The History Of Dentures, and Hannah Wise will share her thoughts on Laughing When Things Are Not Funny. Erica Kopyto curates. Do arrive early, as TH often sells out.
The Garrison (1197 Dundas Street West) 7:30PM $6

FILM | Samsara
Director and cinematographer Ron Fricke's film, Samsara, is first his release as a director in almost twenty years. Fricke is widely known for his work on the films Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi, and his style has come to be associated with his original use of time-lapse photography. Samara, a sequel to Baraka, premiered at the TIFF in September 2011, and is a documentary in the same vein, spanning the globe with eye-popping images and exploring the themes of humanity and spirituality.
TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King Street West) 7PM + 9:30PM $16

MUSIC | Elvis Monday
Elvis Monday returns to rock The Drake once again. 2013 is going to be the 27th year that this great showcase has been running and supporting TO musical talent and directions that have always been off the radar, and ahead of the curve. Tonight's musical offerings include The Morals, Kilometer, Elsie Epp, The Golden Retrievers, Hot Head, and regulars, People Of Canada. Like the best things in life, admission to Elvis Monday is free.
The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen Street West) 9PM

BOOKS & LIT | Rowers Reading Series
The Rowers Pub Reading Series holds its first event of 2013 tonight. In case you haven't ever checked out this great TO literary event before, it happens on the first Monday of the month from October to June, and features some of the finest local literary talent around, both established and 'up and coming'. Tonight, playwright Hanna Moscovitch, poet/novelist Jim Nason, and writer and editor Grace O'Connell will share some of their new work with you. As always, there is no cover charge for this event.
The Victory Cafe (581 Markham Street) 7:30PM

OTHER EVENTS ON OUR RADAR

Yuka at The Drake

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

Film still from Samsara

Today is another big day in court for Rob Ford as he prepares to appeal a judge's decision to remove him from office over a Municipal Conflict of Interest Act violation. It's unlikely the panel of three judges will make a decision today but experts believe they will work quickly and deliver a definitive verdict on the Ford saga by early February. If Ford's appeal is denied he will be removed as mayor, no more questions asked. If he wins, he stays. Here's a useful primer on the case. We'll have coverage of the hearing as it happens today.

The Toronto Star has a brief look at other public leaders ousted from office for breaching the rules. On the bright side for Ford, many were so popular they were re-elected second time around.

The Toronto Taxpayers Coalition, a right-leaning advocacy group, has an interesting proposition: using funds generated by a downtown casino to build new subways. According to the group, a casino could pull in more than $400 million a year for transit without raising taxes. Would it be right to build a subway on the backs of gamblers?

On the TTC this morning, 510 Spadina streetcars are diverting via King, Bathurst, and the Wolseley Street loop because of a broken water main. Shuttle busses are completing the route south.

A new site is demanding better response times from Toronto's firefighters who it says take on average 38 seconds longer to get dressed than 13 other North American cities. The answer, the group says, is simply better training for existing crews, not more firefighters. Thoughts?

Well, after months of endless back-and-forth, the Toronto Maple Leafs are heading back to the ACC after the NHL and player's union forged a deal to start a shortened season Sunday. From space, Commander Chris Hadfield, the Leafs' highest fan, renewed his allegiance on Twitter.Finally, some people really, really like trains but none more than Thornhill resident Jason Shron, the man with a Via Rail train in his basement. Shron built the replica car from scratch, complete with reclining seats, original garbage cans, lights, carpets, and first aid kit. Here's a guided tour of his four-year pet project.

IN BRIEF:

• Three stabbing victims walk into Mount Sinai hospital [Toronto Star]
• Alleged home-invader suffers life-threatening injuries after homeowner stabs him [Toronto Star]
• City of Toronto building catches fire in possible arson case [Toronto Star]
• Former Argo Chandler Williams dies at age 27 [CBC]

FROM THE WEEKEND:

• This Week In Comedy
• This Week in Theatre
• 7 urban trends Toronto must resist in 2013
• That time Toronto went supersonic with the Avro Arrow
• Sunday Supplement: Jose Canseco primer, the electrical grid, and falling road concrete
• Massive development proposed for 1 Yonge Street

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photo: "The Palm House" by cookedphotos from the blogTO Flickr pool and Twitter.

Kathryn Bigelow strikes me as one of those rare dark horse types who comes out of nowhere (although Point Break has its considerable merits) to become a mainstay director. Following the immense (and well-deserved) success of The Hurt Locker, Bigelow is at it again (it being addressing modern warfare in utterly riveting ways) with Zero Dark Thirty. The film chronicles the 10-year-long hunt for Osama bin Laden; an intriguing subject made all that much more so through Jessica Chastain's by-all-accounts incredible performance.

Want to see it before it lands in theatres? Future Shop and Alliance Films are generously giving away 5 pairs of advance screening tickets.

THE PRIZE

5 lucky readers will receive a pair of tickets each to see Zero Dark Thirty on January 10, 2013 at 7 p.m. at Scotiabank Theatre (259 Richmond St. W., Toronto).

HOW TO WIN

To win, just answer the following question: Who wrote the screenplay of Zero Dark Thirty?

The first 5 correct commenters win the tickets. Please make sure to include a valid email address in the comment form "Email Address" field so that we can contact you if you're a winner.

FINE PRINT

You must be a Toronto-area resident to win. Only one comment and answer per person. If you include multiple answers or post multiple comments you will be disqualified, and the winner must pick up their own tickets.

UPDATE

This contest is now closed. Winners will be contacted shortly.

Live music picks for WEDNESDAY JANUARY 9 through SATURDAY JANUARY 12, 2013.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 9 / QUICKSAND / THE PHOENIX / 410 SHERBOURNE / $37.50 / 19+

New York post-hardcore band Quicksand should serve as a cautionary tale as to what can happen to a group if they fail to live up to a label's expectations. Formed in 1990, the band released two albums before in-fighting and stress stemming from underachieving led to the band's breakup. Now, they've reunited and embarked on a North American tour, which should please the cult following that they've amassed over the years. Post-hardcore fans will eat this one up.

THURSDAY JANUARY 10 / HOPSIN / THE PHOENIX / 410 SHERBOURNE / $27 / 19+

I don't often include hip-hop shows in the Hot Ticket, but I think this one will be better than most. Hopsin is an MC from Los Angeles, and since bursting onto the scene in 2003, he's established himself as a talent worth watching. His music can best be described as "conscious rap," and one of his gimmicks is the white contact lenses he wears during his live performances and music videos. If you're a hip-hop head, you'll definitely want to check this show out.

FRIDAY JANUARY 11 / DATSIK / THE GUVERNMENT / 132 QUEENS QUAY E / $20 / 19+

While I can't profess to being a fan of what dubstep has become, there's no denying that it still appeals to a large audience. Datsik is a dubstep producer from B.C., and at the young age of 24 he's become one of the biggest names on the scene. The Guvernment is a great venue for a rave, and you can be sure that a large percentage of the crowd is going to be rolling - but if you can look past that, and enjoy the music for what it is (if you're a fan of that sort of thing), you might want to check it out.

SATURDAY JANUARY 12 / JOANNA CHAPMAN-SMITH / HUGH'S ROOM / 2261 DUNDAS W / $17 - $20 / ALL AGES

I can't recommend this show highly enough. Local girl Joanna Chapman-Smith is, quite simply, one of the most talented singer/songwriters that I've come across in some time. She has a unique talent for alternating between multiple genres, including jazz, Flamenco, and folk. She can also play several different instruments, such as the guitar, clarinet, and piano. This promises to be a great show, and for such a low price, there's really no excuse to miss it.

For more music listings, check out our events calendar.

Looking for tickets? Check out Rotate This or Soundscapes to avoid Ticketmaster robbery.

Have an event you'd like us to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO events calendar.

Photo of Joanna Chapman-Smith courtesy of nous.davidse on Flickr.

Yorkdale is the mall to be at these days with its brand new wing featuring Toronto's first Microsoft store, Tesla Motors showroom, a Wilfred and a Ted Baker. It was enough for our camera to head indoors and check out the styles of the shoppers as they made their rounds around the mall.

Check out all the photos in our Style section.

Serving breakfast daily and offering a few additional items for weekend brunch, this local favourite on Mount Pleasant knows its way around greasy homefries and a homemade Hollandaise.

Read my review of The Homeway in the restaurants section.

At first, the crowd gathered in front of 365 Bloor Sr. E. is fairly quiet. Holding their hand-painted signs, they hang back near the building's façade and speak quietly to one another in Hindi.

Brows are furrowed and eyes are deep and serious, but once in a while, a small ray of excitement will light up someone's face, sometimes in the form of a smile.

This group of about 50 is gathered outside of the Indian consulate in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon. They are here to speak out against widespread sex crimes and violence against women in India, where it's been widely reported that a rape occurs every 20 minutes.

Their protest, of course, was spurred by the death of a 23-year old woman in Delhi on Dec. 29. Two weeks prior to her death, she was brutally raped on a bus by six men after leaving a movie theatre with a friend. They used an iron bar to assault her, as well as their own bodies.

After the rapes, she was thrown from the bus to lie naked in the street. She laid there for an entire hour before police finally arrived to help her. Members of the South Asian Indian community in Toronto felt they couldn't sit in silence following the woman's death, so they took to the streets outside the consulate.

They also wrote a petition calling for police to be trained to handle sexual assaults, for rape kits in hospitals, and for fast-track courts to handle the backlog of rape and sexual assault cases.

They're only 50 out of the 484,655 or so people of East Indian descent living in Toronto. But Meeta Roy, one of the rally's organizers, says even a small group can make a significant difference.

"I know these [protests] are small steps, but every one is a change."

Many in the crowd Roy organized are first-time activists. For them, enough is enough, and once they overcome their shyness, they make their anger heard up and down the sidewalks of the Bloor St. E. and Sherbourne St. area.

"Men can stop rape. Men can stop rape," They chant, slowly but loudly.

"If you want to have sex, ask, listen, respect." It sounds like a call for attention to be paid, but there's something more to it--it also sounds like a warning.

There is discomfort in the strong male voices when it comes to the words "rape" and "sex." Those words are a bit quieter. But after the first few rounds of chants, the words learn their own purpose, and the chants flow easily into the crisp January air.

Shreya Roy was one of them. She's a 23-year-old med student.

Roy has been involved with anti-VAW work in the past, and she says her community is making her proud with their ever-growing refusal to accept crimes against women.

"It's heartwarming that they're being so active.

"To see my elders saying the word 'sex' in public...this is really, it's leaps and bounds for me."

This is Aruna Dutta's first protest. She says she's standing out in the cold to call for justice for women everywhere.

"There are many countries where women are suffering this problem. In India, it came to light.

"It is ignored in every country. This is not a game, it is a crime against them. That is why I'm standing here."

Parveen Gill was one of two organizers of Thursday's protest. She says if members of the community living all over the world rise up in protest, the Indian government can't help but take notice.

"On one hand it is a land of spirituality and on the other we see those kinds of heinous crimes on the street," she says. "I see a kind of paradox."

"For me, what matters is safety. If the world is watching and India's growth is only economic growth, there should be some social progress."

Writing and photos by Sarah Ratchford

As the name implies, Feast In The East is a monthly event that brings together a mix of indie bands and pairs them with a full meal (or snack, depending on your appetite). Every month features new foods, bands, and curated installations. With that in mind, I entered the mixed-use office building that contains PolyHaus in Dundas and Carlaw warehouse land, and was greeted with the gusting scent of of herbs, garlic and spices.

As chef Dan Bedard (former production and flavour wizard at Greg's Ice Cream who is currently in culinary school) explained, he wanted to find a middle ground that would accomodate dietary restrictions, so a French-inspired vegan platter of vichyssoise (that's leek and potato soup to ceux qui ne parlent pas français), red bean dip, a family olive tapenade recipe, and a Moroccan carrot salad were on the menu.

The medley successfully highlighted a hearty range of striking colours, flavours and textures for a frosty winter night. A mix of 20-something OCAD girls and older, slightly nerdy audiophile dudes sat around under streamers made from cut-up flags (created by Adrian Dilena) eating off their plates, fetched from a soup kitchen-style window.

The sounds of the night were as varied and textured as the menu, but still within a consistent theme of lo-fi synth pop, enabled by a sound system made up of a garage sale's worth of '70s bass amp cabinets that wheezed under the pressure of modern electro outfits. Miss Elizabeth, a two-man, keyboard-based synth pop band (named after a celebrity WWF wrestling manager) squared off on stage facing each other like dueling battle ships while fans swayed to harmonizing church beats. One even sketched their performance on her pad.

Dap's Records Beta Frontiers, also a two man group, left the crowd awe-inspired and mouthing, "what the hell are they doing up there?" as they cranked out spectral synth loops and airy vocals off a laptop and Ableton, accompanied by their own live visual remixes. The dj/vj duo is rare in Toronto, but has been all the rage in Asia for a while now.

The main draw of the night for me was to check out Toronto/Berlin one man show Digits, aka Alt Altmann (formerly of The Ghost Is Dancing), who has been soaking up blog hype for his "Love Is Only Affection" music video shot by Toronto's waterfront (and strictly speaking, NSFW).

You wouldn't expect such a low, dusky force to emit from his mad scientist exterior. Lanky, and dressed in a classic '80s striped polo, wire-rimmed glasses and sporting a slightly asymmetrical bowl cut, he owned the stage like an ostracized math geek who's taken control of his high school prom. While Toronto may be losing Diamond Rings to LA, we (and Berlin) still have Digits. For now, at least.

Closing down the night were another soon-to-be-buzz band, Yacht Club, lead by Fucked Up's Ben Cook. A four-piece band bringing feel good sing-along anthems that might as well have been written in the '80s. Think Cyndi Lauper meets Genesis guitar licks and melodies.

Heavy on crowd interaction, Ben tossed glow stick bracelets into the crowd, borrowed fedoras, and plunged the mike deep into the mouth of a waiting sax for the song "His Eyes." No '80s band would be complete without at least one sax-based song. And I guess being so entrenched in the industry has given the band insight and certain liberties, as they currently have two singles out on two separate labels; "Flash" on Pretty Pretty Records, and "Tropicana" on Burger Records.

All the bands that played certainly have their own sort of hype going for them. It's great to see that this kind of community exists in Toronto, where dinner and a show take a completely different kind of meaning.

Photos by Kat Rizza

The best new cafes in Toronto in 2012 are evidence that we haven't reached our espresso quota just yet. While there are, indeed, plenty of places to get a cup of something caffeinated around the city, these new cafes have emerged to try to deliver a pull that presents just a little bit better. Meanwhile, some existing mini-cafe empires chose 2012 to open some new spots, not the least of which include the new Balzac's at Ryerson, Sam James on the PATH, Dark Horse on John, The Common in Bloorcourt and the rebranded Black Canary. But this list focuses on the new cafes that are all on their own.

Here is the list of the best new cafes in Toronto in 2012.

See also:

The Best New Cafes in Toronto, 2011
The Best New Cafes in Toronto, 2010
The Best New Cafes in Toronto, 2009
The Best New Cafes in Toronto, 2008

It might have taken what feels like an eternity, but Rob Ford's conflict of interest case is finally nearing a conclusion. For roughly seven hours today, the mayor watched on as his lawyer delivered an appeal to a panel of three Ontario Divisional Court judges and listened as the opposing legal team worked to support his removal from office.

Speaking first, Alan Lenczner, the mayor's legal counsel, argued the city was outside of its jurisdiction when it ordered Ford to return $3,150 in donations to his personal football foundation that were solicited using civic resources, claiming the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act only applies when the city or a councillor personally stands to gain financially.

Lenczner followed that since the money was destined for sports equipment, Ford can't be seen to have profited from the situation.

Also in support of Ford, the judges heard the amount in question was too small to be considered a real pecuniary interest, an assertion the mayor himself seemed to contradict during the original hearing. Lenczner confidently declared before the packed courtroom that it wouldn't matter if the amount in question was "$5, $50, $1000, $10,000," Ford decided to speak and vote - entirely by "honest error in judgment" - based on principle.Without a formal role in proceedings, Ford - flanked by councillor Doug Ford, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday and speaker Frances Nunziata - looked bored and listless for much of the day, staring at the ceiling or rigidly straight ahead, appearing most alert during Clayton Ruby and Nader Hasan's submissions to the court.

Ruby and Hasan, working on behalf of complainant Paul Magder, spent their portion of the day supporting Justice Charles Hackland's original ruling and picking apart the mitigating claims made by the mayor's legal team, noting in particular that there was no legal challenge by Ford when council first ordered him to return the cash.

As the day wore on, the pair seemed to come under greater scrutiny by the judges and were asked to clarify several of their points, possibly giving some insight into the panel's thinking as they prepare their decision.

Addressing the media outside the courtroom, Ford vowed to "keep fighting for the taxpayers" and thanked "everyone for the outpouring of support" related to the case. He also took time to briefly thank Holyday, calling him "the best deputy mayor that anyone could ask for."

A final decision is expected to be delivered in the next few weeks. If the panel upholds Justice Hackland's decision, Ford will have no choice but to vacate the office of mayor. Watch this space. The court proceedings might be done but this one has a little way to go yet.

Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.

Photos: Chris Bateman/blogTO

Photo by SnapHappyExpat in the blogTO Flickr pool