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March Madness: Quarterfinals Day 1

By Kevin Bracken

2007_03_15MM_blueonwhite.gif

Every weekday, Torontoist is facing off local memes and blog drama in a tournament-style ladder and you, the reader, decide the outcome.

March Madness Ladder Preview

View the full ladder here. Some highlights:

Kensington Market turns out the lights on Nuit Blanche (118 – 95): Dizzy from the smell of fish, Nuit Blanche stumbles in this epic battle of nocturnal versus somnambulant. Al Waxman named MVP of Kensington for numerous slam dunks.

IllegalSigns.ca revokes Dufferin Grove’s permit (109 – 106): In yesterday’s closest match, Dufferin Grove’s bonfires, farmer’s market and cob thing are not enough to tackle IllegalSigns.ca, who points out the gaudiness of the Dufferin Mall across the street to distract the park and score a tie-breaking three pointer with just seconds left on the clock.

Today’s matches, Region I + II, Quarterfinals:

St. Clair ROW vs. CN Tower Ice
Toronto Islands vs. Jane Jacobs
Condo Boom vs. 416
Anagram Map vs. ROM Crystal

Polls after the jump.



If you’re wondering how you should vote, simply choose the answer that calls to you.

1 2
3 4

Comments

  • james

    i think i’d like to see toronto islands against jane jacobs in the finals.. that would be an epic battle.

  • brokenengine

    God I hate the ROM crystal. Booo!

  • eli Singer

    Islands and Jacobs – epic EPIC smackdown.
    How the hell is the ROW getting iced? It’s the future of the city transit masterplan! Get with it folks…

  • Brad

    I’m not really sure why the ROM Crystal is such a juggernaut. It beat Miller’s Hair, now it’s ahead of the Anagram Map?! Did anyone see this coming? Maybe it’s the non-Hipster vote.

  • Brad

    Something is fishy.
    Matches 1, 2, and 3 have 180, 151 and 150 votes, respectively. Match 4, with ROM Crystal, has 278 votes?! You’d expect Match 4 to have a similar vote count, or possibly even the lowest vote count since it’s effectively at the bottom of the ballot.
    It’s pretty easy to cheat at thus, just refresh the browser, and re-record your choice.
    Where’s the ref?!

  • james

    I love the ROM crystal!
    Maybe it’s just me, but I’d far rather look at a giant crazy unique building than some map with the names all scrambled.

  • http://www.newmindspace.com Kevin Bracken

    Just try voting twice ;) You can’t!

  • jeeff

    i like how everyone is bashing the rom crystal while it’s still a construction site. nobody has any idea how well it will function as a museum. why make up your mind before it’s even finished?

  • PS

    I think the ROM Crystal looks good.
    Eventhough it once looked like a wrecked ship, I am pretty sure that it is going to be awesome.
    It opens June 2, I think.

  • http://www.newmindspace.com lori*

    i think the crystal is still taking steroids :P

  • Monado

    Up against the art college “table”, it would look smashing and subversive. In a green-field development, it would look exuberant and classy. But where it is, it’s really detracting from the subtle textures and beauty of a fine old Ontario limestone building. “The ROM Excrescence.”

  • rek

    kevin – I can.
    I voted for the Anagram Map over the ROM Crystal, not because I like it more but because it represents the public support and interest in the TTC, and the need for the TTC to return the love (by not siccing lawyers on fans, to start).

  • Gloria

    Monado: Ditto. I find myself warming to the ROM crystal itself more every day, but its location, jutting out of a very lovely building, definitely takes away.

  • Dory Kornfeld

    PS–I LOVE the idea that the Crystal is like a wrecked ship. In fact, I think Toronto should build a wrecked ship. Maybe as part of the waterfront plan.

  • brokenengine

    Agreed, I think it look stupid juxtaposed with the old ROM.
    And Kevin, i was able to vote more than once as well…

  • Andy

    Who is voting for the CN Tower Ice? Do people really like frozen water that much? Or is it because it’s a giant phallus?
    Knowing the people who read Toroist i’d assume the latter.

  • Eric S. Smith

    The CN Tower ice might be attracting votes because it was a Local Novelty Disaster.
    Ever since the tower was proposed, people have been fantasizing about the terrible consequences of things falling off of it. And it finally happened, complete with on-again-off-again drama during the attempts to remove the ice.
    Plus, it forced the closure of the Evil Gardiner, traditionally scapegoated for the suckage of the waterfront (Lakeshore Boulevard sleeps soundly, knowing that it’s cool to hate the Gardiner).

  • mint

    Oh come on. The ROM crystal is winning? Whats wrong with you people, that thing is an ugly monstrosity. Its almost as bad as OCAD.

  • David Topping

    Everyone who’s saying that they can vote twice (or has discovered on their own that they can): fight the urge! This thing’s supposed to be fun. Unless you, yourself, are the ROM Crystal, there is absolutely no point in cheating.

  • Gloria

    I really don’t get the whole “CN Tower is a giant phallus” thing. Phalluses aren’t pointy. Calling anything longer than it is wider a phallus diminishes the whole fun of making penises out of innocuous things!
    Does anyone know those blue lights they installed on the sidewalks along Queen between the DVP and Logan (Riverside District, they call it)? *Those* are phallic. Heck, they even have heads.

  • David Topping

    Not to go totally off-topic here, but the idea behind a phallus, according to Freud (and someone can correct me if I’m horribly wrong here), is that it doesn’t have to look exactly like a penis; it just has to stand in for what the male penis is supposed to represent — power. The CN Tower, in all of its largest-freestanding-structure glory, is one hell of a way of representing power. (And, incidentally, it also gives new context to the term “needledick.”)

  • Gloria

    Yes, I rather forgot about one of the most common, traditional phallic symbols: swords. I take back my protests about the abusive usage of the phallic label.