Chris Bosh is at it again. Although his innovative video pitch to fans wasn't enough to push him past Kevin Garnett and Lebron James for a starting spot in the NBA All-Star Game, it has made him a media player. Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix details how the video's popularity has raised Bosh's profile to new heights and how it prompted CB4 to start his own Chris Bosh TV channel on YouTube. To ring in......

The Raptors have reached the halfway point of the season, and almost every news outlet in town has been engaged in the mid-season ritual of handing out report cards. Jose Calderon gets top marks across the board, and deservedly so. His name is even being mentioned as a potential reserve selection for the All-Star Team. Of course, on his own blog and in interviews, Jose has tried to remain humble about the whole thing. That's......

Say what you will about the Toronto Maple Leafs, but they’re not boring. Incompetent, sure, but definitely not boring—not even during their recent, well-publicized losing streak. The Leafs are a middling 3–4–3 in their last ten games, yet they're oddly compelling to watch: they’re tied for third in league scoring (this, despite the inability of some of its key players to put the puck in the net) and they’re by far and away the......

If you haven't been following the Raptors too closely this season, it's possible that you may have missed one of the greatest stories in professional sports at the moment. Jamario Moon is a 27-year-old rookie who had been kicking around just about every minor league on the continent until he finally got his shot with the Raptors this year. And he's tearing things up. Even though he's years older than a number of Raptor veterans,......

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Once a week, the editors of each site—from LAist to Londonist—compile some of their most interesting posts into a brief blurb. It's Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse, and it appears, across the network, every Sunday. Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

The fine for street racing is now $10,000. There goes my weekend. A man was discovered stabbed to death at 1:30 a.m. this morning on an empty subway car at Kennedy Station. The station was closed for investigation for most of the morning rush hour, and details are limited at this point. We'll keep you posted. Pro-Tip #6834: Don't describe a women's college basketball team as "nappy-headed hos" if you value your job at......

Now boarding at Platform 1: The Toronto Raptors Bandwagon. Please form a line to the right, and have your tickets ready. Prepare for a bumpy ride, this trip is standing room only. For the first time in five years, the Toronto Raptors are going to the NBA playoffs. And if making the playoffs wasn't enough for Chris Bosh, on Monday he was also named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Despite the loss......

On Sunday night, a small motorcade of revellers snaked down the Danforth, whistling and beeping and waving what looked like the Japanese flag with a green background. Turns out it was the flag of Bangladesh and the occasion was the Bangladeshi team's triumph over Bermuda in Cricket World Cup. While most sports fans are fixated on basketball's Final Four, the rest of the commonwealth is feverishly following cricket's Super 8. The unsolved murder of......

On Tuesday, the second-place New Jersey Devils came to play their road game at the Air Canada Centre, clogging up the neutral zone and waiting for the Maple Leafs to make a mistake. Which might have worked, had they been able to take the lead. But the Leafs played patient, capitalized on the power play, and held on for a 2-1 win. It was only after the oft-maligned Nik Antropov scored the Leafs’ second......

Because there are only a handful of Canadians in the NCAA, (and who really cares about college basketball, anyway?) we thought we'd cook up a little March Madness of our own - Toronto style. We have created a tournament ladder of recent memes, blog drama and local news and for the next two weeks, you will decide the winner of each match. Sure beats betting on Kansas State. You can view the ladder full......

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico. Bostonist was happy they finally found an Anna Nicole Smith connection to their fair city and that an Apple Store was opening up. They were less happy that new rules have been established limiting underage shows and that their Governor is spending a......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the opportunity to gossip......

Between fake terrorist alerts and scandals big and small, this just might be the Best Best of the -ists ever. We're exhausted just thinking about it. First up, SFist, who saw their little 'ole site be the center of what was a nice little scandal (even getting their editor on TV) only to find their scandal dwarfed by the even bigger scandal caused by their Mayor boffing one of his aides' wife. We're not just......

Yesterday, Jorge Garbajosa was named the Rookie of the Month for the NBA’s Eastern Conference, and he has been leading NBA.com’s unofficial Rookie of the Year Race for the past month. Garbajosa, however, is not a typical rookie; he doesn’t look like one and he doesn’t play like one. He just turned 29 years old, making him about seven years older than most of the league’s other leading rooks. Perhaps that is why he never......

Former Toronto police chief and current OPP commissioner Julian Fantino is being sued for allegedly using a Police Services board case to maliciously advance his own career. The suit accuses Fantino of multiple skullduggeries, including wiretapping the chair of the Police Services Board. Now, I know what you're thinking - "but Julian Fantino was such a nice police chief. Except for the corruption scandals and the racial profiling and the homophobia." TTC considering leasing out......

The Tories are taking a chainsaw to Status of Women Canada, closing three-quarters of the organization's regional offices, including Toronto's. Heritage Minister Bev Oda insisted that the budget cuts and office closings will streamline the department and make it more efficient. Just like a business! Because government should be run like a business! In other comedy news, the Liberal leadership convention started yesterday. Given the choice between Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae, Gerard Kennedy and......

It appears that most members of the Liberal caucus will support Stephen Harper’s resolution that Quebec be considered a “nation” within Canada. Toronto Police Services Board chairman Dr. Alok Mukherjee now wants to hold a public inquiry into possible cases of corruption, cover-ups and general nasty stuff by members of the Toronto police department. This should come as no surprise: The day after it was announced October was the deadliest month in the history of......

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a double-ticket),......

The Raptors took the Cleveland Cavaliers 91-90 last night in a game that saw fresh faces fill in for injured key starters. Leading candidates in the election thingy debated crime, transit and garbage as usual last night for the co-sponsored benefit of The Toronto Star and CityTV, and maybe for voters, too. Quoth The Star: "The debate got so scrappy on so many issues that at one point Miller and Pitfield even disagreed on what......

The CBC points out that three people were murdered in a matter of hours this Sunday. First, a man was run over and then hacked to death by machete. Second, a 22-year old man was found by his parents in their backyard. Third, a man was found shot in the head in a Parkdale rooming house. Out of town, a Toronto-raised basketball star is clinging to life in a Pittsburgh hospital after being shot in......

GTA resident Suresh Joachim is going for another record. This time he'll be trying to karaoke for 50 hours straight to raise funds for the Canadian Red Cross. Joachim is infamous for breaking inane world records. In the last few years he's broken the record for balancing on one foot, dribbling a basketball, dancing with a partner and watching TV. In this photo he's breaking the record for crawling. The previous karaoke record was 25......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

The Star weighs in on Dalton's new rent laws. The big improvement is that landlords can no longer jack up the rent permanently after making repairs, tying rent to inflations, and guaranteed hearings for those about to be evicted by non-payment of rent. Star columnist Thomas Walkom doesn't think it's enough and doesn't actually do anything to help with skyrocketing rents. The man apparently responsible for yesterday's cabbie murder may have attacked a second cabbie......

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants it's money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for......

There's a whole wide world out there, and here's the proof: DCist revels in The University of Maryland's basketball triumphs, marvels at Metro's security strategy, and applauds DC local Katie Couric's new gig. Phillyist is all about the Philadelphia Film Festival. OK, not all about -- they still have time for loitering, underage sex, and random wacky news. LAist would have to send a camera around the world to get shots as bizarre as Katie's......

Right, Torontoist isn’t going to mess about with today’s Film Friday, because there are more important things to be talking about than what’s on at the multiplex. First! Tristan and Isolde is the cinematic version of the Celtic folklore/Wagner opera, which the trailers have made a big deal about predating Romeo and Juliet, as if that actually meant anything. Eye’s Adam Nayman brings up the interesting note that this was, for years, the dream......

Victoria BC native Steve Nash has been awarded the Lou Marsh Award as Canadian Athlete of the Year for 2005. The Toronto Star and the elected voting panel awarded Nash the distinction in a unanimous decision announced Thursday in Toronto. The Phoenix Suns point guard was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player last season after leading his team to the Western Conference Championship. He finished the 2004-05 season with just under 200 assists more than......

After a busy offseason, Raptor Basketball is back at the Air Canada Centre tonight. With all the second-guessing and criticism following every personell decision this summer, it will be interesting to see how the team responds in 05/06. There is no question that veteran leadership is at a minimum this year, however, if the preseason is any indication, it looks like Rob Babcock made the right moves on draft day. First round selections, Charlie Villanueva......

Last February, Rafer Alston threw a fit of the hissy variety during a game, and the TOist sports editor took note. Then Alston's mother was trolling the internet for negative comments about her son, found our site, and defended her sweet little prince in the comments section. It went like this: you have the story -ss backwards. Why din't you ask the raptors organization what really happened. Posted by: geraldine alston Oh, mothers (shaking head).......