/sectionb: NAVEL INTELLIGENCE
Posted on April 15th, 2025 – Comments Off on /sectionb: NAVEL INTELLIGENCE… in which the Section arrive at the boathouse where Arti and Cornelius furnish them with a warm welcome, and a few answers. Sort of.
Archive for April, 2025
no loitering
Posted on April 13th, 2025 – Comments Off on no loitering
If it wasn’t for bureaucracy this city would be no fun at all.
Hankerin’ for a hamsammitch? Why not?
Posted on April 6th, 2025 – Comments Off on Hankerin’ for a hamsammitch? Why not?Not long after I got comfortable with TCL I happened upon a local comedy troupe called The Raisin Gang. Unfortunately, their official website is now defunct, their X account hasn’t been updated since it was called Twitter, and little remains of The Gang but their YouTube channel.
I did a little expectant spotlight piece a while back but, to my discredit, I have not done much to follow up since then. In my defense, neither did they. Every once in a while, though, I flash back to the first Raisin Gang video I ever saw and wonder whatever happened to them.
The concepts were ahead of their time, the production values were great, the skits were well written, and the execution was excellent. For a while there I thought Toronto might have a “new media” Kids in the Hall on our hands.
Alas, as far as I know this never materialized. Maybe it was bad timing. Could be a lack of follow-through. Possibly the participants got into the hooch a wee bit too often.
Perhaps they’d care to contact me to explain themselves. As an added incentive, failure to do so will result in more videos being posted at unspecified future times, possibly with additional context.
And yes, that is a threat.
Alias: Deniable Plausibility
Posted on April 1st, 2025 – Comments Off on Alias: Deniable PlausibilityIn my search for spies and espionage in Toronto I came across something called Deniable Activity. It’s basically a pricey LARP whose latest event was described as, “a covert operation in Toronto to oppose a Chinese-Russian paramilitary unit and discover a leak within the Blackline organization.“
The “Blackline organization” is an obvious take on Blackline Simulations, the company behind Deniable Activity. Blackline seems to specialize more in military simulations and the Deniable event appears to have been their first espionage-themed outing. It sounds like they put some effort into it, although calling the first installment “The Compromise” seems a little derivative, maybe even like someone caved during planning. Still …
We’ve been able to include vehicle pursuits, helicopter trips, installing audio and video surveillance, clandestine entry into residences, and simulated gun fights in a number of events.
https://www.deniable.ca/frequently-asked-questions
The fact that this event exists got me to thinking … what if a simulated urban spy adventure was infiltrated by actual spies and hijacked for nefarious purposes (until the good guys figured out what was going on and thwarted it). You’re welcome, Hollywood.
There are some event photos available online and kudos to the organizers for location selections. Ultimately, the event seems fun albeit a little contrived. Not sure how much it costs per person and prices aren’t otherwise broadly mentioned but a 6 hour “Covert Entry and Surveillance for Teams” event is listed at a starting price of $3,500.
Deniable appears to be headquartered in a squat, industrial, red brick building in northern York (a.k.a. Toronto), although this is somewhat questionable since the listed address of “51 Vine Road” seems to be a little farther north.
That’s all the information I have regarding the target at this time.
... with pictures
... with sounds
... with videos
... with opinions
... that's shorter
... that's longer
