Posted on
May 14th, 2025
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Comments Off on Raisin Gang: Thomas P. Conway
It’s been well over a month and no one from the Raisin Gang has bothered to get in touch so … I’m making good on my threat.
Might as well start with the guy I featured in the initial post: Thomas P. Conway
Here he is, ostensibly auditioning for Saturday Night Live as the cast of Seinfeld:
Despite the stellar performances I don’t believe Tom was ever included in the SNL cast.
Shame.
He did nevertheless give us a great send off as the late Andy Rooney.
I was able to find a bit more info on Tom and it turns out he’s not dead or starving in a gutter somewhere. In fact, he ended up being a talented TV writer (and comedian), despite his dyslexia.
Moreover, he did a great impression of Sean Connery which, to me, suggests that his focus on writing is simply a front for sublimated impersonation, even if only in the form of voice-overs.
As previously mentioned, I strongly encourage Tom to get in touch before I expose any of his compatriots in a similar fashion. Y’all been warned!
Posted on
May 8th, 2025
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Comments Off on Old Empire
I remember walking by Empire Office Equipment many years ago when its Queen West storefront displayed quaint and dusty office hardware that had been stacked there, seemingly, for convenience rather than for display. The grimy windows and murky interior made it hard to see inside but it appeared to be packed with nicotine-infused business furniture and apparatus that weren’t modern even at that time.
The place didn’t ever look open to casual foot traffic or, for that matter, ever actually open at all. Posted business hours were nowhere to be found and given the stuff perennially piled up against the front door it now seems appropriate that all that remains today is found in an alley at the back.
Posted on
April 6th, 2025
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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.
Posted on
April 1st, 2025
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Comments Off on Alias: Deniable Plausibility
In 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.
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.
It’s something I’d stumbled on a few years ago, a nearly decade-old comic series named “We Stand On Guard” which took much the same tone, albeit set ninety-nine years into the future (as of this year).
Spoiler alert: a good number of the rebellious Canadian “heroes” die and ostensibly take a large part of the water-deprived U.S. civilian population with them. Hooray!
Long story short, the artwork is great but the tale is bleak.
Posted on
March 1st, 2025
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Comments Off on Sunday on Saturday (summer in winter edition)
It’s still a bit too chilly out there for aquatic hijinks but I’m sure I’ll soon be complaining about the heat and humidity, something that I suspect is (at least) a century-old Toronto tradition.
In the meantime, there’s plenty more of the following sort of thing over at archive.org
... with pictures
... with sounds
... with videos
... with opinions
... that's shorter
... that's longer
