Throughout the series of pandemic lockdowns, founder Greg Dalgetty was inspired to take up the synthesizer after rediscovering the plethora of Conan-inspred Barbarian films that came to life throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s. Films such as Deathstalker II, Barbarian, The Scorpion King, and The Beastmaster all have captivating scores, many featuring the synthesizer as a hallmark within their soundtracks. Having played in several bands previous to this, Dalgetty drew inspiration from the catchy Deathstalker II theme song, composed by Chuck Cirino, and began to write similar music. “This planted the seed that maybe there should be a barbarian band that plays this rousing music”, he said in reference to his drive to transform this musical genre into a live music experience.

In 2021, Dalgetty recorded the Thunder Glove’s first album, Escape from Hell Mountain, as a solo record, undertaking all 8 instruments. After the lockdown had waned he was able to build the remainder of the band, consisting of Jessica Thunder on bass guitar, Scott Thunder on drums, Trevor Thunder on lead guitar, and himself on synthesizer, leading to the recording of their second album, Taste the Power of Thunder Glove. Since the band’s conception, the 4 musicians have performed at several venues throughout Toronto, including The Baby G where they played for an audience of over 150 people. Throughout their sound and performance style, Thunder Glove plays into the Barbarian culture or fandom that was created by the fictional characters and universe of Conan and its predecessors, transforming their 8-bit retro video game sound into an immersive Barbarian experience by dawning Barbarian attire and acting in character, both of which are reminiscent of the barbarian style films.

The character of Conan first appeared on the scene in the form of short stories by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, later gaining steam after appearing in Marvel comic books in the 1970s. Soon after, in 1982 the written stories and illustrations were transformed into the archetypal film of Conan the Barbarian, jump starting the stardom of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. Having brought to light the first Barbarian characters in Hollywood and in the film scene as a whole, Conan led to a domino effect of barbarian style films and by extension musical groups, such as Thunder Glove. “This spawned dozens of movies riding on the coattails of Conan”, Greg said. Additionally, the effects of Conan on pop culture were twofold, as the film also served as the big break of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went on to become a household name and star in prominent films in Conan’s immediate wake, including Terminator, Predator, and Total Recall. Thus, while Conan primarily served to garner the initial popularity of barbarian culture and style films, it also had an indelible influence on pop culture at the time and up to the present day.

For Thunder Glove, opening for the screening of Conan symbolizes a full circle moment, especially for Dalgetty who grew up in the late 80s during the prime of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s acting career, and is now opening for a screening of his big break, while simultaneously pursuing music in a genre largely popularized by the actor.

At the Revue, a nonprofit cinema in Roncesvalles and is now celebrating its 110th birthday, Thunder Glove will be performing the film’s hallmark “Anvil of Crom”, which many regard as “one of the best film scores of all time”, said Dalgetty, along with songs from the band’s two albums. “We are honoured to salute Conan, one of the greatest barbarians of all time, at the glorious Revue Cinema for this special event. Prepare yourselves for an epic evening of swords and sorcery, barbarism and unspeakable lust”, he remarked.

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Monsieur Steve

As he continued to explore the realm of educational YouTube content, Steve noticed a gap in foreign language resources, specifically for younger students on the platform, and began to transition to a sharper focus on French-related content. “That’s where I came in ”, Steve said, referring to his mission to incorporate his fun and energetic learning style that he brings to the classroom into his videos. “If the kids aren’t having fun and they aren’t being engaged, they’re not really reaching their full capacity and they’re not learning the way that they should be,” Steve added, referring to the necessity of instilling curiosity and desire to learn as well as the association of learning with fun as opposed to drudgery.

While the Monsieur Steve YouTube channel and the uptake in online learning resources were born out of the pandemic, this increased accessibility to French education will serve as a long-lasting impact on the education system, regardless of COVID-19 online learning protocols. By infusing popular activities and pop culture references into content, Steve is making french education more relatable to students, alleviating some of the dryness that is often associated with french education. “For example, in one of my videos about learning around the house vocabulary, I took something that was quite popular last year, Among Us, and I took my idea of around the house vocabulary and mixed it with an Among Us theme where I went around the house looking for the imposter,” Steve explained. In addition, he has integrated elements of mental and physical well-being into his channel, posting virtual field trips featuring nature throughout Ontario and movement break videos. “I want to be the well-rounded go-to channel for French teachers or parents,” Steve said, hoping to encourage healthy habits in conjunction with education.

As his videos began to gain traction and he utilized view counts as a measure of efficacy, Steve remained level-headed and continued to seek motivation from a sense of community and duty to students around the world. “I wanted to truly make a difference and help out. Knowing that the videos were starting to get used signaled that they were serving their purpose,” he said. Since the launching point of his channel, Steve has received numerous messages everyday from people all across Canada, and even from different areas of the world such as Australia and the United States. “My mind was blown when she told me that 8th grade kids in Texas dig my videos. I was like you can’t be serious, who ever thought that a video of me here in Toronto would have reach enough to teach a classroom in the states,” he remarked.

To visit the Monsieur Steve Youtube Channel, please click here.

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Throughout the course of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the issue of LGBTQI+ discrimination has been exacerbated, not only on a national scale but within the home as well. Due to the economic strain and healthcare systems’ shortcomings, we saw higher rates of “people in countries where medical systems were not as strong lacking access to gender-affirming care, and HIV positive people lacking access to medications”, Eric said. Regarding domestic discrimination, millions of people were forced into lockdown all over the world, often with abusive family members or abusive coexistence, resulting in a particularly pronounced spike in family-based violence and family-based rejection.

The impacts that these circumstances have yielded varied between countries, however broadly speaking, resulted in an increased state of precarity in relation to lack of basic needs, piling on top of the global lack of necessities for LGBTQI+ people already, such as employment and housing due to widespread discrimination. “LGBTQI+ people are doubly marginalized”, Eric said, “in a situation when there’s an economic downturn, we also a spike in people coming to use completely destitute due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The main goal of the 60-in-60 campaign is to raise enough funds to assist 60 LGBTQI+ people threatened with violence or persecution in the last 60 days of the year, gearing up towards a strong push to move people across borders out of harms way. The majority of this work is facilitated in countries wherein LGBTQI+ related activity is criminalized in some fashion. “In 69 countries, same-sex activity is illegal in some capacity, and in 14 countries, trans folks are criminalized in some way”, Eric said.

An integral aspect of their mission is to expose the global lack of basic human rights for LGBTQI+ people that is still being propagated in many counties, legislation that flies under the radar in the media, feeding into a lack of awareness and action within Canada surrounding the issue. “Part of our mission at Rainbow Railroad is to make sure that people understand the scope of that and we hear the stories of how this plays out every single day,” Eric said.

Apart from the 60 days of the year where this campaign takes place, the necessary work of Rainbow Railroad occurs year-round and all over the world, specifically in the Caribbean, countries in Africa, and countries in Central and Southern Asia. Especially this year, Rainbow Railroad is looking to take even greater action, as they’ve had increased numbers of people in the queue that had accumulated over the course of the pandemic. Due to its current political climate, Afghanistan happens to be a hotspot at the moment. “In Afghanistan we had 29 people moved just a few weeks ago in partnership with the UK government and Stonewall UK, and we’re looking to continue that work in Afghanistan but all over the globe”, Eric said. In addition, recently in 2020 Uganda also experienced some fairly severe flare-ups, with community centres being raided by the government. In Ghana, we are also seeing what is considered one of the worst anti-LGBTQI+ bills in decades, which completely criminalizes any conservation about LGBTQI+ rights and poses very strong prison sentences for those engaging in same-sex activity.

Rainbow Railroad works tirelessly, responding to homophobic and transphobic outbursts as they arise due to several different reasons, such as political opportunism, or crisis situations where scapegoating occurs. “For whatever reason, we’re there to assist people out, but also advocate to governments to have strong foreign policies, to put pressure on governments to dismantle anti-LGBTQI+, and of course move people across borders, more refugees. Wherever LGBTQI+ people are facing persecution, we are there to assist”, Eric said.
Rainbow Railroad offers a variety of avenues to get involved in the 60-in-60 campaign, including direct donation, fundraising online, gifts in airline points, gifts in securities, volunteering, and more. Please visit the Rainbow Railroad website to learn more.

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Often overlooked is the fact that ransomware is identical to any other attack that uses malware; whether that be a virus, or common code. The main difference between the two is how ransomware manifests afterwards, in that it encrypts a company’s data as opposed to stealing it right off the bat. By encrypting data, the attackers can render a system useless, sparing only the user’s ability to communicate with the ransomware attacker. Previously, attackers tended to destroy or steal data, however now the script is flipped, and with ransomware it has become exponentially easier for them to manipulate companies by encrypting and holding their data hostage. “This can be done to virtual servers, devices, vehicle systems, but primarily it’s being done to mobile phones, laptops, and tablets”, Greg explained.

At the top of the target list are typically manufacturing and transportation organizations, followed by healthcare and municipal governments. These types of organizations all share the quality that they typically don’t rely as heavily on technology, and thus they are less fortified against cyber threats. They tend to spend less on security per dollar of IT spending, and overall monitor their environments less thoroughly, causing them to incur more damages once hit by a ransomware attack. Almost all cases are a result of a system being left either unpatched or unupdated, with only a slim fraction occurring when systems are patched. By encrypting data, attackers typically possess a key to decrypt it, demanding money in the form of Decentralized Finance as a safe non-traceable means in return. However, the extortion may not stop there. “There’s a new variation called Double Ransom, where they not only encrypt data but threaten to release it publicly” Greg said, explaining a tactic that could be especially detrimental to healthcare organizations who hold private data that is vulnerable to exploitation once publicized.

In regards to the best defence mechanisms in order to mitigate these attacks, Greg said that, “Number 1 is patching, it’s the best defence to ensure that you’re not vulnerable to the typical kinds of malware attacks. Number 2 is backing up data, if your data is backed up no matter what happens you can always restore that data.” In addition to backing up data, specifically off-site backups are going to provide further protection. Security software is also an effective precautionary measure, as it is not only able to protect against incoming malware, acting as a shield for an unpatched system, but it can also detect malignant agents moving through a network or organization.

In the last 20 years, mirroring the digital era and development, ransomware attacks have evolved to become more focused in their efforts on fewer targets, resulting in bigger pay offs. These attacks first began with single machines that would be compromised, however “since then they’ve really concentrated their efforts on variations and refining the techniques, such as getting more machines, going after cloud resources, being more stealthy and changing techniques to avoid detection, as well as lateral movement”, Greg noted. Lateral movement has been a large proponent in attackers’ recent ability to overcome the entire system of a given company, achieved by entering the system through unexpected avenues, such as smart systems, speakers, AV setups, or by preying on fear, prompting employees to open harmful attachments. From there they are able to access the corporate system and move laterally, expanding and encrypting more before suddenly shutting it down and asking for ransom. The trend definitely points to an advancement in the organization behind these attacks, as Greg said, “the degree of quality in the software has become excellent. It used to be very sloppy code, sloppily written, but now you have well funded groups of incredible resources, so this is definitely organized crime.”

Ultimately, these attacks have been able to develop to a level where they have built a whole economy, and as technology keeps changing, akin to a teeter-totter, attackers will continue to adapt with it. However, there have been advances in the starvation of this economy, as Greg said, “stopping Bitcoin and starving the attackers of getting paid is going to be a real advantage for governments”. The bottom line is that organizations must take these steps to invest in their IT security, such as patching, updating, off-site backups, and security software, in order to ensure the best possible protection against these cyber security threats that can yield far reaching implications. “Organizations have been stepping it up and doing their best, there’s definitely no victim blaming going on here because this is a very complex attacker,” Greg added.

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The company’s Toronto branch has always been slightly bohemian in terms of their home, having jostled between 4 locations in the last 40 years. Second City first graced Toronto audiences at the Firehall theatre on Lombard Street, and after many years moved over to Blue Jay’s Way. They then spent an extended stay over on Mercer street, which was the most recent home of Second City Toronto before the pandemic dashed the plans of much of the entertainment industry. “We’re really very excited about our new venue, as it’s going to be our largest venue that we’ve ever had here in Toronto and it’s going to house 2 professional stages, which will allow us to expand our programming and have more opportunities for the amazing Toronto talent here”, Carly said about their 1 York Street location that is slated to open in late 2022.

As the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season is fast approaching, Second City Toronto is gearing up to reintroduce their training classes and workshops, as well as bring back their long-awaited revue and seasonal show. Come top of December, the Toronto branch will be back in full force, running 8 shows a week, Tuesday through Sunday, as well as their holiday show with the Second City touring company, running Monday evening shows and weekend matinees.

After a stiflingly short run of their main stage revue in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s main stage revue, “Welcome Back to the Future”, is a show that weaves together the old with the new, bringing classic sketch comedy into the modern-day as they play with archive material from their 60-year run, as well as unseen material from their pre-pandemic show. “It contains some really wonderful themes from our most recent review, “Serve Your Enthusiasm”, which has its run cut very very short due to the pandemic, so there’s some really fabulous material that we would really love more of our audience to have a chance to look at”, Carly said. The Holiday Show, entitled “The Fast and The Furiously Festive”, also aims to bring some energy back into the city, offering a festive and joyful way to celebrate the holiday season, containing holiday and seasonally themed improvisation, and original material from the Second City touring company cast. Both shows place a great value on improvisation and engaging with the audience, recapturing the magic of Second City that had been dimmed for too long.

Throughout the pandemic, art in general has been such an important outlet, but as Carly stated, “comedy is something specific, there’s a catharsis there”. After nearly 2 years of living through the effects of the global pandemic, and experiencing collective trauma, Second City aims to take this situation and offer it through a comedic or an absurd lens in order to offer communal catharsis and to make us feel more connected after a wave of isolation.

As the Toronto entertainment scene begins to see a light at the end of the tunnel, Second City looks forward to celebrating the Holiday season with their audiences and bringing joy in a time when loneliness has felt so overbearing to many. “On a macro level lots of organizations, families, and groups, are looking to celebrate, and if we can help them and be part of those celebrations and make it really truly special this year we would absolutely love that,” Carly said, “everybody should get a little extra celebration this holiday season! And we need a laugh, we always need a laugh, but right now we need a bit of a bigger laugh right now.”

To learn more about Second City Toronto or to purchase tickets to see a show, please visit their website.

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