UPDATE - 5/11@2:10PM: VOTE FOR RUSH! The Clansman 2112 just informed me that Rush's Far Cry video has been added to the rotation on Canadian music channel MuchMoreMusic. You can vote to place the video in their Top 10 list at this link.

It's update time again. Snakes & Arrows continues to receive generally positive reviews and has done very well on all the various charts in its debut week. Now the trick is to see if it has some staying power.

The band continues to give interviews on an almost daily basis; if you haven't listened to the Rush Rockline interview yet, you can do so here you can listen to a rebroadcast on Monday. And I just added the KGON (Portland) Geddy Lee radio interview (thanks Lady April) to the radio interviews post.

Our fellow Aussie Rush fans can finally buy the album; it releases in Australia today.

Far Cry continues to garner a lot of airplay on rock radio but has finally slipped one spot on the Mediabase Mainstream Rock Charts to be displaced by Linkin Park's What I've Done. The music video for Far Cry, directed by Christopher Mills, was released earlier this week and can be viewed here.

The results of last week's poll are in. Over 350 votes were cast and The Main Monkey Business (20.3%) is the clear favorite song off of Snakes & Arrows for Rush is a Band readers with Armor and Sword (16.3%) running a close second. Also making a fair showing was The Way the Wind Blows (11.1%), Workin' Them Angels (9.1%), Spindrift (7.9%) and The Larger Bowl (7.7%).

Now it's time for another poll! Since I've been noticing that there's been a lot of discussion/debate of the new album based off of the phrase this is Rush's best album since..., I thought I'd make this very question the poll for this week. So - do you think Snakes & Arrows is Rush's best since Moving Pictures? Or do you think it's their worst ever? Or maybe just their best since say... Roll the Bones? Take the poll!

On the tour front, Rush is currently rehearsing in Toronto and they keep mentioning in interviews that the tour will continue in 2008 with a second leg; probably to include South American dates as well as additional North American dates. No details yet though. Reader Sean also informed me that several venues are offering free lawn seats to see Rush for kids 14 and under with an adult. This is a great opportunity to introduce your kiddies to the wonder of Rush. I've been asked to start a round 2 of the Setlist Game now that we're all more familiar with the new album. And I'll probably do that sometime over the weekend. This time we might even give away a prize! Nothing fancy though... maybe a signed 8-track version of Snakes & Arrows or something. :)

There were 2 primetime Rush TV sightings last week; one on My Name is Earl and the other on The Sopranos. On My Name is Earl Earl works overtime at his new job and Working Man is played in the background. A clip of this can be seen here. On The Sopranos, Tony pulls into his driveway jamming Tom Sawyer on his SUV's stereo, a clip of which can be seen here.

Rush's Snakes & Arrows tour makes InsideBayArea.com's sweet 16 of summer music list.

Duke of Url tells me that Rush is mentioned in the upcoming issue of Rolling Stone and it looks they are continuing their tradition of taking jabs at Rush fans whenever given the opportunity. On the page listing the top 40 albums there is a small picture of the band with the caption:

Rush vs. Christians: Nearly 100,000 prog fans emerged from their parents' basements to buy Rush's eighteenth LP - a theme album about the pernicious influence of evangelicals.

Many of you may be aware of this already, but back in 1971, a young Alex Lifeson appeared in a documentary film from Alan King titled Come on Children. There 's been a video clip from the film featuring Alex Lifeson floating around the internet for a while now. It's a clip with Alex Lifeson on guitar with an unknown vocalist playing an early Rush song called Run Willie Run. You can watch the clip here. Reader BusyLittleCreature informed me that The Museum of Modern Art in New York will be screening the film from May 9th to May 31st. Check their website for show times.

Reader El Chico Analogo located the original photograph that the artwork for Workin' them Angels was derived from. The album art features a picture of an angel-winged man with a wrench in a factory. This picture was derived from a 1920 Lewis Hine photograph titled Power house mechanic working on steam pump.

Eric over at Power Windows has created a very cool Snakes & Arrows desktop theme which you can download here.

Last week I mentioned the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life of Westminster MD this year will be raffling off a signed Rush collector's item. At the time of my posting they had not yet determined exactly what this item will be. But now they know; it's a PRS SE guitar signed by Alex Lifeson himself. The drawing will be held after the June 23 show at the Nissan Pavilion. For details and to enter the raffle go here.

And on a somewhat related note, reader Jeanette who is working with Jessica on her Rush to Fight AIDS project, is also a big supporter of hunger-relief organization Second Harvest. She asked me to plug the charity and in the name of easing some of the pain on the Earth I agreed. Tomorrow The National Association of Letter Carriers (AFL-CIO) will conduct the nation's largest food drive to combat hunger in all 50 states and U.S. jurisdictions. They will be collecting non-perishable donations as they deliver mail along their postal routes. So help out if you can.

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