UPDATE - 9/22@9:28AM: There's been another development on the Retrospective 3 Atlantic-era greatest hits package front. In addition to listing a CD version due out December 9th, Amazon now also has a CD-DVD version listed as well. Perhaps the DVD will contain the videos from the Atlantic era? Thanks to Chad for the heads up.

UPDATE - 9/21@6:20PM: Eddie Trunk has a poll up on his site asking readers who they think had the best summer tour. Rush is one of the options so go vote for Rush! (thanks Sean)

When it rains it pours. After several weeks of relative quiet, we were flooded with various bits of Rush news over the last few days. Wednesday we learned that the 2009 Rush wall calendar is now available for purchase at the Rush Backstage Club and that there's a petition drive in Hamilton, Ontario (Neil Peart's birthplace) to get a stretch of the new Red Hill Expressway named after Neil Peart. Thursday was the 40th anniversary of Rush's (the initial incarnation consisting of Alex Lifeson, Jeff Jones, and John Rutsey) first paying gig at The Coff-In coffeehouse located in the basement of an Anglican Church in Toronto. The Drum Channel officially launched this week and the website features an introductory video from Neil Peart. The channel will be streaming live the upcoming Buddy Rich Memorial Concert on October 18th. On Friday we received confirmation of a December 9th release of a Retrospective 3 greatest hits package from Rush covering the Atlantic era. And we also got some long-awaited details regarding the Snakes & Arrows DVD; it will be released on November 18th on both DVD and Blu-ray and include footage from the Rotterdam shows and the 2008 leg's Atlanta show, and also contain a bonus DVD.

Also on Friday we learned that after a 4-week delay, Harmonix Music Systems has finally worked out all the bugs and will be releasing the Moving Pictures album for download next Tuesday, September 23rd. Here's the official announcement from the Rock Band forum:

Looks like the technicals have been taken care of. Rush's "Moving Pictures" comes out for real next week! In addition we have tracks from Bad Religion, The Cult, Hot Hot Heat, Kasabian, Sleater-Kinney, and Stone Roses!

Rush's Moving Pictures Full Album

Tom Sawyer (orig version)
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight (orig version)
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs

The full album will be available for $10.99 (880 Microsoft Points) or $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) per track individually. ...

Thanks to Corruption for the heads up.

Also on the Rock Band front, CBS news ran a story Thursday night on the increasing popularity of music video games and how it is affecting the music industry. Rush was mentioned along with a short bit of concert footage, kids with Rush t-shirts playing Rock Band and Geddy Lee was interviewed. Here's what he had to say:

We're sharing our music to new fans. So that's great for us. And new fans are learning more about the nature of how songs are constructed which I think is kind of a cool thing

You can watch video of the story including Geddy's interview at this link. Thanks to Andrew S for the news.

As I'd mentioned last week, VH1 Classic's Rush Hashanah special will air on Monday, September 29th and Tuesday, September 30th. Here's the complete program schedule:

Monday 9/29

7-10pm: VH1 Classic in Concert- Rush, Rush in Rio
10-10:30pm: Hangin' With Rush
10:30pm-1:30am: VH1 Classic in Concert- Rush, R30
1:30-2:30am: Rush Videos
2:30-3am: Hangin' With Rush
3-6am: VH1 Classic in Concert- Rush, Rush in Rio

Tuesday 9/30

6-7am: Rush Videos
7-10am: VH1 Classic in Concert- Rush, R30
10-11am: Rush Videos
11-11:30am: Hangin' With Rush
11:30-2:30pm: VH1 Classic in Concert- Rush, Rush in Rio
2:30-3:30pm: Rush Videos
3:30-4pm: Hangin' With Rush
4-7pm: VH1 Classic in Concert- Rush, R30

Not that it means anything, but Rush is winning that USA Today poll I'd linked to last week regarding 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame contenders. They've got 31% of the vote compared to Bon Jovi's 29%. Nobody else is even close. In last week's poll I'd asked you what you thought Rush's chances of being inducted into the Rock Hall in 2009 were. Most of you - 31% - said who cares!. 22% think they have 50/50 shot, 16% say not likely, 12% say it's very likely, 10% say it's an absolute certainty and 9% say no chance in hell. For this week's poll I thought I'd ask everyone what feature of the upcoming Snakes & Arrows DVD they are anticipating the most. Take the poll and let us know.

Michael of Neil Peart Drumsticks has made a few recent updates to his site including adding a picture of Neil's new Bubba Gump Hot Rod sticks that he'd been using in the Bubba Gump warm-up room on tour. There's speculation that he may be using these for the upcoming Buddy Rich Memorial Concert. He also added some old packaging wrappers to the sticks page, a couple more used sticks to the Peart 80s-90s section on the bio page, and some new fan photos as well.

Reader One humanoid escapee informed me that the new Nashville Symphony music director Giancarlo Guerrero is a huge Rush fan, calling them the best band in the universe in this Music City TV article, and claiming to know 55 Rush songs by heart in this article.

Last week I told you about photographer and Rush fan John Kane's opening of his Workin' Them Angels: Rush Through the Camera Eye photograph exhibit. John sent me a promo poster for the event which you can check out here. Just check out the poster or this post for all the details.

Reader Kerwin T let me know about a couple of Rush references in the recently released video game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. If you hire a Russian jet pilot, you get an achievement called The Analog Kid and if you unlock all the game's weapons, you get one called Digital Man. The game's predecessor, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction had a mission called A Farewell to Kings.

Heath T and Sean alerted me to the fact that Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade spoke about Rush on the program yesterday, remarking on how much of a fan he is and even singing a little Limelight.

And before I go I'd like to just say rest in peace Richard Wright - you will be sorely missed. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Take care.

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