Although there was nothing major happening this past week, there were several minor news items to report. The Rush Backstage Club is running a new contest where you could win a special limited edition copy of Rush - The Complete Tourbooks! Go here to enter if you haven't already. This past Tuesday Rock Band Unplugged featuring Rush's The Trees was released. On Wednesday we learned a few more details about the planned rock-n-roll-themed Decades Music Theme Park which will feature a Rush-themed Spirit of Radio Concert Hall. The facade of the building will look like the old radio depicted on the cover of Rush's The Spirit of Radio greatest hits package, and they are also considering updating the seating so that there are 2112 seats! The Paul Rudd and Jason Segel bro-mantic comedy I Love You Man which features Rush references galore along with a cameo from the band will be released to Blu-ray and DVD this coming August 11th and is available for pre-order through Amazon at this link. And the 2010 Rush wall calendar will be released this coming July 15th and is now also available for pre-order through Amazon at this link.
This weekend the East Coast Rush gathering RatCon 2009 takes place in beautiful Severna Park, Maryland outside Baltimore, and RushCon 9 is just 6 weeks away!
A few weeks ago Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were guests on CBC Radio's Q with Jian Ghomeshi. Audio of the interview has been online for some time now, but we've also been anxiously awaiting the release of the video to the show's YouTube Channel. There has been a delay in posting it due to some technical issues, but reader State of Grace let me know that the channel recently posted this message promising that the video will be out on Monday:
Rush fans. We believe we have sorted our technical issues getting this video up. We will be uploading the Rush interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson next Monday, June 15th. Thank you again for your patience! Team Qtube".
On a related note, reader RushFanForever located this photo of Alex and Geddy from their appearance on CBC News: Sunday a couple weeks ago.
Next Thursday June 18th at 9PM EST Neil Peart along with special guests Doane Perry (Jethro Tull) and Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa) will be appearing on the Drum Channel to answer questions and talk about progressive rock drumming. You'll be able to ask your questions live in the Drum Channel chat room, or email them in advance to info@drumchannel.com.
Reader armitage2112 let me know about the most recent Gizmodo Photoshop contest where users were tasked with adding technology to classic album covers. The author picked the top 50 submissions and among these was this interpretation of Rush's Hemispheres album cover.
Reader marshman98 spotted a 2112 reference on an episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon late last week. They have a gameshow bit called Spin the Wheel of Carpet Samples and after the first contestant spun the wheel she was given a score of 2112 which Fallon pronounced as Two thousand one hundred and twelve. There must a Rush fan on the writing staff. You can watch a video at this link.
Grapes for Humanity is a charitable organization that leverages the international wine community to raise funds to benefit humanitarian causes around the world. Reader RushFanForever recently became aware that Geddy Lee is a member of the board of directors for the organization and is shown pictured on their website at this link.
The North by Northeast Festival (NXNE) takes place in Toronto from June 17-21 and will bring 500 bands to 50 venues across the city. One of these bands is Ruby Coast. The Ampersand at Canada's National Post recently had a quick interview with the band and one of the questions was the following:
Q: Pick: Anne Murray or Rush?
A: Really? Rush
That's a really tough one. :) Thanks to RushFanForever for the link.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that recently reunited Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice will include a cover of Rush's Anthem on the bonus edition of their upcoming album The Ones I Condemn. According to BW&BN, the band has pulled the song from the album for an undisclosed reason but frontman Rob Urbinati claims that We will release it digitally or vinyl, or both; it will see the light of day! Thanks to B-Man for the heads up.
Slim over at Counterparts recently uploaded a couple of old Rush article scans. The first is from the July, 1979 issue of Beat Instrumental magazine and catches up with Geddy Lee on the Hemispheres tour.
The next article is from the July 1983 issue of an obscure British magazine called Music U.K.. It's an interview with Alex Lifeson by journalist Max Kay.
We all know by now how a few weekends ago Alex Lifeson took Chickenfoot members Sammy Hagar and Chad Smith out on the town in Toronto the night before Chickenfoot's show at The Mod Club Theatre in Toronto, for which Alex was in attendance. We knew that they were spotted in the Yorkville area of Toronto having dinner on the patio of the Hazelton Hotel. But apparently they closed out the night at Alex Lifeson's Orbit Room club according to this ENT blog post, with Chad Smith sitting in on drums with the band.
Neil Peart and Rush's 2112 make this list of great drum songs from San Diego Reader blogger Josh Board.
The Toronto Life article titled 50 Reasons to Love Toronto Right Now that was in the June, 2009 issue has been posted online at this location. Rush was reason #48: Because an antediluvian PROG-ROCK BAND from Willowdale upstaged Stephen Colbert. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.
411mania.com's Dan Marsicano dissects Rush's Presto in this recent segment of What-The-Hell-Happened-To....
Last summer Geddy Lee donated a collection of about 200 autographed baseballs to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Reader Gregory F recently paid a visit to the museum and took this picture of the collection for us.
Reader PetieLee recently took a trip to Rush City, MN and took this cool pic road sign with it. Note the population of 2102; just 10 more people and it would have a population of 2112! :)
I hope that all those going to RatCon have a great time. Have a great weekend everyone!
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