A couple of weeks ago Rush.com sent out a newsletter announcing the remaining North American dates for Rush's 2011 Time Machine Tour. This summer leg of the tour will include 13 dates in 12 cities across North America with just one lone Canadian date taking place in Vancouver. There's been a lot of confusion regarding the status of this supposed Vancouver show. The Rush.com tour page still has a message stating Vancouver date to be announced! Last week the Rush iPhone app began listing the show as scheduled for June 30th at Rogers Arena. Then sometime in the last few days they removed the date from the app's listings. It's unclear exactly what's going until we hear some official word from Rush. But until then I'm going with the assumption that they are just still working out details with the venue and the show will still take place on June 30th. When it is officially announced I'll be sure to post all of the relevant pre-sale information. Music Today fan pre-sales for the shows in Greenville, San Diego, Las Vegas, Concord, Portland and Seattle took place this past week, ending yesterday. Rush VIP pre-sales and CITI Cardmember pre-sales, along with various radio, Live Nation and venue pre-sales for those dates with the exception of Greenville also took place this past week. Pre-sales for the Greenville show are underway today until 10PM which are using the passwords BILO (thanks A-CELL-OF-AWARENESS) and TIME (thanks hermy). General ticket sales for the San Diego show kick off today at 10AM (PST); for the Greenville, Las Vegas and Concord shows tomorrow at 10AM and Monday, January 31st at 10AM for the Portland and Seattle shows.

Earlier this week we learned the exciting news that Neil Peart's 5th full-length book is titled Far and Away: A Prize Every Time and is due to be released via ECW Press this coming May 1st. Neil had been hinting for some time now that he'd be releasing a new book and friend Matt Scannell remarked just a few weeks ago on Used Bin Radio that Peart had a book in the works. Much like his regular postings at NeilPeart.net, the 260-page book chronicles Neil's tour travels from the last few years. From Amazon's product description:

Following in the tradition of Ghost Rider and Traveling Music, Rush drummer Neil Peart relates nearly four years of band tours, road trips, and personal discoveries in this introspective travelogue. From the ups and downs of a professional artist to the birth of a child, this revealing narrative recounts 22 adventures from rock's foremost drummer, biker enthusiast, husband and father. Both playful and insightful, Peart's love of drumming and the open road weaves throughout the stories as Neil explores horizons that are both physical and spiritual, sharing his observations about nature, society, and the self. Full-color photos round-out this tour of the open road that will resonate with Rush fans and motorcycle enthusiasts alike.

The book can be pre-ordered via Amazon at this link. In celebration of this news, I thought that for my next poll I'd ask everyone which of Neil's 4 current full-length books is their favorite. Take the poll and let us know.

On Tuesday the indie film Adventures of Power was released to DVD. Adventures of Power chronicles the adventures of air-drummer extraordinaire Power (played by filmmaker Ari Gold) and contains a cameo from Neil Peart along with a slew of Rush references including a Tom Sawyer air drum-off. It first hit the film festival circuit back in early 2008 and made its theatrical debut last fall. Back in 2009 Neil Peart and Ari Gold paid a visit to the Drum Channel studios to film an air drum-off video which you can check out here. The DVD contains over 60 minutes of bonus material including deleted scenes with Jane Lynch, a rare music video with Adrian Grenier, and the 25-minute Drum Channel interview and air drum-off with Neil Peart. Andrew Olson conducted a great interview with filmmaker Ari Gold which you can check out over at his Neil Peart fansite. There was a DVD launch party and charity auction kickoff last night in Los Angeles which featured a live performance by the Adrian Grenier's indie folk-rock band the Honey Bros. The charity auction/fundraiser supports music education via VH1 Save the Music and will run through March 16th. It features drums from Ringo Starr, Neil Peart, Lars Ulrich, Marky Ramone, Ween, Weezer, Judas Priest, Dresden Dolls, and many more. For more info visit adventuresofpower.com. Here's the film's official trailer.

While on the subject of Rush members in movies, Alex Lifeson made a cameo appearance as a cross-dressing cop in the second Trailer Park Boys movie - Countdown to Liquor Day - which was released to DVD back in late 2009. Reader RushFanForever located the scene in which Alex appears on YouTube and you can check it out at this link. Alex also appeared in the first Trailer Park Boys movie and more recently made an appearance as a border guard in the 2009 vampire horror-comedy Suck. For those of you with NetFlix, all three films are now available for streaming on-demand. Alex's next film project will be playing psychiatrist Dr. Michael Fig in the indie film Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy, due out later this year.

There's also another Canadian indie film coming out later this year titled Kankered which contains a number of Rush references. The film follows 3 inseparable friends - Alex, Trent and Marc - whose world gets turned upside down when Marc meets Lea. The friends' room in the film is decorated with various Rush posters as seen in the images above, and the film's trailer features Rush's unreleased early track Garden Road. Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the heads up.

The Rush Backstage Club is running a new contest where you could win a rare Rush Feedback poster. Three of the posters will be given away and the contest runs through February 8th. For more information and to enter the contest go to this link. Thanks to hermy for the heads up.

The latest issue of Classic Rock's Prog magazine recently hit the shelves and contains the results of their 2010 Reader's Poll. Rush came in at #3 in the Best Band category, Alex Lifeson came in at #4 in the Best Guitarist category, Neil Peart was #3 in the Best Drummer category, Geddy Lee was named the Best Bassist and the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage won in the Best DVD category. You can check out the scans by clicking on the thumbnails above. Thanks to Desmond for the heads up and the scans.

Huge Rush fan in NYC recently shot some video of their friend and Ramones bass player C. J. Ramone professing his love of Rush and stating why he thinks Rush should be inducted into the Rock Hall in 2012. You can watch the video here and read a transcript below:

My very first public appearance was with a band - we did all cover songs - but the highlight of our set was when we did Temples of Syrinx by Rush. Incredible song. Incredible album - 2112. Geddy Lee - such a big influence on my playing. Just unbelievable, unreal talent. They deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame probably more than a lot of bands that are already there. Rush in 2012 - wanna see them there.

In the latest installment of his music discovery podcast and blog Bands Like Rush, Ben Sommer talks to 2 members of Wichita-based .end of story. Ben notes a great similarity between the band's sound and late-era Rush (Snakes & Arrows, Caravan, etc.). You can listen to the podcast at this link. To find out more about .end of story check out their website here.

Reader rmull was recently watching children's show The Sharing Show on the Sprout Network with his 2-year-old son. The show features 3 puppets; Patty the Pig, Rick the Rabbit and Curtis the owl. In this particular episode Ricky was taking some puppet dogs for a walk and introduces the dog's names as Darrin, Pepe, Alex, Geddy, and Neil. :)

Reader freewilly located this cool Rush t-shirt for sale at 8BALL.co.uk. It features the famous image of Alex and Geddy with their double-necks with a white star in the background. You can check it out at this link.

The 2011 Winter NAMM show took place a couple of weekends ago at the Anaheim Convention Center. Neil Peart's Time Machine Tour kit was on display and Gibson Guitars unveiled the new Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess pictured here and in this Guitar International photo gallery. Max Mobley of Crawdaddy! Magazine covered the show and was inspired to write this humorous piece for the magazine's Riot Gear! column.

We learned yesterday that the 2012 Rush wall calendar will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Rush's Signals on September 9th, 1982. As I'd mentioned in last week's Friday updates post, reader snowdog2113 has an extensive collection of old Rush TV interviews and appearances on VHS video that he has recently started converting to a digital format and posting online to YouTube. One of the vids he uploaded is a Signals-era MTV interview with Alex Lifeson where he discusses the album and the song Countdown in particular, recounting how he and his bandmates were deeply affected by witnessing the launch of the space shuttle Columbia and which inspired them to write the song. Today also coincidentally happens to be the 25th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Here's the interview:

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!

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