A lot has happened in the past week, and the coming week should be no different. Last Thursday Snakes & Arrows leaked onto the interwebs - which is inevitable in this day and age - and over the weekend we learned that Wal-mart.com's listing for Snakes & Arrows now includes 30-second clips of all 13 tracks. In less than a week, Snakes & Arrows will be released in Europe with its North American release the day after. To tide us over (those who haven't downloaded the leaked version yet at least) Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet - which features a guest appearance from Alex Lifeson - released today.
On the tour front, a second Toronto show was just added yesterday for Saturday, September 22nd - right smack in the middle of RushCon weekend. There's an AMEX presale beginning tomorrow at 10AM and the regular sale starts Friday at 10AM. See here for details.
Rush will be appearing on Rockline on Wednesday, May 9th with a rebroadcast Monday, May 14th.
On Saturday, Michael Yarberry sent me some exclusive first pics of Neil Peart's new Snakes & Arrows drumkit. Hopefully you were able to see them because I unfortunately was asked to take them down by DW Drums yesterday. If you didn't see them, you can at least read about them in this post.
Brendan1234 pointed me to this article from page 2 of yesterday's Washington Post Sports section. It's difficult to describe but if you're a sports fan and a Rush fan, you'll really like it. Apparently the print edition also has a cool pic of Geddy jammimg on his Fender.
Jeff Wood's Legends Of Classic Rock radio show has a 4-part series coming up where they'll be featuring The 40 Greatest Classic Rock Singers of All Time as chosen by listeners. To vote go to this link. You can choose up to 3 singers from a list of 150 (or write one in) and Geddy Lee is on the list of course.
Far Cry continues to chart well although it's been bumped a couple spots to #5 on the Mediabase Mainstream Rock charts due to the new Ozzy single. It's also #5 on the MediaGuide Mainstream Rock chart and holding at #3 on the Radio and Records chart. WorkingMom also let me know that Far Cry ringtone are available for T-Mobile now.
And on a serious note, I think everybody was universally saddened by the tragedy at Virginia Tech last week. And although this is a Rush site and I try not to bring the outside world into the going-ons here, I felt compelled to do something. If you feel the same way I do, the school has set up a Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund which you can contribute to at this link. And on a related note, reader Jaybird (who lives in Virginia), wrote a little piece on his blog about Earthshine (the song and the real thing) and the tragedy:
Earthshine is one of my favorite songs on the CD. I got pretty emotional listening to it and thinking about the dark days here in Virginia this past week.
Life can bring unbearable pain and suffering. At some point, though, you're able to gaze at the stars and feel the wonder of life once again. I hope all the wounds in Blacksburg and elsewhere will soon heal and that the joy of living returns to those who can't feel it now.
I can certainly relate; Rush has helped me navigate several tough times in my own life. That's what makes them so special to me.
While we're on the subject of the healing power of Rush (and music in general), reader snowdog987 requested that I tell you about Tunes 4 the Troops. They're an organization that collects CDs, DVDs, etc. and sends them to the troops on the frontlines. What better way to support the troops than to send them a copy of the new Rush album?!?
And let's not forget about the Rush to Fight AIDs project. For details and updates see their MySpace page here.
In one my recent updates I pointed you to some lego Rush figurines that were up on eBay. Reader RushKid has made some figures of his own. In addition to the full band pic displayed, he has several closeups of the individual pieces which I'm sure he'd be happy to share with you if you're interested.
I'll end with a bit of Rush humor that reader danny alerted me to. One of the elementary schools in the Lubbock ISD in Lubbock, Texas is called Rush Elementary. Take note of their school logo as shown on this page. I'd say that someone in the PTA is a Rush (the band) fan. What's really interesting is that in addition to using the Rush logo on their t-shirts, it says established 1953 - the year Geddy and Alex were born! Nobody tell the lawyers at Anthem!! :)
Oh yeah... get your setlists in if you haven't yet!
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