Geddy Lee's My Effin' Life: In Conversation spoken word tour ended this past December, but as reported in this article in the Le Soleil (French language publication in Quebec), Geddy will be bringing the tour to Quebec City for a special one-off show at the Grand Théâtre de Québec as part of the Quebec City Summer Festival on July 13th. The event will take place in the 500-seat Salle Octave-Crémazie room, and 148 VIP tickets that include an autographed copy of his memoir will be made available. Tickets are $57 CAD ($140 VIP) and went on sale earlier this morning at this location. There aren't a lot of details yet, but from the information available, it looks like the show will be similar to Geddy's prior appearances, with a guest interviewer, Fan Q&A and fans receiving a copy of the book. The article above also mentions that adding a second show is possible if the first sells out quickly. Geddy made a post to Instagram yesterday with the following message:

This July I'm gonna pop into one of my fave parts of my 🇨🇦 "home and native land" - Quebec City - for an intimate convo about "My Effin' Life"... as part of the annual @festivaleteqc.

Saturday July 13, 2024 @grandtheatreqc
Special edition of My Effin' Life In Conversation
Tickets on sale tomorrow April 26 via feq.ca at 10am ET...

FANTOONS announced earlier this week that they will be releasing an updated version of their 2017 book Where's Geddy, Alex, and Neil? (now out of print) which will include 2 new worlds to explore. The book will be released this fall and the first 200 pre-orders will receive a Flakes Under Pressure decorative cereal box. From the product description:

... Our beloved seek-and-find book: RUSH: Where's Geddy, Alex, and Neil? is back with two brand new worlds! Dive into an eclectic blend of RUSH with the engaging challenge of finding the iconic prog rock trio hidden throughout 14 different album-inspired worlds, from their breakout first LP through Hold Your Fire. This special 2nd printing now includes two new-even trickier-worlds based off of albums Show of Hands and Presto! ...

You can secure your own copy by pre-ordering the book at this location.

Artovision is a Wisconsin-based company that creates 3-dimensional collectable artwork inspired by popular culture, video games, food and Americana. Over the past few years, they've released several sets of officially-licensed pieces based on Rush album art including Moving Pictures, Roll the Bones, Hold Your Fire, A Show of Hands, Signals (this desktop art piece too), Hemispheres, Clockwork Angels and Counterparts, and - most recently - Rush's debut album. Their latest offering is in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the April 12, 1984 release of Rush's Grace Under Pressure album. They've released a 3-D Shadowbox piece along with 2 varieties of their Desktop artwork. The collectible shadowbox art piece depicts the album's iconic cover art and measures 14x14" x 2.5". It comes ready to hang with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA), and each piece is printed on 1/8" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and set in a high quality finished MDF wood frame. You can purchase one of the Shadowbox pieces for $159 at this location. There's also a corresponding Desktop version depicting the album art, along with another showing the "egg in a clamp". Both Desktop pieces are printed on 3/4" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and also come with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA). You can purchase either piece for $49 at this location. For more information on Artovision, and to see their complete line of officially-licensed Rush pieces, visit their website at artovision3d.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and watch a YouTube video demonstrating the 3-D effect of their Shadowbox art here.

Toronto-based Rush beer producers Henderson Brewing Company have announced that they'll be bringing back their popular Rush Day event that they kicked off last summer. Rush Day 2024 will take place at Henderson's brewery in Toronto later this summer on August 25th with tickets already available to purchase. Not many details have been revealed yet, except that longtime Rush graphic artist Hugh Syme along with other special guests will make an appearance, and
all attendees will receive a Limited Edition Door Prize. Last year's event included Rush beer guided tastings, Rush trivia, limited edition items, Rush memorabilia, a screening of the Time Stand Still documentary, and - of course - lots of Rush beer! You can get all the details and reserve a spot here.

A new Rush tribute project called Rush for Cover has been in the works for the past couple of years and will finally be officially released TODAY. The album features nine, new interpretations of classic Rush songs by an international cast of independent, underground artists (none of whom are trios themselves), and is a tribute album created by Rush fans for Rush fans. The album is available on opaque creamsicle and opaque sky blue vinyl along with a limited digital release, and you can order yours at rushforcover.com. A corresponding charity auction took place over the past month with all proceeds going to the Glioblastoma Foundation, The V Foundation for Cancer Research (founded by ESPN and legendary basketball coach Jim Valvano) and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The auction included several unique items including the original painting used for the cover of the album by fan and artist Kelly Drew, a one-of-a-kind test pressing of the album signed by all of the artists, a stack of original Rush vinyl (including a sealed, original pressing of Clockwork Angels, various promo 12"s and original 45s). You can learn more and order the album at rushforcover.com.

Guitar World posted a review of Lerxst Amps' Lerxst CHI Combo this past week. You can check that out online here.

Artist Scott M. Fischer created a painting tribute to Neil Peart that was shown on the Monsters of Rock Cruise and Cruise to the Edge recently. Here's a Facebook video from February showing Fischer sketching out the painting, and here is the finished product. Thanks to Jerry T for the heads up.

An old video of Rush being interviewed on the set of their Roll the Bones video shoot made the rounds this past week. Of particular interest is the Neil Peart interview portion, where he describes his thought process on developing the themes in the album's lyrics. You can check it out below or on YouTube here:

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5OuFx-dSI0