Skip Daly and Eric Hansen's new book Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth: The Official Touring History officially released back on October 29th, and is now available to purchase via Amazon and other retailers. This past Saturday night, the book's publisher Insight Editions hosted an official book signing and launch party at Toronto's Another Story Bookstore. The event featured a signing with the book's authors, followed by a Q&A discussion. Insight Editions' James Faccinto sent along the following report, detailing the day's activities and all the special guests who attended:

After landing in YYZ Thursday night, Mark [Irwin, from Insight Editions] was whisked from the airport by Paul Beaulieu (RushFest Scotland and long time friend of the band) to a dinner with none other than Terry Brown! Terry, Paul and Mark spoke long into the night, with some terrific Rush tidbits about Permanent Waves, A Farewell To Kings, and "the guys" in general in the offing.

Saturday, Paul picked up Skip, Eric, and Mark and took them on a trek up to Lee/Lifeson Art Park in Willowdale. After paying homage, they proceeded over to the site of The Coff-In, Rush's first live venue.

Later, in the early afternoon, they had lunch with Ian Grandy, Rush's first roadie and erstwhile contributor to our book. Ian regaled them with some fun stories at King's Taps, one of Toronto's many fine beer drinking establishments. From there, they headed to Barque, a bbq experience, where they sat down for wings and fine conversation with none other than Allan Weinrib, video master-of-all-things for Rush (...and Geddy's brother).

A few doors down from Barque, our event began. Luminaries like Gerry Fielding (one of the drummers who auditioned to replace John Rutsey and someone who DID replace John, albeit briefly, in rehearsals), Gary 'Doc' Cooper (Rush's first driver, as well as longtime friend of Alex and John), Mike 'Mitch' Bossi (2nd guitarist with the band), Patrick McLoughlin (Rush Backstage Club/Showtech Merchandising), Andy Curran (Rush A&R rep, Coney Hatch), Pegi Cecconi (Rush management), Ray Wawrzyniak (Rush fan and keeper of all Rush knowledge), and Bill Rutsey (the man who named Rush, as well as John's older brother) were in attendance.

The Q&A was well attended, with Bill and Andy telling some great stories about the band. Another Story Bookstore was great, hospitably staying open well past the end of the event, as the group slowly made its way out and back over to Barque for a long night of drinks, good times amongst friends, and Rush love. ...

Author Skip Daly posted some great photos to his Facebook page which you can check out here. As is apparent from the book's title, Rush: Wandering the Face of the Earth chronicles Rush's entire decades-spanning touring history, including setlists, opening acts, new imagery and every noteworthy moment meticulously researched and vetted by the band themselves. The book also includes a foreword by Primus front-man Les Claypool, an afterword by Police drummer Stewart Copeland and an introduction by Rush lighting director Howard Ungerleider. Several preview pages and scans can be seen in this post and also here. John over at Cygnus-X1.net has also posted a preview including Claypool's foreword along with some more photos from the book which you can check out at this location.

The Kidney Foundation of Canada's annual A Brush of Hope charity auction fundraiser ended back on October 30th and Alex Lifeson's Minus 20 painting wound up selling for over $13,250 CAD! Alex has participated in the auction nearly every year since 2006, including last year with his painting Self Portrait 2 which ended up selling for over $12K CAD. The Kidney Foundation of Canada is now offering a set of 125 limited edition prints of Self Portrait 2 to raise money for the charity. Each print is numbered and personally signed by Alex Lifeson and comes on high quality, heavy stock, acid free paper along with a certificate of authenticity. The prints cost $200 CAD and you can purchase your copy at this location.

Daniel Tate and co-author Rob Bowman have just released a book version of Tate's popular Flyer Vault Instagram page, where he has shared thousands of Toronto-area music flyers that he has collected over the years. The book is titled The Flyer Vault: 150 Years of Toronto Concert History and includes a foreword by Rush's Geddy Lee, which is available to preview on Google Books here. The book is currently available in Canada and will release in the US this coming Tuesday, November 19th; it can be pre-ordered at this location.

To celebrate the second annual Hopeless Records Songs That Saved My Life Vol. 2 compilation, Alternative Press magazine recently caught up with some musicians to find out which songs they might consider as having saved their lives. Chris Malaspina of ULTRA Q mentions Rush's Tom Sawyer:

When I first heard ["Tom Sawyer" by] Rush, I remember I was in my dad's truck, and my mind opened up. I knew that I really wanted to play music, and that's when I knew. I was like, "Ya know what, this is what I want to do."

Ultimate-Guitar.com's Friday Top 20 lists for the past 2 weeks have both included Rush in some form or another. The November 1st list featured 20 Musicians Who Should Release a Solo Album and Neil Peart made the cut at #16. Last week's list highlighted the 20 Best Years for Prog Music and Rush is mentioned several times, including the years 1974, 1976, 1977 and 2002. The year 2112 gets a special mention too, despite it not having occurred yet. :)

Alan Cross posted a story to his Journal of Musical Things blog this past week titled How to perform a killer drum solo and uses Neil Peart's R30 solo as an example:

In this drum solo, you can see how Neil Peart continues to develop on his existing ideas for almost 9 minutes in this highly energetic exhibition of pure drumming ability. He perfectly builds up his ideas and then releases the tension, before restarting again. You can't also help but admire his passion and charisma, and this performance leaves the crowd in awe.

Last week FANTOONS launched a new video short series called Rush Stories which features celebrity Rush fans telling their own personal "Rush stories". The first video in the series featured drummer Mike Portnoy telling a great story about camping out in line for Rush tickets on the band's Power Windows tour. Yesterday they released the second episode in the series which features DJ Eddie Trunk on how listening to Rush's Permanent Waves when he was 15 immediately hooked him and turned him into a Rush fan. You can watch the video below or at this location. FANTOONS recently released a new graphic novel on the making of Rush's Farewell to Kings which is available to purchase at Amazon.com and other retailers, or via the official FANTOONS online store at fantoons.shop. To learn more about all of the other officially-licensed Rush merchandise available from FANTOONS, be sure to check out their online store, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Yesterday marked the 19th anniversary of the release of Geddy Lee's one and only solo album, My Favorite Headache. The album will be released on vinyl for the first time for Record Store Day Black Friday later this month on November 29th. That's all for this week. Have a great weekend everyone!!