I hope all of my US readers had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday and are surviving Black Friday. Speaking of which, the Rush Backstage Club is celebrating Rush's 40th anniversary with a special R40 40th anniversary t-shirt for Black Friday for a special sale price of $19.99 until this coming Monday, December 11th. They also have several other Black Friday deals available here. Rush's R40 40th Anniversary Collectors Box Set (6 Blu-ray discs or 10 DVDs) released earlier this month and ended up debuting at #2 on the Billboard Music Video chart. The set includes Rush's 5 most recent live videos (Rush in Rio, R30, Snakes & Arrows Live, Time Machine, Clockwork Angels Tour) along with an R40 bonus disc, all contained in a 52 page hardback book measuring 305mm x 225mm (12" x 9"). The bonus disc includes the full Laura Secord Secondary School 1974 footage including the 2 unreleased tracks I've Been Runnin' and The Loser, along with their cover of Bad Boy. Previews of both of the unreleased tracks are available on Rush's YouTube channel (I've Been Runnin', The Loser), and you can read interviews with Alex and Geddy discussing the tracks on radio.com (Geddy, Alex). The R40 bonus disc also includes the Passaic, NJ Capitol Theatre show from 1976; Lock and Key live from 1988; Rush at the Molson Amphitheatre in 1997; the I Still Love You Man video from 2011; and the Rush portion of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction in 2013. The Rush Backstage Club (and Best Buy) are also offering a special edition of the set that includes an extra R40 Completist disc (in addition to the bonus disc) that contains different content based on whether it's the Blu-ray or DVD version, with the ultimate goal being to ensure that the same content is included in both the DVD and Blu-ray packages. You can see all the details regarding the Completist DVD in this post and check out the liner notes at Cygnus-X1.net. Order the R40 box set on 6 Blu-ray discs or 10 DVDs. The Boston Globe included the set in their DVD Holiday Gift Guide.
During his speaking appearance at RushCon this past summer, Clockwork Angels author Kevin J. Anderson broke the news that he is working on 2 new Rush-related writing projects. The first project is a new companion novel to Clockwork Angels titled Clockwork Lives (as in the plural of life) that he and Neil Peart are working on. The book will feature minor characters from Clockwork Angels and expand on their stories. Anderson revealed in a blog post last week that he and Neil Peart are now about two-thirds of the way finished with the novel. There's no word on a release date yet though. The other project he's working on is an anthology of Rush-based stories that he'll be co-editing with John McFetridge for ECW Press (publisher of Clockwork Angels and Neil Peart's books). They have a team of award-winning and bestselling authors lined up to contribute short stories based on Rush songs, with Anderson himself contributing a novella titled 2113. He's also working on a Clockwork Angels-related project called Clockwork Angels: The Comic Scripts that is supposed to be release this month via Anderson's Wordfire Press publishing company. It looks like this will contain the scripts for the Clockwork Angels graphic novel series along with some Easter Egg clues. The graphic novel series saw the release of its sixth and final issue last month, and a single-volume, full-length graphic novel is also slated for release next spring.
There was a Rush 2112 reference in this past week's episode of CSI on CBS (Season 15, Episode 7 - Road to Recovery). One of the suspects in the murder being investigated has a ring with an inscription of 21-12 - a score from a championship game. You can watch a video of the reference here (thanks Darren G).
UpRoxx.com posted a story last week where they featured an odd Craigslist ad where a 28-year-old, ex-felon line cook from East Nashville is offering to be your platonic date for Thanksgiving in order to piss off your family. The man is wearing a Rush t-shirt in the photo accompanying the ad as seen here (thanks Greg F). The ad was also picked up by several other news sites over the past few days.
Pike's Folly author Mike Heppner was lucky enough to have Neil Peart review his book for NeilPeart.net several years back. This eventually led to Heppner contacting Neil and arranging a meeting at one of Rush's recent tour stops in Southern Massachusetts. This past week Heppner wrote an article for Thought Catalog detailing the whole experience titled I Committed 3 Faux-Pas While Meeting Rush And I'm Beating Myself Up About It. It's a fun read and the faux-pas he describes are really pretty minor, and used more as a writing tool than anything else.
A recent issue of Prog magazine included an article where they profile Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum Director of Education Jason Hanley and his prog-rock record collection. The article was posted online this past week at MetalHammer.com, and one of the albums in his collection is Rush's Grace Under Pressure:
... In the late '80s my music tastes were very eclectic. I did a PhD on industrial rock, so one minute I'm listening to Ministry, Front 242 and Throbbing Gristle, the next I'm meeting people at college interested in prog rock. A big Rush fan lived in my dorm and he turned me on to them, and because I was listening to a lot of synthesizer industrial stuff, Grace Under Pressure stuck with me. It's great, synth-heavy stuff, plus Alex Lifeson's guitar sounds so biting. Some tracks had a reggae vibe that The Police were using. ...
Hanley also has a new book coming out titled We Rock! A Fun Family Guide for Exploring Rock Music History. There's a section of the book on prog rock where Rush is mentioned. You can pre-order the book at this location.
Longtime Rush lighting director Howard Ungerleider received the 2014 Parnelli Visionary Award for his outstanding career and scores of innovations in the lighting and special effect fields this past weekend at a ceremony in Las Vegas. From PLSN:
... Richard Belliveau easily made the case for lighting designer Howard Ungerleider receiving the Parnelli Visionary award. He recited the seven signs of a visionary is saying, "They are imaginative ... for Howard that is an understatement. His imagination is always on turbo and like fueled on a continuous supply of five hour energy drinks." Ungerleider was also congratulated in a video presentation by Geddy Lee from Rush. ...
PLSN also posted a video interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson where the pair gush over Howard. They talk about how they met him, his many contributions to Rush's live shows over the years, and share some fun anecdotes and stories about Howard. You can watch the 14-minute video interview below or at this location.
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!
