UPDATE - 4/3@1:04PM: Voting is now underway in the championship round of Ultimate Classic Rock's March Drum Madness, pitting Roger Taylor against Neil Peart. So go vote for Neil!

Rush is currently hunkered down at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles rehearsing for the band's upcoming R40 Live tour which kicks off at the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK on May 8th - just 5 short weeks from today. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson headed out to LA this past Sunday evening to meet up with Neil Peart, and rehearsals were set to kick off on Monday. One lucky fan was on Geddy and Alex's flight from Toronto to LAX Sunday night and posted this photo to Facebook. At this point the band likely has the setlist pretty much nailed down so all we can do is wait and speculate. Recent interviews with both Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson tend to indicate that the tour will take a retrospective look at Rush's 40-year career and include a good bit of older material that the band will alternate from night to night in some way. There won't be any new material played (unless they decide to surprise us!), string section or opening band (they haven't had an opening band in over 20 years), and it sounds as if things will be stripped down a bit compared to other tours, with Neil not opting for a spinning kit or full V-drums setup this go-around. The tour also sounds like it will be very fan-focused - almost like a fan appreciation tour. Rush even requested fan photo submissions via Rush.com a couple of weeks ago to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary, with the assumption being that they'll be using these photos in some shape or form on the R40 Live tour (not confirmed). We can also probably safely assume that they will be taping the show at some point given that they've captured every tour since Vapor Trails for later release on DVD. They generally tend to tape shows towards the end of a tour, like to have an extra day of rest beforehand, and tend to tape a couple back-to-back shows - one show as backup and another as primary. This would make one of the west coast shows such as LA a very likely possibility (although the Toronto shows might work as well). Speaking of Rush live DVDs, Rush in Rio will be getting released on SD Blu-ray in the UK on June 15th. You can check out the Amazon UK listing and pre-order a copy here (thanks Neil H).

This past weekend Neil Peart updated the news page on his website with a story titled Miracle in Colorado. It tells the tale of how Neil lost a luggage case off his bike near Colorado Springs back in 2004, as recounted in his Roadshow book, and was never able to recover it. The miracle part of the story is that someone did find it and was finally able to track down Neil to return it just a couple of months ago. It's quite an amazing story and you can read the whole thing online at this location. And speaking of Neil, he was a guest on Jeff Woods' Legends of Classic Rock radio show back in November and the interview was finally made available online via flink.to earlier this week. He talks about a number of subjects including his Far and Near: On Days Like These book, R40, and his various side projects. You can check it out online here.

Rush's 2112: Hologram Edition vinyl reissue released back on March 17th as part of the band's 12 Months of Rush vinyl reissue campaign. Sales from the vinyl edition ended up propelling the album back into the Billboard 200 last week at #149; it was also #2 on the Vinyl Albums chart (it has since dropped back off the charts). A similar thing happened back in 2012 with the release of the 2112 Deluxe Edition. Rush is releasing all of the Mercury-era Rush albums on vinyl along with a few select titles on Blu-ray audio throughout 2015. The 12 Months of Rush as they are calling it will see the band releasing one or two titles a month throughout the year. They started with Fly By Night in January (Vinyl, Blu-ray Audio), Caress of Steel in February, and last Tuesday the reissue campaign continued with the release of 2112 and All the World's a Stage on vinyl. The 2112 vinyl reissue is a special Hologram Edition as described in this Rush.com press release and seen in this 1-minute demo video. All titles are reissued on high-quality vinyl with a 320kbps MP4 Digital Audio download code, with Fly By Night, A Farewell to Kings and Signals also having a Blu-ray Audio release. The rest of the reissue titles will be released throughout the remainder of the year and can be pre-ordered at the links below:

A Farewell to Kings (04/21/15) - Vinyl | Blu-ray Audio
Hemispheres (05/19/15) - Vinyl
Permanent Waves (06/16/15) - Vinyl
Moving Pictures (07/21/15) - Vinyl
Exit ... Stage Left (07/21/15) - Vinyl
Signals (08/18/15) - Vinyl | Blu-ray Audio
Grace Under Pressure (09/15/15) - Vinyl
Power Windows (10/20/15) - Vinyl
Hold Your Fire (11/17/15) - Vinyl
A Show of Hands (12/1/15) - Vinyl

Myself, John at Cygnus-X1.net, and Eric at Power Windows had some fun at everyone's expense this past Wednesday for April Fools Day when we revealed the big (but fake) news that Clockwork Angels was going to be released as a full-feature animated film next year. John put together this really convincing movie poster, and Kevin J. Anderson even got in on the joke too. What's not a joke is the fact that Kevin J. Anderson, Neil Peart and Nick Robles' Clockwork Angels: The Graphic Novel will be released as a single-volume edition on Tuesday, May 12th and can now be pre-ordered at this location.

Steven Wilson was interviewed for Rock Bottom magazine in late February to discuss his new album Hand. Cannot. Erase.. He talks a little about Rush at one point in response to the interviewer comparing some of the songs on the album to Rush; particularly the tracks 3 Years Older and Regret #9. You can listen to Steven's response at about the 5:45 mark of the interview on YouTube (thanks Kelly M).

Drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Winery Dogs) was recently interviewed by Drew Moss for the Long Island Pulse and spoke a little about his love of Rush and friendship with Neil Peart:

The coolest thing has been my relationship with Neil Peart. I don't like to talk about it publicly too much because he's a very private person. We've become good friends over the years, which is crazy to me because he was my childhood drumming hero. He's one of the most gracious people I've ever met.

The Jewish festival of Passover begins this evening, and the Jewish News asked several famous Jews who they'd like to invite over for a fantasy Seder (ritual feast that marks the beginning Passover). Comedy writer and author Ivor Baddiel included Geddy Lee on his guest list as seen here.

This article on Ottawa painter Philip Craig mentions Geddy Lee as being one of the many famous Canadians to have purchased his paintings.

Sportswriter Jared Max posted an article discussing 10 sports mementos he'd like to own along with his favorite sports/entertainment keepsakes that he currently owns (thanks RushFanForever). A couple of his keepsakes are Rush-related:

* My old N.J. license plate "BRAVADO" (a favorite Rush song) inscribed to me by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson (I gave my second "BRAVADO" plate to Geddy)
* Neil Peart-used drumsticks

Ultimate Classic Rock posted their list of the Top 10 Underrated Rush Songs this past week and coming out at #1 was Vital Signs with Circumstances and Digital Man coming in at #2 and #3 respectively. You can check out the complete list here. Ultimate Classic Rock is also running a March Drum Madness bracket poll and Neil Peart is one of the top seeds. Over the last couple of weeks he has defeated Tico Torres, Ginger Baker, Keith Moon and John Bonham to advance to the final round where it looks like he'll be up against Queen drummer Roger Taylor for the championship match. Stay tuned to Ultimate Classic Rock to find out how to vote for Neil.

This past Saturday, March 28th marked the 5th anniversary of Rush's induction into the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame. Here's a CBC video news story covering the event from that day back in 2010:

That's all for this week. 5 weeks and counting until R40 Live! Have a great weekend everybody!!