This past Saturday night Alex Lifeson performed at the Coppinwood Golf Club's 10th anniversary party (Lifeson is part owner of the club). Rush fan Kurt Sunn posted a number of photos from the event to the Clockwork Angels Facebook group (closed group, membership required). Also in attendance were the Trailer Park Boys, Tom Cochrane, Gerry Finn (Killer Dwarfs), The Carpet Frogs (featuring former Rush and Red Rider bassist Jeff Jones) and others. They played the Rush songs Distant Early Warning, The Spirit of Radio, Limelight, Tom Sawyer and Closer to the Heart (with Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys). Alex then came out to play with Tom Cochrane on Life is a Highway and Lunatic Fringe (Alex played the solos on each song). Gerry Finn of the Canadian heavy metal band the Killer Dwarfs posted this photo of himself with Alex Lifeson at rehearsals to his Facebook page. The Coppinwood Facebook page posted some photos and video from the event as well including this photo of Alex and Tom Cochrane, along with this video snippet of The Spirit of Radio. Tom Cochrane posted this photo of himself, Lifeson, the Trailer Park Boys and others to his Facebook page. And there's also some video of Alex doing a quick introduction before the band started playing.

Voting for the 2016 Progressive Music Awards is now underway and Rush's R40 Live tour has been nominated in the Live Event category. Winners are determined by fan voting, so go cast your vote here. The 2016 Progressive Music Awards will take place on Thursday September 1st at the Underglobe, beneath Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on London's Southbank. The full list of nominees in the Live Event category are Big Big Train Live At King's Place, David Gilmour - Royal Albert Hall Shows, Dream Theater - The Astonishing Live, King Crimson - UK Tour, Night Of The Prog 2015, Opeth - Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Ramblin' Man Fair 2015, RoSFest 2016, Rush - R40 Tour, and Steven Wilson - Royal Albert Hall Shows.

American fashion model Gigi Hadid has jumped on the Moving Pictures t-shirt bandwagon. Earlier this week she posted a photo of herself sporting a Madonna-inspired, retro '80s look including a Rush Moving Pictures t-shirt as seen in this Instagram photo. The t-shirt is the same one seen on the character Quicksilver in the recently-released X-men: Apocalypse movie and also on Chelsea Handler in a recent episode of her Netflix series.

Apple's annual WWDC event took place earlier this week at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. During the keynote address, Apple senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi demonstrated several new features of the latest version of Mac OS, including Siri on the Mac. At one point he tells Siri to, "play my power ballad playlist", and Rush's Tom Sawyer begins playing. The fact that he labeled the song as a power ballad incited a number of snarky responses on Twitter. :) You can watch the WWDC keynote online here with the Rush reference coming in at about the 46-minute mark. Federighi is a big Rush fan and used Rush as an example during an Apple event last year when demonstrating the new iPhone 6s 3d Touch feature. He also used Rush at an Apple special event three years ago when demonstrating to the audience how to make an iTunes radio station, and at WWDC 2014 when demonstrating a new Safari search feature.

A music technology incubator in Chicago name after Rush's 2112 will be undergoing a significant expansion next month according to RadioFacts.com:

What began as Fort Knox Studios, a massive rehearsal and recording space for musicians on Chicago's Northwest side has become an even grander vision for music tech startups across the country. Kent Nielsen and Dan Mahoney, owners of Ft. Knox, conceived of 2112 and brought on director Scott Fetters in 2015. The creative industries business incubator named in honor of the epic Rush album was created to unite Chicago's fragmented music industry under one roof while developing businesses at the intersection of music and technology. ... Rolling out in July is: a new 30 seat classroom and partnership with Mobile Makers Academy coding boot camp; launch of The Hanger, a 7200 sq. ft. facility for film/video production and photography, and a formal partnership with Iceland's Music Export Office. 2112 will celebrate its year one accomplishments at an invite-only event on July 12th, where Chicago government officials and music and tech industry VIPs will be treated to performances at Ft. Knox, member showcases, facility tours and announcements about 2112's plans for the years ahead, including a national expansion. ...

For more information visit the website or follow 2112 on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's some video of Alex Lifeson doing a quick introduction before the band started playing at last weekend's Coppinwood Golf Club 10th anniversary bash:

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!!