The 23rd annual Ontario Wine Awards took place at Niagara College Canada, NOTL Campus Wednesday afternoon and Alex Lifeson hosted the event which recognizes Ontario VQA wines for their quality, distinction and brilliance. The Ontario Wine Awards Facebook page posted a 1-minute video of Alex speaking at the event which you can watch below or online here.

Toronto's High Park Zoo celebrated the birth of a trio of capybara pups earlier this year. It's now time to choose a name for the pups so the Friends of the High Park Zoo have opened up an online poll to enlist the public's help. One of the possible name combinations given in the poll are "Alex, Geddy, Neil". From Exclaim!:

Rush's reverence in their home city of Toronto cannot be understated: the power trio have recently been awarded the Key to the City and have a city park named after members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. Now, the group have a chance to be further immortalized in having a trio of capybara cubs named in their honour. An online vote opened by Friends of the High Park Zoo lists "Alex, Geddy, Neil" as a combination of names for the cubs, who were born earlier this year. The poll says that "submissions from the public ranged from local landmarks to popular trios and adorable nicknames." The current list of voting options was culled from reviewing more than 12,600 other names, and includes other combinations such as "Mocha, Chino, Latte," "Babyface, Floyd, Dillinger," "Peanut, Butter, Jam" and "Snap, Crackle, Pop." ...

Rush is currently in 2nd place with 25% of the vote - Snap, Crackle, Pop is in 1st with 40%. So go vote for Rush! The voting period closes on June 19th. The zoo is also accepting donations to shore up the living conditions of the capybaras, which you can find out more about here.

Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday this year and Sirius XM Canada is commemorating the occasion by compiling a list of the 150 Greatest Canadian Songs of All Time. You can cast your vote by going to 150.siriusxm.ca and voting for your three favorite Canadian songs - all of which should obviously be Rush songs! :) Sirius XM Canada will then reveal the top 150 songs on Canada Day this coming July 1st. Also in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday, Canadian author and cartoonist Michael de Adder just released a new illustrated book titled You Might Be From Canada If.... CBC Radio recently profiled the book in this news story which mentions Rush and shows this cartoon caricature of the band from the book:

"There's nothing more Canadian than loving Rush or hating Rush," he says, although de Adder only became a Rush aficionado later in life after meeting a real fanatic. "I was 'Rushed' to death," he says, laughing.

Rush also makes an appearance on page 125 in a cartoon titled You Might Be from Canada If ... You're A Musician. It features Geddy, Alex and Neil along with other Canadian musical acts standing in a group. This Big Adventure has also gotten in on the #Canada150 fun by posting their list of 150 Canadian Songs For Your #Canada150 Road Trip!, which features Rush's Fly By Night at #4. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

Hand-crafted acoustic guitar maker Loucin Guitars of Oakville, ON added Alex Lifeson as a client back in 2014 and crafted him a custom LD model guitar made out of a beautiful Indian Rosewood that was named after Lifeson's mother Melanija. This past week Loucin announced via social media that Lifeson had enlisted them to create another guitar for him - the Loucin AD-AL Baritone - which they'll be revealing more details about in the near future.

The Wonder Woman movie opens this weekend, and plans for one "women-only" screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin caused some controversy this past week. Satirical site UsedWigs.com posted a story that played off this controversy earlier this week title Male-Only Screening for New Rush Documentary Causes Absolutely No Uproar:

... Attendee and longtime Rush fan Randy Travelstone was a bit more forthcoming when asked about the ban on women. "Um, I didn't realize there was an official 'men-only' thing going on. I've been going to Rush shows and events for 25 years and I've only seen six women total, mostly moms I think, so I really didn't notice." When told about the exclusion of women at the Rush event, a female who was walking by said, "Aw, that's cute. Good for them."

TeamRock.com recently spoke with drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Winery Dogs) to ask him about the 10 albums that changed his life, one of which was Rush's Exit... Stage Left:

I discovered Rush around 1981 or so, when Moving Pictures came out. As much as I love Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves and Hemispheres, to me, Exit...Stage Left was the go-to album, because it had all the best songs from those albums. It had Jacob's Ladder, Xanadu, YYZ. So to me, Exit...Stage Left was the go-to album to have a crash course in Neil Peart. I remember just learning every one of those songs - inside and out - and pretty much redefining my drumming at that stage of my life. Before I discovered Neil and Rush, it was all the bands I just named. Which is a little more straight-ahead, 4/4 drumming. But then I discovered Rush, and Neil turned my world upside down - in terms of what you can do with a drum kit. As well as progressive type writing - in terms of longer songs and odd time signatures. That was the album that really shaped my style of what was to come in my career.

Sean Schemmel is the English voice actor best known for his role as the saiyan Kakarot, aka Goku, in the animated series Dragon Ball Z. Noisey recently interviewed Schemmel with the intent of talking about all things music (he's also an accomplished French hornist), but it turns out Schemmel is a huge Rush fan - so that's pretty much all they talked about:

... what if I told you Goku does not draw his greatest power from surrounding life and inanimate objects, but from the Canadian rock band Rush? I am extremely pleased to learn this is a fact, according to Sean Schemmel, the English voice actor best known for his role as the saiyan Kakarot, aka Goku. The plan was to talk to him about all kinds of music stuff, but as soon as Rush entered the conversation he pretty much only wanted to talk about that, and I was more than cool to indulge. As I learned, Schemmel's Rush fandom level is over 9000. [I am legally obligated to write that joke.] ...

Here's a 1-minute video of Alex Lifeson speaking at the 2017 Ontario Wine Awards earlier this week:

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