It's been a quiet week in Rush-land. Probably the biggest piece of news is tonight's theatrical debut of the indie film Adventures of Power which features Neil Peart. If you are not yet familiar with the movie, I had first mentioned it way back in February of 2008. The film - written by, directed by and starring Ari Gold - first premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and has been making the film festival rounds ever since to rave reviews. The movie chronicles the adventures of air-drummer extraordinaire Power (played by Gold) and contains a cameo from Neil Peart along with a slew of Rush references. The film will finally be making its theatrical debut this evening in New York City at the AMC Loews Village 7. The Drum Channel and Adventures of Power will also be sponsoring a charity event and release party this coming Tuesday, October 13th at the El Cid in Los Angeles. Since Ari mentioned in a twitter post a few weeks ago that Neil Peart would be helping out with his charity and Neil lives in LA, chances are that Pratt will be in attendance. For a complete list of theaters and show times check out the official site at this link.

Speaking of Neil Peart, Zitro let me know that on last Friday night the Drum Channel posted the following to their Facebook page:

Neil Peart was in the studio today... yes, he practices too....

The Drum Channel also recently posted a new preview video of Neil Peart's Master Class to their YouTube channel which you can check out at this link. Thanks to RushFanForever for the link.

For the 4th year in a row Alex Lifeson is participating in The Kidney Foundation of Canada's A Brush of Hope project. Alex Lifeson along with dozens of other Canadian celebrities have donated paintings to be auctioned off to raise money for the charity. The A Brush of Hope Gala will take place on November 5th at the Delta Hotel in Fredricton, NB. Paintings from over 100 Canadian celebrities will be put up for auction on eBay from November 5th through the 15th. Below is Alex Lifeson's contributed painting:

Recent Rock and Roll of Hall of Fame inductees Metallica are currently on tour in support of their latest album Death Magnetic. Guitarist Kirk Hammett recently spoke with John Soeder of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and when asked which artists he would like to see get into the Rock Hall had this to say:

Man, I would love to see Rush in the Hall of Fame, as well as Motorhead and Deep Purple. Those are three that come to mind, only because I'm a hard-rock guy, and those bands had a lot to contribute to the genre.

Those bands have been around a lot longer than we have. It's almost embarrassing that we're in the Hall of Fame and they're not. But everyone has their opinions. There's a bit of a bureaucracy and there's a bit of politics that come along with it.

Hammett said the same thing back in January when Metallica first learned they were to be inducted as did bandmate James Hetfield. Hetfield even went so far as to mention Rush in his acceptance speech.

Neil Peart's original Slingerland drum kit (which he used from Fly By Night through 2112) was put up for auction on eBay by owners Main Drag Music in Brooklyn, New York a couple of months ago and the kit ended up being sold for $25,100! Michael of NeilPeartDrumsticks.com knows the new owner of the kit and has been working with them to help restore the kit to a playable condition. He recently posted an update on the kit's restoration status along with a couple of pics to the Counterparts Messageboard. There's also a complete gallery of pics related to the project on Michael's Facebook page. They plan on putting it on a special display sometime in November where folks will actually be able to play the kit themselves. Keep checking Michael's site over the next few weeks for updates.

Reader Curtis L let me know that Rush in Rio is included on Amazon.com's list of The 100 Greatest Live Albums of All Time. It came in at number 91.

The October 2009 edition of UK drum magazine Rhythm contains the results of their reader's poll to determine the 50 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Neil Peart came in 4th behind Keith Moon (3rd), Buddy Rich (2nd) and John Bonham (1st). Thanks to DavidR for the heads up.

DRUM! Magazine has an article posted on their website titled Double Bass Legends: A Short History. Neil Peart gets a mention. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

Caught in the Act is one of Rush's better quality video bootlegs from the early days. It's an audience-filmed 8mm that was shot in Passaic, NJ on December 10, 1976 on the All the World's a Stage tour. Over the last year or so several videos from this bootleg have found their way to YouTube and other video-sharing sites (thanks DrummerDad2112 for alerting me). I've added the ones I could find to my bootleg live videos section. You can check out Bastille Day, Anthem, Lakeside Park, 2112 and In The Mood. For this performance of 2112, Discovery was cut and Oracle is missing. Here's 2112!

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

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