Tickets for all 58 shows on Rush's Fifty Something tour have been on sale to the general public for well over a month now. While the initial batch of cities (Toronto, NYC, etc.) sold out quickly, sales for the second batch of dates has not been nearly as robust, with plenty of tickets left. Prices on the secondary markets seem to have settled down as well, so if you missed out during the pre-sales and still need tickets, you have several options. Although it's unlikely that more US/Canada dates will be added at this point, additional legs outside of North America are planned, as Ged mentioned in an interview with the Globe and Mail back in October, saying that they are mulling the idea of extending the tour even further, outside of North America:

The tour has yet to begin, but already there is no end in sight, with concerts in Europe, South America and Asia being considered. "We're wrestling with extending the tour into 2027," Lee said. "I really don't know. We'll see how that all shakes down."

An announcement may be coming sooner than later, as Rolling Stone magazine's Brazil edition reported earlier this week that outgoing president of the Brazilian Football Club Grêmio
stated in a press conference that Rush is slated to play the Arena do Grêmio in January of 2027, with a potential announcement coming soon. From the article (translated from Portuguese):

... It appears that a new leg of the tour should be confirmed soon, and Brazil is reportedly on the route. The information came from a source that, at least initially, seemed unlikely. On Monday, December 8th, the now former president of Grêmio, Alberto Guerra, ended his three-year term at an event inaugurating his successor, Odorico Roman. When announcing a series of offers made to the football club, he ended up "revealing" the existence of a proposal for the Grêmio Arena to host a concert by the Canadian group. Guerra even mentioned a date: January 21st, probably in 2027. He also said the show would generate R$1.5 million in revenue. The offer is on the table for the current management. There was no mention of other cities that might host Rush. It should also be noted that this information has not been confirmed by the band or national production companies.

As the article states, this is unconfirmed and just a rumor at this point, but still good to hear if you are a South American Rush fan. As far as the tour itself, there has been little additional info revealed since the initial announcement, although Rush lighting director Howard Ungerleider provided a few more tidbits in a recent appearance on the Geezers of Geer podcast:

... There's going to be a keyboard player on the stage. ... [Ged] wants to back off on keyboards. He's still going to play his synthesizer, but the keyboard thing ... he had to trigger everything. He had to play all the keyboard parts. And he's a bass player. He'd rather be free to move around and sing. And that's what he wanted to do. Matter of fact, one of his dreams is is to just play bass like what he did for YES [playing Roundabout at their Rock Hall induction]. But that's what I kind of heard in that in that little speech that he made. ... If it wasn't Rush, he he would definitely play bass in another band for sure. ...

Howard also mentions that this will be the first Rush tour with no buses, and that the band and crew along with all their gear will be flying between cities. We should start to hear more tour details after the Holidays as the band ramps up rehearsals and starts hitting the interview circuit to promote the tour.

War Child Canada hosted a fundraiser gala at Toronto's Ritz-Carlton hotel this past Monday evening, and Rush's Alex Lifeson was in attendance alongside a number of other Canadian celebrities. War Child Canada supports children and families affected by wars in Afghanistan, South Sudan and more. The event raised a total of $1.1 million and was hosted by HGTV personality Sangita Patel. It featured a live auction with prizes, along with an acoustic set by Our Lady Peace. Frontman Raine Maida received the Founder's Award at the ceremony for his work with the charity over the past two decades. In addition to Alex Lifeson and his wife Charlene, other celebrities in attendance were Andy Kim, Rick Mercer, Denise Donlon and many more. You can check out a photo gallery from the event, including several photos of Alex, at this location.

In the latest edition of the Something for Nothing podcast, hosts Steve and Gerry examine 10 different cover versions of Rush's most popular song - Tom Sawyer. You can listen to the show below or wherever you get your podcasts:

Rush was mentioned in a recent short video from the popular VSauce educational YouTube channel. In the video, VSauce's Michael David Stevens uses Rush's Moving Pictures album as an example of a triple entendre - a clever play on words or phrase with three distinct meanings (thanks Matthew G):

Back in 1989 and 1990, Geddy Lee made a pair of appearances one year apart on Scott Muni's World of Rock where Ged discusses the band's A Show of Hands and Presto albums respectively. There are several references to the 1989 interview online, and the entire show is available on RushRadio.net (here's an interview-only version without music/commercials). However, the 1990 interview is much harder to track down, although I recently dug up a copy that had been sent to me several years ago (just the interview portions). I've uploaded that show and made it available on YouTube here:

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