UPDATE - 4/6@8:43PM: Here's the video of Geddy Lee on ESPNEWS Fantasy from earlier today. Many thanks to Showdonttell25 over at Counterparts for making this available.
UPDATE - 4/6@3:20PM: Mark gives us the heads up that ESPNNEWS just announced about 15 minutes ago that Geddy will be appearing within the hour to talk about fantasy baseball. And adamrush noticed something very interesting regarding that Bill Young productions link I mentioned below. Go to the link and watch the 30-second spot... it's a commercial advertising a June 9th show at Madison Square Gardens on the S&A tour?!? I have no idea what to make of that. Could it be some kind of test spot? Or could New York Rush fans be in for a big surprise? I'll see if I can find out.
Another Friday and another busy week in Rushdom.
The saga of the Snakes & Arrows album formats continues. The release of the DVD album has been pushed back yet again to June 5th, and Wal-mart will be releasing a version of the album which includes an exclusive video download. See this post for all the details.
This week was radio interview week for Alex and Geddy. I obtained copies of 7 of the various interviews and wrote a little summary. You can listen to the interviews and read my summary in this post. In that same post there are also a few neat tidbits of info from the rumor mill courtesy Power Windows.
As far as the site goes, we now have well over 500 registered users and very few reported problems ... so all is well on that front. I have all the RUSH IS A BAND bumper stickers stuffed into envelopes and ready to ship out - I just need to stamp them. So those of you who donated to the site should be receiving them in the next week or so (except for you Aussies and Brits ... it'll take a little longer for you). If you want one of these stickers, just donate 3 or more dollars to the site (see right side of page) and I'll ship one out to you. I'm also working on a special Tour Section that I hope to roll out before the next round of presales which begin next week. It'll be a dynamically-driven list of all the tour dates with links to tourdate-specific comment threads where you can share information with other fans.
A couple days ago I told you about a fan-organized, Rush tour-related charity called Rush to Fight AIDs put together by rushisaband reader Jessica; a volunteer for the Southern Colorado AIDS Project (S-CAP) and also a big Rush fan. Rather than recount all the details here, I'll just direct you to the post and the Rush to Fight AIDs MySpace page. Help out if you can! :)
It's not officially confirmed yet but it looks like Rushcon 7 will be held in Toronto the weekend after the show in Toronto on September 19th. Details are coming soon I'm told.
Bill Young Productions is the company that produces most of the radio and tv spots for major acts in North America. Reader tristar sent me this link from their website where you can watch a few of the Rush TV spots.
The guitar used by Peter Gammons in the ESPN Fantasy baseball commercial that Geddy Lee was involved with is up for auction on eBay. It's signed by both Gammons and Geddy - all proceeds benefit the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Thanks to NCDigitalMan for the heads up.
Andrew Olson noticed that Neil Peart had added a book recommendation to the Xtras page on his website; Pike's Folly by Mike Heppner. Andy also lets us know that Neil Peart has written the afterword to the recently released book by Lesley Choyce The Republic of Nothing.
Syriux notes that Neil Peart's essay to accompany the Snakes & Arrows album - The Game of Snakes and Arrows - is now available at Rush.com. The essay was already included in the UK press release for the album a couple weeks ago as discussed in this post.
I have a correction to report. In my last update I'd said that Neil Peart would be in the next issue of Modern Drummer. Apparently my source had his drummer magazines mixed up; it's actually DRUM! magainze that he'll appear in.
xanadu2112 alerted me to a Rush poll over at Guitar World's website where they ask you to vote for the Rush song that you would like to see transcribed in Guitar World. The choices are New World Man, Far Cry, Anthem, 2112 Overture, Working Man, La Villa Strangiato, Roll the Bones, Distant Early Warning, The Temples of Syrinx and Bastille Day.
Wolfgang's Vault is featuring a Rush concert this week. It's a show at the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto from September 21st, 1984. It consists of 13 tracks with a running time of 59:13. All the details here.
Reader Mark S alerts us to a contest being run by Salt Lake City's 103.5 The Arrow where you can win front row tickets to the Usana Amphitheatre show.
John over at Cygnus-x1.net has reproduced the complete text and all the internal images of all the Rush tour books on his site here. When you have a few spare hours I suggest you check it out. :) Very cool.
Here are all the Rush tour dates Google-mapped courtesy RushArchives.com. Nifty.
Toronto Writer found a little article on Canada's top bands courtesy of Sympatico/MSN. Rush is mentioned of course. :)
Fletz over at the Rush Tour Forum wanted me to let everyone know that they're doing a little March Bandness poll of their own over there. Go see this thread to cast your vote.
And you'll want to check out this thread from Counterparts which shows several poolside pics of Geddy from back in his younger days... yes - poolside pics. :)
That's all for now. Have a great weekend!
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