It's the dead of summer and there's no Rush tour or album looming anytime in the near future, so it's not all that surprising that there's very little going in Rush-land right now. The only significant news to come out this week was the official press release announcing the results of DRUM! Magazine's Reader's Poll, where Neil Peart was voted Drummer of the Year - although we'd already known about that. Earlier this week we celebrated Bastille Day and learned of a new contest at the Rush Backstage Club. And yesterday we found out that in celebration of Rush being selected to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this year, Knucklebonz has created a special 500-run limited edition Hollywood Walk of Fame version of their Rush Starman statue with gold trim which is imprinted with the signatures of all 3 band members. It should be available for purchase soon.

RushCon 9 takes place in Toronto next weekend. There's still time to register if you haven't yet. Online registration is open until next Wednesday, July 22nd.

Katy Perry was one of the performers at this past weekend's T In the Park music festival in Scotland. She closed out her set with her hit song I Kissed a Girl and towards the end of the song the band broke into the ending of Rush's Cygnus X-1! It's not clear if this was Perry's idea or her band's (or both). You can listen to it at this BBC radio link - just fast forward to the very end of the clip at around the 2 hour and 55 minute mark. Thanks to pro747 at Counterparts for the heads up.

Reader RushFanForever dug up an old book from 1989 titled Shakin' All Over - The Rock N' Roll Years In Canada. Rush gets a mention in 2 of the chapters. In Chapter 12 the book lists The 16 Most Important Videos in Canadian Pop one of which is Rush's Closer to the Heart video. Here's what they say about it:

I don't know how important video was early on to Rush. They're the kind of people who are forward-thinking so they would have been aware of it. Yet I don't think that you can ascribe any of Rush's success to video. Instead, they stayed on the road three hundred days a year for the last fifteen years. And that is - and was - their strength. Today, it seems extraordinary; no bands do that. They only did it because that's the way that they do things.

But because Rush are really extraordinarily forward-thinking people, when they became aware of people such as Queen making videos, they got into the business and they made some. Like "Closer To The Heart", they were incredibly primitive: just performance stuff in the early years. Later on, of course, they played with all the edges of video: they did a computer-based video, one of the first high-definition videos - one of a series. They're willing to take a chance with anything that could be interesting in terms of video.

Interestingly, Rush don't see themselves - and they don't need to - to be an image band. Yet people say that video emphasizes image, that artists will change their music to do their video. Rush proves that's not necessarily true.

And in Chapter 13 the author discusses Essential Discs, one of which is Rush's classic live album All the World's A Stage.

Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson's playlist for this past Wednesday as shown on his website lists 10 albums including Rush's Hemispheres. Thanks to reader sisyphus for the heads up.

In last week's update I discussed the 1987 Alex Lifeson side project Beyond Borders with Rik Emmett (Triumph) and a few other Canadian musicians. In 1988 Alex again teamed up with Emmett, and along with Liona Boyd and Joel Wade recorded a song called Hands of Man for 1988's Dream on the Horizon: A Tribute to the Olympic Spirit!. You can listen to the instrumental version of the song at this link or by using the player below. Alex performs the second solo in the song. Thanks to Eric at Power Windows for the info:

Yahoo! music blogger Robert of the Radish included Rush's The Big Money on his list of The Very Best Songs of 1985. Thanks to ITheJury for the heads up.

Reader Dan found this advertisement for Brooks running shoes in the latest Runners World magazine. The text on the ad states:

With only three more days until the new Trance 9 launches, we're not leaving anything to chance. These puppies are going to sell out faster than a Rush concert.

Reader SaskRushFan came across this very cool shipping label which reads RUSH: The Great Canadian Way. Indeed.

Reader The Clansman 2112 wanted me to give an MLB All Star Break update for his rushisaband Fantasy Baseball League (mentioned back in this March, 2009 post). Currently the top three spots are held by Cygnus X1, Bytor & The Clansmen and life is a diamond respectively. Good luck in the 2nd half to everyone participating!

Several weeks ago Warner Music Japan reissued Rush's first 12 studio albums along with Retrospective 1 and Retrospective 2 as Mini-LP Super High Material CDs (SHM-CDs). Although these are not remastered recordings, the SHM-CDs supposedly improve the original audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic and will play in any CD player. SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. The CDs are packaged as mini-lps in cardboard sleeves, faithfully reproducing the original LP's style and artwork. You can check out some closeup images of all the mini-lp artwork compared to the original LPs at this link. The price of the CDs has been drastically reduced through Amazon.com; down from around $48 to $31. You can also find .

And since we're well into the Dog Days of summer I thought the following video sent in by reader A-CELL-OF-AWARENESS was very appropriate.

Have a great weekend!

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