General ticket sales for all 13 dates on the Eastern US/Canada portion of Rush's 2011 Time Machine Tour are now well underway. Some great seats still remain for most of the shows including VIP ticket packages which will get you a seat in the first 15 rows along with a bundle of Rush swag. A few readers who have purchased the VIP packages have asked me how and when they'll receive their package of swag. Good question! On the last tour the redemption process was a big fiasco so hopefully history won't repeat itself and things will run more smoothly this go-around. To give you an idea of the hoops folks had to jump through to get the merchandise for the last tour, check out this post from back in July. If you can't get the seats you want through the regular channels, there are always the various ticket broker sites and eBay. And you can also check the have/need tix threads on the tour page. Things should be relatively quiet on the tour front until after the New Year when Rush should be announcing specific dates and ticket sale information for the Southern/Western US/Canada leg of the tour which will kick off in June. Now that tickets for all of the 13 North American dates so far have gone on sale, I thought for my next poll I'd ask everyone which show(s) they'll be attending. Take the poll and let us know. In my last poll I asked everybody which of the non-Moving Pictures songs that they thought Rush should drop from their 2011 setlist. Stick It Out was the clear winner (loser?) with over 22% of the vote. The only other track that came close was Faithless with 17%. You can view the complete results here.

Back in September internationally recognized wine expert Mark Oldman released his new book Oldman's Brave New World of Wine. The book features Alex Lifeson along with dozens of other celebrity wine lovers discussing their favorite wines and wine-based experiences. Back in early November Oldman posted a short video to his website where he interviews Alex Lifeson in Lerxst's wine cellar and learns about the Lifeson Ledge. Due to popular demand, he just recently posted yet another video interview with Alex where Lerxst discusses his and Geddy Lee's wine internships. You can watch the video at this link.

Rush got a quick mention in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine in a short article titled Canada to Earth: Party Like It's 2112! The article focuses on how it was a big year for Canadian pop culture with the success of Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber, Canadian rapper Drake and the Rush documentary Rush Beyond the Lighted Stage - all of which were nominated for Grammy Awards this year. You can check out a scan of the article here and read a transcription in this post.

We learned earlier this week that Rush's Caravan made Amazon.com's 100 Bestselling Songs of 2010 list coming in at #67. The list was compiled based on sales of mp3 downloads at Amazon.com in 2010. Caravan was released for digital download this past June 1st and quickly vaulted into both iTune's and Amazon's top 5 most downloaded song lists. It stayed in the top 10 on the Mediabase rock chart for several weeks over the summer, rising as high as #4. The song is the first single from Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album which will be released sometime late next year or early 2012.

Last year a documentary from filmmaker Paul Miil titled The Big Story of Small Potatoes was released. The film explores the Niagara music scene of the late 60's and early 70's of which Neil Peart played a major part. Neil Peart was not interviewed for the documentary but Jimmy Johnson, who later became a guitar tech for Alex Lifeson, is interviewed. The film also makes reference to several bands that Neil played in including JR Flood - which has their song Giant Killer included on the soundtrack. The film's website also includes a list of several other bands that Neil purportedly played with. According to an interview with the filmmaker the film was originally intended to focus on Neil Peart but later increased in scope as he conducted his research. The entire film has been uploaded to YouTube and can be watched in 4 parts at this link. It's also available for free download for smartphones at this link.

Enter Music Publishing are publishers of drum and percussion magazines worldwide including DRUM! Their annual Drummies readers poll has been gaining in popularity year after year and in 2010 had over 6500 drummers cast ballots, and for the fourth year in a row Neil Peart won Drummer of the Year. Next year Enter Music Publishing will have its 20th anniversary and in celebration will be launching a Drummies Hall Of Fame. Neil Peart along with 10 other famous drummers who have won 5 or more total Drummie awards will be inducted in January of next year. You can get all the details in the press release at this link.

Speaking of Neil Peart, Pro-mark drumsticks announced earlier this week via their website that they are now offering up their Neil Peart mobile application for free download. Check out this post for details.

Earlier this week the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its slate of inductees for 2011 which will be The Alice Cooper Band, Neil Diamond, Dr. John, Darlene Love and Tom Waits. In the wake of the announcement the Cleveland Plain Dealer compiled their list of the Top 25 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Snubs and Rush of course made the cut. Despite agreeing that Rush should be inducted the article's author wasn't very flattering in his description of the band:

Neil Peart is a rock god! Unfortunately, the lead singer of his band is Geddy Lee. This is a deal breaker for me personally. But who am I to stand in the way of Canada's great progressive-rock juggernaut? Induct 'em!

Canadian singer/songwriter Selina Martin includes a cover of Rush's The Spirit of Radio on her latest album Disaster Fantasies. She talks about covering the song in this recent Globe and Mail interview:

... I was never a huge Rush fan, but when I was a preteen growing up in Kanata [a suburb of Ottawa], I remember having some kind of epiphany while they were playing that song at the roller disco, with the lights flashing and the music really loud. And later, I'd be in these campfire sing-along situations, and someone would say, "Selina, why don't you sing something?" I just hated that, and it was always uncomfortable, so the way to kill the campfire sing-along was to do The Spirit of Radio, because nobody could play along! ...

She recently performed the song at The Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, and you can watch a video at this link. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

While on the subject of Rush covers, Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice included a cover of Rush's Anthem on the Canadian release of their 2009 album The Ones I Condemn. The track was also included on a recent limited release 7" vinyl split with Canadian thrash punk band Propagandhi who covers Corrosion of Conformity's Technocracy on the flip side. You can listen to the track on YouTube at this link. Thanks to Andy D for the heads up.

Tomorrow evening the Rush Fan Club Brazil will be hosting their Rush Fan Club Brazil Fest at the Rock N' Drinks Bar in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. For more information go to this link.

There was an indirect Rush reference on a recent episode of CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory (Season 4, Episode 10, The Alien Parasite Hypothesis). In the show's opening sequence the character Sheldon asks his friends what the best number is

Raj: 5,318,008.

Sheldon: Wrong. The best number is 73. You are probably wondering why. 73 is the 21st prime number, it's mirror, 37, is the 12th, and its mirror, 21, is the product of... hang on to your hats, 7 and 3. Ha ha... did I lie?

Howard: We get it, 73 is the Chuck Norris of numbers.

Sheldon: Chuck Norris wishes... In binary, 73 is a palindrome, 1001001 which backwards is 1001001, exactly the same. All Chuck Norris backwards gets you is Sirron Kcuhc.

So they indirectly link the numbers 2112 to 1001001 - which is in the chorus of Rush's The Body Electric. You can watch a video of the exchange at this link (thanks
RUSHnATL).

Reader Rebecca B pointed me to this list of Planetizen's Top 15 Urban Planning Songs and coming in at #13 is Rush's Subdivisions.

Reader Mark K alerted me to a new wiki at wikia.com dedicated completely to Rush. They have a good bit of information compiled already. If you want to check it out or even help contribute just go to this link.

Alex Lifeson has been using his downtime between tours to help out a few charitable causes. He's teamed up with Toronto's Carparelli Guitars and last month signed a Carparelli S3 guitar that will be auctioned off to raise money for Autism Speaks Canada. And he also just recently signed the Jim Warren Freedom charity guitar for Carparelli. This guitar was painted by surrealistic fantasy artist Jim Warren and has also been signed by The Beach Boys and Kris Kristofferson. After receiving a few more signatures it will be auctioned off in February in support of War Child. Both auctions are still currently unannounced, so stay tuned for details. And Dean Markly Strings has generously donated a package of guitar strings to a charity auction for Y&T bass player Phil Kennemore who is battling metastatic cancer. The package includes a 12-pack of Alex Lifeson LTHBV Signature Series Strings signed by Alex himself. You can bid on the item at this link. Alex also participated in the 6th annual Andy Kim Christmas Show Wednesday night at The Mod Club in Toronto, ON. All proceeds went to the Regent Park School of Music. Several other prominent Canadian bands/musicians performed including Ron Sexsmith, Divine Brown and Platinum Blonde. Readers State of Grace and rear view mirror were lucky enough to attend the show and took several photos and uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube. If you're on Facebook you can see the photos at this link, and I've grabbed a few of the best ones which you can see by clicking the thumbnails above. Here's the grand finale performance of Andy Kim's hit Rock Me Gently:

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

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