I thought I'd go ahead and get my Updates and other random Rush stuff post out of the way before all hell breaks loose tomorrow. Rather than recap the tour information here, I'll be putting up a separate post later today. If you need to catch up on all the latest tour information check out this post.

RicoRoq has updated his Google Map of the '08 tour leg, indicating likely and pending venues.

Nettie let me know that Neil Peart has a new introductory video up on his website. After entering the site a short montage clip of Neil playing the drums throughout the years using music from Hemispheres plays. Maybe this is a clue as to what they might play on the 2008 tour? One can only hope. :)

About a month ago I reported that the DC branch of the Paul Green School of Rock was to perform a couple of Rush tribute shows in early January at the Santa Fe Cafe in College Park, Maryland. Reader closer2heart attended one of the shows and said it was quite a treat. You can judge for yourself by watching this video. They really tear through Working Man like a bunch of old pros. There's hope for the next generation after all! :)

Reader nposter contacted someone at Whistlestop Productions recently regarding the 5-part HD documentary series Backstage Secrets. Promos for the show should start running next week indicating show dates and times. Each one-hour episode in the series will follow various members of the Rush road crew during a typical day out on the road with the band.

Andy Olson has updated his Neil Peart site. In addition to some neat new navigation elements, he's added a postcard to the Postcards from Neil section, a new drum kit to his Replicas page, a Snakes & Arrows bass drum head replica and several new photos to his Snake & Arrows gallery.

Speaking of Andy O, both he and myself had excerpts from our reviews of Traveling Music included in the liner notes to the paperback edition of Neil Peart's Roadshow. Mine was actually from my old personal site estenger.com (currently defunct). Here's the review excerpt:

This is Neil Peart's 3rd and, in my opinion, best book to date ... [an] autobiography set to music ... He reflects on his life, where he's been and where he's going . All of this done through the use of music as a memory recollection tool. ... A great book.

And here's Andy O's review excerpt:

Traveling Music is a superb memoir ... The book travels in unexpected directions, which makes for a good read ... Can't wait 'til the next one.

Andy's full review can be read here. I'm still trying to dig up my full review from my old personal site's archives. Many thanks to reader (and fellow Northeast Ohioan) Charles K for noticing this.

UK digital radio station Planet Rock has released their end-of-year poll results and Rush took top honors in the Tour of the Year and Album of the Year categories. They were also runner-up in the Best Planet Rock Month and Rock Legend of the Year categories. Thanks to Distant Early Warning for the link.

Radio personality and Rush fan Eddie Trunk recently declared Rush's Snakes & Arrows as one of his favorite albums of 2007 in a blog post from December 30th.

One of the more popular videos of Alex Lifeson that has been floating around the internet in recent years is this early clip of him taken from the 1972 Alan King documentary Come on Children. Reader 1-2-bucklemyshoe let me know that the film is now available for purchase from the official Allan King Films website.

Speaking of video clips of Alex Lifeson, The Fwanksta alerted me to this very cool clip of Lerxst from the 1994 Kumbaya Festival. Alex plays All Along the Watchtower along with Tom Cochrane and others. You can check it out here.

Reader and Howard Stern fan Prince Sphinc-Tor let me know that this past Friday Howard was playing a best of show from back in 1991 and his guest was one of the most prolific groupies of all time - Connie Hamzy. She was on the show to promote a tell-all article she had written for Penthouse magazine. During the interview she named several rock stars she had been with including ... Geddy Lee! She mentioned it was on the tour bus a looong time ago. :)

Speaking of Geddy, reader Kallemero alerted me to the fact that Geddy Lee graces the cover of the January 2008 issue of Europe's Musiker Magazine.

Back in September I'd posted an unbelievable story (word doc 90K) from reader primemover on how he managed to obtain front-row tickets and a pair of Neil's drumsticks at last year's PNC show. He recently visited Allaire Studios where Snakes & Arrows was recorded and stuck the sticks in a snowdrift with the studio in the background. You can check out the pic here.

In this article at ESPN, Jason Sobel recounts the best golf moments of 2008 (so far). In item #6 where the best pre-tournament news conferences are discussed, he mentions one such news conference where golfer Mark Calcavecchia looks back on his career and states:

Maybe if I would have practiced a little bit harder or been in better shape, I would have won more. … It's like losing weight. I'll lose weight in December -- no, I'll lose weight next March. Or I'm not going to drink for a month. No, I can't do that, the Rush concert is next week. It's like that my whole life. ...

I can certainly relate. :) Thanks to skullvalley for the heads up.

Spindrifter pointed me to this recent article at MLB.com on all-star catcher Mike Piazza's drum-playing hobby. He mentions Neil Peart of course.

And I'll leave you with this recently-unearthed groundbreaking video from the 80s. I always knew YYZ was missing something... sax! :) Thanks to Sean for the link.

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.