tomhealey

Nothing wrong with the book, at least from what I can tell, my friend. Sounds like a delivery issue though. You can come to Chicago and read my copy any time you want!

Thought about driving over from Chicago, but forgot to calendar the ticket sale date/time. I'm sure they sold it out within minutes. Can't find any on resale sites. Crap.

Wow, I can see my orange hat, center, row two! How cool! What great memories.

Hi All. I haven't been on much lately, but noted that Lorraine hasn't been on line in a month. Did I miss some news?

Listening now. On my radio. Love living in Chicago!!

Actually, it's a little better than you think.....it's Paraphrasing Lady Windermeres fan by Oscar Wilde I don't care who he's (Neil) plagiarizing quoting, it's still trite and a quote that will be laughed at except by some Rush fans. IMO. I'm with Fridge and Blueschica on this one. While perhaps lacking in some originality (who hasn't heard "stop and smell the roses"?), it is a lesson all too frequently forgotten, or even more commonly, put off for a future day, "when time allows." Unfortunately for most of us, time simply doesn't allow, you have to take it, hence the quote. The fact I used the quote in my father's eulogy last year isn't shading my judgment any...

I met Doug once after a King's X show. You're right, very engaging. Seemed like he genuinely cared what I was saying. Of course, the fact that I introduced him to my brother, He Plays Bass, another left-handed bassist from the suburbs far south of Chicago, didn't hurt!

Maybe I've been missing the purpose for all of these years, but perhaps the music is designed to highlight the message of the song; some hitmaker cobbles together a few harmonized chords, sticks a pretty boy/girl behind a mic, and viola, a hit! In that vein, think for a minute how the lyrics would sound to a background more typical of Rush: Alex' buzzsaw guitar and Geddy's bass runs with drum fills everywhere. I think the message of the song would get lost, as what you're hearing in no way correlates to the critique of the popular music industry. Perhaps that's why Rush wrote a song that musically sounds like the machine-produced pablum it describes. Wow, an on-line moment of self discovery by me. Cool. I still hate the song, but cool.

A whole thread on one of my least favorite Rush songs ever (and I say "one of my least favorite" just because I don't want to take the time to think if there's any other Rush song that I like less than Superconductor). To me, Superconductor is excessively cloying in a way that I just don't hear on other Rush songs. It feels like a play for simplistic appeal; "pop pap," if you will. I've previously mentioned this, but when I hear Superconductor, I picture Shirley Temple, arms extended outward, palms forward, making big swirling motions, a la Good Ship Lollypop. Not a pretty image for a rock band.

Spinning the "Big Wheel of What Will Pratt Do Today"... (a) Disparage Olivia again for her disgraceful, substandard cutting technique on paper angels (where's the commitment to excellence here??? Practice, practice, practice!!), (b) hang around outside the 7-11 until someone recognizes me, then have BossMichael pummel the poor schlub for daring to approach my greatness, © Nuttall over Carrie, or (d) sue this TomHealey bastard for defamation of character. He always sits near the front rows, so he must still have some dough that's not in my pocket. Yet.

I got to spend parts of August 1, 2015 with Grey, the first (and, so far, only) time spent with him. An amazing, magical, joyous, tearful night. But I still have a wonderful souvenir of the event - one of the limited edition prints for the LA show, framed, with awesome purple matting and black frame...wish I had it on line somewhere to upload it here and show it off.

Interesting perspectives; thanks to all for sharing. While I've never particularly sought these tunes out for listening, I've always appreciated the effort. I mean, these were the songs that they allegedly loved as young musicians. Here's some of the chord progressions that helped form their musical synapses. And then, on the EP, here's how they interpreted those songs, many years later. That's damn cool. Even if the songs don't grab you, the sentiment should. Plus, the Who totally kicks ass, the Ox (and Geddy) inspired my brother, He Plays Bass, to pick up a bass, and my brother totally rocks on stage, so The Seeker rocks (<--purely emotional sentiment fed by Glenmorangie; ignore at your leisure).

Thanks to all. I've probably put in 30 hours of windshield time with XM, and I've had some good luck hearing Rush. Following four of the stations: Classic Rewind, Classic Vinyl, Deep Tracks, and Ozzie's Boneyard. Most of what I heard was the biggest hits (Limelight, TSOR, TS), but there was a few more rare tracks. But then, there was father's day. I agreed to meet my brother at my dad's gravesite, as we buried dad last December, and this was our first father's day without him. I do not believe in the paranormal, but dammit if Afterimage didn't come on just as I arrived at the cemetery. As I say, I'm convinced it was coincidence and nothing more. But a pretty incredible coincidence.

Hi all, it's been a while. I'm sure this was discussed previously, but I couldn't find a thread on point. Through a variety of circumstances, I'll be driving a rental car for two months that comes with XM Satellite. I've never had satellite radio before. What channels give me the best odds of hearing Rush, particularly songs other than the ones I hear on the local classic rock stations?

I wish that I could live it all again!

I got to see Tulsa and Lincoln. Needless to say, I understood Lincoln more than Tulsa early on during the show. What a great time.

Anybody seen anything to move this needle in the last four months? Not me.

We Have A Winner

I think I only have one "official" tour shirt, from the Presto tour, but I never wear it, and don't recall where I got that one, as I didn't see that tour. Maybe a gift. I have one shirt from Geddy's dryer (complete with YouTube video from Tinley Park IL of my brother diving in front of me before the encore to grab it, even though Geddy threw it right at me, then remembering that I bought his ticket, and giving me the shirt). Then I have the way more interesting shirts, the ones I had made specifically to wear to Rush concerts. I have a "Let Neil Sing" shirt that nicely parallels Stevie's. I have a "Just Came to See Audrey" shirt (which won me a tip of the bow from the violinist herself, and a hearty laugh from Lerxst). I have a "He Plays Bass" shirt with pointing arrow, worn whenever I attended Rush shows with my brother, He Plays Bass. I have that shirt on in my meet and greet photo, but unfortunately, the arrow is pointing at Alex! I have an "It Didn't Always Feel That Way" shirt that I made but don't think I've ever worn. I have a black shirt with the picture of the guy with wings and a wrench working on a boiler from "Working Them Angels" that I wear all the time and get compliments on. I have a black tee with Geddy's high school picture on it (he mouthed "Is that me" from the stage and I nodded yes; he shook his head in disbelief, either at how he looked in high school, or that any nerd would make a shirt of it). Then I have my favorite, an MLB official Toronto Blue Jays home jersey, with "WEINRIB" on the back and the number 3. It takes a knowledgeable Rush fan to recognize that one.

I hate to pour water on this love fest, but this album started my long, cold winter of Rush discontent. When you cut your teeth on A Farewell to Kings and All The World's A Stage, this keyboard crap wasn't possibly going to cut it for me. What an affront. I remember wondering...Did Alex leave the band? Did Geddy lose his senses? I'd spent a lot of time defending my love of heavy rock in the face of the Euro-pop-rock claptrap that was becoming the rage, and then this happens. I also remember thinking...Why don't you guys just join Wham! and get it over with, for Chrissakes. To be fair, the problem lay as much with me as the music in the grooves. I wasn't ready for this zig, when my musical tastes still tended to zag to the likes of UFO, Judas Priest, Saxon, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, etc. Rush had already marginalized themselves a bit to me by issuing Moving Pictures and Permanent Waves, which sounded to my ear like some thinly-disguised efforts at radio time (and, to that extent, they succeeded), but this album was the proverbial straw. My band had jumped the shark. Sigh. It took me many years, actually almost two decades, to care enough to look into Rush again. I was intrigued by Neil's tragedies (what a cold and voyeuristic word, "intrigued," is in that context), and so I got A Show of Hands. By then, my ears had become accustomed to different music. I was a more discerning listener, demanding "things interesting" and not just "things loud." And what I heard on A Show of Hands convinced me that I missed some good music. Fast forward another ten years, and I'm buying a Yamaha keyboard at Costco, specifically to learn how to play the intro to Subdivisions (which I can now play, quite proficiently, along with the keyboard solo too, despite a complete absence of training). Life has a funny way of slapping us hard in the face with ironies of our own design.

Well one of Rush did anyway... http://www.2112.net/...guitarworld.htm What, so it looks like in naming Vapor Trails, Neil said "f-'u"" to Alex and Geddy? Some foreshadowing there, for sure.

And I think we can look forward to a Lee/lifeson project in the future. An album with several guest drummers would be perfect since it wouldn't be looked at as a new version of rush and they can find a lyricist. I'm curious to see what Neil can do with an actual novel too. Lots of possibilities that don't include a tour or new album. How about guests vocals too, to let Ged focus on what he (still) does best?

Cygnify has it right on both accounts; cash and connections, at least for me. Re front row tickets, I have to admit, I almost always paid dearly for those seats on the resale market. Fortunately, it didn't break the bank for me. I work in a very narrow area of railroad law, one that virtually no company in the world gives a fig about, but if you are a US railroad, you really need someone that knows what they are talking about. Anyway, if I am going to fly to Albuquerque or New Hampshire, or drive to Moline, I am going to make sure it is worth my while, hence the good seats. That said, really good Rush tickets and single malt scotch might be my only two vices. Almost everything else in my life is quite simple; I drive my cars until they have at least 200,000 miles on them, I buy clothes once every few years, I vacation in cheap cottages in Michigan, and I love me a good box of Kraft mac and cheese for dinner. Also, re connections, while not having any with the band, once you've been in the fronts for a bit, you get to know the other regulars, and you build connections as to who might have an interest when you pull two tickets. I was fortunate enough to fall in with some folks who sold to one another at the Stubhub cost, with proof of receipt sent up front with the offer so there was no quibbling; expensive, yes, but no markup beyond whet the purchaser paid. So my odds of getting in the front row increased as I shared my good fortune with others. That's how a network grows.

For those who wanted to see the R&R HoF introduction moment...watch from the beginning, with sound loud, and you'll have some idea of what it was like to be there. Some idea, I say, because for those of us who were there, it seemed even louder, even longer...

I also loved Nancy's Wilson repeating her comment from a few years ago, that "Rush was like a dog whistle that only men could hear." A great line, and particularly funny for those of us that lived through the AFTK through Signals era, although of course the membership and participation of this board puts the comment to a lie currently.