HalfwayToGone

Pretty sure it’s available as a preorder on amazon which comes to about the same price if you have free shipping on amazon. Also someone posted one red vinyl copy for sale for about $15 more.

It started heading there in around 2015, just after Rush retired, and Neil’s passing is just more of the same.

From the side of the can under a cartoon of the dearly departed at his massive kit: “we lost an inspiration-a poet-a man who turned tragedy into beauty-a man who relearned to play his instrument late in a career when he was already considered peerless because he knew it could be better than what was already the best-a man who did more on the bell of a single cymbal in one song than most people do on a 5 piece kit in a career-a man who was more than content to do his art his way and was grateful for those that appreciated it while neither needing nor courting them.-a genius that got it.”

Mission accomplished—4 little very busy orangey cans for $21.12 It’s ok—like if corona had slightly more alcohol in it and already had the slightest hint of lime flavor—much less than a lime wedge twist in a bottle, but it’s there if you notice. Too bad it’s really a charity item and not a regular offering—not worth the price as something to get every time you go out, but if it were just another beer on tap for the usual price, I’d drink it as soon as any other. Seems to pair well with the pork chop I ate a few minutes before and the dream queen I had few puffs of. It is the brewery I went to before, by the way. I don’t know if any of their beers are distributed outside NJ, but they def distribute within the state to at least a decent handful of bars—their Boat was their most popular one supposedly back when I took their 5 minute tour around 5 or more years ago, and it is still there. They seemed well stocked—this brew isn’t flying out of their fridge maybe, but I imagine it’ll not be around long once the weekend hits and local/not so local Rush brethren have time to drive down there.

I’m in Atlantic Highlands several times per week usually. Almost went by there yesterday, but couldn’t make enough time. Maybe today during a break from work. I will not be buying them out, though, especially at that crazy price for four 12oz cans. Over $5 a beer, yikes! And it’s only 5%abv not like it’s a big beer. If I get any, I’ll let you all know/if I like it or not. I think I’ve been to their place before and tasted a few of their brews but I’m not 100% sure it was the same one—more than one microbrewery in AH.

I think Les did the Robot Chicken theme too.

which show do they like better, Robot Chicken or South Park?

same here. I’m bringing my son along and we will do the meet/greet—We’re both Primus fans. I saw them w/Mastodon a couple of summers ago and attended the q&a and met Les. Cool guys. The topic of my first Primus show came up because it was around 1990 with 24/7 spyz at another venue in town and they talked about the sound guy screwing up the vocals. My buddy and I happen to know the guy they were talking about and assured them he probably deserved the punch that got Primus’ sound guy thrown out. Nice! I dig 24/7 Spyz! Did you say punch? "Tales From The Punch Bowl?" lol I prefer a can of pork soda!!! Primus’ sound guy punched the house sound guy from the Fastlane for refusing to put any of Les’ vocals thru the PA and got tossed during Primus set. It was fun talking about it with them, because we were at the show and knew Jim Boone, the annoying sound guy in question. Phil Anselmo even mocked him onstage at Convention Hall years after a run in with him on their first big tour, and when he did his imitation of him, my brother and I looked at each other and yelled in unison “Boone!” There can be only one. “If it’s good enough for Red Hot Chili Peppers, it’s good enough fer yooooouuuuu!” We were dying. Anyway my biggest regret was not asking the Primus guys at the time how it felt to move up one spot automatically on the list of great live rock trios after Rush had pretty much officially retired at the time. Now it would be kinda a bummer to bring up in light of Neil’s passing.

same here. I’m bringing my son along and we will do the meet/greet—We’re both Primus fans. I saw them w/Mastodon a couple of summers ago and attended the q&a and met Les. Cool guys. The topic of my first Primus show came up because it was around 1990 with 24/7 spyz at another venue in town and they talked about the sound guy screwing up the vocals. My buddy and I happen to know the guy they were talking about and assured them he probably deserved the punch that got Primus’ sound guy thrown out.

Having read all of the Clockwork stuff, I actually liked the second one more than the first. I agree that the lyrics included all over the place in the first book was a bad idea. That said, I have a gold edition with the framed manuscript page, and when I glance up at it on the wall, I don’t say to myself “F that KJA! He ruined Neil’s work!” I consider it a rare artifact touched by the guy who made me want to be a drummer. The Syme artwork is cool. KJA didn't ruin anything, he just didn’t write something that will be the next Herman Melville. Gee, that’s a shame. Get over it. It’s based on recent rock music, not Hamlet. That was Bob and Doug’s movie, Strange Brew. Haters gonna hate though, I guess.

Here’s one I took during R40–it’s from facebook, so apologies if it is not viewable by everyone...

It doesn’t say whether these are part of the whole numbered slipcase edition that was on backstage or a separate bookplate signed edition the publisher had. I have all those slipcase editions, and I’m pretty sure only had to find the first one on ebay. I don’t plan on selling them anytime soon, though.

Hindsight is always better than foresight, unless you have brain damage of course, in which case hindsight is probably not so great either. But I too thought it was really weird that he suddenly retired from posting anything after May 2016 on his own site. Michael continued to throw occasional tidbits and old photos up on the instagram account, so I figured it was just Neil being Neil, which at the end of the day is correct, I guess.

Surprised nobody blamed SpaghettiLee lol Surprised nobody blamed SpaghettiLee lol Spaghetti Lee! :) One of my favorite TRFers. Gone but not forgotten. That's epic. How are you doing, Earl? I know we are on a public forum and I have no fear to show my emotions. In either darkness or light. By just you asking me this I am tearing up again. I might run out of tears. It's very hard for me and I know I'm not the only one. But many of you who know me regardless of the many of the outlandish things I have typed in the past do care about me. I know I too have offended many on here but my intentions were just to be over the top. Adult R Rated late night writing. I guess I wanted to be the Howard Stern of the Rush Forum, but I sure many of you can see I have kind of mellowed out lately. But this blow to me Lorraine is killing me but please don't worry about my health. I am fine. Just sad and broken. I will heal through time. I prefer "RUSH THROUGH TIME." See? I still have my punny and silly personality and corny wit. This tragedy in my life is already turning into something positive thanks to all the love and support I have received around the world. I am honored and just blown away by the people who are communicating me. I mean I have all of my texts since yesterday. Over 100 easily. Most always say... "Earl I heard about the horrible news and I instantly though of you first." It's just crazy. I like sharing this in the public eye. "The Camera Eye?" I know I'm lucky Lorraine and I love you very much. I actually love so many of you on here. Sorry for those I hurt over late night rants and arguments. All is forgiven. I need to get through this loss. I was not prepared Loraine even though I was tipped off three months ago about it. I too never would have leaked it. I was actually in denial when I found out about it. Only my father knew because he was in that business meeting. Even the Universe was trying to tell me something in advance. It's crazy, After Neil retired and I knew he was overweight and in pain and bad health, I thought to myself that I might have to try and prepare myself for the moment like this. Neil is it for me in the entertainment biz. I never thought it was going to be this quick. I am not in the inner circle but I am on the outer rim. I will take that any day. RUSH ON LORRAINE!!! I will be fine. Luckily Time Doesn't Stand Still. We can all heal. We will all live. We will all die. The cycle of life. Eventually laughter will erode to a long cry. "Far Cry................" You are a fortunate man, Earl, being loved by so many. No doubt about it - you will heal. Thank you Lorraine. I know. So far so good. Anything can change at any second but yes. Blessed. Family, friends and even my pug Earl IV is happy at 11 years old!!! You know I have two daughters so when they were young Wendy and I wanted to get them a pug. They always knew I wanted a son to carry on my name so hey, I got lucky again. My pug is my namesake. Love you! Earl—I’m sure the die-hards here all had their contact method of choice blown up by check-ins from concerned people who know they are a superfan. Mine was facebook—the second the news was released I got a ping from a close friend via messenger, and I lost count of the “I thought of you as soon as I heard”s when I threw a post up there. My entire feed was also flooded with other posts from every friend from every band I know from playing in bands for 38 years, all because some guy who’s socially awkward became all super fired up behind a drumkit. Guys I thought hated Rush were even gushing about their worship of Peart especially and Rush. I was blown away.

Don't we all! Even the most die-hard fans (like us) must keep reminding themselves that they really don't know squat about the lives of their rock & roll heroes. The same goes for film stars, sports heroes, etc. Just as they don't know us at all, we don't know them. We are strangers to each other. Just like I said in the other thread, hearing of Neil's death was bad enough as a Rush fan, I simply cannot imagine what Geddy and Alex are going through right now. Ged's book tour was only this past summer, I can't imagine just how difficult it was for him to do that, knowing that there were going to be some fans that were going to ask about a Rush reunion or simply ask "Hey Geddy, big fan here! Heard from Neil lately?" And each and every time he has to put on a fake smile and say he's fine....God, if Ged or Al were in the same room as me right now, I'd definitely let them have a good long cry on my shoulder. I just saw Geddy a month ago for the NYC signing. He gave zero indication of anything amiss, and seemed happy to be there, laughed at my dumb joke about how I thank and curse him and his bandmates every day for infecting me with this “musician” bug.

That same thought went through my brain. I will be there with bells on. Tubular Bells. Neil Peart. Mike Oldfield Don’t laugh. I served as backup drummer for rehearsals for a cover of tubular bells by like 10 people from several local high schools—my older brother was one of two guitar players and their drummer often couldn’t make it to our basement where rehearsals were held. I can’t travel to LA or Toronto but I would consider the drive to Toronto if I had a valid passport.

I can’t believe the news. Un f’n real. Poor guy had the saddest story already and then this tops it all off. I feel heartbroken for his family and all of us who loved his work and were inspired by him.

Neil looks baked. Alex looks slightly toasted too.

We can only wonder about the financial particulars, but I’m 100% out and don’t really understand the figure they came up with. The Giclee I bought was of a photo on museum grade canvas, and signed by both the photographer and the rock star in the photo, and was 1/20 the cost. I’m sure it won’t cost $2800 plus to frame either. If there are people out there who are ok paying those prices for one of these, I certainly don’t understand why, but have at it.

Not exactly KISS level yet, but they definitely are part of the whole corporate musictoday machine now, so they’ll continue to pump out a lot more merch as time goes on. Anyway these are Giclee prints, framed, signed by Hugh Syme, and limited to 75 of each size for each piece of art. Giclee is not like a regular poster or litho, it’s real deal gallery/museum piece quality art, and it is coincidentally also memorabilia to Rush fans, so it feels like a crazy cash grab, but real artists putting out real works of framed art always charge large sums for small print runs or one of a kind pieces. And they will have to ship these fairly expensively to avoid a $3K loss due to shipping damage, etc. Since Rush fans will also want these rather than just art collectors, they can get away with 75 and two different sizes of each, and they can jack the price up a bit. But any known artist putting out numbered editions of museum quality stuff will look to get top dollar. The big question here is, “how big is Hugh Syme in the art world, and does he command these kinds of prices?” The clue that this is a bit grandiose is that it’s sold online thru a music merch company and not an actual physical art gallery or artist’s personal studio, which is the usual way works of visual fine art get sold. So the proof will be in the sales numbers—if they sell more at full price than they get stuck with, it’s probably profitable, but I think they are in this for the longer game or they wouldn’t have a separate virtual store from the Rush merch store. I’m just hoping the artist isn’t getting screwed too badly by musictoday, and that the band is letting him have the lion’s share also.

Well it’s not like he’s been signing every other day for a month straight at a clip.

Yeah, back in NYC. Union Square this time. The ticket checkout was busted at one point, and I was wondering if it sold out, but I checked a final time a little while later and it was fine. Xmas gifts...

It’s a personal decision. For me it was worth it for the signed book alone—it’s a ton of book, and it’s autographed for really no extra money at the time, just the cost of the book. But, yes it is a lot of people (around a thousand give or take a hundred at the first one in NJ), you get only a few seconds to say hello and thanks, and they discourage photos other than from while waiting on line. On the plus side, yes personalized signatures if that’s your preference, and the place I went to was careful to warn you to keep your book open for around ten minutes to dry the signature and let everyone linger for a bit to do so. Advice for those who are still deciding or planning to go—don’t worry about being the first one there or you’ll just wait around for hours before Geddy even arrives. Get there as late as possible, and you’ll be in and out much quicker with no waiting on a motionless line

They proved on RTB that they should stick to their areas of expertise and not try to sound like rap or hip hop or anything that involves being even remotely funky. That said, when I saw them in Newark on R40, the chorus of that song made me cry. A hundred other times, I paid almost no attention to it, but the lyrics hit me very hard that night and completely unexpectedly too. PS any doubt that Rush are completely unfunky should have been erased by that jam w/Public Enemy at the end of their RRHOF induction ceremony.

I like this song better than most of the rest of the album, and the lyrics are mostly what I like about it, but the album came out when I was just veering toward other musical territory and broadening my repertoire as a drummer, and it was one of the first ones with any songs that I would hit the skip button on. I think PW was the last album that I was still all-in on. After that, I liked a few songs here or there until clockwork angels came out and I liked a good majority of that one. I think the song gets maybe unfairly lumped in with the HYF album in general, but otherwise I totally agree with your takes on it, and yeah your perception of time speeds up over time. Makes sense. When you are one day old, a day is 100% of your accumulated experience of life and is basically forever as far as you’re concerned. When you’re 50, one year is only 2% of it, and a day 1/365 of that (I don’t feel like doing math or opening a calculator app right now).