HalfwayToGone

I hear you all, but my intent was always to have a regular edition to crack and enjoy, and keep this one pristine. Money got very tight, and medical debt for my wife is now high, so I am not ruling out a "dump everything to stay out of bankruptcy" sale. Maintaining value is somewhat important, but I'm not fiendish about it, and have cracked plenty of signed books I've managed to acquire over the years. I have quite a memorabilia stash at this point with some really special and rare things, and some stuff that others would probably find worthless.

Truth be told I have had to resist the urge to unseal and read it many times, and then thought, "...another $100 to buy a book I already have...." and then did nothing. I wish there was a cheaper softcover version--they couldn't take my money fast enough.

I am probably in the photos from Newark and MSG (fourth row center both shows), but I wouldn't pay $300 just to see if I'm visible in the crowd. Well maybe for Babba Booey and his cohorts in the front row at MSG directly in front of me by 3 rows. What I'd really like is any footage from the crowd of the moment where I was supposedly on the big screen at MSG. I was told about it but didn't see it at the time and I don't even know which song it was, so I'll probably never get to see it.

I'm always tempted, but I don't need another signed edition of this book that's more expensive and less rare than the artists proof, which is the only one I have. I should probably get a regular edition to crack open, because the rare one is staying sealed.

I thought about it too and passed. I like it better than the penguin and almost bought it, but I'm hoping the third time is the charm for me. Did Geddy update his post Rush signature? Looks different than the usual signature. Almost bought it because of that. Signature looks the same as my signed hemispheres (except much neater)--signed during CA tour, so it morphed into this version sometime while they were still around. It looks like he stopped making the y loop down and back to the L and now just plops the loop in the middle at the end. Probably faster when your signing over and over for a long time.

I saw this and had the option to get one while it was still available on the site, but passed. I love Geddy as much as anybody, but I prize my signed BTLS DVD more than I'd enjoy this, and it was all of $20 or something like that (I think it was musicians friend or Sam ash or some other gear store). Beautiful shot, though.

I must've posted this 5 or 6 times by now, so I'll try to keep it short and hit the highlights. I was lucky enough to get an invite to an after show party at Madison Square Garden on the first of 2 or 3 nights they were playing there during the counterparts tour. (My buddies who got me in told me that the next night, Sebastian Bach from skid row got into a fight with someone at the party after that 2nd show). So we get comped seats off to the side in the lower bowl, and after the show we head upstairs to the VIP bar/banquet room and wait. I'm hanging out with my best friends and the manager of electric lady studios with her husband, who are friends with my friends--we all geek out for a while about what huge fans we are and what is about to go down. My friend introduces us to her former boss--Atlantic Records big shot (he may have been company president, I forget, but I vividly remember what he looks like/his very spiffy tailored suit). After all this excited chit chat, we were approached and told to go into the VIP area, which we do. A sizeable group of people are just mingling and Alex and Geddy are both chatting, signing things, taking photos with people, etc. a few guests have digital cameras, which were a brand spanking new thing back then, but most people still used film, and we had no camera. Neil was way deep in the area sandwiched in the middle of four other people in a circular booth, and chatting with them. We run into Alex first as he's closet to where we enter the VIP area--we shake hands and thank him. He fails to recognize my friend who worked with them a tiny bit during presto, but he's gracious and sweet and amused/amusing. So we venture over to Geddy's crowd and wait--Neil's booth is just over Geddy's right shoulder, and as the people directly in front of us chat and get a photo, autograph, etc. Neil shimmies out of the booth and ducks into an elevator--I watch and a "oh no way!" pops out of my mouth as I just watch him bail. Truth be told he might have just ran out to the bathroom--I was so star struck, I didn't even think to watch whether he ever came back. At that point my best friend and I are face-to-face with Geddy and I manage to deliver a very brief speech thanking him and his bandmates and letting him know how much they changed my life--at the time I was flirting with a career as a drummer. My friend gave a much more brief but enthusiastic little thank-you, and the vibe was exactly how Geddy described in BTLS--way heavy! I was intense as hell. I think I had started off with "I'm not going to trouble you for a photo or an autograph, I just want to shake your hand and thank you and let you know, blah blah blah..." Geddy replied, "wow, you guys are really laying some heavy shit on me!" My buddy started to excitedly talk some more and gestured with his rum and coke, at which point the little stirrer flipped out of the drink and landed directly on Geddy's left toe of his perfectly shined black leather dress shoe. My buddy literally choked on his sentence, and Geddy gently pat him on the shoulder, saying "it's ok, it's ok!" We all bust out laughing, thank him once again and start circling back,running into Alex again. Later we both agree that the stirrer straw seemed to us to be tumbling in super slow-mo in as it somersaulted downward to bounce off Geddy's foot. Anyway, we were much looser by this time after Geddy broke the serious trance we had been in, and we started chatting with Alex, who was also talking with our other two buddies who brought us. He suddenly stops in the middle of everything and says "WAIT!!! YOU CHANGED YOUR HAIR!" And then he gives my friend a huge hug, realizing that he does remember her. My buddy, says, "I'll never forget the first time I saw you play! It was 2112 tour in Detroit Michigan, I was 16, and wasted!" And without hesitating, Alex added "...and I was, let's see...23 and wasted!" More hilarity ensued, and we all got on our way. My best friend was so excited he forgot about his tour shirt and left it there. Ok that wasn't "keeping it short," at all.

There's a lot I used to play that I couldn't just jump right back into today, because I'm just not conditioned for it anymore. I was in a band called Dirge in the latter half of the 80s--speed metal/hardcore crossover, and we did a reunion gig in 2011 that I barely was able to get through. It had been over 20 years since my last show with them at the time. On the other hand, if I just played all those songs several times per week, I'd probably be good to go in less than a month.

My son recently turned 6, and has been hearing much of the contents of my iPod his entire life (it's a very broad variety of stuff, including a healthy dose of rush songs). I try to watch what he reacts to, and I'm convinced he hates 95% of what I listen to, but he loves KISS, and Queen. Seems thoroughly disinterested in Rush, but there's always hope. He is interested in playing around with my drums and the crappy keyboard my brother gave him, or whatever else he can make noise with. He already imagines he and his friends are starting a band, and tells my wife and me who will be playing what. So far creative things seem to be his forte.

....and I thought I was bad. When Neil ducked out, I sorta let out an "Awww, no way" as the elevator doors closed, and that was pretty much that. I can only imagine this guy causing a scene. "Don't you know who I am?!? I'm Dave Weckl's car repairman!!!!! I'll put squeaky brake shoes on your Aston!! I'll under-inflate your tires!!!! When I'm through with you, you'll be riding your lawnmower around on tour!!!" No disrespect to Dave Weckl, he's an awesome drummer! I used to listen to the Chick Corea Electrik Band cd constantly when it first came out and until it mysteriously vanished from its case, never to be seen again.

I almost met him once. I was way too intense in those days, and I'm about 90% sure I made him uncomfortable. He ducked out before I ever had a chance to really make an idiot of myself. It was at an after show party during CP tour, and I was standing behind a couple of other people waiting to talk to Geddy, and probably staring in disbelief at him sitting a few feet further away in his booth. There's already plenty of stuff out there of him playing drums without Rush if you look for it. Then there's that rrhof jam. His attempt at hip hop did not do it for me at all. No sir. I don't like it. The other thing with Stewart Copeland and a bunch of other drummers is cool, though. Always gonna be hits and misses.

No, I just heard the live version, which doesn't have it, so many times before hearing the studio version that I never paid close attention to it, and never caught it. It's not exactly cranked in the mix, and we're also talking vinyl through a far from audiophile quality system. I doubt I ever even listened to the studio version once since the CD was invented before seeing the doc, and the first copy of 2112 I owned since vinyl was the sector box version, which I never uploaded to any digital device--I preferred the live versions. Now I know better. It's just one of those things, like hearing "scuse me while I kiss this guy" instead of "kiss the sky". Which one was it? I dunno. I hear both.

This is a little like comparing the one of the guys who invented the cigarette lighter to some other guy who later made it look and work slightly differently.

This not unlike the little toke they slipped into passage to Bangkok. I had no idea it was there until the album doc came out and Terry Brown pointed it out.

I'm pretty sure Neil continued using a slingerland snare drum on and off throughout the time he was with Tama (mostly on). Not sure if he switched while with Ludwig or if it was when he started with DW.

I was always very partial to trick of the tail. Great record, and some really nice sprawling odd-time stuff if you want to compare them with Rush. Hackett is awesome on it, and so is everybody else for that matter. Phil plays some mean drums on those older records.

Didn't I just read a thread about people hunting down the umpteenth little-known variation pressings of the first Rush record? He's a collector. It's a very rare bass, and even more so in any sort of decent condition. That thing is a relic. It probably has mystical auras and chimey sounds emenating from it.

Rush plays on it, and there are some sort of musical sounds on it.

Sometimes those nuts, ahem, the severely mentally ill really take dangerous turns for the worse, and it's incredibly serious. Luckily it's not more common or we'd lose a lot more stars to these really severely psychotic stalker types. Dimebag was killed onstage by a guy who thought that Pantera stole lyrics from his mind. Chris Cornell has been dealing with a stalker with erotomanic delusions who has threatened his wife and young children. Neil has every right to be cautious as one of the more famous drummers on the earth.

Remember, he was spouting off about that stuff in that article at age, what? 25ish? Young and dumb, and even he has said so about that Rand acknowledgement. And yeah, this was all happily resting in past documentaries until Mr. Brand X Guy had to dredge it up. And he pulled an Emily Latella in the process. "It's SPECIES, not FECES, Emily..." "Oh. Never mind."

...and that caddy got no 2 weeks pay! He got 2 weeks TIME! To get off. Sorry, it's a legendary Buddy Rich rant that I've heard about 50 million times. I have several of them committed to memory from Celebrities At Their Worst. It's a series of recordings I can't recommend more highly.

I badly need a turntable (haven't had one since 1995), but I really have no room for it now even if I had one, unless one of those Crosby units is actually any good (I'm guessing the turntables are crap, and the only allure is having it all combined with built in amp/speakers and digital file ripping capability). That said, I've faithfully held onto my record collection, and even added considerably to it, and I now have two mats that have never been used, so as cool as it looks, the 2112 mat is not something that would sell me on a big bundle. I have no idea what Zumbi is griping about or comparing this mat to, but to be honest, you could use cling wrap if your turntable is that slippery, I'm guessing, and it would be fine. This is all about the chatchkes. It has a cool image plastered on it. Otherwise it's just a glorified piece of rubber. If I had no turntable mat and didn't already have the hologram reissue of 2112, I'd be stoked to get it as a freebie. What baffles me is the high price tag. $80 for a 3LP set with a mat and a few extra sheets of printed materials seems high even if it's 200gm vinyl. I have a 2LP box set with a mat and a ton of other stuff that set me back $50 for Remission by mastodon, and a gigantic meshuggah set was $250, but it has 17 (yes that's right, 17) 180gm LPs and a BluRay, plus a mat and a bound book.

I said in the main thread that I had low expectations for this edition other than yet another 2112 physical release for completists or newbies. That's about it. I'm only interested in the alternate Massey hall takes otherwise. Already saw the Capitol video online, and it's fine for what it is (closed circuit TV footage shot by the venue with soundboard mix audio). You get to see what the ATWAS show sorta looked like and hear one NJ theater-sized venue performance in its entirety. If someone got it for me as a gift, I'd think it was sweet of them. Someone did get me a tin of Rush playing cards for this holiday.

An old movie called "Gregory's Girl" features a main character who has a small drum kit in his bedroom and a Rush poster or two on his wall behind the kit. It was one of those movies that showed a million times on cable in 1982 or so.

Adult coloring books are all the rage now, apparently. There's a giant shelf of them at Barnes & noble (I was just there last weekend). It makes sense to have these at hospital and airport gift shops. Anywhere people with a lot of time on their hands congregate. Anyhoo, I wasn't aware of this Rush book, so I have no idea if it's there. I did meet the author of "The Butt Book" and "Belches, Burps and Farts" though. Good times!