Tag: Rush

Geddy Lee: Two New/Old Songs

We’ve known about these two songs for a few weeks now as he’s been playing the recordings on his book tour, but Geddy Lee released two new/old songs today under the title “The Lost Demos”. They were recorded during the writing of his one solo record, “My Favorite Headache” back in 1999 or 2000 or so. He dropped them from consideration as they were a little two personal to share. One is apparently about an argument he had with his wife and the other is about the death of Neil Peart’s daughter.

After one listen, I like them both. Good stuff. Enjoy some new/old/previously unreleased Geddy Lee!

After two books and one TV show (which is out soon… possibly today, I think. Not sure) it’s time for Geddy to start writing some new music. Preferably with Alex Lifeson, but another solo record would be welcome too. We’re ready, Geddy. Bring it on.

Lerxst Omega Amp

Looks like Alex Lifeson and Mojotone are bringing out new versions of Lifeson’s signature Lerxst amps.

That sound you are hearing right now (not the youtube clip) is me drooling. They are too expensive to really consider, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still drooling. Literally.

Hopefully we’ll have some good review videos soon. I want to hear more.

Before and After

Before (May 4, 2022):

After (May 4, 2023):

I still have the pair of jeans you see in the before photo. I might put them on and take a bonus mirror selfie, just for laughs. I mean, that is literally the reason I never got rid of those pants.

These pics are screen shots from one of two selfie-a-day apps I have been using. The plan was to take a selfie a day for the first year, then upgrade the apps to the paid versions and save off a video of all of the pictures. I will do that today and upload the videos here. I failed to take a shot a day. Failed miserably in fact. I think I have around 300 pics in both apps. We’ll see how they look.

In closing, when I typed the title of this post the song of the same name from the very first Rush album, released 49 years ago, popped into my head and I am hoping it will stay there for a while.

More Desk Fun

I shared a bunch of pictures on Tuesday of the changes I made to my basement office. Mostly I was focusing on splitting my work computer off into it’s own space. Doing that freed up a ton of space on my home computer desk but I didn’t really do much with it.

Until now!

Jen bought new speakers for her computer upstairs and I inherited an old set. I put them on the desk on Tuesday, but I didn’t have an amplifier that would work with them. Off to amazon.com we went and I was able to set it up this morning and test it out.

The new desk audio setup is sah-weeeet.

New speakers:

New digital audio converter:

Can you guess what the first test subject was? I bet you can. Sure you can.

PRS

As I was sitting in the living room feeling terribly nauseous and sick I put on Youtube and poked around. I found a rig rundown video with Alex Lifeson’s guitar tech from the Time Machine Tour in 2010. They checked out his guitars. Most of them were his signature Les Paul model, the Les Paul Access. There were a couple of older Les Pauls too and his gorgeous ES-355, and that one Telecaster he plays now and then. There were also a couple of 90’s Paul Reed Smiths.

Lifeson started playing those in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I think) after he stopped playing those Signature strat copy things that I think he was a part owner of the company. I was so happy when he stopped playing those things and I really liked how he sounded playing those PRS guitars but I was sort of hoping he’d start playing Les Pauls again, which eventually he did. I mean, Geddy Lee once said something along the lines of Alex doesn’t sound like Alex unless he’s playing a Les Paul. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something like that, and once Mike my lifelong bass player said the same thing about me and that was pretty much the best compliment I’ve ever heard.

Anyway…

After I watched that rig rundown video I found today’s new episode of That Pedal Show and who should they have as a guest? Paul Reed Smith himself.

Maybe someday after I win the lottery and buy a bunch of Les Paul Standards from 1957-1960 I might treat myself to a two humbucker Paul Reed Smith model. They are great guitars. Even that weird strat copy they make for John Mayer is a great guitar, even if it’s basically a stratocaster with a funny looking headstock.

Tough Morning So Far

I went to sleep really late last night. It was almost 1:00am. I slept for less than six hours and it was pretty crummy quality. I got out of bed a little before 7:00am and started my 30 minute exercise only to have to stop after 10 minutes because we had an air conditioner tech coming out to service our central air and our mini-split. He left just as I was starting work so it didn’t interfere with anything in a problematic way, it just messed with my routine. At least I was able to put the laundry away and do the dishes and setup the PlayStation 4 in the rearranged living room. There will be surround sound Rush blu rays spinning in the near future.

My stomach is a bit of a mess today. I was short on my protein counts yesterday so about an hour before I went to bed I had about an ounce of peanuts to get myself over the 60 gram goal. I finished over an hour before I conked out for the night, but my stomach still feels off. Maybe peanuts late at night is a bad idea. I did eat some scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning and boy am I gassy now. The burps are seismic. Let’s keep an eye on this today, shall we?

Speaking of Rush, today would have been Neil Peart’s 70th birthday. His brother asked fans to wear Rush t-shirts today in his memory. I am partaking, but should I need to join a conference call with a customer I’ll change into a collared shirt.

On the topics of weight loss and collared shirts, I bought some new clothes on Saturday. Two office appropriate shirts and two pairs of jeans. The shirts are one “X” size smaller than what I bought pre-surgery. The jeans are four inches smaller on the waist than the last time I bought jeans, and eight inches smaller than what I was wearing pre-surgery. I’m wearing new jeans right now and boy does it feel nice to wear clothes that fit. Oh, yes.

Okay, back to work. Talk to you later, kids.