The Ultimate Rush

Computer hacker and roller-blading messenger Chet Griffin finds himself on the ride of his life after he delivers a billion-dollar computer disk that everyone from the Chinese mob to the police seem to want. Reprint. NYT. K. LJ. AB. PW.

Formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1968 under the heavy influence of British blues, Rush solidified its lineup in 1974 and has gone on to record 18 studio albums (and counting). Notable for bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee’s high register, Neil Peart’s virtuosic drumming and inventive lyrics, and the guitar heroics of Alex Lifeson, the multiplatinum band melds a diverse range of influences and along the way has amassed a large, notably loyal following worldwide. Rush is bigger than ever before with the hit 2011 documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage and this year’s new album, Clockwork Angels, and tour. Now, for the first time, Rush is treated to the epic visual celebration they so richly deserve in a beautifully designed and profusely illustrated history following the band’s entire career. A chronological overview history written by noted music scribe and Rush authority Martin Popoff spans the band’s entire career from 1968 to today. A complete Rush discography chronicles all their albums, from the debut album to 2112, Moving Pictures, and Signals to Grace Under Pressure, Vapor Trails, and more. The authoritative text is complemented by album reviews written by well-known music journalists from around the globe, commentary from fellow musicians, a discography, and hundreds of photographs and pieces of memorabilia, including picture sleeves, gig posters, rare vinyl, handbills, ticket stubs, and much more.

Part two of the definitive biography of the rock ’n’ roll kings of the North — covering Rush’s most iconic and popular albums, Moving Pictures and Power Windows Includes two full-color photo inserts, with 16 pages of the band on tour and in the studio In the follow-up to Anthem: Rush in the ’70s, Martin Popoff brings together canon analysis, cultural context, and extensive firsthand interviews to celebrate Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and Neil Peart at the peak of their persuasive power. Rush was one of the most celebrated hard rock acts of the ’80s, and the second book of Popoff’s staggeringly comprehensive three-part series takes readers from Permanent Waves to Presto, while bringing new insight to Moving Pictures, their crowning glory. Limelight: Rush in the ’80s is a celebration of fame, of the pushback against that fame, of fortunes made — and spent … In the latter half of the decade, as Rush adopts keyboard technology and gets pert and poppy, there’s an uproar amongst diehards, but the band finds a whole new crop of listeners. Limelight charts a dizzying period in the band’s career, built of explosive excitement but also exhaustion, a state that would lead, as the ’90s dawned, to the band questioning everything they previously believed, and each member eying the oncoming decade with trepidation and suspicion.

Learn to play your favorite Rush songs with these terrific transcriptions and play-along tracks. The CD contains two versions of each song: an instrumental sound-alike recording, and an instrumental accompaniment track without guitar so you can play along. The included TNT software allows you to slow down, loop, and even transpose keys! Matching bass and drum editions are available. Titles: Anthem * Closer to the Heart * Spirit of Radio * Temples of Syrinx * Tom Sawyer * YYZ.

From their beginnings, campuses emerged as hotbeds of traditions and folklore. American college students inhabit a culture with its own slang, stories, humor, beliefs, rituals, and pranks. Simon J. Bronner takes a long, engaging look at American campus life and how it is shaped by students and at the same time shapes the values of all who pass through it. The archetypes of absent-minded profs, fumbling jocks, and curve-setting dweebs are the stuff of legend and humor, along with the all-nighters, tailgating parties, and initiations that mark campus tradition—and student identities. Undergraduates in their hallowed halls embrace distinctive traditions because the experience of higher education precariously spans childhood and adulthood, parental and societal authority, home and corporation, play and work. Bronner traces historical changes in these traditions. The predominant context has shifted from what he calls the “old-time college,” small in size and strong in its sense of community, to mass society’s “mega-university,” a behemoth that extends beyond any campus to multiple branches and offshoots throughout a state, region, and sometimes the globe. One might assume that the mega-university has dissolved collegiate traditions and displaced the old-time college, but Bronner finds the opposite. Student needs for social belonging in large universities and a fear of losing personal control have given rise to distinctive forms of lore and a striving for retaining the pastoral “campus feel” of the old-time college. The folkloric material students spout, and sprout, in response to these needs is varied but it is tied together by its invocation of tradition and social purpose. Beneath the veil of play, students work through tough issues of their age and environment. They use their lore to suggest ramifications, if not resolution, of these issues for themselves and for their institutions. In the process, campus traditions are keys to the development of American culture.

1936: Harald Mason, a German-born naturalised British airman, is sent by a concerned Foreign Office to Berlin to unearth Luftwaffe expansion plans and investigate the sustainability of high-octane aviation fuel supply in time of war. Werner Scribner, a technical draftsman at the new Luftwaffe Air Ministry in Berlin, is determined to bring down the Anti-Christ Hitler. A narrative of disparate characters, from the leonine intelligence chief Major Alastair Cartwright MC in London to the clever and elegant Elisabeth Schneider, economist and Soviet spy, this is a story of American business funding Nazi Germany and the rebuilding of Soviet Russia, as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programme.

In this riveting and startling companion to "Impulse," northern Nevada teenagers Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre, tell in their own voices of their very different paths toward perfection and how their goals change when tragedy strikes.