RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage Red Carpet Premiere

Jillian from RushCon.ORG, a young fan, Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen, Sebastian Bach, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson are interviewed!

RushCon 9 was elevated from the norm!

This is a montage I created to celebrate my time in Toronto and at RushCon 9. It doesn't cover all of the fun, late nights, friendship, laughing, and cool RUSHiness of the week, but it does represent my trip to the Distillery District, RUSH's star on the Canada Walk of Fame (and Li'l RUSH pub crawl), the obligatory evening on the Orbit Room's back patio, and me at YYZ, awaiting the plane that will take me home.

The purple coneflowers were growing along the sidewalks in the Distillery District. They, along with lavender, daisies, and other wildflowers, were planted by a local group and look great against the turn-of-the-century brick warehouse buildings.

The word "Evelate" is not a misspelling of "Elevate." RUSH sings in the song Vital Signs, "Everybody got to elevate from the norm" as well as "Everybody got evelate from the norm"

Evelate isn't a real word, but rather a "Rushism." As we are elevating, deviating, and escalating from the norm, we get to the point of being "evelated." You can put whatever definition you wish to it.

Last year, I took a picture of myself at the Toronto airport which I turned into "Consumed by a Single Desire," seen in http://aveddy.blogspot.com/2008/06/consumed-in-single-desire.html . I decided to make it a tradition to see how I'm feeling after a week of late nights (working til 2am) and early mornings (up at 7am to do more work), which are needed to make RushCon a success.

We had a great year, with two guest speakers, Martin Popoff and Michael Mosbach. They were fun and interesting speakers and people. RUSH Karaoke was great, with eight fans singing RUSH songs - without benefit of provided lyrics and timing. The winner, Lisa, got to sing a song with the RUSH Tribute Band, Limelight, during their show for the RushCon 9 Tribute Band Concert at C'est What. You can see her performance on RushCon's YouTube Channel.

The RushCon Charity Auction was a huge success! We raised over $4500 CND, all of which is donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank of Toronto, a non-denominational food bank. Our nine-year grand total in charity donations is over $50,000 CND.

The RushCon organizers, myself, Judy, Mary Jo, Jillian, Kristy, and Holly, really rocked this year and we came out of RushCon 9 eagerly anticipating next year's convention. We also had lots of help from Phred, Kam, Steve, Jeremy, Rob, Robert, Rodney, Todd, Stevie, Bev, and Max. Plus tons of others who helped, donated, bid on auction items, and came to RushCon.

Happy New Year from Totem Media!

Totem Media, L.C. wishes you and your loved ones a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!

Here are a few quick tips to make 2009 a good one for your multimedia!

1. Dust your electronics - check the user manual for proper method and chemicals

2. Backup valuable computer files (photos, documents, databases)

3. Check power and audio-visual cables for wear, cuts, and loose wires

4. Review your website for necessary updates (calendars, events schedules, new personnel, upcoming sales, new products or services)

5. Label your discs, tapes, and photos

6. Plan to unplug all electronics while on vacation. You'll save money on your energy bill and save your electronics from potential power surges.



If you have any questions about proper care of multimedia electronics and media, contact Totem Media, L.C.. We'll be glad to help!

RUSH playing Rock Band version of Tom Sawyer in The Colbert Report Offices

Consumed in a Single Desire

I created this image from two photos, taken in September 2007. The background flames were from the first Air Canada Centre RUSH concert for the Snakes & Arrows tour. The photo of the woman (me) was taken at YYZ (Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto) after twelve days of travel, fun, three concerts, many late nights, beer, friendship, laryngitis, and a bad cold.

The title is from the RUSH song Mission. The entire stanza is

"Spirits fly on dangerous missions
Imaginations on fire
Focused high on soaring ambitions
Consumed in a single desire"

It's one of my favorite RUSH songs and describes my dedication and focus on RushCon, the annual fan convention I have helped organize for eight years.

Sometimes when we work for a long time on important projects, we feel "consumed," as if we are giving everything we have, everything we are. As long as the price isn't too high (health, wealth, family, friendship, happiness), it is OK to feed an obsession to create something good and beautiful. For a creation to have quality and value, one has to put time, effort, often money, and a part of oneself into it.

The quality and value for this creation may not always be evident to others. Everyone has different "lenses," experiences that color how they view things. For some, a beautiful object created by someone else is an affront to their own (low) personal sense of value. They can't create and they hate themselves, so they try to destroy the beauty around them. For others, they set their standards so high no one can meet them. Their way of bolstering their flagging self-esteem is to judge everyone else "not quite good enough." Finally, there is just plain, ol' personal opinion. We all like different colors, flavors, textures, etc.

I hope others will like this piece, but if they don't, that's OK. I like it and feel good about what I created.

Using Adobe Photoshop CS3, I applied a watercolor/Art Nouveau treatment to my photo, removing fine detail and lightening the colors. I removed most of the original background (a staircase), but left enough to use for the "burned" areas. The burned areas were desaturated (removed color), added a stroke, then applied an artbrush to create a singed look. I placed a watercolor filter on the concert (flames) photo to abstract the image, but kept the saturation (color) almost full. Then I applied a canvas texture only to the concert portions.

Promark is a nationwide drumstick manufacturer based in Houston. The staff are great people and have generously donated to RushCon for several years.

The end of Mission is one of my mantras:

"We each pay a fabulous price, for our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission"

"Maxwell Smart" Spotted at RUSH Concert

My husband, growing up with the name "Maxwell," was subject to the usual teasing kids give each other. The most often plays on his name were the two easiest, "Maxwell House" (a coffee brand) and "Maxwell Smart" (the lead character from the 1960's series Get Smart).

In my own inimitable way, I turn this former negative into a positive. :)

Looking through the Tour Photo Gallery at RUSH.com, I saw my husband and me in two of the photos. Cropped and marked versions are below. The band has been adding photos to the Gallery from every tour stop, as well as occasional backstage video clips.

I am wearing a RushCon 8 Pre-Con T-shirt with the saying, "Lerxst is king."*

My husband is wearing a shirt from the Austin, Texas band, The Sword.
































*Lerxst is a nickname bestowed upon Alex Lifeson, RUSH's brilliant guitarist.

Rock Fans Exploit Chickens Just for Laughs

I created these chicken-related parodies of RUSH albums to promote RushCon 8: We Hold On, the 8th annual North American International RUSH Fan Convention.

RushCon 8 Facts in Fifty (seconds, that is)

I created this video using a "45 record" I created in Adobe Photoshop. (I learned the technique for making a record from the July/Aug 2004 issue of Photoshop User magazine.) The "record" is for the RUSH song, Far Cry, which is also the video's music bed.

The background images are from Artbeats. I edited the video and created the text in Adobe Premiere.

Here is the Far Cry record, with lighting effects and drop shadow.

Flexibility is a Key to Business Success

Be sharp. Watch for upcoming opportunities and problems. Don't wait for them to come to you! Be flexible with your plans, your time, and your means of achieving your goals. This is a key to business success. "This is how we've always done it" isn't following a proud tradition - it's being stuck in a rut. "Nothing will ever change" is the wrong way of thinking.

Finding new, innovative ways to solve problems and meet opportunities will help your business grow. Sure, new ideas and ways can be a little scary when you start, but as things fall into place, a new sense of confidence and accomplishment will replace that little bit of fear.

Don't always think in binary - ones and zeros, black and white. Throw in a two and a couple of greys.

Take time to learn a new software program, start a new craft project, change your schedule, make something happen. If it doesn't go one hundred percent great at first, be flexible and allow for a period of growth and learning. You'll be amazed at the results!

We Hold On

RushCon, North America's International RUSH Fan Convention, is holding it's eighth annual event July 8-10, 2008.

This year's theme is RushCon 8: We Hold On. "We Hold On" is a song from RUSH's latest album, Snakes & Arrows.

Working Towards RushCon

Finishing up one Flash executable file for RushCon's Snakes & Arrows: The Game, a trivia/guessing game similar to Concentration.





When I'm done with Snakes & Arrows, I'm starting on a Flash file for Wheel of Tidal Fortune, our version of the popular television game.

Both games will be played at RushCon 7: Feel the Current Flowing. RushCon is North America's international RUSH fan convention, celebrating the words and work of the Canadian band RUSH. I've worked on RushCon since its inception, and it has provided me many opportunities to develop my web design, graphic design, and video production skills.

The convention's volunteer organizers do the full-time job of preparing a 2.5 day convention, as full-time jobs and families allow. I have the daunting, yet fun task of developing and maintaining all of RushCon's web assets (website, online store, newsletter, photo gallery, message board, YouTube video page), except the MySpace page, which is run by the Convention Manager. Our Graphics Coordinator designs and creates the Flash banners, convention program, and merchandise.

Additionally, I prepare all of the videos and presentations for the convention. I've prepared several PowerPoint and Flash presentations, as well as created videos (recording, editing, special effects) that were shown at the convention.

It's wonderful to have the opportunity to be creative, but it's even more special because I love the subject matter! I've been a RUSH fan for over 17 years, and enjoy meeting other fans at RushCon, local gatherings, and at the band's concerts.