Canada's #1 Export

Now that it's safe for Rush fans to come out of the closet, what with the appearance of the band on The Colbert Report, their featured role in the comedy I Love You, Man, and their recent documentary, Beyond The Lighted Stage taking an Audience Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, I'm going to go ahead and risk alienating some readers by letting you know that I, for many years, have kept somewhat hidden my love for Rush.

There. I'm out! I feel so free!

They are awesome, "The Synthesizer Years" notwithstanding. How awesome? Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of South Park, created the opening video to their last tour. Sure, all their stuff doesn't work for me, and I have accused them of being (as they note in the film) "pretentious," but for three guys to make this much incredible music is just stunning. I get that they're a musician's band, and they're not for everyone. Those who appreciate them tend to do so to a psychotic degree while those who hate them do so with equal fervency, but they've been with me for a long time. When I fell asleep and rolled my Toyota Celica on I-5 in San Diego one early morning as a teenager, it was Rush playing from the cassette deck when I awoke upside down. (Seatbelts Save Lives, Kids!)

I understand that the band (as pointed out in I Love You, Man, as well as in the recent documentary) are not exactly a favorite among the ladies, unless those ladies are 11-years-old and pure musical geniuses. I only today saw this, so if it's old to you, apologies. Here's an 11-year old girl playing the highly complex Rush composition YYZ - by herself - on keyboards.



For the uninitiated, YYZ has worldwide appeal, as evidenced by this inspirational footage of a crowd of 60,000 Brazilians actually SINGING to an INSTRUMENTAL.

(For the non-Canadian and non-Rush fan, YYZ is the airport code for Toronto.)

Why no one has ever licensed any Rush tunes for commercial use is a mystery to me. Perhaps the heady lyrics and "pretentiousness" have hindered advertisers. I'm working on a little spec spot that I hope might change that.

Horizons Broadened: Work Takes Back Seat

I'm so pissed off today at the clueless clowns who dictate my workload that I don't mind perusing YouTube and finding fun stuff right now. The people telling me what to do have zero clue what they want. All they know is what they don't want. And since I've given them five versions of the driest copy on earth (based on their specific, line-by-line direction) and they've rejected it all, I'm taking a break right now. Masters of the do-over, they even tell me to do over the stuff they told me to do over twice already. I've got email trails to prove their ineptitude and inability to make up their minds, (and hourly change their minds) but it's a job, right? Their indecision and lack of direction (and refusal to accept their agency's direction) means I have a job for a little while longer. Most clients suck. There's no two ways about it.

So, yesterday AdFreak put me on their Five to Follow list. Since that time I've been followed by countless better ad people. One of those was a guy from Wild Mouse, an agency in Toronto. He tweeted this today:

Started 5 day fast today. Famished already. Gave up cigs. Gave up booze. Give up food? I give. Talk to me and you will die.

That got my attention, as I've often thought that's something I want to try; just a system-shocking, all-out break from routine and the start of a healthier me. I'll check in on John in five days. If he isn't dead or hasn't killed someone, I might try his crazy plan. My problem is I want to try it from an air-conditioned oceanfront hut.

So I checked out Wild Mouse's stuff. It's pretty fun. Nice example below. Here's a client who said, "You're the pros. Knock yourselves out." Breaking the mold of the stodgy financial retirement template with a memorable and fun spot.



More from Wild Mouse here.

Yeah, I'm jealous.