Interesting (but brief) interview with Neil Peart about Clockwork Angels and other topics.

…I’m less comfortable in a gregarious social situation, and you can be introverted and still share everything. It just means that you’re guarded. Certainly there is a line that seems perfectly clear to me about what’s to be shared and what isn’t, but it’s not always so clear to others. Extroverts never understand introverts…

I got the singles (“Caravan” and “BU2B”) back in April of 2011 when they came out, and the album back in June. It’s okay, but I prefer their stuff from Hemispheres to maybe Hold Your Fire (or even Presto and Roll the Bones) compared with stuff from Counterparts and later in the 1990s. It came with a PDF booklet, which I guess I ought to have read. If it had been on a CD, or a 12″ album, I’m sure I would have read the liner notes. As it was, I didn’t even realize it was a concept album. In a few weeks the novelization comes out: Clockwork Angels: The Novel

There was also this bit:

A realization I had lately: it is impossible to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and be a Republican. It’s philosophically absolutely opposed—if they could only think about what they were saying for a minute.

I know a lot of my seminary friends would agree with him about that. As for me, well, that’s a wall I’ll just keep beating my head against. (Bonus questions: is the point even to “follow” his “teachings?” Is Jesus just a teacher? Can Christians be involved in politics at all? That was a live question for the first century of the Reformation, and still today informs much of the tradition: Amish, say, or Quakers.)