Those of you who already have children know all about this, but as a new father it was news to me how much the superficially-absorbed message "classical music is good for your child's brain" has been (sort of) embraced with a vengeance by the infant-gizmo industry. There are CDs galore with all sorts of inoffensive and neutered "classics" that you can buy at Babies-R-Us, as though parents should be unable to choose already-existing recordings and works for themselves. Meanwhile, our Graco Pack-'N-Play travel bassinet comes with a little battery-operated sound module that plays repeating loops on some kind of chip. The selections include Debussy's "Clair de Lune" and the obligatory Mozart excerpt or two, but with such crappy unpleasant synthesized sound and imbalanced voicing that I could barely recognize them. That ain't gonna do nuthin' for my Spencer's brain, except maybe make him hate music altogether. You could have put any sounds at all from any kind of music on that device and it would be just as beneficial for your baby's mental development. But by offering "classical sounds" to your baby boy or girl Graco knows that sales of said gizmo will increase. (Actually, the "nature sounds," crickets chirping, etc., are much better and at least make Spencer's parents more relaxed in those all-too-short periods of sleep between nighttime feedings.)

Spencer, of course, has heard a lot of music already in the womb. He seemed to first begin kicking around and dancing during an April performance of Steve Reich's "Drumming" that we attended here in Columbia. He's certainly familiar with some opera, especially Domenick Argento's "Postcard from Morocco," from my wife's work with her students at USC. But I've been looking forward to introducing Big Spence to some piano music that I thought would not overload his fairly new auditory nerves but just might begin to kickstart a nascent conception of time and space in all those newly firing synapses, experienced sonically.

Anyway, he does seem to like it all as far as I can tell, mostly listens with eyes wide open, rare quiet calm (while awake, that is), and a questing look in his eyes that seems to want to traverse a whole universe:

Jo Kondo: "Sight Rhythmics" and "High Window" for piano; Satoko Inoue, piano; hat(now)ART 135

Morton Feldman: Two Pianos (1957); Double Edge (Edmund Niemann, Nurit Tilles, pianists) NWCR 637

Martin Arnold: Herl (2003); Eve Egoyan, piano; available via Canadian Music Centre Boutique

Jurg Frey: Sam Lazaro Bros (1984); John McAlpine, piano

...arrived in the form of a 21-and-a-half-inch-long, 8 lb. 13 oz. human being last Monday, June 25 at 8:12 AM. Here he is, our son Spencer Samuel Bush:


Spencer is doing just great as he enters his third day...his mom Lynn is also doing wonderfully as well, as is ecstatic Dad.

Needless to say, blogging is one of many things that is going to have to take a backseat to the immediate needs of the little guy, certainly in the few weeks ahead, so entries may be a bit sparse here for awhile. But I'll try to get to a post now and then when I can...so stay tuned.

If you are in the music business, Google's "Alert" service is a useful tool, sending links to your email inbox (and/or your manager's or publicist's) for reviews of your performances or your recordings of which you might, otherwise, not be aware. But more often than not in recent months, I've clicked on the Google Alerts in my inbox only to find that it was a news article about my Google double. Unless your name is really unusual, you have one too---or maybe quite a few. (It's another time-honored time-wasting internet game, looking into what "alternative universes" you inhabit, well, your name anyway.)

Although I have come across a few sporadic references to a number of different "Phillip Bush"-es around the country, the one who has been coming up all the time recently in my Google Alerts lives, as it turns out, less than 150 miles away from me. Phillip Bush is almost thirty years my junior, has just finished his senior year at North Rowan High School near Salisbury, NC, and is the NC state 2-A champion in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints. (OK, for those of you who know me and my stellar athletic gifts, get the snickering out of the way now...) Here is a piece in the Salisbury Post on some of his latest exploits. Phillip Bush will be attending Appalachian State University in the fall and presumably continuing to compete in track and field, so this Phillip will be following that Phillip's progress closely.

Great piece by Daniel Wakin in Saturday's New York Times on the ripple effect created when Barbra Streisand hired 58 top NYC freelancers to make up the orchestra for her upcoming European tour. Rarely does the mainstream music press bother to "pull the curtain back" to look at the lives of outstanding-but-not-household-name performers in this way...One thing is certain: the new music scene in New York City (and therefore to at least some extent, in the U.S. at large) would not be nearly so vibrant without the presence of live music on Broadway. Another important contributor: the continued existence of regional orchestras within a 100-mile radius of the city.