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Brand from Home | December 24, 2020



Music Playlists


Listen to a streaming playlist from Freegal Music, Naxos Music Library, Naxos Jazz Music Library, Hoopla or Music Online from Alexander Street free with your library card. Alexander Street will ask for an academic institution, use Glendale Public Library.


Get a free Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Library eCard instantaneously. It can be used to access online resources including eBooks, eAudiobooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines, online classes, online tutoring, and learning games, as well as streaming movies and music, and more.


Here is our last holiday playlist for 2020. For more Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa albums see our previous December issues of Brand From Home.


Read About Music

The Reverb Series of books is on cultures and histories of popular music and published by Reaktion Books. Brand Library currently has 8 titles in the series on topics such as Jimi Hendrix, Peter Gabriel and tango.

Did you know that the Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive has Billboard Magazine issues back to 1894? Variety issues back to 1905? Radio and Records issues back to 1973? Musician issues back to 1982? Login with your library card! Read current issues on RBdigital.


Streaming Music

Virtual New Year’s Celebration - Steve Aoki Live from Los Angeles. December 31, 11pm PST. There won’t be an in-person party this year, but L.A.’s Grand Park is still hosting a free online celebration. Steve Aoki headlines an evening of performances that features artists from his local Latin music label, Dim Mak En Fuego, including AQUIHAYAQUIHAY, Andrekza and BIA, plus in-between-sets mixes from 2DEEP. You can find free streams on the Fuse and Grand Park YouTube pages, as well as on the park’s Facebook account.

 

Art Online

Watch What Gordon Parks Saw: Gordon Parks was a novelist, poet, musician, composer, painter, and film director, but he was best known for his photography. In this video, Evan Puschak takes a look at Parks’ photography, from his FSA photos taken in the 40s to his photo essays for Life magazine. What a life, what a career. Check out more of Gordon Parks work at the Gordon Parks Foundation or check out a portfolio, children's book or film about his work from the library.

Explore Shelter in Studio. A group of California Artists were invited to share their experiences navigating the Covid-19 Crisis and how it affected their studio practice. In this rapidly changing landscape they developed ways to pivot their routines and still find ways to create while Sheltering in Place.


Explore History

Explore the San Fernando Valley History Digital Library on Calisphere for photographs and documents demonstrating the socio-economic changes and cultural evolution of the San Fernando Valley from the early 19th century through the end of the 20th century.

Learn more about Brand Library & Art Center, the former home of Leslie Brand. Look through photographs of Mr. Brand and his family at Miradero, images of the rooms within the mansion, and scenic views of the property on the Online Archive of California.

Want more snow? Check out images from the Museum of San Fernando Valley blog from the great snow storm of 1948 or was it 1949, 1950?


Water and Power Associates is a non-profit, public service organization dedicated to preserving historical records and photos reflecting the history of the greater Los Angeles area. They have a wonderful collection of photos including Early Views of Glendale.


Art Inspiration - Try It at Home

An anthotype is an image created using photosensitive material from plants. This process was originally invented by Mary Somerville who presented her research to Sir John Herschel (who is often misquoted as the inventor) in 1842. An emulsion is made from crushed flower petals or any other light-sensitive plant, fruit or vegetable. A coated sheet of paper is then dried. Place something, for example leaves or a cutout silhouette on the paper and expose to direct full sunlight until the image part not covered by the material is bleached out by the sun rays. The color remains in the shadowed parts. The paper remains sensitive against such rays.

Anthotypes – instructions to make a print using plants from Malin Fabbri. Print photographs using nothing but juice extracted from the petals of flowers, the peel from fruits and pigments from plants.

DIY Anthotype Prints by Krista T. Note that this process takes patience and time. This is not a process you can expect immediate results from, so settle in. Know that you are in for a challenge.

To help maintain his well-being during the coronavirus lockdown, photographer Tim Boddy turned to a natural process to create beautiful prints of flowers and leaves, known as anthotypes.

 

Staff e-Recommendations

Wattstax Concert Film (2004). All of us have something to say, but some were never heard. In August of 1972, seven years after the 1965 Watts uprising, legendary Stax Records and their roster of gospel, R&B, funk, and jazz performers played the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for charity and filmed the event. The sold out concert (where tickets went for $1!), Wattstax, commemorated the solemnity of the anniversary and celebrated the healing and culture of the Watts community. Many acts were featured including Kim Weston, The Staple Singers, The Bar-Kays, Rance Allen, and Isaac Hayes. Rufus Thomas invites concertgoers down from the stands to help “Do the Funky Chicken,” and then amazingly gets everyone back into their seats (excepting one straggler he hilariously banters with). What really hits hard is the concert opening by Reverend Jesse Jackson where he leads a litany with the poem, “I am—Somebody.” And between sets, Stuart cuts in many voices including an excerpt of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s final speech, and more candid discussions with people in the Watts community going about their day and talking about everything from the blues to racism to relationships and how it’s all inextricable from the music. Most notably, Richard Pryor acts as the film’s narrator and comic relief, riffing on his childhood, police brutality, and events of the documentary. Don’t miss the DVD special features for commentary by the filmmakers, performers and crew (which covers so much!), but especially gives additional history on the tightly-knit Stax Records community and the making of the film. -SB

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi: There is No Other (2019). I love Rhiannon Giddens' soulful voice, her musicianship and her intelligence. She first became famous as a member of the Grammy award winning Carolina Chocolate Drops. She has worked with musicians from around the world and her music embraces so many genres it is hard to categorize but folk, blues and Americana come to the forefront. Her partner is Italian jazz percussionist Francesco Turrisi and the duo perform most of the instruments on this album. Giddens plays violin, viola and banjo and Turrisi plays percussion, piano, accordion, tamburello, lute and cello banjo. It’s hard to describe with the influence of folk, blues, Irish, African and other musical styles but the accompaniments are stark to emphasize Rhinnon’s incredibly expressive voice. My favorites are the operatic aria “Black Swan” and the folk song “Gonna Write Me a Letter” She just knocks it all out of the ballpark and this album is not to be missed. You can read more about the album in this 2019 Rolling Stone article and reviews in the Guardian and NPR. Listen first and read the articles afterwards. As a bonus listen to Giddens and Turrisi on this September 23, 2019 Tiny Desk Concert. -BW

 

Covid-19 Resources


Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the California Department of Public Health, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, the City of Glendale, and the Library, Arts & Culture department.



 

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