Brand from Home | June 17, 2021

Contactless pickup services and limited in-person services are now available at Glendale Central Library, Brand Library, and Montrose Library.

If you don't already subscribe to our weekly Wowbrary email newsletter sign up here. Wowbrary contains all of our newest books CDs, DVDs and more for Glendale Library, Arts & Culture.

Music Playlists

Today's recommending listening is Delta Goodrem, Jazz in Latvia, Julian Bliss, Japanese Breakfast, Charli XCX, and Martha Argerich.

Here are some classic albums to listen to this summer! The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Joe Pass, Jo Stafford, Boyd Raeburn, Gregory Isaacs, and Sailing Ships & Tarot Cards.

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.

Read About Music

The Proquest Music Periodicals Database includes full text of over 140 music magazines and indexing to many more. Do you need articles from Guitar Player, Jazz Times, Keyboard, Fanfare or The Musical Times? Login with your library card.

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 number.

Here are a few new music biographies to check out! Georges Auric, Louis Armstrong, Wendy Carlos, Rob Halford, Odetta, and Ravi Shankar.

Music Podcasts

Broken Record is a podcast with interviews of stars such as Peter Frampton, Serj Tankian and Ziggy Marley. The podcast is hosted by Justin Richmond with interviews by the producer Rick Rubin, the writer Malcolm Gladwell, and the former New York Times editor Bruce Headlam.

Hit Parade Podcast is hosted by Chris Molanphy and covers music trivia and music history. Recent episodes have included Taylor Swift, Sam Cooke and the AC/DC Rule.

2021 Brand Associates Dance Series

This series, curated by acclaimed choreographer, teacher and producer Jamie Nichols, presents top dance companies from Southern California performing site-specific work in non-traditional performance spaces around Brand Library. This year performances will be streamed on our YouTube channel. The Dance Series includes interactive Sunday workshops with an opportunity to meet the artists. The Dance Series is sponsored by the Brand Associates.

For over 13 years, Versa-Style has promoted the empowerment, artistry, and value of hip-hop dance culture through full-length street dance theater productions, educational performances and deeply rooted social justice work in the community.

Performance: Saturday, June 19 - 20 (watch here)

Live Workshop: Sunday, June 20, 11:00am - 12:00pm (register here)

Mixed eMotion presents Gatsby Redux, a vintage yet contemporary dance experience. The audience is invited to join the garden party by dressing in 1920’s attire.

Performance: Saturday, June 26 - 27 (watch here)

Live Workshop: Sunday, June 27, 11:00am - 12:00pm (register here)

Checkout some dance films from the library in person or using our Contactless Pickup Services. Look for them in the library catalog.

Films Online

Check out a long excerpt of the The Mistake Waltz from choreographer Jerome Robbins' The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody), which premiered in 1956 performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Listen to Lydia Wellington give insight into the precision needed to perform the comic choreography of purposeful mistakes set to Frédéric Chopin’s Waltz in E Minor.

Teeth by Brooklyn filmmaker Alex Fischman Cardenas is a touching short about a renowned NYC subway dancer Ikeem “Teeth” Jones who offers his personal insight on how COVID-19 affected his beloved city, particularly how it brought his work to a complete stop for over a year.

A cowgirl named Rose and her eccentric pals embark on a mission in the clever and fervent short film Spell of the West. Created by LA based Sam Lane during her third year at CalArts, the animation follows the group’s journey through the roving hills and sentient forests as they search for the ax-wielding tyrant who’s chopping down trees and demolishing their cactus farm.

Checkout some art books from the library in person or using our Contactless Pickup Services. Look for them in the library catalog.

Brand Library Staff Reviews

In 2014, when Michelle Zauner was 25 years old, she lost her mother to cancer. Immediately following her mother’s death, Zauner wrote the indie album Psychopomp under the band name Japanese Breakfast and dedicated it to her mother. Crying in H Mart could be considered a companion piece to the album - a memoir chronicling the tumultuous early relationship between mother and daughter, her mother’s illness, and the subsequent grief of her mother’s passing. When her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Zauner dropped everything, sublet her apartment in Pennsylvania, and lived with her parents to help care for her mother in her last few months. Most of the memoir focuses on that heartbreaking time but also the ways in which Zauner struggled as a half Korean woman to connect to her heritage before and after the death. The Korean market H Mart was one of the few grocery stores where Zauner was able to buy ingredients to attempt to recreate and share her mother’s favorite dishes. Later, it became a sad reminder of the memories, food and culture they could no longer share. Crying in H Mart is an experience that hopefully brings you to Japanese Breakfast, Maangchi cooking videos on YouTube, and an extra phone call to your parents. It's a perfect rendition of the myriad feelings we encounter in difficult times. The memoir is also available as an e-book, audiobook (with narration by Michelle Zauner), and large type. -SB

Bottiroli – Complete Piano Works v.2 Nocturnes Fabio Banegas, piano and George Takei, speaker (Released May 1, 2021). Jose Antonio Bottiroli (1920-1990) was an Argentinian composer, pianist and poet. He lived in Argentina his whole life. His former student Argentinian pianist Fabio Banegas, who now lives in Southern California, is the composer’s foremost interpreter. The Six Album Pages are even dedicated to Fabio. Volume 1 focused on his waltzes while volume 2 concentrates on his Nocturnes and his fascination with the stars of the night sky and with nature. His romantic and impressionistic music seems much more in sync with the contemporary classical music of the last 30 years as composers have moved away from the avant-garde and toward more accessible styles. The Five Piano Replies at the end of the album start with Takei reciting Bottiroli’s poetry (in English translations by Banegas) followed by Banegas replying on the piano. Beautiful poetry and music and they make it work together so well. Certainly any contemporary musician would appreciate the support of the popular George Takei to draw in many new listeners. Most of the pieces are short but a couple are over 5 minutes. My favorite pieces are the Vesperal, Nocturnalia and of course the Five Piano Replies especially the ending Improvisation. At just over 72 minutes there is a lot of wonderful music to enjoy on this album. Naxos includes a PDF of the booklet. -BW

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!