Brand from Home | April 8, 2021

Glendale Library, Arts & Culture is making plans to reopen library locations. In anticipation of welcoming you to the library in-person, we will begin delivering the Brand from Home newsletter on a bi-weekly schedule. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Remembrance Flower Seed Packets

In honor of those who were lost to COVID, remembrance seed packets will be given away at all contactless locations.

Pick up a Remembrance Flower Seed packet at the Library. Interested in gardening? Fill out this survey to help the library create innovative programs.

Wowbrary contains all of the newest

books CDs, DVDs and more for Glendale Library, Arts & Culture!

If you don't already subscribe to the weekly Wowbrary email newsletter sign up here.

Music Playlists

Today's recommending listening is Train, the soundtrack from The United States VS. Billie Holiday, Shostakovich Symphony No. 11, and The Jan Hammer Trio.

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.

Folkways Records released a number of important recordings of Armenian music over the years starting with Songs and Dances of Armenia in 1952. The record company was founded in 1948 by Moses Asch and was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and became Smithsonian Folkways Records. Many people in the mid-20th century were first introduced to music from around the world through Folkways amazing catalog and Moses tireless efforts. Alexander Street includes PDFs of the booklets with the recordings.

Read About Music

New volumes in the 33 1/3 Series have just arrived and are available for curbside pickup! There are over 100 volumes in the series and each book is about an album. New volumes include From Elvis In Memphis, Judy at Carnegie Hall, Murder Ballads (Nick Cave), Blue Lines (Massive Attack) and many more.

Music Podcasts

Behind the Curtain is an LA Opera podcast. Subjects of recent episodes have included Music Traditions of Easter with James Conlon, Children’s Musical Experiences in the Pandemic and a conversation with the creative team of Breaking the Waves.

It takes years for a Broadway musical to hit the stage, but on Off Book: The Improvised Musical, you get a brand new original musical every week! Each episode, Jessica McKenna, Zach Reino and a special guest create a new musical on the spot.

Poetry Month

Celebrate with a pocket poem by choosing a poem and sharing it on social media using the hashtag #PocketPoem. You can print a poem from the Poem in Your Pocket Day PDF and draw an image from the poem in the white space, or use the instructions on pages 59-60 of the PDF to make an origami swan.

On April 29, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of National Poetry Month, the 18th annual Poetry & the Creative Mind will be presented virtually for the first time ever, making it available to poetry readers and lovers everywhere. Poetry & the Creative Mind features leading and legendary actors, dancers, artists, musicians, and public figures sharing their favorite poems.

NPR Poetry Month Kicked Off With TikTok Poems. This time every year, to celebrate National Poetry Month, they ask you for your original poems, which you can post via the Twitter hashtag #nprpoetry.

Art to Share

Participate in the "i.d." project by Polish artist Alicja Kozlowska by sharing a picture of the contents of your drawer. Each one of us lives differently, looks different, but there are things that connect everyone around the world — undoubtedly, there are many common parts, universal for all the people. The artist is looking for everyday items, and in a sense, intimate items, to show how different and how similar we are at the same time.

Attaboy, the artist, author, and co-founder of Hi-Fructose Magazine has announced the date for the 2021 Game of Shrooms, a creative scavenger hunt for which artists all over the world create and hide original mushroom art around their respective cities for people to find. Anyone anywhere can participate and leave a preview of their art through the site. The search begins on June 12, 2021. The rules are that people remain socially distant and leave no trace.

Art Online

The Louvre announced that they have made their entire art collection of over 482,000 works available online for free on a new digital database. The collection includes all that is on display within their walls and at other French institutions including the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, sculptures from the Jardin des Tuileries and Carrousel Garden,and Musées Nationaux Récupération (National Museums Recovery).

Checkout some poetry books from the library using our Contactless Pickup Services.

Brand Library Staff Reviews

The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired by Francine Prose. This is a selection of commentaries on the muse and how each inspired and nurtured the artists. The artists discussed in this book range from visual artist, photographer, philosopher, choreographer and musician. The muse often inspired the artist on a deeply emotional level and the mythical origins of the muse is discussed.

Gala Dali had a complex relationship to Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. As his intriguing muse, she was a protector and reliever of his neuroses. Gala was a successful businesswoman who negotiated the sale of Dali’s artwork. With the theatrical happenings they staged, Gala and Dali became “publicity seekers” and a prominent art world couple in Paris.

Elizabeth Siddal was the muse of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelite English painter and poet. Siddal was a young milliner’s assistant when the Pre-Raphaelites discovered her. She was portrayed by Rossetti as Beatrice, the beautiful companion of Dante. Siddal was also an artist and with her decade long affair with Rossetti, she lived an unconventional life for the Victorian era.

Charles Dodson and Alice Liddell, Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine, the complex relationship of Yoko Ono and John Lennon, documentary photographer Lee Miller and Surrealist artist Man Ray are all explored. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the artist’s muse, which in this book is often seen as a creative partnership. -CV

Albert King: Born Under a Bad Sign is a classic 1967 blues album on the Stax Record label. This was a time period where a lot of young rock musicians in the US and UK such as Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield and Jimi Hendrix took an interest in the music of an older generation of blues artists such as B.B. King, Albert King and Buddy Guy. This led to a resurgence of popularity for these artists. In the case of Albert King, he had been recording for years but finally became truly famous in the late 1960s. His backing bands for this album were Booker T. & the M.G.’s working with the Memphis Horns. Hopefully it’s recent inclusion in the National Recording Registry will lead a lot of people to discover this album. Albert was also one of the earliest adopters of the Gibson Flying V and his incredible stage presence probably contributed to its later popularity. The call and response between his beautiful voice and his amazing singing guitar is so distinct and personal. The title track, Laundromat Blues and Crosscut Saw are my personal favorites. This is one of those albums that if you haven’t heard you should do so immediately and if you have heard you should do so again. Also check out these late 1960s reviews from Billboard and the LA Times of his live performances. -BW

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