Brand Library Plaza Series
AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2021
FRIDAYS AT 7:00PM
Join us for eclectic live music on the Brand Library lawn!
August 27 The Leftover Cuties (Rock & Swing)
September 3 Son Rios (Latin & Salsa)
September 17 The ROAMies (Contemporary)
September 24 Reckless Night Ensemble (Swing & Jazz)
Concerts run 60 - 90 minutes without intermission. Visitors are welcome to bring a chair or blanket and picnic on the lawn. Seats are not provided.
The Brand Library Plaza Series is sponsored by the City of Glendale Arts & Culture Commission through funding from the Urban Art Program, with support from Glendale Library, Arts & Culture and the Associates of Brand Library.
Additional information about the Plaza Series is available on our website, library event calendar, and Brand Facebook page.
Join us for our second concert of the 2021 Plaza Series on August 27 at 7:00PM with The Leftover Cuties.
This noir-pop quartet blends timeless songwriting with an eclectic edge. Combining alluring female vocals, ukulele, upright bass, horns, keys, accordion, brushed drums and playful noisemakers, this band has a unique sound to call their own.
The Leftover Cuties are Shirli McAllen, Austin Nicholsen, Mike Bolger, and Stuart Johnson.
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.
Today's recommending listening is Prince, Ella Fitzgerald, Alice Sara Ott, Animals as Leaders, traditional fiddle music, and douduk music.
Here are a few new CDs on the shelf, many more are coming soon. Search for them in the library catalog.
Here are some new musical theater and movie music selections on the shelf. Search for them in the library catalog.
Read About Music
In the Oxford Keynote Series, each volume is dedicated to one piece of music. Brand Library currently owns 8 volumes in the series which cover music by Beethoven, Copland, Debussy, Eno, Part, Prokofiev, Schnittke and Arlen and Harburg’s Over the Rainbow.
Oxford Music Online includes the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Oxford Companion to Music. It is the world’s premier online music encyclopedia, offering comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship. Check out this new article on Kendrick Lamar.
Music Podcasts
Soundscape is a weekly two-hour program featuring the best in ambient, chill, and new age music, with music from Kamal, Moby, Loreena McKennitt, Carlos Nakai, Kevin Braheny and more. From WSKG, an NPR station in New York.
Ultima Thule is an ambient music radio show available as a podcast from Australian Public Radio. The show started in 1989!
Art Calls
The Glendale Citywide Public Art Landmarks RFQ is now open. As part of the City of Glendale’s initiative to become a prime arts and culture destination, up to ten long-term to permanent artwork installations will be commissioned, developed and established over the course of the next few years. These landmark installations will be strategically placed throughout the City in locations that focus on public accessibility and encourage public engagement and interactivity. Artists age 18 or older may apply as an individual or as a team. The RFQ is open to all and not restricted to any geographic location. Deadline to apply: September 24th, 2021.
Films Online
Filmmaker Scott Wenner has created Night Watch, a gorgeously atmospheric animated short that features woodland animals lit from behind by the light of raging wildfires. Through a beautiful poem accompanying this film, Wenner states that humans are burning down the lands that creatures have always dwelled upon.
Welcome to O'town is an independent animated short film created by Euni Cho at Sheridan College in 2020. A bunny travels to the big city in the hopes of becoming a successful musician, but faces the challenges of adapting to her new home. Music: Tourniquet by Hem.
Art Online
Valerie Cassel Oliver discusses her latest trailblazing exhibition, The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse at the VMFA. Illustrating, through the frame of Southern hip-hop, how early 20th-century Black visual and sound aesthetics helped shape contemporary Southern art, music, and a material culture of customized cars and personal adornment, Cassel Oliver’s show is an exemplary expression of her curatorial vision. The show was also born of her admiration and affection for Southern hip-hop.
Check out The New Woman Behind the Camera at the MET Featuring more than 120 photographers from over 20 countries, this groundbreaking exhibition explores the work of the diverse "new" women who embraced photography as a mode of professional and artistic expression from the 1920s through the 1950s. During this tumultuous period shaped by two world wars, women stood at the forefront of experimentation with the camera and produced invaluable visual testimony that reflects both their personal experiences and the extraordinary social and political transformations of the era.
A years-long restoration undertaken by the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden has entirely altered the understanding of a 17th-century painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. What was once thought to be a somewhat glum depiction of a young girl reading near a window is now an amorous portrayal thanks to the unveiling of a depiction of a standing Cupid in the background. Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window will be on view in its original form for the first time in centuries as part of an expansive exhibition dedicated to the painter running from September 10, 2021, to January 2, 2022, at the Dresden museum.
Checkout some art books from the library in person or using our Contactless Pickup Services.
Brand Library Staff Reviews
The 1988 film Hairspray attempts to joyfully and comically correct a historical wrong that took place in director John Waters’s hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. The Buddy Deane Show was a popular local dance program, and favorite of Waters, that featured performers of any race, but rarely featured teen dancers who weren’t white in front of the television cameras. There was pressure to integrate Buddy Deane amid the civil rights protests of the 1960s—the network decided to cancel the show instead. In Hairspray, Waters gives us the fictional Corny Collins Show circa 1962 with fearless lead Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) who wants to be in on the dance party but she’s ridiculed for her weight, her insanely teased hair, and her diverse group of friends. Tracy becomes the nemesis of show regular Amber Von Tussel (played by Colleen Fitzpatrick, later known as singer Vitamin C). Amber’s overbearing and discriminatory parents Velma and Franklin (Debbie Harry and Sonny Bono) push her to get the most time on camera, win Miss Auto Show 1963, and help keep racial segregation alive. For the duration of the running time, we’re treated to a mix of wacky camp contrasted with some of the hard-hitting social issues of the day making for a wholly unique film, with an explosive ending, from a master of outsider art. Don’t settle for the 2007 remake, watch the Blu-ray of the original film with commentary, enjoy the roles played by Divine and R&B singer Ruth Brown, then turn up the soundtrack at your own dance party. -SB
Brian Eno Music for Airports performed by Bang on a Can (1998). This recording, from 1998 contains an arrangement of Brian Eno’s classic ambient album Music for Airports (1978). This studio version was performed by the new music group Bang on a Can (BOC) celebrating the 20th anniversary of the original album. On the 1978 album the sounds of piano, voices and analog synthesizer were recorded as snippets and looped at different lengths. What is different about the BOC recreation is that they recorded with musicians in one whole take. The chamber ensemble includes voices, strings, keyboards, winds, electric guitar and percussion in addition to the electronics. The composers who founded BOC - Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe and Evan Ziporyn - each arranged one of the four pieces for the ensemble. The group worked closely with Eno. The interactive performance with more acoustic instruments breathes new life into the work. I feel it is superior to the original with greater warmth and depth. The last piece, titled 2/2, is the most dramatic improvement as the original only used synthesizers. After this recording BOC even performed and recorded the piece live. Brand Library has the CD and streaming albums (studio and live) of the BOC arrangement and a DVD from 2008. The CD of the 1978 recording is in the library for comparison and a book about the piece by John Lysaker. Even if you don’t know the original it won’t hurt to start with BOC’s version, sit down and listen to this music that can be both calming and will reward closer listening. -BW
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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.
Resources for Music Businesses And Industry Workers, Playing for Change, Sounding Point LA
Resources for Freelance Artists, California Arts Council, Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts
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