The Brand Library Music & Art Center

[photo credit]

I stumbled upon this gem by accident one day driving around the neighborhood where I'm currently student teaching. If you have a Pasadena Library Card (not sure about Burbank) you can check things out here.

This place is full of music and art and it's all available to be checked out. As soon as I walked in my mind was flooded with ideas of how I could use all of this art and music in my lessons.

Since then, I've gone in weekly to stock up on CDs to play for my class and for myself. Whenever we start a new story I use music to set up the scene for them.


[photo credit]

I went in with the intention of picking up one or two CDs with nature sounds to set them up for next week's story and ended up walking out with half of their "new age" catalog. (17 CDs in all) I felt like I had just gone on a shopping spree. Not sure what drew me over to the New Age section, but I was intrigued by titles such as "Buddha Bar" and a vocalist named Sheila Chandra who is on the Real World Records label.

Another CD that intrigued me was one titled "Discreet Music" by Brian Eno. On the back cover it says "Recorded at Brian Eno's studio 9.5.75" That was enough for me to put it into my pile to check out. It's a disc with three variations on the Canon in D major by Johann Pachelbel. I think that I'll listen to that one first. When I looked down, I saw a bunch of Jazz Box sets. I knew I was on the verge of getting lost so I had to leave. I have plenty to listen to for now. When I return my stash, I'm sure I'll walk out with another 20...

If there are any that stand out, I will be sure to post it here. Pay a visit to Brand in person if you can.

http://www.brandlibrary.org/

may a good song play on the radio
xoxo
aj~