Let Me Clear My Throat

“A remarkably entertaining and thought-provoking look at the human voice and all of its myriad functions and sounds . . . Wonderful” (Library Journal, starred review). From Farinelli, the eighteenth-century castrato who brought down opera houses with his high C, to the recording of Johnny B. Goode affixed to the Voyager spacecraft, Let Me Clear My Throat dissects the whys and hows of popular voices, making them hum with significance and emotion. There are murders of punk rock crows, impressionists, and rebel yells; Howard Dean’s “BYAH!” and Marlon Brando’s “Stellaaaaa!” and a stock film yawp that has made cameos in movies from A Star is Born to Spaceballs. The voice is thought’s incarnating instrument and Elena Passarello’s essays are a riotous deconstruction of the ways the sounds we make both express and shape who we are—the annotated soundtrack of us giving voice to ourselves. “Standout pieces include a biography of the most famous scream in Hollywood history; a breakdown of the relationship between song and birdsong; and an analysis of the sounds of disgust. Akin to: A dinner party at which David Sedaris, Mary Roach and Marlon Brando are trying to out-monologue one another.” —Philadelphia Weekly “The beauty of Ellen Passarello’s voice is that it’s so confidently its own . . . I began randomly with her essay wondering what the space aliens will make of ‘Johnny B. Goode’ on the Voyager gold record and couldn’t stop after that.” —John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead

A rollicking, wide-reaching annotated soundtrack of pop stars, phone psychics, Elvis impersonators, and other marvels of the human voice.

Delve into the zanny brain of John Boyer with this book: Strange Thoughts & Theories by One Odd Man. What is this book about, everything and nothing all at once. Most of the stories are only one or two pages each...so if you don't like to read, this is the book for you.

TRANSLATED Are you ready for promotion? Can your life use an upgrade? If so, read the simple, no-nonsense, biblical answers in this book. It will teach you how to augment every aspect of your life-your marriage, your personal relationships, your finances, and your business. You'll learn: How to plateau your happiness. How to retrain your brain. How to replace problem consciousness with solution consciousness. How to activate spiritual discernment in business transactions. How to increase your marital intimacy. How to transport your marriage from worship to ecstasy. How to maximize your faith and finances, when you're unmarried. It's all here! You will learn, as you turn the pages of this book, the significance of metacognition (awareness of ones thinking processes) and bi-dimensional living (living in Heaven and on Earth, simultaneously). In fact, you will learn how it is possible to actualize Ephesians 2:6, in everything you do! And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Do yourself a favor; get lifted! Get Translated!

A one-of-a kind survey of rap and hip hop history from 1973 to today by Chuck D, arguably the most influential rapper in the world. In the more than 40 years since the days of DJ Kool Herc and "Rapper's Delight," hip hop and rap have become a billion-dollar worldwide phenomenon. Yet there is no definitive history of the genre-until now. Based on Chuck's long-running show on Rapstation.com, this massive compendium details the most iconic moments and influential songs in the genre's recorded history, from Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'" to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill to Kendrick Lamar's ground-breaking verse on "Control." Also included are key events in hip hop history, from Grandmaster Flash's first scratch through Tupac's holographic appearance at Coachella. Throughout, Chuck offers his insider's perspective on the chart toppers and show stoppers as he lived it. Illustrating the pages are more than 100 portraits from the talented artists specializing in hip hop.

This one-of-a-kind reference investigates the music and the musicians that set the popular trends of the last half century in America. Many rock fans have, at one time or another, ranked their favorite artists in order of talent, charisma, and musical influence on the world as they see it. In this same spirit, author and music historian David V. Moskowitz expands on the concept of "top ten" lists to provide a lineup of the best 100 musical groups from the past 60 years. Since the chosen bands are based on the author's personal taste, this two-volume set provokes discussion of which performers are included and why, offering insights into the surprising influences behind them. From the Everly Brothers, to the Ramones, to Public Enemy, the work covers a wide variety of styles and genres, clearly illustrating the connections between them. Entries focus on the group's history, touring, membership, major releases, selected discography, bibliography, and influence. Contributions from leading scholars in popular music shed light on derivative artists and underscore the overall impact of the performers on the music industry.

The OR Panthology (Ocellus Reseau) is Other Rooms Press's first print anthology, edited by melissa christine goodrum and featuring work by Nora Almeida, David B. Applegate, L. S. Asekoff, Joshua Baldwin, Drew Baughman, Tamiko Beyer, Rose Marie Boehm, V.L. Bond, Michelle Brule, Daveo Crish, Joe Robitaille, Sarah Feeley, Alan Gilbert, Ed Go, melissa christine goodrum, Whit Griffin, j/j hastain, Andrea Henchey, Luke Janka, Lisa Jarnot, Jim Juletid, Yelena Kolova, A.P. Lewis, Susan Lewis, Chip Livingston, Travis Macdonald, Dolan Morgan, Sean Mullin, Sarah Pearlstein, Richard Pearse, Maya Pindyck, Beni Ransom, Matt Reeck, Michael Karl (Ritchie), Ariella Ruth, William Sanders, Sapphire, Sarah Sarai, Michael Schiavo, Pietro Scorsone, Nicole Steinberg, L. Sze, Samantha Taylor, Rodrigo Toscano, Douglas Watson, Michael Whalen and John Sibley Williams.

This is a trilogy chronicling the amorous, intellectual and artistic adventure of a college student from Hong Kong called Tom, portraying him exchanging ideas and knowledge relating to western visual art from the Gothic Period through the Romantic Period with his fellow female student Sonia and the two developing at first a very good intellectual relationship and eventually a love relationship as they go through an intellectual and artistic experience from start to finish. Tom and Sonia have their own dream lovers, Tom being infatuated with a Eurasian girl called Anastasia (half Russian and half Vietnamese) with whom he had a kind of a one-night-stand in Berlin during the summer vacation before the current term began, and Sonia being attached to her boyfriend who is still studying in Cambridge, England. As the story unfolds, because Anastasia has disappeared from Tom’s world with neither explanation nor any contact details, Tom has been trying to track her down ever since his return from Europe, succeeding at last with the help of a friend to re-establish contact with her; and surprisingly Anastasia asks Tom to come over to join her in Greifswald, a small university town on the Baltic coast where she is studying art history, which Tom does at once to find himself joining Anastasia on an artistic trip to explore the famous fairy-tale castle of Neuschwanstein in Bavaria before heading for Greifswald, where the two lovers, their love rekindled, enjoy their sojourn in this Nordic land, loving each other and attending lectures on Romantic artists such as Caspar David Friedrich at the university, until one fine day Anastasia is called back to Russia to attend to her sick mother, leaving Tom all alone in this Viking land. To deal with his plight Tom soon meets up with Sonia in England. On his way flying to London via Iceland Tom stopovers in Reykjavik and has a great time, experiencing the Icelandic landscape and seascape and even bumping there into a friend from Hong Kong! Sonia soon joins Tom in London and then goes up to Cambridge to see her boyfriend, only to find him already attached to another lover, leaving her broken-hearted to return to London, to whole-heartedly start an artistic exploratory journey with Tom in London and then all the way, by train, to Vienna, where Tom has been the previous year with his father. While still in London the two go to museums and galleries to study great works by such great artists as William Turner, John Constable and William Blake, which got them ready for the next stage of their artistic exploration of Romantic painters in Vienna. Remarkably, once in Vienna Tom takes Sonia first of all on a culinary trip rather than on an artistic one, to savour Viennese specialities in pastry and coffee, while Sonia, beginning to fall in love with Tom, signals to him her affection before they actually go for museums and art galleries. The city fascinates Sonia and their last days there are spent happily studying works by Dürer, the Dutch Masters and Gustav Klimt; waltzing all night long in Stadtpark (City Park); visiting the Vienna Boys Choir in their Augarten home and enjoying Andre Rieu’s concert in Schönbrunn Palace just hours before flying home, with their mutual affection definitely reaffirmed at Vienna Airport!