Let me clear my throat : essays

Format:

Book

Title:

Let me clear my throat : essays

Author:

Passarello, Elena.

ISBN:

9781936747528

9781936747450

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

242 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Contents:

Screaming memes. down in the holler ; The starlet ; The Wilhelm scream ; The motor-mouth ; How to spell the rebel yell ; The candidate ; Communication breakdown ; The zealot ; Harpy ; The novice -- Tips on popular singing. Space oddity ; The soprano ; Judy! Judy! Judy! ; The contestant ; Hey Big Spender ; The phoenix ; And your bird can sing ; The king ; Teach me tonight ; The frontman -- The thrown. The interpreter ; Please hold ; The illusionist ; Double joy : Myron Cope and the Pittsburgh sound ; The illustrator ; Playing sick ; The shape-shifter ; A monstrous little voice ; The amputee.

Summary:

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 "Stella!" 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.

Local Note:

Finalist, Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction, 2014

Subject(s):

Voice.

Human sounds.

OREGON BOOK AWARDS COLLECTION

Genre:

Essays.

Essays

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Woodburn Public Library	814.6 Passarello 2012	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Amity Public Library	814.6 PASSARELLO	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Newberg Public Library	814.6 PASSARELLO	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Salem Main Library	814.6 Passarello 2012	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

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 "Stella!" 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.

Elena Passarello is an actor and writer originally from Charleston, South Carolina. She studied nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Iowa, and her essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction , Gulf Coast , Slate, Iowa Review , The Normal School , Literary Bird Journal , Ninth Letter , and in the music writing anthology Pop Till the World Falls Apart . She has performed in several regional theaters in the East and Midwest, originating roles in the premieres of Christopher Durang's Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge and David Turkel's Wild Signs and Holler . In 2011 she became the first woman winner of the annual Stella Screaming Contest in New Orleans.

Author Notes

Elena Passarello is an actor and writer originally from Charleston, SC. She studied nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Iowa, and her essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Gulf Coast, Slate, Iowa Review, Normal School, Literary Bird Journal, Ninth Letter and in the music writing anthology Pop Till the World Falls Apart . She has performed in several regional theaters in the East and Midwest, originating roles in the premieres of Christopher Durang's Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge and David Turkel's Wild Signs and Holler . In 2011, she became the first woman winner of the annual "Stella! Shout Out" screaming contest in New Orleans.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

In this funny, visceral collection of essays, Passarello explores the ways our voices can entertain us, connect us, ruin us, vent our pains, and tether us to a place or tradition. Subjects range from sports announcer Myron Cope's pretzel-mouthed Pittsburghese to Marlon Brando's gut-wrenching "Stella!" in A Streetcar Named Desire and the punctilious mouth diagrams of Frank Sinatra's "Tips on Popular Singing" pamphlet. In the most moving essay, an account of Judy Garland's legendary concert at Carnegie Hall meanders forward and backward through the diva's troubled life, taking us from the "little red-walled room" of her mother's womb, filled with her voice, to the glittery blue velvet that lined her final bed after an overdose of Seconal. Passarello isn't afraid to get personal, either, revealing how years of her own mother's "harpy" bellowing prepared her to win the 2011 Stella Shouting Contest, and musing on the cawing of the crows that populate her wintry Iowa backyard as a metaphor for the tougher grit that rock 'n' rollers like the Fendermen injected into popular music's songbird melodies. The essays are interspersed with brief monologues from voice-over artists, auctioneers, singers, psychics, American Idol contestants, and Holy Rollers, discussing what voice means to them. This striking debut is graceful even in its portrayal of the most barbaric groans and yelping cries. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A collection of essays by a regional theater actress and writer about the relationship of voice to identity. When Passarello won the 2011 Stella Screaming Contest in New Orleans, it marked the culmination of a lifetime interest in voice. As a child, she took pleasure in trying to out-shout her mother, whom she calls "one of the loudest people I have known in my life." Throughout her young adulthood, she used her voice "as an actor in plays that required lots of talking, some singing and the very occasional scream." Passarello explores how voices work and how a few famous voices became cultural icons. Marlon Brando found screen immortality through the pained screaming of his lover's name in A Streetcar Named Desire. The author writes that his "transmutable hurt is what moves the line of dialogue to raw sound." Brando's Hollywood colleague Judy Garland was the diminutive star with the big, electrifying voice that shook buildings and overwhelmed listeners with its emotional complexity. However, writes Passarello, voices and what they communicate can be the undoing of their owners. In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's "hostile mutation of a 'Yeah!' cheer" helped sabotage his election hopes. The author's book is a mostly fascinating study of the meaning behind individual voices and other sounds, such as rebel yells, manufactured sound-artist screams and even birdsongs. However, because Passarello does not link the essays together, the text comes across as haphazardly constructed. Fun and intelligent but disjointed reading.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Stellaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Who can forget Marlon Brando's gut-wrenching wail in A Streetcar Named Desire? In this eclectic collection of essays, actress and writer Passarello explores the ways in which our voices define us, refine us, and connect us to one another. From Billy Idol and his rebel yell to eighteenth-century castrato Farinelli, who mesmerized audiences with his high C, Passarello ponders the encyclopedic range of sounds that emerge from vocalists' throats. Here we learn about the life of an Elvis impersonator, the recording of Johnny B. Goode that accompanied the Voyager astronauts into orbit, and the tragic tale of Judy Garland, whose mother's voice penetrated her every cell from the time she was in the womb. The author intersperses her essays with monologues from individuals who have enjoyed fun and profit with their pipes, including voice-over artist Jim Meskimen and Joe Starkey, the sports announcer who called the legendary Final Play in the 1982 Cal-Stanford Big Game. Passarello, the first woman to win the annual Stella Screaming Contest in New Orleans, informs and delights in this witty, original read.--Block, Allison Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal Review

In a brilliant combination of rigorous study and conversational tone, actor and essayist Passarello has created a remarkably entertaining and thought-provoking look at the human voice and all of its myriad functions and sounds. In the same fascinating way Oliver Sacks explores scientific curiosities, Passarello has taken something so ubiquitous yet unheralded-the dynamics of the human voice-and crafted more than a dozen engaging essays about it. Covering topics as varied as the memorable but almost assaultive tones of Pittsburgh sportscaster Myron Cope, the blast of discomfiting sound delivered by then-presidential candidate Howard Dean in 2004, a brief but moving portrait of Judy Garland and her 1961 Carnegie Hall concert, and a wonderful piece called "Playing Sick" about the childishly glorious sound of "eew," this collection is an insightful treasure trove, reflecting the author's love and awe of what the human voice can contain. -VERDICT Few books explore one idea so completely from such a variety of seemingly disparate angles. A wonderful collection for any reader and every library. Highly recommended.--Peter Thornell, Hingham P.L., MA (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.