Author Archives

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

I’ve done many, many colors since 2008, when I added pink streaks to my hair for the first time. I’ve had base colors from dark brown to platinum blonde, and highlights from aubergine purple to cotton candy pink.

Links:

MissMeliss: (MissMeliss: The Bathtub Mermaid)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Music for The Bathtub Mermaid is provided by Mevio’s Music Alley, a great resource for podsafe music. The standard opening song is “Soap in a Bathtub,” by Stoney. The standard closing song is “You Can Use My Bathtub, by Little Thom. Additional music used for the Holidailies project is “A Podcast Christmas Theme” by Tom Shad, and “Village Song” composed by David Popper and performed by Cello Journey.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:07 — 6.5MB)

Holidailies 2014 #09: Sunday Brunch – Tinsel

14 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

I also had childhood adventures with Merrell. He taught me how to bait a hook, one year, when he and my grandfather took my cousin and me fishing off the fisherman’s pier. He had a voice thick with fallen dreams and made for telling stories, and I’m sad that I never knew him as an adult, that he was, at the time he died, little more than a name to me. But I was named for him (he called from where he was AWOL in Canada to instruct my mother not to give me HIS name, as he felt it was cursed, so she used the first letter instead), and I suppose I’ve always felt it was a sort of bond between us. And he loved tinsel. He loved tinsel so much that when my mother and her siblings were growing up, putting the tinsel on the tree was his special job, just as in my house, it was mine.

Links:

MissMeliss: (MissMeliss: The Bathtub Mermaid)
All Things Girl (Sunday Brunch: Tinsel)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:37 — 8.8MB)

Holidailies 2014 #08: Getting Ready

13 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

But something wonderful has been happening as I’ve been reading my friend’s published words. I’ve been feeling, to use my own word, really writey. In fact, instead of reading her book straight through, the way I typically read EVERYTHING, I’m having to stop, and walk away and dash out notes or phrases or write a paragraph…

Links:

MissMeliss: (Getting Ready)
Becca Rowan (Becca Rowan: Reflections on Life in General
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:56 — 7.3MB)

Holidailies 2014 #07: I Wish I’d Learned to Play Guitar

12 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

The reality is that while our family Christmases are always warm and cozy, none of us actually plays the guitar, and my mother sings with great enthusiasm and a love of music, but absolutely zero sense of pitch.

Links:

MissMeliss: (I Wish I’d Learned to Play Guitar)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:20 — 6.7MB)

Holidailies 2014 #06: Traces of Tinsel

11 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

I’ve decided to embrace my 2005 philosophy about them, and, instead of wondering exactly where these silvery strings are coming from, interpret them as fond messages from my uncle, my grandparents, my friend the WarriorPoet.

Links:

MissMeliss: (Traces of Tinsel)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:08 — 5.6MB)

Holidailies 2014 #05: Dude (Looks Like a Lady), or: Why Peter Pan is Played by a Woman

7 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

Pantomime got it’s real start in the early 1800s, when there was already a theatrical tradition for women to play “breeches” or “trouser” roles – women were cast as the romantic male leads – partly because it gave actresses a break from being stuffed into skirts and crammed into corsets, but mostly because even in Victorian England, sex sells, and a woman showing off not just her ankles, but her calves was a big draw.

Links:

MissMeliss: Dude (Looks Like a Lady), or: Why Peter Pan is Played by a Woman (full transcript) (Dude (Looks Like a Lady), or: Why Peter Pan is Played by a Woman )
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Questions or comments? Use the comment form at the bottom of each entry. You can also follow me on twitter: @Melysse

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:03 — 8.3MB)

Holidailies 2014 #04: I Hate Blank Books

6 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

Sometimes they have lines in them, or grid squares, but even when the insides are completely blank, they all have one thing in common: they have been presented to me with the expectation that I will fill them.

Links:

MissMeliss: I Hate Blank Books (full transcript) (I Hate Blank Books)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Questions or comments? Use the comment form at the bottom of each entry. You can also follow me on twitter: @Melysse

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:41 — 7.0MB)

Holidailies 2014 #03: The (Nutcracker) Prince & Me

5 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

But even if we don’t make it to a live performance, I’m looking forward to having a few dates with my Nutcracker Prince over the weeks between now and Christmas. He’ll bring the great music and muscular thighs, and I’ll bring coffee, Danish butter cookies, and my appreciation of the arts.

Links:

MissMeliss: The (Nutcracker) Prince and Me (full transcript) (Happy Holidailies)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Questions or comments? Use the comment form at the bottom of each entry. You can also follow me on twitter: @Melysse

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:27 — 10.5MB)

Holidailies 2014 #02: Music and Coffee

3 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

Something about either the imagery (my story) or the cadence (my mother’s story) of the “clouds in my coffee” refrain stuck in my toddler-brain. Perhaps this means Ms. Simon is to blame for my coffee habit. After all, until I was a teenager, my mother drank instant. (Yeah, I know, the thought is truly frightening.)

Links:

MissMeliss: Music and Coffee (and more music) (full transcript) (Happy Holidailies)
Holidailies (http://www.holidailies.org/)

Credits:

The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the BossJock iPad app.

Questions or comments? Use the comment form at the bottom of each entry. You can also follow me on twitter: @Melysse

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:22 — 7.7MB)

Holidailies 2014 #01: Happy Holidailies

2 December 2014 by Melissa

Excerpt from Today’s Show:

It’s become more than a meme, more than yet another project added to the ton of things going on in December. It’s become a sort of annual reunion where I reconnect, not just with a daily writing practice, but also with the other people who also participate every year. It’s like getting a holiday newsletter that I actually want to read.