Category Archives: DDOP Advent

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TBM1912.13 – Advent03 – Sea Story

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Description:

#Audio. #shortshortstory #Christmas… At Christmas time on the planet solstice, the Sea & Shore Patrol vessel Polaris finds something – and someone – unexpected.

Excerpt:

So… it was a cold and dark December evening, and Grandfa was standing watch on the SSP ship Polaris. There wasn’t a lot of traffic in or out of the Crystal City port at that time of year. Cargo shipments of gifts and specialty items for the winter holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Arcturian Moon Howl Festival and the Pacifican Celebration of the Stars, among them) typically came through the spaceport not the seaport, but there were still the occasional locals who went for winter sails, and got fouled up in the ice floes, or simply got too drunk on spiced wine to navigate home safely.

Links and References

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:37 — 17.5MB)

Trouble Bass

TBM-1912.12 – Advent02 – Trouble Bass

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Trouble Bass

Description:

#Audio. #flashfic #holidailies  Twelve Days before Christmas, I offer “Trouble Bass…” It’s not a holiday story, necessarily, but it could be.

Excerpt:

“Economics is what you do. Music is what you are. Today you’re a trouble bass player.”

“Trouble bass?”

“Yup. Iff’n you play for nice folks in clubs, it’s double bass, but when you play for the people who need to hear it, need it to keep their hearts whole, it’s trouble bass.”

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the Auphonic iPhone app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:13 — 12.0MB)

Christmas Anticipation

TBM-1912.01 – Advent01 – Anticipation

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Christmas Anticipation

Description:

#Audio. #flashfic #holidailies  On day one of the Dog Days of Advent, Anticipation begins.

Excerpt:

The kitchen waited expectantly for the ritual to begin. It was like this every year at this time… when the first snow fell, when the stars seemed somehow brighter in the crisp, cold sky, the appliances would begin to Anticipate.

Links and References

Credits:

  • The Bathtub Mermaid: Tales from the Tub is written and produced by Melissa A. Bartell, and is recorded and produced using the Auphonic iPhone app and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Sound Effects are from Freesound.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:52 — 5.2MB)

Entenmanns

TBM-1812.30 – DDOA-024 – 8thDayAfterXmas

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Entenmanns

Description:

#Audio. #Blog Entenmann’s coffeecake – the taste of home.

Excerpt:

And more often than not, the dessert would be an Entenmann’s coffeecake. The kind with a crumb topping and pastry cheese filling. That taste, slightly metallic from the foil tray, but always just enough sweetness to temper the strongest of coffees (or the brattiest of little girls) was the taste of my childhood. I remember it as strongly as I do my grandfather’s raisin bread or my grandmother’s meatballs or her recipe for pasta e fagiolli, which, by the way, is nothing like the swill they serve at the Olive Garden.Train whistles never sound anything but mournful. My friend Stonefish says it’s just the physics of sound, but I think it’s more. I think there’s a romanticism associated with trains that never quite leaves us.

Links and References

  • Read the text of this piece at MissMeliss.com
  • Check out all the participants in the Dog Days of Advent.
  • “The Twelve Days After Christmas” was written by Frederick Silver

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:20 — 3.4MB)

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TBM-1812.29 – DDOA-023 – 6thDayAfterXmas

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Description:

#Audio. #Blog Musings on trains, real and toy.

Excerpt:

Train whistles never sound anything but mournful. My friend Stonefish says it’s just the physics of sound, but I think it’s more. I think there’s a romanticism associated with trains that never quite leaves us.

Links and References

  • Read the text of this piece at MissMeliss.com
  • Check out all the participants in the Dog Days of Advent.
  • “The Twelve Days After Christmas” was written by Frederick Silver

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:26 — 4.4MB)

bossier-city

TBM-1812.28 – DDOA-022 – 3rdDayAfterXmas

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bossier-city

Description:

#Audio. #Blog Recording from Bossier City, LA, where we drove to see my aunt.

Excerpt:

I had a pot of coffee sent to the room (literally, they sent an urn) and we shared one enormous slice of cheesecake, and it was a nice way to catch up without anyone having to wash a dish. I gave my aunt and uncle and cousin some Dude, Sweet Chocolate, which is possibly the best chocolate on Earth, and they gave us local coffee and biscotti, made by the people in the care home where my cousin is a nurse.

Links and References

  • Read the text of this piece at MissMeliss.com
  • Check out all the participants in the Dog Days of Advent.
  • “The Twelve Days After Christmas” was written by Frederick Silver

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:38 — 2.7MB)

sheridans

TBM-1812.27 – DDOA-027 – 2ndDayAfterXmas

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sheridans

Description:

#Audio. #Blog Sheridan’s: an Irish whiskey drink I first tasted in Mexico.

Excerpt:

And you can’t buy it in the states.

So every time I visit my mother in Mexico, I make sure to have enough pesos leftover to buy a bottle of Sheridan’s and a bottle of really good Tequila at the duty-free store in the Cabo airport. I prefer to use pesos because they give you a discount for using cash, but it’s also a good way to burn leftover pesos.

Links and References

  • Read the text of this piece at MissMeliss.com
  • Check out all the participants in the Dog Days of Advent.
  • “The Twelve Days After Christmas” was written by Frederick Silver

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:25 — 3.4MB)

TBM-1812.26 – DDOA-020 – 1stDayAfterXmas

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Description:

#Audio. #Blog Tree toppers, as requested by Nuchtchas.

Excerpt:

Two trees means two tree toppers. The main tree, which is seven-and-a-half feet tall and is in the dining room, has a traditional angel on top. For the longest time, when Fuzzy and I both worked nights doing tech support for Gateway, we had a gold moon as the topper, but as our marriage matured our trees grew in stature (well, we kept upgrading to larger ones) and the moon was soon relegated to normal ornament status. I bought the angel a few years ago because she seemed serene, and she reminded me of a Renaissance painting I’d seen once..

Links and References

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:52 — 3.9MB)

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TBM-1812.24 – DDOA-019 – A Prayer for Advent

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45933665_s via 123rf.com

Description:

#Audio. #Prayer A series of advent prayers, for each of us, and for the world.

Excerpt:

In this holiday season,
May the darkness of winter
Be dispelled in this festival of lights,
And may the darkness of ignorance
Be dispelled in the strength
Of compassion, reason,
And sharing.

Guest Readers

Links and References

  • Read the text of these prayers at the UUA website.
  • Check out all the participants in the Dog Days of Advent.
  • Dona Nobis Pacem was performed by violist Trenton Wood

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:47 — 4.1MB)

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TBM-1812.23 – DDOA-018 – The Night They Invented Champagne

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Description:

#Audio. #FlashFic. Zoe catches her parents in a compromising position, and Basil helps her process.

Excerpt:

“Let me put it this way… you know the song ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus?’” Zoe waited for partner to nod. Then she continued. “Well, Mom wasn’t tickling Ed underneath his beard. She was… let’s just say I got a full-frontal view of Ed’s wedding tackle and I’m suddenly grateful to be committed to a man who doesn’t age.”

Links and References

  • Read the text of The Night They Invented Champagne at MissMeliss.com
  • Check out all the participants in the Dog Days of Advent.
  • “The Night They Invented Champagne” is from the musical Gigi, and was written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.

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 and Audacity.
  • Bathtub Mermaid album art was created by Rebecca Moran of Moran Media
  • Music used for the opening and closing is a mix of Chris Zabriskie’s “The Oceans Continue to Rise” from the Free Music Archive and Kevoy’s clip of whales off the coast of French Polynesia from Freesound.
  • Chris Zabriskie’s song is also used under some readings.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:55 — 6.7MB)