Category Archives: Tales from the Tub

Image by Leandro De Carvalho from Pixabay

TBM2008.04 – Mermaid Meditations 001 – The Reef

by

Image by Leandro De Carvalho from Pixabay

Description:

#audio #flashfic #ddop A mermaid family pays respects to a coral reef.

Excerpt:

“That color really isn’t her best look, though,” my mother adds, and she’s right, because where once our dearly departed was rosy pink and bright orange with streaks of green and blue, now she’s a dismal, ashy grey.

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: 3:39 — 3.6MB)

TBM-2007.13 – Sonnet #5 (Happy Birthday Patrick Stewart)

by

Description:

#audio #shakespeare The Bathtub Mermaid and Friends interpret Shakespeare’s Sonnet #5

Excerpt:

But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet,
Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet.

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.
  • Music for this episode is Cello Duet #1 by Chief Boima.
  • Special thanks to Clay Robeson for producing this episode,

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:04 — 3.6MB)

0921-StarMaid

TBM-2006.05 – Swing on A Star

by

0921-StarMaid

Description:

#audio. #flashfiction Space mermaids are a thing. Sort of.

Excerpt:

And we do. Swing from one astral body to another. Play hide and seek inside nebulae. Have incredible games of follow-the-leader through asteroid fields. Surf on solar flares. Like humans, and saltwater mermaids, we are made of stardust, but we are a bit more of the star than the dust.

Also like our cousins on that big, blue and green marble, we love to dance.

Our cousins – sisters, really – dance on sand or stone, under constructed roofs, or under the moon. They dance with partners, sometimes just for fun, sometimes as a precursor to another, more private sort of dance.

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.
  • “Swinging on a Star” was composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burke.

Contact:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:16 — 5.9MB)

0746 - Blood and Bone

TBM-2005.19 – Blood and Bone

by

0746 - Blood and Bone

Description:

#audio. #flashfiction Eliza muses while stitching a quilt.

Excerpt:

But before… before all the mass production that took the soul out of handwork we used needles made from bone. Oh, you modern stitchers will wrinkle your noses and call it disgusting, but those bone needles had a bit of a curve to them, made the sewing go smoother, and their points were sharper than what you know.

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: 3:02 — 3.3MB)

Orchard House

TBM-2005.12 – Hope and Keep Busy

by

Orchard House

Description:

#audio. #essay The Alcott family in reality and the March family in Little Women

Excerpt:

The presentation I watched was low tech, but heartfelt. Jan Turnquist sat in a chair and spoke about the way the Alcotts – in reality – and the March family – in the novel – faced times of trouble and tribulation. “Hope and keep busy.”

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: 8:44 — 12.0MB)

TBM-2005.04 – Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)

by

Description:

#audio. #essay A piece I wrote last year that was supposed to be a didactic dialogue about gun violence. It’s neither didactic nor a dialogue.

Excerpt:

Before that day, neither of us even knew his name.

Before that day, we were typical American kids, who sometimes pretended we were holding rifles or pistols when improvising scenes or re-enacting favorite bits from action films.

Before that day, I had no problem playing video games that involved blasting alien ships out of the sky.

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.
  • Photo by Daniel van den Berg on Unsplash
  • 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: 9:57 — 9.6MB)

0893 - Twirly Girl

TBM-2004.30 – Twirly Girl

by

0893 - Twirly Girl

Description:

#Audio. #flashfic #photoprompt Twirling isn’t just for little girls.

Excerpt:

When she opens her eyes, she thinks she’s become one with the earth, because she can feel the world spinning and see the clouds circling above, and she thinks it’s the best feeling ever.

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.
  • Photo efrom the Facebook Flash Prompt group.
  • 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: 5:00 — 4.9MB)

youjeen-cho-jL3X9oeQ3Ps-unsplash

TBM-2004.27 – Recipe for an Easter Eve

by

youjeen-cho-jL3X9oeQ3Ps-unsplash

Description:

#Audio. #recipe #covidsmetamorphosis My version of a really simple Neopolitan classic.

Excerpt:

Always, on Easter Eve, with the kitchen smelling like vinegar, and our fingers stained blue, green, purple, we would make aglio e olio, which in our New Jersey, Neapolitan dialect becomes something  more akin to “ahlya awlya.”

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.
  • Photo by Youjeen Cho on Unsplash
  • 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: 7:20 — 7.6MB)

Robot head looking front on camera isolated on a black background

TBM-2004.23 – Family Planning

by

Robot head looking front on camera isolated on a black background

Description:

#Audio. #flashfiction #covidsmetamorphosis When your partner is a synthetic lifeform, family planning takes on a whole new dimension.

Excerpt:

“We lost a son,” I corrected. And we had, two years before Elizabeth was born. Our son, Jake, had been stillborn. There had been no discernible cause. Sometimes, even with all the technology of many, many worlds, horrible things just… happened. “We are not building a replacement.”

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.
  • Photo by stock photo from 123rf.com
  • 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: 4:33 — 4.5MB)

nick-morrison-FHnnjk1Yj7Y-unsplash

TBM-2004.20 – One Perfect Sentence?

by

nick-morrison-FHnnjk1Yj7Y-unsplash

Description:

#Audio. #essay #covidsmetamorphosis What determines whether or not a sentence is perfect?

Excerpt:

Maybe it should have seventeen syllables, all stretched out in a line like Hemingway wrote for warm-ups. “American sentences,” he called them.

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.
  • Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash
  • 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: 4:06 — 4.2MB)