Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast Podcasts

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Lay yourself down to sleep with the soothing soporific of Miette's purring voice reading you classic works of short fiction. Sweet dreams. Primary Format : Education Also Listed as: Books Educational City : Brooklyn State/Province : NY Country : USA Country : NA User Tags: User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: sleep | Classic | soothing | View this Podcast on a Google Map. Add to iTunes Text Only listing of Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast Podcasts Trumix.com listings available of Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast Podcasts Click Here to Update the directory of this podcasts programs.

Trumix.com listings available of Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast Podcasts Build your own playlists with this podcast. The Self-Contained Compartment During a trip by car I noticed a guy on the phone in a parking lot frantically trying to start his car, a kid really, a kid in trouble, just laying into the ignition while the engine was turning halfway over which indicated, to my limited capacity for automotive troubleshooting, that maybe his vehicle was [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Pukey “But when it thinks, I feel like vomiting.” With these words, it is clear that if Nigel Dennis were still around I’d be his groupie. I’d start the FaceBook Club and make mashups on Youtube for him and disguise myself as an editor at Rolling Stone Magazine to obtain his personal email address, which I [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Eveline Were I a listmaker, and perhaps I am, you would be the warm recipient of many reasons to be grateful when the internet goes for broke on Bloomsday. This list, were I to make one, would include the subcategories: FOR ME and FOR YOU. Topping the FOR YOU list, were such a thing [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Cask of Amontillado So I read in the news today about the Indonesian macaque monkeys who’ve learned to successfully catch fish, and how exciting this is for biology, and how it’s a living and breathing example of the adaptation of a species to its conditions and environment, and really it was all astonishing stuff to read. But [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Rose for Emily So, my "identity" was stolen recently. And not for the sake of sordid members-only internet sites or international travel or a weekend of Spitzering other scandalous activities that, if you're going to have your identity stolen, would constitute Theft in Style. No, my identity was used to buy clip art and stock photography and website services, which is about as exciting as cutting school to go and get a root canal, sneaking out of the house late at night to mow the lawn next door. You g ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Note on the Camping Craze That is Currently Sweeping America Fishing season began early this year for your Miette, with the streetside discovery of a freshly abandoned goldfish with wonky telescopic eyes, in its bowl and with a note reading: Free Fish! Please Give Steve Buscemi a good home. And of course I did. I found an exceptional home for him, a home where he’s [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Truth or Consequences After a week of muscle-burning manual work and long long drives, some of us settle in with a nice cold beer. For others-- maybe like me, who's to say -- it takes more that that... way more, maybe, to relax muscles as sore as these and attempt to put together nerves which have been plucked to the bone. For that reason, perhaps it's best to just shut up and read (if you're me) or grab a beer and listen (if you're you) and maybe write the Pulitzer committee about considering a Podcasting cat ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Last Class All week I've been wanting to read this to you, waking up more excited than the trashman on the day-after-Christmas, and running into my.... uh... recording studio (read: three paces from the bed) to see if it's quiet enough... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Binoculars A saw a sign the other day while out on a drive, a sign that said this: Frost Heaves. And I almost had to stop and compose myself, because I was so deeply distressed by the fact that frost can't heave in private (and I'm not a histrionic sort of girl), and saddened that a frost's heave has to be announced clearly for any old asshole who happens to be driving by... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Handful of Dates The question that's been asked a few times of me now: why don't I read more African writers? Actually, it's been asked more than a few times... enough times, in fact, to warrant the sort of qualifier most accurately described as MANY. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website In a Hole It's confusing, the name of tonight's author, right? I mean, the better known writer sharing this name didn't bother with a middle pseudonymous initial, and there's a slight tweak to the surname, but we readers would be none the wiser, push-to-shove, and would settle back with a cup of tea and upperclass accent. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lonesome Road A mildly embarrassing problem when getting under way with tonight's story, confessed in full in these lines: when I first sat down to read it to you this evening, I got caught on a raft in a sea of lexical continental drift, and over and over I stammered out the title only to have it read "Roadsome Load." No kidding: again and again. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby by As I lay writhing on my sickbed I was catching up on my milehigh stack of unread periodicals, and made my way to an article about one of the leading competitors for an upcoming race for a high position of public office in the country in which I'm living. Because, you know, there aren't many articles written about this, which is surprising, because from the sound of things, the race for this public office is not of no importance.... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lawyer Kraykowski’s Dancer A few days ago I was driving down the street behind a car which, as was warned by prominent display of rooftop sign, was being operated by a Student Driver... a sign which really wasn't necessary, given the stammering mid-intersection braking and sideview-mirror clipping taking place all the way down the road, and I had this great idea that it'd be a real public service - a true exercise of civic duty - if other drivers could collectively contribute to driving lessons, by driving like ravin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website From the Mouths of Buildings A message from the author of today's story: Do you ever wonder as you are reading a story, or hearing one, such as on a podcast, for example, what or whom has inspired a particular story? Picture this: imaginary "directions" or "instructions" for a story that the author creates-- after the story has been written--or told. Imagine that these "directives" led to this story--which in actuality they did not--well at least the author had no idea of any directives of any sort when the story ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Youth, Beautiful Youth Returning soon with a much-awaited all-new MBSP. Leaving you with a mightylong one to hold you till (the longest yet in one sitting, I think). For Dream, remembered always, and loved even longer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Hermann Hesse: Youth, Beautiful Youth Returning soon with a much-awaited all-new MBSP. Leaving you with a mightylong one to hold you till (the longest yet in one sitting, I think). For Dream, remembered always, and loved even longer. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fedya Davidovich HEY, Internet, I want to tell you all about Earideas. Wow, that sounded a little snake-oily- let me try that again: Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fedya Davidovich HEY, Internet, I want to tell you all about Earideas. Wow, that sounded a little snake-oily- let me try that again: Step right up folks and have a look at the one, the only, the world's finest, most discriminating, most hyperventilating-inducing collection of the web's best audio content: Earideas. There, that's a little less in your shopping cart of the internet sell-out mall. And I won't even mention that Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast is included in the Earideas directory of the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race I was thinking about the last story I read to you, and thinking it’d be nice if other events of this variety, the sort of events that are difficult to explain to small children, were similarly reimagined. And not just on a large scale, either. I’m talking about The Pulling of My Wisdom [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website J.G. Ballard: The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race I was thinking about the last story I read to you, and thinking it'd be nice if other events of this variety, the sort of events that are difficult to explain to small children, were similarly reimagined. And not just on a large scale, either. I'm talking about The Pulling of My Wisdom Teeth Considered as a Jaunt Through a Daisy Field, or The Love Affair Between Gravity and my Ceiling, Considered as a Synchronized Swimming Spectacular. And here's another. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Passion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race I hope those of you celebrating All Things Autumnal are settling into it well, the roast fowl and the hot cacao and woodfire smoke for dessert, and, well, you know the picture I'm aiming for here. It does wonders to the general countenance, I think: Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Alfred Jarry: The Passion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race I hope those of you celebrating All Things Autumnal are settling into it well, the roast fowl and the hot cacao and woodfire smoke for dessert, and, well, you know the picture I'm aiming for here. It does wonders to the general countenance, I think: case in point, we returned home not long ago to find the floor coated with the dust of construction detritus, and in the mood I was in, considered it almost as good as snow, a synaesthetic layering of scenariae which led this little brain of m ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? I read in the news yesterday that television writers here in the U.S. have gone on strike, and that because of the strike, everybody's arms are collectively thrown up in a great wide panic, because nobody knows what's going to happen on Charmed and because there's nobody to script the next great Wardrobe Malfunction, and this sounds like very bad news indeed and I was sorry to read it. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Joyce Carol Oates: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? I read in the news yesterday that television writers here in the U.S. have gone on strike, and that because of the strike, everybody's arms are collectively thrown up in a great wide panic, because nobody knows what's going to happen on Charmed and because there's nobody to script the next great Wardrobe Malfunction, and this sounds like very bad news indeed and I was sorry to read it. Genuinely so, and not because of an audience's deprivation, nor out of concern for people fortunate enoug ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Bell Tone At times during my podcastressing career, I have stumbled upon authors about whom I know very little, and have been fortunate to find that you, resourceful mariners of the Internet's belly, have proven yourselves well worth your collective avoirdupois in gold and other fine metals, and for that, I thank you. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Bell Tone At times during my podcastressing career, I have stumbled upon authors about whom I know very little, and have been fortunate to find that you, resourceful mariners of the Internet's belly, have proven yourselves well worth your collective avoirdupois in gold and other fine metals, and for that, I thank you. Sometimes, in fact, I'll strike big, and an author him or herself will get in touch and fill me in on the missing t-crosses and so on, and so I ask again, who can tell me anything abou ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Lady of the House of Love Andrea was kind enough to suggest and supply a sufficiently Halloweeny bit of ghoulishness to reconcile the setback of temporary lack of access to mine own troves. In the hopes of exponentially increasing the sympathy factor, let it be known that in addition to being without books, the chief operating offices of Miette's bedtime have been largely internet-free for the past weeks, in what would, under normal circumstances, Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Angela Carter: The Lady of the House of Love Andrea was kind enough to suggest and supply a sufficiently Halloweeny bit of ghoulishness to reconcile the setback of temporary lack of access to mine own troves. In the hopes of exponentially increasing the sympathy factor, let it be known that in addition to being without books, the chief operating offices of Miette's bedtime have been largely internet-free for the past weeks, in what would, under normal circumstances, leave a girl like me a little mildewy-eyed, save for the fact that, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Red Room So listen, about today's story, well, as you'll know when you listen to the first minute, I'm running low on resources at the moment, tapped, so to speak, at least, until things are nice and orderlied again. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website H. G. Wells: The Red Room So listen, about today's story, well, as you'll know when you listen to the first minute, I'm running low on resources at the moment, tapped, so to speak, at least, until things are nice and orderlied again. And so those willing to share might send their finds and recommendations via the Electronic Scenicroadway to miette (at) hereabouts (domain-wise). And to repay you in advance, why not check here for one of the better audio finds I've made in these parts. But I think for best effect, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Fly While settling in and to avoid the appearance of mothballs, here's another Mansfield. And while this isn't the first time we've rocked her boat, she's a voice so nice I'll read her unspliced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Katherine Mansfield: The Fly While settling in and to avoid the appearance of mothballs, here's another Mansfield. And while this isn't the first time we've rocked her boat, she's a voice so nice I'll read her unspliced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website I See You Never Last night, I was thinking of what to write to you today while starting to doze off just prior to handing over the wheel. I woke up with one of those Holy Mother I'm Dozing Off kind of starts, and, as I was now more alert than usual during this leg of the trip, I made the sad discovery that what I'd read as the Bikini Avenue Exit was actually something far more G-Rated, and significantly less scandalous. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ray Bradbury: I See You Never Last night, I was thinking of what to write to you today while starting to doze off just prior to handing over the wheel. I woke up with one of those Holy Mother I'm Dozing Off kind of starts, and, as I was now more alert than usual during this leg of the trip, I made the sad discovery that what I'd read as the Bikini Avenue Exit was actually something far more G-Rated, and significantly less scandalous. Which was a drag for me, because I've spent months thinking, as I sleepily drove past ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fear Where I am, dear listeners, it's hot. And for reasons which terrify some, confound others, and lead to the sort of mass collective eye-rolling that I'd rather avoid (because the energy produced therein would raise the outside temperature another half-degree), I'm not the sort to articondition the air. Which means: it's hot, here, big vats of frying oil hot, and there's no reprieve inside these walls. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Rhys Davies: Fear Where I am, dear listeners, it's hot. And for reasons which terrify some, confound others, and lead to the sort of mass collective eye-rolling that I'd rather avoid (because the energy produced therein would raise the outside temperature another half-degree), I'm not the sort to articondition the air. Which means: it's hot, here, big vats of frying oil hot, and there's no reprieve inside these walls. And while I'd like to reach out and cry for help, I'm not sure you'd be able to distingu ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Virtuoso Herbert Goldstone, what are you going to tell me about him? Writes crazy sci-fi about thinking machines more human than man. This story in dozens of brilliant anthologia. Very little else to be found. The wiki draws a blank. This story is not a drop shy of Wondrous. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Virtuoso Herbert Goldstone, what are you going to tell me about him? Writes crazy sci-fi about thinking machines more human than man. This story in dozens of brilliant anthologia. Very little else to be found. The wiki draws a blank. This story is not a drop shy of Wondrous. And so, Internet, how about a little game of Be My Research Assistant? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How the World Was Saved A delivery truck pulled out in front of me the other day, freshly deflowered by a graffiti artist who chose to express him- or herself by relaying the following, in big blue caps: I LOVE SARAH, KINDA? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Stanislaw Lem: How the World Was Saved A delivery truck pulled out in front of me the other day, freshly deflowered by a graffiti artist who chose to express him- or herself by relaying the following, in big blue caps: I LOVE SARAH, KINDA? Which is nice, but only kinda. And some advice to other budding young taggers in need of epic gestures of romance: maybe you might consider keeping the paint safe in the can until you're a little more sure of things, right? And if that specific Sarah is reading, I'm sure he or she was jus ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sarah Cole Some days, as a podcastress, you find that it's about a billion and two degrees of sour sunshined degrees outside, measured by the scales of Daniel or Anders either/or, and while the last thing you feel like doing might involve heavy lifting dressed in black, the next to last thing, on days such as those, might involve trying to get discernible sound and meaning to emerge from your throat. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Russell Banks: Sarah Cole Some days, as a podcastress, you find that it's about a billion and two degrees of sour sunshined degrees outside, measured by the scales of Daniel or Anders either/or, and while the last thing you feel like doing might involve heavy lifting dressed in black, the next to last thing, on days such as those, might involve trying to get discernible sound and meaning to emerge from your throat. And on days like these, you, as a podcastress, would be grateful for offers from your listeners, to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Araby Happy Bloomsday to you, and happy third Bloomsday podcast from your Miette, an event which many of you will remember is dear to me. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website James Joyce: Araby Happy Bloomsday to you, and happy third Bloomsday podcast from your Miette, an event which many of you will remember is dear to me. And I can hear you now: "Oh, that's nice Miette, but Bloomsday is about Ulysses. When are you going to read Ulysses?" Well, I didn't do the entire thing (maybe next year) but with my friends at Librivox, we've managed to satisfy the best sort of Bloomophile. I'm serious. Really so. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Inflexible Logic Dearest listeners of the internet, I know. I've been gone. Many of you have pointed this out to me, though by the time I returned to read your pleas and queries, I was back, relieved of goneness, and racked with guilt over how abandoned you'd all been left, was at a loss at what I might read to redeem myself. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Russell Maloney: Inflexible Logic Dearest listeners of the internet, I know. I've been gone. Many of you have pointed this out to me, though by the time I returned to read your pleas and queries, I was back, relieved of goneness, and racked with guilt over how abandoned you'd all been left, was at a loss at what I might read to redeem myself. And excuse me for saying so, but I think I've outdone myself here. QED: tonight's story involves mention of Proust and Montaigne, chimpanzees, booze, guns, the laws of probability ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Everything A caveat for you listeners. Hell, a full-out warning: this is a long one, today's story, long and, dare I say it, a little dark, and not in the "change the bulb" sort of way. Which is just my way of saying to you: Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ingeborg Bachmann: Everything A caveat for you listeners. Hell, a full-out warning: this is a long one, today's story, long and, dare I say it, a little dark, and not in the "change the bulb" sort of way. Which is just my way of saying to you: this is not a first-date sort of story, really not, and it's probably not an endorphinator to be enjoyed on the treadmill. It's more a story, for you know, rainy nights and whiskey, or something to fill a long silence of a spat with friends or loved ones, or to drown out the s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Dancing Bear As a rule, yours (very) truly takes a big dollop of pleasure in knowing just a little something about the authors I'm reading to you. Where there are exceptions, they are serious exceptions, resuscitated from beyond the brink and leaving their snot in my mouth. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Etienne Barsony: The Dancing Bear As a rule, yours (very) truly takes a big dollop of pleasure in knowing just a little something about the authors I'm reading to you. Where there are exceptions, they are serious exceptions, resuscitated from beyond the brink and leaving their snot in my mouth. And today's could be considered one of those exceptions except I expect one of you may be able to present me with A Clue. And so, consider this a Bedtime Story Challenge: ply me with the choicest bits of biographical enumeration ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Literary Adventure Never having been one for bandwagonry (after all, the bumper's too high for me to jump, and I don't have much in the way of carnival skills from which is allegedly derived the phrase), but it can't be helped: if everybody and their thrice-removed step-great-uncle Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Roberto Bolano: A Literary Adventure Never having been one for bandwagonry (after all, the bumper's too high for me to jump, and I don't have much in the way of carnival skills from which is allegedly derived the phrase), but it can't be helped: if everybody and their thrice-removed step-great-uncle (or is it great, then step?) is talking about Bolano, the only thing for the likes of me to do is to just talk Bolano. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Richard Bausch: Nobody in Hollywood If I were a state fair judge offering blue ribbons after thoroughly scrutinizing the stories that have been read to you to-date, tonight's would be a heavy competitor for Most Gut-Bursting Opener in American Short Fiction, specifics of which, there's nobody can offer sympathy like me. And I'm pitting this as the prizewinning hen against the Great Openers, which you can see for yourself if you look at the archives. And since I've received permission to read this to you (for sometimes, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Two Gentle People Riding the big train today and started to daydream, in the daydreamy style of reductive logic unique to the accompaniment of a train horn, the subject which was What I Might Read to the Internet Tonight. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Graham Greene: Two Gentle People Riding the big train today and started to daydream, in the daydreamy style of reductive logic unique to the accompaniment of a train horn, the subject which was What I Might Read to the Internet Tonight. And so, in the comparatively confined space of that dreamscape, the decision of What To Read, usually answered with the same response to the question "What am I reading right now? or "Who's the First Writer That Comes to Mind... NOW?" become exponentially more imposing, as the question, in ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Daniel Curley: Love in the Winter Given that Tonight's Story invokes the Mann Act, and given that the Mann Act is bar-none the best Congressional Act of 1910 (and I dare you to find a better one. I mean, Chuck Berry was charged with violating the Mann Act. Frank Lloyd Wright too.) Now, I know it's been a hundred years and the Act's been amended to reflect the century's (uh) progress, but I'm wondering if it's possible for me to get arrested for the Mann Act (enumeration: I mean, could one be charged with a violation in the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Barton Midwood: One's Ship The news today tells us that a respected literary journal (not to be named here) has just released a list of names they consider to be The Best Young American Novelists, and among them, a full third of these names have not yet had a novel published.  And that's kind of odd.  Now, in other forums you might find your Miette boxing soap on matters like this, but here, I was genuinely tempted to call this one of the Best Young American Bedtime Story Podcasts, but instead, replay today's weath ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Love in the Winter Given that Tonight's Story invokes the Mann Act, and given that the Mann Act is bar-none the best Congressional Act of 1910 (and I dare you to find a better one. I mean, Chuck Berry was charged with violating the Mann Act. Frank Lloyd Wright too.) Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website One’s Ship The news today tells us that a respected literary journal (not to be named here) has just released a list of names they consider to be The Best Young American Novelists, and among them, a full third of these names have not yet had a novel published. And that's kind of odd. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Hour of Letdown What we’ve got going on here, for those assiduous enough to parse their eyes over these words (and I suspect that I’m not speaking about many of you, that most of you just download the listening bits, which is quite all right) — but for those of you reading, I thought I’d thank you with [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Tobermory At times, this little podcast of ours is thought of not unlike a nice helping of ice milk-- not bad for you, tasty even, in the right circumstances, but of questionable nutritional value. Not harmful, necessarily, but nothing that might be considered Useful For You. At then sometimes, someone will say otherwise, and that's not bad, usefulness. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Saki: Tobermory At times, this little podcast of ours is thought of not unlike a nice helping of ice milk-- not bad for you, tasty even, in the right circumstances, but of questionable nutritional value. Not harmful, necessarily, but nothing that might be considered Useful For You. At then sometimes, someone will say otherwise, and that's not bad, usefulness. That said, for the most part, what we have here may or may not be available online, as they are plucked at whimsy from Miette's Own Library, but ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Guy Davenport: The Haile Selassie Funeral Train Okay, so with this one your loyal Miette may be accused once again of the instigation of mind-bleeding ear pops, which is not minded, but in answer to which we may turn to today's author himself for further elucidation:The earliest indication of a mesoblast is manifested by a slight haziness at one single point within the ectoblast, close against its wall.Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast: Guy Davenport: The Haile Selassie Funeral TrainMiette's Low Key Story Podcast: Guy Davenport: The Haile S ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Leonard Michaels: The Deal Listening to this one earlier, I noticed something. A noise, behind the entire story, not unpleasant, entirely, but a nuisance, distracting, and not unfamiliar. And then it hits: The dog, oft noted in these recordings, had used the moments of storytelling to enjoy an early repast. And given the fact that a) the dog lacks lips and b) dog food is crunchy, this provided a good backing track that might have interrupted your listening enjoyment.And so, until now unprecedented in the history ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website E. B. White: The Hour of Letdown What we've got going on here, for those assiduous enough to parse their eyes over these words (and I suspect that I'm not speaking about many of you, that most of you just download the listening bits, which is quite all right) -- but for those of you reading, I thought I'd thank you with a nice double feature, off the books, Easter Eggy, as is known in certain dialects of geek, or maybe just Miette the Shrewd rearing her head to test the loyalty of the likes of you. Reading on? Here's the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Haile Selassie Funeral Train NOTA BENE This podcast is published with permission of the Guy Davenport estate. To further enjoy the works of Mr. Davenport, please see amazon.com or abebooks. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Deal Listening to this one earlier, I noticed something. A noise, behind the entire story, not unpleasant, entirely, but a nuisance, distracting, and not unfamiliar. And then it hits: The dog, oft noted in these recordings, had used the moments of storytelling to enjoy an early repast. And given the fact that a) the dog lacks lips Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Westinghouse Brake Plenty of you (because I'm supposing you're all geniuses) are aware of the arguably unattributable (King Solomon? Buddha? Lincoln? Miette?) aphorism, idiom, and, notably, universally applicable phrase "This Too Shall Pass. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Necrophil by While I suspect that some of you might be nursing a yen for happy wishful and firmly resolved pick-me-up for annus novus, be warned that it's not going to happen with today's story, with which you should prepared. If, on the other hand, you need a story in preparation for dirtying your hands or drinking too much, consider yourself In Luck. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Felipe Alfau: The Necrophil While I suspect that some of you might be nursing a yen for happy wishful and firmly resolved pick-me-up for annus novus, be warned that it's not going to happen with today's story, with which you should prepared. If, on the other hand, you need a story in preparation for dirtying your hands or drinking too much, consider yourself In Luck.Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast: Felipe Alfau: The NecrophilMiette's LOWER BAND Story Podcast: Felipe Alfau: The Necrophil -- LOBAND Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mikhail Zoshchenko: The Westinghouse Brake Plenty of you (because I'm supposing you're all geniuses) are aware of the arguably unattributable (King Solomon? Buddha? Lincoln? Miette?) aphorism, idiom, and, notably, universally applicable phrase "This Too Shall Pass." Well, it's been an unannounced mission for years to find another cluster of words of universal applicability and universal truth. And today, on a walk, I spotted a shop whose name is:Everything 99 Cents or Less... And Up.And with that, one more of life's little des ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mr. Blue by To offset or maybe just counterpoise the thin slice of news conveyed in the audio introduction to today's story, which, as has recently been pointed out to this podcastress, might be the most poetic science headline ever: Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Robert Creeley: Mr. Blue To offset or maybe just counterpoise the thin slice of news conveyed in the audio introduction to today's story, which, as has recently been pointed out to this podcastress, might be the most poetic science headline ever:Moths drink the tears of sleeping birdsWhich is fine, so long as they stay far away from these brackish ducts.Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast: Robert Creeley: Mr. BlueLOW BAND: Robert Creeley: Mr. Blue -- LOBAND Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Charles Willeford: A Letter to A.A. (Almost Anybody) In the interest of spitting a sluicy cobwebbed thread to tie together the conversations in and around this corner of the infoweb and its earbound counterpart, I wanted to offer up one more chance to allow our space to double as the hotbed of information on the social and biological activities of the Tree Squirrel, and bring some attention to our relationship with tree squirrels. For starters, Charles Willeford, of today's story, frequently set works in Florida, and without being a Florida ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Letter to A.A. (Almost Anybody) by In the interest of spitting a sluicy cobwebbed thread to tie together the conversations in and around this corner of the infoweb and its earbound counterpart, I wanted to offer up one more chance to allow our space to double as the hotbed of information on the social and biological activities of the Tree Squirrel, and bring some attention to our relationship with tree squirrels. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Texts for Nothing (VIII) by Because nothing says Hither Holiday Season like the Kris Kringle of Krabby, and because as you will soon hear, your Miette has learnt that nothing says Hither Holidays like a Headcold, tonight's story speaks for its self. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Samuel Beckett: Texts for Nothing (VIII) Because nothing says Hither Holiday Season like the Kris Kringle of Krabby, and because as you will soon hear, your Miette has learnt that nothing says Hither Holidays like a Headcold, tonight's story speaks for its self.Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast: Samuel Beckett: Texts for Nothing (number VIII)Strike up the LOW BAND: Samuel Beckett: Texts for Nothing (number VIII)-- LOBAND Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Except for the Sickness I’m Quite Healthy Now. You Can Believe That. by Nice title, right? In my efforts to knock your socks to obscurantist skies, I'm willing to offer a dollar to the first listener who can prove he or she already knows of this story (currently in the running (BY THE WAY) for Miette's Top Short Fiction Find of the Decade, and how's that for a reason to listen?). And how to prove this? I don't know. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Thomas Glynn: Except for the Sickness I'm Quite Healthy Now. You Can Believe That. Nice title, right? In my efforts to knock your socks to obscurantist skies, I'm willing to offer a dollar to the first listener who can prove he or she already knows of this story (currently in the running (BY THE WAY) for Miette's Top Short Fiction Find of the Decade, and how's that for a reason to listen?). And how to prove this? I don't know. Lie detectors can be beaten. FMRI scans are not inexpensive, and neither are my own telepathic services.I'm willing to offer two dollars, then ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Picnic of Mores the Cat by Today's is another story by an author of whom I know very little, which I've plucked from a collection of Big Guns German fiction including Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, Kafka's Metamorphosis, Hoffmansthall, Hermann Broch, ad krautium, Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Clemens Brentano: The Picnic of Mores the Cat Today's is another story by an author of whom I know very little, which I've plucked from a collection of Big Guns German fiction including Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, Kafka's Metamorphosis, Hoffmansthall, Hermann Broch, ad krautium, serious big-league uberplayers, which only deepens the rift in my brow over the fact that I don't know much about Brentano. The biographical paragraph accompanying the story doesn't reveal much, but does inform The Reader that "His was a restless, thorough ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website My Bludjeon and the Bobbed White by But would you believe that I spent the last couple of weeks dedicated to trying mightily and hard to uncover the identity of tonight's author before hurling the fruits of these findings to splat on your walls. Maybe I spent the week after mired in self-pity at having failed you... failed YOU, the Internet, whom I adore. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Carl Krampf: My Bludjeon and the Bobbed White But would you believe that I spent the last couple of weeks dedicated to trying mightily and hard to uncover the identity of tonight's author before hurling the fruits of these findings to splat on your walls. Maybe I spent the week after mired in self-pity at having failed you... failed YOU, the Internet, whom I adore. Maybe the week after I picked myself up off the floor of despondency was passed by trying, and trying hard because I'd already failed you in so many ways, to make it thro ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website On a Grand Scale by So, Ilf and Petrov met while working on a newspaper for railway workers, which is intriguing to me. For starters, where's the podcastresses' newspaper, and why have I not been invited to participate? My life's literary collaborator could be waiting there, slinging the pen on the audio-coding equivalent to pieces on socialism and coal hauling, Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Ilf and Petrov: On a Grand Scale So, Ilf and Petrov met while working on a newspaper for railway workers, which is intriguing to me. For starters, where's the podcastresses' newspaper, and why have I not been invited to participate? My life's literary collaborator could be waiting there, slinging ink on the audio coding equivalent to pieces on socialism and coal hauling, and if he or she is really someone destined to be -my- collaborator, well, patience is surely running out. Maybe it's just that I'm pretty sure I'd fe ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Talpa by Another Listener has asked whether I might be kind enough to share a few words about my reading process for aspiring podcasters and podcastresses. I am, of course, always glad to share secrets, although in this case I don't think there's anything illuminating about it. In typical sarcastresse fashion, I could just say that it's a matter of opening a book and opening a mouth. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Scarlet Ibis (Unabridged) by I know the great controvery of the Scarlet Ibis has bothered you, and I confess to great shame at using this controversy to draw attention away from the various corporate scandals, celebrity affairs, and political horrors that are sucking the steam off the almost pervasive media coverage known to some as HurstGate. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Scarlet Ibis by A Listener (you know who you are) wrote to me recently requesting that I laugh hysterically for fifteen minutes into my microphone and post this as a short story for you. Now, while I agree that this would be a particularly amusing johncagey experiment, I have not, unfortunately, seen hyenaic laughter transcribed this way, [...] Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website James Hurst: The Scarlet Ibis A Listener (you know who you are) wrote to me recently requesting that I laugh hysterically for fifteen minutes into my microphone and post this as a short story for you. Now, while I agree that this would be a particularly amusing johncagey experiment, I have not, unfortunately, seen hyenaic laughter transcribed this way, and have no idea what it might look like on the page. As always, if you can send the story, though, I'll see what I can do. Thankfully, Denise (you also know who yo ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Joke by Does the title of today's story affect you in such a way that the person nearest you is now asking what you're sighing about? Or maybe you rolled your eyes so far to the side that you now have a stress headache and need to refocus before reading the rest of this blurb? (If so, please, take a moment. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Paul Goodman: The Joke Does the title of today's story affect you in such a way that the person nearest you is now asking what you're sighing about? Or maybe you rolled your eyes so far to the side that you now have a stress headache and need to refocus before reading the rest of this blurb? (If so, please, take a moment. The next few words aren't -that- important, and I won't be accountable for repeated stress injuries. I just won't.) Because it had that effect on me, typing it just now. I mean, there's Ku ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Juan Rulfo: Talpa Another Listener has asked whether I might be kind enough to share a few words about my reading process for aspiring podcasters and podcastresses.  I am, of course, always glad to share secrets, although in this case I don't think there's anything illuminating about it.  In typical sarcastresse fashion, I could just say that it's a matter of opening a book and opening a mouth.  Or, if I were giving a master class on the subject, I might conceive of ways in which you might make love to y ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Señor Payroll by There is a bottling facility close to where I live, and while "bottling facility" might look like elusive high-security stuff to the random passerby, between you and I, it's best described as a warehouse for bottled beers. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website William E. Barrett: Senor Payroll There is a bottling facility close to where I live, and while "bottling facility" might look like elusive high-security stuff to the random passerby, between you and I, it's best described as a warehouse for bottled beers. This morning, while walking my dog past the top-secret bottling facility, a man driving a forklift full of cases of red stripe beer had evidently just taken a too-sharp turn, or landed in a pothole, or had been drinking too much of his cargo, because his forklift was ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Conjurer Made Off with the Dish by If this podcast was Miette's Themetime Story Podcast, the theme of today's story might be 'coming-of-age,' or it might be 'how to make beans in Egypt,' or maybe it's 'reverence,' or perhaps it might be nothing more than 'how to charm the socks right off of both feet of Miette.' Outstanding questions, answers, and requests to come, but this first for evident reasons. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Fard by Because I am a good, supportive, helpful sort, I took a friend recently to purchase a new pair of running trainers. Which isn't a very exciting way to begin a pre-podcastal anecdote, but don't go away yet! You see, it wasn't at all what I'd come to expect from my Friendly Local Sneaker Salesperson. No! Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Aldous Huxley: Fard Because I am a good, supportive, helpful sort, I took a friend recently to purchase a new pair of running trainers. Which isn't a very exciting way to begin a pre-podcastal anecdote, but don't go away yet! You see, it wasn't at all what I'd come to expect from my Friendly Local Sneaker Salesperson. No! My friend was placed on the pedestal of a treadmill and told to run, a treadmill attached to video camera equipment and analytics software and a multi-screen view of his feet in action, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Dark Lantern by As you know, there's not much room on these pages for political soapboxing, both because there are already plenty of internet playgrounds for that sort of thing, and because I'd rather freestyle on such endlessly gripping topics as the weather or this podcast's sound quality. However. I have an opinion that must be voiced. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Julse Renard: The Dark Lantern As you know, there's not much room on these pages for political soapboxing, both because there are already plenty of internet playgrounds for that sort of thing, and because I'd rather freestyle on such endlessly gripping topics as the weather or this podcast's sound quality. However. I have an opinion that must be voiced. You know the centenarian who sits in the corner of your office, who doesn't do much, but who's generally innocuous, whose very presence is as critical to your environ ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sophistication by Today's bedtime story has been requested by Patrick (as for the O'Connor, I will do, yes, but for now, have you heard this one?), and I looked all over town but couldn't find a more appropriate selection for today, so you should all join me now in thanking him. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sherwood Anderson: Sophistication Today's bedtime story has been requested by Patrick (as for the O'Connor, I will do, yes, but for now, have you heard this one?), and I looked all over town but couldn't find a more appropriate selection for today, so you should all join me now in thanking him. Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast: Sherwood Anderson: Sophistication Lower-band, for the young and restless: Sherwood Anderson: Sophistication --- LOBAND Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Five Boons of Life by My friends and compeers and heroes at Librivox are celebrating their first birthday right now, and so I felt it necessary to add my kudos to their basic first-year achivements: Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Mark Twain: The Five Boons of Life My friends and compeers and heroes at Librivox are celebrating their first birthday right now, and so I felt it necessary to add my kudos to their basic first-year achivements:-- cutting teeth on Conrad and Dostoevsky-- picking up the necessities of verbal communication with Wilde and Wodehouse-- and now, sleeping in Big Kids Bed and breaking themselves from thumbsucking thanks to Descartes and Machiavelli.Really, they do what I do here, only without so much swearing, and with a little more ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How the Devil Lost His Poncho by A question too often asked of me: how is a specific story or specific author on a specific day selected? Rather than answer the question directly (because what's the use of renting one's own outdoor space if not to desultorily blather around or plant cobwebbish morning glories around it?), I thought I would instead give you insight into the metrics, processes, and rationale behind today's selection. Steel yourselves: Listen |