May 2, 2018

Barista Ruby Fink’s Podcasting AMA

Barista Ruby Fink’s Podcasting AMA

A letter from our Audio Arts barista. It’s Ruby Fink’s Podcasting AMA (ask me anything)!   Greetings, beloved readers, writers, artists and friends, If you don’t know, the Fictional Café is going to be turning five years old on May 22nd… live on Facebook. This is a very special occasion, and will be celebrated with the pomp and jubilation that only a five year old website dedicated to the arts deserves. However, this day would not be possible without all of you. Without the 500+ subscribers, artists, writers, readers, visionaries and dreamers from 6 continents and over 40 countries sending in their masterpieces, Jack and the rest of us baristas would have folded our tents, separated and gone back to our random doodles, poems, sappy love stories and hermit-like, minimally social lifestyle. (Or maybe that’s…

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April 13, 2018

“The Diarist” – Your Friday Night Podcast

“The Diarist” – Your Friday Night Podcast

We welcome a new auteur and audio arts experience tonight with “The Diarist,” created by Rose Gluck, as she prefers to be known. Here’s her description of “The Diarist,” an audio story replete with a cast of characters. music and sound effects. We present the first episode here, tonight, for you Coffee Clubbers one and all. After completing Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School, Andrea Davies takes a position at a large New York Advertising firm, admittedly to find a husband and secure a life as a well-to-do country-club socialite. Andrea becomes increasingly drawn into her boss Richard Hayes’ bizarre personal life. She begins to assume the role of his wife and mother to his young daughter. However, a parallel reality continues in his apartment, where his psychotic wife moves in and out of insanity. Things are…

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March 30, 2018

“The Red Panda” Audio Comes Alive — in Video!

“The Red Panda” Audio Comes Alive — in Video!

That’s right, Coffee Club devotees, this week you can not only listen to The Red Panda – you can watch him and his gorgeous kickass partner The Flying Squirrel in action! Here are two special episodes, selected by our Audio Arts barista Ruby Fink, which have been graphically depicted a la cartoon strip style. They’re just wonderful to watch as you listen, so have at it. We thank Decoder Ring Theatre for a whole month of their wonderful “audio adventures,” as Decoder Ring’s head honcho, Gregg Taylor, likes to call them. And if you’ve enjoyed these Decoder Ring Theatre presentations, please give them a click and check out how much more is available – all totally free. Gregg has been writing and producing his audio adventures since 1999 – almost twenty years. You can learn…

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March 24, 2018

New Audio Adventures From Decoder Ring Theatre!

New Audio Adventures From Decoder Ring Theatre!

Today we offer for your listening pleasure two episodes, personally selected by our Audio Arts Barista Ruby Fink, of Decoder Ring Theatre’s “Black Jack Justice” series. Yes, Jack is a bit darker character than the Red Panda. Each of these is a self-contained episode, so enjoy. Please click the arrow below to begin listening to “Justice Delayed,” Episode 4 from “Black Jack Justice,” Season One, Feb. 18, 2006. Please click the arrow below to begin listening to “Justice is Blind,” Episode 3 from “Black Jack Justice,” Season One, Feb. 4, 2006. Be sure to “tune in” next week for something extra special from the Decoder Ring Theatre!    

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March 16, 2018

Ruby’s Two Favorite “Red Panda” Audio Adventures

Ruby’s Two Favorite “Red Panda” Audio Adventures

Welcome back fellow listeners! Hi, it’s Ruby, your Audio Arts Barista, bringing you another audio adventure featuring the marvelous masked mystery man known as the Red Panda, and his trusty female partner, the Flying Squirrel!* Despite the 119 episodes the talented and prolific Gregg Taylor has written and produced, Episode 7, “Red Panda: Dead or Alive” [from Season One] will always hold a special place in my heart as the one that truly epitomizes the relationship between Kit Baxter, aka The Flying Squirrel, and the Red Panda. In every other superhero love story you can think of, the relationship between one superhero and one citizen (or two superheroes) features the tragic, at best, “I love you, but the life I’ve chosen will put you in danger, so we can’t be together.” Gregg Taylor thankfully, does…

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March 9, 2018

Audio: “Black Jack Justice” and a Bonus Web Video!

Audio: “Black Jack Justice” and a Bonus Web Video!

    This week, at your request, two episodes of “Black Jack Justice,” from the Gregg Taylor and the Decoder Ring Theatre cast, who also produce “The Red Panda.” As with the Red Panda, each of these Black Jack episodes are complete stories. We’re offering Gregg’s brilliant work all this month, and today you get a sneak peek inside the studio as the cast performs. You’ll get to see a group of real professional voiceover actors in their natural habitat – in front of microphones! Please click on the arrow below to listen to “Black Jack Justice, episode 55. Please click on the arrow below to listen to “Black Jack Justice, episode 56. BONUS VIDEO: Please click on the arrow below to watch the Decoder Ring Theatre cast perform.          

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March 2, 2018

Friday Night Audio: “The Red Panda”

Friday Night Audio: “The Red Panda”

Thanks to Ruby Fink, our Audio Arts Barista, for selecting the work of one of her storycasting heroes to launch our March audio/podio books. Gregg Taylor, an author and podcaster from Toronto, not only makes great stories, but he’s incredibly prolific, having been at it for about 15 years. From his website: “In the tradition of the great mystery men of radio, pulp fiction and the golden age of comics comes The Red Panda, famed protector of 1930s Toronto! “Hiding his true identity as on of the city’s wealthiest men behind a bright red domino mask, The Red Panda dispenses two-fisted pulp justice with strength, courage and eerie hypnotic powers. Joined in his quest by that Famed Fighting Female The Flying Squirrel, this Terrific Twosome holds high the lamp of justice in a dark time!”…

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February 16, 2018

“Saratoga Noir” – The Thrilling Conclusion

“Saratoga Noir” – The Thrilling Conclusion

Here are the last chapters [15-20] of ZBS’s outrageous audio drama, “Saratoga Noir,” in which we finally learn if Danny Boyee, our fearless [and often, it seems, clueless] gumshoe is gonna stay out of Velma’s and Johnnie’s bars long enough to find that gol-danged cat. Or maybe find True Love with the sweet, high-spirited, named-after-the-orange Valencia? Listen, then . . .           If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard – and seen – please visit the ZBS website. They have loads of great stories to listen to for hours of inexpensive, high-quality audio pleasure. The best deal is the $5/month streaming.    

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February 7, 2018

Introducing Ruby Fink, FC’s New Audio Arts Barista

Introducing Ruby Fink, FC’s New Audio Arts Barista

You’ve heard me rave about how wonderful podcasts and audiobooks are for years. Now it is with great pleasure I present Ruby Fink, a kindred spirit and very talented audio producer, as our new Audio Arts Barista. I met Ruby under the most auspicious of circumstances: She had joined FC and submitted some episodes from “Mickie McKinney, Boy Detective,” a very funny and entertaining podcast which she wrote, directed and produced with a host of actors playing different roles. It was like listening to the old-time radio dramas, but better! She studied Film Production at Chapman University’s Dodge College, taking a minor in Narrative and Dramatic Literature. She fell in love with audio shows while finishing her senior year and began writing and creating her own Mickie McKinney podcast with the help of a MacBook, professional…

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