February 14, 2025

“Madison on the Air” by Chrisi Talyn Saje

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts, Featured Posts

Happy Valentines Day Fictional Cafe Listeners! Do you love old time radio? Don’t know anything about old time radio? Well, if you enjoy comedy, we’re the show for you. Follow Madison Standish, a modern day influencer, as she gets zapped back into the Golden Age of Radio. Actual OTR scripts adapted! It’s as if the MST3K/Riff Trax guys were in the movies they riff. Every episode is stand-alone. Start at the beginning or jump to a title that grabs you. New episodes premiere the first of every month! When modern day twenty-something, Madison Standish, finds herself transported into old time radio dramas, her first stop is “Dragnet.” Partnering up with Sergeant Joe Friday, Madison must help track down a missing woman, and all evidence points to foul play. With the backdrop of 1950s Los Angeles,…

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February 13, 2025

5 Poems by Allison Whittenberg

Posted by Malik White in Featured Posts, Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Ulrike Mai on Pixabay* This week features some wonderful poems by Allison Whittenberg. We always appreciate uniqueness at FC, and Allison’s gritty style certainly appealed to us. Take a look for yourself and tell us what you think! Proximity going out for breakfast and never coming back my husband left me in my wheelchair green from the insurance, gone so is the time I could have insisted more the driver was my friend, can you deep sue a friend? the accident, foreseeable to anyone who wasn’t seeking fun and 18 7 of us piling in 4 seats handsome man from influential family turbo style driving on the wrong side of the road jeep flips we catapult I land in a tree I can’t feel my legs 7 hours of surgery I…

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February 6, 2025

8 Art Pieces by QQ Yi

Posted by Malik White in Featured Posts, Fine Art, Member Writing & Art

*Curated by Fine Arts Barista, Yucen Yao* We have another set of art pieces this week, this time featuring QQ Yi. It is clear that QQ is a talented artist in many of its mediums: from painting, to writing, and music as well. I hope she shares her work with us again in the future as she continues to grow as a person and an artist. Artist Statement: I enjoy smearing words on your face, just like spreading paint on a canvas. What is medium, truly? It is the essence of mountains, kiwis, books, melodies, winds, birds, dried fragments of skin, dumplings, Sichuan peppercorns, the passing of three birthdays, nocturnal pathways, the inexplicable affection for another, stones, Pat Martino’s guitar riffs, chairs, a light bulb cradled in a pillowcase, the hummingbird outside my window, the…

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January 24, 2025

10 Collage Pieces by Joe Suh

Posted by Malik White in Featured Posts, Fine Art, Member Writing & Art

We have something special for you all on FC this week. Our Arts and Design barista, Yucen Yao, has been working hard since she joined, and we finally have a chance to show some of the work she has curated for us. First up, we have a set of collage pieces by Joe Suh. I especially resonated with Joe’s artist statement because I feel like it embodies what Fictional Café stands to be – a creative space for artists to express and share their passions. I’m happy Joe decided to share his work with us, and I hope he shares more of his creations with us in the future. Artist Statement: My personal practice focuses on the physical and meditative exploration that comes from creating physical collages in a digitally dominated profession. As a contrast…

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January 22, 2025

“Less is Morgue” A Praeps Collective Production

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts, Featured Posts

Less is Morgue is an award-winning comedy fiction podcast that’s equal parts hilariously offbeat and unexpectedly heartfelt. At its core are two unlikely co-hosts: Riley, a paranoid and somewhat abrasive ghoul, and Evelyn, a bubbly ghost whose life ended in spectacularly ironic fashion at a Nickelback concert in 2004. Together, they broadcast their quirky basement talk show, where the supernatural is just another day in the office, and things rarely go as planned. Set in an alternate version of Tallahassee, Florida, where monsters roam freely and the paranormal is perfectly ordinary, the show delivers a wild mix of absurdist horror-comedy and heartfelt storytelling. Each episode introduces a parade of delightfully eccentric characters—from zombies and vampires to otherworldly entities—all while exploring surprisingly relatable themes. Beneath the layers of chaos and dark humor, Less is Morgue weaves…

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January 18, 2025

“Wire Man” by Andrew Newall

Posted by Malik White in Featured Posts, Writing

*Featured image courtesy of FenesiKinga on Pixabay.com* Heroes can come in all shapes and sizes, and Andrew Newall proves that in his wonderful piece, “Wire Man”. This is a very unique story that I’m sure all of you will enjoy, and I look forward to seeing more stories from Andrew in the future. A little man made from one rod of wire, no more than eight inches tall, shrugged off his motionless pose and walked to the edge of his high shelf to look across the studio. Strewn with drawing and painting utensils, it was standard chaotic clutter uplifted by striking watercolours, pastels and models lying here and there. The artist had left for lunch. That familiar sound of the door locking signalled play time for the wire man and his colleagues. Papier mâché figures…

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January 8, 2025

“From Now” by Rhys Wakefield and William Day Frank

Posted by Ruby Fink in Audio Arts, Featured Posts

If you’re a sci-fi fan, this podcast deserves a spot on your playlist. The story begins with a spaceship that mysteriously vanished in 2025, only to reappear in 2060. When the ship’s door opens, the world is left speechless as crew member Eddie steps out, looking exactly as he did 35 years ago. Experts are baffled, unable to make sense of what’s happened. The only person who might have answers is Eddie’s identical twin, Hunter, now an aging man with a lifetime of distance between him and his brother. The podcast follows their reunion as they piece together the mystery of Eddie’s disappearance and grapple with the implications for their future. Starring Richard Madden and Brian Cox, the show features exceptional performances and immersive sound design that bring the story to life. It’s an easy…

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January 7, 2025

8 Poems by John Grey

Posted by Malik White in Featured Posts, Member Writing & Art, Writing

*Featured image courtesy of Tama66 on Pixabay* Happy New Year! Let’s kick it off with a wonderful set of poems from longtime FC contributor, John Grey. CAR NERD On his wall, he’s hung a poster of an automobile cutaway. It’s his version of Miss August in a swim-suit. The poster’s so detailed you can see the ball joint, the bushings, tie rod, disc brake rotor, universal joint. The tiny boxes with the arrows are unnecessary. He knows each part by name and function. I’m a book worm. I accept that. But he’s this other kind of worm, hatched in floor pans, fed on exhaust, dressed in STP. And, on his dresser, there’s this photograph of a bright red mustang circa 1965. One loving glance at it and he’s on the highway, foot to the floor, …

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September 18, 2024

Radio . . . What? RadioGAGA!

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Featured Posts, Interviews, Member Writing & Art, Web Video, Writing

Philip Gabbard returns to Fictional Cafe with a new creative fiction project: a film treatment based upon a very popular song from the 1990s. Phil is a create-preneur of many talents and interests and we’re always interested in his work. He’s written creative nonfiction, THISday: Words for the Venerable and the Vulnerable, and Thrivation: The Everlasting Philosophy of Providence + Privilege. He penned (on his MacBook Pro) Every Saint, Every Sinner, a novel about his spiritual experiences. He produced and directed an extraordinary video based on the life and death of an archetypal Hispanic woman called La Llorona. Phil is beholden to Freddy Mercury and Queen for the inspiration to write about radio. More specifically, the rise and nowadays the fall of radio broadcasting. With the rise of television, its demise was probably inevitable. TV…

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