Merry
(Insert Your Ancient, Ritualistic Tradition Here)!
Since there won't be any more stories appearing on the website until late January 2010, I thought I'd put together a little 2-month CD giveaway, so you don't have to go entirely into audio-story withdrawal during this time of merriment and revelry. I'm just generous like that. Anyway, here's how it'll work:
1. Sign up for the (free!)
FrankMarcopolos.…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on December 20, 2009 at 8:23am —
No Comments
" 'There is an hour to come,' said he, 'when all of us shall cast aside our veils. Take it not amiss, beloved friend, if I wear this piece of crape till then.'
'Your words are a mystery, too,' returned the young lady. 'Take away the veil from them at least...' "
Friends,
The new story up on the website is "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Check it out here:
http://frankmarcopolos.com
Hawthorne was a 19th-century novelist and…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on December 8, 2009 at 1:00pm —
No Comments
"The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however..."
Friends,
The new story up on the website is "The Cask of Amontillado" by the Godfather of horror, Edgar Allan Poe. The story centers around an intense revenge plot. Our hero decides that the offenses he has suffered at the hands of one Mr. Fortunato require nothing short of extreme measures to ensure they a…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on November 24, 2009 at 10:00am —
No Comments
Friends,
Have you ever felt like you had a hemp noose around your neck, ready to die at any moment? Time slows to a surreal pace, your brain accelerates, and all of your senses sharpen in a way you could never imagine previously. This is the predicament our hero finds himself in as we meet him in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce. It's up on the site right now...
http://frankmarcop…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on November 10, 2009 at 1:30pm —
No Comments
Friends,
The concluding episode of "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" is now up on the site. Since Dostoevsky can seem intimidating, I've been making jokes on my Facebook fan page like:
"Yah, sure, Dostoevsky wrote some pretty good stuff, like the novels Crime & Punishment and The Brother Karamazov. But everyone knows his true masterpiece is The Dream of a Ridiculous Man. Say what? That story's up on the website right now? ...Huh. Ain't that a coinky-dink? And lucky for YOU, kind sir or gentl…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on October 27, 2009 at 10:30am —
No Comments
Friends,
The new story on the website is called, "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (Part 1)." It was written by the great Russian author, Fyodor Dostoevsky. It tells the tale of the corruption of a(n) utopia similar to a pre-fall Earth.
I recorded the tracks for the podcast somewhat differently than I ordinarily do. They were longer in length this time. And when I mixed them down, the file was about double the size it normally is. It usually comes out to be around 1 MB per 1 minute of audio, but…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on October 13, 2009 at 5:50am —
No Comments
Friends,
Have you ever known someone who was a "goody-two-shoes"? (Much, much worse than a goody-one-shoe, BTW.) Y'know, that little nerd at the front of the class telling the teacher she forgot to give the class homework? Ever wondered what happened to those people later in life?
Well, find out what happens to one such goody-two-shoes, a certain Jacob Blevins, in the current story up on the website, "The Story of the Good Little Boy Who Did Not Prosper," written by America's most searing wit,…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on September 29, 2009 at 8:00am —
No Comments
For the past few weeks, I've begun studying for some professional exams that I'll be taking over the next 18 months. So, if you want to know all about the Prouty Approach and Risk Financing Techniques and Methods for Identifying Loss Exposures, just ask and I'll be happy to fill you in!
If you just want to be entertained, however, click over to the website. The current post is my performance of H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "The Picture in the House." Lovecraft, of course, is best known as the…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on September 1, 2009 at 6:30am —
No Comments
It's been a steamy, disgusting August so far in New York City, one that I've managed to survive only by taking six cold showers a day, blasting the AC, and eating nothing but Klondike bars. Hope your summer's been less adventurous!
As far as the website goes, my performance of a story by Mark Twain is up. It's called, "The Story of the Bad Little Boy Who Didn't Come to Grief." I hope you enjoy it...
http://frankmarcopolos.com
This one's short and funny, so there's not much to say as far as th…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on August 18, 2009 at 8:00am —
No Comments
I'm back from an exhausting but fun-as-Hell weekend in New Paltz, albeit with more sunburn and mosquito bites than I had when I left. Nonetheless the audio-fiction show must roll on. To that end, a new story is up on the website. It's "The 7 Poor Travellers" by Charles Dickens, and it's here...
http://frankmarcopolos.com
For this podcast, I skipped over some of the beginning of the story and the end, where the narrator walks to and from the Master Watts charity house. If you want to read the w…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on August 4, 2009 at 6:40am —
No Comments
‘‘True!—nervous—very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed-not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and obseve how healthily-how calmly I can tell you the whole story...’’
Because this is a famous work of literature, critical analysis abounds on the Internet:…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on July 21, 2009 at 6:30am —
No Comments
"Can Erik and Batu revolutionize convenience retail? And what about all those zombies?"
POTENTIAL DISCUSSION TOPICS:
- How would YOU feel if you had to wear experimental C.I.A. pajamas?
- There's a lot of play between death (Charley as a salesperson of death, sleeping as a kind of Death Lite, the bee guy) and the after-life (the ghost dogs, the zombies, the Ausible Chasm, the concept of post-mortem retail, the translation of the Turkish title.) What's up with all that?
- If YOU had to invent…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on July 7, 2009 at 4:30am —
No Comments
"Can Erik and Batu revolutionize convenience retail? And what about all those zombies?"
Potential Discussion Topics:
- Is the All-Night Convenience a metaphor for life itself? If so, how?
- What other kinds of symbology are used in the story (if any)?
- Is a new style of retail, one that will usher in a revolutionary era, on the horizon?
- Do you believe in ghosts? Zombies? Dog ghosts? Why or why not?
- Do you sleep in pajamas?
- What other themes/issues/whatevers from the s…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on June 23, 2009 at 8:54am —
No Comments
"A young U.S. Army Paratrooper at Fort Bragg, NC falls in love with a beautiful, intelligent woman who is married to a man--allegedly--in Black Ops.
Since the Paratrooper has pledged to stay true to the Code of the Brotherhood, what will happen when he succumbs to the married woman's powerful charms?"
FOCUS:
- Do you believe in the Code of the Brotherhood -- or any other kind of code to live by?
- Should everyone live by a code of conduct?
- If so, how do you decide what kind of code you sh…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on June 9, 2009 at 5:43am —
No Comments
"Easy Freed, Brooklyn bounty hunter extraordinaire, gets an ominous warning from a bail jumper he knows all too well. When that warning becomes a window-shattering reality bullet, Easy is pushed beyond even his own limits."
FOCUS:
- In a world where violence is as common as sunlight, is it possible for a man to get to the top of that world WITHOUT using violence?
- Is it possible to truly START OVER -- to break away from your past and begin anew? (This brings to mind the end of…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on May 26, 2009 at 9:00am —
No Comments
“A caffeinated journey to the heart of the American Web2.0 dream.” A summer road trip to Temple University with the audiobook version of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” blaring from the car radio sparks some thought-provoking questions:
FOCUS:
Are Web2.0 tools making it easier for us to connect — or more difficult?
Is Google foiling real-world hijinks?
Could God actually BE love?
Does the interconnectivity of Web2.0 mirror the int…
Continue
Added by Frank Marcopolos on May 24, 2009 at 7:14am —
No Comments
PODIOBOOKER
