LifeLabNotes

It was November of 2016. North Hollywood's El Portal Theatre was visited by a merry cast of talented voice actors, musicians, and audience members. There was chocolate (graciously provided by the delicious El Buen Cacao) and a wintry faerie who, with an audience volunteer, would announce each date to start off the story. We recorded twenty-five short, holiday-themed stories that night and the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar was born. It was too good to hear just once, so we reissued it the following year. And now it's back again, with its cheerful silliness and heartfelt hope! We hope you enjoy it again or anew, as much as we did making it!

Please visit LifeLabNotes.com for information about each date's story, its writer and performers, and the musicians who added their magic.

Today's episode, "Merry Krampus," was written by Silvie Zamora.

It was November of 2016. North Hollywood's El Portal Theatre was visited by a merry cast of talented voice actors, musicians, and audience members. There was chocolate (graciously provided by the delicious El Buen Cacao) and a wintry faerie who, with an audience volunteer, would announce each date to start off the story. We recorded twenty-five short, holiday-themed stories that night and the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar was born. It was too good to hear just once, so we reissued it the following year. And now it's back again, with its cheerful silliness and heartfelt hope! We hope you enjoy it again or anew, as much as we did making it!

Please visit LifeLabNotes.com for information about each date's story, its writer and performers, and the musicians who added their magic.

Today's episode, "Elf Training Camp", was written by Denny Siegel.

It was November of 2016. North Hollywood's El Portal Theatre was visited by a merry cast of talented voice actors, musicians, and audience members. There was chocolate (graciously provided by the delicious El Buen Cacao) and a wintry faerie who, with an audience volunteer, would announce each date to start off the story. We recorded twenty-five short, holiday-themed stories that night and the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar was born. It was too good to hear just once, so we reissued it the following year. And now it's back again, with its cheerful silliness and heartfelt hope! We hope you enjoy it again or anew, as much as we did making it!

Please visit LifeLabNotes.com for information about each date's story, its writer and performers, and the musicians who added their magic.

It was November of 2016. North Hollywood's El Portal Theatre was visited by a merry cast of talented voice actors, musicians, and audience members. There was chocolate (graciously provided by the delicious El Buen Cacao) and a wintry faerie who, with an audience volunteer, would announce each date to start off the story. We recorded twenty-five short, holiday-themed stories that night and the 2016 Audio Advent Calendar was born. It was too good to hear just once, so we reissued it the following year. And now it's back again, with its cheerful silliness and heartfelt hope! We hope you enjoy it again or anew, as much as we did making it!

Please visit LifeLabNotes.com for information about each date's story, its writer and performers, and the musicians who added their magic.

One for sorrow,

Two for mirth (or joy, or luck, in some versions),

Three for a wedding,

four for a birth, (or a death, in some versions),

(Three and four are sometimes for "a girl" and "a boy," respectively.)

So many options.

The old nursery rhyme goes on:

Five for silver,

Six for gold,

Seven for a secret never to be told.

Eight for a wish,

Nine for a kiss,

Ten a surprise you should be careful not to miss,

Eleven for health,

Twelve for wealth,

Thirteen, beware. It's the devil himself.

Look for the signs.

You've got big plans. Worked out every detail. Thought of every contingency. Except one. "12 Elves 'til Christmas" is a story about a dream, a machine, and half a team.

[Explicit -- One swear word, bleeped.]

Presented by Life Lab Notes - field observations from the lab of Life in a storytelling podcast.

12 Elves 'til Christmas features the voice talents of Claire Barnhart, Keith Ferguson, Ernie Gilbert, Robyn Heller, Chris Mathieu, Phil Ward, and Silvie Zamora. Engineering by Phil Ward. Written and directed by Silvie Zamora.

You're always welcome over at LifeLabNotes dot com, and you can find us on Instagram or Facebook @LifeLabNotes. Thanks for listening!

Big news! Life Lab Notes has stumbled upon the remote meeting link and password for the weekly meeting of a certain local chapter of a certain group of elves. Obviously, we cannot divulge our sources.

Listen in as Carol tries to control the bunch, especially Dibbles, who's in a mood.

Featuring the voice talents of Claire Barnhart, Keith Ferguson, Ernie Gilbert, Judith Goldstein, Kristen Smith, Inger Tudor, Phil Ward, and Silvie Zamora. Written, directed, produced by Silvie Zamora.

Please visit www.LifeLabNotes.com for more info about this episode.

If a radio play and an audio book met at a haunted campfire to share a chilling account of mayhem that takes place in hell and the parking lot of a real estate office, it would sound like this: Whistlebottom - a trespasser's tale.

Written and performed by Silvie Zamora. Battle March by Phil Ward. Episode album art by @jamahartart.

Slowly, guarding herself carefully, Cathy has been opening up to La Señora, but it's going to take one more episode, one more recipe, to help her open up to herself. This is that episode. This is the last installment in our three-part series, Slow Cooker Chronicles - A Fable in Three Recipes. This is Chapter Three: Desimmer (There's more than one way to make hot chocolate.)

Featuring the voice talents of Nerea Duhart as Cathy; Graciela Valderrama as La Señora; and Phil Ward as the neighbour. Written by Silvie Zamora and Vanessa Espino, with original music by Phil Ward.

Chapter Two: Slowvember (Giving the Seeds Their Heat) Part two is chock full of flavour and, like any good fable, metaphors. Cathy remembers a little from her last visit with La Señora, but will this month's Tex-Mex Chile con Carne push her further away from herself?

Featuring the voice talents of Nerea Duhart (Chiquita/Cathy) and Graciela Valderrama (La Señora). Written by Vanessa Espino and Silvie Zamora. Music by Phil Ward.