Escape Artists

PodCastle => Episode Comments => Topic started by: Heradel on April 13, 2010, 12:04:54 PM

Title: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Heradel on April 13, 2010, 12:04:54 PM
PodCastle 99: The Hag Queen’s Curse (http://podcastle.org/2010/04/13/podcastle-99-the-hag-queens-curse/)

by M.K. Hobson (http://www.demimonde.com/).
read by Christiana Ellis (http://christianaellis.com/).
Originally appeared in Realms of Fantasy (http://www.rofmag.com/).

1986. Salty’s. Newport, Oregon.

Colored shadows from the square-tiled disco floor flash against finger-grimed black walls. There is a mirror ball and a pair of cute bartenders who are always squabbling. Two tall Marshall stacks in each corner thump out a beat you can feel all along Bay Boulevard. Jeff and Kat come down to Salty’s every Saturday night because in Newport Oregon in 1986 there’s nothing else to do on a Saturday night if you haven’t the taste for pickup trucks, country music, and mullets.

Always the same people. Skinny transient boys with names like Etienne and Colby; they spasm on the dance floor, get up intrigues in dark corners, pass little plastic packages of white powder from hand to hand. Always the same music: Adam Ant, Depeche Mode, Dead or Alive, Culture Club, The Cure. Always the same table, the wobbly dark one in the back with the red glass candleholder. Kat likes to dip her black fingernails in the melted wax and then peel it off like dead skin. It creeps Jeff out.

Jeff dresses preppy in pastel Izods and pressed chinos. He drinks pina coladas and saves the paper umbrellas. Kat wears black, sips Manhattans through crimson-painted lips, and smokes clove cigarettes in a long jeweled holder.

Every Saturday, it’s the same.

Until the pirate.


Rated R for the fashion woes inflicted by Adam Ant and complicated relationships.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Scattercat on April 13, 2010, 08:56:42 PM
I saw this in Realms and wondered how long it would be until it got here...  ;-)

I do have to say that I had a hard time relating to the characters; I must just not be part of the subculture, but the descriptions we gave didn't give me enough to go on, and so their subsequent actions felt a little disconnected.  I had a better experience of it here on PodCastle, but as this was my second time with the story, it's hard to say if that was the audio or just knowing what was going to happen and being able to see the incoming twists better.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Audita Sum on April 13, 2010, 11:45:10 PM
When I first saw the title, I read it as "The Drag Queen's Curse" and was kind of disappointed when I realized my error. It turned out I wasn't far off the mark, though.

M. K. Hobson's writing is always good. Some lines made me laugh aloud. This wasn't really my favorite, though. There's been an upsurge in all forms of media recently of the dynamic of the fag and his hag and it's very rarely done well. Too often, the gay character's only purpose is to be sympathetic to the straight female protagonist and go shopping with her and bond over cute boys and he is given very little personality of his own. For the most part I thought this story wasn't too bad about that, but it strayed into dangerous waters when Kat said, "I prefer the term 'gay man in a woman's body.'" I've heard that line so many times.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Listener on April 14, 2010, 01:05:31 PM
I enjoyed the 80s setting and the humorous lines, but I had a lot of trouble actually caring about the story or the characters. The fight between the pirate and the warlock didn't capture me -- or, more precisely, it WOULD HAVE if the story had stayed in the original timeline. I didn't really care if Jeff and Kat made it to San Francisco or not, Brady was the catalyst for way too much exposition and little else, and I don't think any of the 80s characters really had any redeeming qualities. Except perhaps Patty, because he was an EMT.

I also felt that it went on for far too long and I somehow failed to understand how 11 hours passed between Jeff getting bodysnatched and Cat/Brady/Rogers going back to the bar -- I had the feeling it was still night. Kind of like that Buffy episode (I may be quoting apocryphally here; I never watched the show) where she's fighting the vampire and he loses track of time but then gets fried when she opens the curtains... or did she open the curtains, make him laugh at her, then stab him? I don't know. It's been a while. But anyway, kind of like that feeling -- like night was far longer than it actually is.

Oh, and FWIW, Arby's old-style fries were far better than their curly fries. And given how good their curly fries are, that's saying something.

Good choice for reader -- with this many male characters around a female MC you really need a woman who can convincingly do male voices without sounding like (with all due respect) Steve Eley's "Megaton" voice from Union Dues.

So, y'know, some good funny bits and a good story germ but I didn't really care for the end result.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Gia on April 14, 2010, 11:10:24 PM
The magical pirate fight was good and overall I didn't hate the story, but I had a lot of issues with it.

Apparently hag means something other than what I think it means and it went right over my head. "Kat is a decrepit old woman?" I remember thinking to myself. "I don't remember that part."

Rogers and the pirate were sent to (I forget the magical word) a place a stagnation, boredom and such, which is an interesting idea, but it came after the beginning narration about how nothing ever changed. That made it sound more like a unsubtle way of saying that Kat needed something new it her life.

I somehow failed to understand how 11 hours passed between Jeff getting bodysnatched and Cat/Brady/Rogers going back to the bar -- I had the feeling it was still night.

I was wondering about that too. it's an enormous plot hole. The only explanation that I could think of was that they were high for several hours, but if your friend were possessed by a magical pirate would you spend hours on end getting high? And it shouldn't still be night after eleven hours (unless they were in the Arctic, which they weren't) so that would conflict with the whole seeing-the-sun-and-never-being-able-to-go-home thing.

Now that I think about it, the pirate only being able to spend thirteen hours in one body is kind of a plot hole too. Yes, he can steal everything the person owns,  but what's he going to do with it? It's really hard to cart your ill-gotten fortune to the country and enjoy it of a little while if you need a new body twice a day. He basically spends his whole life looking for the next guy with the right boots.

One more plot hole. This is the last one. I promise. Why was Patty allowed to vacuum up the pirate dust and keep it? Wouldn't the police what to take it for their investigation?
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Scattercat on April 15, 2010, 01:06:14 AM
Apparently hag means something other than what I think it means and it went right over my head. "Kat is a decrepit old woman?" I remember thinking to myself. "I don't remember that part."

Relevant (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fag+hag).
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Heradel on April 15, 2010, 01:44:19 AM
Apparently hag means something other than what I think it means and it went right over my head. "Kat is a decrepit old woman?" I remember thinking to myself. "I don't remember that part."

Relevant (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fag+hag).

Yes, very.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Jim F on April 15, 2010, 03:09:14 AM
Weak.

The writing is solid enough and never gets in the way, but in the end one is left with a feeling of "What's the point?"  The alternative history set up piece is terribly weak and one gets the felling the whole thing was just a setup for the 'fag hag' line.

Which for someone as talented as MK Hobson, is a disappointment.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Unblinking on April 15, 2010, 01:23:46 PM
Didn't finish it, which is too bad because I've enjoyed some of Hobson's other work here.

The beginning setting in the past seemed to be competing with itself for the number of modifiers it could use in a small space and it got to the point where that was a huge distraction.  And I didn't really care about the warlock (who seemed to be a soldier not a sorcerer?), the pirate, or the hag, or what happened to any of them.  Then it jumped to the 80s to add two more characters that I didn't give a damn about as they complain about their lives and go on about their dreams that I also don't care about.  Even when the pirate shows up, it's told so drily that still nothing was getting my interest, and then the girl comes out of the bathroom after taking a noseful of happiness and I was just content to skip the rest.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Talia on April 15, 2010, 09:26:09 PM
I thought this story was great. I'm rather shocked so many people seem to disagree.

Because indeed what's not to love about time travelling, body-stealing pirates? hehe. :)

I thought it was just a really fun story. I could empathize with the feeling of being stuck, do I did find I cared about the characters. I actually enjoyed the dry way the pirate re-entered the scene in the modern day. Part of the appeal for me was the almost casual way the fantastical elements were introduced into the modern day setting - I think it added an amusing flavor to the tone of the piece. I got a kick out of some of the little details too, like the mental image of a pirate beating up Beethoven (or whatever comparison it was the story used, I forget) in the street. How can you not think of that and grin. :)


RE: the warlock: he was both a soldier (well, a sailor technically) and a sorcerer. He did cast spells in the story. It was part of his job.

Two and a half thumbs up.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: tinroof on April 15, 2010, 09:34:44 PM
So hanging around with gay people gives you magical blood and dominion over men's souls?

Awesome, I'll keep that in mind.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Talia on April 15, 2010, 09:52:33 PM
So hanging around with gay people gives you magical blood and dominion over men's souls?

Awesome, I'll keep that in mind.

I can't figure out if you're joking or implying that's what the story is suggesting :P

(doesn't seem to me like the story's saying that at all..).
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: tinroof on April 16, 2010, 12:03:06 AM
Sort of both, actually. They kept saying she was a hag and therefore had dominion over them and it seemed like all of a sudden the whole story had turned into an excuse for a bad pun. I mean, maybe it was supposed to be that she had the powers for some other reason and the hag/fag hag thing was just a very contrived coincidence but they really didn't put much effort into explaining it, if that was the case.

Most of the story was fun, but by the end I was honestly more baffled than entertained.


I should also state, for the record, that I completely loathe the term "fag hag". Which may have influenced my response somewhat.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Boggled Coriander on April 16, 2010, 12:42:55 AM
Okay, I liked this story.  It had me at the phrase "Warlock First Class, United States Navy." 

I was amused at the double meaning of "hag" - and has no one else thought of "The Fireman's Fairy", another PodCastle story with an awfully similar double-meaninged title?

Okay, maybe I just have a dirty mind, but it seemed the story hinted at some naughty puns that it could have made, but chose not to.  (Hint: "Seamen".)  I respect that.

Did Kat say 1768 near the end when she meant to say 1798?  Was that intentional?
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: RicV on April 16, 2010, 12:56:02 PM
This story seemed to be missing elements that would have made it a better audio read.  In print this works as the reader's mind fills in the blanks, but as an audio piece it makes you feel like you missed something.  I could see this being worked into a longer piece easily as the alternate history line is only skeleton developed.  I found myself wanting to know more about how the navy used warlocks and what were all the kinds of magical scaliwags out there.  Was the warlock corpse only responsible for hunting down magical pirates?  I am also not sure what the point of the 80's as a landing point for their exile.  What were we saying about the 80's? 
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Unblinking on April 16, 2010, 01:30:56 PM
Because indeed what's not to love about time travelling, body-stealing pirates? hehe. :)

When you say it like that it sounds so great, but I just didn't like the execution. 
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Talia on April 16, 2010, 02:14:54 PM
Because indeed what's not to love about time travelling, body-stealing pirates? hehe. :)

When you say it like that it sounds so great, but I just didn't like the execution. 

To each their own, I suppose. It worked for me (apparently I'm in the minority, though. That's ok, not everyone can be as awesome as me :p :p).
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Listener on April 16, 2010, 02:25:07 PM
Sort of both, actually. They kept saying she was a hag and therefore had dominion over them and it seemed like all of a sudden the whole story had turned into an excuse for a bad pun.

I kind of felt that too, although I actually appreciated the cleverness of it, how Rogers realized (a) she thinks she's a hag and (b) how he can use that to his advantage.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: tinroof on April 16, 2010, 03:10:22 PM
Listener - yeah, I considered that too, but any way you look at it, it's still kind of incoherent.

Option One: Being a "fag hag" really did give her magical powers, in which case the whole story was written in support of a really not very good pun.

Option Two: She didn't really have the power, the pirate just thought she did because he didn't know the real meaning of "fag hag", and so he automatically obeyed her when she yelled. But that's pretty contrived to begin with, and then they actually did (I think?) use her blood to go back, plus the Warlock believed she could come get him if she wanted. I'd think a warlock would be able to tell if someone honestly had power or not.

Option Three: She had the power but it had nothing to do with being a "fag hag" in which case it's Plot Convenient Ability Out Of Nowhere. Which is pretty objectively bad writing.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I just think if Ms. Hobson had meant to take a less ridiculous option she would have been a little clearer on what was actually going on.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Talia on April 16, 2010, 03:12:45 PM
You're not taking into consideration the fact that she was a Goth who was wearing a pentagram on a necklace. It seemed pretty clear to me the "hag" was referring to her Gothyness, not the "fag hag" thing.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Heradel on April 16, 2010, 03:37:49 PM
You're not taking into consideration the fact that she was a Goth who was wearing a pentagram on a necklace. It seemed pretty clear to me the "hag" was referring to her Gothyness, not the "fag hag" thing.

Yeah, apart from the fag-hag punnery there was some fairly clear goth in her makeup. I got the sense that it was one of those worlds where she didn't know she had magic until she was A. convinced it exist and B. someone started believing in her. It was actually kind of a Monomyth with the shoes standing in for the magical object/gift and the warlock being the supernatural aid.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Seekerpilgrim on April 17, 2010, 12:01:01 PM
First time posting, but this story had just the right combination of humor, urban magic, and absurdity to draw me in.

  As an 80's kid, I can totally see some red lipped, leather clad shoegazer lusting after a pair of exotic, well crafted boots while dealing with the disintegration (like The Cure tie-in?) of a human body at a nightclub/bar. The reader got the voices down pat, male AND female, quickly and effectively enough that I knew who was talking without narration.

...and ANY story that mentions Depeche Mode and Adam Ant automatically gets high marks. :)
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: blueeyeddevil on April 17, 2010, 12:44:26 PM
There's an old George Carlin joke where he says (I paraphrase): 'You know, somewhere in the world, there has to be somebody who is the worst doctor, just statistically. And he's seeing someone right now.' That's how I feel about this story.
Something has to qualify as the worst Podcastle story, and I think this is a strong contender.
Now wait, I know what you're saying:
 "The prose is good, the voice work was good, some of the jokes are funny."
Of course it was, this is Podcastle after all, this isn't amateur hour.
It's the plot itself. I could forgive the steampunk (Revolutionary War Magepunk?) /mid-eighties mashup bit, even though neither timeline adds anything specifically to the story save the opportunity to make a terrible pot joke (General Washington's Herb?), and is a bit of red meat for the fanbase that loves to look back on the age of cocaine and aids denialism through rose colored specs. I can forgive the massive deus-ex-macguffin, though I don't want to (frickin' telepathy!? And all its used for is to tell her about the boots. It's like introducing a death ray and using it to reheat coffee). What I can't forgive is the ending. Really? Bad pun/etymological equivocation humor? 'Hag' having two interpretations, that's it? This story was self-indulgent without being even a guilty pleasure. That is a grave literary sin.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Anarquistador on April 19, 2010, 04:16:35 AM
...and ANY story that mentions Depeche Mode and Adam Ant automatically gets high marks. :)

And Arby's curly fries. Don't forget that. Those are good.

I thought the writing was very evocative of time and place, though I did have Warlock flashbacks a few times. And I am tickled by the appopriateness of Hell with the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1980s. That seems to make sense somehow...
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Rain on April 19, 2010, 10:14:45 AM
I cant really think of anything positive to say about this one, didnt find the story very interesting, the characters were very unlikable and reading didnt really help.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Portrait in Flesh on April 19, 2010, 08:49:59 PM
I thought the writing was very evocative of time and place, though I did have Warlock flashbacks a few times.

Yeah, at the point where Rogers asked Kat whether she was good or evil, I immediately thought to myself "a goodly woman does not paint herself."

I've been accused of a bad pun or two, but yowch.  They may have gone down a bit easier if, well, the characters weren't quite so shallow.  Maybe shallow isn't the right word...underdeveloped, maybe.  Just couldn't really get hooked into them. 

Kind of like that Buffy episode (I may be quoting apocryphally here; I never watched the show) where she's fighting the vampire and he loses track of time but then gets fried when she opens the curtains... or did she open the curtains, make him laugh at her, then stab him?

I just saw this recently (it's the 2nd episode, I believe).  Buffy's fighting the vamp, and then breaks a window behind him telling him he's forgotten that it's morning.  The vamp starts cowering and screaming, and then stops when he realizes it's still dark outside.  Buffy ends by saying he's forgotten that it's morning...in about 9 hours.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: danooli on April 19, 2010, 09:57:25 PM
wow, i was pretty entertained by this story.   i laughed, i worried, i reminisced.  I do love and did live the 80's "new wave" scene though, so that colored my opinions i'm sure. 

That said, i did find it rather convenient and rather inexplicable that Kat was a "hag."  Really?  Where didthat come from?  I think I'd be able to enjoy a longer length version of this story, with more time spent in the distant past.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Talia on April 19, 2010, 10:41:26 PM
wow, i was pretty entertained by this story.   i laughed, i worried, i reminisced.  I do love and did live the 80's "new wave" scene though, so that colored my opinions i'm sure. 

That said, i did find it rather convenient and rather inexplicable that Kat was a "hag."  Really?  Where didthat come from?  I think I'd be able to enjoy a longer length version of this story, with more time spent in the distant past.

It came from the fact that she was a Goth and was wearing a pentagram (pentacle?).
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: danooli on April 20, 2010, 10:59:48 AM
wow, i was pretty entertained by this story.   i laughed, i worried, i reminisced.  I do love and did live the 80's "new wave" scene though, so that colored my opinions i'm sure. 

That said, i did find it rather convenient and rather inexplicable that Kat was a "hag."  Really?  Where didthat come from?  I think I'd be able to enjoy a longer length version of this story, with more time spent in the distant past.

It came from the fact that she was a Goth and was wearing a pentagram (pentacle?).
it was rather unclear though.  if it were simply the case of a goth girl being a witch, then I had a lot of friends who would have fit the bill back in school...
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Talia on April 20, 2010, 01:26:37 PM
wow, i was pretty entertained by this story.   i laughed, i worried, i reminisced.  I do love and did live the 80's "new wave" scene though, so that colored my opinions i'm sure. 

That said, i did find it rather convenient and rather inexplicable that Kat was a "hag."  Really?  Where didthat come from?  I think I'd be able to enjoy a longer length version of this story, with more time spent in the distant past.

It came from the fact that she was a Goth and was wearing a pentagram (pentacle?).
it was rather unclear though.  if it were simply the case of a goth girl being a witch, then I had a lot of friends who would have fit the bill back in school...

I would think most people from the 1700's (or 1800's, whichever) would consider any modern day Goth very witchlike, yeah.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Unblinking on April 20, 2010, 01:34:20 PM
Portrait in Flesh:  I love your avatar.  Hello Cthulhu Kitty!
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: ridiculouslee on April 20, 2010, 08:05:29 PM
So hanging around with gay people gives you magical blood and dominion over men's souls?

Awesome, I'll keep that in mind.

I think it's more the fact that Kat was born with the open mind, wit, creativity, and all around fierceness that most fag hags possess that makes her magical. Not just the fact that she hangs around gay people. But I'm sure you already knew that!

But hey! I really enjoy that gay men are sometimes referred to as "fairies" (even though it's supposed to be an insult) because I think the title kind of fits fact that we tend to be more stylish, well groomed, and artistically inclined than the average straight man. So I guess if you're a woman who hangs around a bunch of fairies, a little magic is bound to rub off.  ;)
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: alllie on April 25, 2010, 12:15:07 AM
I thought this story was great. I'm rather shocked so many people seem to disagree.

Because indeed what's not to love about time travelling, body-stealing pirates? hehe. :)

I thought it was just a really fun story.

I too thought it was a lot of fun. I feel sorry for the people who couldn't enjoy it.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: mbrennan on April 25, 2010, 12:22:59 AM
Count me among those for whom this one didn't work.  I was more interested in the opening scene (though I agree with Unblinking that the prose there was too heavily embroidered -- I might have been able to skip past all the adjectives on the page, but in audio they just kept slowing down the action), and the notion of an alt-hist America where the Navy employs warlocks.  Then the leap to Ultima Thule, which seems to have been both the future *and* an alternate timeline, given that naval warlocks aren't treated as a known bit of history.  I kind of felt like that element would have been stronger if it had been just future, not also alternate.

As for the '80s part . . . maybe it's that I'm too young to have really good nostalgia for the period?  Things that might have been evocative weren't.  And the characters, while okay, were a lot less interesting to me than the original set.  It picked up again once Kat went outside and saw Jeff "beating up Mozart" (which was, admittedly, a fun description), but all the stuff prior to that felt like a detour to me, asking me to care about their plans to get away to San Francisco when I wanted to know more about the pirate and the warlock.

Finally the ending, which was definitely too pat.  I didn't like Brady being offered up as a sacrificial lamb of sorts, I didn't like Kat's obsession with the boots, and her role as "hag" missed the target of "awesome parallelism" and instead hit "well, that's convenient."  My take was that she *did* have magic powers, not just that she convinced the guys to obey her -- but where did that come from?  She's got the telepathy thing with Jeff, but that never really justified itself to me; it was just a way for her to know he was possessed.  Sure, she dresses like a goth, but she denies being a witch, so clearly she doesn't work for her power.  Then where did she get it?  Just coincidence?  Or from her identity as a "fag hag"?  It might have worked in a story about half the length of this one, where wordplay can be enough to hold the ending together, but not in this case.

Which is a shame, because time-traveling body-hopping pirates and naval warlocks and such sounded like a really fabulous premise.  But the result didn't hang together enough for me.  I enjoyed it somewhat while listening, but the more I thought about it afterward, the less satisfied I was.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: radlilim on April 26, 2010, 01:57:43 PM
I guess I'm one of the few who liked this one, which surprises me a lot. I felt it was a nice time traveling mix with the right amount of magic applied. Christiana's reading was awesome as always and really helped bring the characters across, if one is going with a solo read.

I felt the puns and jokes were well played. Too much of the fantasy I've listened to and read lately is serious, or depressing, or "trying to analyze the social structure in the story which mirrors the present day". And all of that heavy thinking lightly coated with a fantasy finish grates on my nerves. While some of the puns were groan worthy, and there were a few problems with answering all of the loose ends on how and why things happened the way they did, I feel that having a lighthearted story with some humor in it gives fantasy fans a break.

It was a breath of fresh air in this genre.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: LaShawn on April 29, 2010, 03:19:30 PM
I'm in the middle of listening to it now. I keep stopping every few minutes because...I'm sorry...I'm just laughing too hard. I find this story hilarious--I think mainly because of Christiana's reading of it. Her depictation of Brady is so f*cking rad. And I just got to the part where Kat gushes about the boots, and when she sees the skulls and crossbones...RAPTURE!!!  I'll have to check out her other stuff now.

I think the reason why I like this is because I'm part of the 80s culture, and I've been in situations where you hang out with people you sort of care about at places that are dumps because there's no where else to go.

Okay, back to listening...as soon as I hit rewind so I can hear Kat gush over the boots again. ::giggle::
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: stePH on May 07, 2010, 03:34:02 PM
I enjoyed this story, though the haters do have valid criticisms of it.

The wife and I've been to Newport to visit the Fish Zoo, but we didn't go to Salty's.  I've never heard of the place.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: StopYodelingNgargling on May 30, 2010, 03:31:59 AM
While I enjoyed this story I couldn't help thinking, "Will this be a Syfy Original Someday?"
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Portrait in Flesh on May 30, 2010, 03:46:02 AM
While I enjoyed this story I couldn't help thinking, "Will this be a Syfy Original Someday?"

Oh, man, harsh.   ;D
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: drworm on June 03, 2010, 10:09:07 PM
While I enjoyed this story I couldn't help thinking, "Will this be a Syfy Original Someday?"

Oh, man, harsh.   ;D

Oh wow, harsh but true
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Listener on June 04, 2010, 09:08:29 PM
While I enjoyed this story I couldn't help thinking, "Will this be a Syfy Original Someday?"

Oh, man, harsh.   ;D

Oh wow, harsh but true

Hey, if it is, that means the author got paid good money for the rights. Even the people whose stories are optioned for SyFy originals probably make a nice chunk of cash.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Unblinking on June 17, 2010, 04:35:44 PM
While I enjoyed this story I couldn't help thinking, "Will this be a Syfy Original Someday?"

Oh, man, harsh.   ;D

Oh wow, harsh but true

Hey, if it is, that means the author got paid good money for the rights. Even the people whose stories are optioned for SyFy originals probably make a nice chunk of cash.

I doubt I'd turn down a check from SyFy, but I don't know that I'd put it on my resume if I was the one responsible for inflicting "Mega Piranha" on the general public.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Portrait in Flesh on June 17, 2010, 04:43:29 PM
While I enjoyed this story I couldn't help thinking, "Will this be a Syfy Original Someday?"

Oh, man, harsh.   ;D

Oh wow, harsh but true

Hey, if it is, that means the author got paid good money for the rights. Even the people whose stories are optioned for SyFy originals probably make a nice chunk of cash.

I doubt I'd turn down a check from SyFy, but I don't know that I'd put it on my resume if I was the one responsible for inflicting "Mega Piranha" on the general public.

I should be ashamed to admit that Chupacabra: Dark Seas is, IMO, a crackin' good movie.

But I have no shame.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Unblinking on June 18, 2010, 01:45:35 PM
I should be ashamed to admit that Chupacabra: Dark Seas is, IMO, a crackin' good movie.

But I have no shame.

I actually liked Tin Man, partly because I'm a rabid Ozophile, and partly because Zooey Deschanel is my Hollywood girlfriend.  Alice had some cool elements, but overall fell kind of flat, which is a shame because my love for Wonderland is on par with my love for Oz.

So I'm not saying they can't produce anything that I enjoy.  Just that they really need to stop making movies like Mega Piranha--it's embarrassing.  And they need to change their name back to Sci Fi.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Listener on June 18, 2010, 02:50:37 PM
I should be ashamed to admit that Chupacabra: Dark Seas is, IMO, a crackin' good movie.

But I have no shame.

I actually liked Tin Man, partly because I'm a rabid Ozophile, and partly because Zooey Deschanel is my Hollywood girlfriend.  Alice had some cool elements, but overall fell kind of flat, which is a shame because my love for Wonderland is on par with my love for Oz.


I liked Caterina Scorcone (sp) as Alice. She's a good enough actress, and now she's probably going to be a regular on Private Practice. But yeah, Tin Man was better than Alice by far. Alice just didn't make enough sense.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Unblinking on June 21, 2010, 05:21:44 PM
I actually liked Tin Man, partly because I'm a rabid Ozophile, and partly because Zooey Deschanel is my Hollywood girlfriend.  Alice had some cool elements, but overall fell kind of flat, which is a shame because my love for Wonderland is on par with my love for Oz.


I liked Caterina Scorcone (sp) as Alice. She's a good enough actress, and now she's probably going to be a regular on Private Practice. But yeah, Tin Man was better than Alice by far. Alice just didn't make enough sense.
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I very much liked Caterina as well.  Actually I didn't have trouble with the casting in general, I liked Hatter as well, and it's always fun to see Tim Curry drop in and Kathy Bates is born to play crazy.  The inclusion of the Walrus and the Carpenter was kind of neat, I've always enjoyed that poem, especially after the opening discussion at the beginning of the movie Dogma.

But yeah, the plot itself was pretty bleh.
Title: Re: PC099: The Hag Queen’s Curse
Post by: Portrait in Flesh on June 25, 2010, 02:54:27 PM
So I'm not saying they can't produce anything that I enjoy.  Just that they really need to stop making movies like Mega Piranha--it's embarrassing.

So I take it that Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/06/debbie-gibson-vs-tiffany-syfy-.html) won't be your cup of tea?