Hate Expectations

Yeah, yeah. It's April Fool's Day today...technically. And yes, we've pulled our japes in the past. You're right to be on your guard. But we promise, this is just a normal episode. Ok, maybe not normal normal. It's a pretty great episode, actually! Joining Lizzy and Nate in Spielenwald's basement studio are frequent guests, Z and Rich Johnson. They've come to talk about, spoil, examine, dissect, illuminate, and swear copiously about The Martian, Andy Weir's 2011 novel and Ridley Scott's 2015 adaptation of the same name. Both versions are pretty well out of sight, and there's a lot about both to dig. Even still, when we do run into the occasional speed bump you can be certain we'll talk our way through whatever it is. We're here for the vibes. Ayyy! Erratum: as far can be determined, Andy Weir does nor or has not lived in the PNW. We'll not hold it against him. Several good people don't.

For such a slender volume, Ursula K. Le Guin's world changing novel, The Lathe of Heaven (1971), had enough going on to splinter off two different adaptations over time. Nate and Lizzy are joined by return guest Jonathan Franklin, and the trio chisels away at the layers of the book and the TV movies from 1980 (dir. David Loxton and Fred Barzyk) and 2002 (dir. Philip Haas). Join them as they spin out theories on dreams, taoism, art, and the illusion of control. 

For just the second time in history the Hate Expectations team has raced into their local theater to take on a subject that is still new enough to make waves: director George Clooney's The Boys in the Boat (2023), based on the 2013 novel by Daniel James Brown. Nothing gets their hearts pumping and their breath ragged like even a light amount of exercise, except maybe a well written adventure. The story of the 1936 University of Washington crew team swatting away Nazis and the depression with both fists surely is that: the stuff of legends. But does the movie keep pace? Will Lizzy and Nate be swept away all over again? And how does one pronounce Poughkeepsie, anyway? You'll have to listen to this episode to know what's going on inside their skulls. Now, can you give them ten big ones?

There's a fin in the water and fun in the air! From Jaws, Peter Benchley's incredibly popular 1974 novel, to Jaws, Steven Spielberg's even more popular 1975 film, Lizzy and Nate sink their teeth into the adaptation, rip into the differences, and digest the repercussions of both on the future of cinema and entertainment. Armed with the fleshed out story in the book, their discussion undulates between Ellen's pearl necklace to screenwriter Carl Gottlieb's tell-all book to Mayor Vaughn's re-election and appearance as mayor in Jaws 2. Actually, strike that last point--even the fearsome Hate Expectations crew can't figure that one out.

You know, they say books are the reason we have such beautiful movies. They also say that adaptation are the reason we have such beautiful episodes of Hate Expectations. Listen to this episode to at least find out if Lizzy and Nate agree with that first truism, at least with regard to Get Shorty, the 1990 Elmore Leonard novel and the 1995 film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. The latter "fact" is one you'll have to judge for yourself. We promise most of the commas are in the right spots, at least. Listen to us. Listen to us.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We're a little late getting this episode on the movie A Christmas Story (1983, d. Bob Clark) out to you. That's perfect in keeping with the source material, however, since the book it was based on, In God We Trust...All Others Pay Cash (1966, w. Jean Shepherd), places most of its stories throughout the year. Protagonist Ralphie's encounter with bully Grover Dill took place on "on a hot, shimmering day", for instance. Shepherd would forgive us for being a few weeks late. Being a radio man, on the other hand, he might not forgive us for the sound quality, which is an eternal struggle. Someday that will all come together. Please note, we tried to keep this a family friendly episode, which just means beeping out Lizzy every time she swears. We feel absolutely certain that The Old Man would understand her inability to hold back.

The golden orb has streaked its path across the sky many times since Hate Expectations last palavered on a digital recording medium. We've been most delinquent in getting our house in order. In Lizzy and Nate's case that means finally recording and releasing the long delayed episode on Stella Gibbons' classic novel, Cold Comfort Farm (1932), and the several adaptations of it. Happily, we were aided and abetted in this by Melissa Tyler, our hilarious friend who first introduced us to this world of higher common sense and dairy free afterlives. We're not sure Robert Poste's child would approve of our untidy approach to analysis--you'll find there's something nasty in our method. But she would likely be overjoyed at the extra grueling month of post production that went into fixing the audio levels. (Sidenote: our audio engineer was last seen face down in the furrows in Nettleflitch Field, weeping into the sukebind.) We hope you enjoy the effort, as we mun entertain.

It's that special time of year again -- spring! We at Hate Expectations like to to put out an episode like this in early April to celebrate the joys of the season. This time we take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, along with some of the myriad adaptations the literary giant appears in. But how to make sense of it all? For a case this large and confusing we felt like we needed a little help. So we called on our friends Humphrey and Bogart for assistance. Much as we all tried to us sift through the evidence and piece together a cohesive narrative, it's not clear that, even collectively, we really solved anything. Perhaps the answer we were looking for was more elementary, and what we really needed was the help of you, dear listener. Can you eliminate the impossible to find the truth? *Note: Great Britain is actually about the same size as Idaho, as it turns out. No apologies needed.

We're not high, we promise, though it may sound like it at times in this episode (maybe we should have been). That just the effect of Thomas Pynchon on a person's brain. And while Inherent Vice (2009) is possibly his most accessible novel, with the Paul Thomas Anderson movie (2014) being a streamlined version of that, there's still just a lot to absorb in both. A lot of, you know, stuff. Where was I? Anyway, a listener might best be advised to treat this episode like one of his novels and just go along for the ride. Who knows, man? Maybe you'll get a contact high just hearing about it.

At long last, we are delivering on our promise to rip into Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and the two film adaptations molded by it (1971, dir Mel Stuart & 2005, dir Tim Burton). But there's just too much confectionary conversation not to share it with friends, so we invited Megan Steen and returning guest Dug Steen* to join us! This episode represents our first repeated author, as well as our first two time Snuffy Walden winner! Listen in as we confer about cgi chocolate, weigh in on Wonka wackiness, and parley about which parts would be present in the perfect motion picture version. *Dug didn't realize he was invited and didn't read the book. Thankfully, he was a good sport and joined us anyway.

Sweet swimmin' unicorns, what did Lizzy do? It was her birthday a few months ago, and for it she selected Elizabeth Goudge's book, The Little White Horse, for us to cover. Seemed like a good idea, doing a cute story of a plucky little girl who discovers she's a moon princess in the valley of her OH MY GOD! What is wrong with the movie?! Where is the eyebleach! Ahh! Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhh...

It's April as I type this (rabbit, rabbit), and that can mean only one thing -- it's time for our Easter episode of Hate Expectations! Now we know there have been a few adaptations of the Bible over the years, so we had a lot of options. For this special episode we decided to concentrate on the stellar 1999 direct-to-video filmed staging of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I assume we go into great depths about our feelings for both the book and the movie/musical, so I'll let it stand it without any further commentary. Enjoy!

While the pandemic has left a lot of us feeling a bit unstuck in time, the effects of that don't seem to be as strong for us as they are for Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut Jr's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death (1969). Join us as we meander through our discussion, popping back and forth between the book and the movie adaptation (1972, dir George Roy Hill), relishing in the good moments and pointing out the those that never really came to life. So it goes.

Finally! Hate Expectations, along with multiple time returning guest/friend Jane Hutchins, takes a journey deep into the human mind. Join us as we dig into all the minutiae of the 1966 movie, Fantastic Voyage (dir. Richard Fleischer) and the novelization of it by noted sci-fi author, Isaac Asimov. No plot hole is too large and no performance is too small to escape our microscope. This is an episode that is guaranteed to get under your skin!

Halloween is our favorite time of year, here at Spielenwald, Hate Expectations's headquarters. There's no better time to dim the lights and curl into the fetal position with a scary book or the movie it spawned. In this episode we breathe life into Rosemary's Baby, the 1967 novel by Ira Levin and the 1968 film directed by Roman Polanski. It's a classic, but does it still live up to its reputation? It's atmospheric, but is it horror? Will it scare the bejesus out of you? There's only one good way to find out, and that's to join us...if you dare!

We're back! It's a special birthday / rebirth episode, as Lizzy* and Nate track down Richard Stark's 1962 novel, The Hunter. Join us as we not only beat this crime classic to a pulp, but we talk the two(!) movie adaptations to death: Point Blank (1967, dir John Boorman) and Payback (1999, dir Brian Helgeland). There's a whole lot of seething putrid evil to rip into, but somehow we get beyond just the pandemic to discuss the thrice told tale of a thief, a betrayal, and bloody vengeance. *Lizzy wants to correct the record and say that Keenan is Ed's son, not grandson.

We're back with a special quarantine episode! From the time we published The Princess Bride until today (11/19/19 to 04/01/20 -- over a third of a year!) we at Hate Expecations have had a good long Christmas vacation, planned and delivered the culmination of a four year Leap Day party, read some non-adapted books, and mostly enjoyed taking some time off. However, now that home isolating is a reality, we have had time to re-read something we expect a lot of people are also re-experiencing, the first book of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954). We also watched the seminal film adaptation (dir. Ralph Bakshi, 1978) and some other lesser conversions of the work. We don't have any special guests this time, in part because of the quarantine, but mostly because this episode wasn't planned. Like Gandalf the Grey, sometimes a podcast arrives precisely when it means to.

At a break in the Sasquatch board gaming festival, Hate Expectations took advantage of their inconceivable friend, Dug Steen, being in town to record an episode on William Goldman's novel The Princess Bride (1973) and the highly quotable classic movie Rob Reiner made from it (1987). The three grab a vine and dive head first into the beloved story and its familiar characters, breathing new life into it like some inconceivable bellows shoved in its pie-hole. They even discuss Goldman's missing bonus chapter and the inconceivable sequel, Buttercup's Baby. Finally, they do as you didn't know you wished and round out the whole episode with a brand new feature. Come, and love it as we have loved it.

In a very special episode of Hate Expectations, Lizzy learns the hard way that rock music is Satan's gateway to your heart, while Nate find's the school bully's unwanted attention is just a cry for help. No, wait. It isn't that kind of a special episode. It's a birthday episode! We finally get to the mic with our long awaited episode about Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (1998) and its movie adaptation, the movie Adaptation. (2002, dir Spike Jonze). While the book is a delightful meandering read, the movie is more about the kind of hell that adapting a delightful meandering book for motion pictures can be. Nate then struggled to find a way to end the summary of the podcast about one of his favorite movies. In a self-aware and self-indulgent manner, he finally wrote the sentence "Nate then struggled to find a way to end the summary of the podcast about one of his favorite movies." Then he thought how weird it was to do that.

Rich and Z return to the podcast, bringing a curious Homer pick with them. Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000) technically does give a "based on" credit to the ancient greek poem, The Odyssey, which qualifies it for discussion on the show. Not to spoil the journey, but it turns out you have to squint mighty hard most times to see the connections between the two stories. And squint we do! (Mostly from laughing.) We also discover that reading ancient literature actually is more fun than a burning stick in a Cyclops's eye. Who knew?

As avowed rat lovers, it was inevitable that Lizzy and Nate would eventually discuss the beloved Newbery Medal winner, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien, 1971), and its Don Bluth animated adaptation, The Secret of NIMH (1982). But in a surprise twist of fate, it turned out that frequent guest host, Siobhan Beeman, was the one to bring this classic out and turn the Hate Expectations eye on it. To keep things lively and difficult to edit, we also had two large and noisesome guest dogs bumping around the set and occasionally growling at passing squirrels. But even they couldn't prevent us from gnawing on every tasty morsel in this legend from our collective childhoods. In fact, the only thing that could put a damper on our enjoyment of the story turned out to be...well, you'll have to listen to find out.  

Three people, intentionally sequestered in the woods of the Pacific Northwest: Lizzy, Nate, and special returning guest Jane Hutchins. At first they thought they were imagining things; haunting visions of insanity, terror, and death. A distant voice sighed out a premonition: "REDRUM". The television flicked to life, showing the huddled trio even more spectral sights and grisly imagery. Except the new images were kind of different from the original ones in their heads. The three gave in to a driving compulsion to come together to hammer out those differences. Luckily, their discussion of Stephen King's novel, The Shining, and the Stanley Kubrick movie of the same name, was captured by sensitive audio vibration detection units. We can now present the entire ghoulish session here for your morbid delight. With that...heeeeeere's Hate Expectations!

Lizzy invokes one of her birthday wishes this year to whisk the Hate Expectations team off to a hidden corner of the south pacific, where a magical island of humans and dinosaurs live and work together in near perfect harmony. Yes, we dust off James Gurney's coffee table classic, Dinotopia (1992), and then unearth a dvd copy of the Hallmark mini-series from a decade later. Despite the book containing only the barest bones of a story, the HE team finds plenty in it to examine. Then things really get dirty as they dig deep into the adaptation, a relic from the Crapassic era of cgi. Ping pong, Talking Heads, and a blooper reel; this episode has it all!

Representing a slight departure from reality, this episode of Hate Expectations finds Nate and Lizzy taking a long hard listen to The Who's rock opera, Tommy, looking deeply into the Ken Russell movie of the same name (1975), and speaking freely about the sensations it inspires in them. They are joined by their friend, Matt Anderson, on a quest to divine meaning where there is mostly only a series of loosely connected themes about a deaf, dumb, and blind pinball wizard. Lizzy wants to amend the record and point out that the Tommy dvd came out in 2004, not the much too early 1994 she said. Nate wants to append the record to point out that the "and leap up on the rostrum" line from Sally Simpson is one of the most clumsy lyrics ever sung, only made worse by the rough attempted rhyme with "and Tommy gave a lesson".

It's Christmas time in the City of Angeles. And while decent listeners sleep the sleep of the righteous, the Hate Expectations crew prowls for merry noir, not knowing that James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential is coming to punch them in the gut. Another Christmas episode*. Another not-overly sentimental property to discuss. Ellroy called his novel (1990) a book "for the whole family, if the name of your family is The Manson Family"**. The movie adaptation (1997, dir. Curtis Hanson) is friendlier, but still quite dark and labyrinthine, as Hollywood movies go. Listen in as we talk about the big man in charge (of Los Angeles) and his scheme to spread his white powder and run a ring of ho-ho-hoes. Racism, murder, corruption, cover-ups: it's exactly the kind of treat the Lizzy, Nate, and their friend and guest host, Siobhan, love to sink their teeth into, even if only to rip it to bits. You heard it here first -- off the record, on the QT, and very hush hush. *The episode may contain trace elements of nuts. It is most definitely chock full o' SPOILERS. **Seems he said this same quote about a lot of his works, but it's still accurate.

Let's just say this up front -- the book, The Warriors (1965) by Sol Yurick, is a realistic take on New York city gangs and their activities. Consequently, in our discussion of it and the 1979 movie of the same name directed by Walter Hill, we cover a lot of potential trigger warnings, use a lot of adult language, and touch on some less than pleasant topics. However, we still manage to have a bit of fun. And by the time we get to the movie portion of the show the mood lightens considerably. Through it all we continue our trend of butchering pronunciations; in this case the culprits are a couple of words that proved to be Greek to us. We also find a few ways to bind The Lord of the Rings to The Warriors. There's also more eyebrow talk, to the surprise of no regular listeners. And throughout, a lot of interesting tidbits culled from our tens of minutes of research. Come out and play (the episode)! *Special thank you to youtuber Amazinge12345 for having the answer to the much debated question of what happened to Cleon's character in the movie.

In a very special episode of Hate Expectations, we reveal that one one of the two of us is actually an android. However, technology has come so far since the time of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968, Philip K. Dick) that it's impossible to distinguish us from real humans now. The only consequence for the show is that we can finally reveal the answer to the titular question. (Yes they do, but they don't remember it the next morning.) Neither our robot insight, our viewing of the movie (1982, dir. Ridley Scott), nor the vast expertise of our guest host, Jane Hutchins, helps us to settle the more perplexing question, "What the hell is a Blade Runner, anyway?" Set your mood organs to 042 (a strong desire to listen to a fun podcast) and join us as we explore this depressing dystopia.

We're watching the detectives. Technically, we were reading Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives (Emil und die Detektive, 1929) and watching some of the five films they shot based on the extremely popular German book. Despite being on the case on and off for months, we at Hate Expectations somehow let a few facts slip past our absurdly large magnifying glasses, which may have caused a bit of confusion during the recording of this episode. Here are a few clues that may help you eager gumshoes set the record straight: Erich Kästner never married, but he did have a son with his partner Luiselotte Enderle: Thomas Kästner. The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, before the 1964 adaptation. The first talkie, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927. Broadway Melody was the first talkie to win best picture (outstanding picture) at the Academy Awards in 1930, one year after Wings was the first movie to win the award at all. Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen) by Erich Kästner was the basis for the Disney movie, The Parent Trap (1961). The U-bahn station featured in the 1964 film is the Görlitzer Bahnhof. Rolf Wenkhaus, the actor who played Emil in the 1931 film, died when his plane was shot down off the coast of Ireland in 1942. The 1935 adaptation used the same script and shot list as the 1931 version. Grundeis was also known as Müller and Kiessling in the book. The man reading the newspaper on the streetcar/the reporter in the book is named Herr Kästner.

The "Empire Strikes Back" of Hate Expectations's Ready Player One episodes, this half contains ever more of cultural reference popouts and just as many SPOILERS, as well as the truly outrageous Snuffy Walden awards. Join our heroes as they continue their bogus journey through Ernest Cline's novel and Steven Spielberg's movie, navigating the mazes and monsters contained in the OASIS. Enjoy the show, and remember not to get us wet or feed us after midnight. We already avoid direct sunlight on our own.

You want pop culture references? We've got all the references you can handle right here, in this potentially timely episode of Hate Expectations. Nate, Lizzy, and special guest Chris Lemon immerse themselves in the world of Ready Player One. The 2011 novel, by Ernest Cline, was adapted for 2018's cinema by former Wunderkind Steven Spielberg, and we're here to report back from front of the theater. But hey, enough of my yakkin'. You've got two episodes full of auditory Easter egg-y goodness to listen to. Plunk in your quarter and hit the start button. Warning: this episode is full of SPOILERS, as you might imagine. It's all got a fair bit of swearing, as you also might imagine, if you've ever heard any of us speak before.

In an earlier episode (HE006), Hate Expectations discovered that time is an illusion, and lunchtime doubly so. That concept is taken to the outer limits in Ted Chiang's award winning sci-fi novella, The Story of Your Life (1998). Listen in to this recording of Lizzy and Nate as they get down verbally with their friend and returning guest host, Siobhan Beeman. The three intrepid explorers try to dissect the pretzel logic* of the alien contact story, and the popular 2016 movie adapted from it: Arrival (dir. Denis Villeneuve). It's important to note that while you likely already know the story and how it turns out, this playful episode is chock full of spoilers. You've been given the gift of a warning. Use it wisely. *A special thanks to our friends Jay, Sue, and Julia**, who gave Nate the book for Christmas, prompting this episode. He loved it as much as you thought he would. ** We are sorry to lump you in with them on the Steely Dan reference, Sue. You did nothing to deserve that.

Did you know that action classic Die Hard (1988, dir. John McTiernan) was based on a novel? We at Hate Expectations were overjoyed when we first learned about Nothing Lasts Forever (1979, Roderick Thorp), because it meant that we could cover the adaptation for our first Christmas episode. And that's exactly what we've done! We even ganged up with our friend and previous guest host, Rich Johnson, to come to the podcast and have a few laughs. Listen along as we discuss everything you always wanted to know about John McClain and his adventures in Nakatomi Plaza. As usual, there be spoilers. And swearing. That's pretty much our plan, and we do not alter the plan. Yipee-kai-yay, Merry Christmas!

In honor of this most wonderful time of the year (it's still Halloween somewhere, right?), the Hate Expectations team sinks its teeth into the anime classic, Vampire Hunter D. We drank in the English translation (2005) of the Hideyuki Kikuchi novel (1983), were hypnotized into a restless trance by the animated movie adaptation (dir. Toyoo Ashida, 1985), and finally fought through the whole rambling mess to hunt for a living pulse somewhere in it. We weren't entirely successful. It turns out that vampires aren't the only thing that suck with this title. Certainly, it's not all noxious fumes and ghastly ichor (spoiler: Lizzy liked the book). And even where it is, we do our best to make sense of it. Garlic lemonade, anyone?

Alan Turing is one of the principle reasons you're able to read this sentence on a computer right now. He is also a major reason the sentence is in English instead of German or Japanese. He's a fascinating character with an fascinating life cut way too short. So when our friend and guest host, Siobhan Beeman, suggested we hash out the Turing biography (Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges, 1983) and its filmed adaptation (The Imitation Game, dir. Morten Tyldum, 2014), we agreed to the idea eagerly. Four months and seven hundred dense pages later, a bit of that eagerness faded. In the end, that small amount of grind was ultimately the key to a surprisingly salty and laughter filled episode that we're quite proud of.

The player characters at Hate Expectations both lesbian the movie Scott Pilgrim vs the World. So it was an easy choice to make the book/movie combo the next one up in their podcast. Game as Lizzy and Nate were to take on the boss challenge this presented, they must now console themselves with putting a few bits they missed during recording on this platform: Scott Pilgrim was inspired by the song of the same name by the band Plumtree; nearly all the band names mentioned in the series are classic video game titles; Neil Young is not only Canadian, but he's from Toronto; uh, that's it. Enjoy, or else!   

Team Hate Expectations lives up to their name again, as Lizzy, Nate, and special guest, Jeff Emery, weigh in on Vision Quest, the Terry Davis novel (1979) and the Harold Becker film (1985) adapted from it. In this episode our lunatic crew chases the story all over the mat, trying to grapple with a book that eschews conflict for verisimilitude, and with a movie that scores no points in reversing that completely. Listen to this podcast to find out why Lizzy apologizes to the entire city of Spokane, why Jeff tries to corrupt his young son, and why Nate talks way too much. Actually, you may never pin down the last answer. We just hope his rambling doesn't give you cauliflower ears.

The Hate Expectations regulars, Lizzy and Nate, along with out-of-this-world special guest Jonathan Franklin, dig into America's past's potential future by watching and reading The Man Who Fell to Earth, the Walter Tevis sci-fi novel (1963), and the Nicolas Roeg directed David Bowie vehicle (1976). Much is made of how the filmmakers attempt something strange and curious, but ultimately alienate the delicate and sensitive source material. Creepy sex scenes are glossed over, the Watergate scandal is reinvestigated, and the trio tries desperately to inject logic where none likely exists. In the end, all the group can really take away from the experience is that when you get high you must inevitably come crashing back down. Well, that and cocaine is a hell of a thing.

Come to Oceania, where palm trees sway in the tropical breeze and the sun gently carresses the sea. Our hero, a young British colonial officer, takes his new wife to the farflung post of the Gilbert and Ellice islands, where he documents the culture clash with both the native islanders and the more experienced British officers. His memoir, A Pattern of Islands (1952), is a loving tribute to the people and the islands where he spent decades of his life, going from cadet to commisioner. So beloved and popular was the book in his native England that they made a quickie movie version of it called Pacific Destiny (1956) only a few years later. What could go wrong with that? Join Lizzy and Nate as they discuss in great detail exactly what could and does go wrong.

Your humble narrators, Lizzy and Nate, are back with another Love Bite mini-sode. Well, honestly, it's more of a macro-mini in this case. (There's a lot to get through, folks!) Listen in as we pontificate on a couple of subjects that really toyed with our imaginations and frankly just spoke to us. Join us, won't you?

I looked under chairs I looked under tables I'm tryin to find the key To fifty million fables They call me the seeker I been searchin low and high -- The Seeker, Pete Townshend Back to young adult lit we go, to 1973's The Dark is Rising, book two of the Susan Cooper series of the same name. As both our birthrights and contractual obligations mandate, we also cover the 2007 David L. Cunningham film based on that book, curiously retitled The Seeker. In this episode, follow us as we fumble around in the dark looking for a cohesive plot, motivated actions, or a rationale for the changes made during the adaptation process. Most of our time is spent like a man pulling a giant ace hair pick through the desert: with limited success. Still, we hope our exploration of the material is at least as informative and entertaining as always (because we like to keep the bar low).    

Fulfilling our moral obligation as podcasters, Hate Expectations have finally entered the mini-episode game with a series we call Love Bites. In all such episodes we will discuss (hopefully) delightful little facts we have researched on the subject of...well, whatever particularly interests us. We hope it interests you, too!

Betty MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o. And on this farm she had some laughs, e-i-e-i-o. With a ha-ha here and a...well, you get the idea. Join Nate and Lizzy as they crack into the deliciously funny novel, The Egg and I (1945), and brood about the film adaptation (1947) made from it. In this episode there is yet another catty discussion about actress eyebrows, a special return appearance of the Correcto-matic 3000 machine, and nearly an hour of excessive nudity*. Hold on to your hats, it's time for some hillbilly hilarity! *As far as anyone can tell, anyway. It IS an audio podcast.

Could there be any other subject matter for our episode numbered HE007 than Ian Fleming's own James Bond? We'd give ourselves a license to squeal if that was anything more than a quantum of synchronicity. But truthfully, the topic came to us as a suggestion from our very first guest-hosts, Rich and Z Johnson! Specifically, the four of us spied with our little eyes only the third Bond book written by Fleming (1955) and its overly shaken and stirred movie adaptation (1979), based seemingly on the title alone. Surely, our words are not enough to convey the full spectre of craziness hovering over this flick. We recommend a view to (Richard) Kiel's Jaws in Moonraker as a companion to our latest installment. Note: the sound is a little less golden than normal, as a storm was beating the living daylights out of the beach house in which we recorded this episode. 

Get your towels ready and loosen up your Electronic Sub-Etha Signaling Devices, as you join Hate Expectations' Lizzy and Nate on a journey through the various forms of Douglas Adams's classic, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Their babblings on the radio series, the book, the tv series, and the movie must surely rank up there with the very finest Vogon poetry. One reviewer has even called it "splendid and worthwhile", though she has since been destroyed. Note: Our apologies to actor Peter Jones, the voice of the book in the radio and tv versions, who we occasionally refer to as Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in those serieses. Sometimes even we have a hard time keeping up with all the Joneses.

"This episode's pretty cussin' good!" - Myself   Keeping to the trend of loving the source material and the adaptation made from it, we, the ever more inaccurately named Hate Expectations folks, take you back to childhood favorite Roald Dahl's second tier classic, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the Wes Anderson film of the same name. There is a bit more off-key singing and even a misguided attempt at music making, but surely this has to be the last time for such nonsense. Future episodes will stick to our strengths, just as soon as we figure out what those are. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the non-singing portions of this almost mini-episode. Oh, we've added a new feature: the Correcto-matic 3000 machine makes an appearance late in the show, so listen for that.

...Oh, say does that star spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave play ball?   In this episode Lizzy and Nate touch base with Moneyball, the 2003 book by Michael Lewis and the 2011 hit movie made from it. We take a swing at the non-fiction account of the Oakland A's baseball team, their manager, Billy Beane, and his use of sabermetrics to try to level the playing field with other, richer, teams. Be forewarned, we do some singing in this episode. The distress this will surely cause is hopefully mitigated by the honeyed timbres of our friends Rich and Z, but we doubt it.  

By the clicking of our tongues, some discussion this way comes.   No, we're not tackling the bard just yet, and we probably wouldn't start with the Scottish play if we were.  Rather, it's Ray Bradbury's 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes and the 1983 film adaptation we're talking about.  It's a zippity-doo-dead kind of horror the way Disney used to make.  As always, we dissect the differences, ponder the potential, and spoil the snot out of the plot.  That was your only warning.   A few addenda: Max von Sydow is still alive at the time of publishing, and still old; Kuffs was released in 1992, nine years after this film; and we ultimately verified that the dwarf does pick up the corpse at the end of the movie.

A continuation of the Stardust episode, in which the Hate Expectation crew discusses more of the book and movie plots, eyebrow dye jobs, and the Snuffy Walden award. As before, there be SPOILERS aplenty, and hopefully a bit a good time as well.

In this introductory episode of Hate Expectations, Lizzy and Nate gaze in wonder at the magnifcence of Neil Gaiman's 1999 novel Stardust and its 2007 film adaptation.  The discussion is full of SPOILERS, as all aspects of both media's versions are covered.  So much is discussed, in fact, that it was split in twain for your downloading and listening convenience.