This week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour comes at you a little bit later than we like, though it’s definitely worth the wait and boasts almost 15% more “hour”! During their intercontinental connection, your friends in podcasting discuss Dean’s trip to Melbourne, where he hosted Melbourne WebFest, an award show honoring the best in web series. Finally, at long last, Dean also talks about his work (as Iago!) on the award-winning web series “Shakespeare Republic”. After that, it’s time for “Celebrity Deaths” where a noted futurist and a music family patriarch are remembered. There is some more feedback on their “Top Ten Comedies of All Time” episodes, Phil asks Dean about the 1930’s comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. Then Phil sings the praises of HBO’s “Westworld”, which leads to he and Dean waxing rhapsodic about the brilliance of Jeffrey Wright, before they turn their attention to movies. Kingsman: The Golden CircleOcean’s 8Won’t You Be My NeighborFirst ReformedUpgrade, and Hereditary all get (spoiler free) reviewed and discussed.

It’s Memorial Day here in the USA, so this episode is coming out about 12 hours later than we like. Nevertheless, Dean and Phil remember a wonderful actress, the artist who designed so many classic movie posters, a pop artist whose sculpted work is iconic, a movie actor and television star from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and a prolific and controversial award-winning novelist. Following “Celebrity Deaths”, your friends in podcasting will weigh in on the criminal charges filed against former mogul Harvey Weinstein and his lawyer’s rather shocking public defense of Weinstein’s actions. Then, it’s time to dig into the latest “Star Trek” news and a handful of recent cinematic releases a half-dozen or more current or recent cinematic releases, including a new “Star Wars Story”, two superhero movies, and an indie comedy. All that, plus a Memorial Day-inspired re-appraisal of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

 

This week’s show is an interesting one that your friends in podcasting recorded together in Los Angeles. It starts with Dean describing two “Live Events of the Week” – a production of Something Rotten! and the debut Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation exhibit at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center on Wilshire – and Phil describing the truly horrible Office Christmas Party and the terrific The Trip to Spain. The show continues with Dean’s interview of one of the creative souls behind “The X-Files: Deep State” game. Then, Dean and Phil roll up their sleeves to figure out what’s right with “Star Trek: Discovery”, what’s wrong with it, and why viewers seem to hate it so much! All that plus a legendary broadcaster and a peerless singer are remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. The first episode of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour in 2018, wherever good podcasts can be found!

This week’s episode spans some serious ground both thematically and geographically. In the USA’s capital, Phil Leirness recorded a very special (and hilarious) opening, before traveling to Baltimore to interview great friend of the show Page Branson, an artist, illustrator and podcast host. Then, it’s off to Brooklyn for a chat with the writer/performer of more than one Chillpak Hollywood Hour theme song, Mr. Jon Lawlor. Then, it’s back to Dallas for some improv comedy courtesy of your friend in podcasting, Mr. Dean Haglund.

 

In an episode several hundred years in the making, your friends in podcasting count down their Top Ten All Time Favorite Visual Artist. Painting, photography, sculpture, design and more, all get discussed in depth in a rousing conversation between Dean and Phil. It’s the 8th Top Ten show of this year 10 of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

Following up on last week’s milestone (and VERY bizarre) episode #500 (where Dean and Phil took a road trip to a cemetery) is no easy task, and this week’s show proved to be torture in its production, so please forgive the (slight) delay in getting it to you and the (frequent) technical problems during it. This being 2016, there are, of course, new “Celebrity Deaths” to discuss. There is also an email from a listener like you (yes, YOU!). There is the return of “What We Are Reading”, several “Live Events of the Week” and New Year’s Eve plans get compared. Then, the subjects of year end critics’ lists and award nominations get discussed and a handful of new and recent films get analyzed, including Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryPatriots DayLion, and Lights Out. Is it possible that the best film of the year is also one of the best TV shows of the year? Find out NOW on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour turns 500 episodes old this week and your friends in podcasting celebrate this august milestone with one of their most bizarre shows ever, and it’s truly an episode where everyone is dying to get in … You see, after meeting up at a certain historic building in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles to discuss such topics as a recent Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Dean’s art work AND Dean’s long-awaited graphic novel, Dean and Phil go on a field trip to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, one of the most unusual cemeteries in all the world! Never mind their usual segment “Celebrity Deaths”, in this episode your friends in podcasting celebrate death itself! Sound odd enough for you?

We’re only two episodes away from the end of year 8 and only five episodes away from Dean Haglund’s move to Australia, yet your friends in podcasting have more to discuss than ever before! From a full report on the preview screening of their new dark comedy, to the latest news regarding Sci-Fest, from the latest rumblings about the return of The X-Files to Phil’s heartfelt thank you and farewell to a film critic who played a major role in his development as an artist, this week’s installment is quite personal to Dean and Phil.

There is a ton of talk about current television (like Mad MenDaredevil, and the countdown to David Letterman’s final show) and future television (an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spin-off, the Twin Peaks reboot, and perhaps the most exciting new show to be announced in AGES!). There is also much attention paid to forthcoming movies, including ill-advised remakes and reboots, and maybe a film or two worthy of optimism!

Dean and Phil follow up on their (enormously popular) discussion of female-driven films (episode #413), with a discussion of two emerging female musical artists. All that, plus the latest dirt Phil has learned about Scientology AND not one, not two, not three, but FOUR emails from listeners like you! Want to learn about IMDb? Want to learn about Dean and Phil’s favorite cookies? Then, stop reading and start enjoying this thrilling installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

 

Because Dean Haglund is packing up for Galaxy Fest in Colorado Springs, Colorado (to perform comedy and show The Truth Is Out There), and Phil Leirness is hitting the road for the 2012 International UFO Congress in Fountain Hills, Arizona (where the TRUTH is also screening), this week’s installment of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour is coming to you a few hours later than we like.

It is, however, one of our very best shows!

That it’s President’s Day in the U.S. leads to a discussion of presidential UFO lore, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball and Merv Griffin. The special friendship between The UK’s “The Midweek Drive” and YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour, leads to a discussion of Phil’s pajamas and his forthcoming tour of the UK. The book The Wayfinders leads to a discussion of cultural relativism, the biosphere, the ethnosphere, the living history of Los Angeles, and Dreamtime and The Dream Factory. An Albert Einstein quote leads to a discussion of the intuitive mind and the rational mind and the way we might move beyond divisiveness in an effort to address the common challenges facing us all. The Chillpak Hollywood Live Event of the Week leads to a discussion of Phil’s admiration for an actress he had never before seen, the best director working in theatre today, and the way storytellers’ strengths in one medium can serve as weakness in another.

All that, plus TWO Chillpak Hollywood Lawsuits of the Week (the one involving Chris Pine, “Captain Kirk” from JJ Abrams’ re-boot of Star Trek is a particular hoot.

Your friends in podcasting definitely brought their “A” game. We hope you will enjoy it enough to share it with others …

A week ago, your friends in podcasting, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, were in the United Kingdom, visiting their friends at Sci-Fi London, celebrating the Royal Wedding, attending the World Premiere of their documentary The Truth Is Out There and discussing the death of Osama Bin Laden. This week, they’re back in Los Angeles, where Dean is preparing his brand new gallery for this Thursday’s Downtown Art Walk and where Phil is directing an incredibly ambitious short film. Most important of all, they’re celebrating their 4th anniversary of changing the way YOU listen to the internet!