It’s Memorial Day in the USA. Dean Haglund in Michigan and Phil Leirness in California are joined by Jon Lawlor in New Jersey to discuss New Jersey Transit, the importance of celebrating everyone, and the challenges involved when someone you meet or care about is experiencing memory loss issues. May is also Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the USA. To celebrate this, Phil sits down for an in-depth personal interview with a giant of the AAPI community, and a legendary actress who made her mark on stage, on screen, and in voice work. Takayo Fischer has worked in huge movies, with legendary stars, has been a fixture on television for decades, has lent her voice to many animated programs, and has worked on iconic stage projects with major talents of the 20th and 21st Century. The story of how she got to the stage is unlike any other.

This week’s installment takes its cues from last week’s show and starts with several “Celebrity Deaths” involving music industry notables. Beloved comedian-turned-actor Richard Lewis will also get remembered, as will an incredible Japanese-American dancer-turned-teacher who was just a few months shy of her 105th birthday when she died! The “Live Event of the Week” involves a church in Malibu, the Daughters of the American Revolution, Phil’s dear friend June Aochi Berk, fascism, and Nisei Week! The return of “What We’re Reading” covers Caravaggio, art, the plague, violence, MGM, Hollywood and the most important movie of the 20th Century that you probably haven’t seen (or perhaps even heard of). Finally, Phil hops back on his soapbox in an effort to help save Siren Radio (read all about this effort and help by signing the petition at https://www.change.org/p/support-our-siren-saving-siren-radio-lincoln-s-first-community-radio-station). All that and … Oh, yeah! Happy 70th Birthday to longtime listener and friend of the show, Maurice Terenzio!

The sad, the irritating, the hilarious, the ridiculous and the sublime – It’s all fair game on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour in the age of Covid-19! On this week’s show, Dean discusses the steam room he is building, and Phil explains why the pandemic is making him sad and how people’s under-reaction and over-reaction to the pandemic along with bad puns in jokey emails by elected officials are pissing him off! Phil went down a rabbit hole, researching what in 1952 were considered the greatest movies ever made and in so doing, he discovered an amazing, and long-since forgotten, horror: Louisiana Story. Then, Phil poses the question in honor of what would have been the late Toshiro Mifune’s 100th birthday: Was Mifune the greatest movie actor of all time? The discuss that ensues is terrific. Dean and Phil then weigh in on how movie theaters and movie release schedules will be altered once there ARE movie theaters and movie releases again. Finally, Dean and Phil preview next week’s discussion of “Star Trek: Picard” and the year in cinema 1973 before paying tribute to several notable figures in “Celebrity Deaths”, including a jazz giant, a country music great, a soul legend, a popular sitcom actor from the 90s, a soap opera star, and a much beloved children’s book author.