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!

Your friends in podcasting discuss one of the most sad Christmas celebrations in history, before discussing the deaths of a pop music star, a Native American character actor, a documentary filmmaker and the mayor of SF. Then, Phil turns his attention to one of the most surprising facts to come out of the Disney purchase of 21st Century Fox and Dean tries to calm him down. Then, they delve into the trouble engulfing Matt Damon, before weighing in on three brand new Oscar hopefuls: Downsizing (starring Mr. Damon), Phantom Thread (starring Daniel Day Lewis in his final role), and the rather miraculous All The Money In The World. All that, plus Kyle Machlachlan weighs in on whether “Twin Peaks: The Return” was a terrific season of a television series or whether it was one of the best feature films of the year, and a fantastic note from a loyal listener like you (yes, YOU!) is shared.

In many ways, this week’s show is a sequel to last week’s episode #534, with the promised celebration of Jeanne Moreau’s life and career, an email from a listener about Tom Jones’ “The Young New Mexican Puppeteer” and more from the British Film Institute List of “the 50 films you should see by the age of 14”.

Unlike most sequels, however, this show is even more irreverent, insightful and informative than last week’s!

The festivities commence with a clip of Dean on Australian television telling a (bestiality?) joke, and then after a special opening (a tribute to Glen Campbell), Dean comes out guns blazing, ranting about the internet speeds of his adopted land. After Phil calms him down, they discuss the news of David Letterman’s new show, they urge people to save the Salem Cinema (a jewel of the Pacific Northwest), they talk about an interview they did with the late Jim Marrs and they continue their discussion about the “death of discernment”, this time focusing on an appalling memo crafted by a then member of the National Security Council.

 

From there, it’s onto “Celebrity Deaths”, where, in addition to the Femme Fatale of the French New Wave and Glen Campbell, your friends in podcasting remember a Tony-winning star of Broadway’s “The Music Man”, the star of an early television western series turned right-wing anti-government activist, and the man inside the Godzilla costume.

Finally, Dean and Phil discuss a 1982 Australian western, a 1954 western that influenced the likes of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, the original King Kong, and the Will Rogers comedy Life Begins at 40.

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.

From May 26 through 28, your friends in podcasting converged in Dallas for a Famous Monsters Convention. While there, they filmed interviews and footage for part 2 of their documentary The Truth Is Out There, AND they recorded an entire podcast with special guests Bruce Harwood and Tom Braidwood! It’s a reunion of The Lone Gunmen on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour!

A show ten years in the making …

The tenth “Top Ten” show of year ten …

It’s our 10th Anniversary Show!

Join Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness as they count down their Top Ten Most Memorable episodes of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour. Featuring special appearances by Erynn Petrulis, Jamie Kaler, Gary Anthony Williams, Suli MCullough, Alexandra Barreto, Ilana Rein, Tom Braidwood, Bruce Harwood, Vince Gilligan, Jon Lawlor, Tucker Smallwood, Philip Newby, and Lily Holleman, there is truly something for EVERYONE in this action-packed trip down memory lane. In fact, SHARE THIS SHOW with your family, friends and colleagues, so that they can hear for themselves why and how your friends in podcasting continue to change the way people listen to the internet!

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?

Recorded a few days early, this week’s show truly has something for everyone, and if anyone claims it doesn’t, we hope they feel better soon! True gentleman and outstanding filmmaker Curtis Hanson is remembered in “Celebrity Deaths”. The Emmy Awards, and especially Jimmy Kimmel’s performance hosting them, are discussed. The Colin Kaepernick National Anthem protest saga is re-visited in the wake of more African-American deaths at the hands of police and in the wake of Kaepernick’s Time Magazine cover being released. And this week, the conversation inspired by Kaepernick’s protest goes in many unexpected, inspired and even hilarious directions – from sensitivity training, to Swedish massages, to the lyrics of “America the Beautiful.” That patriotic tune and the national anthem are far from the only songs discussed this week as Dean and Phil get downright musical while following up on Phil’s tirade from last week about “nostalgia” with a “Live Event of the Week” that features musical acts Hall & Oates, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews & Orleans Avenue, and the powerful Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. In fact, they even preview the new album from Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam! Then, Dean and Phil comfort each other in the wake of Brad Pitt’s divorce from Angelina Jolie, and they wonder why the hell anyone cares about it in the first place … Finally, “What We’re Reading” becomes the “Explanation of the Week” as Phil goes all “patronus charm” on an email from a listener like you (yes, YOU) criticizing his critique of the first two “Harry Potter” movies. EXPELLIARUMS! All in all in, it may be one of the best installments of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour ever and after almost ten years, how many podcasts could claim that? Your friends in podcasting, STILL changing the way people listen to the internet …

The world really took it on the chin this week with abominable violence in Brussels and the deaths of a groundbreaking rapper, a gentleman actor-turned-union leader, and one of the most influential figures in the history of comedy. Your friends in podcasting will try to make sense of all of it, while celebrating new voices in comedy, a great new sci-fi film, and challenging their own industry to send bolder, more clear messages that discrimination anywhere will not be supported.

Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness – When the world is at its worst, they tend to be at their best.