One of the most popular ongoing segments in Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness’ long-running, weekly “Chillpak Hollywood Hour” was always when they celebrated the lives and legacies of those who made indelible marks in the arts or in media. Now that Celebrity Deaths has become its own podcast in the Chillpak Hollywood Presents … universe of shows, these celebrations are always interesting, occasionally inspiring, frequently delightful, and sometimes downright bizarre and hilarious!

Heavy on music, this installment makes great use of the expertise of frequent contributor Jon Lawlor and the following media notables all get remembered …

*Famous “for being famous” hairdresser-turned-groundbreaking disco star Monti Rock III

*Dennis Locorriere, lead singer of the classic rock group Dr. Hook

*Rapper Rob Base, who helped bring hip hop into the mainstream

*The World’s Greatest Improviser, jazz great Sonny Rollins

*“The Mouth of the South”, media mogul Ted Turner

*Eric Dane, the actor who starred in such shows as “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Euphoria”

*Sondra Lee, a stage actor and dancer who helped define Broadway of the mid-20th Century

A reminder to all celebrities: As long as you keep dying, Dean and Phil (and Jon Lawlor) will keep talking about you!

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For the past several years, Dean Haglund, Phil Leirness, and Jon Lawlor have been getting together almost weekly to hold each other’s feet to the fire in the pursuit of creating art that is filled with life, while also learning how to live more artfully. Now, Chillpak Hollywood Presents … “The Art Life” as a regular podcast!

This week, Phil shares two seemingly disparate stories that come together in an astonishing way at the end: One involves a day of annoyance, where he journeyed ever deeper into turmoil, the other details his effort to get shoes fixed in Atlanta on a Labor Day some 15 years (or more) ago.

The other topics explored on this episode include …

*Power animals

*Focus vs. Creativity

*Rage vs. Despair

*Dean’s paintings that come from despair

*Jon’s songs that come from rage

*Zoo animals as projection screens for our emotions

*Barton Fink

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Great theaters and great comedy are on the minds of your friends in podcasting. First, Dean and Phil pat themselves on the backs for taking the time at the beginning of the year to preview the film that ended up winning the Palme d’Or at the just-completed Cannes Film Festival. Then, they finally, after a break of months, return to the Time Out list of the “100 Greatest Movie Theaters in the World”, and share their connections to some of the very top selections. From great movie theaters to one of the most historic live television stages in the world, the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, Stephen Colbert’s farewell to the “Late Show” gets analyzed and his return to late night television the very next night in Monroe, Michigan (on Public Access television) gets celebrated. Finally, two of the most legendary comedy filmmakers of all time get compared: Mel Brooks and Ernst Lubitsch. The “Lubitsch Touch” gets explained and the all-time great comedy film To Be or Not to Be gets discussed in fascinating detail.

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Alex Lewczuk is a respected broadcaster and academic, known for founding Siren Radio and Southside Broadcasting, and for his pioneering work in media education and community radio. His interests range from science to soccer (er … football in his native UK), from sci-fi to pop music, from agriculture to behaviorism, from Baby Yoda to George Bernard Shaw. Having hosted several thousand episodes of numerous shows across several decades, Alex finds the tables turned on this episode of “Interview” as he is peppered with probing questions by his friends Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness, who have made regular appearances on program(me)s produced and hosted by Alex through the years.

Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe

For the past several years, Dean Haglund, Phil Leirness, and Jon Lawlor have been getting together almost weekly to hold each other’s feet to the fire in the pursuit of creating art that is filled with life, while also learning how to live more artfully. Now, Chillpak Hollywood Presents … “The Art Life” as a regular podcast!

This week’s topics include …

*The importance of coffee

*Creating art as an act of communing

*Celebrating “baby steps”

*The usefulness of “to do” lists

*Fear of death

*Reincarnation

*An idea for a movie set in the afterlife

*Mother’s Day

*An astonishing book by Phil’s good pal Ben Deeb

Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe

On this second episode of Year 20 (“the year we get it right!”), Dean and Phil have crime on their minds! They start with an appreciation of director Jules Dassin’s classic film noir Night and the City. Then a Hitchcockian thriller, Mirage, by Edward Dmytryk, the man largely responsible for Jules Dassin getting blacklisted gets analyzed. Both films show telltale signs of having been directed by men with quite different experiences of the Hollywood blacklist. A neo-noir that never disappoints is Robert Altman’s Philip Marlowe adaptation The Long Goodbye. Dean and Phil discuss the film as a “satire of melancholy” and share many stories about the filmmakers and actors’ remarkable approaches to telling the story. Another 1970s mystery film, the ill-fated Agatha about the real-life disappearance of the great mystery novelist Agatha Christie for 11 days in 1926 gets reviewed. The final suspense picture on the Chillpak crime blotter this week is Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterful The Wages Fear. Dean reviewed it several weeks back, and now it’s Phil’s turn to compare and contrast it with William Friedkin’s 1977 adaptation of the same source material, Sorcerer. Finally, one new blockbuster, the crowd-pleasing The Devil Wears Prada 2 gets analyzed both as a legacy sequel and as a very hopeful harbinger for the summer movie season.

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In many ways, our expansion of the long-running Chillpak Hollywood Hour into an entire universe of different podcasts here on Substack was inspired by our desire to take some of Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness’ longer form conversations and put them in one place where people can easily find them by topic.

So, welcome to to DEEP DIVE!

Today’s show features an in-depth analysis of and appreciation for the filmography of director (and writer and producer and cinematographer and editor) Steven Soderbergh. The auteur theory gets explained, Soderbergh gets compared to his contemporaries, his favorite films get discussed, and his filmmaking motifs get dissected.

Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe

For the past several years, Dean Haglund, Phil Leirness, and Jon Lawlor have been getting together almost weekly to hold each other’s feet to the fire in the pursuit of creating art that is filled with life, while also learning how to live more artfully. Now, Chillpak Hollywood Presents … “The Art Life” as a regular podcast!

This week’s topics include …

*What Jon describes as “demo-itis” when artists are not able to recapture something from an earlier recording

*The important role the audience plays in creating the meaning of any work

*How abundant information leads to conspiracy theories

*Talking to and interacting with strangers

*Reversing the aging process

*Controversy at the Venice Biennale

*Where Dean’s progress stands on a series of commissions and a series of “tanks” watercolors

*Where Jon is at with his musical explorations and output

Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to Year 20 (“the year we get it right!”). On this, their overall 988th installment, Dean and Phil really put the “Hollywood” into “Chillpak Hollywood Hour” with showbiz news, analysis, previews and reviews. It starts with a discussion of the long-running series “Supernatural”. Then in the “Lawsuit of the Week” the supposed end of the It Ends With Us lawsuits gets discussed. The surprising details of the SAG-AFTRA deal with the AMPTP get analyzed and the fact that it (most likely) means no labor stoppage for the next four years gets celebrated. Some fascinating rules changes for next year’s Oscars get dissected, and some seemingly terrific, but certainly intriguing, news regarding Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” movie for Netflix gets hailed. The Cannes film festival gets previewed. As does the American Cinematheque’s Bleak Week festival. Finally, two current theatrical releases get hailed as modern masterworks and the plans for a new episode of “Deep Dive” get finalized.

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Marc Hershon is back online with host Phil Leirness, defining what new television shows (or new seasons of continuing shows) are worthy of “binge-watching”, which ones might be “guilty pleasures” and which ones, no matter how good or how popular, are “nope” they aren’t going to be watching! On this installment, a mystery series from down under, a new comedy-horror series, the final season of a long-running superhero series, and a record-breaking comedy smash for HBO all get reviewed. Then, a few selections of favorite shows that are “comfort food” viewing for Marc and Phil get revealed, and one of the all-time longest-running, most beloved series is discovered to be a big, fat “nope” for both Marc and Phil! .

Production note: Starting with this episode, each new “Television with Marc Hershon” will begin and end with classic TV theme songs!

Marc Hershon is a branding expert who has dreamt up names for countless hit products. He is a comedy veteran, a comedy impresario, and he teaches improv comedy. He has penned several television movies, and is the co-author of I Hate People, a guide to getting “what you want out of your job.” He has reviewed comedy podcasts for The Huffington Post and Splitsider and was the longtime producer and host of “Succotash” the comedy podcast podcast. Marc has spent much of his adult life trying to get people to stop using the word “podcast” and to use “soundcast” instead.

Chillpak Hollywood Presents ... is a listener-supported joint. To receive new shows and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deanandphil.substack.com/subscribe