The Hip Pocket #402 - The Soft Episode

As I said last week, things are evolving here at The Hip Pocket, and this week is the start of that.

I love having guests on the show, but I also look forward to just hanging out with my buddies, Craig and Aundria. We decided to mix things up a bit, and every other episode, it’s just going to be the three of us, each picking a film according to a specific theme. It’s a simple variation on the original game, and it’s going to force all three of us to dig deeper than we already have for the show.

I didn’t know we’d be releasing today’s episode on September 11th, but it feels like the right match between episode and historical anniversary. This is a tough day for a lot of people, even a quarter-century after it took place, and it feels like a day where you want to watch something comforting and familiar. For our first episode with the new format, we each picked the most comforting film we could, and we called it “The Soft Episode.” Part of what I like about this new thing we’re doing is seeing how each of us interprets a very broad prompt like this. There are so many ways you could go, so many films you could pick. So how did we each rise to this particular occasion?

Well, for Craig, it means a return to a childhood favorite. He’s not alone with this one. I know both Danny McBride and David Gordon Green are very fond of Six Pack, the “Kenny Rogers and a bunch of kids” film from 1983. Aundria picked a classic, the film that I think may be John Hughes’ finest hour, Planes Trains & Automobiles. And for me, this was an opportunity to talk about the tiny, lovely Petite Maman. I don’t think enough people know this one, and it’s one of the big delights of the last decade for me. It’s a strange trio of films, but it certainly did exactly what I hoped. You watch these three films together, and it’s like a warm bath.

When we originally recorded this, we intended for it to be a bonus episode for our Patreon, but we’ve since decided to put everything on the main feed. Craig lifted out our bonus episode talk, so for the first few episodes like this, things may sound a bit choppy as he cuts around those conversations. Sorry about that! I think in the long run, this is going to be good for the show, and it’s part of our decision to bring your weekly episodes from now on.

As always, please rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Podbean or wherever you’re listening. It helps get new people to try to the show, and building that audience is important for us now. We’ve got big plans for the show, but we’ve got to grow it some more if those plans are going to come true. You are the most important piece in that puzzle, so let people know about the show if you’re enjoying it. If you’re not, then please reach out to us at itsthehippocket@gmail.com and tell us what you’d like instead.

Here’s hoping this is the beginning of a lot of great conversations between the three of us as The Hip Pocket continues to evolve in the future.

Thanks for listening and for reading.