Punk Vacation: An Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 44 we get our wings up, our scentific mondo clipboards out, pop on a classical piano nocturne and lock in on an epic journey through 7 VSL releases in April, 2 other sublabels, 2 mainline, and the OCN titles we could get to. 

We begin by reviewing the partner label titles that we bought during the first day of the sale and quickly pivot to all of the April releases. 

June is going to be a little different for Punk Vacation. We have multiple partner label interviews lined up and will pair each OCN focused episode with a bevy of Melusine titles from 2026.

Thank you to everyone who listens and please let us know how we can make the show better. Always listening!

Someone's Favorite Productions 
https://www.someonesfavoriteproductions.com/

Eli can be found on most socials @eliolsberg, you can also catch his standup show the second Tuesday of every month at the Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood. Also, check out his Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/eliolsberg/

Chris is on
Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/personalhistory/
IG at personalhistoryoffilm

Celeste de la Cabra can be found on most socials at Celeste de la Cabra but is very active on YT and IG right now. Also, if you're not already spend a few dollars per month supporting Celeste: https://www.patreon.com/CelestedelaCabra

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 43 we sit down with Kurtis Spieler. Kurtis is a key member of the restoration team at Vinegar Syndrome, but also is involved in many parts of behind the scenes production and even finds time to be a filmmaker. We talk about the Halfway to Black Friday surprise announcements, including a few that Kurtis played a major role in getting them out and ready to ship.  

As always, Kurtis is an amazing interview with tons of insight into the VS operations and a sincere love for his job and the work he's doing to preserve cinema. We even get to tease the Vampfriars and how it was directing Vinegar Syndrome's first fully in-house production.

We will be back later in June in a different way during partner month. We will have a dedicated episode to cover the 500 movies that were released in April, and separately we're looking forward to highlighting some of the partner labels in a more focused way.

Thank you to everyone who listens and please let us know how we can make the show better. Always listening!

Someone's Favorite Productions 
https://www.someonesfavoriteproductions.com/

Eli can be found on most socials @eliolsberg, you can also catch his standup show the second Tuesday of every month at the Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood. Also, check out his Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/eliolsberg/

Chris is on
Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/personalhistory/
IG at personalhistoryoffilm

Celeste de la Cabra can be found on most socials at Celeste de la Cabra but is very active on YT and IG right now. Also, if you're not already spend a few dollars per month supporting Celeste: https://www.patreon.com/CelestedelaCabra

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 42 is reviewing the May announcements that we know. In preparation for Halfway to Black Friday, VS has released a portion of their slate in addition to a new slate of OCN partner titles. We are joined by film historian Casey Scott and film and culture writer Gentry Austin who run the amazing Sin Syndicate podcast. 

Casey is on record saying he has known Joe Rubin since he was 16 years old, and is a wealth of knowledge about VS and especially their golden age porno and sexploitation movies. Him and Gentry have many stories about the titles, the production of the discs, and overall this was a conversation Eli and I really loved. We had to try hard to keep it from going another 2 hours. They have already started showing up on commentaries and special features, including the Distribpix title this month, and it's easy to understand why. 

We will be back later in May to cover the full Halfway to Black Friday slate and discuss the overflowing cornucopia of April releases. 

Thank you to everyone who listens and please let us know how we can make the show better. Always listening!

If you want to get a taste of the expertise Casey and Gentry bring to their film discussion you can follow them on Letterboxd: 

Gentry is simply gentryaustin
Casey is manofsteel26

Someone's Favorite Productions 
https://www.someonesfavoriteproductions.com/

Eli can be found on most socials @eliolsberg, you can also catch his standup show the second Tuesday of every month at the Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood. Also, check out his Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/eliolsberg/

Chris is on
Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/personalhistory/
IG at personalhistoryoffilm

Celeste de la Cabra can be found on most socials at Celeste de la Cabra but is very active on YT and IG right now. Also, if you're not already spend a few dollars per month supporting Celeste: https://www.patreon.com/CelestedelaCabra

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 41 is Eli and I covering March titles in depth but most importantly it is sitting down with one of our heroes. Moviemaker, raconteur, philosopher, and now available on Shudder, Scooter McCrae joined Punk Vacation.

Scooter is the actual best. Get this man into any discussion of the Mount Rushmore of moviemakers from history. He is takes the craft so seriously, and spends a lot of time in this conversation breaking down the small details he considers in order to out Dreyer Carl Theodor himself. He also speaks openly about his time as a behind camera creative in the NY porn scene, and shares some stories with us I had not heard before.

But what jumps in every Scooter interview is how humble and kind the man is. He'll roll with any topic, is self-depricating if he has a chance to make a joke, clearly loves classic cinema. He speaks about cinematographers the way that the best drummers speak about their heroes from the past. 

After Scooter dips out, Eli and Chris walk through the mountain of March titles and portend the impossible task of covering everything from April. Overall, this is an episode I'm very happy with and I hope you enjoy!

We will be back in early May to discuss the months announcements as the month of reveals opens up with a few early sneak peeks and another cornucopia of partner releases.

Thank you to everyone who listens and please let us know how we can make the show better. Always listening!

Go watch Black Eyed Susan on Shudder!

Someone's Favorite Productions 
https://www.someonesfavoriteproductions.com/

Eli can be found on most socials @eliolsberg, you can also catch his standup show the second Tuesday of every month at the Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood. Also, check out his Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/eliolsberg/

Chris is on
Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/personalhistory/
IG at personalhistoryoffilm

Celeste de la Cabra can be found on most socials at Celeste de la Cabra but is very active on YT and IG right now. Also, if you're not already spend a few dollars per month supporting Celeste: https://www.patreon.com/CelestedelaCabra

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 40 is one of the most in-depth and interesting conversations Punk Vacation has had on the language of physical media. That is not meant metaphorically, literally the subtitling and the importance of language and copywriting. Dino Proserpio does most of the subtitling work for VS and a lot of the copywriting. He's a polyglot and film historian, and was a fantastic interview.

Eli and Chris both spend 3 hours geeking out with Dino, and he will be coming back as a guest when he is ready for it. He casually covers topics like how Rad is responsible for the creation of sublabels at VS, the amount of work that goes into restoration and how there is a science behind subtitling. I learned a lot from hearing him speak and I hope you all do too.

We will be back mid April to discuss the March titles in depth. If you want to watch along we will cover Office Killer, Massacre, Forgotten Gialli Vol 9, Badge 373, Cuddly Toys, Unmasked Part 25, Intensive Care, and Reviver 2.

Thank you to everyone who listens and please let us know how we can make the show better. Always listening!

Eli can be found on most socials @eliolsberg, you can also catch his standup show the second Tuesday of every month at the Pleasure Chest in West Hollywood. Also, check out his Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/eliolsberg/

Chris is on
Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/personalhistory/
IG at personalhistoryoffilm

Celeste de la Cabra can be found on most socials at Celeste de la Cabra but is very active on YT and IG right now. Also, if you're not already spend a few dollars per month supporting Celeste: https://www.patreon.com/CelestedelaCabra