GREEN PORNO (2008) with Green Wine and...Porno Wine?

Today we tackle Isabella Rossalini's series of shorts, GREEN PORNO, which originally debuted at Sundance back in 2008.

Then we pair it with a "Green" wine, a "Porno" wine (?!?) and a totally normal wine.

Chapters

• 2:09 Wine Trivia Question of the Week (this sets up the Porno Wine, so listen!)
• 7:11 Isabella Rossalini's GREEN PORNO
• 12:17 Dave's Green Wine
• 17:09 Dave's Porno Wine
• 18:01 Dallas' Completely Normal Wine
• 26:35 Dave's Puppetry Theater Background
• 31:57 Film vs. Theater
• 37:21 Our Favorite Green Porno Episodes
• 45:09 Do Your Own Watch Party with Green Porno
• 52:05 Outtakes

Transcript

0:05

Are you not entertained? Yes, sir! real good time He's Dave and I'm Dallas and this is Ventertainment. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. This is entertainment, the wine and entertainment pairing podcast. Welcome back everybody to another wine and entertainment pairing for your entertainment. This is the podcast where we delude ourselves into thinking you want to hear what we have to say about different pieces of pop culture and art. But man, we know for a fact that you need to hear what we have to say about wine because wine is complicated. We all know what we like, but we rarely know why. So what better way to learn about that than by comparing different wines to different types of entertainment and comparing how they both hit us and affect us the way that they do. I'm Dave, a WCET level three certified wine professional. And I'm Dallas, a professional writer and world builder. And together we discuss wine in terms of structure, flavor profile, and the stories behind them, all couched in terms of how well they may or may not go with certain kinds of entertainment. And we also discuss creative works in terms of mood, theme, artistic intention, and poetic notion all couched in terms of how well they may or may not pair with specific wines. Wine itself is an art form, it's history and culture in a glass and in most cases a winemaker's passion, just as entertainment is history, culture and an artist's passion on a page, screen or record, which is why they go so goddamn well together. And now for the answer to last week's slightly more advanced wine trivia question. The question was, which of the following indigenous wine grapes is not self-pollinating? Self-pollinating, which means they cannot flower or produce fruit without being planted near other varieties of grapes or vines, which can then release their pollen to pollinate this strangely non-self-propagating vine. Is the vine of the grape the Abillo Mayor from Spain? Blatina from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Nagoska from Greece, or the Granolino from Italy? And Dave, tell us the answer. The answer is... I'm not gonna put in like actual drum roll effects. You should just do it like that every time, yes. Yeah, it's like a cat. It's like a tiger purring or something like that or chuffing, whatever they call it. B, Latina from Bosnia-Herzgovina. Now, this is something that we brought up when I paired that wine with one of our previous episodes. I think it was just two or three episodes ago. I'm trying to remember what the hell I paired it with now that I'm thinking about it. was B. no, I had this in my brain literally 30 seconds ago and now I can't remember what the hell I paired it with. It was our Mother's Day episode, Baby Boom from 1987. Go check that out and I do apologize. That episode actually had terrible audio quality because I had my microphone compressed the entire time we were recording. But you can go check out the Substack post and see my write up about Blatina there maybe and not listen to the shitty audio. or go listen to a shitty audio mother's day podcast episode, which you don't want to do. All right, back to the pod. Now, the Latino grape from Bosnia, Herzegovina is functionally a female flower and lacks the male stamen required for self pollination, which is a state known as autosterile. Autosterile varieties like the Latino and those are fairly rare in the world. Like vines are known for being like they can just propagate motherfucker like nothing stopping them. They are vines. But autosteroids like the Blatina rely on a partner vine to fertilize and produce fruiting bodies. Commonly a co-planting cross-pollination process is undertaken in which the Blatina grape is planted alongside other grape varieties such as Merlot, Alicante, Boucher in order to provide pollination. This process, it's testy and comes with a laundry list of risk to the winemaker, including microclimate considerations in which thick foggy mornings and hard rainfall can block the process of insemination, not to mention that the small seven to 10 day insemination window within the flowering process, that adds yet another layer of difficulty because it's such a short window. So in general, a good grape relies on the right soil and the right climate. But in Blatina's case, another condition must also be met. The partner vine must come into its flowering phase at the exact same time as the female Blatina flower. awaiting pollination. Locally in uh Bosnia-Herzegovina, the turnjik grape turnjik. It rhymes with trainwreck. It rhymes with trainwreck. Turnjik, turnjik, turnjik. There we go. It's T-R-N-J-A-K. Do not at me. Turnjik grape that is the preferred partner vine for the Bratina. And while traditionalists would love to rely on the wind and climbs of the region to carry the pollen from the turnjik to the Bratina flower, Human intervention usually has its own place. Growers can often be found manually collecting pollen and distributing it to the expectant flowers. And that was last week's question. That was the answer. We hope you enjoyed that little bit of wine adjumacation. Here is this week's question. What is the world's top wine importer per capita? So that's going to mean like per person in that place, right? Now, Is it London, England, New York City, USA, Shanghai, China, or Vatican City, quote unquote Italy, right? It's technically not its own country. uh is it London, New York City, Shanghai, or Vatican City who imports the most wine per Capita that's gonna be written down below in the description of this episode uh Let us know you can leave a comment. You can send us an email at entertainment studios at gmail.com You can find us at sub stack entertainment studios comm as well where you can reach out to us leave a comment on This episode or last week's episode and let us know what you think the answer to this trivia question is Alright, sweet Dallas. What are we doing today? And now, how about a little porno? Green porno, that is. If cinema royalty is a thing, then Isabella Rossellini is certainly it. And guess what? Royalty likes porno. Walk with me for second down this journey. Imagine your paternal grandfather is Pepino Rossellini, the man who brought the cinema movie house to Italy. And then imagine your father is Roberto Rossellini, a man squarely placed in the pantheon of all time great directors. And then imagine your mother is Ingrid Bergman, who is widely considered one of the greatest actors in history. Then mix in a host of headlines stealing a comic. like an unrivaled and late start modeling career, a jet setting life as a sought after muse for the greatest artists and photographers of your day. Then imagine you blossom into a storied yet quirky career as a successful actress. And then imagine your list of former lovers and partners reads like a Hollywood tell all. Imagine all of this and then you may know just what it feels like to be Hollywood royalty because you would be imagining the life of Isabella. Rossellini. oh In 2006, Isabella featured in the Guy Madden directed short film, My Dad is 100 Years Old, a tribute to uh Rossellini's father that she created. In the film, she plays almost every role, including Federico Fellini, Alfred Hitchcock, and her mother, Ingrid Bergman. Rossellini's twin sister, Isota Inga, however, did not find the tribute as glowing a representation and called it an inappropriate tribute. But nonetheless, after seeing this short, yeah, exactly. Twin siblings, no less. After seeing this short, was Sundance's own Robert Redford, who was then deeply entrenched in the creation of the new media space that met with Isabella to ask her to consider creating a new series precisely for the purpose of direct Internet release. After much discussion, Rosalini and her collaborators decided that nature would be a central theme. as Rossellini and her family had always been nature lovers and part of various uh conversationist movements through the years. Rossellini herself even returned to school to achieve a master's in conservation and animal behavior. The resulting project, Green Porno, took shape and would premiere in 2008. Dave, real quick, let's jump to the wines here. What are you drinking with Green Porno? And then we'll get into the forest. Absolutely. Now, first, a little bit more about like, let's talk just for a brief flash of a moment so we can understand what we're pairing here with this uh series. Like, what exactly is Green Porno? Like, what is this series? What does it play like? And so this is a series of short films, vignettes. They are most of them are like one to three minutes in length. They're very short. I think the longest that I stumbled across, I have no idea if I've watched them all. I tried. But the way they're set up on YouTube, it's kind of hard to know exactly if you've watched all of them. But I watched everything under Isabella Rossellini's own YouTube channel. And I think the longest is like seven and a half minutes, which was the elephant seal. Yeah. And that was and that was such an outlier because it was seven and a half. Nothing even comes close. Everything else is like one to three. kind of three, three and a half minutes at absolute most. They're very short. They're very sweet. They are very informative, very performance art, but in this very self uh aware way, you know, like they know what they're doing. It's part funny. It is part and it is authentically informative. They are serious while also being a little nudge nudge wink wink. We know this is silly AF, right? It's like this is part puppet theater. It's part performance art. It's part, uh educate infomercial educational, you know, science based type of a thing. Season one is very puppet theater. Season two, they start to actually bring these little vignettes at the end where they bring in an actual biologist and scientists to kind of add a little end cap, uh, ding, at the end of each short to give a little bit of real world context for it. Um, And then season three actually you're going to correct me if I'm wrong about this Dallas there was a season three but on YouTube it was called seduce me is that season three. so do me and mamas are basically extensions of the original idea. It kind of resonated so so well that it took on a life. Yeah. Remember this is 2008, 2010. Yeah. So this is, you know, early stage, quote unquote, new media. That is the space we're in. You know, things were coming out specifically for YouTube. So those two were kind of, you know, additions after the initial green two series. Yeah. Okay, so it green porno seduce me. I did not see the mama stuff. That's new. So I did not watch the mama stuff, but I did see that did watch all the seduce me's. So you know, what better to pair with green porno than a green wine. I knew you were gonna do it. I did it too. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. So now I did go a little off the beaten path on that green wine. So a green wine, technically, like some people call this a green wine. Technically, that is its literal name in Portuguese, which is a vino verde, right? Which, know, vino uh is wine and verde or verde is uh green. So it is a green wine. And it is because this is such a fresh light. If you like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, you are gonna like a vino verde because it is high acid. is fresh, bright, lively, hugely refreshing, crisp, all the green fruits like you know, green apple and you know, you got the citrus the lemon lime thing going on. You've got all these like green grassy notes and what I'm just like in New Zealand, savvy, a long type of a thing. But Portuguese, it tends to be slightly different flavor profile, a lot of wet stone, a lot of minerality. And they call it a green wine because that high acidity actually gives the color a green tinge to it. So it's like lemon green, not just yellow or white. If you get it in the right light, it always has that lemon green tinge. And therefore, it's a green wine. High acid in a white tends to do that. If there's not a lot of oak aging or lees aging, something that's going to turn the color another way, high acid will give a wine. If it's super high acid, it's going to get that green tinge. So, you know, I went with a vino verde, but I also went with this is such a fun light. ah It is you know, it's an yes. And there's a lot of it. There's like 30 videos that I found that you could watch. So you can watch it even though they're only one to three minutes long, like this kind of feature length if you watch them all. oh So you got to pace yourselves. So I have a vino verde here or something. It's technically uh Is this technically actually from the vino verde? So for those of you that don't follow us on Substack, just started up. um Think vino verde style. so not literally. So vino verde is a region in Portugal, an actual designated region in Portugal as well. So if it's a proper vino verde, it comes from the vino verde. But there is a vino verde. You can call something a vino verde style. I have a vino verde style uh of wine. And this is something and by the way, I did start up a new job of being a sales rep in LA for a Portuguese importer. So I got Portuguese wine on the mind. This is week one right now that I'm doing. So it's like I'm, buried. I'm overwhelmed by it, but I'm, it's going to be fun. It's going to be good. Um, but this one I have is something I did not, I was not aware existed. It's called a Liva or Levi wine, L E V E. And this is a wine that is made particularly specifically to be low alcohol. So, This wine, comes in a full liter bottle. Normally bottles are three quarters of a liter, 750 milliliters. This is a 1000 milliliter bottle. So it's like one quarter more than normal, but 9.5 % alcohol naturally. They fermented it all the way. They didn't leave any residual sugar in there. One of our trivia questions from a couple of weeks ago is what is dry wine? And that's when you leave. That's when you get rid of all the sugar by fermenting it entirely. And if you're going to be a sweet wine, you leave a little bit in by halting fermentation. These grapes are picked so early when they have so when the grapes themselves have so little sugar, and the acid is so high that they fermented it to the bitter end and only got 9.5 % alcohol out of this sucker. So it's low alcohol. It is it's crisp and refreshing, but also that lower alcohol. gives it a very light body. Compared to a fully, a 12 or 13 or 13.5 % white, which is what most of your whites are gonna be out there, it's closer to sipping water. It's closer to sipping like crisp lemon, lime, green apple water, and then the alcohol doesn't hit you very fast. You could drink this whole liter before it probably hits you. lower in calories as well because it's lower in alcohol. So you know, you can drink this whole liter and it's like drinking a full 750 milliliter bottle of wine. So, you know, this is going to be something that's going to get you through the entire series. Just watching it, you're going to have fun. It's light, fresh and crisp. The green and the green obviously is really on theme, really on point. So I have a Lieve. If you go out there and try and find like an L-E-V-E, Portuguese white, that's going to be a kind that has a lower alcohol content, especially if you're looking to moderate your alcohol consumption. These days, this is a very natural way of doing that. And the only other thing I'll say is going back to the Blatina, if you also want to be really on point, instead of the green part of green porno, if you want to go with the porno part of green porno, go with the grape that needs a sexual partner in order to propagate, because that's a rare thing in the grape world. And this series is all about and it's predominantly there's a couple species that covers where they're kind of like they can sexually reproduce on their own. But it's really rare starfish being one of the very rare ones. Otherwise, it's all about mating. It's all about how does nature deal with this need of two sexual partners having to somehow get together and make this shit happen. And it's a wild series. So go with the Latino who actually needs a sexual partner. There you go. All right, so I kind of followed a similar route to the pairing for this piece. I think Green Porno, um it is really refreshing and it's part of the reason it took off the way it did when it premiered. As we stated, it was sort of an early entry in that new media space. um Like I mentioned, Robert Retford himself was actively engaged in creating this sort of new media space. He understood that it was kind of underutilized and could be a primary platform for distribution for original content. And when he saw the series uh dedicated to her father that she did, the short, it kind of blew his mind apparently in certain reports that it was so unique, so interesting. She again played all of the roles, which is You know, you'll see Carrie over in a central theme in Green Porno is that she plays all the primary roles. uh Right. And it is. Male and female of every species depending on what it needs what she needs to be to show you what she's talking about it's, Dave and I were talking about this the other day. And for me, I think one of the reasons it caught on so vividly, so, so intensely, intensely was that it was almost sort of a, an adult version of preschool, uh, sort of, uh, biological, uh, books. When you're introducing kids to biology, it's very simple. It is very easy to follow. ah It's basically just the bullet points with lots of color. And she does that in such an interesting way. She just takes the governor off of it, you know, and shows you the saying things that yeah, she's saying like scientifically clinical things in this very pornographic way, like in this way where she's like, and I'm into it, you know, let's let's talk about sex kids. And you're like, Oh, okay. And I was telling Dallas, you know, because it's like puppet show theater, too, it has very reminiscent of things like Pee Wee's Playhouse or Mr. Rogers neighborhood, like it has that feel of like we're presenting to you. these larger ideas in this very digestible way. But then in green porno, of course, you you watch it and you're like, I mean, I'm not look, I'm not gonna take kids intelligence away. I feel like we we poo poo how what they can actually take and what they can actually understand. And so many things that I was exposed to as a kid. Did I understand it, understand it at the time? Probably not. But there were things I was exposed to in film, in media, in books and whatnot that I think being exposed to it young, it really allowed it to sit within me for a while and over the years. And like when that understanding came, I had something to call back to. I had something to reference it. And I'm like, okay, and did I always understand that? It's hard to know when you have a kid brain because so much is happening in it and you're being codified in so many ways every day of your life that do you understand it, understand it or do you or who knows, but it helps, I think. so you could, mean, kids could watch this. There's nothing. I know exactly you're gonna do. know exactly what you're gonna get. It's curious because the only video, there's only one video in the first season that has a sign-in notice at the beginning of it on YouTube. And that is the, I think it's the squid video. Maybe it's not the squid, I forget. But it's the only one that actually shows any sort of penetration. So there is no real sort of penetration sure there's humping she it's suggestive And a lot of the language will likely be over the heads of general children children, you know under the age of 10 or 12 and right so it yes if you have a parent there sure if you want to you know, he's your child Parents don't care what you do. Just do it responsibly Right. But it's penetration, but it's not human penetration. Right. And so it really does. And yes, she wears costumes where it's like, here's the here's the giant phallus hanging off my costume kind of a thing. And I'm walking around with it that's what the animal would have. And you can I mean, it's objectionable from that very prudish way. But again, it's like that is what the animal would be walking around with. And yeah, that that's nature, baby. Sorry. It's also It's also puppetry and exactly isn't even like marionette sort of biologically uh realistic. It is drawn out sort of puppetry, the puppetry of paper almost a lot of what they've done with the puppetry puppetry looks like origami even though they're using fabric. um And, you know, so there is that sort of degree of separation from reality. Anyway, uh I decided to go down this assembly route and pair of course something green adjacent. You know, initially I thought a there of course, uh I was a little too on the nose for me. was like, uh First stop, right. ah And I just had a good, you know, there a couple of weeks ago at was it Melanie? I don't remember. Anyway, I was like, all right, that would go well with this. That would definitely go well with this. But then I remembered having a bottle from K &L wines, by the way, just uh plug for K &L here. So if you guys want to try this wine after I reveal it. on the west coast. you're in California, they're in San Francisco, they're in LA, and in Redwood City. Redwoods it right I know so random but Redwoods it. um So I decided to go with something that did have lots of that kind of evergreen in the bottle lots of like the herbs you get you get it you get it on the nose get on the palate. um It's you get some stone fruit. There's that really acute lemony thing or even lime kind of uh note that it has but I went with an Argyllis. Costomolino Vermintino, ah of course, from Sardinia, or Sardinia, uh which of course is at the foot of Italy. It's a Mediterranean table wine. It's considered in many cases. But what I like about it is that it is, we had another wine a couple of weeks ago that was so drinkable. so infinitely drink, and I'm not a full bottle kind of guy. At most, I want two ounces of a bottle before a glass before I move on to something else, right? uh But this vermitino ah is kind of fantastic and so drinkable. And the way you watch green porno as well, for me at least, um I'm hitting play and watching the entire season in one sitting because you can't, first of all. know, the episodes are three minutes long. ah And then you move on to the second season and. They end too soon. You're always ready for the next one. When it ends, you're like, OK, OK, what's now? Holy shit. Like, what crazy thing am I going to see next? The kids call that edging by the way. This series leaves you... do, it's called edging, it's a real thing. uh No, I know, but that's not what they call edging. It leaves you wanting more, it leaves you wanting more. If you want to go truly un-kid friendly, Google edging. Do not Google edging. Anyway. You're ridiculous. Anyway. So yeah, I went with the 2023 Argyllis Costa Molino Vermintino. I would say a green adjacent wine for sure. It's very vibrant, just like the series. leaves you purely, I mean, really satisfied. It's really satisfying and the acidity is pretty, pretty high and lingering. yeah. Sweet. That's my parent. Now, Dave, I want to get into something here you mentioned in our conversation a couple of was that yesterday, a day before yesterday, you mentioned that this series brought up some nostalgia, for lack of a better term of your days uh in theater, particularly with sort of puppetry and, uh and the like. And I want to I want to see if you can dig into that a little bit more and let us know. uh You know, what that was, what was going on in terms of the production. Maybe maybe there's not too much more to dig into. But you know, I went to college, I have a theater degree. So loser, I did not get anything I can make money with. um I went into I got an acting a Bachelor of Arts in theater, and did a lot of live theater during that time. So in college, I took a puppetry class a puppetry course, because there was a professor there. And she did one of our big acting classes. And then also puppetry was her her jam. That was her thing. So she taught that and I was like, that's curious. Shout out don't remember. know I'm a whore. No, I'm I am that old. College was a long time ago. I'm sorry. It really was. I don't. Oh, maybe it might have been Lenny. I feel like that could be very on. But don't quote me on that. And I cannot remember her last name to save my life. And she was definitely one of those professors where everyone knew her by her first name. Like he did not call her like, you know, Mr. Mrs. Whatever was very not high school. It was very collegey. Yeah. And You know, puppetry was her jam. Now I am not arts and crafty, guys. I suck at arts and crafts. So that was, I was never very good at building my own puppets, but we had to, we had to do that quite a bit. So it was about making your own puppets. And we did everything from hand puppets to life-size puppets to the kinds of puppets I'm gonna forget the term of what they call this, the kind you wear. where you are like draping your kind of the body of the button, then you still have a head that goes above your head. Yeah. And then you're manipulating the arms on either side of that, you know, so you're it's a little taller than you. Yeah. Kind of big birdie kind of thing. All with sticks. And then you're walking around and you're you're you're the legs and whatnot. And I even did after college, I worked for a theater in the Washington, D.C. area called Classica, which was founded by these Russian theater folks and so classical with K, classic and very, very, very risky. And they were also very much into puppets. So I did a couple puppet shows there. One called moon shadow, which was based on this, this Japanese myth. And it was so I you know, I was very into puppets for a little while, not because I really sought it out, sought it out. But just because I kept falling into this type of performative art groups. that were very into it and I'm not gonna lie, it was fun. I loved doing it, I did. I sucked at building the puppets, at least with Class Guy did not. Like they had their puppet master, they had their puppet makers and they made the puppets and I just had to do the voice acting and do the physical acting, be the body for the ones that I had to wear and things like that. And that was a lot of fun. I was really good at Jim Henson-ing in terms of like being the voice. you stare at your own puppet, like when you are doing puppeteering, you are just watching your puppet and you're almost like, the way you manipulate the puppet, it's acting for you. You know what I mean? And then your voice, you're watching it and making sure that you love what you're seeing and that the performance is something, you get to step aside. Because when you act act on like, especially live theater or film, In film, you can at least play back what you just did and see what that looks like and then, you know, make some changes. In live theater, you know, you're you can never really see what you're doing. You just you just hope it feels right and sounds right to you. And then you hope it's translating. And puppetry is a little more like you get to step outside of yourself, literally. And then the puppet is what you're channeling everything into. And you get to see that performance from two or three feet away, just watching what that is. And it's amazing how much you lose yourself into it, where the voice you're projecting out of your own mouth to be the puppet's voice. You're just so into making that puppet be the thing and the voice be the puppets voice. You are unlike in Jim Henson, where, especially in the film and things like that, like you they're hiding where the puppeteer is a lot of the times. And like, you don't see the puppeteer there on stage like, everyone sees the puppeteer. You're not hit. right there. But you channel it into the puppet so much that no one is paying attention to you. They're all paying if you are paying 99.9 % of your attention into the puppet, everyone else is doing the same. And no one notices that you're there anymore. And it's a lot of fun. It's a fantastic way as an actor to just utterly lose yourself and your own physicality into this third party inanimate object and every you're channeling all of that into it. So it's a lot of fun. um I can see why Rosalini like I would have loved to be a part of this series kind of But making something like moment it is so rare, I come across something where I'm like, you know what, I would love to have just been on the crew of this thing as they one figured it out because it's a first, right? They by the way, Jody Shapiro and Rick Gilbert were the two people responsible for turning Russell in his work into the puppets, into the paper and, you know, the characters and developing the visual style. um But it was one of those times when I was like, this just feels like the kind of projects 20 year old 22 year old Dallas would have been like, you know what, getting stuck in the basement of a soundstage for us 10 months because that was the production cycle 10 months. ah Making costumes trial and error, filming and refilming and rewriting and rewriting a green porno series, sign me the hell up. So yeah, I totally get that. And most of this series, like 90 % of it could be done on a live stage. Without question. It's that kind of production. Now there are some moments where lighting, but I mean, again, you could still do it live, but sometimes like what they were cutting and what was black and what was colored and what was, and then the way the light hit each thing to create an illusion of something. Like that could work on a stage as well, but of course they had to make sure it worked on film up close and so on. But they do some great visual tricks. funny you say that because this series took on an even more interesting second life with the green porno tour. They did take it on the road to numerous cities to wild acclaim. uh It was fascinating because with each stop she would invite because as I said she went back and got a master's in uh animal behavior and conservativism I think. uh I forget what the specific designation was, but ah she would invite scientists in the local communities to come dressed as their favorite animal ah while they gave presentations. So it was half talk. The talk was followed, uh was preceded by uh her presentation and the presentation was almost as cinematic as the actual film series. uh It was, as I said, is wildly acclaimed every time it came to the city. There were other institutions and places who begged her to bring it back. uh It has kind of been a mainstay of her career for the past 20 some almost 20 years. She even opened her own farm and bed and breakfast in upstate New York uh called Mama. I forget Mama Farms. think it's called. uh where she makes her own. has her she has her own sheep and this owns there's there these tours and everything is sort of connected to nature. It's sort of like an upstate New York treatment of an Italian Villa and you can stay there for about $300 a night. It is a lovely little place. Yeah, they even apparently have some wine grapes on site and they may make some local wines, but I couldn't find any of them for sale. um So yeah, this series for sure has done her well for the last 19 years or so, I 17 years. Yeah, I was gonna ask if they I didn't know whether this had ever been a live theater production. But I was like, I was gonna ask, did they try it as a theater production before filming? It's funny, they did the opposite where they filmed and then they took it on the road. But either way, I was like, yeah, this would make such a natural like it to to re jigger it to become a live theatrical performance is minor. Right. You're just tweaking it. And then you've got it is a film theatrical performance for the most part, ah even on on screen. But. You know, the YouTube series, though, folks, this is don't think this is not. I just said it's like filming a live theatrical performance, but it's also not like this was made for film. There are this feels like something you're supposed to watch as short films. It feels like. like new media. Like I know we get those those sort of terms kind of conflated, but it does actually feel like something made for new media because I do think it sits in that space you're talking about between live theater and you know, traditional film. It does feel like that. So sorry, go on. No, no, no, just that. Just that I didn't want people to be like, well, it's like live theater. I'm like, I really want to watch this live theater like someone filming someone up on a stage? And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. It is is better done than that. It is it is more meticulously done and better thought out. And it is very filmic in its way. But ah but even when you watch it, you're like, yeah, this. hop, skip and jump away from coming live theater. This was it is presentational in that Pee Wees playhouse or Mr. Rogers neighborhood. We were like, this could so easily just be done on a stage. They would just have to reconfigure a few things to make that happen. But all right, Dallas. So out of all of these three seasons, what was what stood out for you? Like because there were there are quite a few animals covered. There's one animal per episode. What what were the ones that stuck with you the most? You know if I'm honest, it's the first season is kind of perfect for me. I think the other seasons kind of build on the original idea, which is great that evolution is fine. Them expanding the world, out learning from the mistakes and adding more of you know the central kind of themes and ideas that they you know established in season one. But I think as simplicity of season one. Yeah It's just, and as I said, you and I were discussing this, you said, I think you mentioned that you don't remember this being on your radar at the time. uh And for me, I remember when I came across this, it felt like this series was meant for my ridiculous, quirky personality who is interested in trivial nonsense for no reason other than the triviality of it all. And ah it was so it's so indulgent. It's so so it's so but also informative. It's so uh passively artistic, for lack of a better term, because really all they're doing is creating a very simple puppet show around some factoids ah and filming it and putting it up. And it's you know, it's it's it's conceived written by directed for the most part by one person. um And it was just like, yeah, this is this is I'm the target audience for this. I am clearly the target audience for this show. So um I think as a whole, the first season is just a great block. It's just perfect in terms of what animals stuck out. I think the The Dragonfly is great. That's a good one. The Dragonfly is a great one. That's um it. It's anyway, if you guys don't watch the entire series, that's fine. Just go watch the Dragonfly uh episode. It's fun. um And I think it was the spider, the spiders. You know, what's amazing about the series is you do walk away. having learned something because if you know it in broad strokes, even if you know a little bit, there is something about the presentation here. They really get into some of the details and it's memorable. I think that's the big thing is like you remember after you watch any one of these are like, okay, that is seared into my fucking brain. Awesome. Now I know how the male spider, you know, basically rubs his semen on, can you say semen? don't know, on his hands and then sneaks onto the spider web, you know, and when the females know... Rossellini just call it And then you know sneaks up on the web and he has to be careful because the female spider who's larger might think he's a fly and just eat him and not ask questions so right he has to stick beneath her take his hands cover him see him and stick them in her pouch and then run the fuck away as quickly as possible like that's that's the episode that's what you just learned how this fucking thing copulates how appropriate so yeah I think I think it is a perfect little series and I hate that it's so good because it's so simple. And I'm always one of those guys who's always like, things are just too simple. They're too simple. They're too simple. But certain things need to be simplified. And, you know, sort of digestible and condensed and this series is perfection. So what about you? What sticks out? So for me, think probably the couple things that stick out one the dolphins ah in in season two, I think it was season two and not season three that the dolphins were a part of. um mostly the dolphins because they are the closest to us in terms and the fact that they just play around with all they're like the male dolphins will just stick their junk into each other's holes like what the blowhole Ding ding ding, that's college Ding ding ding. Right, right. And they're like, they're showing them and they're like, I'm like, my, I did not know this. The female dolphins will play around with oral sex with each other and just stick their snouts in each other's little pouches and sort of like, my, I did not know this. And I'm like, so they, so dolphins seem to run the gamut of bisexuality, sexual, know, homosexuality, heterosexual, it doesn't matter. They're just like, We all got holes, baby, let's do this. Let's just, who's available today? And we're, let's play around. um So that was, that stuck out. And I was like, okay, no other species seems to be like this. All the other species seem very locked into their structures of like, this is what we do and this is how we do it. Nothing really stands out of place too much. Now we know homosexuality and things like that have displayed themselves in nature before. in certain places, the dolphins just seem, again, the most likely, just the spectrum. Everything across the rainbow. We are dolphins. we are. We got this. We're going to experiment in this space for a while. right. And we know they're almost there for the most part as intelligent as us. So it's just sort of like, damn, okay, dolphins, you and us, we are like, just you're in the you're in the water, we are not but we are on the same wavelength, you know, it's just it's interesting. So that stood out the elephant uh seal just because that was the epic seven and a half minute one and like that had there was the most to learn from that. that stuck out. And then I was also I really stuck out. There's one special episode they do also just called why vagina. Yeah, that is, uh which was it just kind of explores like, why penises? Why vaginas? Like, what is this intercourse thing? Like, why did nature do this? And they just just dives a little bit deeply into like, why did nature choose this? Right? Why is this the you go about things? Right? Why this design? Why is this the way so many species go about things or some version of this, that so many species go about things, that was very informative. So I think those stuck out for me as just being the most memorable and informative all told. And then of course, there are always just the fun shit like the angler fish where it's like, I have a giant tooth at the top of my head, I jam it up and then I just become a sexual organ that you absorb. And I become your own personal sperm bank. And I'm like, It's so good! It's so good! There's the episode with uh I think it's the sense the snail she guys seriously if you I highly recommend if you have five or six minutes on the toilet because we all know you use your phones in the toilet you're disgusting you should stop it but if you have a few spare minutes go and YouTube one of the episodes from this series you will not be upset but the episode with the snail she ah you know, apparently the snail's not slides itself back into it as a massive foot that slides itself back into its uh shell and curls around on itself. And its anus ends up right next to its mouth. And so it constantly just poops in its own mouth. And of course, they you know, they do a good job sometimes with bodily fluids, it does give you the ick, but in a very sort of staged kind of stagey kind of way, representational kind of way. uh That was another one of my favorites. So uh Again, highly, highly recommend you guys check this out. And this show is criminally underseen. think it's got like hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, like for a lot of these episodes. this this should be a millions. I'm shocked. Well, that's a that's a second. So when it first came out it was Truly it blew up. I mean it had like four million views in the first So basically this is like a repeat a repatching uh repack Okay, even then still, a couple minutes a day, just keep going back and rewatching this. It should be at millions again. As a matter of I'm gonna go watch. I'd recommend you guys, it's something I want to sort of just start throwing out there. You guys should start having more like wine parties at home where you pick some content to just watch with your friends and serve some wine. You'll hear Dave and I getting into more of this in the future coming up for a very specific reason, which we're not going get into at the moment. But ah seriously, I would say start with something like this so you can use as a barometer to see who in your group is a little shy. uh A a little gun shy when it comes to matters of sexuality and sensuality. And yeah, I thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this series. It is, it kind of caters to the child in you. That's what it feels like. It caters to the child in all of us. It is so irreverent, but also extraordinarily informative, which is kind of the secret sauce. That's why it became so viral. That's why it took off. You know, people started sharing information about this series with the people in their lives because it was so unique, so new. It was quote unquote, new media even. yeah. So any final thoughts there? ah Just that I'm just going to repeat, know, while you watch this go out and find yourself a nice vino verde or Portuguese white find the levy or Liva. I don't know how to pronounce it. I got to learn that but leve. You can go out and find that if you want some lower alcohol in that and make it even easier drinking the one I have here in particular. This is a Quinta Varzea da Pedro Branco levy. This is now Portuguese wines folks are blends don't get variety obsessed on these you Americans out there let go of like, what's the what's the great variety Portuguese they blend most of their wine and it's indigenous grapes to Portugal predominantly so you're not going to have heard of jack shit. Not one of them. So like this one in particular, this is all these grapes. This is a muscatel groudo Sierra Nova and void. Voicing ho voicing ho Those are the three grapes. This is all a blend of those three. You've probably never heard of any of them. And that's okay. It's a gentle, acidic, light, crisp white wine with low alcohol. Go find that or the Bertina from Bosnia-Herzegovina. and for this specific one, the Quinta Varzea da Pedra, I know it's in LA. I'm telling it in LA. So can look around and find that one in Los Angeles area. Yeah, exactly. Or San Francisco area. That's where my boss is from too. So I know Northern and Southern California has this one. We might not really exist outside of California, but you can find other libeys ah out there. So take a look at that or that. uh But Tina, great. that I paired with six feet under. can go read more about that specific bottle as well from that episode. And Dallas, once again, what have you got for this? It's the Arguelles Costa Molino, Vermintino. If you can't find this one, get yourself a nice little Vermintino. uh This comes from K &L wines, again, San Fran, LA and Redwood City. uh Check them out. A price point is about 14 bucks. Cool. Yeah. awesome. That's going be better than this one. But they also, I was going to say, if you want a California, Vermintino to K and L, I think carries the tablas Creek, Vermintino. I think the tablas Creek, Vermintino is more like $40 for that one. So it's a little more up there because they're very great winery. Yes. Their Vermintino is amazing though. And they are an amazing winery. They're worth the price if you can afford it. But either way, get that Vermintino. And don't forget everyone to answer the trivia question of the week, which city imports the most wine per capita, ah New York City, London, or I'm sorry, in order A, C, and D, it's gonna be uh London, New York City, Shanghai, or Vatican City. Let us know and try and answer that. If you can try not to Google the answer, honor system people, so you can answer it. And as we wrap up, once again, let us shout out uh Make sure you follow or subscribe to us before you leave, because that really helps this podcast grow and reach new listeners. Make sure to leave a rating and or review. We super duper appreciate it. You can go follow us and support this podcast on Substack. Our Substack is entertainment studios dot com. You can reach us via email at entertainment studios at Gmail dot com if you have any questions or want to leave us feedback. outside of leaving a rating under review, especially if you don't want to leave us a great reading review, like send send us an email, maybe we'll get better. We'll take your feedback into consideration. 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Kate Rochelle has her own sub stack survives on wine survives on wine.substack.com and Jessica Mason she is an author extraordinaire and she has her own sub stack monster of the week.substack.com so go check out a dose out and thank you for being our first founding members we will be back in one week folks with another one and entertainment for your entertainment. Ciao until then later guys. No, no, no, no, no, we've already had that outtake you like that word these days Wait, there's an outtake someplace? Me saying cunt? yeah. Look, do you stop with these fucking outtakes right now? no. Okay, dude you so you have not listened to our episode return of Bruno, but you should uh... i did but did so i mean i i i swear those things i listen to it passively in the background and do is that Okay, so there is it's the best outtakes we've ever had. You need to listen to the go to the go to the end. Wait for the exit music to finish. And there's like five minutes of outtakes and you need to listen to it. It's amazing. And it's so funny. During the outtakes, I'm even I even whispered into the microphone. I was like, nobody tell him you'll have to listen to the whole episode. And I know he never does that and he'll never know. That's facts. That could be another trivia question indeed for a real dedicated audience. Yep, yep. was mentioned in the outtakes of Blub? Anyway, alright.