Actor, Swing, Toxic, Barcelona, Reel

Lighting Tests

Tom Nicoll | Vimeo | 27th February 2022

A hard-working Scottish actor subjected to an endless series of lighting tests begins to lose his cool. Over the course of ten minutes, shifts from light satire into a tragic, Beckettesque portrait of our hero's struggle for recognition. "The script is sh*t, I know it's sh*t, but I tell you f*ckin' what, at least there's something for me to f*ckin' DO in it!" (9m 58s)

How Sheet Music Lies To You

12tone | YouTube | 18th March 2022

Most musical nuances can't be conveyed with sheet music. For example, the jazz concept of swing is often described as sets of triplets missing the second note, but actual swing can't be notated. "A light swing might be fairly close to straight 8ths, while a heavy swing could start to approach a 16th-note figure." In other words, the blueprint has been mistaken for the music itself (20m 14s)

The Toxic Culture Of The Economics Profession

Unlearning Economics | YouTube | 21st March 2022

Into the weeds of economics. "Despite their huge importance to individual careers, the top five journals aren't actually that great an indicator of the quality of papers. Many of the most pioneering papers published outside the top five, with unpublished papers also playing an increasing role, as well as books, which are almost entirely disregarded within the economics profession" (1h 1m 33s)

Why Barcelona Looks Weird

Hoog | YouTube | 27th March 2022

Why are there so many octagons in the city of Barcelona? A genius named Cerdá designed the city so that its "blocks" (plots of open, cultivated land girded by buildings) would simulate rural life. But in the century since the construction of these blocks, many of the open-air spaces have been walled off to pedestrians and replaced by parking garages (8m 18s)

Mesmerizing Video Of The Week

Flipping through Hong Kong like a book

The Viewer is brought to you by The Browser, the curated newsletter of writing worth reading. The Browser is to writing what The Viewer is to video. Try it for free here.

Editor: Abe Callard. Comments? Suggestions? Write to us at editors@theviewer.is