Bonfire, Love, Teletext, Sheeran, September
The Most Difficult Shot In Movie History
Patrick (H) Willems | YouTube | 16th September 2021
...is a ten-second shot of an airplane landing. Which is in every movie ever. And yet it cost $80,000. Zemeckis was an avowed enemy of the plane-landing shot, so his AD said: what if I could get you a shot where the plane lands on the JFK runway, centered right in the middle of the shot, directly in front of a setting sun, with the Empire State Building in the Background? It wasn't easy (20m 07s, start here)
Romantic Love And Why It's Stupid
Cue 22 | YouTube | 21st September 2021
Romantic love is a relatively recent concept; in the old days, marriage was for "sharing goats" and sex was for "brothels and having babies." The two had not yet been synthesized. And perhaps it's not such a good invention—the Romantic poets passed down to us a "fetish for yearning" that seems more like a pursuit of pain than a pursuit of happiness (31m 14s)
The Viewer Classifieds
"It's not about the obvious villains. This wise, nuanced, quietly brilliant book reveals how technology is reshaping our society and our values in ways that are insidious, hidden—sometimes even from their inventors—and far more fascinating." Larissa MacFarquhar on the new book System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot.
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The Rise And Fall Of Teletext
Neo | YouTube | 22nd September 2021
Hidden in the "invisible gap" in the transmission of the TV signal, teletext allowed users to view pages of text. It could be used for nearly anything; news, advertising, weather...you could even send private romantic messages on it. Eventually it was killed by the internet, as were so many things, but to some, it will "always represent the future" (18m 07s)
I Fooled People Into Believing I Was Ed Sheeran
Noisey | YouTube | 21st September 2021
Ed Sheeran shows up to the biggest boxing match of the year, attracting hordes of fans and TV coverage...except it's not Ed Sheeran, it's a man named Ty Jones (who looks a lot like Ed Sheeran). The result accentuates the absurdity of celebrity worship. "They put us in the bar, where Justin Bieber was. We had to avoid Justin Bieber, because...he actually knows Ed" (9m 40s)
Browser Video Of The Week: Pamela Hobart
Pamela Hobart is a philosopher turned philosophical life coach, aka "the life coach for smart people". This week she discusses how to deal with an existential sandwich, why small innovations are valuable, and the deathbed fallacy (30m 23s)
Edifying Video Of The Week
Comedian Demi Adejuyigbe's annual September celebration video (possibly his last)
Watch The Viewer's recommendations each week as a handy YouTube Playlist.
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