This video is for people-watchers 🫣
Reviewing nor gather into barns, Rosalía, and “the world’s safest kindergarten”
Neighbors,
In his widespread essay from October, “Everything is Television,” journalist Derek Thompson wrote:
“Television shifted culture from discrete and bounded products to a continuous, streaming sequence of images and sounds.
“Disparate forms of media and entertainment are converging on one thing: the continuous flow of episodic video.”
“Flow,” Thompson writes, is the language of what he defines as “television.” And that language explains everything:
Consumption of video podcasts is growing twenty times faster than audio counterparts.
OpenAI is attempting to justify its recent three hundred billion dollar valuation by launching Sora, a TikTok-like app where all videos are artificially-generated.
Speaking of shortform, more than ninety percent (!!) of time spent on Instagram these days is spent watching video; only seven percent of time involves watching content from actual friends.
We started our Thursday review series, Neighborhood Watch, because we believe great art—worth recognizing, and interrogating—is emerging from the Internet. Amidst the “flow” rises creative work that stops us in our tracks, forcing us to think critically about the world around us.
Yet Thompson raises some compelling points. What disappears in a flow-filled culture, he writes, is “the capacity for solitude, for sustained attention.”
This led me to wonder:
I’ll report back with readers’ answers on Sunday. For now, I’m passing the pen over to Moy—scroll down to read this week’s Neighborhood Watch below.
— NGL
P.S. Last blog, we bundled up our Issue Seven slate of stories into one, convenient place. You can read it here.
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P.P.P.S. We had a ton of fun revealing Zack’s site live at the Block Party—thanks to all of y’all who attended for providing the drumroll.
Video: ‘trying to get a book published’ (2025)
Creator: nor gather into barns
Runtime: 14m 40s
Review by: Moy Zhong
Long opening sequences, lingering pauses, no one acknowledges the camera. From a karaoke bar in Japan to a bout in a 7-Eleven with a woman he awkwardly rejects, to a morning spent writing in a traditional house in the suburbs, “trying to get a book published” by the channel nor gather into barns1 is a window into the world of an ordinary lonely man who I (and fifty thousand other people) can’t can’t look away from.
There’s something to be said about a quiet film—one where you are just a voyeur. Not in a creepy way…well, kind of.
I’m an avid people-watcher. You’d guess my favorite spot in a café is by the window, but it’s actually the bar seating where I have the option to a) chat with the baristas or b) sit back and listen to the interactions of the customers who step in. There are so many characters to pick apart: an office worker on a lunch break, a bartender walking her dog before the night shift, a college student—oh, they just settled in and opened their laptop; ah, they’re finishing a coding assignment. I promise—I’m not a creep! I’m just curious, nosy.
Across the “YouTube is Hollywood/Hollywood is YouTube” movement, the creators garnering the biggest spotlights are the flashy high-production channels like Michelle Khare that rival those on major networks. In the “indie scene,” there are cinematic creators with the color-grading chops that belong on big screens like Life of Riza. Creatives like Colt Kirwan and Jordan Studdard have so many quick-cutting tricks and skits up their sleeves that, if you blink, they could be the next Daniels.2
But what of the viewers who enjoy a Celine Song film? Anyone here enjoy Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” (2023)3?
In college, my professor hosted a mini film-screening series for the work of documentarian Patrick Wiseman. His films are investigations into places from malls to a school for the blind, hospitals, high schools, where you just sit back and watch what happens. No narration, no guide, hardly any music or fancy camera movements (if I recall correctly)—just cuts. Cut to, cut to, cut to. You are just a fly on the wall.
If this sounds boring to you, it can be. I fell asleep during a few of these screenings.4 But Wiseman’s films emphasize how much you can learn from being a listener. When I leaned in, really listened, and latched onto little curiosities, I saw stories, came to my own conclusions, reflected on my life today, and felt moved by mundanity. You are not acknowledged, yet viewing feels weirdly intimate.
I love vlogs, but I’m hyper-aware of my existence as a viewer. I’m aware of my “responsibility” to “smash that like button, hit subscribe, and share this video with a friend”—because there’s someone on the other side of this video that’s depending on it, and this is their life. Nowadays, they also tell tight stories with narration, a clear guide to lead you to key takeaways and emotions. “trying to get a book published” doesn’t do that.
While any work of art is not without the author’s perspective, works by Wiseman, Celine Song, and nor gather into barns lay bare their stories and invite you to develop a point of view of your own.
I think the feelings of early 2000s YouTube is that, as a viewer, there is no innate responsibility to the creator.5 Silly videos acknowledging the camera certainly existed, and the most viral videos of the time were young teens performing skits for laughs. But videos were truly for themselves, their small circles, and we just happened to watch them out of curiosity.
nor gather into barns has also dipped their toe plenty into talking to the camera in the traditional vlog way. Their work doesn’t feel like the larger YouTube landscape, though, because this raw, fly-on-the-wall feeling is felt in every piece. People on Reddit compare the channel to creators like cemetaryf0g, Tilek All Better6—I personally find them akin to any of Emma Chamberlain’s recent videos.
These are people who let us look into their windows while they dance like no one’s watching.
Thank you — from a non-creepy, avid people-watcher
Moy’s Score: 4.3 / 5 🐦⬛
Dedicated to the books, music, movies, and physical media that played a meaningful role in stopping our scroll.
Podcast: ‘Rosalía’s FIRST ‘LUX’ INTERVIEW’ (2025)
Show: Popcast
Runtime: 1h 30m
Just ahead of the release of the singer’s fourth album Lux, Rosalía sat down with The New York Times to discuss how she defines herself as an artist, her inspirations, and how, yes—she did sing in thirteen different languages in her upcoming album without any AI (*cough, cough* Mr. Brody7).
I am ever-inspired by how seriously Rosalía takes her craft and the boundaries she both respects and redefines. She’s unafraid of mixing genres, languages, cultures, and audiences, but she does it all with the utmost respect to the source material. This interview was a lovely peek into her personality and her process; it’s a treat for the thoughtful creative.
Moy’s Score: 4.12 / 5 🥀
Manga: ‘Kindergarten Wars’ (2022– )
Creator: You Chiba
Length: 117 chapters (ongoing)
By writer and illustrator You Chiba, this series is set in “the world’s safest kindergarten.” Why the name? It employs some of Earth’s most skilled assassins (and goofballs) as teachers/bodyguards. Kindergarten Wars follows the cast on their various missions to protect the children from the many equally capable killers who try to wreak havoc on the school; many hijinks, rom-com subplots, and bloody battles ensue.
But it’s not all fun and games. As callously as this series will kill off troves of random assassins, it questions what a life is worth and who is deserving of a happy ending. As a reader, every laugh costs a tear later on. The series recently entered its final arc, and an anime was just announced. This is your warning: if you don’t read the series now, you’re only going to hear more chatter about it soon enough.
Moy’s Score: 4.6 / 5 🔫
Film: ‘Two Sleepy People’ (2025)
Creator: Baron Ryan (@americanbaron)
Runtime: 1h 33m
Shua (@shuafilms) and I caught Two Sleepy People at its Seattle premiere, and it was surreal sitting in a theater of two hundred-plus watching a film not only made by creators but our friends (so yes, I’m biased).
For people tapped into the creator world, I say this film is “ambitious.” It tackles dialogue and relationships in a contemplative and roundabout way that’s difficult to find in online content that spells everything out for you. It has its rough patches, but the standout for me is Caroline Konstnar’s charming performance as Lucy. Congrats, Creator Camp team and crew—their film just received an extended theatrical release! Not sponsored, but see if you can catch it in a theater near you on November 14.
Moy’s Score: 4 / 5 😴😴
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
The person behind nor gather into barns’ work has never revealed their name; video descriptions are often kept blank. Maybe this is them aura farming hard, but I’d like to think otherwise.
To be clear, I like and admire all of these people.
I ask where these people are, and I have to recommend Two Sleepy People by our friends at Creator Camp to you if you enjoy dialogue-heavy films too.
Sorry, Professor Greene.
To be clear, I think it’s great that viewers care about the people behind videos now.
This mention is for you, Judd :-)
Re: Adrian Brody using AI to alter his accent in The Brutalist (2024).