NEW YORK IS UNDERWATER
Published February 22, 2026 · 8:54 · 59,737 views
About This Video
Van Neistat repairs a 25-year-old Chinatown tchotchke, a scrolling New York skyline behind an aquarium lid, and calls it his favorite fix. The machine turns out to be creepier than it looks.
The object is ingenious and he says so while taking it apart. Two film strips ride two spools of different diameters, driven by one small motor. The inside strip, the skyline, scrolls slowly. The outside strip, clear film printed with balloons and floating artifacts, scrolls faster. The mismatch makes parallax, and the lid over it all makes the city read like an aquarium. New York, underwater, in 3D, from a shop in Chinatown that probably doesn't sell them anymore.
Two problems. Someone, and he's not saying it was Jeremy, crazy-glued a spool to its hub, which seized the works and stressed the motor. And the 8 RPM motor itself is fried, gears audibly grinding. The first fix is the kind he loves: a #2 sheet metal screw whose head happens to match the spool shaft becomes the new axle. The second is a full motor transplant. He builds a template to land the new output shaft in exactly the old position, taps and dies the old axle so it threads into the new motor, cuts the base to sink the taller spindle, and solders. Then the moment of truth, four Please works in a row, and the thing runs silent. It had never been silent. Jeremy, who found Van through Patreon, confirms it always jittered until the day it stopped.
The creepy part is the payoff Van flags in the first breath and lands at the end. He was on West 13th Street in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, and a scrolling paper Manhattan drowned under glass reads differently once you know that. He says the video is tangentially about recovery from trauma and strength from recovery, and he means it literally: in the sponsor segment he credits therapy with dismantling his excuses, naming his character defects, and teaching him that the debt he thought he owed his parents he actually owes his children. It's the plainest he gets on recovery outside the sobriety videos.
What Van Uses: a #2 sheet metal screw as a replacement axle, an 8 RPM replacement motor aligned with a handmade template, a tap and die set to thread the old axle, a soldering iron, and the two-spool parallax mechanism he's preserving. Episode sponsor: BetterHelp.
Related: Fixing the Zip-Line Without Permission, Why Do Details Matter?, The Rules of Gifting.
FAQ
What is the machine in NEW YORK IS UNDERWATER?
A roughly 25-year-old Chinatown novelty: two film strips on different-diameter spools scroll a New York skyline slowly behind a faster clear strip of floating shapes, under a lid that makes it read like an aquarium.
How does Van Neistat fix it?
Twice. A #2 sheet metal screw replaces a snapped spool axle, and when the seized 8 RPM motor proves fried, he transplants a new one, using a template to position the output shaft exactly where the old one sat.
Why does Van call the machine creepy and prophetic?
He was on West 13th Street in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. A drowned, scrolling Manhattan carries weight for him, and he frames the video as tangentially about recovery from trauma and strength from recovery.
Whose machine is it?
It belongs to Jeremy, a viewer who found Van through Patreon, where Van interacts with the audience and keeps what he calls the alternative universe to the YouTube channel.
Transcript
All right, here it is. Wow, look at this. Look at that. This turned out to be a creepy and prophetic little machine, as you'll see in the end. Okay, so this is a 25-year-old I don't know what you would call this. Tchotchke. Well, here I'll show you. You turn it on. I think there's a lamp behind it. This thing scrolls by and it looks like it's underwater and it's in 3D and it's the New York skyline. So here, so here's the problem. You turn this switch on. It seems to be working. Oh, it seems to be working. All right, I'm going to crack this open anyway. It's very fast to disassemble. And I love things like this. This thing is ingenious. It's two little film strips. There's one, and there's one. This is the outside one. This is the inside one. And then it's two spools and a little motor in here. This is something you buy in Chinatown. They probably don't have these anymore. This is the inside film. And there's two different diameter spools. The inside spool spins the inside film, the skyline, slowly. The outside spool spins the outside film, the clear film with the balloons and stuff on it, quickly.
And so this goes on the inside one and this spins at whatever 30 RPM or whatever. Then there's the outside spool which is a wider diameter and it spins at like five or six RPM or whatever and the outside artifacts spin at a different rate and it's just this cool little thing and then you have this lid and it makes it look like an aquarium. And the problem is when you turn it on the motor doesn't work. So, there's two problems. One of them is relatively simple. There's a little axle right there on the top on the top spool and it locks into a little hole in there so that it can spin. Right? That's like the hub. And on this left axle, somebody, I'm not saying it was Jeremy, probably wasn't, crazy glued the spool. They thought that they could seize this into the hub there, but what that did was it stressed out the motor because it was stuck. Now, the second problem is this motor in here. I think it's fried. You can hear those gears. And we're going to crack it open. This is an 8 RPM motor. All right, let's turn it on.
So, now it's jammed. There's like a little clutch in there. All right, so I'm going to take this off. Oh, jammed again. Okay, there we go. Seems to be working. So, all right. Let me test to see if it still spins. Oh, it's nice and strong. Get the crazy glue off of there pretty good. Then drill a hole. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to make this number two sheet metal screw. I'm going to make this the axle. So the number two sheet metal screw is going to replace the this thing that broke off. The head is the same size as the shaft of the spool. And it will fit into here where it spins. It'll fit freely because this is the axle where the axle goes into. This is the hub. I've got the spool. It's going to be flipped upside down. And then this axle is going to go through here like this. It's so well done. And so you put this, then you put this. And so here's my fixed spool. Goes like this. So this is the inside. Really carefully on the outside of the spools here. So the this goes on top.
Puts the right amount of tension in the spools. This little armature, this plastic, this is like the aquarium, the water that you're looking through. Okay, so here's the moment of truth. Oh no. Oh no. That's all put back together. I was on West 13th Street in Manhattan on September 11th, 2001. And the payoff at the very end of this video is some kind of poetic prophetic haunting. And I'm not really even sure what it means, but I think this video tangentially has something to do with recovery from trauma and strength from recovery. Therapy helps me acknowledge and eliminate the excuses that keep me from my pursuit of purpose, even if I don't consciously know I'm making excuses. Therapy has helped me discover and to mitigate what we call character defects. Helped me to discover that maybe drugs and alcohol are not the solution to all of my problems. Therapy taught me that the debt I thought I owed to my parents, I actually owe to my children. BetterHelp has been a loyal supporter of this channel and is the sponsor of this episode. And in my experience, BetterHelp has been the fastest route to therapy.
Fill out a questionnaire and BetterHelp matches you with the therapist in as little as a couple of days. BetterHelp can connect you to a licensed therapist who is trained to listen and give you helpful, unbiased advice. And if the fit's not right, you can easily switch therapists at any time at no extra cost. Click the link in the description or go to betterhelp.com/vanneistat and get 10% off your first month of therapy. Thank you, BetterHelp. Well, I got the other motor coming, so maybe I can wait for the other motor. Oh, it looks a little bit too big. So, I have to position this output shaft in exactly the same position as this output shaft. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a little template like this. I'm tapping or dying the axle from the old motor so that I can screw it into the new motor. All right. This is the kind of thing you don't think about when you're conceiving this. I needed to put a screw in here to hold this threaded axle thing into this shaft so that it didn't slip. I made this template and that'll tell me that's where the axle thing has to be.
Now I'm going to have to kind of destroy this. I'm going to have to cut this out and put wood underneath it because this spindle comes up so much higher than the old one did. And so this thing has to be lower in the gadget here. So that line is the height of the old axle thing. And this is the new axle thing. And it's basically correct. I think I can get away with it. And then to center it, I need to center the axle on this thing. I honestly think I got it. I think I got it with that template. Lots of soldering. Okay, moment of truth. Inside one, outside one, and then this rig goes across the top. It seems correct. And then over. All right. It seems to fit. It seems to fit. Please work. Please work. Please work. Please work. Oh, wow. Whole new base. I had to replace the motor. This needs to find a permanent spot in the house. We haven't figured it out quite yet. Please work. Please work. Please work. Please work. And it's silent. It's silent. Listen. Oh my god, it's so wonderful. Okay, this is my favorite fix.
Amazing. Has it ever been silent for you? No. No. It was always like a little bit jittery and then one day it just stopped. Jeremy found me on our Patreon. It's where I interact with the audience. Click this to join. There's 5 years of content on there. It's the alternative universe to the YouTube channel.
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Chinatown skyline tchotchke essential — The 25-year-old scrolling New York skyline machine being repaired; "this is my favorite fix"
- 8 RPM motor uses — The fried original and its replacement; output shaft positioned with a template
- #2 sheet metal screw uses — Head matches the spool shaft diameter; becomes the replacement axle
- Crazy glue mentions — A previous owner glued the spool to the hub, seizing it and stressing the motor
- Tap and die set uses — Threads the old axle so it screws into the new motor
- Soldering iron uses — "Lots of soldering" during the motor swap
- BetterHelp sponsor — Episode sponsor; Van credits therapy in first person
- Patreon recommends — Where Jeremy found Van; "the alternative universe to the YouTube channel"
People Referenced
Jeremy