Vidding On A Mac

Vidding on a Mac

I'm a recent MacOS user after a lifetime of Windows/DOS/Linux.

Must be about a year since I took the plunge and bought a good Macbook with enough power to be futureproof/keep some resale value. More reluctantly, I followed with phone and watch, giving Apple all my savings so I could get the integration. Thing is, I don't like how Apple does things. I'm confident with computers, command line, Linux... whatever. I can code, program, compile, hack - play confidently in the OS sandbox anywhere else. Mac's OS is just technobabble spellwork to me - I can't grasp how it does stuff.

I love the basic end-user ease of use and that it makes computers so accessible to folks who don't want to know how stuff works as long as it does, but the second I want to do something Apple doesn't deem essential to modern living, I have to ask a search engine or ChatGPT how the hell to make it happen. And half the time I still can't get it to happen.

Example: I decided to take the plunge and buy a month of Adobe Premiere Pro to find out if I can get my rusty, VCR-based vidding skills up to date. I signed up, I paid, I downloaded... and found that it's impossible to install the sodding thing on a computer that's - theoretically - the best machine short of a pro/studio one to run it. The MacOS system security won't take my admin/user password to allow the installation to proceed. The 'fix' is to reset the password, which works for some people but didn't work for me. Wut?

A quick google shows this has been a known issue since at least 2014. HEADDESK.

So I used an illegal copy of the software, which - lo and behold - installs and works perfectly first time with no fuss at all.

What the actual, Apple/Adobe? Is each so opposed to the other getting a slice of the money pie that they can't sort this out between them?

Speaking of whump, Supernatural is persistently, horribly, terribly good at it. These gifs from 9x09 are like a fanzine fic illustration from the 70s/80s came to life. Very little comfort to go with all the hurt, though! Even dying only gets someone limited sympathy and time to heal on Supernatural.

Thus part of me spent the entire fifteen seasons purring with quiet appreciation of the ongoing fanservice and feels, while the annoyingly literal bit of my brain kept going, "Wow, these actors must've spent so much time being SO uncomfortably sticky..." and admiring their stoic dedication to the less glamorous aspects of their craft.

CASTIEL ✧ 9.9 HOLY TERROR

destiel // sunlight - hozier // watch on youtube

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That Drink Pour - a Meta Homage to Ben-Hur & Classic Hays Era Queercoding?

This 6x06 scene  - was strange to say the least

(Left) Boyd, Mentally playing this as a sex scene                        (Right) Heston, Has no idea what the director told Boyd

Long post analysis of the pour under the cut

Ben Hur came out in 1959 based on a 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. It won 11 Academy Awards. The tangentially biblical saga checked every box for “morality” and “red blooded” American film, including a staring roll for macho menman Charlton Heston. They wanted Paul Newman or Rock Hudson, but they got Charlton Heston.  If you asked the general audience, the movie portrayed the tragic turn of two profoundly loyal friends to bitter enemies. But what if we asked the screen writer? 🤔  

Enter a fateful conversation between screenwriter Gore Vidal and director William Wyler about the exact nature of the two characters, Ben-Hur (Heston) and Messala.  Gore Vidal revealed in 1995 that he wrote the two as ex-lovers who became bitter enemies. Full stop. The head screenwriter told director Wyler that they could do it all in subtext, they needn’t say a single line of dialogue. It would go over the heads of most of the audience, but to those who understood? it would be absolutely clear. Wyler said okay, but don’t tell Heston.

And so, Vidal crafted a sex scene for his characters. Where one slowly poured a drink for the other. The writer was in on it. The director was in on it. and Stephen Boyd, the actor playing Messala was in on it. … but Cheston had no idea. “So Heston thinks he’s doing Francis X. Bushman [Ben-Hur in the silent version]. And Stephen Boyd is acting it to pieces. There are looks that he gives him that are just so clear.”   - Vidal

The music swells.

/\ in on it                  completely in the dark /\

38 years later the writer recounted the story in the documentary ‘The Celluloid Closet’ and Heston promptly lost his shit. A shade filled response from Videl can be found here. (x)

It was a story about two friends. Two loyal friends. Who trust each other completely. Who share a profound bond with each other. The writer is secretly coding them as lovers, until, ultimately, one betrays the other. The characters never kiss on screen, but have elaborate rituals to be coded as sex in ways that will slip past the censors. Hmm.  🤔

What was the plot of Supernatural season 6 again?

Wasn’t there an episode?

/\ Jensen Ackles                   Misha Collins /\

6x06 You Can’t Handle the Truth Written by Eric Charmelo, Nicole Snyder, & David Reed Directed by Jan Eliasberg Sam and Dean investigate a town plagued by Veritas, where people can’t help telling the truth.

The scene feels like an amalgamation of the Ben Hur scene and a scene from North by Northwest by Hitchcock where a queercoded character, Leonard, pours whiskey into a glass to imply violation of the male lead. That actor,  Martin Landau, since acknowledged that he played the character of Leonard as gay. (x)

The rest of the season, at least the episodes from writers who were in the ‘club’ include this long arc where Cas is secretly working with Crowley, “to protect Dean”, in a plotline coded as an affair.   The reveal really started in 6x17 (x), but the coding  was never more clear than in 6x20 The Man Who Would Be King: Dean unable to fathom Cas ‘cheating on him’ (x)  and the troubled reveal that Cas got Sam out of the cage. (x) The orange glow of the fire an pain in their eyes when Dean discovers Cas was working with Crowley (x)  “You make it sound so simple. Where were you when I needed to hear it?” “I was there. Where were you?” (x) That stab through the chest when Dean looks back at Cas before running out the door. (x) Commentary on 6x20 (x)

When did the writers begin to write Destiel in purposely?  We already know that Misha was playing Cas a certain way on his own, but When did the writers and Misha come together on what they were doing? Was Jensen aware of what was happening? If so, after what point? “Don’t ruin it for everyone” “No???”  “Destiel Doesn’t Exist.” “We’re missing the gay angel” “It’s always Dean (with the bromances)” These are questions I think about often. Much more on that in an ongoing long draft that will take a long time.

Midsomer Murders TV Soundtrack - Track 2 - Agnus Dei

Composer: Jim Parker Vocals: Catherine Bott Episode: Death of a Hollow Man - opening scene