Random Musings

Happy 4th of July. Some inspirational and educational quotes from our 4th President.

Okay, saw this in another post, but I couldn't repost or comment for some reason. I agree with this statrement and it makes me sad. I have been training my sons to do this, from cars, to appliances, and any home repairs, we have rarely had to call in a specialist when things break. My 14 year old son repaired the rear bearing in our dryer just last week while I was at work... WOOT! Changed the oil and filters on my wife's car too. Proud of that kid. (I did work as a tradesman many years ago, so that helps).

The issue, in my humble opinion, with perhaps some real world evidence, is that corporatism and the subscription model have driven this trend. Big tech was the driving force behind this imho, and it has expanded. In the 1990's I worked for a production house where we had Power PC's using MAC OS for our production computers (hey, they were less expensive than the originals). Then Apple locked that down. And the trend began. You had to return to the original manufacturer to get something fixed. The idea was this would save costs... but the price of Macs has not come down. That was the purpose imho. Even though we have monopoly laws on the books, corporations have been ignoring them. And the FTC had not been enforcing them.

This is where the right to repair movement comes in. We need more of this. In 2022 the FTC was petitioned to go after Harley-Davidson for their warranty restrictions, which negated bike warranties if you didn't take your bike to an authorized dealer. This was really killing off independent and small mechanic's ability to live. Harley settled out of court. The result was, Harley could no longer void a warranty if you took your bike to an independent mechanic. Sweet.

John Deere is the latest company to reach such a settlement with regards to right to repair, you can read more about it here:

The issue is more and more companies are trying to slip these types of policies into their terms and usage rights agreements. The larger automakers have such service agreements with regards to the software that controls their ECU's. Independent mechanics, and home mechanics, must pay for such tools using a subscription model for the ability to access the ECU system. As those subscription models increase in price, the smaller guys can no longer compete. This type of policy cleverly weaves its way around the current statutes. Instead of prohibiting you from taking your vehicle to an independent mechanic, the big guys will simply price their competition out of the market, and there is some evidence of this happening.

We can have a large debate about the evils of capitalism, but the core of that economic system is the freedom to provide an honest service for an honest price, which functions properly with healthy competition. What we are living in is big companies driving the competition into the ground. I would call this corporatism, not capitalism. The funny thing is this is why monopoly laws exist, but no one seems to pay attention to that anymore.

"No, it isn't impossible, Mrs. Lowe. You baked today. I can smell fresh bread on you. Sometime today, you cooked with salt pork. Smell that on you, too. You smell all over like soap: you took a bath. And, on top of that, you smell all over like a woman. I could find you in the dark, Mrs. Lowe, and I'm only part Indian."

Hondo is arguably one of John Wayne's best films. One of my favorite quotes comes from this film:   "Everybody gets dead. It was his turn."

My children love that one... :O. Anyway, this film was based on a short story by Louis L'Amour, The Gift of Cochise. L'Amour finished the novel while the film was in production, it's a rare instance of the film coming before the book... and you know what, the book is still better than the film.

The way L'Amour writes the relationship between these two independent and headstrong characters is a treat. Read it if you can find it. L'Amour had a long career writing western novels, they are all fun, but Hondo, his first major success, is arguably his best as well.

A student of mine was asking for some feedback on a comic she has been working on, this young lady can draw like nobody's business, but as we are a film school, we don't really teach page layout. As I think about it, perhaps filmmakers should take a class like that. I had the amazing blessing of being taught the same by the great Scott Hampton.

So, outside of the Conan and Jonah Hex comics, I wasn't much of an American comics fan as a kid. I mostly read Bande Dessine titles like Tintin, Asterix & Obelix, Lucky Luke, etc. One summer I was sitting in Victoria station in London, England, waiting to take the train back to Paris, France. This was before the chunnel it, was a healty time hog, 11 hours maybe? Anyway, I was in the bookstore at the station looking for a long fantasy novel to pass the time. I picked up something massive. My memory says it was Robert Jordan's "Eye of the World," but that was published in 1990 and this was before that, but a book of that size. When I turned to check out, the first thing I saw was Frank Miller and Dave Mazzucchelli's "Batman: Year One," the trade paperback. I was captivated. I spent 11 hours on the way back to Paris re-reading that comic, I never even cracked the other book. Needless to say, I became a Batman fan. Did this post need that long backstory? Probably not, but that story really pushed me over the edge when it came to choosing my career path... if you have never read it... read it.