Recommended Documentaries

We’ve been watching a lot of documentaries over the past few years, especially music documentaries, and there has been a strong multi-year run of so many fantastic new releases it’s worth recommending some of what we’ve seen.

Most of these we rented or purchased on iTunes or Netflix. There are a few DVDs. These are the ones worth seeing again, not a list of everything watched. Even if you don’t necessarily like the band (Journey, Rush, whatever) the movies are fantastic.

Bold titles indicate a particular awesomeness. (Updated April 2019.)

Music Documentaries
  • Beyoncé, Homecoming
  • Rolling Stones, Olé Olé Olé
  • Shot, The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock and Roll
  • Ed Sheeran, Songwriter
  • Taylor Swift, Reputation
  • The History of Chicago
  • Bill Frisell, a Portrait
  • Gaga: Five Foot Two
  • Chasing Trane
  • Roger Waters The Wall
  • Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead
  • Eat That Question, Zappa In His Own Words
  • Frank Zappa & the Mothers: Roxy the Movie
  • Jaco
  • The Other One: The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir
  • Amy (Winehouse)
  • Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings – A Film Memoir by Natalie Merchant
  • R.E.M. By MTV
  • The Pleasures of Being Out of Step: Notes on the Life of Nat Hentoff
  • Charles Lloyd: Arrows Into Infinity
  • One Track Heart: The Story of Krishna Das
  • Kansas: Miracles Out of Nowhere
  • The Wrecking Crew
  • Leonard Cohen: Live in Dublin
  • The Sea In Between
  • Find Your Way: A Busker’s Documentary
  • Muscle Shoals
  • Artifact
  • Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train a Comin’
  • Billy Joel Live at Shea Stadium
  • Imagine: John Lennon
  • Classic Albums: John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band
  • Spark: A Burning Man Story
  • Neil Young Journeys
  • History of the Eagles
  • Jimi Hendrix: The Dick Cavett Show
  • Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey
  • Sound City
  • Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster
  • Legends of the Canyon
  • Inventing David Geffen
  • Crossfire Hurricane
  • George Harrison: Living In The Material World
  • Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage
  • The Other F Word
  • Pearl Jam Twenty
  • Michael Jackson: This Is It
  • Stones In Exile
  • Under African Skies
  • Electric Daisy Carnival
  • Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
  • It Might Get Loud
Related Music & Culture
  • Grass is Greener
  • Ram Dass, Going Home
  • Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond
  • Orange Sunshine
  • The Sunshine Makers
  • Indie Game: The Movie
  • Ken Kesey’s Magic Trip
  • Taking Woodstock
  • Ram Dass Fierce Grace
  • We Live In Public
  • Gonzo: Life and Work of Hunter Thompson
Architecture
  • The Oyler House: Richard Neutra’s Desert Retreat
  • Frank Lloyd Wright: A Film By Ken Burns & Lynn Novick (PBS TV)
  • Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
  • Eames: The Architect and the Painter

Hubbard and Shane: Misdirection or clueless?

I wrote a letter to the Public Editor of the New York Times. Hello, Funny thing I noticed in an article today: In the story, “Pre-9/11 Ties Haunt Saudis as New Accusations Surface” (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/world/middleeast/pre-9-11-ties-haunt-saudis-as-new-accusations-surface.html), the authors write: “A search of news stories from that period turned up no references to a visit by the Saudi […]

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Differences

It’s ironic that officials are giving classified information to journalists in an effort to discredit me for giving classified information to journalists. The difference is that I did so to inform the public about the government’s actions, and they’re doing so to misinform the public about mine. —Edward Snowden

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From the Resumé

1980 – 1982, Audio Technician, Syracuse University Audio Services; WAER-FM. Recorded, edited, duplicated, and distributed academic and promotional audio recordings. Produced six 30-minute slide shows for Syracuse University Alumni Association. Hung around the 16-track studio and asked a lot of questions. Collaborated with the WAER-FM (student) Program Manager and Music Director on instigating technical and […]

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What I Care About

Whole systems, over fragmented perspectives. Thoughtful proactivity, over snap responsiveness. Emergent mystery, over problems/solutions. Macro-structures, over micro-structures. Improvisation within structures, over command and control. Goals and outcomes, over deliverables and inputs. Leadership, over management. Creative and generative, over consumption and extraction. Expansion, over reduction. Love, over fear. Found this in a doc on my hard […]

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Today’s Facebook Comment

“And on the PA in the Home there won’t be any Stones, or Dead, or Floyd, or Beach Boys, or Doors, or CSNY, or even any Steely Dan or ANYTHING like that — it’s gonna be Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett and Liberace, and Elton John if we’re LUCKY, looping like an infinite echo across […]

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Learning to Divide

In November 1972 my family moved from CT to NH. I was 10, in the fifth grade. I liked reading and writing. Math wasn’t my best subject. So in sixth grade, when we got to fractions, no one was surprised that it was my worst subject. Fractions were hard, I hated doing them, and I […]

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Dawning

New site design, new blogging engine. I miss blogging, and the old site was long in the tooth. Here’s to a new dawn of old-school, occasional, personal, blog-style blogs.

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Business Strategies for Health and Nutrition Coaches

Between us, Kathryn and I know at least a dozen, maybe two dozen health and nutrition coaches. And some of them don’t have as many clients as they want. If that’s you or someone you know, read on for a few brainstormy thoughts I had on building your practice. Caveats: 1. Not everything will apply […]

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Visiting Las Vegas

I’m a live-in-the-woods and visit-the-city kind of guy, and visited Las Vegas twice this year. Vegas has never been a real draw for me – I only gamble with my time, not money; I don’t drink all that much; I don’t smoke; I don’t eat a lot – Vegas couldn’t compete with NYC, SF, or […]

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Backup Brain in Action

Some of my best work has been catalyzing and facilitating the efforts of others. Awesome cross-pollinator. Excelled in the “state-induction” crew role at Tony Robbins’ UPW. All-around technology / human experience geek. Hands-on or high-level.

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Recent Favorite Links

Probably best to open them all in tabs and browse around…. Great summary statement Really got me thinking Source documents (pdf) Breathtakingly good writing, a futuristic background Taking the other side Responding to Lanier Considering the 1971 decision Robert Baird bring in the Language poets Interesting comments from Zbigniew Brzezinski

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iPad, Flash, HTML5, and F2F Social

Although I’m big into tech I’m not really much of an early adopter. I tend towards buying 2nd- or 3rd gen products right as they’re released. My theory is that this is the sweet spot for cost/benefit. The iPad is different. After watching the introduction video (twice) I couldn’t get it out of my head. […]

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MarsEdit 3.0

If you regularly write blog posts, and do so on a Mac, you should be using MarsEdit – a real post editor – and not some browser-based textarea junk. There’s a new 3.0 version out today, and you should download the trial and then buy it in support of excellent independent software authors! I mean, […]

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Morning Smoothie

The other day I mentioned my blender breakfast lifestyle and someone asked what exactly I’ve been putting in the BlendTec. Here’s the current recipe with a few options. Notes: When I say, “Tbs” I usually mean “heaping Tbs” – dump the stuff in there! If I use the “~” symbol it means I don’t measure […]

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Co-ops, L3Cs, and Hybrid LLC/Co-ops

I wrote a comment to Don’s post, but it was too long for Blogger to accept…. I have a close friend who started one of the first VT L3Cs a couple of years ago, and his intent was to signal that they weren’t out to get rich but to do something interesting and useful that […]

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Cherry Table

Dear Friend, I have enclosed a photo of what I believe to be a cherry coffee table. It measures 2′ x 4′ x 17″H and is in very good – really quite close to excellent – condition. The table – it does not yet have a name – was given to us last year by […]

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Why not to burn bridges

Karlyn, via Twitter, asks: “why is it so important to not burn bridges when you’re leaving a job? especially if the person you’re burning it with already set it on fire” 1. There is no absolute truth. 2. Different people will have different views of a) What bridge-burning is; b) Whether one should burn bridges […]

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State of the Backups

In the past few weeks a couple of folks have asked what I’m doing for data backups. Here’s the story. First, I bought a ReadyNAS NVX with RAID, so I could stop worrying about a single hard drive crash ($1,400). This was more money than I wanted to spend right now, but it forms the […]

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Apple WWDC 2009

If you read my post last year and want to make plans, here’s the link.

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