Music Geek Documentary Recs

I watched them on Hulu, but they’re available everywhere, I’m sure. The first recommendation is The Quiet One, a film about retired Stone Bill Wyman. I think it was released last summer.

Throughout his three-decade career as a founding member of and bassist for The Rolling Stones, Bill Wyman was known to the world as the “quiet one” in the band. Now, the famously private music legend speaks out about his extraordinary life and experiences as part of “the greatest rock and roll band in the world.” Opening up his vast personal archive—a lifetime’s worth of previously unseen home movies, photographs, and memorabilia—Wyman reflects on his early years with The Stones, the band’s meteoric rise to fame, and his search for a sense of “normalcy” amidst the whirlwind of sex, drugs, and rebellion. Endearingly humble and down-to-earth, Wyman pulls back the curtain to offer a one-of-a-kind perspective on life as a reluctant rock star.

The second is 2007’s Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, which you bastards have probably already seen. I missed it, somehow.

… paints an uncommonly colorful picture of the onetime leader of The Clash. Director Julien Temple reveals Strummer as more than a punk legend, but a stunning cultural communicator whose influence knew no bounds.

Anybody Remember Myst?

Holy shit, this takes me back. For the uninitiated, Wiki-wiki-wikipedia says …

Myst is a graphic adventure puzzle video game designed by the Miller brothers, Robyn and Rand. It was developed by Cyan, Inc., published by Brøderbund, and released as a PC game for the Macintosh platform in 1993. In the game, players are told that a special book has caused them to travel to Myst Island. There, players solve puzzles and, by doing so, travel to four other worlds, known as Ages, which reveal the backstory of the game’s characters.

And then Ars Technica goes …

A few months back, Ars caught up with Myst developer Rand Miller … at the Cyan offices in Washington state to ask about the process of bringing the haunting island world to life. Myst’s visuals lived at the cutting edge of what interactive CD-ROM technology could deliver at the beginning of the multimedia age, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, fitting the breadth of the Millers’ vision onto CD-ROM didn’t happen without some challenges.

In a way, I’m kind of shocked to hear that Cyan is still around. But then again, they made a fortune on Myst and Riven (the followup), so I really shouldn’t be.

40 Years Ago

US release was January, 1980.  Remember when album releases were Big Deals?  You anticipated them (if you were a dork and read up), had to go out and buy one, and, very occasionally, got bowled over when something came out that altered the terrain.  As did this one.

25 Or Schulz To 4

The Monkeystador family station wagon, in addition to Beatles ’62-’66, featured a Chicago 8-track tape. Probably Chicago’s Greatest Hits. Enjoy.

”The original recording features an electric guitar solo using a wah-wah pedal by Chicago guitarist Terry Kath, and a lead vocal line in the Aeolian mode.”