Ah, how well I remember the day when Michael deYoanna and I were shopping at the Fort Carson Post Exchange trying to decide if we needed to buy just one 1-terabyte hard drive to store the footage for our then-untitled documentary about injured veterans or if we should pony up and buy two just to be safe. Filming hadn’t started yet and, since neither of us had ever made a documentary, we had no idea how...

It’s been some time since I really listened to rock-n-roll. I’m not talking about turning up the radio when “Baba O’Reilly” comes on in the car. I’m talking about clearing all the inhabitants out of the house and cranking up the stereo—the old beast I bought off a former boss that’s one of the last of its kind, rigged with outlets for ten speakers of any wattage I can afford—and letting “L.A. Woman” shake pictures off the wall at about 200 decibels.

Have you done that l...