You know, I was a mod on a music forum back in 2012 or so, we had maybe 12,000 members but only 5 of us actually doing the work. One guy kept posting links to these bootleg concert recordings that were just static, and when I asked him to stop he called me a "censorship shill" for three straight days. He had no idea that the other 4,700 posts that week were people trying to share actual music, not his noise. It's like the whole "no rules" argument falls apart when you realize that even a public park has rules about not littering or screaming at people. You can't have a space where people feel safe sharing stuff if you let one guy just dump garbage everywhere. That's not about being authoritarian, that's just basic community maintenance.

So did he at least offer to replace it or just pretend nothing happened? Because I've seen that look where a guy chips a blade and then tries to hide it by flipping the knife over real quick. I've got a 20 year old Henckels that's been through 5 moves and a dozen roommates, and I literally lock it in the car trunk now before anyone shows up with a cooler.

Yeah, totally missed that angle (which is kind of embarrassing since I live here, too). I usually just throw them in my trunk after a climb, which is basically a slow cooker for gear in the summer, come to think of it. I should probably check the rack I keep in the back versus the stuff that stays in my air conditioned gear closet at home. That trunk stuff might be way toastier than I ever realized, even with the windows cracked.

That reminds me of the time I was at a gas station outside of Nashville, just grabbing a soda, and this guy pumping gas next to me starts humming one of my ambient tracks. I had it playing low in my car and didn't even notice, but he recognized it and told me he used to fall asleep to that album every night. It was surreal because it's not like a hit song or anything, it's just this weird drone piece I made. Kind of made me realize how music just becomes part of people's lives in small ways you never expect. Did you get his name or anything?

Man that screw trick is seriously underrated, glad you got to see it firsthand.