Got my attention real quick reading this. I used to be in the "whatever works" camp too, never gave storage a second thought until I watched a friend's entire set go silent because their drive took a dump mid-show. That clicking sound is haunting, like you said, it's the drive's last cry for help. After that I went out and got a couple of solid state drives and never looked back. Definitely made me respect the gear a lot more, especially for anything live.

Did @rivera.keith ever notice how the Vegas slog mirrors the characters' own burnout in that section?

literally cooking through the sides" is wild but yeah that tracks. Fabric pots are great for airflow but in direct sun they basically turn into plant ovens. You gotta set em inside a cache pot or put some shade cloth around.

@victorclark has a good point about the knife. That kind of hands-on learning is something you can't really get from a manual or a video. My dad had a mechanic like that, could diagnose a car just by listening to it idle for ten seconds. It's like their whole body has been trained to pick up on things the rest of us just walk right past.

Not sure it's THAT bad. A little discoloration on cheap carpet is basically a badge of honor in a workshop, gives it character.