After Olga pointed out that the symbol on the back bore a striking resemblance to (but was not in fact the same thing as) a symbol used by Russian neo-Nazis, I just... I couldn't unsee that. I wrote an explanation that I sent using the "Email people who preordered" link, but apparently that never went through. Awesome!

Doubly awesome? When I first canceled the campaign, it just shut the campaign down. Didn't refund anyone. Teespring's a little bit different from Kickstarter in that it charges everyone as soon as the campaign reaches the goal - I think Kickstarter waits until the campaign is over before it approves any funding. So I wait a few days to see if I get the $67 back, and nothing happens, so I email them - "Hey, I noticed I didn't get refunded." They're all "Oh, sorry, we'll refund you." I asked in reply, can you make sure that everyone was refunded? No reply. I wait a couple of days, and I still don't see a refund on my account. So today I sent a follow-up follow-up, and they write back "Everyone's refunded now!"

Five minutes later, Randazzo IMs me, "Hey I just got refunded by Teespring."

So yeah, this could have gone more smoothly. On the bright side, I've got a pretty badass new design that I'm excited to put up there, and I'm actually thinking of putting a second design up simultaneously so that there's an element of choice. I'll drop the campaign to 20 shirts each, which cuts into the profit a little bit, but I really wasn't going to come out with much cash in the end anyway. Really I just want NIN Hotline shirts.

"I aspire to make a record that sounds better 10 listens in than it does after two — and still, at 50 listens, you're picking out things that add a depth and a thoughtfulness. There's enough in there that you can still be extracting pieces out of it. I don't know that people listen to records that many times these days, but I do."