Thursday, March 31, 2011

Right On - or - Choking On My Own Advice

Write for the sake of writing. Write because the voice in your head, as crazy as it might seem, has a secret to tell you. Write to move the last thing you wrote a little further back in history. Write because at some point there will be a zombie apocalypse and you don’t want to have your brain eaten before you get most of the good ideas out of it and onto paper. Write because it makes you think of good times that have passed. Write to remind yourself of the hard times you have gotten through. Write to never forget the mistakes you’ve already made once. Or twice. Write to remember lost friends, lost loves, lost dreams, and to let them live on. Write because sometimes the world in your head is a lot more interesting than the world out side of it. Write because bringing some of the things from inside of your head out makes the world a little bit more interesting for everyone else. Write because there is no reason not to. Write to practice your penmanship. Write to regain feeling in your fingertips on cold winter evening. Write to sit underneath the ceiling fan on a hot sticky summer day. Write to find excuses to use the word Cataclysm. Write to get that girl off your mind. Write to get that girl into your life. Write so that your hobbies can include writing. Write to explain yourself to the world. Write to separate yourself from the herd. Write for the glory, fame, and prestige of being a writer. Write for all the wrong reasons.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Tomorrow, I'm Cleaning My Room - or - Sometimes More is Not Better, Sometimes More Is Just More

A friend told me about an acquaintance who's cleaning bill for his apartment was $10,000. Five thousand dollars of it went towards two fifty-foot dumpsters that were parked outside of his home and emptied every night for a week, and the other five grand went to the five man crew who, over the course of that week, cleared out the house wearing HASMAT suits. I searched for images of a hoarder's home and found this 20-min documentary. I've lost my appetite now.

POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Bright Eyes - or - There Is Time To Think Next Week

I was on my way to a gig. I was driving down Broadway on the north side of Chicago, right by the famous Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, about to get on Lake Shore Drive. I was on my way to work. My van was loaded up with speakers and amplifiesrs and drums and bins and cables and mic stands and big heavy black polycarbonate boxes with shiny latches and spring loaded handles, stuffed to the hinges with gear. Quite honestly tons of gear. Gear with names that are made up of capitol letters and numbers: O1V96, GL2200, KSM44, SLXWL58Beta, AKG414TLII, XLR, TRS, RCA, STFU. Gear heads know all these terms, and thousands more no doubt. Gear heads toss them around in conversations like conjunctions and the result is like tossing chum into a shark pool. Gear head tech-talk attack! "I prefer the LA2A to the Fairchild 670." "That's it, we can't be friends. That's like saying a Distressor set to the 40:1 ratio sounds good on mid/side room mic setup. Bahhh! I say BAHHH!"

Yes, I have had these conversations before. I've since stopped having them due to the complete lack of interest in these topics from the fairer sex. Now I wear a tux and talk to wedding planners and over attentive brides maids that want to hear Usher.

In fact, I was on my way to work to deal with these type of people, just like i do every weekend when I saw it. I saw the Riviera Marque with the words Bright Eyes lit up in big letters. Bright Eyes was staring at me. I stopped the van. Without a moment's hesitation, I pulled over in front of the big Marque and stared back at the letters. It had been a long long time since I have said those words. I was alone so I said them out loud to myself from the drivers seat. "Bright Eyes." I used to call her that. I didn't even know the band had existed back then, the band that now had people flocking to see them at the Riviera Theater. The very theater that sat in front of me and that I stared at through the windshield. The Riviera Theater didn't have the first hint of a clue that some sound engineer with a head full of capitol letters and numbers, who is wearing a tux that gets worn every weekend but only washed once every couple of years, a tux-wearing engineer who has a history of those two particular words in that particular order might drive by and, if he wasn't careful, might cause a fourteen car pile up that might, as a result, make him miss a very expensive wedding at the Ritz Carlton later that evening which would in turn, ruin a princess's dream wedding. Good thing for that princess, I pulled over, out of harms way.

"Bright Eyes"

And just like that, the years of silence vanished and I missed her like it was yesterday.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

The Damn Choir - or - I Get To Do Shows With These Mofos

This is the Damn Choir.

Paper Thick Walls is lined up to do a bunch of shows with them. Find us both. We are worth it.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Quote, Unquote

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."
-Albert Einstein

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Paper Thick Walls, Moxie Motive, and Teuce 3/5/2011


Paper Thick Walls website.
Order the new CD before the release date (5/6/2011) via paypal on this website ONLY.