Paper Thin Walls

Why This One Modest Mouse Song Explains My Time So Far in the Great State of West Virginia and What I'm Planning to Do About It

"These walls are paper thin and everyone hears every little sound.
Everyone's a voyeur, they're watching me watch them watch me right now."
-- Modest Mouse, "Paper Thin Walls"

The town I grew up in was small, but certainly not the smallest. Trips to the grocery store became high school reunions. You couldn't be a reporter without turning down an interview with a relative who's in some position of influence. And you certainly couldn't get married, divorced or pregnant without everyone else knowing about it before you did.

Even now, in a new state I knew next to nothing about before taking this job — despite living on the border — I'm finding I can't escape this phenomenon. I meet a girl who goes to WVU and turns out she's good friends with a group of people I went to church with in high school. I meet another girl in Huntington and she grew up with my best friend's cousin. It's a small world, so goes the song.

But it's more than that in West Virginia. There's a certain endearing voyeuristic approach to life, where everyone's family and looks out for each other, where news spreads best and quickest through word-of-mouth, not mainstream media. National media may have picked up on this most recently with Rich Rodriguez's departure from his hometown college,  but I get the feeling most of you who grew up in this state weren't surprised by the level of animosity directed toward Rich Rod. I certainly didn't understand this familial bubble prior to February 2007, but in my time with Graffiti it's one of the things I've come to love most about West Virginia.

In turn, I hope to direct my own voyeuristic eyes and ears on the state and share my thoughts with you about an outsider trying to break through the bubble to become an insider. If my experience here so far is any indication, I expect to be accepted with warmth and smiles.

Some days you'll find this blog littered with news and information I get through press releases that don't make it into the magazine. Other days you'll find randomness, just because I like randomness. Throughout it all I hope you enjoy these posts and leave me some love because my publisher and corporate's probably reading this right now and they need to know how much you guys and gals love our product. And for those of you who maybe don't have such affectionate feelings toward Graffiti, I only ask that you share those with us in that West Virginian spirit I've just talked about.

Until next time, keep your eyes open. We're all watching.

-Justin