Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: Melting in the Sun

Blog Post 28- The bird named Fabian Sparkle. September 1984

Michael Hutchence of INXS. From our front row seats at the Beacon Theatre on July 31, 1984. Photo taken by Jess.

When I left for Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend to start my junior year of college, I was not alone. I had a Lutino cockatiel of unknown sex with me.

That fall, my youngest brother and Terri’s younger sister were off to college for the first time. Terri’s sister Renee was going to California for college, and she needed someone to take care of her pet cockatiel. So, I agreed to take the bird to school with me.

I was moving back into the same apartment I lived in the year before, the place where Kirk Pengilly had sent me a letter. Karen and Dohi were my roommates for a third year. Our dorm room was a bit unusual because it was in a building that was a dorm, but it was also an apartment in a high-rise apartment building. So, we had a kitchenette, a living room, and two bedrooms for the three of us.

If I recall correctly, Renee had named the bird of unknown sex Boy George. A great name for this attractive, fancy bird with its crest of yellow-white feathers but I decided to change it to Fabian Sparkle, an even more fabulous name. So, I named the bird for Michael Hutchence but in a roundabout way. An inside joke of sorts.

This was funny to me on all sorts of levels. And I didn’t even know that sometime in the future, around 1988, Michael would take to wearing a white suit and then pretend to be Fabian Sparkle. I don’t know where or why he came up with that name to use in 1984 in the first place, but he must have liked it too if he resurrected it. I haven’t found the reference for this yet, but I will eventually. Martha Troup said it somewhere.

What is a Lutino Cockatiel?

The cockatiel is a smallish Australian bird that is related to the much larger cockatoo. The bird in the 1970’s American TV show called Baretta was a cockatoo. It’s a type of parrot.

Standard cockatiels are gray. Lutino cockatiels with their white and yellow feathers started as a mutation and then were bred to be a new variety of cockatiel.

I borrowed this photo from the internet because I don’t have a photo of Fabian Sparkle. But this is what the cockatiel looked like.

Lutino Cockatiel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutino_cockatiel

Terri goes to Los Angeles

Terri traveled out to Los Angeles when her sister did and that gave her an opportunity to see INXS at the Hollywood Paladium on September 1, 1984.

In my diary, at the end of September, I wrote that we spoke on the phone for four hours, so she probably told me lots about it. Unfortunately, I only wrote a couple of sentences in my diary about what was said in the call, and it wasn’t about the concert. I’m sure she probably told me that Andrew did not wear my hat out in LA either.

This is what I wrote in my diary- “She thought that I should have called in sick to work and we could have stayed on Michael’s floor.” That was about what happened on July 2, 1984. And I also wrote- “Wishy Washy is on-fond memories. Terri and I talked about it. She thought it was great. She said most people would have just watched Michael, but I was just doing my thing and enjoying the spotlight.” That was about what happened on August 10, 1984

Terri sees INXS in Los Angeles

But in a letter from her from October 1984, she mentioned the concert. She said that some bums kept climbing up on stage and then diving off into the audience. At the time, stage diving had been occurring at some shows, mostly punk shows, for about twenty years but there doesn’t seem to have been a name for that behavior until 1985.

According to Terri, Michael Hutchence was amused by it at first but then asked them nicely to stop doing it. Well, they kept on doing it. After about the 10th time, Timmy grabbed Michael’s microphone and said something like, “Stay in the audience or I’ll kick ya in the nuts!” Terri thought that was hilarious and so did I!

This article about when the term “stage diving” first appeared in print mentions an article about INXS in Billboard magazine in November 1985! They were playing the Paladium in Los Angeles again.

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/482863/when-and-by-whom-was-stage-diving-coined

What Jess wrote to me

Before INXS played in Los Angeles, they played at the California Theater in San Diego on 8/28. Jess had a friend there who went to the concert and who also met the band. I think Jess had written a letter to Garry Gary Beers and sent it to her friend so she could give it to him.

According to the letter Jess wrote to me on 9/19/84, Garry received the letter and her pal had a great time meeting “the guys.” Jess told me that her friend told her that Michael wore a cowboy hat. Her friend had also sent her photocopies of some pictures she had taken of INXS. That’s often what happened-instead of people sending actual prints of photos they would enclose photocopies instead. It’s cheaper that way to send them to all of your friends.

Jess wrote to me that the photocopies were very dark and that she might send them to me in the next letter. She still needed them because she was thinking of buying prints of the photos. I don’t think I ever got those photocopies, and I don’t know if Jess ever got prints of the photos.

One of the complaints in the letter was about being too busy with school to write letters so she was keeping all letters she wrote to only one page. Just enough to let people know she was still alive.

She also asked me, “Why does reading about INXS annoy you? I think a lot of this stuff is hysterical. (Especially the things you know are wrong.)”

I think her question is what caused me to write in my diary about a week later, “I’m sick of reading articles where the answers seem to be made up in order to give a good image and not promote controversy.” It doesn’t say in my diary that I was referring to INXS here but it’s a feeling I have had about things that members of INXS have said publicly and the feeling remains even to this day.

Jess also talked about how she had to go to a reference library in NYC often to read Australian literature for her independent study class. She mentioned that she was in the village (Greenwich Village) the other day and she passed by the store where we bought Timmy’s shirt. (His birthday present.)

One other thing she wrote about was her plan to travel to Australia after she graduated from college and she invited me to go with her. With the letter she enclosed a photocopy of a brochure for a package-deal trip to Australia.

Back to Fabian Sparkle

The bird named Fabian Sparkle lived in a cage in the living room of our apartment. He/she did not seem to care for me because the bird would try to bite me if I put my hand too close, but the bird also did not seem to like being alone.

Cockatiel calls

Fabian Sparkle was only quiet if I was in the living room. If I walked out of the room, the bird would start making a noise that sounded like “Weet!” The video I posted explains the different calls that cockatiels make. The bird was calling me to come back. I figured this out on my own when I stepped in and out of the room and bird would either call when it didn’t see me or be quiet when it did see me.

The problem with keeping this cockatiel in my dorm was that the call could be heard outside of our apartment, but I don’t know how long Fabian Sparkle continued to call for me after I left for class. No one ever complained so I guess it was okay, but I felt bad when I was standing in the hall waiting for the elevator to arrive and I heard a constant “weet, weet, weet, weet…”

There is an entry from my diary about Fabian Sparkle from 9/22/84, just a couple of weeks after classes started, that I wrote while I was working a graveyard shift at the front desk of my apartment building.

I wrote, “Brian and Jeff from across the hall came in and said I missed their heroin party, but that Fabian Sparkle (the bird) was the life of it. I died laughing because it was a hilarious connection even though it was unintentional on their part.”

What happened to Fabian Sparkle

Fabian Sparkle was only mine for the school year. At the end of my junior year in college, I decided to stay in Philadelphia for the summer so I could no longer take care of the cockatiel.

Jess graduated from college at the same time I ended my junior year and she was able to take the bird and keep it at her parent’s house in Wayne, NJ. Eventually, Fabian Sparkle started laying eggs, so we finally knew that she was a female cockatiel. Jess changed Fabian’s name to Fabianette and the bird lived happily for many years until she died.

Fall semester and INXS

My pocket calendar from September 3 to September 9, 1984.

You can see from this calendar page that my classes started on September 6th and after a full day of classes, I worked the graveyard shift at the front desk of High Rise South. Where I lived on Penn Campus was and still is called Superblock.

Superblock has three high-rise apartment buildings and back then they were nicknamed High Rise South, High Rise North, and High Rise East, based on where they were located. I’ve mentioned before that I lived in High Rise East as a freshman and then in High Rise North as a sophomore and junior.

The Man Behind Superblock

In between the three high-rise dorms is a giant red sculpture called The Covenant and it was made by the sculptor Alexander Liberman. The nickname for the sculpture then and now is “Dueling Tampons.”

“Dueling Tampons” or its real name “Covenant” by Alexander Liberman. 39th St. & Locust Walk. Penn campus.

During my graveyard shift that night, I wrote a poem about Glitter Girl. I wrote five letters to my friends, and I also wrote in my diary. From what I wrote in my diary, I can assume that I took up smoking cigarettes as soon as I left my mother’s house and moved to campus. This is what I wrote:

“9/7/84

GRAVEYARD POEM

There was a girl all done up in glitter

The sight of her made us all titter

Her makeup was three inches thick

All she wanted was poor Garry’s dick

I thought I was gonna be sick

I hope the sun comes up soon so I can play Burn For You.

I’m afraid I’m ruining my health from the caffeine and nicotine. At least when I sleep my body takes a break from my nasty habits.

I need to exert more control over myself. I know I’m not doing the best thing for my body, and it probably isn’t good for my mind either.

I still look at people sort of strangely as if I was not one of them and that I can’t relate to them.

These last two hours are always a bit difficult to get through. Five lucky people are getting letters from me in a few days. I need to find a product for my marketing class. It is almost sunrise. I still have Naseem’s autograph. I like that name.

I don’t have a good view of the sunrise from High Rise South. I’m making a mess of this desk and of course I didn’t do any reading. I’m out of stamps again already but it is worth it if I get mail often. I hate an empty mailbox.”

The poem ended up in at least one of the letters I wrote while at work that night because Susan mentions it in a letter she wrote to me, and some other friends mention that they heard it from her.

Letter from Jess

Jess wrote on 9/10/84 that Susan had recited my poem “Glitter” for her. She wrote, “Cute-real cute! Maybe you should send a copy to Garry. I’m sure he’d love it.”

She also wrote this about INXS in recent magazines:

“Video Rock Stars Oct/Nov issue has a one page article on INXS also. Dana has a Rock Show mag with these funny pics of Garry, Michael and Jon. They are pushing Jon off the couch. Also there is a pic of Michael and a girl in Japan (Japanese mag-so where else?) It’s on a page of couples-it might be Michele with short, straight hair. I’ll get your pics soon! TC! Lots of love, Jessy jesy.”

Letter from Susan

Susan also wrote back to me on September 10th. In her letter she wrote:

“Hiya! How are you? I’m fine! Wow! I got two letters from you, in a row! I feel so honored, especially since you’re in college and I’m just a lowly high school senior!

You’re right, you do do strange things to pictures of INXS! Guess what? On Saturday night, I was watching “Nite Tracks.” It’s a video show-they showed “Burn For You”!! I totally freaked out! I called Jess and woke her up, but later she said she was glad I called, and if I had just told her the next day that it was on, she would have killed me!!

That’s pretty funny that some girl rode all the way to Hartford from NJ! How did she get back?

Are you serious about Michael and heroin? That’s a pretty stiff drug, worse than cocaine! Anyway, if he ran out of heroin, he wouldn’t have been able to stand at the bar and calmly buy anybody a drink, because the “cold turkey” (withdrawal) from heroin is really rough. You see, while you are reading about philosophy, I’m reading about drugs! I have a good book called Christiane F. It’s an autobiography of a drug addict. Pretty disgusting habit, if you ask me.

I can tell you wrote your second letter at 5:00am! That poem is definitely middle of the night material! I loved it! Oh-I may be in high school, but I’m not that dumb! I know what ‘titter’ means!

Did you kill your bird yet? You could gag him! I suppose I should go now and look for some fb’s to send ya! Keep ya busy in the wee hours! Write soonly! Love, Susan”

She must have been responding to some of what I wrote in those letters she got from me.

If you have a couple of hours to kill, here is a compilation from the TBS show “Night Tracks” from 1984. I have no idea if INXS is in this. It has some commercials in it from back in the day.

Letter from Dana

In my last post, I said I would mention the rest of what Dana had written to me in a letter. I’ll just put the whole letter from 8/23/84 here.

“Dear Donna,

Hiya! I’m not holding up too well- I guess INXS withdrawal has set in. So, I’ve tried to go to as many other concerts as possible- I saw Illustrated Man, and I saw Echo and the Bunnymen and The Fleshtones twice. Still, nothing beats those clowns up there. God. When will they get back here? Anyway, so Andrew still hasn’t worn your hat? That’s not very nice…

Jes came over today and we spent most of the time going through pictures and FBs. I borrowed a bunch of pictures to put in the next newsletter. Speaking of the alliance, if you want your name and addy, etc., in, fill out the index card and send it back soon.

So Michael wanted to know how old you are. All I can say is you’d better watch out for those rock stars…

I worked at MTV the other day as relief receptionist. It was hectic, but fun. Some offices have magazines in their reception areas, they have MTV. Too bad it was only a one day job! Oh well. I’m finished with work for the summer-I’ll need the rest of the time to get ready to move to Barnard. Fun, fun, fun. One good thing-I’ll be on my own in the city! Yay!

Hey-next summer I’ll be 18, so if I want to go to Canada or anyplace else for that matter, my parents won’t be able to stop me. Wow. We’d better think up something good!

So you’ve got yourself a new Fabian Sparkle disguised as a bird. Does it have glittery feathers? Does it have a friend with leopard feather? Sorry-bad joke.

I’d better sign off. Take care and write soon! Dancing on the Jetty, Dana”

References in the letter

When Dana mentioned “those clowns up there” I’m sure she was referring to a photo of INXS at the top of the paper she was writing to me on. If I still have the original somewhere, I can’t find it. I started “digitizing” my letters and diaries early on to save space. First by typing them and later scanning them into a computer.

I don’t think I ever saved a copy of any of the INXS Alliance newsletters that she made and sent out, if I ever even put myself on the mailing list at all. It would be so great to have some of those newsletters right now.

FBs are short for friendship books. I wrote about those in an earlier post. It’s funny that the abbreviation is the same as Facebook because those friendship books were a form of social media before personal computers, the internet, and Mark Zuckerberg started what we call social media today.

After the graveyard shift

After my graveyard shift, I stayed awake long enough to go to my first statistics class. Then I went back to my apartment and slept. The next day I wrote in my diary that I went out dancing that night and I danced to some INXS.

“9/8/84

The sucko bank machine is closed. I’m broke, hungry and tired.

I Send a Message dropped out of the charts after a climb to #82 while meanwhile in Oz, Burn For You fell from #3 to #5. I went dancing last night and requested INXS. They played the One Thing and Original Sin back to back. That was very nice. My brain is still mush.

Well, I’ve run into some more people I met last year through Bill. Eric told me that Lynn is dealing in speed and heroin now. She is getting herself into some deep shit. I probably won’t see her at all because I’m not going to hang out with that crowd.”

References in my diary entry

Philadelphia had one of the first ATM networks in the United States. But we called those bank machines MAC machines because they were called Money Access Centers. It was Saturday and I wanted to withdraw money but the ATM at my bank two blocks away was not available.

Wikipedia article about Money Access Centers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Access_Center

Bill had a punk rock sensibility and style and the way he looked reminded me of David Bowie.

Spending library time looking at Billboard magazine

It looks like I spent some time at the library on 9/8 and looked at the latest issue of Billboard magazine to see how INXS was doing when I should have been studying.

The Hits of the World section of Billboard magazine from September 8, 1984. This was where I saw that Burn For You had dropped to number five from number three in Australia.

Letter from Terri written on 9/18

“Four letter word for Aussie wild life- INXS!

Dear Donna,

What it is? Nice talking to you, although brief. Isn’t that phone of Susan’s a trip? She and Jes called once and totally confused me! I liked that-“What’s Susan doing in Florida?”

My mother said you were going to teach Fabian Japanese? (Japanese for travelling birds?)

I think I can buy your “feel as if I’ve eaten twenty field mines!” They’re a riot! Thanx ever so much again for lending me those tapes. Some if it’s just too happening for words.

You and your dreams (poor Andrew) and poems! Another goody! What’d Jes think?

Your picture order is 15 pix, not 13 like I originally counted (I counted a date and didn’t count that you want four of you and Michael.) Duh! They’re not here yet-I’ll just hold this until I get around to getting the pix!

I don’t know why they bother-#82! Gee whiz! When they can reach #3 and up down under, I don’t know why INXS even bothers with this stupid place! The only thing INXSive I’ve done lately was I wrote to Tim. He won’t get it, I’m sure. But I don’t buy strange albums or look up weird amphibians (Jess lurves axol) And I’m sure Susan told you about the Aussie girl she’s chasing all over her school!

Did you hear about INXS on “Rock of the 80s?” It’s good. It’s got its highlights, boy! Like Michael falling flat on his back! He’s a piece of work!

Eksesu? Yeh, good friends of mine! I love Mr. Beer’s name- Kari-Kari?!! I had to laugh at that one. Yeh, right! You can impress Michael with your knowledge of T-Rex, Violent American Femmes, and the Japanese language! Whatever turns you on! I won’t even bother to show up.

Thanx for the Tim thing. Here’s something from Toronto-we already knew, but I found it interesting to see it in print!

Why don’t you ask Dana to put you on the Alliance list? Hmmm!?

Gotta go to Differential Equations. That class is like a big suck! Please return the stamps that will be on your present to me!!! Keep swinging, Terri”

Rock of the 80s

One reason why it takes me so long to write new posts is because I try to find some of the things that are mentioned in these letters and in my diary. Searching for “Rock of the 80s” using Google got me nowhere. But the gigography that INXS included with it’s Calling All Nations Deluxe set had the concert listed. They recorded it on 6/19/1984 at the Hollywood Palace theater. That was before we even saw them for the first time in 1984, but it wasn’t shown on television until September.

I scanned the cover of this list of INXS shows from 1979-2012 that came with the Calling All Nations Deluxe Set that I bought.

Once I had the name of the venue, I was able to find the video for it on YouTube.

INXS live at the Hollywood Palace

Michael fell flat on his back at the beginning of the second song which was Melting in the Sun. When I watched this video, I noticed that Michael messed up the lyrics of the first song which was “The Swing.”

More about Terri’s letter

I had loaned some Tenpole Tudor cassette tapes to Terri and she was continuing our discussion about the lyrics for the song “Love and Food.” Here’s a video:

I’m pretty sure that we read or saw that Garry Gary either had a pet axolotl or he was fascinated by the prehistoric fish.

Axolotls as pets

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/axolotls-amphibians-that-never-grow-up.html

Terri wasn’t the only person I mentioned the Violent Femmes to in my letters. Their first album was one I listened to over and over at that time and I must have just recently acquired it, but my diary doesn’t say if I bought it. I have a feeling that my friend Adam owned it and he taped it for me.

It looks like I was using my “Japanese For Travellers” book to transcribe some Japanese articles about INXS into English. I told people that I would teach Fabian Sparkle, the bird, some Japanese but that didn’t work because it is cockatoos who can mimic words and not cockatiels.

This is the cover of the Japanese phrase book I bought in 1984 when I got back to college.

The “Tim thing” and what it was that we found out about INXS in Toronto that appeared in print is a mystery. Perhaps I had photocopied the photo of Tim and Nile Rodgers that appeared in the same issue Billboard magazine (September 8, 1984) where I learned that “I Send A Message” fell off the Hot 100 after reaching number 82.

A photo of Tim Farriss and Nile Rodgers from the Beacon Theatre show that appeared in Billboard magazine in the September 8, 1984 issue.

Maria tells her Kirk Pengilly story

“9/4/84

Dear Donna,

Hi, How are you? Do you remember that poster you made at Dana’s the day of INXS at the Beacon? Well my friend Dawn has it. I mentioned it to Dana that Dawn ended up with it, and Dana got real mad. Well since it was your poster, I hope you’re not mad about it. If you want it back I can talk to Dawn when I see her-I just wanted you to know. Okay!

Oh…We Are The Vegetables(WATV)-it’s my only INXS story! (Except for the soundcheck, but you guys were there also!)

WATV has to be one of their craziest songs and I’ve been dying to know about it for a long time! So that night I had the perfect opportunity to ask Kirk, so I went over (Susan followed me).

Kirk was impressed-I guess because WATV isn’t on any albums, and it’s pretty much unheard of-even in Australia. Kirk said it was the song they used for the B-side of their first single. He kept saying how it was such a fun song…and he’s like to do it again-then I said that Michael probably doesn’t remember the words-and Kirk laughed and agreed!

Let’s see, he also said that back in the days of Perth they used to end their gigs with that song and they made a big finale out of it! The funniest part about what he said was that they used to call each other vegetables! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to find out more about that because Susan wanted to show Kirk her pen!

How’s Fabian Sparkle doing? Wasn’t Tim’s name Alvin Purple? Now how did this thing with Fabian Sparkle come about? Is it just a name Michael used or what?

Did ya see newsletter #5. I thought it was great how it was dedicated to Gary Grant. He seems like he’s really nice. Ah, and Vance…#1 roadie that was funny!

Did I tell you I wrote to the other Vance “fan”-Chris from Fla. She’s in love with him, she said he has a place in NYC and she wants to go when she gets enough $.

Well Donna I gotta go. School started yesterday and I already have a ton of things to do-I hope I’m not this busy the whole year-I love to goof off and I’m good at it. I loved your INXS stories, they’re great! See ya and write soon. Luv, Maria”

We Are The Vegetables on YouTube

Letter from Dana with some INXS info

“9/10/84

Dear Donna,

Hiya! Nice Nick Cave paper. He’s kind of funny looking, though.

School’s okay so far. I’ve only had 2 of my classes. I’m taking Logic, Intro to Psychology, Freshman Seminar, Intro to Music, and Jazz Dance. Ha. I’ve never really taken dance before. This will be pretty funny!

How’s U. of P.? Is Philly a nice place? New York is great when you’re on your own! I don’t have to report to anyone now, so it’s really a totally new experience even though I’m in the same city.

Marc Bolan is dead, or, as my friend said, very dead. It seems that he was one of those “rock-hero” type people and his death was an event in rock history. Shows how much we know…

I’d love to hitchhike to Guam, but we might drown. How about a nice long swim?

Guess who I got a letter from last week! Here are a few hints. He plays bass, he’s got a double name, and his picture is up there. I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now! Yes, Garry Gary actually wrote to me again! He told me to call Connie at MMA, so I did and I’m going there on Tuesday to help out with the fan club. Should be fun…

I’ve just reread your letter and discovered that I haven’t responded to anything you wrote! Well, here goes. I don’t know of any companies that have sold stationery with rock stars as a business in itself. I have seen Menudo stationery, and Culture Club cards, but nothing more, except in London, where they have postcards.

Cute poem about Glitter Girl. Connie told me an interesting Garry story. One night he took a girl back to his room to talk. She wanted to sleep with him and he didn’t so she left the room. The next morning he got really upset ‘coz she came down hand in hand with Vance. Connie said he started complaining about all the sluts, etc. Oh-it seems that Garry and his girlfriend broke up right before the tour.

Garry wrote to me from Arizona. He told me that some guy in Texas threw a brand new Colt 45 on stage with a fan letter. Pretty weird, huh? [8/22, 8/23, and 8/24/1984 INXS played shows in Texas. 8/27 they were in Arizona so Garry wrote to her on 8/26 or thereabout]

How’s Tae Kwon Do? I took karate for 3 years. I had to quit ‘coz I have bad knees, but it was fun while it lasted.

My sister Jenny likes the Violent Femmes. The picture in Star Hits is really cute. Check out that Nick Cave shirt!!

If your friend Carlos thinks the cover of Shabooh Shoobah is kinky, you should show him the inside sleeve…

I think I’d better go now! Take care, Happy Birthday, Dana on the Jetty (Terri’s new name for me.)”

Last little bits from my diary

My pocket calendar from September 10 to September 16, 1984.

“9/16/84

I went shopping yesterday and bought cool boots and cool earrings and a Nick Cave album that I have to get Adam to tape for me. I’ve totally blown off studying and I’m reading Shogun. I’ve been smoking like a maniac. School sucks again. It hasn’t changed from last year and my mood and attitude is quite familiar. I’m so disorganized and apathetic.”

The Nick Cave album was “From Her To Eternity”. It was the last thing by Nick Cave that I ever bought. I loved his cover of “In The Ghetto” but that’s about it.

You can listen to the song here:

I’m sure I was reading Shogun because Tim Farriss was reading it in Florida.

Procrastination problems

9/18/84

“I have to get my ass in gear. At least Astronomy requires no work. I have to start reading statistics, accounting, and history.

9/20/84

I just saw a guy who looked like a Buddhist monk like in the video. [I Send A Message by INXS]

I’m taking a short break from reading statistics. I’m up to last week. Oh boy!

There is a five-year-old kid in England who got kicked out of kindergarten because he had a punky haircut. His picture is hanging on my wall. [I saw the article in the Weekly World News. I also used the photo from the article to make the photocopier stationery for when I wrote my friends.]

I met someone wearing an Original Sin t-shirt and talked to him. He was right behind us at the Mann Music Center and also walked out on The Go-Go’s.”

9/22/84

Saturday night graveyard. The last one. I hope there will be good parties next week. Last night during graveyard I wrote a twelve-page letter to Susan and told her some of my INXS stories.

Brian and Jeff from across the hall came in and said I missed their heroin party, but that Fabian Sparkle (the bird) was the life of it. I died laughing because it was a hilarious connection even though it was unintentional on their part.

I brought all my books but probably won’t use them. Dana might be in charge of the INXS fan club. That is cool.”

I’ll have to leave some of the letters from the end of September 1984 for my next post because this one is already too long.

August 25, 2026
Blog Post 20- INXS in St. Petersburg, Florida, July 25, 1984

Gary Grant, The co-manager for the rock band INXS, holding a sales award for The Swing, at his office, Hay St, Neutral Bay. September 16, 1986. (Photo by Adrian Greer Michael Short/Fairfax Media via Getty Images).

There aren’t many photos of Gary Grant out there so I am borrowing this one from Getty Images so you can see what he looked like.

On July 24, 1984, Jess, Terri, and I flew from Newark, New Jersey to St. Petersburg, Florida on People Express airline. You paid cash on board the plane and I paid my fare of $79 using one-dollar bills from the suitcase in my bedroom closet.

When we arrived, we picked up a rental car from Rent-A-Wreck so we could keep the costs of our trip low. The car really was a wreck. It had no radio and the handle for the window fell off when I closed the car door. Back then, most cars had crank windows that you had to open and close manually by turning a handle on the inside of the car door. Electric windows were a luxury item.

Chasing the mail carrier

The three of us drove over to Jen’s house in Tampa. Jen realized that she had given a letter meant for Jon Farriss to the mail carrier. Jackie sent it from Chicago, and we were supposed to deliver it to Jon when we saw INXS. So, we got back in the car and drove around near Jen’s neighborhood until we spotted the mail carrier and retrieved Jackie’s letter.

Next, we drove to the Bayfront Concourse hotel in St Petersburg. We knew that INXS would be staying on the tenth floor of the hotel. Like I have said before, I was not involved in getting that sort of information whether through asking Gary Grant, calling the MMA office, or asking a band member, so I don’t remember how that happened.

Waiting for the band at the hotel

Anyway, the hotel gave us a room on the same floor as INXS or at least that was what we hoped. The band was not there when we arrived. INXS was still the opening act for The Go-Go’s on their tour. They had played at the Sunrise Theater in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on July 22 and July 23. On July 24, the band had to travel four hours by bus to get to St Petersburg for the show on the 25th.

Our room was large and had a king-size bed. There was a large mirror on the ceiling over the bed. Once we got up to the room, we waited. Our window looked out over the front of the hotel, so we spent our time looking out the window. Terri started to worry that perhaps we were not at the right hotel.

But then an RV pulled up to the front door and we jumped around and screamed when we saw it. We opened the door to our room so we could see what was happening. Vance, the roadie, walked by our open door and went into the room next door to ours.

INXS arrives

Tim Farriss (fake name Alvin Purple) was the first member of the band to see us in our room. The details of what happened are lost now. Garry Gary Beers and Kirk Pengilly walked by, and we all said hello to each other, but they didn’t stick around. At some point Andrew Farriss popped into our room and remarked that our room was nicer than his and he wanted to switch rooms with us. We kept our room.

Gary Grant, the INXS manager who was also the tour manager for this tour, stopped in and told us that Michael Hutchence and some of the other band members would be busy doing telephone interviews with Australia for most of the night. We never even said hello to Michael or Jon Farriss because they didn’t come up to their rooms on the tenth floor with the rest of the band and we didn’t see them at all that night.

I removed my contact lenses and stored them in their case with some contact lens saline solution. They were soft contact lenses but they were not extended-wear lenses so they could not be worn while I was sleeping. Disposable contact lenses had not been invented yet.

Gary Grant wakes me up

We turned on the TV and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson came on at 11:30pm. I fell asleep on the floor. A short time later, I woke up because Gary Grant was standing over me in our room and screaming, “Wake up, Donna!” So, I got up off the floor and put my contact lenses back in because I am very near-sighted and couldn’t see without them.

David Letterman came on and Gary Grant stayed in our room to watch it with us. He was supervising the radio interviews, so he had to stay up for as long as the band were up doing them. When he wasn’t off checking on the band members, he hung out with us in our hotel room.

David Letterman with Billy Idol

The Late Night with David Letterman show aired at 12:30am ET on NBC. It was a late-night talk show hosted by a comedian who also did celebrity interviews much like all late-night talk shows on TV in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Night_with_David_Letterman

Billy Idol was on the show that night. He looked wasted and it seemed like he had been using cocaine before his appearance because he kept touching his nose. I thought he was a moron. The video appears below so you can judge for yourself.

July 24, 1984, David Letterman show interview with Billy Idol

Another segment of the show was a comedy bit where David asked the audience to pick a new catchphrase from a bunch they came up with. Number 3 was “They pelted us with rocks and garbage.” That was my favorite and it won. It made me think of INXS because of the stories they told the media about their pub shows in Australia. It was pretty much the only history of the band they had to talk about with anyone.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63979/23-things-david-letterman-invented

They pelted us with rocks and garbage

Before there was the internet and internet memes, I combined David Letterman’s catchphrase with a photo of INXS and made my own meme of sorts to use as stationery when writing friends and pen pals.

A photocopy of a magazine photo and the David Letterman show catchphrase, “They pelted us with rocks and garbage” combined to make some fun INXS stationery!

Seeing Vance the roadie again

When the show was over, Gary Grant had to leave to check on things. Terri, Jess, Jen and I decided to go out to Burger King. I desperately needed some coffee if I was going to stay awake and help keep Gary Grant company. We were not people who used cocaine or took pills to stay awake. Not party girls or groupies either.

Out in the hall we bumped into Vance and stopped to say hello. He looked at me and said, “You look familiar. Were you in Fort Lauderdale?” I said, “No, I was in Long Island.” Then he remembered and said, “Oh yeah, you’re the girl I hassled in the bar.” Having been trained to appease men and make them comfortable, I told him, “Oh no, you didn’t hassle me!”

But he was right; he did hassle me. That he barely remembered after being on the road for a couple more weeks means that he probably just took his shot because I happened to be there and it’s what he did out on tour whenever he had a chance.

Burger King

At Burger King, I acted like a nut. Back then I could be described as “out there” because I loved comedy and I tried to be funny as much as possible. I was like a performance artist in many ways.

Jess had a little stuffed koala and I put it in the breast pocket of my shirt, so its head was sticking out. When I got to the counter, I asked for eucalyptus leaves because that is what koalas eat. Not a joke that was likely to be understood in Florida. And I also ordered coffee, of course, so I could stay awake.

There was a stack of Burger King crowns on the counter-the thick sheets of paper with slots for sizing that sort of look like a king’s crown. I took one, turned it into a hat and then wore it back to the hotel and in the room.

A stack of old, paper Burger King crowns

Gary Grant returns to hang out with us

Gary Grant came into our room again. Our room also had a table and two chairs next to the windows. He sat down in one and I sat in the other while Jess, Terri, and Jen sat on the bed, and we all chatted.

Our room with its mirror over the bed, came up in conversation. Gary too thought it was a better room than his and he wanted to switch with us. I made a joke that I had better be careful in case there was a hidden camera behind the mirror because I might want to be Miss America someday.

The Vanessa Williams Miss American scandal

That was a reference to Vanessa Williams. Her Miss America scandal was fresh, as she had resigned the title the day before. I’m pretty sure David Letterman made jokes about it on the show we had just watched.

Vanessa Williams was the first black woman to be crowned Miss America. She was crowned in September 1983 at 20 years old. She gave up her crown on July 23, 1984, at 21 years old when Penthouse magazine announced it would publish nude photos that had been taken when she was 19. Some of the photos included simulated sex acts with another woman.

Vanessa did not pose for Penthouse but for a photographer she was working for who said that the photos would be artistic, and she would not be recognizable. He also said that no one else would see them. He lied but she had no recourse because she had signed a release form. Scumbags like that guy were numerous in the 1980s.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-23/miss-america-resigns

Mary Tyler Moore

I told Gary Grant that I had been awake for more than 24 hours already because I stayed up watching The Mary Tyler Moore Show until it was time to leave for the airport.

Gary Grant said he hated Mary Tyler Moore because “she is such a dag.” Dag is an Australian slang word, and the meaning definitely came across as negative-like witch or bitch or ugly. It actually means “uncool.”

Now I wonder what it was that made her a dag in his opinion. Was it her feminism? Was she uncool because she wasn’t some rock and roll sexpot? Was she uncool because she stood up to men or stood up for what was right?

Meaning of the Australian slang word “dag”

https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/andc/meanings-origins/d

Mary Tyler Moore Show

Emerson Hotel

I’m pretty sure I spoke about paying for my flight using the one dollar bills I had in the suitcase in my closet and that led to me talking about my waitressing job at the Emerson Hotel which was not an actual hotel but only a restaurant. Gary Grant asked, “What hotel?” because I think he just wanted me to repeat the name. But I was always worried that people would think I worked at a hotel so instead of saying the name again, I replied, “It’s not a hotel.”

I forgot to mention that earlier in the day, before we checked in, my friends and I walked along the pier in St Petersburg which was not far from the hotel and did some shopping. I bought a silver ring with a black diamond-shaped pattern on the top side. Black and silver is a favorite combination of mine. In the room, I showed it to Gary.

REM

We heard some stories from him. For instance, they had gone to see REM in concert on one of their nights off and his opinion was that they sucked. INXS was much better live.

Burn For You

INXS now had a video for Burn For You and it was made in the style of a home movie. You can see that for yourself here. We didn’t know it yet, but we were going to see the new video the next day.

The underwear thrown on stage

Gary Grant also told us that Kirk’s girlfriend, the future mother of his child, Karen, who was still along on the tour, tried on the underwear that was thrown on stage by the crazed female fans to see if it fit her. I can’t believe he told us that!

Before Gary left us for the night, he gave us more details about the three nights INXS would play in eastern Canada in about a weeks’ time. INXS would be finished touring with The Go-Go’s after four more shows and then immediately do their own tour in clubs and small theaters.

The morning of the INXS concert

When we woke up on the morning of July 25th, we watched TV, and I also did some crossword puzzles. I had one of those soft covered books of crossword puzzles that you could buy at the newsstand. Perhaps I bought it at the airport to keep me busy.

Once again, we propped open the door to our hotel room so we could see if anyone from INXS walked by. Around lunch time, the four of us walked down the hall to Timmy’s room and knocked on his door.

Hey Timmy!

He opened the door, and he was nearly naked! All he had on was a pair of tiny shorts. His short shorts were even shorter than the short shorts I was wearing. My satiny shorts had about a two-inch inseam.

Tim had been reading Shogun by James Clavell and he was still holding the book. Shogun was a best-seller and had been turned into a hit TV mini-series in 1980. The mini-series had the second highest ratings in the U.S. after Roots. A third of America had watched Shogun.

Lunch with Tim Farriss

Timmy suggested that we all go to the restaurant downstairs, so we waited in the hall for him to put clothes on and come out. Then we went downstairs to the restaurant which was called the Greenhouse.

I sat on the other side of the table from Tim Farriss and I don’t remember where anyone else was sitting. In my diary it says that Tim drank some chocolate milk while I ordered strawberries and cream and only ate some of it. Tim was mostly smoking cigarettes and telling stories.

Animal Cruelty

My favorite story was about Timmy’s job at a chicken farm. The farm had a system where they would put a peg on a chicken’s cage if it didn’t lay any eggs. If the chicken received a certain number of pegs on its cage it would be killed for not laying enough eggs.

Sometimes there were chickens that would peck him so Tim would get revenge by taking pegs off another chicken’s cage and put them on the cage of the chicken that pecked him.

Tim picked up a butter knife from the table and demonstrated how the chickens were killed. Then he said he used to eat eggs in front of the chickens and tell them it was nothing personal.

He told us that he owned a ranch with an orchard and a vegetable garden. His cat was named Cat, and his dog was a boxer named Samantha. But he hated the dog so he would kick it and he would not let the dog come into the house.

Touring America

Jess said that she would make INXS some videotapes so they would have something different to watch while they were traveling on the tour bus. She asked Tim to tell her what she should tape for them, and he said, “you know what we like.”

Then he said that he would hate to tour America constantly. “With the exception of you guys, of course” he added when he realized how that sounded.

Kirk slits Michael’s throat

We also heard more about their videos and music. For example, I wrote in my diary that Tim told us that Kirk slits Michael’s throat in the Dancing on the Jetty video. I don’t know if that is what Tim really said or if I just remembered it wrong when I wrote it down because Kirk slits Michael’s throat in the video for Melting in the Sun and not Dancing on the Jetty.

Melting in the Sun was clearly filmed in London along with the end of the Burn For You video. The parts of the Dancing on the Jetty video with INXS in it look like it could also have been filmed in London at the same time so maybe Tim was confused.

Melting in the Sun video

More INXS music and video info

Tim told us that his son James Lee was in the video for Burn For You and also that his wife Buffy didn’t like it that there were women singing backup vocals in the song. I don’t think she had anything against the singers themselves-just that she would not have had singers from outside the band doing the vocals.

The only other stuff I wrote down was that Tim’s grandmother took him to see The Sound of Music and that American milkshakes are thicker than Australian ones.

He also said, “if you hear some songs that sound like us but are under a different name, it could be us.” I guess INXS had talked about doing some kind of project where they put out music under a different name, but I have never heard anything else about that other than what Tim told us. There is no music out there under a different name and no mention of a plan to do that in any books or articles.

Strawberries

While we were sitting at the table with Tim, Kirk and Karen walked into the restaurant. They sat down at a nearby table just to the right of where I was sitting. From where she sat, Karen could see that I had stopped eating my strawberries.

When Karen stood up from their table, I noticed it, and it looked like Kirk felt embarrassed and was trying to talk her out of doing what she was about to do.

Karen walked over to our table and asked me if I was finished eating my strawberries. She said that it was hard to get good, fresh food while on tour and asked if she could have the rest of my strawberries.

Kirk was looking sheepish. He knew what had happened between us and so did I, but I don’t think Karen did. Even though she was with Kirk instead of me, I didn’t mind at all that Karen asked for my strawberries. I was finished with them, and I gave them to Karen so they wouldn’t go to waste.

If she had known that her boyfriend had been making out with me ten months earlier, I don’t think she would have approached me. But I was trying my very best to act like I had never had anything to do with Kirk Pengilly beyond just being a fan of INXS. Which is how it always should have been because I was never trying to be anything more than a fan. Those guys messed with me and not the other way around.

Taking Tim’s cigarette butts

When Tim went back upstairs, we stayed behind for a few minutes. I took the cigarette butts that Tim had smoked out of the ashtray and put them in my purse. There were either two or three. I told Terri that I wanted to do something with them, but I didn’t know what yet.

Bumping into Jon Farriss

We went back upstairs and bumped into Jon Farriss in the hallway. My crossword puzzle was giving me some trouble so I said to Jon, “Can I ask you a question?” He said okay, so I asked him, “What European capital starts with the letter T?”

Jon didn’t have the answer and said, “At least you didn’t ask a question like, ‘Where did you get your name?’” Terri was confused and said, “What, Jon??”And he said, “No!! INXS!!” It seems that Jon was sick of being asked how INXS came up with their name. I don’t remember if Jon was given the letter from Jackie-maybe that happened when we were on the bus with INXS a short time later.

After that we were back in our hotel room with the door open, talking and joking about what we had just heard at lunch. It was hilarious that Kirk slit Michael’s throat in one of their music videos and we joked about that. Terri and Jess were almost as much a part of it as I was because they were there too when something happened with both Kirk and Michael. Also, it was very fitting after what Michael had done, getting me to kiss him when my loyalty belonged to Kirk Pengilly.

Michael Hutchence walks by

We had yet to see Michael Hutchence at all in the whole time we were there but now he was awake, and it was time to leave for the venue. He looked into our room as he wandered past the open door, and he was surprised to see that we were there.

Michael came into our room to chat for a couple of minutes. He also blatantly ogled me, taking a good look at me from my feet to my face and back again. It was quite rude, but I let him get away with it.

I was still wearing the short shorts and a cropped t-shirt. My wardrobe was quite modest, so my shirt wasn’t cropped very much but I was showing more skin than I ever had before because it was Florida in July.

The only thing my diary mentions besides the ogling is that Michael told us that he had been up all night doing interviews.

We all went down to the lobby together on the elevator. Once there, I stood by the elevator panel and held down the “door open” while my friends exited the elevator. Michael waited for me to get out and he put his arm out to keep the door from closing while he followed me. Gentlemanly, yes, but also a bit self-serving perhaps. Trying to earn brownie points for being polite while also having a view of my backside.

Watching Burn For You on the tour bus

The band was about to see the video for Burn For You for the first time and they invited us to get on the bus to watch it while they made their way to the Bayfront Concourse theater.

Michael sat down near the front of the bus, and I sat down next to him. He opened the book he brought with him and started reading. He never even looked up to watch the video.

Someone said that The Go-Go’s were getting emotional about them leaving the tour but I didn’t write down who it was.

Tasteless, Sexist Joke

There was something I remember that I never wrote about in my diary so I can’t be sure when it happened. I wrote about it in some of my letters because there are mentions of it in the replies from friends. But I have no way to determine exactly when it happened. It happened while we were on their tour bus, so it was either this day or another time in 1984. I’ll just assume it happened in Florida.

We were on the INXS tour bus and Jon Farriss was holding a dish that had some kind of pasta with a thick, white cream sauce in it. Perhaps a fettucine alfredo. He stuck the tip of his index finger into the sauce and then licked the sauce off. Then he said, “Tastes like fish!” Obviously making a crude sex joke about women’s vaginal secretions which can taste like fish if they have bacterial vaginosis.

My friends and I paid close attention to the music video, and we were able to watch it twice before the bus stopped and dropped us off outside the theater. The bus and the band proceeded into an underground parking garage.

What I did with the cigarette butts

A few girls were already outside and set upon us when they saw us get off the tour bus. They asked us questions about what we were doing. They seemed like they might be the kind of hysterical girl fan who annoyed me and that I liked to imitate and mock. So, I took the cigarette butts out of my purse and told them that Tim Farriss had just smoked them.

When I said, “Here, you can have them” and handed them to the girls, they squealed and screamed, “Oh my God, Oh my God!!” Then they asked if I could get them anything else from the band.

Inside the theater, it was general admission near the stage so there were a lot of people packed into that area. We were not at the very front for the show but somewhere in the middle.

Assault

Jess held up a small tape recorder and taped INXS. There were three guys behind us, and I felt someone touch my ass. I was furious so I turned around and yelled, “Don’t touch me!” Those assholes played innocent and denied it.

It wasn’t long before I felt a hand reach up the leg of my shorts to touch my private parts. Immediately, without turning around, I kicked back with one leg and threw both of my elbows back as hard as I could into the guy directly behind me.

When I turned around, the guy I hit whined, “I didn’t do anything!” I said, “I don’t care. If anyone touches me again, I am going to hit you again.” The jerks kept their hands to themselves after that.

If I had a time machine, I would go back there and kick all three of those guys in the nuts because I was not violent enough. I regret having been too nice to boys and men and just hitting that one guy was me being too nice in that situation.

Bootlegging

After the show, we waited for the band outside as usual. My diary says I was keeping myself occupied by balancing on a plank because I hated hanging around to see the band.

Someone must have seen Jess holding up the tape recorder during the show because when Gary Grant saw her, he came storming over. He was very angry. He said, “So, you’re a bootlegger, are you? Is this what it’s all about?”

I think he noticed that we all got quite upset because the last thing we wanted to do was make INXS or Gary Grant angry with us. We were on the verge of tears.

Jess said that no, she was not a bootlegger and was only making the tape for our personal use. Then she took the tape out and told Gary that he could have it. Gary didn’t take it. Instead, he said, “I trust you this time, but I don’t ever want to see you with a tape recorder again.”

We kept our promise to keep that INXS concert to ourselves.

In 2006, I sent the cassette tapes of the INXS concerts from 1983 and 1984 to a place that converted cassettes to CDs.

The CD I had made from the cassette recordings I had of two INXS concerts. I put the CD and case on my scanner bed and scanned it.

There’s nothing in my diary about hanging out with INXS after the show so I don’t think we did. I think that after Gary Grant yelled at us about taping the concert, INXS took off for Atlanta.

The Go-Go’s and INXS had a show the next night, July 26, in Atlanta, which was at least a seven-hour-long bus ride from St Petersburg, Florida.

Terri, Jess, and I did not follow INXS to Atlanta. We stayed in Florida for a few more days.

January 30, 2026
Blog Post 12- INXS releases The Swing, Spring 1984

The fourth album by the Australian rock band, INXS.

This post contains diary entries and a letter. There is information about the Australian rock band, INXS, and about what I was doing, thinking, and feeling.

Working graveyard shifts

It’s towards the end of spring semester of my sophomore year in college. I am working at my work-study job for West Campus which oversees the student dorms in the western part of Penn’s campus. That includes the three high-rise apartment buildings where I worked and lived.

Here are a couple of diary entries from when I was working the overnight (graveyard) shift at the desk in the lobby of one of the high-rise buildings. There was an intercom system that broadcast into the stairwells that could be switched on at the desk. There was a hand-held microphone at the desk that was part of the system. It was there for fire safety. During fire alarms, the students were trained to leave their rooms and wait in the stairwells. The intercom could be used to tell them to evacuate the building if it was necessary. Usually, it was used to tell them to remain in the stairwell.

The two tall buildings in the bottom right are High Rise North and High Rise East. West Campus. University of Pennsylvania.

4/27/84

Another night, another graveyard. INXS is keeping me awake tonight. Now I’m playing with the mike and singing to the lobby. A guy with a New Order and Bauhaus tape left me the case and took my INXS one. He said I had a pretty good voice and asked if I was in a band.

All the weirdos are out tonight. Some guy wanted to know if I did crank. I said no and he said, “what are you doing tonight?” Nada. INXS and Dr. Pepper make for a natural high.

Time to wake up Ralph-he’s coming in to replace me at 4. Someone showed me a death star instead of ID. Very comforting.

4/28/84

I’m at work again. I’ll be at work later tonight. Hopefully I won’t be incoherent by the time I finish tomorrow.

It’s graveyard time again. I’ll probably be incoherent soon. At 2am it will instantly be 3.

It’s 5am and I’ve lost it completely. Don just left. We had an interesting conversation. I bought a pizza at a discount. I don’t know why because I ate three pieces and gave the rest away and it cost five dollars. Someone could sell me the Brooklyn Bridge at this point.

A guy claiming to be a social worker almost duped me. Luckily, Victor was around because he found out that the number the guy was calling was for a Honda dealership. The guy left. I am very stupid when it comes to believing people.

I don’t think I’ll remember anything if I study. Just have to keep awake. I’m glad the elevators are here to swallow up the people as soon as they come in. I wonder if my saying I like graveyards is a form of relieving dissonance. I don’t think so because I do like the peace and quiet. I’m the owner of the building. I’m in charge-I put my feet on the desk and blast music. It’s all mine. People think I’m crazy when I say I have fun. I’m getting paid for hanging out and having a private party. I only have to stay awake to make sure that only Penn jerks get in and not jerks off the street.

I’ve been up for 17 hours. That’s not even close to a record. Why it’s nothing really. I should be sharp as a knife. I think I own a dull blade.

The sun is peeking out from the horizon. This dawn used to be sunset in Australia. It’s amazing what a little light does to me. Sunrises are amazing.

It’s fun whirling in my chair. If I ever become an executive- God forbid, I want a chair I can spin around in.

I’m ruining my teeth drinking all this Dr. Pee Pee. Here comes Mr. Sunshine. Here comes Mr. Rainwater. Here come the Anarchittys running up the street.

The trees are a nice color green today. I don’t want to study my schoolwork. I want to be rich. I want to go traveling. Gonna blast some German music. [Falco] I wish I knew the words. My bladder is becoming really efficient because of this job. There’s a funky pigeon outside the door. I’m having a Dr. Pepper overdose. When I go home this summer, I’m going to have nicotine and pepper withdrawal.

4/29/84

It seems these past couple of days I was either sleeping or at work.

Well, I just got up, so it is off to work in a few.

Original Sin finally debuted on the charts here at #87.

I’m getting depressed. I have to figure out a way to get out of lunches at the Emerson Hotel. Fran is going into the hospital, so they’ll probably want me to work as soon as I get back. Terrific. I just have to think of the money. The whole thing is depressing.

I spoke to Mom on the phone. It doesn’t help my mood at all. Sleep will be good tonight. I’m so tired. I won’t dream. I won’t think. I’ll have an eight-hour vacation from this world.

The weather is nice. A cool breeze is coming in through the door. Danny is getting a computer. I might be able to use it over the summer.

Chris invited me to an EST meeting on Tuesday. I haven’t gotten mail in two or three weeks. I want my Trouser Press. I have to subscribe to it again.

From my collection of Trouser Press magazine. October 1983 issue.

5/1/84

Another graveyard. This one hasn’t been much fun. It is 6:20am. I want to die. I have so much work to do.

I went to an EST guest seminar, and everyone gives me the hard sell to do the training. I don’t know. I feel like hell.

5/3/84

It is 2pm and I’m about to take a nap because of a graveyard tonight.

I’ve been keeping weird hours. I worked graveyard Tuesday then slept from 8-3 then stayed up until midnight and got up at seven this morning for my Sociology final which went OK. I got my paycheck today.

Some woman from EST called here to talk to me. I don’t know how she got my number, but they better stop bothering me.

5/4/84

Nan just told me that the light under the desk was on meaning that everything going on at the desk was being broadcast into the stairwells- how embarrassing. A girl came down from the stairwell while I was playing INXS and singing to it and she said I had a good voice so it must have been on then. I wondered how she was able to hear me. It was bound to happen sooner or later. A total of about seven people offered to get me coffee or breakfast. I never expected so many considerate people to be around.

5/5/84

It is almost 10 pm and once again I am behind the desk. My feet are vibrating because they are on top of the refrigerator. I’m listening to the Swing. I made a special trip downtown to buy it. I told Chip from WQHS it was a great album so maybe they will play it. I should be getting paid for PR work.

Letter from Terri

A letter from Terri who was still in school in Florida arrived. It seems to be the last letter from her for the next few months. We were both about to go back to New Jersey for the summer, so we didn’t need to communicate by mail once that happened.

Terri gave me news about INXS. She said that “The Swing” was supposed to be out in a few days. One of her pen pals in Australia recorded it on cassette for her so she had already listened to it and said it was great.

Gary Grant was still in Australia, so she was not able to speak to him when she called Atco Records. The receptionist finally put her through to someone else and whoever it was said that “there was nothing definite, but there was talk of a spring tour with the Cars. If they plan to come in OUR spring, they better get something settled soon!!”

A friend of hers left for Australia so Terri told her about Gary Grant and gave her the address for their office in Sydney so she could go there if she had a chance. I don’t know if she actually did.

An MMA Management ad from Billboard magazine. Date unknown.

Terri heard “Original Sin” on a “real” radio station for the first time in Tampa- on a commercial station and not a college station. “They are still trying to figure out who Inkses is in Florida, for the most part!”

An Australian friend sent her a nice poster of INXS, and she told me all about it. The Farriss brothers looked stunning. Timmy looked cool. Jon’s hair looked like it did this time last year at the Ritz. Andrew had shaved and looked adorable. “Michael is too busy looking evil, so the heck with him.” Garry looked like he had a cold but his hair looked good. Kirk’s hair was going back to brown. She didn’t like the haircut, “but at least he doesn’t look like a lawn mower’s been in his head! And a new pair of frames-this guy is the Elton John of INXS!”

The back of the poster contained information about the band. The members of INXS chose their favorite songs from The Swing. Kirk chose “I Send A Message” while everyone else chose “Dancing on the Jetty” except for Michael who couldn’t decide.

Everyone but Andrew gave the names of their girlfriends. Terri wrote, “I won’t tell you Kirk’s unless you want me to!” She also wrote about some of the answers the band members gave when asked what their first love was. Tim said Annette Funicello and Garry Gary Beers said surfing and surfboards. Jonathan James Farriss said, “My first orgasm, I guess. When I was fourteen and a half!”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX6NeYHVWuk Video of Annette Funicello

5/9/84

Almost time for my management final. I’ve been up at 5:30am for the past two days because of finals. Tomorrow is the last one and then I have to pack up my shit and hit the trail back home. I’m just so excited. I hope I can stay awake for this exam. Hopefully I can answer the questions.

I want simplicity, doldrum, sleep, boredom, to twiddle my fingers, to watch TV, to avoid thinking, to avoid this.

5/10/84

Last day of finals, last full day in Phila. There must be more important things in life than brand loyalty.

Back in Hillsdale, NJ for the summer

The portion of Hillsdale, NJ that includes my house, Terri’s house, Friendly’s, the supermarkets, library, and my high school.

I had to walk to many places. The supermarkets were half a mile from my house. The Hillsdale Library was three-fourths of a mile away and Terri’s house was another two hundred yards further up the street from the library.

5/11/84

I’m watching MTV. That’s right I’m home. I just got back and already I’m scheduled to work tomorrow and Sunday. Keep thinking of the money-what I can do with it, where I can go.

Saw “Eat It” for the first time. [Music video by Weird Al Yankovic. A parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”] I’m going to miss school. Well maybe not the work. I better get used to not eating. I made myself a hamburger omelet- it was good at least for scrounging. It takes so long to walk to the stores. This is going to be a long, long summer. I hope it doesn’t kill me.

I’m going down to the Meadowlands tonight with Terri and Jess to hang around and maybe see Randy and Eddie Money. I’m dressed to kill in my fedora and Michael Jackson earrings. [Randy was the keyboard player for Eddie Money. Terri and I met him when I was thirteen and Terri was fourteen and we went to Central Park for some soundcheck.]

Randy Nichols, keyboard player for Eddie Money

Eddie Money backstage at the Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park. NYC. Dr Pepper Summer Music Festival. August 9, 1978

5/12/84

11am- Just got out of bed. I could sleep all day, but I have a lot to unpack before I go to work. Urgh. My feet are aching in anticipation.

5/13/84

I’m exhausted. I worked Sat. night until one am. and then today (Mother’s Day) from 12-9. I made $90 which makes it worth it. It wasn’t really hectic tonight. I was managing OK. My brain is in a daze and my body hurts. My feet ache and itch and they swell up after I work.

5/14/84

Ho hum. Going to NY [New York City] tomorrow perhaps to spend money on whatever. I have been spending money so fast because there is so much to buy. I’m becoming manic again. I want to get away from here, but I know I’m stuck for now. I’m looking for a way to be free and hopefully I’ll find it. Mother dear better keep her nose out of my journals.

Showed Terri where Kirk and I ate. Stopped by INXS’ record company. Dirtbag men followed us in Greenwich Village.

5/15/84

Next summer I’m definitely going to stay in Philadelphia. This place is going to drive me nuts. My only desires are becoming food and sleep. There is no privacy here. I can’t live my own life here.

I went shopping in the city today. I bought some cool shoes, a couple of pocketbooks, t-shirts, and assorted other things. I have a headache now. We passed the Milford Plaza and Beefsteak Charlies, and I showed Terri where we sat. We also spent some time and energy searching out the Power Station. We went to Atco but no word. We hit the village and saw lots of interesting looking people. We caught the attention of a couple of skeevs who followed us for a block but finally left when we ducked into a store to get away from them.

5/16/84

I’m going for a walk as soon as I get dressed. I need to get out. I want to cry again.

I’m in Lisa’s Pizza before I go to Terri’s for a Cosmos meeting. This area is the pits. If I don’t go nuts, I’ll be thankful. I’ve been debating whether or not to buy cigarettes. I bought a Lotto ticket instead.

In Music Merchant [Record store in downtown Westwood, NJ that survived until 2024] some people were trying to decide what record to buy for some kid as a gift. I suggested the Swing. I don’t know why I should bother.

This meeting tonight will probably be boring. I don’t think I’m going to shake my mild depression but at least I’ll be bored and depressed away from home. I don’t belong there. I’m too used to being on my own and now I have to tell mommy where I’m going when I leave the house. I should have been born with money. I know money doesn’t solve all problems, but I would be better off with it than without it.

I wish there was a decent cafe around. Somewhere quiet that I could go to for a cup of coffee and some inspiration. I sound like a member of the coffee generation. [Reference to a “Coffee Achievers” TV commercial for the coffee industry.]

Coffee Achievers video

5/17/84

Eskie [Eskandarian] and Johan [Neeskens] [NY Cosmos soccer players] were at the meeting but I spent the time rewriting the Swing album. I did three songs. I’m beginning to feel panicky about everything. NAUSEA. I am hyper. I just got back from Bamberger’s. [A New Jersey department store owned by Macy’s. All the stores were renamed as Macy’s in 1986] I lost my card, so they gave me a temporary one but the Casio thing I want to buy is out of stock. [Casio portable music keyboard]

I have to save up for tuition. I don’t know what is wrong with me. Now I’m becoming vain about my appearance. I shouldn’t worry because I can’t change what I was born with, and I didn’t get a raw deal so why this urge to look in the mirror all the time? Maybe I’m going through adolescence at the age of 19.

Rewritten songs from The Swing

Dancing on the Jetty video-INXS

Walking off the Jetty [My version]

INXS Video Melting in the Sun

Lying in the Sun [My version of Melting in the Sun by INXS a la Weird Al Yankovic]

Sung to the tune of Melting in the Sun by INXS

More from the diary

5/18/84

I just got out of work. I go back to work dinner in a couple of hours.

I’m hyperactive again but I’m not depressed because I’m raking in the dough, and I got a nice letter from Jackie Fuhrmann. [I still have this letter. Jackie wrote about how she was planning to come visit once she knew when INXS would be touring the east coast. She also asked me if I had heard from Kirk Pengilly again. She asked me that every time she wrote. But no, I only heard from him that one time back in November 1983] Tonight, when I get home, I have to write to Jackie and Jen.

My Michael Jackson t-shirt came out well. Mom and Dan thought I bought it with sunglasses and burning hair.

I hit four numbers the first time I played Lotto. I’m psyched.

I’m back from work. I got a tip from one of my customers that included a balloon cat and mouse. It was great.

5/19/84

A Saturday night off! This event should be marked down in history. I have to eat dinner soon. I’m starving. I’m sitting on the living room couch. Junior [our dog] is lying on the floor next to me and my mother is in the kitchen. Barbara Streisand is blasting on the stereo.

My mother changed the record to Neil Diamond. I bought a Weekly World News at Quick Chek. The headline is “Famed Psychic’s Head Explodes”. The National Examiner had an interesting story about Jesus’ secret life, but I didn’t buy the paper. I think it is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the wealthy Australian newspaper magnate, who wanted to buy Warner Communications. All My Children [my favorite soap opera] had on someone named Hubert Drydoch-I think that he is supposed to be Murdoch because of the accent and the allusions about newspapers and magazines.

[I was wrong about the National Examiner. The tabloid was never owned by Rupert Murdoch. He owned The Star. Read about it on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Examiner]

Dr. Pepper tastes best when it is warm and flat. Gary Grant is supposed to be back in America sometime in the next couple of days. I had a really severe muscle cramp in my leg last night. I thought I would never be able to use my leg again.

Tonight, I’m going to read my paper, watch Tootsie on TV, and then INXS on MTV. [I don’t know what MTV showed. Maybe the debut of I Send A Message? INXS were in Europe at the time.] Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I should survive. I hope I’ll get decent tips. I’m only halfway through Nausea. [Book by Jean Paul Sartre] I hope Mom and Carl leave soon. I like having the house to myself.

Cover of the Weekly World News from May 22, 1984

5/20/84

I like my job for the most part. It is just very painful to the feet and back. To most people there I am still a baby. I’m not supposed to know about sex and all of the other grownup things. I’m too young. They should think back to the time when they were my age. Some of them were already married. My job is less frustrating and easier than last summer. I even found out when I was home for Christmas that I could handle five tables no sweat. Now that it has gotten easier, it is also more profitable.

5/22/84

I was just at the Emerson Hotel nine hours ago and I’m going back in another hour to work lunch.

I would rather be reading

5/23/84

I slept so late this morning. Carl is home. [My mother’s husband. The guy who owned the Ho-Ho-Kus bakery.]  I’m so tired. I bought my Casio thing yesterday. I have to figure it out. Junior is barking now. He is such a pain. One minute he wants in and then out again. I hope I get my paycheck from school sometime soon. This town is getting boring. I need to find a place to go away from here where I can sit and think or read. Maybe the library is open. Maybe I can go see a movie tonight.

I wonder if I am sane. I was walking backwards down the railroad tracks singing earlier this afternoon. I went to the bank and just made it into Friendly’s before it started to pour. The lightning was really close. It scared the shit out of me. I had a cup of coffee and now I’m at the library. I brought my backpack just in case I found some books to take out.

There are so many things I should read and learn and know about that it all gets overwhelming. Insignificant things like working to earn a living and sleeping get in the way.

[Friendly’s was an ice cream place with food that was half a mile from my house. The one in Hillsdale closed and is now a Chipotle.]

Modeling doesn’t sound so great

5/24/84

Lunch was sooo dead today. I only made ten dollars. I have to go back in two hours and work 5-10. I’m working in the middle, so I have two big tables and three little ones. I hope I’m not run to the ground tonight although I would like to make some money.

I told them about my school job. They listened to me like I was E.F. Hutton. I guess because I don’t talk much. I don’t know why they expect me to talk more. What am I supposed to say? Frank and Toni always tell me to shut up because I’m talking too much or giving them a headache. They must tell me this at least ten times a day. It’s getting on my nerves.

I read a book about modeling, and I don’t know if I want to be bothered that much. Every part of your body has to look perfect. You have to get test shots and then maybe you’ll get some work, but it is long hours. I don’t know how much money it takes before I would even get work. My waist is too thick. The book talks about how guys that are halfway decent are almost impossible to find if you are a model. How about decent guys are hard to find period? Everyone tells me how lucky I am not to have a boyfriend. Freida, Joanne, and even my grandmother approves of not having one.

Well, I’m not a millionaire this week. I only got one number. I might have been a bit richer if we weren’t on pool. I had eight tables, and we were busy. I worked extremely hard and I’m tired. On one twelve-dollar check the people left me a twenty-dollar tip. That has to be the best tip I’ll ever get. I had to give it in to the pool. I’m expected back at work in eleven hours. Tomorrow, hopefully it will be busy for two hours then I can get paid and leave. I’ve certainly changed. Work is not as bad as it used to be, and I’ve become almost ambitious.

5/26/84

I try to convince myself that school is worth the cost. I’m sure I won’t regret it later so I can’t be too impulsive now. I went to a store on Route 4 and played with some keyboards. Today’s technology blows me away. It is so cool.

5/27/84

It’s good to be home. Work was long, slow, boring, and not very profitable. I’m tired from standing around all day. At least I got out around 8:15 and didn’t have to do ketchups. I had to eat Cornish hen because they didn’t sell any. Yuck. Everyone has been giving me compliments on how good a waitress I am. Barbara is back for the weekend and then she goes back to school for the summer. A new girl named Valerie is starting on Tuesday. I’m still the youngest there. Joanne thought I was about 22. I’d like to be 21 so I could do anything I want without a hassle. Tomorrow, we have to be in at 4:45 in case the rush starts early (if there is any).

I must stop thinking before I depress myself. I can see where drugs might come in handy at times like these-to forget everything: good, bad, or otherwise.

[The restaurant used to have bottles of ketchup on the tables and we would have to fill them up by pouring the ketchup from almost empty bottles into half-full ones to fill them up. I didn’t like to do this task.]

September 19, 2025