Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: MTV

  • 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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    “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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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.
    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. 

  • Blog Post 19- In between seeing INXS in Philadelphia and Florida, July 1984.

    Jess, Jen, and me in Tampa, Florida. March 1984.
    Big Country concert in Tampa, Florida with Jess and Jen. March 1984.

    Back to the diary entries

    When I had a free minute after either working or seeing INXS over the previous two weeks, I wrote in my diary about my life. Bob was a guy who went to the University of Pennsylvania. It’s funny because I met him while riding on a bus in New York City when I was a freshman. He was talking to friends about a mural, and it sounded like the mural in my dorm, so I asked him if he was from Penn. It turned out that he lived on the floor that had the mural in the hall-one floor above me.

    In the two weeks from June 27, 1984, to July 10, 1984, I saw INXS five times and waitressed during eight of the other nine days. That’s why I was so tired.

    1984 Full year calendar
    A calendar from 1984 in case you want to see what day it was.

    7/10/84

    I’m so tired. I wasn’t supposed to work today but now I’m doing double shift. I got a letter from Bob. He sort of invited me to see Elvis Costello. Bob is a real pain because he likes me so much and I don’t like him the same way.

    Here is video from 1979 of a favorite Elvis Costello song of mine. Oliver’s Army. Warning: the lyrics contain the N-word. Not meant in any kind of racist way. It’s unfortunate that it was used as a descriptive term for soldiers in the song. 

    7/12/84

    I hit four numbers in the Lotto tonight. I don’t know how much I’ve won yet, but I could use any money I can get.

    7/14/84

    I won $139 in the lottery. That will practically pay for my airfare to Florida. I’ll be glad to get away. I got a letter from Joyce today. She is sicker than I thought. She thought I was about seventeen. I do not take that as a compliment. She wants me to send her any addresses or phone numbers of the band that I might have. She must be kidding. I hate doing laundry every day, but I don’t know where Mom put the other uniform.

    Note: Joyce was the girl who shared her seat with me at the INXS concert on July 2nd. Read about it here. We were planning to fly to St. Petersburg, Florida on People Express which cost $79 each way.

    Video about People Express Airlines

    Wikipedia article about the novel 1980s airline People Express

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Express_Airlines_(1980s)

    Dreaming about INXS

    7/16/84

    It was hot as hell in my room last night. I’ve been having weird dreams lately. Last night I was working lunch at the Emerson Hotel while at the same time I was watching All My Children. INXS came on the show and were doing Johnson’s Aeroplane. In the meantime, the place got very busy, and I was stuck. Then someone walked out without paying the check. Later on, I was sitting outside, and two girls wanted to know what TV show I had been on.

    In my dream the other day, Terri and I followed the bus into a wooded area, and she went up the road to look. I was listening to the Walkman and chewing gum. Timmy came out dressed in the black and white striped shirt from I Send a Message. I couldn’t talk to him because I was choking on my gum but spit it out when Terri came down.

    In Florida we will stay at the Bayfront Concourse on Tuesday night. On July 31 they will be at the Beacon Theater and then I might go to Canada for three days August 2, 3, and 4. I’m not scheduled to work until the 5th, so it is possible. By the time I catch up with Phila, there will be much more to write. This is definitely crazy.

    I don’t think I should buy any more clothes for a while. I may also call up Laura R and schedule some hours during move-in so I can get some money sooner. I’ll probably work so much during first semester that I’ll run out of my grant.

    What was I talking about?

    There wasn’t any air conditioning in my bedroom. It wasn’t nearly as hot then as it is now in northern New Jersey in the summer but usually it got up as high as 85 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. On very hot days the temperature reached 90 degrees. My sleep suffered because my room was uncomfortably hot. Our house had a couple of window air-conditioners but not one in my room. My very small room had two windows which I kept open, and it would be cool enough to sleep okay around 4am.

    All My Children was a daytime drama, also known as a soap opera, that was on Channel 7 which was the ABC network in New York City. I started watching the show in the summer of 1975 when I was ten years old. It was one of my favorite TV shows and I watched it as often as I could until it was cancelled in 2011. So, for 36 years. The show taught me a lot. 

    An All My Children episode from 2/20/1989 

    Here’s a video of INXS performing Johnson’s Aeroplane live in 1985. Michael messed up the lyrics. Andrew wrote the music and lyrics to that song and Michael seemed to have an even harder time remembering the lyrics if someone else wrote them. 

    I don’t have a document that shows how much money was allotted for my work study grant. The work study program is a financial aid program for needy students. They can get an approved work study job and then work and get paid up to the amount that was awarded in their financial aid package. 

    There was plenty of work in the dorms (where I had worked during my sophomore year at Penn) during the period when the students came back to school in the fall. They hired extra people to work behind the reception desk in the lobby because hundreds of students were picking up keys to their dorm rooms at the same time. 

    My diary entry mentions that I was thinking about signing up for some of those shifts. The next entry mentions that I won’t be able to afford textbooks so that is probably why.

    INXS video for I Send A Message where Tim is wearing a black and white striped shirt.

    One week until the INXS concert in Florida

    7/18/84

    Just one week until Florida. Renee and Danny both say I should go for it with Michael. My Weekly World News horoscope for next week says I should live it up, laugh it up, and be my usual fun self. An important person has had his eye on me for some time now and this may be the turning point. The answer to a nagging love problem is say yes. Sounds good to me. 

    I’m so excited about going on my trips. I’ll have almost two straight weeks off from work. I’m not going to be able to afford books in the fall. I worked lunch today and now I have off until Friday. After this weekend vacation starts. 

    Yesterday Renee and I went to Bergen Mall and then to an erotic cafe in Edgewater called Enigma. It was completely white inside, and body parts grew out of the walls. I had fun but the cappuccino made me sick. I asked the guy if they had any Birthday Party-he didn’t-Psychic TV was playing while we were there.

    Danny and Steven F came into the Emerson Hotel today which was a surprise. I’m going over to the Ridge diner tonight to bum around. I tried out Renee’s inversion boots. They gave me a whopping headache.

    What should I do about Michael?

    You can tell from reading my diary that I was thinking about whether I should have sex with Michael Hutchence or not. His seduction techniques worked on me at least somewhat, and between that and the kissing, I was feeling desire and positive emotions towards him. 

    Feelings beyond just wanting to live like an adult in every way which was an ongoing thing even though I wasn’t mature enough to prepare for that life. I had never seen a gynecologist and I was thinking about buying a bathing suit on credit far more than I was thinking about getting birth control for my trip. 

    Asking my youngest brother Danny and Terri’s sister Renee what I should do tells me that my doubts and fears were stronger than my desires. They encouraged me sleep with him. 

    Even my horoscope said I should sleep with him and maybe I would have if he had been available on that one night in Florida when I was free and I didn’t have to go to work. I’ll never know. More on what happened in my next post.

    Terri and I were friends and in the same class in high school. We met in seventh grade when my family moved to Hillsdale. My brother Danny and her sister Renee were also friends and in the same class in high school. Just the other day he was remembering that our father would call him an N-word lover because he was friends with Renee. More about my horrible racist father in a future post.

    It’s unusual that Renee and I went on an adventure without either Terri or Danny there. Maybe they were working. I must have been over at their house that day too if I tried hanging upside-down in Renee’s inversion boots. 

    Steven F was part of the gang of neighborhood kids that we grew up with when we lived in Westwood, New Jersey. He was Danny’s age. They came in to eat lunch at the Emerson Hotel where I worked as a waitress. 

    Danny worked at the Ridge Diner in Park Ridge; starting as a busboy when he was still in high school. My mother sometimes waitressed at the Ridge Diner as one of her extra jobs to make ends meet and so did I. It’s still going strong today. 

    Psychic TV was a post punk band and performance art group. I was not a fan.

    Trouser Press magazine

    7/19/84

    Breaker Morant is on tonight after the lottery drawing. Trouser Press went out of business. Record has taken over the subscription duties. It’s a shame that such a good magazine went down the tubes. The Go-Go’s were on the cover of Record. I’m sending away for a catalog of Aussie records.

    I got my appetite back and have been putting the pounds back on. I need a new bathing suit for Florida, but I can’t afford it. Maybe I should try Bambergers and charge it. I have to find my missing pants. I think Mike “borrowed” them.

    Notes

    Bamberger’s was a department store. There was one at the Garden State Plaza shopping mall in Paramus, NJ. 

    Article about Bamberger’s

    https://jerseydigs.com/l-bamberger-co-newark-history/

    Breaker Morant is an Australian movie from 1980. Bryan Brown was in that movie. He was also in the TV miniseries The Thorn Birds.

    Trouser Press was my favorite music magazine. It featured many new wave bands. 

    A subscription form for Trouser Press magazine from one of my old copies.
    A subscription form for Trouser Press magazine from one of my old copies.

    Mike is my brother and the middle child in the family. He was the person I was hiding my money from by keeping it in a suitcase in my closet. We had a similar build and sometimes my jeans ended up in his dresser drawer.

    MTV is boring

    7/21/84

    It is rainy outside, so I am stuck here. I feel like going back to bed.  

    Danny got into a fender bender this morning, but it wasn’t his fault. Some people are just stupid idiots and I’m the one who gets them at work. 

    MTV is boring. They play so much shit.

    Note: I was not happy to be living at home over the summer. Like I said earlier, I wanted to live like an adult. My mother liked to worry about me and keep tabs. She also was very critical of me, and we did not get along well. Plus, there were five grown people living in a small house. I would leave to get away from all of that. 

    MTV was playing a lot of bands and artists I didn’t like such as ZZ Top, Van Halen, Huey Lewis and the News, John Waite, Wang Chung, Bon Jovi, and the big-haired metal bands like Ratt, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, and Motley Crue. 

    Wikipedia article about glam metal aka Hair Bands

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

    Vacation!

    7/22/84

    VACATION!! 

    I found a roach in the coleslaw on Saturday night. [July 21,1984] Yummy. Somebody called before closing and whispered, “My stepmother is on her knees.” I don’t know what that means. 

    I had a couple of psychotic people today. They didn’t like the prime rib, so the woman sent it back. They were very annoying. I have to get a job that has a more expensive menu next time, so I don’t have to deal with so many cheapos.

    7/23/84

    Just a couple more hours and I’m off to Florida. I’m going to miss Michael K’s going away party. He leaves for the Navy on Wednesday. 

    I wonder if I’ll end up like Alice and start putting reminder notes everywhere like the ones on her pocketbook. “Remember to read other notes.” 

    DIAL-A-MATTRESS. Mary Tyler Moore is on now. I’m getting sleepy. I bought a nice-looking bathing suit and a new pocketbook. Danny and Carl are getting up soon to go to the bakery. I don’t know how they do it.

    Note: This last diary entry before leaving for Florida was written while I was staying up all night watching TV. My brother Danny, and my mother’s husband, Carl got up around 2am to go to work at the HoHoKus Bakery. They had to bake the bread and pastries for when the bakery opened its doors at 6am. 

    Like Steven F., Michael K. was one of the kids from the neighborhood in Westwood. His family lived across the street from ours. My mother met his mother when they were pregnant with boys who they would name Michael. Michael K. was the youngest of four kids. His sister Claire was my best friend. His other sister Kathleen was blind. His brother Danny was a teenager. Their father had died so they received government benefits. 

    St. Petersburg

    As I mentioned in my diary on 7/16/1984, we had a room booked at the Bayfront Concourse hotel in St Petersburg, Florida for 7/24/84, the night before the INXS and Go-Go’s concert at the theater across the street from the hotel. 

    By we, I mean Terri, Jess, Jen from Tampa, and me. 

    Donna and her friends outside a concert venue in New Jersey before an INXS concert

    Jen is second from the left. Terri is third from the left. I am the one in the red hat. Jess is taking the photo. This photo is from a future INXS concert in August, 1984.

    St Petersburg downtown today. Google maps
    In 1984, the Bayfront Concourse Hotel was where the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront is now. The Bayfront Center Arena was where the Dali Museum is now. Google Maps.

    Wikipedia entry for the Bayfront Center Arena

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

    Article about concerts at the Bayfront Center Arena

    Vintage St. Pete: Concerts at the Bayfront Center Arena

  • Blog Post 13- INXS concert June 28, 1984

    Michael Hutchence is singing during a 1984 INXS concert.
    Michael Hutchence, INXS, July 1984, Photo by Jackie

    Where I left off:

    Sophomore year of college has ended, and I have returned to Hillsdale, New Jersey for the summer. I’m waitressing at the Emerson Hotel (which is not a hotel but only a restaurant) for the second summer in a row. My friends and I are waiting for word on when INXS will tour.

    5/29/84

    I just pigged out on Doritos and two candy bars. Now Frank keeps telling me I’m going to get fat. No way. I’ve been working a lot and also doing stretching and exercise as well. I just have to get a haircut and I’ll look great.

    Meatballs is on TV. I’m reading the Weekly World News. I’m getting slightly bored. I shouldn’t have eaten so much. I’m drinking Dr. Pepper to stay awake. 

    I got out of work late today. The party wasn’t too much work. I made $21 today. 

    I’m still waiting to get paid from the school. Hopefully the financial aid thing will come soon so I know how much I need to save this summer. Then when I’ve saved that I can buy things. 

    Time to go to bed. After tomorrow I will have worked seven days straight. Kim B has broken my 100m record. [One of my high school track records.] It makes me nauseous.

    The trailer for Meatballs from 1979

    More diary entries

    In this entry I am sitting in Friendly’s eating a Sunday for some of the time. I mention opening a bank account because I had to hide my tip money from my brother (not Danny). This brother would steal various things like my coin collection or money so he could buy pot (marijuana). He would also eat the food that I bought. During both summers I was home waitressing I hid money in a suitcase in my closet-much of it was in dollar bills.

    5/30/84

    For the third day in a row the weather has been for the ducks and other amphibious creatures. I just saw Mr. DeCaro in Westwood. [A teacher from my high school.] I’m surprised he recognized me.

    Sammy (one of the Albanian kitchen workers) kept saying “You get mashed potatoes for lunch”. He made sure I’d get some because I didn’t yesterday. He is nice. I still don’t understand him half of the time like when I was leaving, he said something about plants or something. Who knows? 

    David [Head cook at the Emerson Hotel] is starting in again with the still waters run deep stuff. Now I’m a prostitute in NY on my days off. Alicia [a fellow waitress] is the only one David treats halfway nicely, and he does it to get whoever he can steamed about it. He fed her Veal Parm a couple of times.

    I should open a bank account and get my money out of the house. 

    Original Sin made it into the 50s and is now falling. 

    I’m at Friendly’s now. Another fit of hyperactivity and a whipped cream craving brought me here.  

    Gary Grant called Terri today. It seems that June is the month. I wonder what the future will bring?

    Oh gee, I think life is just too exciting for me. I pity the people who work here. If I had to deal with all of these definite psychopaths every day, I don’t know what I’d do. They probably think I’m one of them. At least I’m quiet. 

    At least where I work, they’re too old to be rowdy. Too much excitement and they’d probably have a stroke. I should check out the parking lot in front of Medi Mart to see the lake. 

    Hillsdale is such a beat town. Two rednecks followed me in Music Merchant today. Where are all the real men? If I get some definite plans soon, I can arrange for days off. I love when people in jogging suits come in for a sundae. 

    David was saying how Alicia came in and told everyone she played the flute. The skin flute? These people must make garbage money. There’s another lone girl drinking coffee and smoking.

    5/31/84

    I said I wasn’t going to waste time, but it is three o’clock and I’ve done nothing. I just went to Quick Chek [a convenience store near Friendly’s. Half a mile from my house] to get lunch. Maybe I’ll go for a long walk later. I slept until after noon. It was so cold and dark outside I just couldn’t get out of bed. That is a habit I must break if I want to make the best use of my time. I made an appointment to get my haircut on Saturday. 

    I went up to PV [Pascack Valley High School where I went to school. Eight-tenths of a mile from my house] and looked to see if the record board was on the wall. It wasn’t. I jumped over a hurdle a few times and took a couple of long jumps. I jumped almost fourteen feet in my estimation. That’s pretty good for not having trained for two years and for wearing pants. There’s junk on TV as usual. I’m watching Oh Heavenly Dog. On my second walk I watched a rabbit eat.

    6/1/84

    I’m going to see Breakin’ today. I spoke to Terri on the phone recalling past stupidity over the wire like when someone called for Nora and I said, “She’s not here right now”. “When will she be back?” “Actually, she doesn’t live here”.

    Breakin’ had good dancing but not much plot and terrible acting. 

    INXS is going to be here in the next two or three weeks. They have a date in Seattle on June 21. 

    I’m kind of depressed. I’m going to sleep now.

    Trailer for Breakin’

    Jean Paul Sartre and a new haircut

    I needed to cut all my permed hair off because it looked like this. This photo also shows the hat I wore to the first INXS concert I went to in 1984. More on that soon.

    At Jes’ house in 1983. Old photo. Donna. Sometime after start of sophomore year at Penn.

    6/2/84

    It’s almost time to get my haircut. My hair will probably never be this long again. I hope it turns out nice. 

    I finally finished Nausea. Roquentin’s life is over even though he is still alive because he has discovered that existence is meaningless. He thinks he is superfluous. “Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.”

    A YouTube video about Jean Paul Sartre’s novel, “Nausea.” I chose this video because it features a real person and isn’t created or narrated by AI.

    6/3/84

    Another Sunday over and done with. In twelve hours, I will be back working. I hope I don’t have dreams where I wait on people all night like last night. Everyone has complimented me on my haircut. It is very short, but I like it a lot. I have to see how punky it can get. 

    One table of Joanne’s was very nice. The woman said I could be a model pretty much because I am tall. “Tall is in”, she said. I suppose I can stop in at Reinhard’s [the Philly modeling agency] when I get back to school. It couldn’t hurt. I’d like to do a commercial or get into acting maybe. I wonder where I’ll be when I’m forty.

    After the haircut 

    Posing in front of some trees with my brother.
    My new haircut. I am next to my brother Danny.

    Mostly entries about work

    I’ve included these to give an idea of what my job was like and how much money I made. Also to show that I did not have my own car and I had to share the cars with my mother and my mother’s husband, Carl. He had a vintage Mercedes that he brought to the marriage. He was not at all wealthy though. As a baker, he worked long hours and very hard, but he made very little profit. My mother was the primary wage earner. She was a chemist at a paper company.

    6/4/84

    I just got my grades. 2 Bs and a C. I passed management and got a C in Buyer Behavior. Those were the only ones I was worried about. My GPA is a 2.5 now which is decent.

    Some guy was choking today. Jackie [a fellow waitress] tried to help him, but she wasn’t strong enough. Some man gave him the Heimlich maneuver and got the food out.  

    Yesterday, the police and ambulance were there because some old lady looked like she had an attack. She was OK too. It was a decent lunch today-$23. Usually, I only make about $15. I was worried this morning that I wouldn’t get to work because Carl took the car somewhere, but I made it.

    I just went up to the track and ran a mile in 7:06. I’m not in terrible shape but I’ll be sore tomorrow. I saw Mr. Heinz [a teacher from my high school and one of my track coaches] and he told me that Kim B broke my 100 and long jump records. Heinz thinks it will take two more years for her to break the rest of them.

    6/6/84

    I hate working parties at lunch. Alice [my boss] wanted me to work on Friday, but I said no because I’m going to be up all of Thursday night. [Going to see Thomas Dolby in concert.] Alice is such a bitch. She doesn’t tell us anything and then chides us when we make a mistake. Jimmy (the owner) was getting on my nerves too. I don’t like people talking condescendingly to me. David (the cook) got on my nerves too. I want to get my ear double pierced tonight. Terri was bothering me about getting my hair cut short, but I told her to shut up until she sees it tomorrow.

    6/7/84

    Good morning. Off from work at last!  

    I went to Nanuet last night and got my right ear double pierced. People lie when they say it doesn’t hurt. I also bought a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. I’m listening to Taking Tiger Mountain, the Brian Eno tape I bought yesterday. All of his records are the lowest price on the chart at Music Merchant.

    Mom better not be getting nosy in my stuff because it is not her business. If she does then no way am I coming back to live here again if I can help it. Time to eat and watch the soaps. I have an hour to kill before I have to be at Terri’s.

    Thomas Dolby concert & INXS is coming soon!

    6/8/84

    In three weeks, they are here. [INXS] June 28 at Radio City. June 30 at Jones Beach and July 2 at Holmdel.

    The concert last night wasn’t as good as the other one I saw. It was too hot and sticky and hard to see. I’m sure that girl keyboard player is a transvestite. If she isn’t then she is an extremely ugly girl. My stomach acted up on me again. I missed Windpower because I had to go to the bathroom.

    Terri and Jess seem to be sticks in the mud. I’ll deal with it if the time comes to.  Driving in NYC is enough to give anyone an ulcer or heart attack. The drivers are crazy. We drove through Harlem, and it was really sad.  Some places looked like they’d been bombed. We drove past an open fire hydrant and Terri said “Open the window” so I did, and we got soaked. She was only kidding but I’ll do just about anything if it is suggested.

    Windpower video

    Soccer

    6/10/84

    It has been a long day. It went by like it was three days instead of ten hours. I didn’t make much money today. My tables were cheap tippers. I told people I was getting a tattoo because Toni [a fellow waitress] is my idol. I was afraid to ask Alice for days off, but I did it and she marked it down in the book. I used Jackie Fuhrmann as my excuse.

    It is so fucking hot. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep well tonight. Yesterday was the Sting game. Karl Heinz Granitza gave us some tickets and so did Seninho. Karl Heinz gave his jersey to Terri. The Sting left right after the game. We hung out and then went to the Front Row and talked.

    My dad was a psycho

    6/12/84

    I woke up early today because Mom needed a ride to work. She is going to be away until Friday. I drove the Mercedes for the first time. It is easy to handle but it moves by itself, and I get startled every time it shifts gears on its own.

    Yesterday, Danny drove me into Westwood. I went to Berkeley elementary school. It is a lot smaller than I remember. Of course, everything looks big when you are small. I can’t imagine myself that short. I went down by the brook and saw the waterfall. There was a no trespassing sign and a bunch of geese. I thought they were patrolling the property because they came towards me when I stepped on the grass. I don’t know why I was afraid of them. They don’t even have teeth. I walked back home and then ate dinner. I have to get out of the house when everyone else is there.

    I went to the diner with Danny and Steven Flood. I think we were a bit loud while we were there. We were reminiscing. We talked about the old neighborhood in Westwood. We talked about the crazy and delinquent things that we did and about how psychotic my father was. We went driving in NY state and then came back here. We brought back Bill with us. He is also a busboy at the diner. 

    We played a game of Trivial Pursuit. Steven won with the help of a few lucky guesses. I came in second. Danny finally came in third at 2:30 in the morning.

    I think I will close tonight at work. I don’t mind because I get a break to eat. Everyone there keeps saying how I talk more now and I’m getting wise. I can talk to other people easier. I’m more friendly than I used to be.

    More harassment in New York City

    6/13/84

    I’m getting a taste of the days when there was no electricity. There was a huge storm when I was in NYC, and I guess that caused a power outage. I don’t think people ate Chef Boyardee mini ravioli in those days. I’m writing by candlelight-how romantic. 

    Terri and I went into the city to shop for clothes. I bought shoes, shorts, a dress, and some tops. It was hot earlier. Terri wore shorts but she regretted it when the comments and looks started. I bought a bird whistle from a man with one arm, and I decided to give it to Garry Gary for his birthday. Terri bought James Lee a red shirt and is going to put Stay Young on it and give it to Timmy. Someone gave me grapes for free and some other people offered us coffee. I don’t know why.

    Working Tuesday night was a bitch. I got stuck with a lot of parties at one point. I had a fucking jerkoff table of six that left me $4.50 on a $70 check. Dicks. 

    I have to copy some good Ed Anger phrases so I can remember like “I’m sicker than a hog with a belly full of wild onions” and “Madder than Richard Simmons with a run in his leotard.”

    I don’t think I would be able to survive without electricity. I’m too accustomed to it by now. I can still play my Casio because it has batteries.

    Financial Aid

    6/14/84

    Someone is paving our driveway, and it is very noisy. I made a lot of money in May, but I haven’t saved much. I should enter the MTV party house contest. I would win a house in Indiana! Oh wow! Then me and John Mellencamp would paint the mother pink. 

    I don’t think I’ll ever be satisfied with my wardrobe. I still need something decent to wear. The dress I bought was too small and I don’t like it. My stomach is a pain. I don’t look good in some things because of it and buying pants and skirts is a pain. I’m not satisfied with much of anything today.

    I got the good news from the school. The grand total for my fine institution is $15,200. [That’s equivalent to about $47,400 in 2025.] I have to come up with $1300. [I paid a share determined by the university. My mother paid a share determined by the university. The rest was covered by financial aid, grants, and student loans.] That’s not too bad. I’ll have that in two weeks. 

    I finished reading 1984. It is a great book. I don’t know how easily I would succumb to doublethink. I did solve a mystery because of that book. I read about the snakes and ladders game which in this country is called chutes and ladders. I’m restless again. I feel like going for a walk or staying up all night.

    A video about Chutes and Ladders. George Orwell’s novel, “1984”, mentions a game called Snakes and Ladders and I was able to deduce that the game was the same as the one in America called Chutes and Ladders. The INXS song “Melting in the Sun” has the lyric, “take a snake or take a ladder” and now I knew what that lyric meant. I had never heard of Snakes and Ladders before. 

    6/16/84

    Bridget [fellow waitress] was encouraging about my future. She said I would get a new wardrobe, a good job, make lots of money, take vacations. I guess I should want that. I don’t know. She was encouraging me to go to Florida. [To see INXS in concert.] I suppose I could afford another trip.

    I bought gray pants today. I have my outfit for Radio City. I keep going back and forth between thinking I look good and thinking I look awful.  People are overly critical about their own looks. I saw Kathy [member of my high school track team] where I bought the pants. She works there doing the same thing as Terri-straightening out the racks and shit. We don’t have much in common besides track.

    6/17/84

    Home at last. Work sucked as it usually does on Sunday. I forgot Dad on this Father’s Day. Out of sight, out of mind.

    6/18/84

    Jackie will be here a week from tomorrow. I might go to Florida. [To see INXS in concert.] I have enough money for school, so I just need money for Florida. I’m going to see Ghostbusters tonight. There is too much to do. I want to be wealthy-then I wouldn’t have to work and could spend time on more important things.

    Fun in New York City

    6/19/84

    Tomorrow I’m going into the city again. We are going to check out Canal St. I have a month to save the money for Florida.

    6/20/84

    I’m so tired. I got a message that Alice [my boss] called. She must have called this morning, but I’ve been in the city all day. I didn’t get back until 11:30pm.

    I met Dana, the INXS Alliance girl. She has a job with the booking agent for The Go-Gos. That is a good job to have. I can’t afford to have a job just for making connections.

    I’m not in the best of moods right now. It’s the usual anxiety attack. 

    I’m listening to a Chinese tape that I bought in Chinatown. I had fun today. I bought some earrings that mean happiness in Chinese. The owner translated all of the earrings for us. I also bought a Chinese mask. I got my fortune at a Buddhist temple for 50 cents. It says-“Probability of Success- excellent. Wherever in the world you may travel, some mystery you sure will unravel. A simple mallet dug out from gravel may turn to be a president’s gavel.” Some Chinese woman got me to buy four chicken sandwiches for her. 

    I met a guy who works security during concerts in the city. He will be doing Michael Jackson’s shows. He is into the martial arts. He told us not to be strangers but to keep being strange. 

    I’m getting sick of people calling me strange. Strange is the guy who asked me if I ever had frozen pink. He said I should put Jess’s Dekadance t-shirt in the freezer and then cut out the pink and eat it. 

    Danny is graduating from high school tomorrow. Dr. Poli [the high school principal] has banned cap throwing. Danny looked forward to chucking his cap and the whole place away.

    Jess’s Dekadance t-shirt had a picture of the album cover on it. INXS released two different versions of the Dekadance EP. The one released in the U.S. had remixes of songs from Shabooh Shoobah. 

    The cover of the Dekadance EP by INXS. The American version. Notice the pink.

    INXS

    6/22/84

    Today is Garry Gary Beers’ birthday. 

    Yesterday I went to Danny’s graduation and saw some people I knew and then went to Terri’s to pick up my Casio. 

    I’m not in a good mood today. I hope I get my period soon to get over this soon. [PMS] I have to go to work today. 

    I got the concert days off but not the days around them. It’s going to be interesting. Terri called Gary [Gary Grant, INXS tour manager] in Michigan. He said Original Sin went to number one in France, but I didn’t see it. 

    Freddie Soehnlein [a family friend] died in a swimming pool. I read that in the paper while I was on the phone with Terri.

    6/24/84

    Jackie is seeing INXS in Chicago. I’m dying to know what is going on.  

    I made a ton of money today. $110. [The equivalent of $343 in 2025.] Somebody left me a $26 tip. It is pouring rain outside, or I’d go out. Van Halen is annoying me on MTV. I’m not into the videos they play these days. 

    I asked for July 7 off so I can go to Philly. [To see INXS in concert.]

    I asked Aunt Barbara for my oboe back so I can get into it again.

    6/25/84

    I bought five tapes and went out to dinner at the diner. Then I went to see The Karate Kid and now I’m at home watching David Letterman.

    6/26/84

    I’m hyperactive now. Only 24 hrs. or so to go. I can’t wait. Jackie talked to them, [INXS] and they remember Terri. Terri is getting all of the inside information no problem.

    The bird whistle

    The plastic whistle that was shaped like a bird was extremely cheap. It wasn’t something I wanted. I only bought it on June 13th out of pity for the one-armed man who was selling them on the streets of New York City. 

    To turn it into a gag gift for Garry Gary for his birthday, I placed the whistle in a shoebox along with some articles that I cut out from the Weekly World News. I wrote a note from Eric, the bird whistle, that explained he was an orphan whose owner had been killed in a tragic boating accident. I named the toy, Eric, because I loved Monty Python’s Flying Circus which I watched as a kid. Channel 13 was the PBS (Public Broadcasting) channel in New York City, and they started showing Monty Python in 1974. 

    Channel 13 promo video

    The sketches that included animals named Eric:

    Fish License sketch video

    Eric The Half a Bee video

    I wrapped the shoebox in the cover of an issue of The Weekly World News. The headline was “Jealous Computer Kills Top Scientist.” I can’t find a photo of that issue on the internet. 

    Here’s a photo of a different issue from that time.

    The cover of the Weekly World News tabloid paper from June 26, 1984
    The cover of the Weekly World News tabloid paper from June 26, 1984.

    Here is an article about the Weekly World News

    https://time.com/archive/6908434/the-late-great-weekly-world-news

    Welcome back to New York City, INXS!

    On June 27, 1984, Jess, Terri, Jackie, and I went to New York City in the evening to wait in the lobby of the hotel where INXS would be staying. Terri drove us. I wrote in my diary that it was the Windsor Harley Hotel, but the internet tells me that the Helmsleys owned a hotel named Windsor and a hotel named Harley and not a hotel called Windsor Harley. My best guess is that INXS stayed at the Helmsley Windsor Hotel on 58th St and 6th Ave just up the street from Radio City Music Hall where they were to open for The Go-Go’s the next night. 

    Leona Helmsley video

    We were in the lobby when the band arrived. Kirk Pengilly said, “Hi, Donna,” and gave me a kiss. Then he said, “I hope you aren’t parked in a towaway zone.” So, he remembered me and made it clear that he remembered what had happened the last time I saw him nine months ago. 

    Everyone had birthday presents for Garry Gary so what I remember is all of us being around Kirk and Garry while we gave him his gifts. Michael came over and planted a kiss on my cheek. Not something I was interested in because I still didn’t like him. The wrapping on my shoebox gave everyone a laugh. The gift though? Maybe not. It was weird. 

    Kirk told us that he had to go to the airport and pick up “the little battler.” That’s some kind of Australian slang that seemed kind of misogynistic or insulting like “the ball and chain” or “the old lady.” Not being Australian, I had no idea what he meant. The internet says that he called her a working-class person. 

    He was talking about his girlfriend, Karen Hutchinson, who was flying in from Australia to spend some time on tour with Kirk. Pretty clear message there that nothing further was going to happen between me and Kirk Pengilly. 

    I think I had already gotten that message though after getting the friendly, polite letter with no contact information and the revelation in the magazine that he had a girlfriend.

    Before Kirk left, I told him that I had started playing the lottery and I asked for a number. He picked 26 which was his age. I also asked Gary Grant for a lottery number, and he picked 27 which I believe was also his age.

    Scary drive back to New Jersey late at night

    While Terri was driving north on Amsterdam Avenue to get to the George Washington Bridge, the car hit a huge pothole. I don’t know if we were in Harlem or already north of Harlem when it happened. Afterwards, we heard a scraping noise of metal in contact with the road. Terri pulled into a gas station, and we wanted the attendant to help us, but he refused to leave the booth he was in. That was a sign that we were in an area that had a lot of criminal activity. 

    Jackie was panicking and she lived in Chicago, so it was surprising that she was so frightened. The rest of us were also frightened and it only got worse when a car full of Hispanic guys stopped and asked if we needed help. Because now we have two problems; a broken car and several men we don’t know who might be looking to take advantage of an opportunity to hurt us.

    Terri and I put on our toughest tough girl attitudes and Terri said no to them. She told them to go away very firmly when they asked again, and thankfully they did. 

    A piece of the car was hanging down and touching the ground. It turned out to be the oil pan, but I didn’t know what it was at the time. I had the idea to tie it back up to the underside of the car using my belt. I had a cool-looking hip belt. A hip belt was not worn through belt loops but was worn slung around your hips. My belt had a bunch of silver-colored rings about one inch in diameter and they were connected by strips of black leather. It was a sturdy belt. 

    An example of a hip belt from the 1980s. Mine had similar rings but they were held together by strips of black leather.
    An example of a hip belt from the 1980s. Mine had similar rings but they were held together by strips of black leather.

    So, I took off my belt, got on the ground, and managed to loop the belt through some part of the oil pan and then loop my belt through some metal part of the underbody so the oil pan was not scraping the ground. Then I buckled the belt to secure it. After that, I bought a quart of oil from the attendant in the booth just in case the car was leaking oil, and we would need to add some on the way home. 

    We got back on the road and didn’t have any more problems getting back to New Jersey. Terri had to take her car to the shop to have the oil pan fixed, so we had to use Jess’ car to carry on with our adventures.

    The INXS concert

    The next day, June 28, 1984, was the day of the concert. Jess drove Terri, Jackie, and I into New York City in the afternoon and we parked in the Port Authority Bus Terminal lot. 

    When we went to Radio City Music Hall, we discovered that we had missed the soundcheck, so we walked over to the hotel. I wore big black felt hat with a flat top and a wide brim that I found at a thrift shop in Greenwich Village. It was similar to the hat that Michael Hutchence wore in the INXS video, “The One Thing” except that it didn’t have a band and the brim was wider. My shirt was black and gray striped-it was sleeveless, and it came up to my neck in front but was low-cut in back. Paired with gray cropped pants and cheap black sandals that looked a little punky because they had cheap metallic bits sewn to the straps across my feet. Around my hips was the famous belt that I had removed from underneath the car. 

    While walking to the hotel, we just happened to pop into a pizza parlor and Andrew Farriss was in there. Andrew wasn’t much into socializing, so we didn’t bother him often, but I took the opportunity to walk over to him to introduce myself. I extended my hand and said, “Hi! I’m Donna,” and we shook hands. Because other than Kirk, I don’t think any of them knew my name and they all already knew Terri, Jess, and Jackie.

    We ran into Michael Hutchence on the sidewalk outside the hotel. I was surprised by how nice and friendly he was when we were talking to him because he had come across as arrogant in the past. This was the first time I had something other than a negative impression of him. As a person and not as a singer, that is. 

    He told me he liked my hat. I loved my hat! Terri often asked him, other members of the band, and Gary Grant, the manager, to do things for us. She told Michael that we did not have good seats near the front and asked him to tell the audience to move up to the front when he got on stage so we could move up closer. I can’t remember if he did that, but it was definitely something he would be willing to do.

    The only thing I remember from the show is being angry because there was one girl who jumped up on stage and ran up to Michael three different times. Now, instead of singing the song for everyone, he had to hug the girl to try to be nice and then deal with her grabbing onto him until someone could pull her away. 

    The third time she jumped onstage, several other girls joined her, so Michael had multiple girls mauling him when he was trying to sing. They ruined more than one song. We hated that. It’s so rude in so many ways. Fans like that are a terrible problem. 

    After the show

    We left Radio City Music Hall before The Go-Go’s took the stage and waited outside for INXS to leave. Gary Grant came out and we talked about the girls jumping onstage. He was also very angry and used rude language to talk about those girls. Called them all sorts of names. 

    Kirk Pengilly was outside signing autographs for some fans. He had his head down while doing it. I went over and said something like, “Kirk, you’ll never believe what happened to us when we drove home last night.” Without looking up he said, “What is it, Donna?” So, I told him the story about how we hit a pothole, and I used the belt that I was wearing to tie up the bottom of the car so we could drive home. For the second time in a row, we had a problem with the car when we went to see INXS. I had to tell him because it was like a thing now. 

    I’m sure plenty of other stuff happened but I was too busy to write it all down and I don’t remember anymore. All I know is that we took a horse-drawn carriage to get back to the car at Port Authority. It was fun but not at all scenic.

    Here is a photo from 1991 and the black hat is sitting on the coatrack. You can see that it was collecting dust and I eventually got rid of it because I didn’t wear it and it did was take up space and collect dust. 

    My room in the apartment I shared in West Philadelphia. My hats and also some INXS stuff on the exposed drywall.
    My room in the apartment I shared in West Philadelphia. My hats and also some INXS stuff on the exposed drywall.

  • Blog Post 10- Waiting for INXS, Spring 1984

    A xeroxed photo of Australian rock band INXS from 1983. Used as stationery for writing letters.
    INXS stationery, Someone decorated the xeroxed photo. I think it was Terri.

    As I wrote about in my last post, it was fall semester of my sophomore year in college when I got that letter from Kirk Pengilly. I managed to pass all my classes that semester, but I did not want to be in school. I wanted to learn things, but I didn’t want to be in school. 

    Letter from Terri about INXS

    Terri sent me a letter dated January 19, 1984. She said that she was answering a letter from me that was dated December 5, 1983, and apologized for the delay. She had some INXS news for me-she told me she got INXS played on the radio again, “just a few minutes ago”, and said that they should pay her for doing promotions. That’s funny because I wrote the same thing in my diary a few months later-that they should be paying me for promoting them. We were great fans.

    Jess called Terri and told her that MTV had announced that INXS would be back in the U.S. in early March and that the new album would also be out in March. “A little later than they expected,” according to Mark Goodman, the MTV VJ who reported the news. This information turned out to be wrong and the album showed up even later than that in the U.S. and the band didn’t show up until June! Terri wanted to know what was taking so long!

    I know I visited the Australian consulate in New York City with somebody, but I can’t remember exactly when or with whom. It was during the fall of 1983 because Terri wondered in her letter how Kirk Pengilly, of Neutral Bay, with the silent listing was. Apparently, I called the operator in Australia to ask for his number and I was told that it was unlisted. When I was looking through the Sydney telephone books at the consulate, I ran across a listing for a K. Pengilly who lived at 59 Yeo Street in Neutral Bay. “That must be him” is what I thought so I gave it a try. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend when I did that.

    Terri “lurved” the poem I wrote about Kirk Pengilly. If only I had a copy or remembered anything about that! It was probably at least somewhat flattering because I liked him a lot; unlike any poems I wrote about Michael Hutchence, but I probably also mocked him a little. No one in INXS escaped that treatment. Perhaps I mentioned his dislike for clothes dryers because Terri makes a reference to that. He must have talked about that when we were with him in Poughkeepsie, and he was washing his shirt in the bathroom sink.

    The jerk from Scotland

    Spring semester of college started out terribly. I wanted to do something else so badly. Instead, I was taking five classes and four of them were in business. My mental health was poor-a constant cough kept me from sleeping for over two weeks. And to top it off, I dated a jerk from Scotland who went to my school. He was very charismatic, and people flocked to him. I thought he liked me, and I came close to having sex with him, but I lost my nerve. After that he said we would go out but then he didn’t call and in the following days he started ignoring me.

    My roommate Karen spoke to him at a party, and he told her that his friend had asked me out and he couldn’t believe it that I turned him down, so she walked away thinking he was an asshole too. And he was. A couple of weeks later, I ran into a fellow student, and she told me about her experience with the Scottish guy. They had dated during the fall semester, and he told her that he had an impotence problem. She helped him “solve it.” Then he spent Thanksgiving at her house and when he got back to campus, he had sex with a friend of hers.

    In my diary, I asked, “why did he have to bother me?” and “how could I ever fall for him?” “This hasn’t been a good experience, and I don’t want to go through it again.” “He’s really done a number on me and I still don’t understand exactly what happened.” I said I was sick of people pestering me. 

    My world blew up. I felt on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Dropping my accounting class eased some of the pressure. I considered transferring to Terri’s school in Florida, but my mother wouldn’t let me. Trying to find the bright side of meeting this awful jerk, I told myself that maybe it was good because it caused me to think about why I was in school and what I really wanted to do with my life.

    The movie, “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” was a big influence on me and especially the song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” I quoted a lyric from it in my diary while I was writing about my problems. 

    After thinking about it, I decided to stay in Wharton and major in marketing instead of accounting because I couldn’t afford to switch to the College of Arts and Sciences and stay in college an extra year to study something else. My diary says, “I just have to get through the semester without killing myself and I should be OK.” I wished I could afford to quit school and travel and bum around. My financial situation depressed me. I owed $5200 in student loans at that point, and I would still owe that if I quit.

    Billboard magazine

    The management class I was taking did not interest me. The professor made me come talk to him after the first exam and he told me I had to do a lot better on the paper and the final exam. I used to go to the Lippincott Library of the Wharton School, but it wasn’t to do my schoolwork. It was to read the copies of Billboard magazine that they had there. Billboard magazine covers the music industry.

    Here are links to a Wikipedia article about Billboard magazine and an actual copy from April 28, 1984 that has information about INXS.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)

    https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/80s/1984/BB-1984-04-28.pdf

    It was important to find a topic for my paper that would interest me, so I chose to write a paper on the mergers and acquisitions of Warner Communications. Why that company? Because it was related to INXS, the Australian rock band, and the New York Cosmos soccer team. They owned Atlantic Records and the Atco imprint that was INXS’ record label in the U.S., and they also owned the Cosmos.

    Both Atlantic Records and the NY Cosmos were founded by Ahmet Ertegun who was a horrible pig of a man who abused numerous women. That was not something I was aware of at the time, but I absolutely believe the accusations. I will write more about that in a future blog post.

    Original Sin

    It was now March and almost time for spring break. Terri heard that “Original Sin” would be released during the second week of March, 1984 and that INXS would be the opening act for Duran Duran. I called Capitol Records, Duran Duran’s record label, to ask if INXS would be opening for them. The person I spoke to didn’t know and suggested that I call Madison Square Garden, so I did, and they didn’t have any information either. None of this turned out to be true. It’s hard to find an exact date for when the song was released in the United States.

    3 Ways Nile Rodgers Made “Original Sin” One of INXS’ Most Enduring Hits

    Towards the end of March, I wrote in my diary that I called WKDU which is the student-run radio station for Drexel University and asked them to play “Original Sin”, but they didn’t have it. The first time I tried calling, I dialed the wrong number and said to the old woman who answered, “Do you have original sin?” She said, “Excuse me?” so I said it again. Then she told me I had the wrong number. That was both embarrassing and hilarious because I must have sounded like a religious freak.

    The Australian rock band INXS in the studio recording Original Sin with producer Nile Rodgers.
    A screen shot from the April 28, 1984 issue of Billboard magazine.

    On April 5, 1984, I saw in Billboard magazine that The Swing, the fourth album by INXS, had debuted at number one in Australia and the song “I Send A Message” had debuted at number seven there. Original Sin had been released in Australia in December 1983. It wasn’t until April 28, 1984 that Original Sin debuted on the Billboard chart for the U.S. at number 87.

    Big Country

    The cover of the March 1984 issue of Trouser Press magazine. Featuring the band Big Country.
    Big Country. Trouser Press magazine. March 1984
    Jess, Jen, and me in Tampa, Florida. March 1984.
    Big Country concert in Tampa, Florida with Jess and Jen. March 1984.

    Jess is a big part of my story but this is the first photo of her to be included in the blog. From left to right is Jess, Jen from Florida, and me with my permed hair. A guy at college told me I looked like David Lee Roth.

    For spring break, I took a trip to Tampa, Florida to visit Terri. I needed a vacation. Jess came down for the week too. We went to a couple soccer games and hung around at Jen’s house. We also saw Big Country in concert and met Stuart Adamson and his young son.

    Me and singer Stuart Adamson from the band Big Country. Tampa, Florida. March 1984
    Me with Big Country singer Stuart Adamson in Tampa, Florida

    My diary says that I was reading A Clockwork Orange (not for school). I also had to read books and work on a paper for my sociology class. The conversations that my friends and I were having were about Duran Duran, INXS, and soccer. I also spent time drawing pictures of punk-rock cats that I called Anarkitties.

    Big Country video

    Graveyard shift

    Two things I started doing during spring semester were smoking real cigarettes and working the graveyard shift at my work-study job in the dorms. The previous semester I had started smoking clove cigarettes. I stopped smoking them after they made me nauseous but unfortunately, I switched to smoking the regular kind. They helped me stay awake through my midnight to eight am shifts. It wasn’t a regular habit yet-that came later. When I worked all night, I drank Dr. Pepper and listened to music-sometimes INXS, Falco, Tenpole Tudor or something else I had on cassette, or I listened to the radio.

    I wanted a boyfriend, and I wanted to have sex, but I still didn’t have any luck there. Hookups were not for me. My diary at the time said “I’ve never had any qualms about sex before marriage although I wouldn’t sleep with just any Joe Schmo off the street.” 

    I went to parties and met guys. One of the guys was named Mike and I wrote about him in my diary. He was funny. He showed me the P-Funk All-Stars sign which is when you make your hand into horns by holding your middle fingers down with your thumb. And he told me to sing, “Shit, Goddamn, Get off your ass and jam!” That was fun. We tried out different accents on each other. I used to pretend to be Irish or Scottish from time to time. When I came back to college for my junior year, I finally found a boyfriend and it was Mike!

    Before I left school for the summer break, I went to an interview with Reinhard Modeling agency. They had advertised in the school paper that they would be on campus looking for models. I wasn’t sure if they were legit, and I wondered how much of the money they would get. One woman I spoke to said that models in Philadelphia were paid $100 an hour. The agency was interested but I was unsure-I thought my waist was too big and I was leaving Philadelphia for the summer so pursuing modeling would have to wait. 

    Modeling is another one of those industries where a lot of disgusting and bad things happen-especially to women. But the agency I went to is still operating and seems to be legit.

    http://www.reinhardagency.com

    My next blog post will back track a bit and I will talk about soccer, and then I will get back to INXS.

  • Blog Post 9- MTV (Music Television) Videos

    I will not have time to work on the blog for a little while so here are a few videos from early MTV.

    Hillsdale, New Jersey was wired for cable TV in the late 1970s. My house was signed up for cable TV before MTV came on the air on August 1, 1981. I saw a lot of weird videos and found many bands to like while watching MTV starting in 1981. MTV launched just before I went back to school for my senior year of high school.

    Tenpole Tudor- Swords of a Thousand Men. I was a huge fan of Tenpole Tudor and Adam & the Ants. 

    Antmusic by Adam & the Ants

    Pop Muzik by M. I’m happy to say that I have been to New York, London, Paris, and Munich.

    Blotto- I Wanna Be a Lifeguard

    Split Enz- I Got You

    Falco- Der Kommisar

    Duran Duran- Planet Earth

    U2- I Will Follow

    Blancmange- Living on the Ceiling

    Haircut 100- Love Plus One. I listened to the whole album (Pelican West) constantly when I was a freshman in college.

    The English Beat- Save It For Later. One of my early MTV favorites. Loved all of the Special Beat Service album.

    The Pretenders- Brass In Pocket. This video was played often on MTV. I loved it and the song. I thought James Honeyman-Scott was cute. Too bad drugs took him too. 

    Joan Jett & the Blackhearts- I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll. I never knew it was a cover of someone else’s song.

    Weird Al Yankovic- Ricky. I love accordions and parodies.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlLQLFq_H4