Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: Trouser Press magazine

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

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.

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.

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.

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

January 17, 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]

Why don’t you take a long walk

Off a short pier

Who’s gonna teach you

Teach you how to swim

You could talk forever

Just never get tired

Listen to your words

Find out why you get us down

Long stories, bad jokes

Loud clothing

Go walk off the jetty

Cause we’re sick of you

Why don’t you take a long walk

Off a short pier

Who’s gonna teach you

Teach you how to swim

You told your life story

You started years ago

Prayed like hell that you’d shut your mouth

Another story and I’d kill myself

Bore the world, too sorry

Give anything

for a moment’s silence

We want to stop you from making noise

Nothing but trouble, leave town

Don’t you come back

We hope you got the hint.

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
Blog Post 10- Waiting for INXS, Spring 1984

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.

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

Big Country. Trouser Press magazine. 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 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.

August 16, 2025
Blog Post 8- No Postcard from London. Fall 1983

Xeroxed photo of INXS used for stationery

Fall semester of my sophomore year at school was difficult. My classes were Finance 1 which was called Monetary Economics, Accounting 1-A which was financial accounting, Introduction to Marketing Strategy, Psychology 162 which was abnormal psychology, and Sociology 4- The Family.

A lot of material was covered in every class, so it was bad that I skipped classes to go see Kirk Pengilly in New York City. Especially my finance class which was very difficult. On my first test, I scored 13 points out of 100 but because the test was graded on a curve, it was a passing grade. It was a D. That means that most of the students got low scores but did somewhat better than I did.

I had to get a work-study job for the first time to pay my expenses. Freshman year I didn’t work during the school year. I seem to recall that I was getting a check from Social Security because my father was disabled but the law was changed in 1981 and that payment was being phased out for college students so maybe I remember it wrong.

Diary entries from this period were few-maybe one per month. So, whatever I might have been thinking about Kirk Pengilly was lost to time. I saved some letters from my friends though and through their responses to my letters I can glean some information.

Long-distance phone calls-an 80s thing

Jess wrote to me on September 16, 1983 which was two days after we were at the Power Station music studio together with INXS. She had to write a letter because she couldn’t afford to make a long-distance call to me to say what she wanted to say.

It was so long ago that I don’t really remember exactly how the phone company billed for calls. Back then the telephones were attached to wall in the house. If you had more than one phone, then you were financially well-off. An unlimited number of local calls were allowed for a monthly fee. The area around your home that was considered a local call was a small one. Every other call was long-distance, and those calls were expensive and charged by the minute unless you were calling a toll-free number.

@carmenqgollihar
Things in the 1900s that we no longer say… Long distance calls. 80s kids had to be super quiet when parents were making a long-distance call. Stick around to see the 3 new additions to my Phone collection. #80saesthetic #80snostalgia #longdistancecall #vintagephones
♬ Call Me – Blondie

https://kiowacountypress.net/content/rise-and-fall-landline-143-years-telephones-becoming-more-accessible-–-and-smart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-distance_calling

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/07/style/saving-on-costs-of-long-distance-calls.html

More about our visit to the Power Station

Jess gave me her address at her college in New Jersey so I could write back to her. She wrote, “Dear Donna (Pengilly),” and said she was feeling guilty and wanted to apologize for not finding a way to give Kirk and I more time alone. She thought she should not have gone out to dinner with us.

I must have given her $50 towards the fee she had to pay to get her car back after it was towed from a parking spot near the studio because she said she put it in her account but would not touch it and offered to give it back to me.

She mentions a couple of things from the studio. One is a slightly different take on what I wrote in my diary- Jon says, “It makes about as much sense as natives wearing turquoise and silver” when asked about the “dream on white boy, dream on white girl” lyric. Jess remembered Michael’s answer the same as me-“You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

Jon Farriss was making a reference to the INXS song, “Old World, New World” from the album Shabooh Shoobah.

While we were in the lobby area of the studio, “the guys” (some number of the band members of INXS) sang “like an animal.” Jess asked me if I remembered that and “what that was for or from?” We would not have an answer to that until the album (The Swing) came out and we heard the song, “I Send A Message” because it’s from that song.

Someone must have said something about Andrew having a good head on his shoulders because Jess quotes that in her letter after expressing her disappointment with Garry Gary Beers. The way he acted towards her made her feel that he didn’t like her. That Garry knew she liked him and was avoiding her to the point where he could not be friendly or have a normal conversation with her. She said would forget Garry and pick Andrew as the band member to like instead.

The letter from Jess ended with her saying she can’t wait for the new INXS album to come out. Original Sin was an excellent song that should be even better with the vocals.

Terri’s letters to me from the fall of 1983

Terri wrote to me on September 30, 1983

Another bit of information that didn’t make it into my diary was that Michael Hutchence said his mother had run away before he was born. He just came out with that while he was out there in the lounge- probably when he was telling those high school girls that were his guests about the Chinese restaurants in Australia.

Apparently, I had written to Terri and told her “Weird INXS additions.” I also wrote to her about “Krik.” She wrote, “I don’t mind your talking about ‘Krik’ or whatever he calls himself (Bob Smith?) He’s a doll, I like Kirk.

Where this came from, I have no clue now. There are many references from back then that I no longer understand. Terri said she was thinking of the time in Atlanta when Kirk and Tanya discussed hair products. Kirk used Vidal Sassoon hair mist to make his hair stick up. He said, “All I do is stick my head under a sink and I’m normal again!” And the joke about Kirk not being normal writes itself.

Terri told me that she found the single for To Look At You in the New Releases section at a record store in Tampa. The B-side for that single was “The Sax Thing”, an instrumental by Kirk Pengilly. She couldn’t tell me what it sounded like. Said that she would have to bring it to Jen’s house to listen to it. She said that she had a bad feeling that it might be a saxophone version of The One Thing and that she liked to hear singing and not just music.

While she was there, she saw an issue of Trouser Press magazine with the Flock of Seagulls on the cover and asked me if I still get the magazine. The answer was yes. I had a subscription to Trouser Press magazine up until the time it went out of business. Terri said that I would notice that my Shriekback was profiled and also New Models. Both bands were now connected with INXS. Shriekback because it led to everything that happened with Kirk Pengilly and New Models because they opened for INXS at the Ritz in New York City. If you have it, do me a big favor and xerox it for me, is what she wrote.

Flock of Seagulls. Trouser Press magazine

I had written about the bootleg concert tape from Atlanta and that I heard her on it. She thought INXS would be upset if they knew that Tanya had taped them, and she explained that Garry had kicked over a cup and ice went under her bare feet.

Postcards were mentioned. Terri told me to let her know if “Krik’s” postcard arrives before March! (I think we had heard that INXS would come back in March?) She mentioned that Jess told her about the postcard I sent to her that was wacko, I’m sure. I wrote and drew lot of strange things back then. The postcard said something about Andrew Farriss. The two main songwriters for INXS were the two people in the band I didn’t like. I seem to have drawn a cartoon about Michael Hutchence that I sent to Terri. Mocking him, I’m sure. Terri said she sent a copy of it to Michael with my name on it. Then she said she was just kidding. (Terri had an address in Australia where she did write to members of the band.) She also told me I have nerve to say Michael is strange. That’s because I was strange, but I liked my kind of strange and not his.

Another letter from Terri is dated October 23, 1983. This letter was written on homemade stationery. We used to xerox photos of INXS (or others) at the top of the page and then write the letter on the rest of the paper. Terri used this photo and called it “To jump at you!”

INXS stationery, photocopies of pictures

This letter informed me that I had sent a 90-minute-high fidelity blank cassette tape so Terri could record The Sax Thing for me on a low fidelity stereo. I really wanted to hear the song! She taped it three times for me so I wouldn’t have to rewind it as much. Very thoughtful. Terri complimented Kirk’s song and said she played it over the phone for Jess to hear it. My friends were great-they shared their music purchases with me. We all shared as much as we could with each other, but my resources were the most limited.

I tried to make up for it by being entertaining. I wrote poems about INXS, and I drew cartoons. Pretty sure I wrote a poem about Michael Hutchence called “The Drug Thing”, but I don’t know if it was what Terri referred to in this letter. She wrote, “Like I already told ya, I lurved your poems. Write anything on rhymable Kirk yet?! What the heck does Kirk rhyme with? Jerk, perk, clerk, turk, work; not normal words, fer sure! And what of this story you mentioned- I’m almost afraid to ask!” It would be nice if I had an answer to the question about the story I seem to have written way back when. Not a clue what it was.

My work-study job involved checking IDs to keep people who weren’t students out of the dorms in the western part of Penn campus where my dorm was. Sometimes I would work behind the front desk at the high-rise apartments that were dorms where I would answer the phone, etc. I would write these letters and create my poems, drawings, and cartoons while at work instead of studying for class or doing my homework.

About my cartoon, Terri wrote, “You were right-I did hang it up! Thanks for your highly unusual ‘masterpiece!’ I’m so proud to be the owner of the original-this thing will be worth big money someday! I had to share it, tho, so I xeroxed it for Jackie and Jess (haven’t sent it to Jess yet)…I laughed so hard. I especially got a kick out of “Garry Gary Baah” and the bit about Andrew…that was really funny, probably because it’s true!! Thanx very much, Mrs. Penguinilly!” I can only assume that I turned every member of INXS into some kind of animal in the cartoon.

There was a part of the letter where Terri talked a lot about music because she had finally found a radio station in Tampa that played new wave music from midnight until 3am. She taped it so she could listen to it and find new bands. “Soon we MAY see the days when I get to name some obscure band and maybe someone will take notice of ME! I can dream, ya know!” That’s what happened with me and Kirk Pengilly. One night Terri called the new wave program and requested INXS- supporting our band!

I must have mentioned that I was smoking clove cigarettes and that made Terri angry. She was right- it was a bad and stupid habit. Yelled at me that she would fuck me up and that Kirk would think he was kissing a dirty ashtray. It turned out that I was never going to kiss Kirk again, but we didn’t know that at the time.

One last quote from Terri’s letter, “When Jess and I were talking about the band taking turns on the b sides of the single, we couldn’t help but wonder what the hell GG might come up with. We figured, maybe “The Bass thing” of all bassline! (His spine is the bassline) And what of “Duh” Hutchence? He doesn’t write music, to my knowledge. That is, what will he do-recite poetry or something? “Gimme drugs…I need some Silly Shit!!””

Kirk writes Donna a letter from Japan

And then one day in November 1983, I checked my mailbox and there was a letter from Kirk Pengilly. I still have it and I’ll say what is in it because it’s not some kind of personal love letter but I’m not going to share it. Here is a picture of the envelope instead.

Envelope from Kirk’s letter

As you can see, it was posted on November 2, 1983, from Akasaka in Tokyo, Japan. The letter was written on November 1st on one side of one sheet of hotel stationery from The President Hotel. The hotel’s address was 2-2-3 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Located kind of in between Meiji Jingu and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. There is still a building at this address today in 2025 but it is no longer a hotel.

The site of the hotel where INXS stayed when they went to Japan to shoot videos for Original Sin and I Send A Message in November 1983

Kirk apologized that he had not written sooner. He said that the day after we had visited him in New York City and the car had been towed, that his wallet had been stolen. No story about how that happened-just a list of what went missing: money, credit cards, passport, and my address. That was the day (September 14, 1983) when they were back in the studio at the Power Station recording the vocals with Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates.

Now in New York City back in 1983, especially in Hell’s Kitchen, there was a lot of crime, so the story was believable in that respect. So many years have passed now where I didn’t even think about INXS or what transpired that I can’t remember what I knew back then when I received this letter. But I surely would have known which address was on which piece of paper that I had given to Kirk. The bank where I had my checking account was near the Penn campus in West Philadelphia. That’s where I lived for most of the year. My school address would have been on the deposit slip if there was an address on it.

He wrote that while he was packing to leave for Japan, he found my address on the postcard from me that was given to him in Atlanta. INXS left London for Japan on the day before he wrote the letter. Back when I wrote the postcard for him, I’m not sure I even knew my address at college. Also, the whole point of that postcard was to tell him where I lived in New Jersey and that would have been in Hillsdale, not Philadelphia. So, I think I took this story as a lie. Well-meaning, but still, a lie.

If Kirk really had had his wallet stolen, and he wasn’t just writing this letter to me to be polite because he said he would write to me, then he could have told me his address and asked me to write to him and give him the contact information that was lost. Besides just trying to let me down easy, I think he did what he did because he was living with the future mother of his child, Karen Hutchinson, before he even met me. And that’s what bothers me today. Neither of us women deserved to be treated like that.

Even if they had some kind of understanding with each other about activities on the road, I wasn’t part of that. It wasn’t fair to me. I deserved respect. Toby Creswell interviewed Karen for his book, “Shine Like it Does: The Life of Michael Hutchence”. On page 105, Karen said, “You’d be crazy to think that twenty-year-old guys who had it thrown at them every night were not seeing other people occasionally.” That was not what happened between Kirk and me. I was pursued just because I was there and too pretty to be left in peace; it was not by invitation. We weren’t there for sex and they knew it.

Kirk was not a pig about it and didn’t obviously salivate over me the way Michael Hutchence was going to a year later. If he had done that then I would not have liked him. He wasn’t coming on to me. We were having conversations and I enjoyed them. I thought Kirk Pengilly was interesting. But now it seems that the goal was to take advantage of being out on the road. I’m not going to let women take the blame for these guy’s behaviors. INXS as a rock band was not as badly behaved as Mötley Crüe. That’s a fact. But that doesn’t make them good guys or excuse them.

Back to the letter- Kirk wrote that he was in Japan for one week and INXS would be making a couple of videos. The recording of the album was going well and after Japan they would be going back to Sydney to finish the album (The Swing). He hoped that school was going well for me.

He had fun in London where he spent all his money on clothes and saw the band Big Country in concert. And that’s pretty much all he wrote. He said he hoped I was well and happy before signing off. Of course, I was happy to get a letter and I told my friends immediately!

While INXS was in Japan they made videos for Original Sin, and I Send A Message. I lived in Japan from 2021 until 2024 so I visited the temple where I Send A Message was filmed. Gokokuji Temple in Tokyo. I have Matthew Marsland to thank for that. I didn’t know where the video was filmed but he did.

Location of the temple where INXS filmed the video for I Send A Message

Matthew Marsland’s Facebook post about visiting Gokokuji Temple

https://www.facebook.com/profile/501692468/search?q=%20temple%20tokyo

July 5, 2025