Sexism, Bruhs, and Rock n Roll

Tag: University of Pennsylvania

  • 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 27- INXS at the Metro. Chicago, Illinois, August 19, 1984

    This is a photo of Tim Farriss that Jess took at the INXS concert in Hartford on 8/11/1984. Tim is wearing the shirt that we gave him as a birthday present.
    This is a photo of Tim Farriss that Jess took at the INXS concert in Hartford on 8/11/1984. Tim is wearing the shirt that we gave him as a birthday present.

    In the one week between when Jess and I went to the INXS concert in Hartford, CT and when Jackie would see INXS in Chicago, we had to act quickly. Jess had to have an 8×10 print made of a photo she took of Tim Farriss performing on stage while wearing the shirt Terri gave him for his birthday. She needed to mail it to Chicago so Jackie would get it in time to take it to the INXS show there on Sunday August 19th. 

    I wrote a card/letter to Michael

    I had decided to write a letter to Michael Hutchence and to send it to Jackie in the hope that she would have a chance to deliver it to him at the INXS concert. There wasn’t much time for me to do that because I worked from 5pm to 1am on that same Sunday we got home from Hartford and again from 11am until 3pm on Monday. 

    The letter was going to take up to three days to arrive so I would have wanted to mail it no later than Tuesday morning. Perhaps I dropped it at the post office on my way to work that day at the Emerson Hotel where I was scheduled to waitress from 12pm until 9pm. 

    My pocket calendar from August 13 to August 19, 1984.
    My pocket calendar from August 13 to August 19, 1984.

    How Kirk’s letter to me in 1983 came into play

    Kirk Pengilly’s letter to me that I received about one year earlier was what I used as a model when I wrote my letter to Michael Hutchence. That letter was a nice, polite letter that fulfilled the promise he made to me to write while at the same time it conveyed to me that we would not be having a relationship in the future. It was clearly not a love letter, but it was caring. Mostly, it was an update on what he had been doing with his time. 

    What I said in the letter

    There is nothing in my diary about the letter I wrote to Michael, and I didn’t keep a copy of it, so I don’t remember everything I wrote in the letter. But I remember that I started the letter by saying, “Sorry I didn’t get to know you better.” When I think of that now, I’m like, “Eeeew, cringe!”

    Once I had apologized in that way for not having sex with him like I had sort of promised to do at a later date when I was in his hotel room with him and my friends on July 3rd, I started making excuses about how busy I was with work. 

    I’m not sure about how much I told him about my life except for one thing and that was that I’m sure I told him that I was studying business at either one of the best schools in the country or the best school in the country. Take your pick.

    The Wharton School

    I don’t think I told him specifically that I was studying at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance. Back then, mentioning Wharton didn’t mean much to the average person. It was only impressive to people who knew enough to be impressed. 

    Things are different today, now that the current President of the United States is a graduate of Wharton. The school is more well-known with people outside of the business world. Also, U.S. News & World Report only started ranking universities in 1983 and didn’t start ranking business schools until 1990 so there was less publicity back then. 

    A link to some info about Wharton:

    https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wharton.asp#toc-whartons-global-reputation-and-industry-impact

    Maybe I’ll see you around

    The only other thing I remember writing to Michael Hutchence was “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.” I hope that came across to him as noncommittal when he read it because I did not want to give him any ideas that something was ever going to happen in the future. 

    If only I could see the whole letter to know if what I think I remember is correct. What I believe I was going for in that letter was a way of saying, “I had to wash my hair” without actually using that phrase. The internet tells me that “I have to wash my hair” is still being used today as a flimsy excuse to get out of doing something. 

    When I said farewell to Kirk Pengilly in 1983, he had every bit of contact information for me that existed at that time- every address and phone number. I didn’t give Michael Hutchence any of that information in the letter because I wanted him to get the message that I was not interested in him without explicitly saying that. 

    Letter from Susan

    Around the same time that I was mailing off the letter to Jackie in Chicago, Susan wrote to me. She was at the INXS concert in Cedar Grove, just a few days before she wrote, “I’m still spinning from this weekend! You must be spinning from your entire summer! Are you going to follow INXS around on their next tour? When you write back, please tell me some of the funnier moments! The only things I’ve heard are what Dana’s told me, and she hears it from Terri and Jess so I’m usually the third party! (Then I tell Maria and she tells Dawn…)”

    Susan also told me that she wrote to Gary Grant to thank him for going to so much trouble for us and sent the letter to ATCO Records. She also wanted to know if we taped any of the concerts and if she could get a copy if she sent me a blank cassette tape. I’m not sure I even had a tape of the INXS concerts from Atlanta and St Petersburg in my possession at that point, so I doubt I was the one who helped her with that request. 

    I think I granted her request for a blank sheet of my INXS stationery. That would have been easy because it just was a photocopy of a photocopy of some INXS photo from a magazine that was positioned at the top of a piece of copy machine paper. 

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

    INXS at the Metro

    On 8/19/1984, I wrote in my diary, “Just a few more days of work left. Somewhere in Chicago, Jackie is waiting for INXS.” 

    INXS was playing that night at the Metro in Chicago. The Metro was a new club back then as it had only opened in 1982. The club is still open and hosting bands today. It holds around 1100 people, and it is general admission so there are no seats. 

    Wikipedia article about the Metro club:

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

    Someone (probably Jess) had given Jackie an idea for how to get backstage to see the band before the show. Jackie had someone, perhaps her mother, call the Metro and say that they needed to speak to Jackie because there was an emergency. 

    Whoever got the call at the club believed it and went outside to get Jackie. I’m sure she was waiting in line near the door along with her four friends so they could get good seats. She was able to see the band backstage after she was escorted inside to take the “emergency” phone call. 

    Letter from Jackie

    Here is a portion of the letter that Jackie wrote to me on September 12, 1984.

    “Well, it’s been about three and a half weeks since I’ve seen INXS, and it feels like it’s been ages. I miss them so damn much. My mom saw “Burn For You” on our local video channel last week. I, of course, was on my way home from work and missed it. I cried when she told me. I heard “The One Thing” on the radio today. 

    I’m sure Terri and Jess have told you what I’ve told them about the concert at the Metro on the 19th. Everything went pretty well. The “emergency” phone call idea was clever! I gave Michael your card while I was backstage. He asked a few questions about you, like how old you were. I told him you’re 20, even though you weren’t exactly 20 yet! You’re not even 20 now, but it’s close enough! Duh! He said that he was almost finished with the books that you gave him, and that they were good books. He really enjoyed them. He also wanted to know if you were going back to school. He was being his usual sweet self.

    Jon was very tired, but still nice to me like he always is. I love that man to death. I also talked to Timmy for a while and had him sign an 8×10 for Terri from Jess, and I got his autograph for Pete, too. 

    Jackie writes about the show

    The concert was good, aside from getting crushed by hundreds of people. It was so uncomfortable that I could hardly enjoy myself. We were up front, but we kept getting pushed around. They did the usual material but threw in “All The Voices”. There weren’t that many voices, but it still sounded okay!

    Jon saw me a couple of times, and so did Garry. Michael saw Karen, Sara, and I standing on the side of the stage during the encore and made it real obvious! It was so funny!

    After the show, we (the five of us; Karen K from Jones’ Beach, Karen, Heike, Sara, and I) followed a taxi carrying Garry, Jon, Timmy, and Andrew back to their hotel. Sara found out Michael’s room number, so we went up and knocked on the door. Michael answered, and he talked to us out in the hall for a bit. Then he said, “I can’t leave you girls out here. Why don’t you come on in?” So, we walked in; I went first and the first thing I saw was Jon lying on the bed getting a massage, and he had no shirt on. I thought I was gonna drop right there. He looked marvelous!

    Jackie writes about INXS dressed in towels

    A few minutes later, Timmy came out of the shower, wearing only a towel. All I could say was, “If Terri saw this…!” He looked marvelous as well. We all just basically sat around, talked, and drank their beer! 

    I talked to Michael quite a bit. He told me that Michele was meeting him when he gets to Japan. Jon was acting strange; he was giving hand massages and talking like a queer. It was too funny! Michael also took a shower and ran around in his towel. Kirk had one on, too. Too bad I missed Jon’s shower! 

    We stayed in the room for quite a while and then decided to leave since they had a lot of straightening out to do, and Karen K had to have the car home by 2:30 am. I said goodbye to everyone else before saying goodbye to Jon. I saved him for last. I got hugs and kisses from Timmy, Kirk, and Michael, and just kinda said so long to Garry and Andrew who were just vegging out or something. 

    Jon was sitting on the bed when I said goodbye. I looked at him and thanked him for everything, for always being nice to me no matter what, and for making my summer, in general! He hugged me, and said thanks for the support, and he told me never to doubt his appreciation. We just looked at each other and hugged again.

    Sara told me later on that Jon looked like he had just lost his best friend; she said he looked so sad! He gave me a kiss, and we said goodbye, etc., and Michael let us out of the door. I hugged and kissed Michael again, and as soon as I walked out the door, I broke down in tears. I never used to cry, until I got to know Jon Farriss! Saying goodbye to Jon was too emotional. You know how I get. We, yes, Donna- I have stopped crying for now, for the time being, at least! I’m just glad that I got to say bye to all of them.”

    Things I can add about that portion of the letter

    In my diary, I didn’t write about anything that Jackie told Terri and Jess about this night. All I know now is what is in Jackie’s letter. 

    I know I heard about what happened from Terri or Jess because I mentioned some of it in a letter I wrote to Dana sometime between August 20-22. But I only know that because Dana wrote to me on August 23,1984 and said “So, Michael wanted to know how old you are. All I can say is you’d better watch out for those rock stars…” I’ll share more from that letter in the next post. 

    Pete was Jackie’s new boyfriend at the time.

    We must have met Karen K at the INXS/Go-Go’s concert at Jones Beach in June when Jackie was visiting us, but I don’t remember her at all from then. Karen K and Sara will appear again in future posts. 

    Sara probably got Michael’s room number because he was still using Fabian Sparkle as his fake name at the hotel and we knew that one so she could just ask for Fabian Sparkle at the reception desk.

    INXS played concerts in Japan from September 10, 1984, through September 20, 1984. Then they had about a week off before playing two more shows back home in Perth, Australia. After that, INXS had a three-month break from touring. 

    More of Jackie’s letter

    Jackie also wrote this in her letter to me: 

    “Thanks for the Birthday Party tape and lyrics. The album is so obnoxious-it’s so funny! I played it when I was down in Springfield, Illinois, for the State Fair. We were sitting in our hotel room, and everyone started falling asleep. I put the tape on, and everybody got up and left! Michael is wearing a Nick Cave shirt in the picture in Star Hits. Have you seen it?

    Have you gotten the pictures of you and Michael yet? I’m enclosing the one of Jon and I.”

    Jackie sent me this photo:

    Jackie sent me this photo of her and Jon Farriss of INXS. It was taken in 1983 but I don't know where.
    Jackie sent me this photo of her and Jon Farriss of INXS. It was taken in 1983 but I don’t know where.

    If you remember, both Jackie and I listened to the Birthday Party cassette on Michael’s Walkman. When I wrote an earlier blog post, I was unsure about which album I bought in Toronto. But after reading my diary again and the letters I still have, I know for sure that it was the Junkyard album by the Birthday Party that I bought that day. 

    Before going back to college

    On August 22, 1984, my father called me from the nursing home where he lived, and I mentioned it in my diary. He was somewhere in upstate New York, and I think he was in a VA (Veteran’s Administration) nursing home, but I never wrote it down, so I don’t know. I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get his records, but I don’t know if I will ever receive anything.

    “Dad called today. I’m going to see him next Tuesday. He is giving us $1000 each to try to square things with us. Grandpa’s estate is finally being settled. 

    That nursing home upsets me. I could hear the screaming in the background. Dad told me not to do anything to make him ashamed of me. 

    I think that it was very lucky for us all that he had a stroke and ended up where he is. I’d hate to imagine what it would be like if he was around to influence our lives all the time. There is security now that we know he can’t really get to us if he becomes angry. 

    I feel myself becoming depressed. I’m finally going through withdrawal. I bought Chipwiches to comfort it but I’m to the point where only sleep brings relief.”

    The withdrawal I referred to in this entry was because I was no longer going to INXS concerts!

    An article about the ice cream sandwich made with chocolate chip cookies called Chipwich:

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

    This was what that week looked like:

    My pocket calendar from August 20 to August 26, 1984.
    My pocket calendar from August 20 to August 26, 1984.

    Why was my father in a nursing home?

    In a future post, I will write about my father in greater detail, but in the fall of 1980, when I was sixteen, he had surgery for an aneurysm in his brain. My parents were in the middle of getting divorced for the second time. 

    The surgery went well but after the surgery he had a stroke and it left him partially paralyzed on his left side. He went to a rehab facility, but I don’t think he did the work and just spent his time feeling sorry for himself, so he didn’t recover. 

    You can see from my diary entry that I was glad that he didn’t regain the ability to walk. We certainly had no interest in caring for him, so he ended up in a nursing home. I just spoke to my brother, and he said our father was in a place in Liberty, NY.

    The drive from Hillsdale NJ to Liberty NY.
    The drive from Hillsdale NJ to Liberty NY.
    My pocket calendar from August 27 to September 2, 1984.
    My pocket calendar from August 27 to September 2, 1984.

    On August 28, I drove up to see my father so he could give me $3,000 for me and my two brothers. I know from my diary that my youngest brother was away so he could not have gone with me, but I don’t know if I went alone or not. 

    Why was he giving us money?

    My father was giving us money from his father’s estate because he had “borrowed” money from his three children when we were young-under age 11. He asked us if he could use the money we had in our savings accounts so he could go to school to become a drug and alcohol counselor. 

    That is a path that many people take when they get sober. He had gone to Alcoholics Anonymous and gave up drinking. I think my parents were married for the second time when he asked us for the money. We all had money saved from our first communions. 

    I don’t think any of us actually wanted to give him our savings, but we all said yes because there was no way any of us were going to say no to the guy. Not after our experiences with him. 

    Two days after I went to see him, I mentioned it in my diary, but I didn’t say much. I wrote, “Well, I went to see Dad. The place is terrible, but his mind seems better. He doesn’t have many teeth left. He looks so old.” He was 49 at the time. 

    We brought my father to my brother Mike's high school graduation in June 1983. He is in a wheelchair.
    We brought my father to my brother Mike’s high school graduation in June 1983. He is in a wheelchair.

    Here is a photo from my brother Mike’s high school graduation which took place in June 1983, a bit more than a year before I went to the nursing home.  Now you can see what my father looked like at that time.

    This photo was taken after I saw INXS in concert for the first time but before I saw them in concert for the second time and then kissed Kirk Pengilly later in the evening.

    Weird INXS dream and The Wild Colonial Boy

    In my diary for that day, I devoted as much space to a weird dream about Andrew Farriss and to the refrain of the folk song, “Wild Colonial Boy.”

    Back in those days, there was no internet so, no source of information was readily available at your fingertips like it is now. Some homes contained reference books like a set of encyclopedias, but usually information had to be found by going to a library and looking for it in a book or magazine.

    I was still home for the summer in Hillsdale, NJ. There was a library within walking distance, and I must have gone there and checked out a book about Australia. How else would some of the lyrics for an Australian folk song end up in my diary? 

    “So, come all my hearties

    We’ll roam the mountains high

    Together we will plunder

    Together we will die

    We’ll wander over valleys and

    gallop over plains

    We’ll scorn to live in slavery,

    bound down with iron chains.”

    That last line was what appealed to me, I have no doubt. 

    Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about the song:

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

    The Wild Colonial Boy video on You Tube:

    I dreamed about Andrew??!

    The dream I had about Andrew was crazy. Why did I dream about Andrew? Who knows? Probably because he took my hat and I was still thinking about that. There will be more about that in the next post. 

    In my dream, Andrew Farriss was dead, but he was still in INXS as a ghost. He wasn’t always a ghost because sometimes he turned into my pet cat, Melba. Andrew also stole Carl’s vintage Mercedes because it used to be his. 

    Carl was my mother’s new husband. He was the one with the bakery-the one where I worked in 1983. I wish I had a photo of his vintage Mercedes-Benz because it was a good-looking car. Then maybe I could figure out when it had been made. My best guess is sometime in the 1960s.

    This photo I pulled from the internet is not what his car looked like exactly but it’s close enough. 

    A vintage Mercedes Benz car. I pulled this photo from the internet. My mother's husband Carl owned something similar.
    A vintage Mercedes Benz car. I pulled this photo from the internet. My mother’s husband Carl owned something similar.

    My last day of waitressing at the Emerson Hotel for the summer was on August 30th. I had two days to prepare to go back to Philly and I arrived back on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on Sunday, September 2 which was the day before Labor Day. The summer of INXS was over. 

  • Blog Post 18- INXS at Mann Music Center, July 7, 1984

    Kirk Pengilly, guitarist, saxophonist, singer for INXS, photo by Terri, Atlanta 9/5/1983
    Kirk Pengilly, guitarist, saxophonist, singer for INXS, photo by Terri, Atlanta 9/5/1983

    Before I even went to any INXS concert in 1984, I had asked my boss at the restaurant for the day off on July 7 so I could go to the INXS concert at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia. So, I was planning to go to this show before I ever saw Kirk or Michael and I liked to stick to my plans.

    After what happened with Michael Hutchence in his hotel room on July 2, I went to work from 12pm to 9pm and my friends went to see INXS in East Hampton, NY on July 3. On July 4, Kirk Pengilly turned 26, INXS traveled to the Midwest, and I went to work from 11am to 8pm. The Go-Go’s and INXS played Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 5 and I had the day off from work. I was back at work on Friday, July 6, 1984, from 5pm to 1am while INXS and the Go-Go’s did a concert in New Haven, Connecticut.

    Ticket for The Go-Go's and INXS concert at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia July 7, 1984
    Ticket for The Go-Go’s and INXS concert at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia July 7, 1984. Not my ticket. I got this photo from the internet.

    The concert in Philadelphia was on Saturday, July 7. It took Terri, Jess, Jackie, and I about two hours to get to the Mann Music Center by car. The Mann Music Center was an outdoor theater located in Fairmount Park in West Philadelphia. 

    The route from Hillsdale, NJ to the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia from Google Maps.
    The route from Hillsdale, NJ to the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia from Google Maps.

    Do I have to be harassed everywhere?

    When we arrived, we all had to pee, so we walked into a seedy-looking bar in the neighborhood. It was five o’clock somewhere, but I don’t think it was five yet when we got there.

    The bathroom was too small for all four of us, so Jess and I had to wait near the bar. Sitting at the bar was a skinny black guy (we were in West Philadelphia where most people were black). This guy looked like he was in his late 30s and he was drunk. 

    When he saw me, he asked if I was married. Jess told him I was engaged. He said I should break up with my boyfriend and marry him instead because he had a great chest. Then he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off to show me his bare chest! Pointing to his chest, he said, “Does your boyfriend have anything as good as this?” It was scary. What is wrong with men? I couldn’t even use a bathroom in peace.

    I had no choice but to be as polite as I could be until the bathroom was free and I could go in it. After that we left as quickly as we could and walked back to the Mann Music Center where we found out that the INXS tour bus had already gone inside.

    Hey, Timmy!

    We were still outside the venue, but we could watch INXS do their soundcheck from there. Timmy heard us all yell, “Hey, Timmy” in unison. He waved to us and then raised his fist in the air. 

    The Hooters

    As usual, our plan was to find seats down near the stage so we were sad to learn that The Hooters would be going on before INXS. The Hooters were a popular Philadelphia-area band, so a lot of people showed up early to see them and that messed up our plan.

    Philadelphia rock band The Hooters
    Philadelphia rock band The Hooters

    The Hooters- All You Zombies

    Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, the founding members of The Hooters, went to my school, The University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, but at least ten years before I was in college. They met each other while at Penn. They formed The Hooters in 1980. 

    INXS on stage

    When INXS took the stage, I decided to stay in the seat I had a ticket for. It was about twenty-five rows up from the stage. Terri, Jess, and Jackie decided to see what they could find near the stage, so they left.

    After a few minutes, I saw them waving to me, urging me to come down. They found seats in the second row on Timmy’s side of the stage and there was one for me too. So, I got up and walked down the aisle to where they were. When I walked down the row to take my seat, Michael saw me, and I noticed it when he recognized me.

    I also noticed Michael looking over at me from time to time during the concert. One time, he was in front of us when “Dancing on the Jetty” started. I was standing there swaying to the music at the very beginning of the song and Michael was staring at me. I was feeling the music. Then he stopped staring and sang the song.

    Dancing on the Jetty

    There were a lot of screaming girls at the concert. Girls acting all hysterical over seeing INXS or any other musician never made sense to me. Really, I don’t get it at all. Why scream because of some guy? I wrote in my diary that those girls made me laugh and that I thought INXS liked us because we treated them like they were normal people.

    Following the bus again

    After the concert, we had to follow the bus again because we didn’t know where they were staying. This time there were guys in a car behind us and they also followed the bus because Belinda and Charlotte from The Go-Go’s were on the INXS tour bus. 

    It was an exciting ride as we were following them through the streets of Philadelphia. We ran a couple of red lights so we could stay right behind the bus. The destination turned out to be Rittenhouse Square and the Barclay Hotel. At the time, it was the classiest hotel in Philadelphia. Or if not the best, it was the most famous.

    A picture of the Barclay Hotel on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia that I took from the internet.
    A picture of the Barclay Hotel on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia that I took from the internet. The bar was on the right side of the ground floor.

    The Barclay Hotel impressed me when I saw it with its marble floors and palace decor. I don’t think I had been in any hotel as expensive-looking before. 

    Rittenhouse Square at 18th and Walnut Street is a small park and one of the original squares William Penn planned for the city in the 17th century. It’s one of the best and fanciest neighborhoods to live in or hang out at in Philadelphia.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_Hotel_(Philadelphia)

    The Go-Go’s and their fans

    The two guys who ended up at the Barclay with us seemed to be the same age as we were-between 18 and 21. I wrote in my diary that Charlotte was on the bus, but today I don’t remember seeing Charlotte at all. 

    When Jackie and I reconnected on Facebook, she said that she remembered being on an elevator with Belinda Carlisle and that she wanted to punch Belinda. 

    That is something I don’t remember but I do remember both Michael and Belinda being super-fucked-up on drugs. Michael was even worse than the last time we saw him just five days earlier when he was lying down drunk on the pavement. It wasn’t just alcohol this time-I could tell that other drugs had also been consumed. 

    Thank you, Gary Grant

    The first thing many members of INXS did when they arrived at the hotel was look for a cigarette machine. The hotel did not have one. We gave Gary Grant a bottle of wine to thank him for being so nice to us. He had just gotten Jackie into the show on Long Island. Gary gave Jess a kiss so she must have presented it to him. 

    I had nothing to do with buying the wine other than chipping in to pay for it. Terri and Jess did all the planning and were the ones who contacted Gary Grant. If they had not done those things, I wouldn’t have a story to tell. I was just along for the ride.

    After we gave Gary Grant the wine and the band went to their rooms, we waited around in the lobby. It wasn’t long before Kirk came down and said hello to us. In my diary, I wrote that he was wearing an ugly outfit. Unfortunately, I didn’t describe it at all. I wish I had. The members of INXS often wore clothes that we didn’t like, and I often never described the clothes and just wrote my opinion. If I had a chance to go back and do it again, I would write down more descriptive details! 

    Going out for cigarettes

    Kirk told me that he had told Terri and Jess to say “Hi!” to me for him when he saw them in East Hampton. He said he was going out to buy cigarettes so I told him that I knew which way to go and would show him. Everyone in our group and the two guys who had followed us, all went with Kirk to the store. 

    We headed north on 18th street towards Chestnut Street and Kirk walked very fast. It was almost hard to keep up with him. After a couple of blocks, we found a store that sold cigarettes. Kirk bought a pack of Vantage cigarettes and we all headed back to the hotel.

    While we were walking back, the two guys who were fans of The Go-Go’s asked Kirk several questions about them. Again, the actual questions and answers were not written down by me so I no longer remember them. All it says in my diary was that Kirk was nice and he answered the questions about what The Go-Go’s were like. 

    When we got back to the hotel, the guys didn’t come inside with us, and when they were gone, Kirk laughed about them asking him those questions. Before he went upstairs, he told us he would come down to the bar later and then we did not see him again. Just like that night five nights earlier, he didn’t come to the bar.

    The hotel bar

    Jackie and I decided to check out the bar which was on the ground floor near the lobby. When we looked in, we discovered that Jon Farriss was at the bar so we went in and sat down at a table near the entrance. 

    Jon Farriss was sitting at the bar with two older women in their thirties. Jackie bought him a drink and when he got it, he looked over at us and smiled. I got up and sat at a table near where the three of them were talking at the bar so I could eavesdrop on their conversation. 

    That’s how I found out more about those women. One was named Bonnie, and the other was Franny. I don’t remember who was who but one had been a former model who now had a business baking brownies. The other woman was acting like a fool in love or a crazy fan. She told Jon very seriously that she knew his soul because of the way he looked at her. Then she said that she could sense that there was something between them.

    I’m sure I looked like I wanted to bust out laughing. The woman saying that nonsense noticed that I was sitting very close by and listening so then she told Jon that she felt like she was making a speech and that I was taking notes to write an article for the National Enquirer. The National Enquirer was a weekly tabloid paper mostly devoted to celebrity gossip. 

    A photo of an April 1984 edition of the National Enquirer that I found on the internet.
    A photo of an April 1984 edition of the National Enquirer that I found on the internet.

    After she said this, Jon turned and threw a swizzle stick at me. It didn’t hit me, but I got the message and went back to the table my friends were sitting at. But I don’t think he was upset because a little later he came over and sat with us.

    Chatting with Jon Farriss

    When he told us that the men’s bathroom was incredibly fancy and had a spiral staircase made of marble, Jackie and I went out to look for ourselves. There wasn’t anyone in there, so we went in and looked around right quick. 

    All the conversations I write about here were a lot longer than what I remember of them or wrote about them. What I remember is a minute here or a minute there and I rarely took note of what my friends talked about in my diary because it was my diary. Sometimes we spent a lot of time in the same room with members of INXS without talking to them. Other times we hung out with them for minutes or for hours.

    During our time with Jon, he talked about his American girlfriend from Texas named Lisa. He met Lisa when INXS toured the United States in 1983 and they were still together. Jon was upset that Lisa was going on a ski trip with two guys and he would not be there. He didn’t trust those guys and was worried something would happen. He told us that one of the guys was Swedish, had big thighs, and only had sex on his mind. It’s in my diary because I found the jealousy to be amusing and his concern to be stereotypical: guys only want sex. And it was a surprise to see a handsome, attractive guy like Jon Farriss be insecure like that.

    We were ready to leave and make the two-hour drive back to North Jersey and were saying goodbye to Jon when some girls outside of the hotel started banging on the window because they saw Jon. He decided to leave the hotel with us to meet his fans.

    Michael, Belinda, and Michael’s “friend”

    While we were in front of the hotel, Michael walked out of the hotel accompanied by a sleazy-looking woman who we had never seen before and Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s. All three of them were incredibly wasted as I mentioned earlier. Belinda looked like a warmed-over corpse. They stopped when we said hello. Michael said hello to Terri and gave her a kiss but didn’t seem to see me at all. I think he was pretending not to see me so he could ignore me because the situation was a bit awkward but who knows? Maybe he was too wasted.

    Belinda asked us “what day is it?” (which I thought was pathetic) and we told her. I think Michael said they were going to buy cigarettes and then the three of them started skipping down the street towards Spruce Street. That was the wrong direction to go if they wanted to find cigarettes. They were headed to a residential neighborhood. None of us stopped them.

    Going home

    Jackie cried for the whole car ride back because she was going home to Chicago and would not be seeing Jon Farriss again. I had to be at work that day but not until 5pm for a change so I had 10-12 hours between getting home and starting my 8-hour waitressing shift. 

    The concert had started at 8pm and likely lasted three hours. We would have gotten to the hotel around midnight. Bars in Philadelphia closed at 2am so we likely left the hotel around the time the bar closed. I don’t know how long we stayed outside because I just didn’t write all those details down. 

    My diary entry for an INXS concert later in July mentions a woman named Ellen who we had met in Philadelphia so we could have been talking to her. Anyway, it was another two hours or so to get back home so I don’t think I got back until 5am. 

    Information gleaned from old letters

    At the end of the summer of 1984, having met many new people while going to 11 INXS concerts, I had many stories to tell them. I wrote a lot of letters when I got back to college to tell them of my adventures, and they wrote back. Because of that, I believe that the mystery woman with Michael and Belinda, a woman I saw with Michael again later in July, was someone named Sherri. 

    A letter, dated September 26, 1984, from a woman named Kirsten (also known as Kira) who we met in Connecticut and who was from there mentions a woman named Sherri. Sherrie was described as being extremely sleazy-looking and a druggie. Kira said that she had “seen/heard of a woman named Sherri who supposedly gives Michael drugs and sleeps around with him throughout the tour!”

    Kirsten told a story that she had heard from a friend. This friend named Corine told Kirsten that she was in Tim’s dressing room and Michael and Sherri were also there. According to Corine, Michael and Sherri went into the bathroom several times to fuck. 

    This was something I had not heard until after we stopped following INXS that summer in 1984 so while I had some idea of what Michael was like based on my own experiences up until then, I was still quite naive and my opinion of him was too high.

  • Blog Post 12- INXS releases The Swing, Spring 1984

    Album cover of "The Swing" by INXS
    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.
    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. Duran Duran on the cover.
    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.
    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.
    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, at the Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park in New York City
    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
    Eddie Money backstage at the Wollman Ice Rink in Central Park. NYC. Dr Pepper Summer Music Festival. August 9, 1978

    5/12/84

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

    5/13/84

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

    5/14/84

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

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

    5/15/84

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

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

    5/16/84

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

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

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

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

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

    Coffee Achievers video

    5/17/84

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

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

    Rewritten songs from The Swing

    Dancing on the Jetty video-INXS

    Walking off the Jetty [My version]

    INXS Video Melting in the Sun

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

    Screenshot of song lyrics
    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.

    May 22, 1984 issue of the Weekly World News. "Famed Psychic's Head Explodes."
    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.]

  • 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.