Anti everything (Vol.4, 1982)

Content note: fat talk, food talk, beauty talk

In this episode, Lily learns what it means to have a bad fringe.

Starting off, we have a Lily update and catch up where she’s at in the world, her filler/scar/fringe updates (see fringe pics on insta) and then move onto the diary reading from 5 December 1982.

Jenny’s life, she says, is ‘reading, writing, listening to music and going out’… pretty typical for most almost-nineteen year olds. She doesn’t really want a job in a shop or restaurant; she wants to ‘be creative’. Also, she is entering the guitar phase and in this episode purchases not one but two electric guitars. There’s more CB eyeballs, the continuing rise of ambition, going to the tennis (it is the Australian Open, despite Jenny thinking it wasn’t), cutting ‘little spikes’ in the top of her hair. The Volkswagon Beetle ‘needs a new valve’ and is going to get panel-beaten by a mechanic named Bruno. 

On the live music front, Jenny sees Hugo Race in Plays with Marionettes at the Seaview Ballroom, calling Hugo ‘incredible’ and ‘a genius’. (Small segue here: Hugo Race also played with Nick Cave, and with Nick Barker who was Dee’s sister’s boyfriend at one stage! Hugo also had a small role in Dogs in Space, and a friend of Jenny’s from drama at college also had a small role. Connections!)

But back to the diaries. Jenny is annoyed by the gender stereotypes she identifies around her (though she doesn’t have that language to describe it). She goes to see the Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle, sees Class of 1984 and buys the first electric guitar from ‘Shower Peter’ from the CB. A few days later, she buys some combat boots and a second guitar from ‘Anglesea Harry’. She’s reading Christiane F, still going to the Spaghetti Tree, spending $10 at the newsagents and drinking a whole bottle of claret on her own. Oh and there’s Midnight Oil at the Astor Theatre, a new t-shirt design, playing tennis on the road, going to the Aberdeen Hotel to see her fave boys No Nonsense, her dad Roger being kicked-out from where he’s living, reading Lord Edgware Dies (Ag. Christie) AND meeting Simon from Bristol at a party. Interesting.

Extra links:

Hugo Race piece in Overland, 2014

https://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-216/feature-hugo-race/

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