only 30 years ago, no big deal.

i posted this before, but in paying respect to Michael Jackson passing yesterday I will repost & say when I saw this debut during the Grammy’s in ‘88 it blew my fucking mind.

Thriller was my first album i owned, but Off the Wall was my favourite album ever made.

also farrah fawcett passed too. 

all in one day. rest in peace.

halloween was never my favourite holiday. think it was due to my mom’s general lack of enthusiasm for making me costumes.

here’s me in 1980 as a witch. i’m 3 years old in this one, and wearing an assortment of my moms scarves & jewelry:

1981, pre-k, this one is funny because i’m the strawberry shortcake on the right w. the mask up not the one on the left that my mom snapped.

1982, kindergarten. My cousin Mary inherited the strawberry shortcake costume i see, and i am a fairy princess:

1983, first grade. this one is called “oh shit tomorrow’s halloween we forgot to get jen a costume!” i have no idea wtf i’m supposed to be, it’s definitely a costume from Hills, i remember that much. ps. check out young tommy’s face in this shot. epic.

1984, 2nd grade, a punk rock madonna type. this one’s great because i pretty much dressed like that everyday with the exception of the flourescent hairspray. epic kits back in the day. no shit. those are all my clothes, eva joia gitano pink pleather skirt, check. white fingerless lace gloves, check. jellies, check. oh & my moms pink forenza “shaker knit” deep v-neck sweater, check. i also had the same skirt/sweater kit in powder blue. gangster i know. i used to rock a white lace bow headband steadily too.

oi! me lucky charms. jesus christ. good thing those guys were plastic. the weight of my plastic chain is on gangster level proportions!

okay so here’s an argument that my mom & i still have about 1985’s costume. i’m in third grade. i’m a playboy bunny. no shit. look at me on the top row, far left. little black patent bow heels, check. fishnets w. seam (!!!), check. sequin furry bow tie, check. BUNNY EARS, check.  um call me crazy but my mom let me dress up as a young bunny ho for halloween. even if this wasn’t her doing, which I KNOW it was, who the hell let’s their kid go to school in that get up? i mean really.

ps. i totally remember what i’m talking about in that pic, i’m yelling at cindy donmoyer that i KNOW she has a crush on joe lauck. no shit. he was a cutie. pps. this was my girl scout/brownie troop, my mom was the den leader or troop pack chick or whatever it is. all i know is my mom was a bartender and she convinced every drunk customer to buy MANY boxes of thin mints from her & i always won the best prizes. good job peg!

okay now we venture off in to, “dad, i’m really too cool to dress up for halloween.”

i’m marking this off as 7th grade, so i’m about 12-13 here, 1988ish. this is ali’s favourite picture of me. early teen, over weight w. braces & a sun in bang look. peep those sick g&s / body glove bracelets. i can tell who “im going with” in this picture by the swatch watch on my wrist (chris goheen). my kit is pretty bad but my pumpkin looked like it was about to turn out epic.

nice one huh?

then completely unrelated but my favourite picture of me & my little bro tommy o.

look at that EVIL smile on my face. i always wanted a little sister. 

ps. check out t’s phillies fanatic shirt. told you we were old school mike schmidt fans in the O’Donnell house. OG fans.

just psyched on mail in general. anything that’s not email that is. or bills. or collection notices. although i still get psyched on my netflix.

once upon a time i was REALLY into sending mail. like made super packages. complete with mix tapes & drawings & weird little things i found that only the person i was sending to would appreciate. my mail game almost trumps my mix tape game. when combined pretty much the most amazing thing ever to hit your mailbox.

back when i was about 14-15, and an avid SASSY magazine reader, i had the random chance encounter of meeting Ian Svenonious after a Nation of Ulysses at a show in my hometown in PA. Rena Cave & i being total young teenage dorks i think chanted something about him being the sassiest boy in america from the crowd during breaks between songs, which indeed he was the first one to ever win that contest.  Long story short us young dorks were waiting for our friend’s older sister to pick us up post show & met him. He gave me his address and told me to write him a letter, and i did. I wish, WISH, i had the letter i sent but this isin the life of pre-computer/scanner archive awesomeness. This is pen & paper & licking an envelope & stamp & putting up the little flag for the mailman to send my letter to DC & the sassiest boy in america.

I still have the letter he wrote back to me:

he was definitely on some next levels steez. and this was the early early years of the “riot grrrl” and “alternative” or “grunge” years. i was yes very much a kid in band t-shirts, who lived for fugazi shows, and wore doc martens & flannel button ups. the works. kinda fucked up that i’m old enough to be have old clothes that are now back in fashion as “vintage”? craze.

he was kind enough to enclose some of his zines:

oooh oooh oooh. the scroll with the over the edge reference below:

ummmm why didn’t i think of that before?!

think i found something for my right side ribs, my friends. now who should i get to ink it on me?? mmm.

continuing down my postal memory lane… i also once wrote into that zine FOXY, that was a part of Tum Yeto/Poot/Girly Things etc..  

yo! check me out!

ps. i still really fucking love chicken noodle soup & black jack chewing gum. stuff that glows in the dark might have something to do with all the acid i was taking in ‘93-’95 when i wrote this little letter to the ladies.  and pps. love that my little clip was put next to the pink panther.

so then i move to NY, in August 1995, and they had published this in the back of the zine:

and my mom forwards me all these letters from this little girls who they too loved stuff that glows in the dark. i felt like a total bitch for being too busy to write back by the time i received their letters. but being a first year photo student @ Parsons combined with my recent discovery that i was indeed not from a rich family in a rich city therefore holding two jobs… well, i just never got to show these girls who wrote me a rad mixtape package.  bummed.

if you wanna be penpals, send me fun stuff, i just really hope to start looking forward to going to my P.O. Box instead of dreading more threats from bloomingdales credit company.

p.o. box 20273

ny, ny 10009

FuXCrACk iM DoP3 is an epic screen name i must say.

and can anyone ANYONE explain to me the logistics of TyPINg lIKe tHiS?

please i’m dying to know. no seriously.

why?

love,

grandma jens