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Letters From Ginger

Art Crimes '96 from a
Victim's Point of View




My name is Corrine Donato. My best friend Ginger is a major fan. She broke up with her boyfriend in March and decided to change her life. On her 25th birthday (April 11) she made a resolution to spend the summer following the Dan tour as a sort of healing experience. When I suggested that she send her mail to the website as well, she agreed. She thought it would be good to share her experience with other fans.



July 11
Dear Corry,

I'm sorry I couldn't E till now. This is the first place I've been with a hook-up. I should be at Renny's in Tampa by Friday and he's got a straightup dope config, no problem.

Anyway, I don't know how to describe this amazing scene in words. The concert in Raleigh was beyond awesome. They've been doing Movies & Black Cow & Rikki & just everything. Wayne is a god, or maybe even God. And the TWO rule as always. WB looks absolutely buff, no lie. No sighting of the Fogel so far but I know he's already vanning because this Fan I met (Togg or Todd or someone, a total dweeb, I think) has been hanging with him or whatever.

The most amazing thing, though, happened today on the way to the BB Pav in Charlotte (not Charleston, which is in S. Carolina). I was getting stuff in this drug store in the middle of this vast trasho-mallscape and this cool sort of old Tex-Mex guy at the counter asks for a script for... The Donald! I thought, oh my God it's a roadie and then they ask for his name and he says Richard Fernandez who I know is the actual ROAD MANAGER! And I'm so freaked I just watch him leave without saying anything. Part of it was I couldn't believe Richard would come himself instead of sending some myrmidon. But I guess he figured, what the hell, I'll go myself. He seemed really egoless and sweet, a perfect match for the TWO.

The Charlotte show was also superb, although I couldn't hear as well. The new backup singers are so gorgeous, guys in the front were actually BOWING to them, Arabian-style! Do they travel with the band, like on the same bus? Or with the TWO? Can you believe this is their actual job? Anyway, gotta book,

love,

Ginger

Aug. 2
Dear Corry,

I'm in Matteson, Ill. in a Holiday Inn and that about breaks it down, but I'm incredibly excited to be back on the road. Tonight the gig is at something called "The World".

I'm sorry I was so chaotic on the phone but my mom was freaking and so on. Here's the scoop: On my way to Great Woods I stopped at my mom's and after dinner we hear Bill yelling upstairs. Apparently he was sharpening a pencil in this electric sharpener and all of a sudden it starts to like EAT the pencil really fast and then spits it out and a piece of it hits Bill in the eye and (as it turns out) scratches his cornea. So my mom is like decompensating and I'm calling 911 with like my stepdad was attacked by a #2 pencil, send an ambulance. So I had to stay and help my mom cope and so on, although now Bill's O.K. and in fact looks sort of hot with this eyepatch he has to wear for a while.

Anyway it's all good and I'll report in soon,

love,

Ginger

P.S.: I heard that the famous "Josie" met the TWO at Great Woods. I'm wracked with jealousy but then again I'm not sure I actually want to meet them if you know what I mean. Later.

Aug. 4
Dear Corry,

About to leave for Target Center show (Minneapolis). Knowing these dispatches are going to the website is definitly causing changes in style and content, but I'm trying to deal with it, i.e., my inhibitions. Not that anything radly outrageous has even occurred yet, but you know, its hard to expose the dark fantasies, etc.

"World" & "Alpine" were both excellent. Something's different about the show, like its getting really dramatic although that may be just me, i.e. I'm now perceiving it in the context of previous shows, my mode of perception is mutating, evolving, whatever. I'm starting to see a lot of the same people. The core fandom must be impressing civilians into the caravan. I'm hanging a little with Todd, who's still on the tour. He's now obsessed with this insane-looking girl who calls herself C.L. & wears these filthy party frocks & does wild dances on the lawn. Of course I'm thinking, am I another version of that, in total freefall, going straight to hell in a handcart? Impossible, right?

She is sexy though. Todd doesn't have a chance, she's with this tight little clique of uberhipsters with expensive R.V.'s. At Alpine they were in the front right against the stage and were all imitating The Donald's gestures, including this wierd slicing motion he does with his hand at the end of "My Old School". If you happen to check the website, could you let me know if there's any new Danvention news? I'm just curious. Also, has anyone referred to my letters? I'm sorry if this is boring,

love,

Ginger

August 11
Dearest Corry,

I'm in this hideous guest room at my Aunt Lena's in Pacific Palisades who's really nice but really old & I feel like I took some horrible downer or like the protagonist of a Joan Didion novel or both (in fact I am taking this various stuff for my cold). I HATE southern California. All the neighbors sit around their pools and work out & read these trash noveloids with irridescent covers and broil in the sun. Las Vegas was almost a relief. There at least you know you're in hell cause its 110 degrees, and everyone's sick & desperate.

Since Irvine, I've sort of attached myself to C.L.'s crew who turned out to be a band from Boston & the Vineyard called El Zero. They're here to absorb the Dan vibe or whatever. Todd's also been folded in, although he's only getting more & more lovesick over C.L. who I think is the mascot/masseuse or costumer/consigliere or something. He's gotten thinner & has these black rings under his eyes. He reminds me a little of Rob in his Adam Ant period. We all drive around in this silly caravan of R.V.'s and Maximas & me in my little blue yupster. I wonder if the Dan tour is like our tour, i.e., if our tour is somehow parallel to their tour in the fundamental shape of its evolution, and , if so, if that constitutes some sort of mystical connection. Do they have their own version of the Todd & C.L. event? Do they experience some analogous succession of emotions, hypers & downers, waves of thought, bondings, partings, etc.? Or did I just take too large a swig of this codeine cough syrup?

Tomorrow night, Hollywood Bowl - the Apotheosis.

love,

Ginger
Aug 19

Dear Corry,

Still in Seattle. As you suggested, I'm writing this to wrap up the siteworthy aspect of this narrative (you got the real skinny on the phone). Also, I don't really know exactly what happened yet.

After the shows in Ca., which almost but not quite made up for having to relate(?) to Californians, we headed up to Portland. At first we were relieved to be crossing into Oregon, but then everything just got worse. The Beamer kept stalling out & then John's Cherokee shot a rod or whatever you call it which caused a lot of hassles involving psychotic tow-truck drivers, a mechanic who might have been Bigfoot, etc. Anyway we ended up having to spend two days in this Bates-style motel where this thing happened with me and John, the outcome of which is still pending (I can't believe I'm going to send this). Meanwhile, there were all these huge brushfires raging like a mile away or whatever & the air was full of black gunk that made everyone's eyes burn & your skin sticky, all this stuff being the perfect objective correlative for everybody's state of mind.

We ended up seeing only the very last show at this bizarre place called "The Gorge" which is a stage on the edge of a sort of Grand Canyon-looking thing. At the end they asked the crew to come on stage (including Richard Fernandez) & it was like this amazing conclusion to the whole summer with the audience dancing & singing, etc. I felt as if I'd made it through some mythic ordeal or quest.

So that's about it & I'm just here more or less with John. Seattle is really great despite all the grunge hype. I've become really tight with C.L. who is teaching me shiatsu (Todd gave up on C.L. & left to go back to school). They have three supposedly really good massage schools here. Also, the band, who are really good, asked me to be their manager. Isn't that insane? John and Eric, the other guitar player, have been working on a song called "Ginger Swings Around". I'm so sleepy. I'll call, I promise.

Love, love, love

Ginger

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8/22/96