In this letter sent home by Jack Vigliatura from UF in Gainesville, he offers a hilarious and nostalgic glimpse into college life, low-budget talent shows, and the accidental birth of his band’s new name. Written to his close friend Mary Shortt, the letter captures the chaotic energy of late-night dorm antics, documenting how a 10-minute performance of “acting dumb” won his band second place, a handful of Subway coupons, and the bizarre accusation of being a group of undercover professionals.
March 30, 1992
Mary.
How are you?
Listen to this, we played for our lounge on Thurs nite in the 1st Annual Talent Show and we came in second. The winner was, as usual, some folk guy singing his tormented heart out but he was pretty good. We had our worst performance ever. So logically, we won the most stuff. We sang “Belong” – which I read off the back of a box of raisins (with a little improv) instead of saying Stipe’s lyrics. Then we did “Superman” and finished with “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Someone taped it and I’m trying to get a hold of it.
We’ve officially changed our name to Gorby’s Transmission taken from a hat Bill has had since 5th grade. We won 3 free movie passes + 3 free Subway subs for about 10 minutes of acting dumb. Not bad.
Oh yeah, get this, some kid was complaining from this other band that was in it (they got 3rd) that we were a professional band and shouldn’t be allowed to play for prizes! HA! HA! HA! HA! Ooh-ooh! Professional band HA! HA! HA! Aah HA! ahem-excuse me. Can you believe that one? He claimed that’s why we changed our name so no one would recognize us until we got on stage. I told him we changed our name as a favor to the people who were running the show so that no one would be trampled to death trying to see us perform in such a small place. Needless to say, my sarcasm was unappreciated and I was told to go away because no one is going to take away my free stuff. “Dang right” was my final comment.
Anyway we also got a hold of a video camera on Saturday and fooled around with that for a few hours. Some of it’s pretty funny – all of it is stupid and I guess I’ll force you to watch it when I come home. Hopefully we’ll get Gorby’s Tranmission’s first performance on there, too. Oh yes, I guess I forgot to mention that that guy from the band was also sort of upset because we kind of stole their drummer – HA! HA! HA! HA! He’s going to be playing for us at the Orange N’ Brew April 9th so we’ll see how that works out. We are doing grunge stuff so it should help us out a great deal.
I got a stupid “B” on my last Psychology test but I did get an “A” on my last German test – and now that I think of it we can drop one in Pysc so it should be stuff now.
How’s everything going in school now? It’s really great you got an “A” on that paper. It was very good. Anyway, you are in my thoughts and prayers constantly.
Love,
Jack
