Magazine Love/Rupert Murdoch and the Masque/Memories from Over the Edge

I have a distinct memory from the late 1970’s of flipping through copies of New West magazine (we must have briefly had a subscription). Los Angeles magazine already existed (and was almost purchased by the New Yorker). But New West for those that don’t know was an attempt by the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York magazine to break into the Los Angeles/California market with a California-centric take of new journalism mixed with the cultural and political coverage found in its east coast brethren. New West was launched before the bicentennial, hitting the stands on 12 April 1976. However, what I didn’t know until stumbling onto a stack of New West in a thrift store about 25 years ago (and currently residing in the barn) was that the Masque and LA punk was presented to suburban Los Angelenos and San Franciscans in non-sensationalist manner. In addition, it turns out that the article (which is spot on and could have been written today) was written by none other than the screenwriter of the Waitakere Walks favourite Over the Edge, Charlie Haas. In fact the music sensibility of Over the Edge is made even more clear by this great write-up on the Masque, and was not some random music supervisor's choice. Photo of Chloe Pappas, stylist of the Screamers was taken by Matthew Rolston, likely still a student at that time at Art Center in Pasadena and Interview magazine photographer. Who knows if Rolston has a large set of yet unseen Screamers and Masque-era photos. A second Masque coffeetable book may need to appear. In any event, enjoy this slice of late January 1978, and hopefully it will change your perception that the Masque was limited to the pages of Slash, Flipside, Search and Destroy and Lobotomy. The LA Times via an old fave Kristine Mckenna did shine a light but no thanks to the likes of the other staffers (Go-Go's classis "Robert Hilburn" anyone? but who knew that it made it to the pages of glossy magazines. "You don't love me/You love magazines/Those glossy pages they go to your head"