#the masque

[jt1674]

Visit Original Link

[ztremx]

[cinemamind]

Hellraiser fan art part 3

[itsfireofunknownorigin-blog]

[bitter69uk]

“He was Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious rolled into one, a befuddled punk prophet with a brilliant mind. Darby Crash presided over the birth of the LA punk scene in 1977 and signaled its demise with his own self-inflicted death three years later. His was a vision of chaos that would never come to pass but left in its wake a legacy of destruction and one fiery punk classic, the Germs' 1979 Joan Jett-produced album, G.I.” 

/ From “Darby Crash: Saint Anger” by Chris Campion, Dazed Digital, October 2014 /

Born on this day 65 years ago: feral frontman of first-generation Los Angeles punk band the Germs, Darby Crash (aka Bobby Pyn, real name: Jan Paul Beahm, 26 September 1958 - 7 December 1980). We don’t talk nearly enough about quite how gorgeous Crash was. “Sex Boy” indeed! (The doomed US punk equivalent of Sid Vicious, Crash died of a heroin overdose aged 22). Swallow a fistful of ‘ludes, smear yourself in peanut butter and blast “Forming”, “Lexicon Devil” or “Media Blitz” LOUD today in his memory!

[thelastfinalgirl]

Hellraiser. Directed by David Bruckner (2022)

[theunderestimator-2]

Rover, obscure early LA punk teen scenester, Masque denizen and nowadays a Las Vegas mom of 10 children, as captured ca. '77-'78 at the Atomic Cafe, in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles (the photo was also used as the back cover of The Klan "Pushin' Too Hard" b/w "Cover Girls" 1980 single by Posh Boy).

Rose, aka Rover [a nickname her high school bestie gave her because she couldn't stay in one place but was happiest roving around] is one of those girls who, according to Alice Bag, "added life and color to the early punk scene and made it so very interesting. She also received one of the first wounds (six stitches in the scalp) in the "us against them" skirmishes that seem to occur whenever people are afraid or intolerant of those who look different from them. It's hard to imagine a time and place when having short, crazy-colored hair could provoke a violent reaction from a stranger, but that was what it was like in the 1970's."

As Rover recalls:

"I believe I took the first hit in the social war we had waged against the norm. I was 16 at the time. I was outside of the Canterbury with my friend Brian (from Fullerton) sitting on a parked car. Two guys drove past on a motorcycle and the passenger threw a wine bottle into our little crowd and it hit me in the head. I didn't know what had happened. I grabbed my head & knocked a hunk of glass out and it fell to the ground. Then, a rush of pain and a river of blood and I stumbled forward and leaned against the Canterbury for support. I was dazed and in a state of confusion. They grabbed me and helped me walk. Gerber & Natalie took me to Lorna Doom & Belinda Carlisle's apartment. Darby was there. The paramedics arrived and bandaged my head. They joked about my hair color, saying they couldn't tell what was hair color and what was blood. If I wasn't the first hit, then I guess I was a shot of energy to all those around me."

Being badly teased in school in So Cal just for being pale white, in '77 she was a 16-year-old who ended up actually living in the Masque, the Hollywood multi-roomed labyrinth, the club and a meeting spot that soon became the center of the universe to many punks, misfits, outsiders, degenerates and the nascent punk scene that began bubbling up around 1976, with groups like the Screamers, Germs, the Weirdos and the Zeros, the Bags and the Go-Go’s, who she also roadied for.

"I walked into my very first show [a Dickies show at the Whiskey, Dec. '77] and knew I had finally found my home planet!!!! Remember the Twilight Zone episode with Elly May Clampett? She was laying in a hospital bed with bandages covering her face, consumed with self hatred & confusion because she was born so ugly that she couldn't fit in with society. The bandages came off and all had failed. Then it's revealed that she is really beautiful in a world of ugly and has to go live in a community with others like herself. That's exactly how I felt when I walked into the Whisky that night. Everyone was pale and it was ok."

(***photo provided by artist & activist @regi-mentle-black-blog , another active participant in the early LA/SF punk scene and friend of Rover, who was also crashing at the Masque back in the day)

[regi-mentle-black-blog]