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It seems like forever ago but there they were; 16 people moving into one house. Nothing they had lived through before could have prepared them for what they were about to experience. The monkey had found the house in June 1992 after the untimely demise of Ground Zero 2. The monkey persuaded the old Greek landlord; Mr. K. that they were not a cult, but a group of friends who had known each other since grade school and wanted to live together. The monkey also negotiated the rent down from $3,000.00 a month to $2,200.00 a month. Mr. K. never liked the monkey. After the individual room assignments and rents were set people began moving in in August 1992. The monkey thought that if the house shared one phone line then it would unify the house as a whole entity. The monkey was wrong. In a four story, ten bedroom house, one phone line was a recipe for mayhem. If you were to call Red Zero that first year you would hear as many as 10 to 16 people pick up and say "Hello" at once and if you asked for someone who wasn't on the line you would hear as many phones being slammed down followed by the dial tone. Messages were as nonexistent as privacy. The volatile mix of people in the house began to show signs of pressure as the year went on. There was the attic crew; Dre, No-Joke and Jason T.. Between them 2 bands; Fulflej and ThingKing, practiced on a regular basis up in the attic. Sometimes the noise was so loud you couldn't even think a whole thought. The neighbors on the street behind Red Zero thought so too. They called the police on a regular basis and when that proved ineffectual they called Mr. K.'s insurance company and had them check the attic to see if anyone was living in a room not yet zoned for habitation. The night before the insurance inspection the attic crew had to move some of their stuff out and arrange the rest of it so it would look like storage space. Needless to say; that that sucked. The bands quit practicing up there shortly afterwards. No-Joke was dating Buffy D at the time and she lived on the second floor with monkey and Cathy C. Within the first few months of the lease they broke up and she switched rooms with Straight up D on the first floor to ease the messiness of an in-house break up. No-Joke's sister; Tara G. was seeing Fulflej bassist and attic dweller; Dre. They broke up too but not before she had claimed Zalph's room as her own and started seeing the Chief. The Chief was still struggling with his alcoholism and he and Tara G. were short lived. Zalph moved out early on to live with his skinhead fiance and her two pit bulls. They broke up without warning a month before they were to get married. Zalph still came up to Red Zero on the weekends to practice in Bent; with, Straight up D. on bass, the Chief on guitar, Zalph on the drums and Danarchy on vocals. The monkey and the Icelandic girl he had been seeing for the last two years broke up. The monkey fell into a depression but also found his calling that semester in filmmaking. Buffy D and No-Joke got back together. While Jeff in the basement moved his new girlfriend in; an abrasive motorcycle woman; Deana. She owned a great dog; Stercus. The dog enjoyed chasing Mike D's 5 cats around the house. Deana also enjoyed walking around the house buck naked and keeping the bathroom door open when she used the facilities. This caused much consternation with Tara G. and Buffy D. on the first floor who enacted a vote on house nudity. Controversy ensued when Kevin S. walked through the house naked in protest to the vote. Kevin's brother TonyLove, (who was seeing Cathy C.) also lived on the first floor. He fueled the flames by spreading lies and chaos at every possible chance. Mike D. was a cook at a local diner. One day he brought a waitress home with him and seduced her. His girlfriend of the last two years witnessed this through Mike D's bedroom window and smashed through the glass in a blind rage. She then spray painted; "Mike D. is a lying sack of shit." on the sidewalk in front of the house. Since Red Zero didn't have a living room, the porch served as the main common area. When the weather permitted the residents would sit out on the porch for hours, lounging around on tattered couches and milk crates. For months people would walk by and read what had been written on the sidewalk, looking up at any male on the porch with a schatenfreude grin. New to all of this was Cass, who shared a room on the first floor with the Chief. She had met the Chief in Germany when he was a bouncer at a German punk rock club. They had conspired to get married in order to get more money for the Chief from the Army. When that fell through the Chief invited her to move to America and live at Red Zero. Cass, Jason T. ,(who had met No-Joke at the dorms the previous year) and Deana were the only non-Hampton members of Red Zero. Some of them had known each other for years before. Monkey had been friends with Jeff and the Chief in 6th grade. Despite this long history petty squabbles were the norm and house votes were many. Angry notes were everywhere and the House rules were strictly unobserved. It seemed like no one would return for another year of squalor and anger as Mr. K. threatened to raise the rent if they were to stay another year. When the Monkey told Mr. K. that no one would stay another year, the old Greek landlord panicked and the rent was reduced even lower to a mere $1,900.00 a month. That enticed some to stay but others had had enough. With a change in personnel and some room shuffling Red Zero moved into...
