"Things fall apart...The Centre cannot
hold..."
Things could not have gotten much worse after
that first year and yet somehow they did. There was a real sense of
tension as those who remained settled in for another year of cat piss
and phone chaos. In an attempt to quell the raging phonewar; Kevin
came up with the idea of having two separate rings on the phone line:
one ring for the first floor and the basement, two rings for the
second floor and the attic. This seemed like a good solution at first
but once implemented rancor broke loose as each floor had to listen
to the other floors constant ringing. Those who called the house knew
that someone had to be home and they would allow the phone to ring
until someone picked up. Many nights those on the first floor would
lie in bed, soaking in their own juices, dreaming of oblivion as the
second floor double ring rang off into the night. Buffy D. and
No-Joke G broke up again. This time No-Joke G moved out of Red Zero
amidst some house controversy. After a boiling summer, the new attic
crew braced themselves for another winter of ice on the inside of
their windows. New to the house was Sanchez; aka: El Gwappo. A punk
rock Spaniard who formed a band with Buffy D. No Joke had taught her
to play drums during the course of their relationship. Thus the band
Pleasure Astro was born. The old Greek landlord; Mr. K. finally went
bankrupt and ownership of the house reverted to the bank. Merlin; the
corporate wizard, was Red Zero's contact at the bank. Merlin created
a tsunami of raw fear in the house when he announced that Red Zero's
deadliest enemy; Bitch Getty would be managing the house for the
bank. It was Bitch Getty that had run the residents of Ground Zero 2
out of that house and had attempted suing them for over $3,000.00 in
superfluous damages. The residents of Ground Zero 2 hired a lawyer
and the charges were dropped. Every room in Red Zero was painted
every possible color. Lofts and holes in the walls were plentiful. So
much damage had been done that it boggled the mind. After the bank
and Bitch Getty made a cursory assessment of the house they came to a
terrible realization; there could be no way to keep track of so much
damage and since there had been no initial walkthrough at the start
of the lease there could be no way to charge people for all the
damage that had been done or would be done in the future. Management
of the house became very hands off. Monkey continued pursuing film
and recovering from his loss earlier the previous year. It would be
an understatement to say that he did not recover well from the
termination of the two year relationship with the Icelandic girl he
had been seeing. Cass and Cathy had moved out and formed their own
house with a punk rock girl that Mike D. had been seeing. Her name
was raven and she personified all that was insane in the universe.
They broke up before the end of the year. TonyLove and Cathy went
through a long breakup as well. After a fall of emotional loss at Red
Zero, Tara G went to Florida for spring break. She had the archetypal
spring break experience with one exception; She hooked up with Ian; a
smooth talking New Yorker who would later turn out to be the Prince
of Darkness. He moved into the house a month later and by summer's
end "things" had happened. Although the extremely personal nature of
this episode precludes any further mention in cyberspace, suffice to
say that it was very Melrosian. New houses were gestating during this
period of internal strife and the overall stinky feet vibe of Year
Two left the original concept of Red Zero in a very vulnerable state
as the winds of change began to blow them into....
Keep in mind that this history of Red Zero is not intended
to be %100 accurate, objective or all inclusive. There were things
that were too personal and or illegal that happened in the course of
this history and as such will not make an appearance here.