Animal House on Acid

Book excerpt: ANIMAL HOUSE ON ACID is a memoir by Beverly Potter, a neighbor of the “most notorious housing unit on the face of the Earth.” Barrington Hall, a large student-run co-op on the Southside of the University a few blocks off of Telegraph Avenue, was Berkeley’s last outpost of the ‘60s. Barringtonians, as they called themselves, held fast to the culture of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll long after it had ceased to be fashionable, and clung to the sanctity of individual expression—even to the point of covering up not only illegal but genuinely harmful acts with a cloak of silence, know as “Onngh Yonngh”, which stated: Those who know, don't tell' those who tell, don't know. Inside Barrington Hall, youth rebellion never grew old, because each year it was replenished with a new crop of eighteen-year-olds, sorry to have missed the ‘60s and glad to find a small chunk of it still alive just down the street from People’s Park on Dwight Way. Barrington became a victim of its own mythology: with a house culture dedicated to outrage, it eventually outraged all, even its natural allies. Established as a co-op in the 1930s, by 1980 Barrington had become a continuing disaster for the USCA [University Students Coop Association]. Known internationally for live punk rock, LSD parties called “wine dinners” featuring acid-spiked wine punch, open drug use, heroin use and over-doses, crashers and haven for under-age run-aways, activism and anarchy, raucous parties, kids going off the four-story roof, along with disputes with neighbors and investigations by the City Council. Barrington sapped the patience of everyone involved. Finally after a neighbor group took Barrington to arbitration, and three City investigations, and PACT - Parents and Children Together attempts to control the raucous behavior, Potter filed a lawsuit. Then the death threats rained down upon her. Barrington Hall was boarded up in March 1990 -- 24 years ago. Yet, it’s spirit and romance lives on. Today, in July 2014, there is a large memorial poster in the window of Rasputin Music on Telegraph Avenue honoring Barrington Hall, calling it a “petri dish of early San Francisco Bay Area Punk Rock.” [https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/9583462218/] Dead Kennedys, Green Day, Primus and other popular Punk groups played regularly at Barrington. There are several chat sites developed to Barrington along with annual reunions. Les Claypool of the Punk group, Primus, wrote one of the many songs about Barrington. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNrTKhGbqi4] Barrington was known for its floor to ceiling murals through-out the building -- all four floors. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqMVyNq189o] Barringtonians routinely painted graffiti messages to and about Potter on the outside of the building, including "Beverly gives good head" which was listed in her lawsuit as a cause of action. ANIMAL HOUSE ON ACID is packed with side stories. One is about the dope book publishers suing the dope den. Sebastian Orfali and Beverly Potter, publishers of Ronin Publishing, which arose the ashes of the 1970’s break-through And/Or Press, were neighbors -- literally under the windows of Barrington. When the media learned that Ronin (and And/Or before it) published marijuana and psychedelics subjects, a KCBS commentator remarked about Orfali, “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” The 1989 photo featured in the Barrington Hall Wikipedia is 30 feet from Potter's house. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrington_Hall_(Berkeley,_California)] In 1990, Barrington Hall was to be closed for good. 18 students - "the holdovers" - refused to leave and were being evicted. March 3, 1990, a poetry reading escalated into a full blown riot -- with Berkeley Riot Squad trucks sweeping the streets and riot police swinging clubs. There was a 20 foot bonfire in front of the Haste Street entrance - and Potter's house. ANIMAL HOUSE ON ACID is Potter's memoir of a truly long, strange trip, which she tells in a scrapbook-like format, composed of local newspaper stories, City reports, incident notes, posters, photographs, stitched together with Potter's retelling of wild tales -- even by Berkeley standards.