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Living in an apartment means giving up certain things, such as a degree of privacy and silence. One can choose not to know one’s neighbors, but sights, sounds, and smells reinforce their presence. Sometimes the things our neighbors are doing involve us in their lives, leaving us to make momentous decisions based on judging whether, for instance, the fight downstairs has escalated to the point where we should call the police.

When Eddie and Mitch, two recent college graduates, rented an apartment in San Francisco (1987), the absentee landlord advised them--after they signed the lease--that their next door neighbors were sometimes loud. What the landlord didn’t mention was that the two guys next door, Ray and Peter, had a habit of getting drunk and trading obscenity-laced invective, often into the early morning hours, and usually at the top of their voices. When one of the young men complained about the noise and Ray threatened to kill him, Eddie and Mitch began taping the fights. Thus Shut Up Little Man! was launched.