Normally, Thursdays are game night for me and my friends. However, our last campaign (d20 in a homebrew fantasy setting) has finished and we haven't gotten everybody together for our next campaign yet (d20 Star Wars, although not the official version). Instead, I suggested we go to the Parkway Theater for the Thrillville 9th anniversary show. I've been meaning to check out the Parkway for a long time: it's an odd theater that serves pizza and beer, and has couches, chairs, and tables instead of stadium seating. Thrillville is their monthly B-movie show, hosted by Will the Thrill and Monica Tiki Goddess. The centerpiece of the anniversary show was the classic Forbidden Planet, starring Leslie Nielsen, Ann Francis, and Robbie the Robot. They also had a performance by a theremin lounge band and appearances by local TV horror hosts Mr. Lobo and Ms. Monster.

Rewind a bit. The plan was to work on our Star Wars characters a bit (the movie was at 9:15 so we had time to kill), then go to the movie, and finally go clubbing in the city. Some miscommunication with Joe led to John and myself waiting in the Lake Merritt BART parking lot for a while. I spotted a cel phone on the ground, and John tried to get in touch with the owner with little success. After Joe finally arrived, we went to John's and got most of our character generation out of the way. We took a little long, and by the time we got to the theater we could only get seats way in the back. John just managed to get in touch with the phone's owner before we went in. Before the show started they were showing an episode of Lost in Space on the big screen, the one where Robbie the Robot was re-used. The band was decent, but I've got a soft spot in my head for the theremin. They gave out prizes to people who could answer some trivia questions (I could've answered one of them, but was talking with John when they asked. The robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still was named Gort), and did some little improv sketches. Joe and especially John got a little antsy waiting for the movie to start, since John had his heart set on going to the club and didn't want to be too late to get in.

The movie itself was pretty fun. It was 50s cheese, true, but in a good way. John ran out of his rum & coke early, and he & Joe cut out early to deliver the phone and mix another rum & coke (John likes 'em strong) so he'd be properly buzzed for clubbing. They came back to pick me up, but there was still some movie left to go—the Creature from the Id had just made its first visible appearance (a pretty good melding of animation and live action, actually). Joe convinced me to leave with them, which I now regret. We took off to go clubbing, but John discovered that he'd lost his ID. We hunted around outside the phone owner's house in the bushes, but had no luck. So the evening ended on a down note: not only did I not see the end of the movie, but I didn't go dancing either, and John got screwed over for being a nice guy.