First Nasty Pirates Movie Night a Hit!

From my 2009 Resolutions List:

08. Organize a Monthly “Movie” Night.
Technically, it doesn’t even have to be movies. It could be videogames, board games, poker, whatever. The point isn’t the activity, it’s to hang out with my friends more often, something I let slide in 2008. I need to come up with a set date (like the last Friday or Saturday of every month, something like that) and just throw it out there and see who shows up. I realize not everyone can come every month, but in trying to juggle schedules last year we ended up not doing it at all. That’s not going to happen this year. Wow, I think I just worked out the details while typing. The last Friday of every month is now officially “Movie Night.” (EDIT: Invitations for the first official movie night just went out. This one has already started rolling!)

Last night was the first official “Nasty Pirates Movie Night.” I guess before continuing I should explain who the Nasty Pirates were/are.

(Insert Wayne’s World “flashback sound” here …)

By the time my friends and I were getting our driver’s licenses (the late 1980s) CB Radios (CBs) were basically dead, only being used by truckers. In terms of technology, I would say my generation would probably lump CBs in with eight-tracks. If you’re in your twenties, replace “eight-track” with “cassette tapes.” If you’re my kids age, replace “cassette tapes” with “CDs.” In other words, my friends and I knew what they were and what they were used for, but we didn’t use them. Now as a teenager I know Jeff had a CB hooked up in his room for a while, which the two of us would occasionally use to ask truckers at the Flying J about “lot lizards,” and engage truckers cruising across America on I-40 in meaningless conversation. Fast forwarding a few years, I remember Scott had a CB permanently installed in his car. (Scott’s severed dual purposes; not only did it function as a CB, but it was wired to a PA speaker mounted in Scott’s trunk. With a flip of the switch, we could broadcast/yell/harass people at an impressive volume!) Jeff’s CB ended up in his car, too. Andy could install anything into anything with a big enough hammer, and pretty soon his ride had a CB too. As the youngest of the bunch, I was the last to get my license. By then everyone else had a CB installed in their cars, so I put one in mine, too. Again to put all of this into context, it would be like if you and your online friends decided tomorrow to start communicating via a dial-up BBS.

Our high school was an “open campus,” which meant we were allowed to leave for lunch. Lunch was 50 minutes long, so time was of the essence. You could probably compare it to those rally car races, where drivers run on foot as fast as they can to their cars before screeching off, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. Lunch time was a lot like that, and since all of us had different classes right before lunch, trying to find one another and figure out where we were going to meet for lunch each day was a problem that stole valuable time off our ticking lunch clock. Enter the CB radio! When the lunch bell rang, all of us would run to our cars, turn on our CB radios, and exchange lunch plans. Keep in mind that this was about ten years before everybody on the planet had a cell phone; plus, CBs could be picked up at garage sale for five bucks, and air time was free.

I don’t remember exactly how it came about, but our little lunch group became known as the Nasty Pirates. I came up with a rough logo that had a giant NP with a big X behind it; one leg of the X was made out of a bone, the other one, a pirate sword. Either Scott or I drew a couple of pictures of a pirate with his foot propped up atop a giant skull with the Nasty Pirate logo behind him. One time as a joke I spray painted most of the logo on the concrete walls of the creek behind our house. I got spooked and ran when a porch light flicked on, leaving my one and only attempt at graffiti unfinished.

So anyway, that’s the story of the Nasty Pirates. We never “did anything” in the name of the Nasty Pirates … no meetings or anything of that nature. It was just a silly name we gave to our little group of CB-toting lunch pals.

(Insert Wayne’s World “return to reality sound” here …)

I decided to call my monthly movie night gathering’s “Nasty Pirates Night” because, essentially, the invite list is all the old Nasty Pirates (there have been a few minor changes; I don’t think Josh was ever a member of our original group, and one of the original pirates chooses not to participate). But for the most part, it’s all the old Pirates getting back together, hanging out and having fun.

My old friend Jeff, Scott, and Josh all made it over to last night’s first official Nasty Pirates Night (Andy had to work). Susan, the quintessential host, had drinks and snacks waiting for us in the fridge. Once everybody showed up, the party moved upstairs for a triple feature of bad films: Camp Blood: The Musical, Ichi the Killer, and Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. Before the night was over we got to see a teenager killed by having a boat oar crammed down his throat (Camp Blood), a guy split in two right down the middle (Ichi), and at least three different people’s eyeballs popped out (Ricky). Good times, I’d say.

And at least for me, the night was everything I wanted. The four of us sat around, catching up with one another and making fun of the films as we watched them, Mystery Science Theater 3000 style. After the movies wrapped up we spent just a few minutes playing PlayStation 3 games before the party broke up around 3am.

This took almost no planning or preparation on my part, everything went great, I’m super glad I did it and I’m already looking forward to our next get together in February.