Oh, what a weekend

Saturday started out with a rather momentous occasion in my life - I finally got to go inside the Book-Cadillac Hotel.

The place had been boarded up since 1984 and I wasn't allowed in when I was filming my documentary on the place. Going inside the place where Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. met for the first time; where Lou Gehrig collapsed; the place that the late-Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to as "a peril in a sea of turmoil" - it was simple and magical all at the same time.

The folks from Hour Detroit were doing a fashion shoot there. They brought me on board to write an article about the place and allowed me to join them inside.

I'm truly indebted to them for those moments that I got to spend there.

When I was done there, I went to "Studio Seen, Take One" - a party that my friend Lee Runchey hosted to celebrate the launch of her new public relations agency. It was an eclectic mix of art, fashion, music and martial arts. (Her clients are artists, fashion designers, musicians and a fight cheoregrapher for independent films.)

Mare Costello was there to showcase her art. Her work is done with laminate so she wore this dress that was made out of white laminate. My first thought was that it looked a little silly, but the more I saw her in it - well, it just seemed cooler and cooler - especially when she was standing near her artwork.

It was a great evening spent hanging out with some great folks. My photos from the evening (mostly of the martial arts demonstration) are on Flickr here. Lee has some photos over it on her Flickr page.

And while we were there, the Detroit Tigers managed to win game 4 of the American League Championship Series. This means that Detroit will now become the first city to ever host both the Super Bowl and the World Series in the same year.

Then on Sunday, I spent the afternoon and evening in Southgate with the legendary Tony Dee as we filmed promotional spots for a new reality TV show that he is launching this January. It's called I Too Want to Be a TV Star.

In the show, 12 contestants will battle it out over the course of the season for the right to host Metro Detroit Entertainment Television. This should be one very cool project.

There are more photos from Sunday's shoot here and from previous shoots on Flickr here.

And - not to be outdone by the Tigers - the Detroit Lions managed to score their first victory of the season while we were filming those segments.

I'm not sure how this weekend could have been any better.