Memorial Day Weekend 2007

Memorial Day Weekend 2007 is now in the history books.

4th Friday was an unqualified blast. The press conference went off without a hitch. After it, I managed to sneak over to the Ren Cen to see Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean.

The movie was so good that I would have been happy to watch even if it didn't have Keira in it. Of course, the fact that it did have her in it just made things that much better.

Later that night, Mitch Ryder proved that he can still rock just as hard as he did years ago. I was introduced to The Flask, a new rock band that includes Kid Rock's former lead guitarist Kenny Olson - they were scary good. Take a look at their MySpace page for a list of upcoming shows and samples of their music. If any of them are near you, I definately recommend checking them out.

Oh, and after all of the concerts, there was some guy who showed a few indie films in Campus Martius Park.

After that ended at around 1 in the morning, Nicole and I headed over to Alok's for his pre-Movement gathering. He has thrown his fair share of parties in the Kale's building before, but I don't think I've ever seen that many people in his apartment before.

Lots of beautiful people. More booze than you could drink in a week. Does it get any better?

I have no idea when I finally made it home. I just know that when staggered out of bed at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, I resolved to spend the rest of the day asleep.

And then my brother John called to offer Mark and I free tickets to that the Detroit Tigers game that afternoon.

It's amazing how quickly one can find the strength to emerge from the bedroom when free Tiger tickets are on the line. The Tigers lost, but it was still a darn good game.

I spent most of Sunday and Monday on my couch watching movies.

The Trouble with Harry was one of the ones that I watched. It's memorable first because it was one of the few comedies that Alfred Hitchcock ever made.

Yes, I know. "Alfred Hitchcock" and "comedy" are rarely mentioned in the same sentence. However, the fact remains that Mr. Hitchcock had an amazing (if slightly dark) sense of humor and The Trouble with Harry put it on full display.

The movie was also significant because it introduced the world to a young actress by the name of Shirly MacLaine (I hear she's done one or two things since then) as well as an even younger actor Jerry Mathers, before he did Leave It to Beaver.

I also watched The Wrong Man, which is the only Hitchcock movie to be explicitly based on a true story.

With those two movies crossed off my list, I've now seen almost every movie that Alfred Hitchcock ever made. There are a couple of his films that are out of print. Other than that, I've seen them all and have taken notes.