Hot Damn! For years (9 to be exact...ever since I picked up KOF 95 for the PSX) I'd hoped someone would come along and make an OAV/TV series that would do justice to the King of Fighters franchise. The series is filled with memorable characters, each with their own deep and involving backstory, and with all the attention paid to animating Street Fighter (II, II V, Alpha, and so on) I thought it would only be a matter of time before it would be done. Years later, I'd pretty much given up on the possibility.

Dear GOD do I love to be proven wrong somedays. Not only will KOF finally be brought to the screen, but it is being done by none other than Production IG! The same production IG involved in the production of such titles as:

• Blood: The Last Vampire
• Blue Seed
• Ghost in the Shell
• Howl's moving Castle
• Kill Bill's animated sequence
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Spirited Away
• Vision of Escaflowne

If ANYONE can do proper justice to the frenetic action, pathos, and legend that exemplifies The King of Fighters, they can.

A 90 second trailer movie (that ought to fire the blood of ANY KoF fan!) can be found here. Not much detail is known about the series, except that it will premier in December, will take the form of a 4 part OAV series with possible net release, and that all the VA (Voice Actor) talent used in the games themselves will be utilized for the OAV (Original Animated Video).

...you to forgive my vulgarity, but in the words of Eddie Murphy, "It's my house, and if you don't like it..."

In a bold and decisive move (snort!), the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the case involving Anna Nicole Smith and her bid to obtain more of the sizeable estate of J. Howard Marshall II her dearly departed honey, despite the fact that she was never mentioned in the will. Out of 1900 cases.....a handful of cases out of almost two thousand and this is what the highest court in the land feels to be a worthy and necessary issue for their consideration?

So, Black Robes Inc. deems Nicky Big Tits pining (read vamping) for her sugar daddy's wealth an endeavor worthy enough for their time. Let me guess, with Ms. O'Conner on the backslide they felt they needed to sex the place up a bit? Why should I be surprised when, thanks be to our great and esteemed justices and their no doubt erudite interpretation of the Fifth Amendment, Mayor Jane Glover of New London, Connecticut feels empowered to say this about her constituents:

The Supreme Court has given us the authority to just go in with a bulldozer, but I don't think the state of Connecticut or us particularly want to do that, not just because of the tenants but it's just not good politics. We were hoping the people would buy out.

Were I a tenant of the properties involved in this dispute, I'd see this statement in no other way then an outright threat of force by the government. Capitulate to our demands (unfair as they are), or we shall destroy thee. Perhaps Miz Glover ought to put taxpayer funds to better use and channel King George III. Ask HIM how well it worked out.

Is it any wonder why respect for the auspices of the Supreme Court are in such decline? I'd write a long, drawn out, tortuous treatise on the subject, but frankly it has been done to death by those far more intelligent than I, and I'm just too fucking angry. Abject stupidity has a tendency to bring that out in me...

WARNING: There be much rambling in this post. Okay, I lie. There be much rambling in all my posts, but this one especially. All the rambling is relevant to the main topic, though...I swear!

As much as I enjoy music, I don't often find myself attending concerts/live shows. Not that I don't like the idea of going to a concert, far from it. In fact I still have extremely fond memories of the few shows I've seen....all three of them. Yep, just three across a span of almost 30 years. Part of the issue stems from my tastes in music, as I'd wager a good 80% of the music I listen to comes from foreign acts who rarely tour the US, if at all. Of the remaining, I'll have to be honest and say that there is no blame but myself for them. Most of my friends have tastes in music that run more toward the mainstream, so in the times where I consider attending a concert I am most often faced with 'riding solo'. Habit drives me to great lengths in avoiding any crowds when I am alone, which tends to rule out the whole concert venue.

The damnable thing of it all is that I have been left burned quite a few times by this. To this day I still berate myself for missing Guano Apes at the Electric Factory, especially now since they've split. I discovered my enjoyment of Loreena McKennitt only a scant few months before she withdrew from music (though I understand she is now working on a new album, much to my surprise and delight!). I missed a chance to see Evanescence with one of my good friends, unfortunately due to a rather horrendous workload. I was sorely depressed in 2001 when I'd heard that John Lee Hooker had passed, and that he had been performing almost right up to his death! I'd pretty much resigned myself to having little luck when it came to concerts, but that I'd be sure to jump whenever a chance came my way.

Sometimes, it seems, dumb luck can strike the very heart of No Love For Frank, as it did earlier this evening. About two years ago my family made the switch from Comcast to DirecTV (we'd been Comcast subscribers since 1983, but recently they've been less than abysmal. I shall definitely be blogging on that quite soon!). As our specific Comcast locale carried a much smaller selection of channels than even most other Comcast regions, DirecTV was simply astounding. The first thing I did was sample that divining rod of cable news channels, the one you either love or hate....FoxNews. Now, this is 2003 and I'd never once seen the station that seems to so polarize people. Call it a morbid sense of curiosity, I guess.

"How does that pertain to a post on concerts", I hear you ask? Strangely enough, it is the catalyst that brought about the events I am writing about. One evening probably more than a year ago, when flipping through the channels, I noticed an ad on FoxNews for a new album called Pure, by a New Zealand artist named Hayley Westenra. I was, simply to say, enraptured. I must admit that I possess a great weakness for the female singing voice, specifically in the realms of operatic and folk styles. In other words, women who can really SING, unlike the standard bubblegum trash that passes for music among the 'popular music' scene. Turns out she is the fastest-selling debut classical artist of all time, has the the best selling album of all time in New Zealand, and was the biggest selling classical artist in Japan for 2004, so don't just take my word for it! Needless to say, within a few scant minutes of seeing the commercial I had placed my order. Not much else to say except that even now I still listen to that album almost daily...

Which brings me to tonight. I'd been poking around the web for a decent version of 'Wondrous Love' (Christian hymn published by Benjamin Franklin White in 1844...What wondrous love is this, oh my soul, oh my soul, etc.), part of my usual 'deflating from the workday' ritual of websurfing, when I thought of checking her website (she sings several christian songs, including a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace). Why something compelled me to check the Events section I honestly cannot explain, but I am quite glad I was so compelled. Well below the large banner section promoting a UNICEF benefit concert (she is an Ambassador for both UNICEF and Save the Children), I read two words of which I am well familiar: NEW YORK. Apparently she will be playing the Supper Club in NYC on October 20th, which happens to be shortly before one of my closest friends, C.G. of So It's Come To This, is getting married, also in the City. I'd asked two of my close friends if they would be interested in attending, but both declined. Unsurprisingly, as it turns out neither had even heard of Hayley nor it seems were they too enamored of going to the City on a Thursday evening. Perfectly legitimate reasons to my mind for passing. So once again I was faced with the prospect of deciding whether or not to run solo.

Now I may not be the most perceptive of individuals, but when fate decides to pull a Frank Thomas with a clue-by-four on my skull...well, I tend to listen. I'm going to be in the exact same location around the exact same time as the event, and for an artist I would most like to hear live and would not expect to be appearing in the US at all! So I decided I'm going to go...by myself, on my own, flying solo, and all those other trite phrases. I actually just received the confirmation email for my tickets. Call it a late birthday present to myself. Hell, I'm thinking of making a whole evening of it. Drive down instead of taking the train, show up in the full three piece, then hit Ruths Chris for steak and a cigar afterwards. Should prove to be a very interesting evening....now I just have to figure out in which box I packed my digital camera!

Well then, let me just put down the cigar for a moment (Arturo Fuente Don Carlos #2, an excellent smoke I received from a good friend as a housewarming gift) and slip back several years. Normally I drink a good single malt when enjoying a fine cigar, but tonight strangely I am not. Ironic, in a way, all things considered.....but I'm rambling (I tend to do that). You'd like a story, you'd like an idea of just what No Love For Frank is, and so here I am. I guess, with things being as they were, you could call this one 'Angela'.....

Continue reading "So, you want to heart a story, eh?" »

A friendship has died. I know many would view this as a trivial matter, but for me this has never been so. The bond of friendship is something very precious to me, for it is indicative not only of the usual banalities accompanying the definition of the term, but an implicit statement of mutual trust. For the benefit of those who do not know me, trust is something I view as the deepest and most honorable of commitments, and spend as the miser does his gold...sparingly, and only for those of great worth. Events of my youth conditioned me to guard my trust vigilantly, though I wish sometimes this were not so. Owing to this, the group of people whom I call friend numbers very small. Unlike some, I never viewed this as even the least bit negative. These few men and women...for them I would truly suffer. I would endeavor to take any problems they present to me, no matter how dire, and make them my own regardless of the cost. I do this for one simple, simple reason. Because I know that they would do the same for me. In many cases they have done so, as have I for them. That is, to me, the truth of friendship. Standing by someone when it costs you the most, because you know they would do the same.

I'm not a man of great words (ironic, for one with a blog, no?)...the best way I could describe what it means is to recall a scene from the movie Tombstone. After a somewhat intense firefight, Turkey Creek Jack Johnson asks Doc Holliday why he, being in such a grave condition due to advanced illness, still persists in risking his life for the sake of Wyatt Earp and his quest for revenge/justice.

Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Why do you do it?
Doc Holliday: Wyatt is my friend.
Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Friend? Hell, I got lots of friends.
Doc Holliday: I don't.

I can't explain it any better than that.

So, when something happens to disrupt that kind of bond...the wound runs deep. It is almost a loss of part of myself. Worse still....in searching my own conduct I can find nothing in my actions that would merit such a parting. Of course, this could simply be my own sentimental blindness at play...it will be difficult to reconcile myself to the concept that I will never quite know the truth. All efforts at communication with this person have been rebuffed. I will never know was it my own faults that caused this, or if I was wrong in placing my trust in this person. Now the memory of that person, and times spent with them, will always be stained with the shadow of severing. For that loss, and for the loss of that which I hold in most high esteem I shall raise a glass to my lips, silently grieve, and move on.

And always, always in the darkest corners of my mind will linger that stinging question, a deeply scarring reminder of a more troubled time...should I, when the time may come, again take those first steps towards friendship? Should I overcome the difficulty in giving trust and again reach out my hand? So easy would it be to type 'yes'...and so hard to know if that would be the truth...

To that person, I can only say this: Be well. Be happy. Live life.

I would like to take this opportunity to......dispense with the usual pleasantries and just say 'Thanks for stopping by!'. I do have to warn you, the blog itself is still in 'tweak mode' as I get the format just right, so things might get a little wierd over the next week or so. No worries, it will all sort itself out eventually...that or come crashing down around me. Enjoy the content, and if you have any questions, recommendations, or rants in general, then feel free to use the E-Mail link on the sidebar. Enjoy!