I’m here in a “granola” local coffee shop and hangout in Memphis, Tenn., where artwork is hung on the walls with or without price tags and the wireless Internet is free. This is my Thanksgiving vacation; a blip of purposeful nonproductivity in lieu of mindless consumerism. At least if I was shopping, I could pretend there was a reason to do it, and I’d come away with something I could give to someone else. Here, there is no such pretense. I’m sitting at a table with my brother, who lives here in Memphis. I’m glad to see him, but I’m pretty sure I couldn’t live here.

Last night I went to the legendary Beale Street and went to B.B. King’s. My parents, who are also visiting along with my sister and her husband, wanted to watch a live blues show. Problem is, the blues has become the legacy of Memphis rather than the revered musical style. As my brother told me on the way home, nowadays Memphis is indie punk and rap. Which would have been fine for me, but for my parents’ sake, I just wish the cover band advertised as being “blues” would have actually played blues. Instead, it was a lame hodgepodge of the Commodores and several other lukewarm attempts at music I’ve successfully forgotten with the help of a well-placed White Russian.

I bought a T-shirt. I’ll probably wear it.

And he works at Midway Austin, so that means he worked on Mortal Kombat!

Yeah, I know, just take it from Sway, from MTV News. If anyone can make it through the first exchange, please let me know. If anyone can explain why this was done at all, definitely let me know.

Here’s the Gama coverage. They’re chock-full of features lately, and I hadn’t even noticed when it scrolled past.

Oh, yeah, read it because I wrote it. There.

Destructoid has the videos for the three Xbox 360 games that BK will be selling, for four bucks a pop, starting Nov 19. Blitz Games made these, and they actually look fun. In addition to playing as The King, you can play as Subservient Chicken in the pocket-scooter racing game.

This is what I was talking about earlier. Only 11 people, OK, but they were a good team, with Mike McShaffry in charge, and several people who’d just as soon not move to Corpus Christi so they could save the home office some money. But I guess this is the risk of trying to do an original console game for a company that’s too risk-averse to do anything else but “serious games,” expansion packs and government contracts.

I’m disappointed, but I doubt I’m the most.

Edit: McShaffry posted, saying that he’s optimistic and doesn’t have hard feelings for Breakaway, which is going to pay the employees for a few more weeks and give them leave to shop their game (and the original IP) to other publishers.

MC Chris apparently doesn’t like Kingdom Hearts 2 very much. And the reasons why need to be very obvious to game designers everywhere.

Original rant (on Gamespot After Hours)

Shortened rant with visuals (lots funnier, but don’t ask me what “smoke a bold” means.)

For a long time, I’ve heard it said that game developers in Austin only really come together with any regularity in the case of some big local disaster, such as a local studio closing. And though I’m sure the Guitar Hero 2 launch day is a good day for a party, it’s not going to be as jolly as some people might think.

Yeah, I think it happened again. I’m still a little stunned by the news, so I won’t drop the name of the studio yet.

This just about washed the taste I had for getting a job in Austin out of my mouth. We’ll see if any of it is still there by Tuesday.