Kicking the Hornets' Nest.

I watched Fight Club over the weekend. Film still rules.

Bête noire

L.A. Noire
A failure on every possible level. I would go into detail dismantling this game but Tom Bissell, whose Extra Lives is worth a read, already landed the ultimate coup de grâce: "I wondered if the single most damning thing about video games is the fact that one could argue, legitimately, that 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is a better game than L.A. Noire."

Grade: D

On rivalries.

On Sunday, I attended the much hyped Sounders vs. Timbers matchup. The MLS seems to be banking on the Cascadia Cup (which also includes the Whitecaps) becoming a rivalry that not only equals that of other US sports but potentially creates the same sort of heat as matches do across the pond. That ESPN would give a game between an expansion team and a 3 year old franchise such marquee treatment says a lot about the state of soccer in the rest of the 46 contiguous states 15 years after the MLS was initially founded.

Yet beyond the underdog card, I found myself struggling to arouse much hate for the Emerald City Supporters. Despite having the same geographic distance, Seattle/Portland doesn't quite generate the same sort of cultural friction as does New York/Boston. When I encountered a couple of Sounders fans enjoying a slice at Hot Lips before the game I felt more inclined to point them in the direction of a good brewery than to engage in any "Among the Thugs" hooligani behavior.

In my mind the perfect rivalry will always be Utah vs. BYU which cuts - perhaps too much so - across so many rich lines of antagonism: public vs. private, secular vs. religious, liberal vs. conservative, good vs. evil. The 2008 Holy War just week after the election felt like a referendum on the entire Bush administration and Prop 8. At the match over the weekend, I couldn't even muster up the appropriate level of condescension over the classic Stumptown vs. Starbucks angle now that the former has sold out to corporate overlords. Even the Oregon/OSU rivalry has better class dynamics. Worse still: I will be heading up to Seattle this weekend for a ambient music festival -- and I will mostly likely have a quite pleasant time in Washington state.

Yet, In spite of all of that, here I am nursing a wounded pride after the referees determined the outcome of a 3-2 game with a questionable red card in the 83rd minute.

Perhaps a rivalry only needs two factors: history and a insatiable desire for retribution.

Nerd Alert 7.10

News update: Steam's Summer Camp Sale EVISCERATES Logan's wallet.

He went so far as to buy the entire iD collection just to play Hexen 2. Nerd!

Also, he is currently debating between impatiently waiting for Season 2 of Game of Thrones or impulsively reading the entire Song of Ice and Fire series just to avoid spoilers. Talk about a nerdlemma!