(no subject)

[holzman_tweed]

First a quick political note.

New Paltz Mayor Jason West is being criminally prosecuted for the misdemeanor offense of solemnizing a marriage without a license. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but he said this morning that it's not he, but the license issuing authority that is breaking the laws of New York, and that he will continue to marry people without discrimination.

EDIT: This is not disuading the Mayor of Nyack from taking up marriage equality, but from seeking a license to marry his own same-sex partner. Meanwhile, pressure is starting to mount on Bloomberg to do the right thing. Shame on you, Mayor Bloomberg, for not taking a leadership role!

Governor Pataki directed Attorney General Spitzer to get a court to order West to stop marrying same-sex couples. Spitzer refused, saying he doesn't think he'd be able to get a court to issue that order based on the luck they're having in California. He's also made it plain that he supports marriage equity, and people are thinking he may issue an opinion in his legasl capacity that New York State law does not forbid it.

EDIT: It didn't happen. Spitzer says he'd like to see the law changed, but the law is what it is.

I'm shortly off to put my Governor on notice that he needs to do the right thing on marriage equity.

---

I picked up Ascension last night, which is White Wolf's concluding episode for Mage: The Ascension. Those who follow gaming are probably aware that White Wolf is taking the (as far as I know) unprecedented step of actually concluding the campaign world that has been it's flagship for 12 years, rather than letting it slip into a limbo of supplements that no one buys. They're also concluding Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse with Gehenna and Apocalypse.

As luck had it, I was at Gen Con when V:tA was first released in 1991. I got it that weekend and may have been one of the first people in Chicago running it. Mage was definately the game that most captured my attention, though, even though I stopped paying attention once 3rd edition came out.

Ascension seems quite good so far, though. I like the fact that they're structuring the book such that the GM can pick from any of a set of provided conclusions to the game, or use it to build a custom tailored conclusion.

I've been inspired to finally put together a Mage play list for each of the major factions and for the conclusion itself. If I obsesses on it enough, I may get very granular indeed in splitting things down, but we'll see how that plays out.

Comments

[chorus.livejournal.com]

I've long since given up on White Wolf, myself. Your play lists are interesting, though.

Kory -- who is going to make an appearance in a very changed form in my 7th Sea game -- would add two more things from Awake ("Voices" and "Scarred") and at least one more Rush song ("Double Agent") for the people who are stuck in the middle between ideologies...

(Also, "Everyday Glory" for the orphans.)

Which reminds me that, damn it, I don't have my copy of Counterparts in California and therefore can't rip it to my mp3 player.

[jadegirl.livejournal.com]

You are buring this to CD, yes?

[wednesday]

So apparently, now that Gowan is in Styx, Styx do "Criminal Mind." Might be worth tracking down; I don't know if they just do it in concert or if there's a recording, though.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

It's on Styxworld. I got it last year, and Styx does good things with it, though it is abridged, which I hate.

When it comes to the 80s, if it weren't for flashbacks we wouldn't have any memories at all. James Young

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think that the mayor of New Palz is dead wrong in marrying couples without a marriage license, if that is in fact what he has done - it creates the wrongful impression that, based on his civil status, he is in fact conducting recognizably lawful marriages.

The right path to take would be to order city clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, like SF and Portland's Multnomah county and that New Mexico county did. While in some places the government recognizes certain religious wedding traditions in lieu of a license, (for example, one set of the Ontario same-sex marriage plaintiffs registered their intent to get married by "posting of the banns",) mayors don't generally perform those kinds of weddings.

While I approve of his sentiment, I don't think New York law makes him the right person to take his actions.

[eberg.livejournal.com]

Dan, I'm curious, was there an ad in the back of Ascension advertising the new version? If so, what did it say? I'm curious if it gave any hint to the direction they are going with it and whether the name is Mage: the Awakening, as previously reported?

(I've sworn off White Wolf but I can't help but be nosy about this.)

Eric

[holzman.livejournal.com]

The only thing advertised in the back of Ascension is a novel, Judgement Day.

[eberg.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Wonder if that means they aren't doing a new version. Thanks!