Chief Civil Service Leader

Anyone interested in the trials and tribulations of the labor movement in New York City should get a subscription to The Chief-Leader. For over a century it has provided independent and in-depth analysis of the issues that impact New York City's civil servants -the policemen, teachers, transit workers, firefighters and more. As a stalwart champion of the civil service merit system, it has frequently aroused the ire of city officials, union leaders. For those aspiring to join New York's civil service, this paper offers comprehensive listings of upcoming exams as well as opportunities for promotion within the civil service.

Penthouse (1-year)

I was thinking about purchasing a subscription to Penthouse magazine because my fiance didn't object to the idea. Penthouse was the first "dirty" magazine I purchased when I turned 18 back in 2002. I was very pleased with the content, mostly pictorially, when compared to the much tamer fair of the Playboys I had hidden in a box in my room.

By the time I entered college, I had six issues of Penthouse. I had also discovered that 90% of the internet (which I hadn't had access to until I went to college) was comprised of pornographic websites, and that you could get a lot of the content for free (especially just women showing their private parts). I gave three of the issues to a friend (who's girlfriend blocked porn on his computer) and still have three somewhere in a box.

Enough with the back story. Today, I purchased the July 2008 issue of Penthouse. Much to my chagrin, pictorially it is equivalent to the Playboys of the mid-to-late nineties. All you get is a little exposure of feminine private parts (as compared to Playboy now, where you get breasts and perhaps the top part of a well-trimmed and air brushed bush). Yes, some shots are spread eagle, but not with the true intent of that position. In the older issues I had, before Guccione sold the magazine in 2005, you got spreading, toying, masturbation, waterworks, and even some penetration (I can do without the latter...just looking for the women).

Even semi-tasteful smut was dying in the late nineties, mostly due to the efforts of censorship groups. This killed the market for Penthouse by eliminating its presence on military base exchange stores and other stores around the country. It forced Guccione to eventually file for bankruptcy and sell Penthouse in 2005. The $8 newsstand price didn't help the magazine sales and still doesn't.

On the cover of Penthouse today, you'll see a small Support Our Troops ribbon. I have no problem with that. I support the troops. I have friends involved in the Iraq Conflict. I chose to be an engineer instead of following them over there.

It's not about keeping the image of the magazine anymore. It's all about sales and marketing (competing with Playboy for the softcore market). For that reason, I say that Penthouse has sold out. I'll still enjoy the Penthouse magazines I have that are dated before 2005, but I won't purchase any new issues or get a subscription (even at $2.50/issue, it's not worth it).

Penthouse used to be midcore. Playboy was softcore. Hustler was hardcore. Now, Penthouse is softcore, Playboy is fluffcore, and Larry Flynt still won't budge to political pressure because he's not a sellout, so Hustler is still hardcore with a decent price tag.

The only thing that has remained unchanged are the articles targeted to the 18-30 crowd, but even Playboy is catching up on that front. The 30-50 crowd just isn't buying the fluffcore magazines anymore. They're buying high-priced hookers instead. If you're in it for the targeted articles (in which case, consider buying a magazine where articles are the focus instead), then go ahead and get it. It'll make more sense to you than Playboy. You could always just go to G4TV.com or EGM to find out what you "need" to know about popular culture.

Penthouse still uses relatively unknown Porn Stars. You can find better photos of them for free on the internet. This month it is Carli Banks, Shawna Lenee, Sonny Leone, and revisits from other previous Penthouse pets in mock lesbian scenarios where nothing happens.

So, that's more than my two cents...it's my waste of $8. I'm glad it wasn't $30.

This magazine is alot like playboy with three differences. First: Twice the price. Second: Less articles. The articles they do have are not as interesting or well written. Third: Shows a little more of the ladies.

Not as hardcore as Hustler and not as softcore as playboy. It's really in a bizarre middle ground where if you want a good magazine to read (that happens to have nude woman) then you'd go with Playboy and if you're looking for a good magazine to Umm, "read" *wink wink* then you'd go with Hustler.

Penthouse tries to reach both those demographics and falls short to both.

Still, beautiful naked woman, so three stars.

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Never had to wait and was quite pleased with the product. I was a lot cheaper than buying at a news stand.

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The Penthouse Forum is very arousing and really make any man very sexed up.

I am glad I took a chance on a one year subscription.

The nude pictures go al,l the way.

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Ordered two subscriptions for friends which Amazaon was paid for and the mags never showed. Amazaon says tough luck, take it up with the magazine. Don't order magazines through Amazon.

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Classic Rock

Wow, I just got my hands on my first magazine sent to me through the Amazon.com subscription, and it is the best rock magazine I've ever read. The magazine featured ridiculous write ups on Journey, John Kalodner, Triumph, and on the cover and feature was Led Zeppelin covering the Last Days. Included were stories on Zep's final Years (77 80), their manager Peter Grant, Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door, and John Bonham. Those stories were very well detailed, published, thoroughly interesting, great write ups, pictorials, etc. The magazine was 146 pages, and aside for the feature contents, regular contents include a communication breakdown (which answers fans letters and emails), the dirt (all the news, rumors, and more), Everyhome should have one (where the magazine asks a musician his favorite album...this edition included Rudolf Scheneker from the Scrops saying no home should be without Steely Dan's The Royal Scam..and he was serious), The Stories Behind the SOngs (Classic Rock looking at BOC's Don't Fear the Reaper), Q & A (with Kinks Dave Davies), Bad Wisdom, The Hard Stuff (the biggest, rockingest rock reviews package on the planet covering all that is new, reissued, spotlight, DVD, books, you name it...it gets reviewed...the best review column I have ever read), and many more regular sections.

I've read and subscribed to dozens of magazines in the past. Such as Metal Edge, Blender, Maxim, Rolling Stone, Guitar World, Revlover, Sound and Vision, and by far this UK published magazine is my absolute favorite one to buy and well worth the $9.00 USD an issue.

I am actually a bit peed off as Amazon.com has recuded the price now to be around $6.70 an issue when I bought mine a couple months ago, but nonetheless, it's a fantastic and addictive magazine certainly any fan of classic rock will enjoy. Next issue is going to be fantastic as well covering Pink Floyd, Grand Funk Railroad, and Jimi Hendrix. Bring it on!

Classic Rock is a GREAT magazine. No emo. No nu metal. No punk (well, not much). So what does it have you ask?

How about classic '70s and '80s ROCK AND ROLL, NWOBHM, Prog and Indie. Yeah, every once in awhile an issue will have too much Led Zep or too much AC/DC which to me is a waste for this fine magazine because you can read about those bands anywhere. But, what makes Classic Rock magazine so unique is that it covers many (of my favorite) bands that you do not see on the covers of 20 other magazines sitting nexxt to it on the shelf. Bands that may or may not have "made it" in their day but nonetheless inspired newcomers and/or their slice of history such as Hawkwind, King Crimson, Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt, Gong, T. Rex, Peter Hammill, VdGG, and of course the metal trinity of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and the almighty Black Sabbath. Classic Rock has a great way of providing unique coverage (rare photos & excellent interviews) and have a great way of mixing the old with the new. Their facts are accurate and what gives them an edge of credibility over so many other rags is they seem to CARE and KNOW and REVERE these bands like you and I do. What a concept writers who actually know about the bands they interview and write about.

Borders is the only bookstore in which I have seen this magazine, and only for about the last year. Then for some reason, it seems to have disappeared off their shelves. Which would be a shame if they decide to stop carrying it. Who knows, maybe they only bring in a few copies which are quickly sold and that's why you don't see them as often. Anyone know about this?

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Born in 1998 originally as a one off concept Classic Rock has blossomed to be the premier `dad rock' magazine on the planet, though given how steadfastly it refuses to spend virtually any time on anything more recent than the end of the NWOBHM it may soon have to have the epithet of `grandad rock' magazine!

With well written (if sometimes rehashed) articles the magazine has a good reviews section and spends time reviewing reissues as well and hardly an issue goes by where you won't score yourself a free CD or even at times a free DVD which is a great way of finding out about new bands. Actually, while the magazine itself concentrates very hard on not stepping on the toes of it's sister magazine Metal Hammer the bands featured on their cover mount CD's are often very new and this is a nice juxtaposition. Many CD's have found their way onto my shelf due to the inclusion of a track on one of these free discs.

Another aspect I appreciate is the humour and the fact that the whole hard rock and heavy metal scene isn't taken too seriously. Joke captions and cheeky remarks are often the order of the day and many of the writers really do have very long and impressive CV's of hard rock and metal journalism. The whole thing is rounded off by live reviews, regular features that alternate over time and tasty photography.

As my tag line says, subscribe to this and Metal Hammer. And the reason for this is that the two complement each other, Metal Hammer being aimed at a younger readership who think Korn and the rest of the Adidas rock crowd are where metal music began whereas Classic Rock prefers to deal with the 70's. And some 70's stuff as well. And they'll occasionally spend a bit of time talking about the 70's. Actually, sometimes you wish they'd turn the spotlight of their quality journalistic onto some younger bands and fair play, the whole thing is a bit Brit-centric which is fair enough since that is where the magazine comes from and the European bands get short shrift. If you wanna find out about continental bands try Power Play.

All up I rarely miss an issue at my newsstand except when I can see all I'm in for is another love fest about one of the magazines pet 70's bands. Heartily recommended for the discerning older metal head or young pup that wants to catch some news about some of the bands that started it all.

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best magazine covering old and new rock music i have ever read...emphasis on classic rock of 60s,70s and 80s...great articles and interviews..keeps me up to date with all the news about the bands i grew up with and still love today

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I found this magazine in a Borders store almost 2 years ago at $7.99. I took it home and read it from cover to cover in about 2 days, it was that hard to put down. I haven't found a magazine in the past decade where I have enjoyed each article and the subject matter enclosed. They have tons of CD, DVD and concert reviews and being from England, informs those of us on this side of the pond of new bands that we would otherwise never hear of. It took me a few issues to subscribe, but I have been on board ever since. If you like articles on bands from the past such as Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Grand Funk, Pink Floyd, Y & T, well the list goes on and on. Some are stories on what they have been up to, but mostly an article about a particular tour or making of an album that we now recognise as a classic. It has also turned me on to bands such as Status Quo, Tokyo Dragons, Young Heart Attack, and Mostly Autumn that I would have otherwise never been exposed to. Also, every 3 or 4 issues comes with a rather long playing free CD of current music that is a nice bonus that samples the gammut of rock music. I recommend this highly, mostly color pictures that have never been shown before. The Thin Lizzy spread was my favorite a couple of issues ago. Try an issue or two, you won't be disappointed.

Stereophile Magazine (1-year auto-renewal)

I have read Stereophile on and off for the last 15 years, and I have always been happy with their reviews. Of course Stereophile is a very niche magazine, as the title suggests, but they generally review a lot of high-end gear that most people cannot afford. This is obviously a magazine for those who love home audio, and will continue to seek out the ideal reproduction of music within their home. The reviewers are mostly all music purists, so generally nothing is too expensive to achieve the pinnacle of music playback. So be ready for a lot of shop talk geared at audio enthusiasts. Articles are detailed and backed up with data in many cases, but the summary and bottom line are the useful bits for me many times.

That said, I am not one with a disposable income, but I have found a lot of useful recommendations that have ended up as purchases at home that I have been extremely happy with on the cheap. I have bought 3 things over the last decade as a result of Stereophile steering me in the right direction: my Marantz CD player (blew away the more expensive Denon unit at the time), my Rotel turntable, and my Grado headphones. I always recommend listening to every component at the store before buying, but I took Stereophile's word on the headphones and bought those blindly (deafly?) unlike the CD player and turntable. I was blown away at the quality I got for a 70-dollar pair of headphones. Also, I must add that there is something rich and full about a symphony that is recorded on a 180+gram vinyl record versus a CD, and can be really appreciated with the right gear. My Rotel turntable is a low-to-mid end turntable that made me a believer in vinyl 12 years ago.

I recommend Robert Harley's book on high-end audio if you're interested achieving a higher-fidelity sound in your home:

The Complete Guide to High-End Audio

I have appreciated the efforts of Stereophile doing more budget-minded systems in the past, but I still would like to see more, with articles focused on building home systems on a budget.

My title pretty much sums up stereophile, when i got into audio i use to think this was a reliable source to hi fi audio. Once i actually learned the science behind audio reproduction I relalized that this magazine was pretty much (in the words of our vice president) a bunch of malarkey. Reviewing expensive cables, interconnects, AC power cables, cable lifters, vinyl and CD demagnitizers, and the outrageous claims they make about each one is asinine. Most of their reviews are done in different rooms which already is going to make loudspeakers sound different, and also done without double blind testing. Most of what they publish in the reviews is plecebo effect, of course if you swap a $40 dollar cable with a $2000 cable its going to sound better to you because you are expecting it to sound better. After all its $1960 more! Every single human being is susceptible to plecebo effect which is why it is imperative to isolate any visul, and price difference bias from the reviewer. It is done in the medical field with new medicine but not in high end audio. The other things they do just borderline on insanity, for example they reviewed the vinyl and CD demagnitizer and claimed it actually improved the sound but of course fail to provide any evidence of this. Any person who passed high school science class will tell you that this is complete nonsence, CDs are made of polycarbonate plastic and vinyl is made of thermoplastic polymer or PVC. Both materials do NOT magnitize. Another is AC power cords costing 2 or 3 thousand dollars which they review and of course say it made a profound difference in the sound. Which again does not hold water in a court of science, its a power cable and audio does not pass through it. What good is 2-3 feet of so called "good" power cable going to do when you got normal copper cable in your walls? These are just a few examples I could go on and on. I rarely see them talk about room treatment which actually makes a profound difference and is backed up by science and measurements. If you want to really learn about how to set up a TRUE hifi system in your house i recommend two books, one is floyd toole's book called sound reproduction, the the other is by ethan winer called the audio expert. Both are fantastic books that cut out the snake oil charlatans and get down to what REALLY matters and to what makes a audible difference.

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I am not a audiophile.

I do love music.

I do love High Fi.

I can't afford 99.5% of the esoteric "Stuff" they review.

So why bother?

I get a real kick out of reading the mag for the simple reason that it totally blows my mind, how audiophiles can believe 1/2 the BS these "critics/experts" write.

I do value the Record Reviews, and the humor Dudley/Mejias inject into their columns.

It certainly is a diversion for time spent upon my porcelain throne!!

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Stereophile year after year gives the best reviews/writing. Thinking about getting a new piece of gear or a new system. They write reviews for entry level and the high end. A well rounded magazine with great info.

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I like to think of what my system would sound like if I could afford it. I drool with the prospects.

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Autism Spectrum Quarterly

I "like" this magazine, but I think it is way more expensive than it should be. The fact that this serves the autism community should not be an excuse to charge such a high subscription rate. I did not get enough out of it to continue my subscription.

This magazine is so interesting to read. Its very different from any of the other autism magazines in that they do a fantastic job talking about the latest and greatest research and how to integrate it into practice. You will not be disappointed!

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Custom Classic Trucks (1-year auto-renewal)

Great magazine, no matter what stage of a car afficionado you are. Lots of pictures, helpful articles, and ideas to inspire as you restore or dream about restoring a classic truck. Love it.

This is great for those who like old trucks. Great articles with tips if you are you are rebuilding your own. Great pictures. This is a must have for antique truck lovers .

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Electronic House

I am a gadget freak and a big fan of consumer electronics of any kind. I also appreciate good high-quality audiovisual entertainment, and watching movies at home is definitely high on my list of entertainment options. With these things in mind "Electronic House" is almost an ideal magazine for me. It consistently features some of the best and most advanced home electronics products, as well as in-depth reports on some very advanced comprehensive home-entertainment setups. Many of the electronic products are very cutting edge, and not likely to be featured even in the most trendy of the technology blogs. That's the good news. The bad news is that those products tend to be way outside most mortals' budget, and are not very likely to end up in your or any of your friends' homes in the foreseeable future. Nonetheless, due to the rapidly evolving technologies and ever-decreasing prices of electronic products one can be reasonably sure that most of the gadgets that are featured in this magazine will eventually find their way to mass markets in some way shape or form.

The product reviews in this magazine are very nicely done, although they tend to be on the flattering side. If you were considering purchasing any of the featured products I would recommend checking out some other online or offline reviews. Amazon reviews in particular (if available) will give you some idea of what the actual experiences of real-life users may be, although even those should be taken with a grain of salt.

One of the nicest features in this magazine are the in-depth articles on various luxury homes that are saturated with the latest audio, video, and home automation features. These homes can be quite impressive, and looking at them could elicit some serious envy. Fortunately, the magazine also features articles on electronically sophisticated homes that are within the reach of most middle class households. At the very least, "Electronic House" will provide you with the idea of what the latest home entertainment trends are. The way I see it, even the most expensive large TV or LCD projector is much less expensive than even the cheapest new car, not to mention those luxury sports cars that are regularly featured in any automotive magazine. If you are going to aspire for a fancy new toy, home electronics is a much more accessible goal.

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