Northern Virginia Magazine

This magazine does an amazing job of detailing anywhere you could want to see in the Northern Virginia area. For instance, a sampling from the July issue: Where to go for hot air ballooning, rooftop dining, natural swimming holes, innertubing, spas, ice rinks, dog parks, boat rentals, shaded trails, run through fountains, waterfalls, fireworks, county fairs and so on, along with any applicable dates or addresses. There are also restaurant reviews, recipes, and articles of interest to those living in the area. So far, I have found the information helpful, accurate, and up to date. Having lived in Alexandria for about 3 years now, I feel like this has opened me up to the bounty of activities within a short drive. I have not found a single issue lacking in at least one or two interesting articles or places to visit.

Polish American Journal

The Polish American Journal is published monthly in newspaper format out of Boston, New York near Buffalo. The journal presents news and information regarding Poland and American Polonia from a very conservative, traditionalistic point of view. This is a folksy paper geared towards the Polish American blue hairs who still attend functions down at the struggling Dom Polski so you won't ever find any articles critical of Poland. While one would not expect a Polish American paper to present Poland and Polonia in a negative light, many of the most chauvinistic, parochial attitudes associated with Polish Catholic ethno-nationalism, including a certain degree of anti-Jewish bias, can be found in the pages of the PAJ. The paper advertises that it provides features by "Polonia's finest academicians and historians" however subscribers will instead find the paper's actual writers rarely measure up to those credentials. They can, however, usually be counted on to present news and opinion from very conservative and far-right points of view. For example, articles regularly appear in the PAJ in support of hyper-catholic, ultra-nationalistic Radio Maryja, which is so extreme it even rankles the conservative Polish Catholic Church and the Vatican. Letters to the editor asking that the paper present the news in a more moderate, objective voice are ignored.

Of course, the Polish American Journal does have its good points. Readers are able to keep current with what's going on down at the Polish embassy and what new polka CD's and books are out. There's also plenty of apolitical features on traditions and holidays. So while I do recommend the PAJ, I caution potential subscribers that they will be getting only a very conservative slant on Polish current events and history.

Golf Tips (1-year auto-renewal)

Golf tips magazine is one of the most aptly titled magazines available today. It is chock full of heavily-illustrated exercises and other tips for serious golfers to improve their games.

There are a number of golf magazines on the newstand today. Most of them rely on a lifestyle format relying more heavily on lifestyle-type stories about today's hot golfers and the courses they play. Most of them include a brief game tip or two but seem aimed at the casual duffer.

Golf Tips, on the other hand, features almost nothing but heavily illustrated tips on improving one's swing, eliminating mistakes and putting better. It also is heavily loaded with features on the latest equipment technology. Each issue also seems to feature an article on the technical aspects of a selected major golf course. The articles are written with terminology that serious golfers will understand but that may confuse the weekend player. Judging by the amount of advertising in its early issues, this magazine also appears to be financially healthy.

If a reader wants to read about the PGA Tour's superstars, this magazine is not for him/her. But if s/he plans to be one of those superstars, Golf Tips is a good match.

If you are the type of golfer who wants to improve your putting, your swing, your choice of equipment, or anything else golf related, then Golf Tips is the magazine for you. This magazine, unlike other golf publications, dedicates almost all of its pages to improvement. Most every golfer wants to get better over time, and Golf Tips is one of the few publications available that focuses all of its contents on self improvement.

As far as the advice goes, Golf Tips is a good magazine and it tries to cover several different aspects of the game in the same issue, so readers can find a relevant article that relates to their own problems. Maybe your problem area is putting. If it is, there is likely a putting article someone in the current issue. Another person might be having trouble perfecting his/her swing and if so, there are plenty of helpful articles that include diagrams so readers will know exactly what to do.

Other magazines include diagrams to illustrate proper maneuvering of the hands and body when swinging a golf club but Golf Tips takes this a step further. It includes not only picture depicting the right way to do it, there are also pictures showing what not to do. With some of these, Golf Tips will make sure the casual reader knows which photo depicts the wrong way to swing by showing a red circle with a line through it (same symbol seen on certain traffic signs), superimposed over the picture. With an illustration like this, there will be no doubt in the golfer's mind what he/she is not supposed to do.

Overall, Golf Tips is a good magazine for someone whose primary interest is improving his/her game. There are other magazines that include some instruction on the game, but Golf Tips concentrates most all of its pages in this area. I prefer a more balanced golf magazine like Golf Digest but I can see how Golf Tips could come in handy. The advice is written like a pro, and it covers something about many different problems in each and every issue.

Buy Golf Tips (1-year auto-renewal) Now

I ordered a one year subscription not through Amazon as it was cheaper elsewhere. Best I can say is that it is cheap. Received three issues at the start. None of the information had to do with current events so I did not complain about being sent previous issues. However when you order a year subscription you expect magazines over one year. Not half of your subscription at the beginning. No articles by big name instructors or players. Magazine is thin about a third as many pages as Golf Digest or Golf Magazine. The six issues are not every other month. They have a strange schedule where get several issues in consecutive months and then it can skip one or more months.

Read Best Reviews of Golf Tips (1-year auto-renewal) Here

As someone who is married to an aspiring golfer, he loves this magazine. I don't know if the tips has helped his game or not, but he sure enjoys reading it. Good price and thank heavens for the auto-renewal.

Want Golf Tips (1-year auto-renewal) Discount?

Although I was excited to order this magazine, I never received my purchase. I would not recommend the use of this vendor again.

Save 71% Off

Guitar Player (1-year auto-renewal)

I've been subscribing for a couple of years now. The quick laundry list:

1. My favorite bit is there tends to be a diverse selection of guitar players and lessons. One month may be jazz heavy, another may be blues heavy, and sometimes there is even some punk/metal stuff thrown in. As a player I enjoy blues and metal, but I enjoy the diversity as it spawns ideas. Also note that while there are main stream guitarists covered there are also a lot of more obscure folks covered as well.

2. Yes there are a lot of ads. Show me a magazine that isn't loaded with ads these days tho'.

3. Yes there are a lot of gear reviews. Great if you're a gear head not so good if you could care less. Usually at least 50% reviews 50% lessons, sometimes more on the review side.

4. I've been playing for a few years now and find most of the lessons are generally intermediate to advanced and assume you are fairly well versed in music theory. I don't count myself as an extraordinary guitar player though. I ended up buying a few music theory books to help me understand the lessons after a few issues. Frustrating but a great challenge!

5. No there are no tabs of the latest or oldest hits out there. Everything in this magazine revolves around learning to make music, not copy somebody else note for note.

All in all a decent enough magazine. I'm giving 4 stars instead of 5 just because I'm a bit against all the gear reviews and the lessons are sometimes too brief or vague to be useful for me.

When GP started publication there wasn't anything else to compete with it. Now the aspiring youg guitarist has his or her pick of guitar mags, full of tab transcriptions of the latest hits and fawning interviews with pretentious guitar heros.

GP has tried to stand out form these magazine by being more about music and equipment, and to have a broader view of guitar playing, and to an extent is has succeeded. You're far more likely to find a profile of an intersting Flamenco or Brazilian guitarist in GP than in one of the other mags, and while you won't find fully tabbed out songs, GP is far more likely to deliver an article that goes into some depth on theory and application. In that sense, GP is more for musicians, and the other guitar magazines are mostly for teens looking to cover their favorite bands.

GP isn't always great. Some issues are completely devoid of anything that interests me, and there's far too much punk and shred guitar for my tastes. But a subscription is ridiculously cheap; I don't mind if I only find something of use in as few as half the issues I receive.

Buy Guitar Player (1-year auto-renewal) Now

I've subscribed to Guitar Player for a little over a year now. It seems like a great magazine that attempts to cover all of the bases of guitar playing. It has reviews and interviews with everyone from pretentious guitar heros to down-to-earth acoustic players and punk rockers. There are quite a lot of ads but they are expected for such a magazine. There are CD reviews based off of the guitarist's aspect also.

Although there are not complete song tabs there is a section that aims to improve aspects of guitar playing taught by acomplished musicians (Rusty Cooley, Robben ford, and some more). I personally prefer this over full song transcriptions because these improve personal playing instead of simply copying what some other muscian has done; thereby leaving room for innovation instead of emulation.

This magazine has a lot to cover, so it tries to be eclectic and thorough. It interviews and examines classic rock, jazz, acoustic, classical and metal guitarists.

This is great for those that are serious about guitar playing. For the casual, MTV based guitar player, Guitar World is probably a better magazine for you.

If you are truely serious about a specific type of guitar playing. You would do better to pick up a magazine solely about your style of guitar playing (ex. Acoustic Guitar magazine).

Pros: A thorough magazine that covers most if not all aspects of guitar playing.

Cons: There are too many ads and the products that are reviewed are generally too expensive for the average guitarist (it's at least too much for me to care)

Read Best Reviews of Guitar Player (1-year auto-renewal) Here

I've subscribed to this magazine since the 1970's. For a lot of that time, it was the only guitar magazine widely available. It provided a great deal of instructional content, especially the columns which ran for years, and which were like taking monthly lessons from top players.

Unfortunately, the instructional content is an afterthought these days, relegated to a few quick one page riff ideas by random people each month. The magazine is almost totally consumed by "gear reviews", of which they seem quite proud. It's obviously an attempt to stay on the good side of all the equipment manufacturers who buy advertising. I'm profoundly bored with all the equipment content. The articles and interviews with players are getting shorter and shorter. The unspoken message seems to be "Don't worry about learning how to play what you have, just get out there and buy more stuff."

Their choices of cover artists are also getting more and more "flavor of the month"-oriented (when they aren't showing equipment on the cover). They'll run very short articles on great players, then give the cover and longest article to someone more known for their sense of fashion or appearances in celebrity gossip columns than for their guitar playing.

And don't get me started on their editor's monthly sermon on how we should all be out there creating "great art". Zzz...

Want Guitar Player (1-year auto-renewal) Discount?

Having played on and off for over 35 years, this is a great magazine if you're heavily in the "on" mode but is very high end if you're trying to make your way back from "off" to "on". I tend to prefer "Guitar for the Practicing Musician" but that reflects my rock orientation and need for simpler explanations even after all these years.

Save 81% Off

Carolina Gardener

I have enjoyed this magazine, but not sure I will renew again. I've started collecting plant bks and not sure I need this magazine. But then again, I love magazines and living in SC, this one is helpful plus enjoyable!

julrobs

Music K-8 C-W Compact Disc

I've gotten the Music K-8 Magazine since it started 20 years ago. It's a GREAT teaching tool. I love it! Unfortunately, it's cheaper to buy through Plank Rd. Publishing than it is through Amazon.com. I love Amazon and shop here most of the time, but this product should be ordered from the company that puts it out.

Science Fiction Studies

Science Fiction Studies (SFS) is a scholarly journal that publishes articles and book reviews on science fiction, broadly defined. It appears three times per year (March, July, November) and averages 150-200 pages. A representative issue contains 5-6 articles ranging in length from 5,000 to 15,000 words, 2-3 review-essays, and two dozen book reviews covering scholarly works, plus a substantial Notes and Correspondence section. Special issues follow the same format but are usually guest-edited. Recent special issue topics include Technoculture and Science Fiction, Afrofuturism, Latin American Science Fiction, and Animal Studies and Science Fiction. A regular rotation of open and special issues has characterized the journal's publication schedule from the outset: roughly one-third of our 105 issues have been special issues. Our special issues often have a major impact on the field, setting critical agendas and initiating debates. Guest editors are drawn from our consulting board of 37 scholars, representing in their expertise the international scope of the field.

SFS is refereed, very selective (its acceptance rate averages around 37%), and its 900+ subscription base includes institutions and individuals in the US and Canada and more than 30 foreign countries. The parent company of SFS is SF-TH Inc., a not-for-profit corporation established under the laws of the State of Indiana. Dr. Arthur B. Evans (DePauw University) serves as president of SF-TH Inc. and managing editor of SFS. The other senior editors of SFS are Dr. Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr. (DePauw University), Dr. Joan Gordon (Nassau Community College), Dr. Veronica Hollinger (Trent University), Dr. Rob Latham (University of California at Riverside), and Dr. Carol McGuirk (Florida Atlantic University).

SFS has been called the world's most respected journal for the critical study of science fiction. Recognized as having brought a rigorous theoretical focus to the study of this popular genre, SFS has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education ("Daring Journal of SF Theory" [June 1,1994] A:8), where Jim Zook noted that "Since its founding... Science Fiction Studies has charted the course for the most hard-core science fiction critics and comparatists. That focus has earned the journal its reputation as the most theoretical scholarly publication in the field, as well as the most daring." SFS has also been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement ("Learned Journals" [March 7, 2003] 24-25), where Paul Kincaid compared the world's three principal learned journals that focus on science fiction: Science Fiction Studies, Extrapolation (published at the University of Texas, Brownsville), and Foundation (published at the University of Liverpool, UK). He concluded that "Science Fiction Studies ... has always been resolutely academic, the articles always peer-reviewed (a practice that Foundation is only now beginning), and with an uncompromising approach to the complexities of critical theory." On top of being the most theoretically sophisticated journal in the field, SFS also has the broadest coverage of science fiction outside the English language, with special issues on Science Fiction in France, PostSoviet SF, Japanese SF, and Latin American SF.

SFS has had three different institutional homes during its lifetime. It was founded in 1973 at Indiana State University by the late English professor Dr. R.D. Mullen, where it remained for approximately five years. In 1978, it moved to McGill University and then to Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, where it was supported by a Canadian government grant until 1991. SFS was brought back to Indiana to DePauw University in 1992 where it has remained ever since.

Farm Collector

The magazine is overly-filled with ads and little quality content. Pictures of tractors and implements are of fair quality. I would recommend finding another magazine. in addition I reviewed 1 issue and cancelled with Amazonwithin 5 days another issue arrived. Not a big deal up front however when I requested a refund they subtracted for 3 magazine issues. Again, not a big loss but definitely not a good customer service model.