Advantages: Property on site. Park your car and let Disney do the driving.
Disadvantages: Very small rooms.

...I opened up the travel section, of the local paper last autumn and couldn't believe my eyes. A quarter page advertisement for Walt Disney World. It stated "Florida residents enjoy a neighbourly rate this fall. Value resorts from $49 per night. Call your Disney Travel Planner at 407-939-1305." At the bottom it had the 'small fine print'. I showed it to my husband, and then phoned the number. A really nice young lady answered all my questions. Len and I had a choice to go to either the 'All-Star Music Resort', or the 'All-Star Sports Resort'. I love music and dancing so it was a really easy choice for me. She took my booking over the telephone, gave me a reservation number. Told me the full total including taxes, and asked for a credit card for the deposit of 1 nights accommodation. Also informing me that I could cancel up to 5... Read review

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Advantages: Panpipes, hip-hop, throat singing and the value of enjoying music
Disadvantages: Academics, choirmasters and performance art

...For me writing about 2007 in music means simply writing about 2007, almost all of it, and for that reason this review (or whatever you wish to call it) is going to be a long one. I apologise in advance. Very little of my year was focused around anything else. And so this was my 2007 in music; a few of the things that I studied, performed, heard, and learnt. January At the start of 2007 I was a third of a way through a masters in ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology is the study of world music, more or less. Although a masters in ethnomusicology mostly involves a lot of talking about how to study world music rather than actually studying the music itself; theory and ethics and fieldwork strategies and how to write about 'others' without calling them savages. During January I developed my hatred of the word 'representation... Read review

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Advantages: story based and easy to play
Disadvantages: none

...roleplaying is that it has almost become a cool activity. In a world that sees shows like Buffy ,Angel, Charmed and new shows like Lost attracting huge audiences and with the horror genre riding high again, roleplaying in general, and World of Darkness in particular has found its market easily. Music and fashion, television and film have all created a backdrop that is already familiar to a market that have snapped up the world created by White Wolf Games. All the World of Darkness does is take the world that is probably daydreamed about by this dark army of roleplayers and given them a chance to live the fantasy life hinted at by their record collection and clothing. Welcome to the end of the world. World of Darkness allows the players to inhabit a world that is both familiar and alien. Set in the modern age, players will already be familiar... Read review

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Advantages: Every bit as magical as the brochures promise!
Disadvantages: Very expensive, a lot of walking is necessary and you have to plan well to fit everything in!

...is 21, and it's not unheard of for people older than 30 to be asked for ID.) There is also DisneyQuest, which describes itself as the world's first inside theme park, but others describe it as a glorified arcade (but it still sticks to the high quality Disney is famous for). Again, this is extra but is included as a 'extra' on a hopper ticket. But the Magic Kingdom is the park that everyone imagines when they think of Disney World and contains probably the most famous Disney landmark, Cinderella Castle. You see the castle first on the monorail or boat ride from the carpark to the park (it is a good distance from the where you park to the actual theme park entrance!) and you'll also get a good glance at a few of the other attractions, such as Space Mountain. Once you get to the park and through the turnstiles, your off! The best advice I... Read review

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Advantages: Ciao's first World Champion!
Disadvantages: A crushing first round exit.

...With the four-year cycle reaching completion, and the World Cup once again hoving into view (t-minus two hours as I write), the time has come for Ciao to host it's very own tournament, pitting nation against nation, author against author, in a battle to crown Ciao's first ever World Champion. The premise is easy - the 32 nations competing in this year's World Cup have been assigned to 32 different Ciao authors (well, 26 at time of writing, with spaces left to be filled if we have any Johnny-come-lately's - and Brazil is still available!),and then split into eight groups of four. Each group has been given a topic - food, travel, music, sport, movies, fiction, my favourite things, or 'that gets my goat' - and each author must write an opinion on that category. ******STOP PRESS******* First new author - Mattydalton, come on down... Read review

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Advantages: Emotional vocals, clever music
Disadvantages: some fillers

..., and make this an even more infectious song. TRACK THREE - THE MIDDLE. ------------------------- The second single, and probably the main reason anyone has heard of this band, the song was played everywhere at the time, TOTP, MTV, Kerrang Tv, you name it this song was there! The main reason this song was everywhere is because its another infectious slice of rock music which is quite reminiscent of the Foo Fighters and Weezer, whilst still keeping the bands own identity. The song features another chuggy guitar based verse, which leads nicely into a contagious chorus which you really need to sing along with. Lyrically this is a little cheesy, basically saying that people may put you down but not to worry what others think of you, okay its cheesy, but I expect its helped a few people deal with self confidence issues so it cant be bad... Read review

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Advantages: By turns rhythmical and cutting edge; with a political mindedness it's not ashamed of
Disadvantages: The lyrics may be a little too political for some

...World Citizen is further proof of David Sylvian's politicisation and his disgust at globalisation and the breaking down of barriers between cultures due to capitalistic hegemony, rather than any mutual blending of ideas and philosophies where societies are able to meet and enrich one another. It is also a cracking EP. Or single. Whichever you prefer. It was also a very welcome piece of music to purchase. Sylvian's previous album, the deeply difficult (not to mention troubled) Blemish, wherein he used music as catharsis to come to terms with the breakdown of his marriage to poet Ingrid Chavez. Not that it is so much a bitter album (though it is) but the songs are for vocals, dissonant electronics and occasional bursts of equally dissonant guitar courtesy of Jazz guitarist Derek Bailey. World Citizen, though an indignant... Read review

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Advantages: Sombre Reptiles and Golden Hours
Disadvantages: Perhaps an acquired, perhaps inspired, taste

...the water; that is Another Green World. Even by Eno’s own standards the high points on Another Green World are for me higher than those on any of his other albums. The only single track that can match anything on Another Green World is Baby’s on Fire from Here Come the Warm Jets. Otherwise there are some truly stunning pieces of music that to me seem to symbolise a crystallisation of Eno’s goals, themes and ideas. There is an occasional clarity that nothing else he has ever done can quite touch. In one sense I prefer Here Comes the Warm Jets because it so easily listened to; Another Green World takes another kind of listening to; you have to hand yourself over to it and constantly be on the look out for every subtlety, every delicate moment that exists. Admittedly I do have to be in the right mood for Another Green World because... Read review

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Advantages: Its a shortened version
Disadvantages: Its a shortened version

...~~ War of the Worlds (the highlights) ~~ I found this CD in my collection, if I remember correctly my husband brought it for me because I had lost my copy of the Original War of the Worlds, actually I think I lent it someone and never got it back. He saw this and thought I would enjoy it, I do, but it's not the full length version. So a little about the album, please do not get it mixed up with the films, it does follow the storyline but it is the musical version. ~~ A Little History ~~ We can trace the story of War of the Worlds back to its author H.G.Wells who published his book in 1898. He was a science fiction writer and his book was about the Martians invading England. We now jump to 30th October 1938 when Orson Wells, read the story live on radio, sending some poor Americans into a state of frenzy running out... Read review

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Advantages: Beautiful, haunting music for cello; enough to convert me to a Beiser's fan!
Disadvantages: Not that I can recognise

...him to compose a piece for cello based on the rhythm and form of Gamelan. Clearly, he accepted and the piece, in keeping with the Reich theme, was like many of Reich's 'counterpoints', being pieces originally recorded as CD fillers that then became a part of his repertoire. Each piece is multitracked, a solo performer recording each part individually then playing live accompanied by the multitracked performances already recorded. This was the form of the piece played for free by Maya Beiser at the Barbican that day. Why this introduction? Well, first off I was surprised the extent to which I enjoyed the performance; secondly, because the music on World to Come is mostly multitracked. The performances are all by Maya Beiser and each contain the same haunting beauty that accompanied Beiser's performance the first time I saw her... Read review

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