Articles Blog

Downloading music from the internet is fast becoming one of the
world’s biggest growth industries. A student is now trying to
tap into the market by setting up a website for independent
musicians to sell their songs on an international stage.

Hawksbillmusic.com, the creation of Joseph Lavington, an
18-year-old student from England, is open to all independent
musicians – local, national and international. Internet surfers
are able to download and listen to songs up to three times for
no charge. If they like the track, they have to buy it to hear
it again and the artist receives half of every sale.

Joseph, from the city of Bath, England, said, “There has been a
lot of talk of musicians being ripped off by downloads. So many
albums and songs have been leaked on to the web and downloaded
by fans. The musician’s rights are ignored, and he or she loses
a lot of money. It discourages record labels from investing in
new talent.”

Several high-profile bands have taken file-sharing networks to
court and won, and now record labels are suing downloaders
themselves. But Joseph said: “The artists get a fair deal with
Hawksbill Music, and much more cash than other similar
services”. Each song will cost between 50p and £2, and once a
purchase has been made, the buyer will be free to transfer it to
CD or portable player. Users who have purchased a track are
encouraged to share it with others, and will earn a small cut of
any sales that result from this.

A wide range of artists, of differing genres, have already
signed up including Reed Rothchild, a Los Angeles
ambient-electronic composer, and Tetrix, a highly experimental
Canadian four-piece. Joseph said, “I am confident Hawksbill will
be a success, as a whole new avenue in the music world has been
opened.”

About the author:
www.hawksbillmusic.com

Author : Hawksbill Music
Site : www.goarticles.com

Ever since video game designers were able to put red pixels on
their imaginary characters that had recently deceased, there
have been people crusading against their subversive ways. The
outrage at video games seems to be cyclic, fading very briefly
before exploding into the public eye once more with renewed
frenzy. The controversy seems to have sparked up again in recent
times, with numerous crimes being blamed on the corruptive
influence of video games. There have also been various
“controversies” surrounding recent video games and their content
in the areas of both violence and sexuality.

The first game to receive widespread criticism and media
attention was the martial art fighting game “Mortal Kombat”.
This game included large spurts of blood emitted from attacks
and also “Fatalities” that could be performed on stunned
opponents after their defeat. These Fatalities were gruesome
animation sequences showing the victorious player killing their
defeated opponent in a vast variety of ways. Gamers revelled in
this new experience and the controversy surrounding the violence
caused mass hype that informed the less informed gamers that the
game was out there. Consequently gamers played the new game just
to find out what all the talk was about, thereby greatly
increasing revenue.

One of the largest sparks of controversy has been the recent
“Hot Coffee” modification for “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
(GTA:SA)”. This involved unlocking a sexually oriented mini-game
that had been removed from the game before release, although
evidently not from the source code. The creators of the game,
Rockstar Entertainment, obviously realised that this particular
part of the game was not appropriate for the video gaming public
and removed access to it. An enterprising fan of the game found
out and modified the original code to give access to the content
once again. Lawsuits were brought against Rockstar for including
such content in their game, although the validity of the lawsuit
has to be questioned. If the game is simply purchased and played
as intended by the developers, this admittedly tasteless and
inappropriate mini game would never be encountered. It is not
until the user-made modification is downloaded and installed
that the player is able to access the content.

Regardless of who’s to blame, “GTA: SA” was re-rated in America
and banned from sale in Australia. Oddly enough the gratuitous
and encouraged violence in the game went largely unnoticed in
the wake of the “scandalous” sex scenes involving clothed,
cartoonesque people.

When examined objectively almost all games contain a certain
amount of violent content. The kid-friendly bright and colourful
“Mario” games by Nintendo feature a character stomping on
animated creature’s heads. In fact the majority of games, even
children’s games, involve the protagonist crusading against an
enemy horde of some sort and generally “disposing” of them in
some manner, whether it be striking them with a weapon or body
part (feet, hands, possibly a tail depending on the nature of
the character). The only real stand out difference is that in a
children’s game the ‘bad’ characters will generally bounce
backwards in a cute manner and explode with a humorous puff
sound (or simply disappear) whereas in a game oriented towards
older mature players, the characters are more likely to be
(somewhat) realistic, spraying a gusher of red upon their demise.

Whenever some young person somewhere commits a violent crime
these days it seems to get blamed on a video game, from “Duke
Nukem” and “Quake” being accused for the Columbine High
massacre, to a more recent incident involving a group of minors
attributing their violent actions to the “Mortal Kombat” video
games. Without any solid evidence either way it’s hard to say
whether or not video game violence actually has much of an
influence on players. To really be sure you’d probably have to
have a control group of isolated children that have never seen a
violent movie or played a bloodthirsty video game. History does
however show that brutal crimes were committed long before video
games or even movies came into existence.

Children are quite easily influenced by something that they’re
excited about and I’ve seen this happen a lot. Playing a
wrestling video game with a group of eight year olds often leads
to the eight year olds screaming raucously and trying to pin
each other down on the ground. Pre-teens will often punch and
kick their way out of a cinema in terrible combat stances after
having viewed a martial arts movie. The current content rating
system in place is not geared towards consumer restriction; it
is largely aimed at simply informing the public about what they
are going to experience. Legal restrictions are not actually put
in place until the higher, more severe ratings like in x-rated
films. Parents, guardians, and society in general need to start
taking an interest in who is viewing certain types of content.
Instead of complaining about the entertainment a child is
enjoying, the parent could be there at the beginning looking at
the rating that is printed clearly on the packaging of all
entertainment. A simple “I don’t think that’s suitable, how
about this game? It has a lizard!” distracts the child a
surprising number of times. In my experience, children genuinely
just want people to take an interest in what they’re interested
in, not just murmuring indistinctly, “Yes dear, that’s nice.” as
the child installs the newest violent game.

What about the children that are playing the games in the
restricted ratings categories? The only way that they can even
get the game into their possession is if a parent (or someone of
legal age) purchases the game for the child, or if the store
disregards the rating guidelines in place and sells it to them
regardless. Either way the fact that a game’s content has fallen
into a minor’s hands is not the fault of the game developer.

I’m not out to defend the integrity of artistic vision presented
in video games as many other gamers are. Frankly there seems to
me to be little artistic integrity in rendering blood that is
ever more liquid in appearance. I do however enjoy playing some
games that are quite violent in nature and in many cases the
violent nature of the game increases my enjoyment. Video games
are escapism, there’s (arguably) no point in playing a video
game that simulates something you can just walk outside and do
(and yet sports games somehow consistently sell in large
numbers… curious…). Interestingly I have never yet felt the
overwhelming desire to break down into a kung fu stance and
commit murder. Perhaps more important than simply banning
questionable content in video games would be studying why this
content is so appealing to today’s society?

About the author:
Daniel Punch M6.Net Web Helpers href="http://www.m6.net">http://www.m6.net

Author : Daniel Punch
Site : www.goarticles.com

There are several expensive errors that are frequently made in
poker, especially Hold’em. This article will discuss the 2 most
expensive errors that players make. What makes these errors so
expensive? For one thing, we get an opportunity to make them
frequently, and even errors that only cost a portion of a bet
can add up to big dollar amounts if they are made often. As
well, sometimes when we make these mistakes we are rewarded by
winning a big pot, leading us to believe that they are not
errors at all. All of us tend to remember the big pots we win
with a miracle flop, and forget the thousand times we called a
few bets and then lost. This encourages players to make those
mistakes even more frequently. The first error that most players
make is to play too many hands. Poker is a game of patience, and
it can be boring to throw somewhere between 75% and 85% of your
hands away before you even see the flop. The truth however is
that you must do just that. The first 2 cards in Hold’em have
some value, the percentage of times that they are expected to
win. Another way of looking at this is that over thousands of
hands, some starting cards will make a profit, some will
approximately break even, and some will lose money. Of the 169
possible starting hands in Hold’em, only 40 show a profit in the
long term. That is less than 25% of the starting hands. After
the first 40, there are a few more hands that are break even, or
close to it, that can be played for a profit in certain
situations, but only in a very few specific situations. I have a
table on my web site that shows all 169 hands, their expected
value, and the amount you will win or lose over the long term.
This data is derived from more than 120 million actual hands
played, so it should be fairly accurate. For instance, the data
shows that playing a pair of aces over this long term, in a game
with a $1 big bet, you can expect to come out ahead by $1.25
million. Now, of course none of us is going to live long enough
to play that many hands, but it gives us an idea of the
difference between good and bad cards to play. If you compare
the pair of aces to say an ace and eight of different suits,
which will lose $77,031 over that same number of hands, or an
ace and a two of different suits, which will lose $165,968, you
begin to see the problem. And hands like these are routinely
played by many people at the tables. Now some of you may be
thinking that since you win so much on the pair of aces, and
also do pretty well on some of the other top hands, and only
lose numbers like $77,000, and $165,000, on the bad hands, that
you are still in pretty good shape. If so, consider that if you
played all of the 169 starting hands over this long term sample,
you would win $7,248,687 on the 40 premium hands, a pretty nice
figure. But, you would lose $10,787,747 on the bad hands. After
playing for a very long time, you would be $3,539,060 in the
hole. Not many of us can afford to play poker that way. The
second big mistake that many players make is to cold call too
many raises. Cold calling a raise is putting multiple bets into
the pot when it is your turn to bet. For example, if someone in
early position raises, when the action gets to you in middle
position you must call 2 bets in order to play. There are three
reasons why this is a big mistake. First, a player in early
position liked his hand enough that he was willing to raise with
most of the table still to play. Second, if anybody called
before it got to you, they liked their hand enough that they
were willing to call the 2 bets. Third, there are still players
to act after you who could very well re-raise, which would not
only cost you more money, but indicates yet another good hand
out against you. Also, the original raiser may re-raise again,
meaning that it will be 2 more bets when the action gets back to
you. In a situation such as this, with at least 1 big hand
against you, and possibly more, you must play only the best
hands, AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK suited and AK un-suited. Furthermore,
with the AA, KK, QQ and AK suited you should re-raise. If you
think that the raiser would raise with hands like AQ, AJ, or
less, you should also re-raise with the JJ and AK un-suited.
Throw everything else away, it just isn’t worth playing. There
are 2 reasons for raising with your premium hands. First, you
get more money in the pot with hands that you have a good chance
of winning. Second, you will hopefully eliminate a few players
from the pot. Big hands like these are best played against fewer
players, and you don’t want someone with a 5 and 6 to hit 2
pair, or a straight and take the pot away from you. Remember,
play fewer hands. Throw away those ace nine off-suit hands from
early and middle position. Don’t play a 5 and 9 just because
they are suited. And if there is a raise in front of you, fold
unless your hand is good enough to re-raise. Contact the author
at http://A1-PokerInfo.com

Copyright © 2005 A1-PokerInfo.com. All rights reserved. This
article may be freely distributed and published, providing it is
distributed and/or published in its entirety, including the
contact information and copyright.

About the author:
John has been playing online for the past 3 years, has written
several articles. He can be contacted at http://A1-PokerInfo.com
where more of his writing can be found.

Author : John Porter
Site : www.goarticles.com

How do you expand your opportunities to work in the music
business? How do you improve your employment prospects? The key
to doing that is developing your versatility. There are many
ways of expanding what you already know how to do as a musician.
It’s all about using the skills that you already possess and
channeling them towards related fields.

Ask yourself what your most basic skill is. Let’s say you play
the guitar. You will find that there are several related
instruments that you can easily adapt your skill to. Instead of
limiting yourself to the guitar or one kind of guitar, why not
expand your employment opportunities? Why not learn to play
related instruments?

There are so many guitar related instruments. How about the
acoustic guitar, electric guitar, twelve-string guitar,
five-string banjo, tenor banjo, ukulele, mandolin, pedal steel
guitar, and so on?

You can even learn different styles of playing. Learn to use
finger picks. Learn to play both pick style and finger style.
Electric guitarists should probably own both jazz and rock
guitars. By doing this you increase your musical scope and you
will be able to take on new projects easily. There will be more
variety in the music that you play. Your arrangements will not
all sound the same.

You can apply the examples mentioned above to all instruments
and musical skills. Let’s look at a few others.

Another example is bass players. The same can be said of them.
Instead of limiting themselves to the electric bass, they can
learn to use a bow, play related instruments like the upright
acoustic bass, learn to play both fretted and fretless basses,
and use effects pedals.

Keyboard players should own more than one synthesizer. How about
learning to play related instruments like organ, harpsichord and
piano? Why not learn about MIDI and hook various keyboards
together, along with a PC?

I could go on and on mentioning various instruments and skills
and how a musician can become more versatile. Musicians must
simply start with their most basic skill and expand it. This is
an excellent way of ensuring that you excel in the music
business.

The world is a very competitive one and you must continue to be
competitive. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Add some
variety and you may be surprised at how far you can reach; and
how much more money you can be making.

About the author:
Mantius Cazaubon offers lots of valuable songwriting tips,
techniques, suggestions and advice on his site
www.ultimatesongwriting.com. Visit href="http://www.ultimatesongwriting.com/index.html" >Ultimate
Songwriting.com for the ultimate truth about lyric writing
and songwriting.

Author : Mantius Cazaubon
Site : www.goarticles.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dracut, MA–August 15, 2005–Stan Swiniarski is an international
independent Americana recording artist. As a solo performer,
Stan has opened for acts such as America and hit Nashville
songwriters such as Steve Seskin, Jon Ims and Jerry Vandiver.
Stan has played at world-famous venues such as the Bluebird Café
in Nashville, TN, and Club Passim in Cambridge, MA. In 2005, he
received many honors including NACMAI Album of the Year -
Country, Grassy Hill Kerrville New Folk Finalist, and NHCMA Song
of the Year: “Nothin’ Good’s Goin’ on Today.” It only seemed
natural for Stan to follow up all of this success with another
album filled with his down to earth lyrics and country music.
The new album Ain’t That Love, is set to steal your heart away
and get your feet tapping right from the start. It is exactly
what the title says- it is all about the love, and the kind of
feeling families have for one another.

Stan pulls up a chair in your living room and sits right beside
you, wraps his arms around you, and gives you a big old bear hug
with his wonderful music. He has a rare and precious talent that
most artists strive for but never attain. His song craftsmanship
and approach hit you right between the eyes then travel straight
to the heart in one fell swoop. Besides the stirring title
track, which is liable to moisten your eyes a bit if you are a
dad and have a son, gets you in the right frame of mind after
all the drinking and nonsense is out of the way. The album kicks
off with “Drinkin’ Cap,” which is a familiar refrain in the
world of music in any genre, then Stan gets down to the business
of life on life’s terms as a parent with songs such as “Little
Eyes Watching” and “Both Sides Of The Coin.”

This man checks his ego at the door before he goes into the
studio to record, in fact, I do not think there is an egoistical
bone in his body. You can tell by his lyrics that he is a
dedicated family man with a lot to share with his children and
anyone that wants to hear his message through the music. Some of
the words deal with the tough realities of life although he is
no stranger to the joys that family can bring and he covers each
aspect with equal time. If its emotion and good original country
music you seek, then Stan Swiniarski delivers it on Ain’t That
Love. There is not a thing over produced nor is there the polish
and gleam of Top 40 found in this music, it is the real deal,
just like his lyrics.

Catch Stan and his act Sunday, August 21 in Epsom, NH at
Laurie’s Ride: Breast Cancer Benefit, Circle 9 Ranch, at 2:00
PM. The ride benefits The deNicola Breast Care Center at
Southern New Hampshire Medical Center (Nashua), and The Norris
Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (Manchester).

Management/Booking: Mark Bryant Plymouth Rock Records Sandwich
Village, MA 02563 Ph: 508-833-6358 Fax: 508-888-2314 E-Mail:
seasound2001@aol.com Website: http://www.plymouthrockrecords.com

Press/Media: Liz Winchester Red Haired Girl Publicity Ph:
484-221-1026 E-Mail: LizWinchester@earthlink.net Website:
www.RHGPublicity.com Stan’s Website: http://www.stancountry.com

###

About the author:
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck conducts interviews, writes reviews,
biographies, press releases and articles for Independent and
Major artists Worldwide. Articles are dispersed on a vast
network of websites. Links to sites with great music content are
provided on my Homepage and Links Page.

Author : Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck
Site : www.goarticles.com

The proliferation of Texas Holdem Poker tournament coverage on
TV has resulted in a tremendous swelling in the number of fans.
The number of poker room on the internet have also followed suit
and given rise to a plethora of sites with games, tips,
techniques and assorted schemes.

You can even buy top quality
poker supplies at your local discount store. But your local
store doesn’t have a chance to compete with internet merchants
like href="http://pokergameonline.us/pachi-poker/index.htm">Pachi
Paradice and href="http://pokergameonline.us/poker-n-stuff/index.htm">PokerNSt
uff. Besides a vast array of chips, cards and poker
tables, you can buy supplies and tables for blackjack, craps,
roulette, slots, baccarat, bingo, keno, money wheels along with
a whole assortment of other gambling things you never thought
existed.

But the one thing that has really caught my eye was
an inexpensive piece of software that should give a playing edge
to even the most skillful online poker player. href="http://greenbaycasino.com/texasholdem/index.htm">Texas
Calculatem Software is the name. I’d check this out
immediately!

Simply put, you go to a poker room and place the
software icon over the poker table – from then on, it tracks the
game. It gives you the odds on completing your hand and advises
you what to do next. Talk about a handy buddy to have beside
you!

You can even tweak the advice it gives you based upon
your style of play. Because the software doesn’t actually play
the game for you, but merely tells you what to do, it’s
legit. Once the word gets out on this software and is used more
often, I’m sure that the online poker rooms will find a way to
ban the use of this software.

At the present time, this
software works in more than 100 poker rooms such as 32Red Poker,
7 Sultans Poker, 888 Info, Absolute Poker, Aspinalls Poker,
Avalanche Poker, Aztec Riches Poker, Bet Hold’em, Bet365 Poker,
Betfair Poker, BetonUSA Poker, Betsson Poker, Big Dollar Poker,
Blue Lizard Poker Room, Bodog Poker, Captain Cook’s Poker,
Caribbean Sun Poker, Casino of Mayfair, CD (Club Dice) Poker,
CityPoker.com, Classic Poker, Colosseum Poker, CoolBets Poker,
Coral Poker, Crazy Parrot Poker, Crazy Vegas Poker, Diamond Club
Poker, Doyle’s Room, Easyodds Poker, Empire Poker, Eurobet
Poker, Expekt.com, Fair Poker, FHM Poker, Fish Pond Poker,
Francite Poker, Full Tilt, Gaming Club Poker, Gaming Floor,
GamTrak Poker, Golden Palace Poker, Golden Riviera Poker, Golden
Tiger Poker, Good Gambling Guide, Grand Bay Poker, High Stakes
Book Shop, Hollywood Poker, Interpoker, Intertops Poker,
Ladbrokes Poker, Lady Rose Poker, Littlewoods Poker, Lucky
Nugget Poker, MrBookmaker (French), MrBookmaker, Multipoker,
Noble Poker, Nordic Bet, Nordic Poker, Page 3 Poker, Pacific
Poker, Paradise Poker, Parbet Poker, Party Poker, PayDay Poker,
Piggs Peak Poker, Playgate Poker, Pocket Rockets Poker, Poker
Aces Club, Poker In Europe, Poker Metro, Poker.FR, PokerNOW,
PokerPlex, Pokerroom.com, PokerStars, PowerPlayer.com, Prestige
Poker, Proper Poker, Pure Gold, Racing Post, ReadaBet,
RealPoker.co.uk, Ritz Club London, River Belle Poker, Roxy
Poker, Royal Blue Poker, Royal Vegas Poker, Skin Poker, Spin
Palace Poker, Sports Interaction Poker, Stan James Poker,
ThunderLuck Poker, Tiger Poker.com, totalbet.com poker, Trident
Poker, UK Pokerstars, ukbetting poker, UK-Poker.co.uk,
UK-Poker.net, Ultimate Bet, VC Poker, Vegas Queens Poker,
Victory Poker, Virtual City Poker, Wide World of Poker, Wild
Jack Poker, William Hill Poker and Winners Only Poker. Of
course, the list of poker rooms that works with this software is
constantly growing as is the number of href="http://pokergameonline.us/">online poker
rooms.

With all boom and busts scenarios, this Texas Holdem Poker
craze will abate someday. Those easy pickings will become
scarcer and further apart.

Where To Start For
Beginners

If you’re totally new to online poker and
Texas Holdem Poker, I’d suggest that you start with some free
money. For instance, href="http://www.greenbaycasino.com/currentbonuses/Royal-Vegas-Po
ker-bonus-promotion.htm">Royal Vegas Poker will give new
players $10 totally free just for signing up. There is no need
to add your own money! Of course, they hope you will add your
own money once you begin to enjoy the game. There are a few
other poke rooms that give you this free money and most of them
will match your cash with some more of their own. Those are good
deals that get you acquainted with the poker rooms and give you
a chance to look around until you find a place that you like and
enjoy.

About the author:
Fulltime
website designer with casino sites like
BigListOfCasinos.com, Captain-Cooks-Casino.us,
CasinoFunTours.com, Casino-Online-Promotion.com,
DesertDollarOnlineCasino.com, GameboyLair com,
GreenBayCasino.com, Gridironlocks.com,
Free-Casino-Black-Jack-Book-Online.com, FunLasVegas.com,
Lady-Dream-Casino.biz, LasVegasHotelsOnlineCasinos.com,
Lucky-777-Casino.com, PokerGameOnline.us

Author : Richard M
Site : www.goarticles.com

Roulette system secret by ecobika

Best friend is the ZERO, or how hunting FOR ZERO on SINGLE ZERO
table? The secret – which nobody tells you free – is yours, for
free.

This is simple system, not too much stake is necessary in a
single spin, and the whole idea is, that you win with zero, but
without risking too much. Remember, if you play on black or red,
you biggest enemy is the ZERO!

Best Online Casino Ecobika tells you how becoming your best
friend from your biggest enemy, the zero.

Let’s see:

1 unit to the ZERO.

2 units on 2nd dozen (13-24)

2 units on 3rd dozen (25-36)

1 unit on the 1-6 numbers. Alltogether: 6 units staked.

You win 30 units, when the ZERO spinned for you (do not forget,
play only on single zero roulette table!)

You win 1 unit, if 1-6 spinned. Money back, if a number from the
2nd, or the 3rd dozens spinned, and 6 losses, if a number from
7-12 spinned. That is all. Simple. Zero tolerance!

You have to stick to your moneymanagement, your risk tolerance
and singlezero table!

About the author:
Who is ecobika? The Specialist. Former insurance broker, stock-
bond- broker, financial adviser, journalist, globetrotter. Now
professional gambler and investor. Father and husband. Why this
site? To have fun. If you want to join the club of the
specialists, the door is open, ENTRY the club and the FORUM

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/ecobika/

Author : ecobika
Site : www.goarticles.com

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in
print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A
courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Silent Disco’s! by Helen Smith

Word count 349

The press have reported this week that silent disco’s are now
the in thing, saying: ‘T in the park is to follow the
Glastonbury Festival into introducing a ‘Silent Disco’ this
year. So that revellers can party through the night, clubbers at
particular stages will be given headphones so they can continue
to listen to music at high volume without upsetting the
festivals neighbours.’ NME Online

Is this the end of the festival as we know it?

For years now festivals have taken place across the world. For
some they have proved to be a nuisance but generally only for
the minority. For the festival-goer it can be the highlight of
the year, with some people taking the whole family year after
year, almost as a ritual or rite of passage in some cultures!

With the introduction of silent discos are we changing the
social aspect of music and dance? I can’t say as I would like to
share that magical moment when your favourite band, artist of
song plays with a set of headphones!

I agree that it will reduce the noise level and nuisance to
neighbours and enable the festivals to play later into the night
but it does trouble me to think that the whole of western
culture is now becoming so ‘solo’. With so many social
activities now becoming available on the Internet, will our
social skills gradually waste away?

There is of course a good balance to be had with Internet
entertainment and face-to-face, human contact, leisure pursuits.

Let’s make sure that balance remains.

And what better than hearing the music you’re passionate about
drifting across the warm summer fields!

Helen Smith www.music-mate.com

Copyright © 2005 Helen Smith. This article is provided courtesy
of www.music-mate.com This article may be freely published on
any website, as long as the links are live, and this notice is
left intact.

About the author:
Helen Smith is webmaster to two sites, www.music-mate.com and
www.fetish-mate.com

Author : Helen Smith
Site : www.goarticles.com

The Edinburgh Festival – Why Brits are missing out

The annual Edinburgh Festivals are regarded world wide as some
of the best Europe has to offer in terms of film, literature and
music. Every year it is estimated that the population of
Edinburgh doubles as the city becomes one of the most vibrant
places to be in all of Europe. However, despite this worldwide
recognition, only a third of the visitors are locals which means
many Britons are failing to take advantage of this fantastic
short break opportunity available to them right on their
doorstep.

Starting in 1947, the Edinburgh Festival has grown into the
largest festival in the world of its type. In 2004 there were an
amazing 25,000 performances of 1,700 shows in over 230 venues
across the city! To give an impression of how gigantic the
festival really is, it would have taken over 5 years to see
every performance back-to-back in 2004!

Many big names from both sides of the Atlantic have graced the
festival throughout the years, such as Robin Williams, Christian
Slater, Jude Law and Hugh Grant to name but a few. It is
remarkable considering the vast amounts of money that these
people can demand for a film role that they would choose such
humble surroundings – but getting back to the roots of their
acting careers seems to be the goal and the fresh challenge is
one they seem to relish.

This year’s festival is set to be one of the most entertaining
in recent years, with a large number of quality plays, concerts,
gigs and films set to entertain the masses throughout the
duration. One of the most eagerly awaited plays is “Beyond
Midnight” by Diane Samuels – writer of the popular
“Kindertransport”. Pitched as an adult fairy-tale, the
production picks up where Disney left off and follows the trials
and tribulations of Cinderella’s daughter, following the death
of her mother. While this dark tale is certainly not for
children, no Edinburgh Festival would seem complete without a
fresh offering from the Trestle Theatre Company.

One film that seems set to make its mark is “On a Clear Day”
which tells the story of a man recently made redundant who
decides to focus his life into swimming across the English
Channel. Starring Peter Mullan and Brenda Blethyn the film can
certainly draw parallels with the Full Monty (another Edinburgh
Festival hit) and certainly seems to be the next worldwide
British blockbuster.

In terms of music, Franz Ferdinand are a Scottish band making
waves and their festival appearance at Prince’s Street Gardens
is eagerly anticipated by fans and critics alike. Perhaps the
main reason for this is it will be one of the first
opportunities to hear the band’s new work from their new album
–“You Could Have it So Much Better…With Franz Ferdinand” – set
to be released in September 2005.

With so much going on in the city there really couldn’t be a
better time to visit for a few days. However, despite numbers
increasing steadily throughout the years it is amazing that more
Britons do not choose Edinburgh as a short break destination at
this time of year. Accommodation can certainly be hard to come
by but hotel specialist companies such as
http://www.superbreak.com always have a range of excellent deals
in city hotels for those looking to spend a weekend in
Scotland’s Capital.

In many ways the situation mirrors visitor patterns in London’s
West End. For years American and Japanese tourists realised that
the quality of venues and shows available in London were amongst
the best in the world – it just seemed to take locals longer to
take advantage of its wonders. However, this trend is certainly
reversing and, buoyed by high profile shows such as “Billy
Elliot”, London’s West End is proving extremely popular with
Britons looking for an event driven short break.

For further listings on all aspects of the Edinburgh Festival
try these helpful websites – http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk and

http://www.edfringe.com.

About the author:
Edinburgh based travel writer and webmaster of

http://www.travel-tips.co.uk

Author : Robin Richmond
Site : www.goarticles.com

Elvis Presley Gospel

Elvis died 16 August 1977….His first love was gospel music…I
have most of the songs he recorded..One of my favorites is
“Farther Along”….It’s about life and the things we don’t
understand but one day, Farther Along, we’ll understand.

He also does a beautiful rendition of “How Great Thou Art”…I
remember watching his concerts, and he always closed with a
gospel song, even when he went on the Ed Sullivan show. I
believe that his gospel songs were really sung from his heart
and soul. Another one he did really well is “Peace in the
Valley”.

Walkin2e

About the author:
Author of My Walk with the Lord, www.selahbooks.com, various
other articles and poems (google or yahoo search my name),
preacher, retired military

Author : Irvin L. Rozier
Site : www.goarticles.com