Magnolia

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol.

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Appearing before bees did, the flowers are theorized to have evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are extremely tough.Fossilised specimens of M. acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae date to 95 million years ago. Another aspect of Magnolia considered to represent an ancestral state is that the flower bud is enclosed in a bract rather than in sepals; the perianth parts are undifferentiated and called tepals rather than distinct sepals and petals. Magnolia shares the tepal characteristic with several other flowering plants near the base of the flowering plant lineage such as Amborella and Nymphaea (as well as with many more recently derived plants such as Lilium).

Magnolia (Turnover album)

Magnolia is the debut studio album by American pop punk band Turnover. The album was released on April 16, 2013 via Run For Cover Records.

Track listing

References

The Pineapple Thief

The Pineapple Thief is a progressive rock band, started by Bruce Soord in 1999 in Somerset, England.

History

Early years

Founder Bruce Soord started "The Pineapple Thief" as an outlet for his music back in 1999. Bruce released the debut Abducting the Unicorn on Cyclops records, which created enough interest to establish a small but loyal fan base. Soord returned to the Dining Room studios to work on the second album 137. During this time, several major labels started to take an interest, causing a delay in the release which arrived over two years after the debut. However it was probably the third album, Variations on a Dream that gave TPT the boost they needed, reaching out to yet more people all over the world, by which point TPT were consistently the top sellers on their label, Cyclops.

After this release in the spring of 2002 Bruce decided to form a band to take his music to the fans. The band consisted of his close musical friends - former university band mate Jon Sykes on bass, Wayne Higgins on guitars, Matt O'Leary on keyboards and Keith Harrison on drums. As a full band, they released 12 Stories Down in 2004, but Bruce Soord was unhappy with the final sound and re-recorded, remixed and changed some of the tracks before the release of 10 Stories Down in 2005. Matt O'Leary subsequently left the band, but Steve Kitch (who co-produced and mixed 10 Stories Down) joined to play keyboards.

Believe (Dima Bilan song)

"Believe" is the winning Russian entry for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest sung by Dima Bilan. The song was composed and written by Jim Beanz (aka. James Washington) & Dima Bilan. On 20 May 2008 Bilan sang in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, and the song was voted into the final by public vote. It was performed 24th out of 25 songs in the final on 24 May 2008.

History

The Russian figure skater, Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion Evgeni Plushenko, skated on artificial ice on stage as part of the song performance, while the Hungarian composer and violinist Edvin Marton played his Stradivarius. This song won the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, finishing with a total of 272 points, becoming the fourth ex-Soviet Union country to win the annual contest. Dmitriy Medvedev, the president of Russia, admitted that he himself watched the contest and called right away to congratulate Dima.

In March 2008 a video was produced for the song Believe. The whole team took part in the production – Dima Bilan, Evgeni Plushenko, Edvin Marton and Yana Rudkovskaya, producer of Dima Bilan. The action of the video starts in a hospital where a mother finds out that her son has leukaemia and needs an expensive surgery. Then the action proceeds to a bar where Dima Bilan is watching TV and finds out that a child needs help. He immediately calls his producer, Yana Rudkovskaya, and tells her that they have to do something to raise money to help a child survive. They decide to give a charity concert with all the three participants performing. At the end of the video you can see the boy after the surgery. He smiles, gets up from the wheelchair and runs to greet the people who saved his life. Dima, Evgeni and Edvin meet the boy with presents happy that the money raised at the concert saved a child’s life. The video is strongly connected to the song delivering the message that everything is possible in this world if you only believe.

Believe (Emerson Drive album)

Believe is the sixth studio album by Canadian country music group Emerson Drive. The album was released in Canada on May 5, 2009 via Midas/Valory/Open Road. The album's first single, "Belongs to You," reached the top forty on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in the United States.

Critical reception

The album received mixed reviews from music critics. It received a three-and-a-half star rating from Todd Sterling of AllMusic, who said that the album was "slickly produced" and that it "sticks to the well-worn formula of the group's previous releases," but said that it had "every color of the musical rainbow." Sterling cited "Your Last" as a standout, calling it a "lump-in-the-throat masterpiece." Jim Malec of The 9513 gave it one star out of five, referring to the song's lyrics as largely cliché in nature and saying, "There is not a single song on Believe worth hearing. It is an entirely disposable album that is unoriginal, uninteresting and unnecessary." Malec also criticized the album's sound, saying that the mixing of instruments and Brad Mates' vocals did not seem cohesive.

Believe (Th' Legendary Shack Shakers album)

Believe is an LP released by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers on October 4, 2004.

Reviews

'Believe' was favourably reviewed by Zeth Lundy of popmatters.com who concluded "The next time you take the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack from the stereo, pining for some oomph to your Americana, reach for Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers. “Colonel” J.D. Wilkes calls himself a jumpin’ jimdaddy, and before long, you will too." Ben Donnelly of dusted.com reviewed the album and commented that "Translating this band's strengths to record will probably always be a challenge. ... Still, they make the most of the challenge."

Robert Plant, of Led Zeppelin fame, named "Believe" as his favorite album of 2005.

Track listing

All songs written by J. D. Wilkes except where noted