The Wild Magnolias

The Wild Magnolias are a Mardi Gras Indian tribe who also record and play as a funk musical act from New Orleans, Louisiana.

History

A group calling itself the Wild Magnolias, participating in the local "Indian masking" traditions and performing New Orleans Mardi Gras music, extends at least back into the 1950s. The group's lead member was called the Big Chief, and at least three Big Chiefs are known to have headed the band for short stints prior to 1964: Leon, Flap, and Joe Lee Davis. In 1964, Bo Dollis became Big Chief of the group, having previously participated in other Mardi Gras tribes such as the White Eagles and the Golden Arrows.

In 1970, the group cut a 45rpm single for Crescent City Records, entitled "Handa Wanda". In addition to their usual ensemble of vocalist and a battery of percussion instruments (snares, tom toms, cymbals, beer bottles, cans, and so forth), the group culled together a number of local musicians, including pianist Willie Tee and guitarist Snooks Eaglin, as their backing band, called the New Orleans Project. The single received little airplay on radio but was successful in jukeboxes and through local word-of-mouth. On the strength of the single, the group signed with Barclay Records, a French label, and secured distribution of their albums in America with Polydor Records. Two critically acclaimed full-length albums followed, in 1974 and 1975, and a single, "Smoke My Peace Pipe (Smoke it Right)", cracked the Billboard Black Singles chart, peaking at #74 in 1974. At the height of the group's popularity, they booked dates at Carnegie Hall and the Capital Centre in Washington, D.C..

The Wild

The Wild is a 2006 American computer animated adventure family comedy film directed by animator Steve "Spaz" Williams, written by Ed Decter, John J. Strauss, Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin, features the voices of Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Cipes, Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind, William Shatner and Patrick Warburton and produced by Clint Goldman, Will Vinton (who serves as an executive producer) and Beau Flynn. The film was a C.O.R.E. Feature Animation and Walt Disney Pictures production, and it was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures. It was released to theaters on April 14, 2006 in North America by Buena Vista Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics and it earned $102,338,515 on a $80 million budget.

Plot

The Wild (novel)

The Wild is a fantasy novel by American ufologist and horror fiction writer Whitley Strieber that was first published in 1991.

It tells the story of Bob Duke, a failed poet-turned-worker at Sculley-era Apple Computer's New York City branch who can barely pay the bills for his wife and 12-year-old son. However, as his grasp on his family's finances slips by the day, he begins to lose his very physical composition, gradually turning into a wolf. Soon, his wife, son, and therapist all are drawn into his predicament as he seeks to come to terms with what he has become without losing his still-human mind, or his very family.

External links

The Guardian Project (comics)

The Guardian Project is a fictional superhero squad created by Stan Lee for Guardian Media Entertainment, in conjunction with the National Hockey League. Each NHL Franchise is represented by one of the 30 heroes, titled "Guardians". They are all named in accordance with the name of the team (e.g. The Flame for the Calgary Flames).

Plot

Mike Mason is a 15-year-old hockey fan, who sketched 30 different characters for the NHL teams, designing their powers and personalities, giving them alter-egos and writing about grand adventures they would embark on. Once the evil Devin Dark and his military machines attack Earth, Mason's characters came to life as the Guardians.

Marketing

The Guardian characters were revealed sequentially according to a bracket pairing Guardians and encouraging fans to vote via Facebook on which character they would like to see first. The superheroes were revealed every day from January 1, 2011, until January 30, in time for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game in Raleigh, North Carolina. By June, NBCUniversal had signed a multimillion dollar deal with GME, hoping to exploit the Guardian franchise in various media. But by December 2011, the project had failed to develop momentum and was dropped without further fanfare.