Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン, Hepburn: Sōdo Āto Onrain) (also known as SAO) is a 2009 Japanese light novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the near-future and focuses on various virtual reality MMORPG worlds. The light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint from April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012. The series has spawned eight manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa. The novels and four of the manga adaptations have been licensed for release in North America by Yen Press. An anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures aired in Japan between July and December 2012, with an Extra Edition episode aired on December 31, 2013, and a second season, titled Sword Art Online II, aired between July and December 2014. Three video games based on the series have been released on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4. An animated film featuring an original story by Kawahara has been announced.

The Art

The Art (sometimes stylised as THEART) are an Australian Alternative Rock band based in Sydney. They began performing under the name The Follow in 2004. Tasmanian band leader Azaria Byrne was known as an unsuccessful contestant on the reality television series Popstars.

Early highlights for the band's career have been supporting successful bands such as the Pixies, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth and Thirty Seconds to Mars as late as 2010, however this was marred by the crowd booing and calls to "get off the stage".

As band leader Azaria Byrne enters middle age success has so far eluded him despite media attention resulting from his being cuckolded by the even older fading celebrity Bill Corgan.

The other band members have all been described as "dull" but this could also be a result of the attention seeking behavior of their singer.

Members

References

Progressive

Progressive may refer to:

Music

Politics

Business

Art

Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts – artworks, expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art.

The oldest form of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Architecture is often included as one of the visual arts; however, like the decorative arts, it involves the creation of objects where the practical considerations of use are essential—in a way that they usually are not in a painting, for example. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature and other media such as interactive media, are included in a broader definition of art or the arts. Until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. In modern usage after the 17th century, where aesthetic considerations are paramount, the fine arts are separated and distinguished from acquired skills in general, such as the decorative or applied arts.

Progressive rock

Progressive rock, also known as prog rock or prog, is a rock music subgenre that originated in the United Kingdom with further developments in Germany, Italy, and France, throughout the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970s. It developed from psychedelic rock, and originated as an attempt to give greater artistic weight and credibility to rock music. Bands abandoned the short pop single in favor of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz or classical music in an effort to give rock music the same level of musical sophistication and critical respect.

Progressive rock sometimes abandons the danceable beat that defines earlier rock styles and is more likely to experiment with compositional structure, instrumentation, harmony, rhythm, and lyrical content. It may demand more effort on the part of the listener than other types of music. Musicians in progressive rock typically display a high degree of instrumental skill.Musical forms are blurred through the use of extended sections and of musical interludes that bridge separate sections, which results in classical-style suites. Early progressive rock groups expanded the timbral palette of the then-traditional rock instrumentation by adding instruments more typical of folk, jazz, or music in the classical tradition. A number of bands, especially at the genre's onset, recorded albums in which they performed with full orchestras. Progressive rock artists are more likely to explore complex time signatures such as 5/8 and 7/8.Tempo, key, and time signature changes are common within progressive rock compositions.