Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 (stylized onscreen as Iron Man Three) is a 2013 American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.¹ It is the sequel to 2008's Iron Man and 2010's Iron Man 2, and the seventh installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being the first major release in the franchise since the crossover film The Avengers. Shane Black directed a screenplay he co-wrote with Drew Pearce and which uses concepts from the "Extremis" story arc by Warren Ellis. Robert Downey, Jr. reprises his role as the title character, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle reprising their roles as Pepper Potts and James Rhodes, respectively. Jon Favreau, who directed the first two films, serves as an executive producer and reprises his role as Happy Hogan. Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale, and Ben Kingsley round out the film's principal cast.

After the release of Iron Man 2 in May 2010, Favreau decided not to return as director, and in February 2011 Black was hired to rewrite and direct the film. Throughout April and May 2012, the film's supporting cast was filled out, with Kingsley, Pearce, and Hall brought in to portray key roles. Filming began on May 23, 2012 in Wilmington, North Carolina. The film was shot primarily in North Carolina, with additional shooting in Florida, China and Los Angeles. The film's visual effects were handled by 17 companies, including Scanline VFX, Digital Domain, and Weta Digital.

Iron Man 3 was converted to 3D in post-production.^[7] The film premiered at the Grand Rex in Paris on April 14, 2013.^[3] It was internationally released on April 25, 2013 in IMAX^[8] and was released on May 3, 2013 in the United States.

The film was both critically and commercially successful. As of June 2013, it has grossed over $1.19 billion worldwide, becoming the 16th film to gross over $1 billion. It currently ranks as the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time and the highest-grossing 2013 film.

Tony Stark recalls a New Years Eve party in 1999 with scientist Maya Hansen, inventor of Extremis—an experimental regenerative treatment intended to allow recovery from crippling injuries. Disabled scientist Aldrich Killian offers them a place in his company, Advanced Idea Mechanics, but Stark rejects the offer, humiliating Killian.

Years later, Stark's experiences during the alien invasion of New York are giving him panic attacks. Restless, he has built several dozen Iron Man suits, creating friction with his girlfriend Pepper Potts. A string of bombings by terrorist the Mandarin has left intelligence agencies bewildered by a lack of forensic evidence. When Stark Industries security chief Happy Hogan is badly injured in one such attack, Stark overcomes his stupor and issues a televised threat to the Mandarin, who responds by destroying Stark's home with helicopter gunships. Hansen, who came to warn Stark, survives the attack along with Potts. Stark escapes in an Iron Man suit, which his artificial intelligence JARVIS pilots to rural Tennessee, following a flight plan from Stark's investigation into the Mandarin. Stark's experimental armor lacks sufficient power to return to California, and the world believes him dead.

Teaming with Harley, a precocious 10-year-old boy, Stark investigates the remains of a local explosion bearing the hallmarks of a Mandarin attack. He discovers the "bombings" were triggered by soldiers subjected to Extremis, which at this stage of development can cause certain subjects to explosively reject it. After veterans started exploding, their deaths were used to cover up Extremis' flaws by manufacturing a terrorist plot. Stark witnesses Extremis firsthand when Mandarin agents Ellen Brandt and Eric Savin attack him.

With Harley's help, Stark traces the Mandarin to Miami and infiltrates his headquarters using improvised weapons. Inside he discovers the Mandarin is actually a British actor named Trevor Slattery, who claims he is oblivious to the actions carried out in his name. The Mandarin is actually a creation of Killian, who appropriated Hansen's Extremis research as a cure for his own disability and expanded the program to include injured war veterans. After capturing Stark, Killian reveals he has kidnapped Potts and subjected her to Extremis to gain Stark's aid in fixing Extremis' flaws and thereby saving Potts. Killian kills Hansen when she has a change of heart about the plan.

Killian has also manipulated American intelligence agencies regarding the Mandarin's location, luring James Rhodes—the former War Machine, now re-branded as the Iron Patriot—into a trap to steal the armor. Stark escapes and reunites with Rhodes, discovering that Killian intends to attack President Ellis aboard Air Force One. Remotely controlling his Iron Man armor, Stark saves some surviving passengers and crew but cannot stop Killian from abducting Ellis and destroying Air Force One. They trace Killian to an impounded damaged oil tanker where Killian intends to kill Ellis on live television. The vice president will become a puppet leader, following Killian's orders in exchange for Extremis to cure a little girl's disability.

On the platform, Stark goes to save Potts, and Rhodes saves the president. Stark summons his Iron Man suits, controlled remotely by JARVIS, to provide air support. Rhodes secures the president and takes him to safety, while Stark discovers Potts has survived the Extremis procedure. However, before he can save her, a rig collapses around them and she falls to her apparent death. Stark confronts Killian and traps him in an Iron Man suit that self-destructs, but fails to kill him. Killian then reveals he is the real Mandarin. Potts, whose Extremis powers allowed her to survive her fall, intervenes and kills Killian.

After the battle, Stark orders JARVIS to remotely destroy each Iron Man suit as a sign of his devotion to Potts. The vice president and Slattery are arrested. With Stark's help, Potts' Extremis effects are stabilized, and Stark undergoes surgery to remove the shrapnel embedded near his heart. He pitches his obsolete chest arc reactor into the sea, musing he will always be Iron Man.

In a present day post-credits scene, Stark wakes up Dr. Bruce Banner, who fell asleep listening at the beginning of Stark's story.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Man_3

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").^[1]

The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial. Within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. It may also be divided among art music and folk music. There is also a strong connection between music and mathematics.^[2] Music may be played and heard live, may be part of a dramatic work or film, or may be recorded.

To many people in many cultures, music is an important part of their way of life. Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."^[3] Musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez summarizes the relativist, post-modern viewpoint: "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus ... By all accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be.

20th- and 21st-century music

With 20th-century music, there was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th-century art music. The invention of sound recording and the ability to edit music gave rise to new sub-genre of classical music, including the acousmatic ^[21] and Musique concrète schools of electronic composition.

Jazz evolved and became an important genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. Jazz is an American musical artform that originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note.^[22] From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th- and 20th-century American popular music.^[23] Jazz has, from its early-20th-century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era jazz-rock fusion.

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed in the 1960s from 1950s rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, and country music. The sound of rock often revolves around the electric guitar or acoustic guitar, and it uses a strong back beat laid down by a rhythm section of electric bass guitar, drums, and keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or, since the 1970s, analog synthesizers and digital ones and computers since the 1990s. Along with the guitar or keyboards, saxophone and blues-style harmonica are used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form," it "has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody."^[24] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it branched out into different subgenres, ranging from blues rock and jazz-rock fusion to heavy metal and punk rock, as well as the more classical influenced genre of progressive rock and several types of experimental rock genres.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music

Ibanez RG

The Ibanez RG series has the maximum subtypes of guitars under the Ibanez Electric Guitar catalog^{[citation needed]} and a popular series of Ibanez electric guitars produced by Hoshino Gakki. The Ibanez RG was originally designed as a derivative of Steve Vai's JEM\Universe series^{[citation needed]} and released in 1987. Manufacture of the RG model continues through today. The RG series are among the most popular hard rock and metal guitars ever made.

Origins

The RG series was first introduced in 1987 as a derivative to the Ibanez JEM and Universe series by Steve Vai, contrary to the more popular opinion that Rocky George, former lead guitarist for the California based hardcore punk/thrash metal outfit Suicidal Tendencies and current lead guitarist for Fishbone was its designer^{[citation needed]} (Rocky however was one of the first famous users of the RG model). This was believed because Rocky's initials are the same as the model. The RG in the Ibanez RG name does not mean Rocky George, in reality it means Roadstar Guitar, although these instruments differ significantly from the original Roadstar II series, introduced in the early 1980s. All of the RG550s, 560s, 565s, 570s, 670s 750s, 760s and 770s have a version of the Ibanez Edge tremolo, be it Original or Lo-Pro. The Edge tremolo incorporated several manufacturing changes when compared to the original Floyd Rose, including increased mass, relocated fine tuners and improved locking posts. The locking posts are no longer used as of the 2003 model year along with the introduction of the Edge Pro.

Features

The RG Series features a thin neck - The Wizard Prestige and Wizard II necks are the thinnest and flattest necks ever made on guitars^{[citation needed]} - with a wide, almost flat, double octave (24 fret) fret board, facilitating the performance of chords and solos. The body of the RG Series features sleek, offset pointed double cutaways giving better access to the upper frets. Typically the body is made of Mahogany or Basswood with the exception of the RGT220A, where the body is made of swamp ash. As of 2008 though, select J Custom RGs are made out of Alder as well as Basswood and Mahogany. The fretboard is made of Rosewood with the exception of the RG350MDX, the RG550MXXDY/RF and the RG270 which can be seen in the catalog section of IbanezRules.com in the 1996 catalog [1], where the fretboard is made of maple. The pickups are usually configured as HSH or HH. There are Japan-Custom IBZ, USA-Custom IBZ, Infinity, Powersound, Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, Acis, LoZ or EMG pickups in the RG Tremolo and Fixed series. The Prestige series typically comes equipped with either the USA and Japan IBZ series, IBZ DiMarzio pickups, DiMarzio pickups in different configurations (most often the ToneZone and Air Norton), active EMGs in several configurations, and one model comes equipped with Non-OEM Seymour Duncans.

Almost all guitars in the series have some variations of a Floyd Rose-style tremolo^{[citation needed]}, except for the RG Fixed and the RGA Prestige series, which have fixed bridges.

RG's are famous for being the basis of particularly easy to play seven string guitars, and as of 2007, Ibanez produced its first commercially available 8 string guitar, the RG2228.

Various models

Current RG Series is currently split into 5 versions depending on quality:

• Ibanez J Custom - Highest quality Japanese made RG guitars exclusive to the Japanese market, sometimes available retail in Europe. The only source of 7-String RG's with non-IBZ branded pickups. Unfortunately, not available outside of Japan (as of 2011, J customs are available in the U.S.) unless you buy them from a non-authorized retailer. Typically, there are a few listed at any given time on eBay.
• RG Prestige - High quality Japanese-made RG guitars which contains the RG, RGA, and most of the RGT series. Contains the higher quality model of the two 7-String RG's currently in production.
• Ibanez RG Premium - High quality instrument below the RG prestige series, has USA-made Dimarzio/Ibz pickups and Edge Zero II tremolos. Some models feature highly figured maple veneer.
• RG Tremolo - RG series guitars of non-Japanese origin (China, Korea and Indonesia) with Floyd Rose-style tremolo.
• RG Fixed - RG guitars with fixed bridges of non-Japanese origin.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibanez_RG