New Trailer! - 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'

The new movie trailer for the series' sixth installment can be viewed on Moviefone.

All I can say is: YESSSSSSSSS!


The pensieve flashback, with Dumbledore visiting a young (and definitely creepy) Tom Riddle at the orphanage, is exciting stuff. And seeing Ron and Ginny in various states of, what appears to be, immediate and life-threatening danger is chillingly good. It would have been nice to see some Snape or even some Draco, but for a brief teaser, it's almost better this way.

Sigur Rós & Ryan McGinley

Sigur Rós has a new single, "Gobbledigook," available for download from their official website. It's a pretty sweet song, and it's got a great-looking video to go with it (which is also available, exclusively, on sigurros.com).

(A warning: nudity and puns to follow!)

Stereogum uses the phrases "cheeky (as in ass-y)" and "We can Sigur asses, guys" in their write-up on the release, because both the video and the album feature the work of photographer Ryan McGinley...who, well, usually sometimes features naked people.

But don't let that deter you. Or arouse you, for that matter. McGinley is a really talented artist. So just like I'm excited for the new Sigur Rós, I'm excited to take this opportunity to look at some of my favorite photographs of McGinley's:






















































(Whoa! Slow down. Take your time and look at them again. Probably while listening to Sigur Rós.)

...So, um, in summation: Sigur Rós' new album, með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, drops stateside June 24th.

And, because I just can't pass him up, here's McGinley's portrait of Michael Cera for this year's NY Times Magazine Oscars feature:












You go, George Michael!

You Shall Pass!

According to Empire (by way of the man himself), Ian McKellen is likely to reprise his Oscar-nominated role as Gandalf in Guillermo del Toro's Hobbit films.

All I can say is ...Whew.

At Long Last, 'The Hobbit' Has a Director (Officially)

Well of course Guillermo Del Toro is directing The Hobbit. That's old news. But apparently the people involved had to, you know, make it "official."

I, for one, don't like the idea (and that's not just because I've had a long-standing [but fleeting] hope that Peter Jackson and New Line would come to their senses and put the Tolkien-maestro himself behind the camera). I simply think Guillermo's and J.R.R.'s styles are too dichotomous. While they both are drawn to fantastic--but ultimately human--characters, Del Toro's visuals are a bit too metaphoric for my taste, his characters a bit too allegorical. The Hobbit needs to function as a parable, for sure, but above all Tolkien writes about characters. Characters that need the assured hand of a born humanist like Jackson.

I admit that Del Toro's Hobbit may very well be visually stunning (though, perhaps, a bit too dark or dank), because Del Toro certainly has a capable imagination. But to think of the decisiveness and unbridled spirit Jackson could have brought--or the intelligence and reverie someone like Alfonso Cuarón would provide--I feel a bit too disappointed to revel in the thought of a future that holds not one but two new films from Middle Earth.