TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

The first trailer for one of the most anticipated films of the year has just been released. Let The Right One In director Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of John le Carre's bestseller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will open in the UK on 16 September. 

The film's cast alone should whet your apetite; Gary Oldman, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Laura Carmichael & Stephen Graham. But if that doesn't do it, this exclusive trailer should:

EVERY TEARDROP IS A WATERFALL

We've done our fair share of backing little-known bands in our 'Music Vid Crush of the Day' feature, so today we thought we'd big up a biggie. Coldplay's video for new single Every Teardrop is a Waterfall was directed by Mat Whitecross and is a delightful explosion of colour - we're especially loving the return of UV paint! Check it out:

ONE TO WATCH: SOUGWEN CHUNG

Brooklyn-based visual artist Sougwen Chung currently works closely with Michigan-based record label Ghostly International, where she creates cover renderings for their various signings, but her work is gaining momentum and we can spot an up-and-coming talent of the art world when we see one.

The work speaks for itself; its contemporary yet timeless, almost 3D aesthetic flows seamlessly between the elusive and the organic. We love it. Click here for more.

NAOMI FOR GIVENCHY

Freshly recovered from her recent brawl with Cadbury, Naomi Campbell is back doing what she does best: looking fierce in expensive clothes.

The Brit supermodel is seen above in Ricardo Tisci's new AW11 campaign for French fashion house Givenchy, shot by (who else?) Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot. We've also got an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the shoot below courtesy of Style.com, featuring the likes of Natalia Vodianova & Kritsen McMenamy.

HOTEL MARGIELA

Maison Martin Margiela recently unveiled an exciting new collaborative project, which sees the cult Belgian fashion house reworking the interiors of the La Maison Champs-Elysees in Paris.

The stylish, 5-star hotel opens in just 1 week, and here's an exclusive preview of what it will look like. We are already loving the trompe l'oeil wallpapers. Click here for more info.

NATURAL BEAUTY

Ever wondered what 365 days' worth of make-up applied in one sitting looks like? Artists and directors Lernert & Sander have answered that question for you. Well, technically we've already spoilt the big reveal (see above), but head over to Nowness for the full film & interview.

BRAVE

Here's the first official teaser trailer for Disney Pixar's new animation, Brave. The story is set in Scotland and tells the story of a red-haired Scottish princess who loves to fight. 

The film garnered some controversial attention after it replaced its female director (the first ever for a Pixar film), for a male one half-way through production.

Brave stars the voices of Billy Conolly, Emma Thompson, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane & Julie Walters. The film's not out until next Summer, so don't get too excited. 

FIGHTING FIRE WITH ICE CREAM

London-based artist Alex Chinneck uses industrial building materials to explore the links between theatre, art & architecture with striking, bold results.

The works on show stem from industrial London, with breezeblocks, wood chips and steel frames at the heart of a collection that's unexpectedly beautiful. Fighting Fire with Ice Cream is on at See Studio until 23rd July. 

MARVIN'S ROOM

US hip-popper Drake gets deep & dark in the video for his new single, Marvin's Room. The gritty vid shows him drinking alone, getting steadily tipsy & attempting to hit on girls. Fairly brave move for an American hip hop star; it's our music vid crush of the day:

BIOPHILIA - UPDATED

Bjork is back! Rejoice! If you're a fan of Iceland's biggest music export, you'll be pleased to hear her new & 7th album, Biophilia, is out on 26th September 2011. The cd's artwork (pictured above) has just been released, and it's the first time that Bjork herself hasn't featured on her own cover artwork.

Lead single Crystalline is also here and ready for you to give it a spin:

UPDATE: The latest reports claim that this is the official album cover

UPDATE 2: Oh wait no, hang on, this is the official album artwork:

ONE TO WATCH: MARCO WALKER

Austrian-American photographer Marco Walker's new show, Wanderlust, takes you on an infra-red tour of Yosemite National Park in California. The stunning ice-capped mountains are shown in a new light, with colours that retain a mystical quality we can't get enough of.

Wanderlust opens tomorrow (Wednesday 29th June) at the former German Embassy on Belgrave Sq in London. Do check it out.

HOME-GROWN: FERGUS O'BRIEN FOR BBC LIFESTYLE

Our very own Fergus O'Brien, who is currently hard a work finishing a new documentary series for the BBC with Stephen Fry, has also just shot these brilliant promos for BBC Lifestyle.

Focussing on the international channel's extensive food programming, Fergus worked closely with the country's leading TV chefs, namely Rick Stein, Gregg Wallace, James Martin & John Torode:

Also check out this in-depth chat with Rick Stein, where he discusses what excites him most about working with food today:

BEACH FOSSILS

Today's music vid crush is for Beach Fossils' new single, Adversity. Their verygoodindeed EP, What A Pleasure, is out now; preview/buy it here. The beautiful spot was directed by Ian Perlman, who chats away on this blog about working with the band.

A RIOT IN A JAM JAR

We're big on art this week, and today is no exception. The title of James Cauty's new show pretty much tells you everything you need to know; A Riot In A Jam Jar is an extensive collection of sculptural dioramas which reflect Cauty's take on a heavy-handed police state. See it at the L-13 Light Industrial Workshop until the 5th July. Here's a little preview:

THRILLED

The infamous red jacket Michael Jackson wore in the Thriller video, easily one of the most recognisable pieces of music memorabilia, just sold for a crazy $1.8 million at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, California. The jacket was originally estimated at a maximum of 400k.

It's said the auctioneer is planning to help raise money for children's charities with the profits from the sale. MJ would approve.

MERLIN GLOZIER

Every-now-and-then an artist comes along and rocks the art world without seemingly understanding why. "I just try to make something lovely" says New Zealand-born & London-based Merlin Glozier of her new fish, bird & dogs-inspired exhibition. 

Pop royalty is already on board, with the likes of Gavin Rossdale, Gwen Stefani and Sade all snapping up pieces from her previous shows. Chris Cunningham and Juliette Lewis are also customers. Glozier's work is currently on show at The Outside World Gallery (E2) from today until June 26th. Click here for some snaps from the opening party. (quote source: Dazed)

REAL LONDON TUBE MAP

A test site for a new geographically-accurate version of the London tube map has popped up on the internet. If you've always wondered what our capital's underground rail network really looks like, this is definitely worth a look. Click HERE for a full pdf + introduction to the project.

POTTERMORE: REVEALED

J.K. Rowling has just revealed her plans for her mysterious new Pottermore website, which appeared online last week & sparked a fury of rumours amongst fans of the Harry Potter franchise.

In short, the site is a free & collaborative space for fans to participate in online games, real life treasure hunts, share & communicate with each other, and of course access tons of new & previously unpublished material from the world of Potter. Here's a word from the lady herself:

THE SMARTER CITY

Huge thanks to IBM who are responsible for making nearly 2 hours of our day disappear into thin air, thanks to their beautifully designed & mammothly ambitious new website, The Smarter City. 

This unique interactive experience helps visualise how cities can become smarter, mainly through the interconnection of data, within a myriad of sectors: social services, public safety, retail, communications and many more. Click HERE to check it out.

ANML LIFE

Our music vid crush of the day comes courtesy of Miami-based sample artist Sean Bowie, aka Teams, and his new single Anml Life. The video was directed by Jon Casey and was created entirely with apps on his iPhone. Check it out:

ANTWERP ACADEMY

This is the time of year when all fashion eyes are on the Antwerp Academy's fashion graduates. The establishment known for giving us Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten & Martin Margiela (to name just a few) has a reputation for launching an incredibly strong caliber of talent into the industry.

This year is no exception, and to celebrate the 7 graduating collections of young designers hailing from Germany, Poland, Japan, The Netherlands and Belgium, artist Tara Dougans has illustrated some of their most accomplished looks (below). Click here to watch the show & find out more about the designers.

£13.5M LOVER

And here's yet another proof that the international business of art is very much thriving in these otherwise challenging times... A painting by Pablo Picasso sold for £13.5m at Christie's auction house in London tonight.

Jeune Fille Endormie (above), a portrait of the Spanish artist's lover Marie-Therese Walter, completed in 1935, was bought by a top British dealer after what was described as "a ferocious bidding war". Picasso met Walter in Paris when she was just 17. The young model inspired some of his greatest work in the early 1930s.

RYAN TRECARTIN

LA-based artist and filmmaker Ryan Trecartin is one of the most influential young talents working in art today. His new show, entitled Any Ever, opened at MoMA last Friday and is a retrospective of his body of work between 2007 & 2010. It's broken down into seven films, a couple of which we have here. Do check 'em out.

MOVE OVER NAOMI

Naomi Campbell was said to be shocked by Cadbury's new Dairy Milk Bliss ad, which compares the Brit supermodel to a bar of chocolate. The Advertising Standards Authority received 4 complaints saying that the ad was racist, but have ruled this out today, stating that the campaign does not breach the advertising code relating to racism. 

Cadbury initially defended the ad, insisted it was intended as a tongue-in-cheek play on her reputation as a diva and had nothing to do with her skin colour, but later took legal advice and eventually withdrew the campaign, making a public apology on its corporate website. 

VERSACE FOR H&M

Swedish fast fashion giants H&M have just announced that their next big designer collaboration will be with iconic Italian label Versace.

After last year's successful line with Lanvin (as well as countless other partnerships over the years with the likes of Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Jimmy Choo + many more), it's expected that fans will start queuing around the store's blocks with glee come November 17th.

The line will consist of a womenswear & menswear collection, as well as (for the first time in a designer collaboration), a homewear line of cushions, bedspreads and much more. Head here for more info. And here's the official statement from H&M:

"For H&M, Donatella Versace has looked back to the archives to reinterpret some classic Versace designs. The womenswear collection will be dominated by dresses that fit right in with the spirit of the season, featuring studded leather and colourful prints, with accessories including high heels and costume jewellery. The men’s collection will focus on sharp tailoring, including the perfect tuxedo, as well as belts and jewellery for men too."

THE INTERNET IN 60 SECONDS

The good people at Go-Globe have come up with this fantastic infograph below, which showcases how the World Wide Web is used in just 60 seconds (...excluding adult content). 

Some stats we were impressed with: in a single minute of internet action 370,000 minutes of Skype calls happen, as do 90 thousand tweets, 7-hunder-thousand Facebook status updates, 15 thousand new blog posts & over 6 thousand new images are uploaded to Flickr. Here's the full graph, which you should click on for a closer look:

Here's the full list of statistics:

• Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries
• 6,600+ pictures are uploaded on Flickr
• 600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content
• 695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments on Facebook
• 70 New domains are registered
• 168,000,000+ emails are sent
• 320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Social Networking site Twitter
• iPhone applications are downloaded more than13,000 times
• 20,000 new posts are published on Micro-blogging platform tumbler
• Popular web browser FireFox is downloaded more than 1700 times
• Popular blogging platform WordPress is downloaded more than 50 times
• WordPress Plugins aredownloaded more than 125 times
• 100 accounts are created on professional networking site LinkedIn
• 40 new Questions are asked on YahooAnswers.com
• 100+ questions are asked on Answers.com
• 1 new article is published on Associated Content, largest source of user generated content
• 1 new definition is added on UrbanDictionary.com
• 1,200+ new ads are created on Craigslist
• 370,000+ minutes of voice calls done by Skype users
• 13,000+ hours of music streaming is done by personalized Internet radio provider Pandora
• 1,600+ reads are made on Scribd, the largest social reading publishing company

CALGARY

Let's start the week with frankly the most original music video we've seen in... years? It was  directed by Andre Durand and Dan Huiting, and is for Bon Iver's new single, Calgary. Check it out below, then read a personal account from model & actress Raina Hein, who features in the vid.

"I flew home to Minneapolis a few months ago, then drove a couple hours to Eau Claire, Wisconsin where I filmed this music video. The cast and crew stayed at the beautiful home of Bon Iver lead singer Justin Vernon for the entire filming process for about 3 days . . . 3 VERY LONG (but fun) days.

90% of the video was shot in an old barn right next to the house.The most challenging part was the scene where I fall through the bed and into the pond. That water was FREEZING! But thanks to my 10 years of playing volleyball and having to take ice baths on a regular basis, I hung in there and as always, never once complained. I believe we only had to do 4 takes, and there were giant space heaters blasting on me whenever the camera wasn't rolling. (I want to buy one for my house ;-)

Working with Bon Iver, and director Andre Durand, was an amazing experience. To be honest, it was probably one of the best experiences I've had yet."