Warner Brothers has announced the US Premiere of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
It will take place on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at the Zigfeld Theatre in New York City. General information is as follows:

WHEN:Thursday, July 9, 2009
WHERE:
Ziegfeld Theatre
Crew Arrivals: 4:45 pm
141 West 54th Street
New York, NY 10019
Celebrity Arrivals: 6:00 pm
Screening: 7:00 pm

Celebrities in attendance will be: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Bonnie Wright, Tom Felton, director David Yates and producers David Heyman and David Barron.

Richard Dawkins, noted zoologist and atheist, is the subject of an article published today in the Telegraph entitled Harry Potter fails to cast spell over Professor Richard Dawkins. The article states:

The prominent atheist is stepping down from his post at Oxford University to write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in “anti-scientific” fairytales.

Prof Hawkins said: “The book I write next year will be a children’s book on how to think about the world, science thinking contrasted with mythical thinking.

I don’t want to get too involved with this topic right now (we’ll talk about it on our next podcast), but I will say that I’ve read a portion of Dawkins books, and, while I think there is certainly truth to some of his arguments, the guy has a profound misunderstanding of what it means to be a human being.

To be honest, if Dawkins took issue with the Christian content of the Harry Potter books, with the obviously central theme of faith in the series, and J.K. Rowling’s tacit position that faith is the ultimate redeeming quality that Man must strive for in order to combat evil, I’d have no problem with that. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. According to the article, Dawkins just doesn’t like kids using their imagination:

“I think looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s something for research.”

To Dawkins, we are all meant to be purely rational and logical, and anything fanciful, anything stemming from the imagination, is a perversion of our nature (surprising that an evolutionary biologist would take this approach, but that’s another story). There’s no question that indulging in one’s imaginative side too much can be detrimental, to one’s self and others, but to banish imagination from the realm of human experience seems, to me, ridiculous. Would the Wright Brother’s ever have discovered flight, if Icarus had never flown too high? I don’t think so.

Dawkins is no different than those that seek to label Harry Potter as witchcraft: unable to appreciate the deeper meaning that a story holds.

BBC News is reporting that JK Rowling will be reading excerpts from the Tales of Beedle the Bard at a tea party at the National Library of Scotland, hosted by The Children’s High Level Group, the charity that Jo Rowling co-founded . The Party will take place on December 4, 2008, the same day that the Tales of Beedle the Bard hit the shelves.

Local school children will be invited to attend the special charity launch. Net proceeds from the sale of The Tales of Beedle the Bard will fund the charity’s work with vulnerable children across Eastern Europe. To celebrate the launch, children across the UK and those visiting from further afield, will get the opportunity to see one of only seven original copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard on display at the National Library of Scotland.
The month-long Beedle display will take place from 5 December to 4 January….There will be the opportunity for 10 local schools to each bring up to 20 pupils, aged 8 to 11, to the Beedle tea party.
The tickets will be allocated through a random ballot, to be run by the Edinburgh Evening News, from Wednesday 5 November 2008.

So, what about children who aren’t “local school children?” Well, Schostic, the US publisher of the Harry Potter series has announced a children’s essay contest, with five grand prizes of trips for two to Jo’s Beedle the Bard tea party in Scotland.

In order to enter The Tales of Beedle the Bard essay contest, fans are asked to write an essay of 200 words or less describing how they have helped others.

Good luck to all of the children (or parents of children) who enter!!

Today is HPProgs’ two year birthday/anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been around for two years and we are still going strong. What started as a complete lark has actually become a source of entertainment, information and plain old good times (and to quote Greg: general tomfoolery and hi jinks).

Feel free to go back and listen to Episode 1 and see how well our prognosticating skills fared, as well as how far we’ve come in our podcasting skills. You might also like to check out Episode 51: The Podcastversary Edition. You’ll remember-that was a fun old episode, we let loose a little and Greg even performed his BlueGrass Wizard Rock song, “My Invisibility Cloak”- complete with guitar playing!

So thanks to everyone who has been part of HPProgs for the past two years. We have loved doing the podcast, and we look forward to good times to come! And remember, we have now entered our “Terrible Twos” so you all better watch out!!

The Harry Potter Lexicon appears to have been taken down. Over the past few weeks when one visited the site, there was a 443 error. However; today, when I tried to access the page I was taken to a Go Daddy website with the message “This website is parked for free courtesy of GoDaddy.com”. So what does this mean? Time and time again, when we discussed the JKR/SVA trial, Greg expressed his confusion about why the website’s copyright status wasn’t called into question. Is it possible that part of the recent trial verdict required the site to be removed? Or perhaps, the amount of traffic the site was receiving was simply too much for the bandwidth SVA had planned for his site (note: I know NOTHING about bandwidth or anything like that now so stop laughing and I’ll just shut up now)? Interestingly enough, when checking out the ownership of the site, we found out that Melissa Anelli owns the domain. Take from that what you will.

In any event, the Harry Potter Lexicon has disapparated from the internet and I’m sad. If it truly is gone, not only does it nullify years and years of hard work on Steve Vander Ark’s part (not to mention his staff and contributors); but the resource that *was* the HP Lexicon is no longer available to the HP fans. As someone who has analyzed these books and has held hours and hours of discussion related to Harry Potter (89 of those recorded for all of you to hear ) I have used the Lexicon as a resource countless times.

It does seem that Steve is moving on though. Well sort of. He isn’t leaving the Harry Potter world but he is focusing on different ventures.

The Grand Rapids Press reports the following:

“I’ve always been a fan of Harry Potter and of Rowling and my hope all along was that we’d find an amicable way to settle this,” Vander Ark said from England this on Tuesday morning. “I’m disappointed, but this is the way it went and I don’t hold any ill will at all.

“It was a question of law over a difference of opinion and, in a way, I’m glad that it’s finally over.”

While the dispute simmered in court for nearly a year, Vander Ark has been focusing on publishing a different Potter-themed book.

This one, a travel memoir, has Vander Ark visiting sites referenced in the series, exploring and taking pictures of them. The 256-page book is set for release in October through Methuen Publishing, Vander Ark said.

“(The) book evokes the myths and magic of Harry Potter,” according to a release on the Methuen Web site. “It will be enjoyed by all fans of the boy wizard and will prove a useful guide for those bent on making discoveries of their own.”

Having heard Steve lecture on this topic, I don’t doubt that this will be a fantastic and entertaining book and I wish him the best of luck.

UPDATE: Steve read my note on facebook and here is what he wrote: “It’s not down. We’re in the process of transferring the domain and so that URL offline for a short time, but the site up as usual at www.hp-lexicon.info.”
PHEW:)

Both JK Rowling and RDR Books have issued statements following the verdict that sided with JK Rowling in the copyright suit against RDR Books and author, Steve Vander Ark.

Rowling said the following of the verdict:

“I took no pleasure at all in bringing legal action and am delighted that this issue has been resolved favourably,” said J.K. Rowling. “I went to court to uphold the right of authors everywhere to protect their own original work. The court has upheld that right.”

“The proposed book took an enormous amount of my work and added virtually no original commentary of its own. Now the court has ordered that it must not be published.”

“Many books have been published which offer original insights into the world of Harry Potter. The Lexicon just is not one of them.”

Warner Brothers issued the following statement:

“We are obviously pleased with today’s ruling by Judge Patterson supporting the position that the proposed lexicon book infringes on Ms. Rowling’s rights. As a content company, it is imperative that we work vigorously on all fronts to protect the intellectual property rights of those who create the stories and characters, words, pictures and music that entertain and benefit the worldwide audience.”

And RDR’s official statement is as follows:

“We are encouraged by the fact the Court recognized that as a general matter authors do not have the right to stop the publication of reference guides and companion books about literary works. As for the Lexicon, we are obviously disappointed with the result, and RDR is considering all of its options.”

The full opinion can be found in PDF form here.

After almost six months of deliberation, the verdict is finally in.

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge ruled Monday in favor of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling in her copyright infringement lawsuit against a fan and Web site operator who was set to publish a Potter encyclopedia.

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon” would cause her irreparable harm as a writer. He permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. $6,750 in statutory damages.

There is not a lot of information about the verdict yet, but we will keep you posted as it comes in.

Now that we have the verdict and it has come back in Jo’s favor, this beckons us to ask- will Jo now have the heart to finish writing her Encyclopedia? Do the Potter fans now have a new book to look forward to?

UPDATE: while reading the opinion, I came across this tidbit:

To date, Warner Bros. has release five Harry Potter films, with the sixth scheduled for a worldwide release in November 2008.

I don’t know about you; I consider this to be a court order that Movie 6 must come out in November! Either that, or this was written a while ago.

Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Brothers has issued a statement as a response to fans who expressed dismay about the postponement of the Half Blood Prince movie to July 2009. The press release reads as follows:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between Half-Blood Prince and the much-anticipated first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which opens in November 2010.

So although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.
Alan Horn
President, Chief Operating Officer
Warner Bros.

Fans continue to be dismayed by the actions of WB as well as the excuses given for the delay of the much anticipated movie. What are your thoughts?

This is nuts:

Wanted posters have gone up in New Zealand with a picture of Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane.

Police have used his face because he looks very similar to a teenager who is suspected of committing a string of burglaries.

Under local laws, they’re not allowed to display a picture of the 16-year-old because he is underage.

Copies of the poster have been distributed to homes in the area, where police said residents have been targeted by the bike-riding teenager.

Below the heading ‘Wanted’ is the picture of Coltrane, underneath which are the words ‘Active burglar in this neighbourhood’.

The text below explains that the photo is of Coltrane and continues: “Robbie Coltrane is not the burglar but imagine him aged 16 with lank greasy hair and you have the picture.

Full Story

Wow. Just when you think the world can’t get any stupider.

(Hat Tip: AF)

I received this note from Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance:

During the Olympics the HP Alliance is asking Harry Potter fans throughout the world to celebrate this year’s Olympic motto of “One World, One Dream.” In order to celebrate this ideal authentically, we’re asking Harry Potter fans across the world to write houseparties@thehpalliance.org

The Olympics we feel are similar to the TriWizard Tournament. Both are ancient athletic competitions designed to bring about international cooperation. But this “One World, One Dream” ideal of the TriWizard Tournament was high jacked by Lord Voldemort. And we don’t want that happening in our world.

The Olympics this year are being hosted by the government of China who is actively funding the genocide in Darfur, the military regime in Burma, and many other nightmares across the world. In saying this, the HPA has the highest respect for the Chinese people, realizes that no government is free from fault, and is not asking any one to boycott the Olympics. On the contrary, we are asking everyone to come together and work for this ideal – not allow it to become an empty phrase of propaganda like Grindewald’s “For The Greater Good.”

So we’re asking you to get together with your friends and hold a house party. It could be big. It could be small. And we’ll give you tools at each house party (including a podcast to listen to) to take action on behalf of the people of Darfur, Burma, and more! If you’re interested in hosting a house party or finding one near you, email Dinah at houseparties@thehpalliance.org

We think this is going to be a really fun way to take action on behalf of our world. We’ve even divided what you can do into Three Tasks! Together we can apply the message that we’ve learned from Harry Potter, in these dark and difficult times, do what’s right over what’s easy, and have fun as we celebrate Harry Potter and the authentic ideal of One World, One Dream!

For more info, check out: http://thehpalliance.org/triwizard.html the side bar has some awesome PDFs with more info as well!

And please email houseparties@thehpalliance.org today!

Now is a great time to get involved in the HP Alliance. Please do your part to fight evil!

Universal has released some concept art for the Three Broomsticks which will be part of the their new park, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It looks amazing!

Three Broomsticks

(Hat Tip: AF)

We were almost the only HP fansite that didn’t acknowledge the one-year anniversary of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I tried not to think about this. Not because I am in denial, but more because I try not to make too big of a deal out of seemingly arbitrary dates.

But then I started to think about this past year. And about all that has gone on in relation to Harry Potter, the fandom, and HPProgs in general.

So now, please join me on a stroll down memory lane to remember the Harry Potter Happenings of the past year:

• Hundreds of news outlets and mainstream press published articles related to the upcoming release of HPDH. Several newspapers (including my local paper, the Baltimore Sun) made the egregious error of spoiling the plot for fans and still haven’t been forgiven by many loyal Potter fans.

• My final emotional post right before Deathly Hallows came out. I still get tears in my eyes when I re-read it.
• HPProgs podcast immediately following our first reading of the book. I was a mess and cried for the first few minutes. It is a gem of a memory (yes that is sarcasm).
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows exceeds sales speculations and sets new records.
• July 24, 2007: JK Rowling announces to the delight of her fans that she plans on writing an Encyclopedia of characters, places and back stories as a compendium to the Harry Potter Series.
• August 2-5, 2007: We attended our first HP Symposium: Prophecy 2007: From Hero to Legend. The post-Potter excitement at this conference was palpable and there will probably never be another gathering of HP fans that is as exciting and momentous as this was.
• Snape fans everywhere  feel validated and begin to post youtube videos, fanart, and fanfiction about our favorite (or not) greasy potions master.
• August 2007: filming for “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” movie commences.
• September 2007: JK Rowling and Scholastic announce Open Book Tour to take place in select cities in October of 2007.
• October 2007: Harry Potter is the final Wizard of the Month on JKRowling.com.
• October 17, 2007: Jo causes a stir by discussing religious symbolism in Harry Potter at the LA stop on the Open Book Tour (we didn’t know what we were in for yet).
• October 19, 2007: Jo shakes the fandom by stating that she “always thought of Dumbledore as gay,” when asked if he ever “found love.” Ironically, the fandom was less shaken when she alluded to the fact  that Aberforth did in fact have  inappropriate relations with goats during his lifetime.
• Fans (including us) question whether Jo’s revelations after the books “change canon.”
• October 31, 2007: the lawsuit between JK Rowling/WB and Steve Vander Ark/ RDR Books is announced.
• November 2007: JK Rowling is named Entertainment Weekly Magazine’s Entertainer of the Year for 2007.
• December 2007: Amazon.com wins the Sotheby’s auction of the “Tales of Beedle the Bard” for $4 Million.
• December 2007: JK Rowling is named the 3rd runner-up for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2007.
• December 2007: Fans get to see footage of JK Rowling completing Deathly Hallows on ITV’s “A Year in the LIfe” special.
• January 2008: JK Rowling/WB file a full injunction against Steve Vander Ark and RDR Publishers to stop the HP-Lexicon from being published.
• March 2008: After much speculation, it is announced that the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie will be split into two parts. Once again, fans are in an uproar.
• April 2008: Fans learn more than we ever wanted to know about the “Fair Use Doctrine” as the JK Rowling/Steve Vander Ark trial takes place in New York.
• April 25, 2008: “Harry Potter: The Exhibition” is announced.
• May 1, 2008: For the first time in 10 years, Harry Potter is NOT on the New York Times Best Seller list.
• May 2008: Fans see copies of the JKR/SVA trial transcript. Some decide to re-enact the case.
• May 20, 2008: Scholastic announces special 10th Anniversary version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to be released in September 2008.
• June 5, 2008: JK Rowling is the guest speaker at the 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech.
• June 11, 2008: JK Rowling writes 800 word Harry Potter Prequel for charity. She states that she has no intention of writing more of a prequel, fans hope otherwise.
• July 10-13, 2008: Portus 2008 takes place in Dallas Texas. Most attendees agree it is one of the best Potter conferences ever. Jim Dale makes a special appearance.
• July 18, 2008: Fans who have been eagerly waiting for the Half Blood Prince Teaser Trailer are dismayed at the 15 second non-teaser they get prior to the Imax showing of “Dark Knight.”
• July 21, 2008: Fans everywhere celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They use this day to celebrate, reminisce, hope for more, and make a plea for social change.  They are once again united in a way that only Harry Potter can unite a diverse group of individuals.

This appeared in a survey I took from Borders Books. It seems that it might be some kind of Half Blood Prince Promotional poster which will grace the cover of the book once the movie comes out. What are your thoughts?

What do you think? Could this be the new Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie poster? (Hat tip to Bill)

Thanks to Travis for the heads up that for the first time in ten years a Harry Potter book is NOT on the New York Times Best -Seller List.

What is interesting is that this comes on the same day as Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People came out with JK Rowling conspicuously NOT on the list.

So what does this mean?  Now that almost a year has passed since  “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was released, is Harry Potter slowly but surely fading into obscurity?  I know it isn’t reasonable to assume that Harry Potter would stay on the Best-Seller List forever, or that JK Rowling would continually be honored for her influence on the world of literature, but this seems like a hasty fall from grace in my opinion.

More and more schools are making Harry Potter required reading so children will still pick up the series and hopefully devour it with the same zest that we’ve all done.  Unfortunately there won’t be any “between the book excitement” that helped to make the series as exciting as it was; however, we can hope that these children will still eagerly anticipate the beginning of each new book as they finish the last one.

But one has to wonder how many new adults will start reading  the books at this point. Have we come to the end of the mature examination of this series?  Adult fans of the Harry Potter series were forced to analyze the books prior to the release of each one.  In order to get the most out of the series, we spent hours pouring over the books to look for clues and hints to what was going to come.  This won’t be the case anymore.  Analysis will be all but unnecessary and this saddens me the most.

So now we can only hope that either JK Rowling will somehow decide to continue the Harry Potter Series or hopefully the next JK Rowling will emerge sooner rather than later.

This is exciting news!

    BALTIMORE, April 25 /PRNewswire/ — Becker Group, in partnership with
Warner Bros. Consumer Products, today announced it will bring worldwide
audiences “Harry Potter: The Exhibition,” a state-of-the-art exhibition
highlighting artifacts from the Warner Bros. films based on J.K. Rowling’s
beloved book series. The 10,000 square foot experience will premiere in
Spring 2009 in a major market, and will appear in ten or more cities around
the world throughout a five-year span.

“Harry Potter: The Exhibition” will include elaborate displays of
authentic costumes, props and artifacts from popular environments featured
in the films such as those from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
including the Gryffindor common room and Hagrid’s hut. During its run, the
exhibit will also be updated to include artifacts from the final
installments of the Harry Potter film series. The exhibition will be
displayed in major cultural and entertainment venues, museums and
institutions, and will be supported by a multimedia promotional effort and
advance ticket sales worldwide. Tour information, updates and ticket
availability will be posted at http://www.harrypotterexhibition.com as details
become available, or for more information, call 866-231-8328.