New Denis, Rivette, Ferrara, Chéreau, Akin, Sequels to Repo Man, Tetsuo at Venice 09

The official Venice Film Festival line-up was announced today in Italy with some very exciting prospects, not least of which the latest from Claire Denis and Jacques Rivette. The fest will show their national spirit by opening with (groan) Giuseppe Tornatore's latest Baarìa (in other Tornatore news, did you know Miramax remade Everybody's Fine with Robert De Niro, Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale? It'll be out later this year). A number of the films announced will also screen at this year's Toronto. I suspect Toronto might have been waiting for Venice's announcement to add the final details to their roster. My long-shot of a hope that Sébastien Lifshitz's Plein sud would premiere there didn't happen (its release has also been moved to December in France), but otherwise, 2009 has been a pretty promising year at the big festivals. If that's only by name and/or prestige, I can't say... But can we at least expect an Abel Ferrara/Werner Herzog showdown in Venice this year?

In Competition

- 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup - d. Jacques Rivette - w. Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto, Jacques Bonnaffé, André Marcon
- Accident - Cheang Pou-Soi (Dog Bite Dog)
- Baarìa, la porta del vento - d. Giuseppe Tornatore - w. Monica Bellucci, Raoul Bova, Ángela Molina
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - d. Werner Herzog
- Between Two Worlds - Vimukthi Jayasundara (The Foresaken Land)
- Capitalism: A Love Story - d. Michael Moore
- La doppia ora - d. Giuseppe Capotondi (directorial debut) - w. Filippo Timi
- Il grande sogno - d. Michele Placido (Romanzo criminale) - w. Riccardo Scamarcio, Laura Morante
- Lebanon - d. Samuel Maoz
- Life During Wartime - d. Todd Solondz
- Lourdes - d. Jessica Hausner - w. Sylvie Testud, Bruno Todeschini, Léa Seydoux
- Mr. Nobody - d. Jaco van Dormael (Le huitième jour, Toto le héros) - w. Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Rhys Ifans
- Persécution - d. Patrice Chéreau - w. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Romain Duris, Jean-Hughes Anglade
- Prince of Tears - Yonfan (Bishonen)
- The Road - d. John Hillcoat (The Proposition) - w. Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Michael K. Williams, Molly Parker, Garret Dillahunt
- A Single Man - d. Tom Ford (yes, the designer) - w. Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Matthew Goode, Gennifer Goodwin
- Soul Kitchen - d. Fatih Akin - w. Birol Ünel, Moritz Bleibtreu
- Lo spazio bianco - d. Francesca Comencini (Visions of Europe) - w. Margherita Buy, Salvatore Cantalupo
- Survival of the Dead - d. George A. Romero - w. Kenneth Welsh, Devon Bostick (really, in competition?)
- Tetsuo: The Bullet Man - d. Shinya Tsukamoto
- The Traveller - Ahmed Maher
- White Material - d. Claire Denis - w. Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankolé, Christopher Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle
- Women Without Men - d. Shirin Neshat

Out of Competition

- [REC] 2 - d. Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
- Anni luce - d. Francesco Maselli (L'amore in città)
- Chengdu, I Love You - d. Fruit Chan, Cui Jian
- The Hole - d. Joe Dante (Gremlins, The 'burbs) - w. Bruce Dern, Teri Polo
- The Informant! - d. Steven Soderbergh
- The Men Who Stare at Goats - d. Grant Heslov (HBO's Unscripted) - w. Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Stephen Lang
- Napoli Napoli Napoli - d. Abel Ferrara
- L'oro di Cuba - d. Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco & Vanzetti)
- Prove per una tragedia Siciliana - d. John Turturro, Roman Paska
- Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story - d. Yousry Nasrallah (La porte du soleil)
- South of the Border - d. Oliver Stone
- Yona Yona Penguin - d. Rintaro (Metropolis)

Midnight Movies

- Brooklyn's Finest - d. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) - w. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin, Will Patton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Brian F. O'Byrne
- Delhi-6 - d. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
- Dev D - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Gulaal - d. Anurag Kashyap
- Valhalla Rising - d. Nicolas Winding Refn (the Pusher series) - w. Mads Mikkelsen, Jamie Sives

Horizons

- 1428 - d. Du Haibin (China)
- Adrift - d. Bui Thac Chuyên (Vietnam)
- Buried Secrets - d. Raja Amari (Satin Rouge, Tunisia)
- Il colore delle parole - d. Marco Simon Puccioni (Riparo, Italy)
- Cow - d. Guan Hu (China)
- Crush - d. Pyotr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., Boris Khlebnikov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vrypayev (Russia)
- Engkwentro - d. Pepe Diokno (Philippines)
- Francesca - d. Bobby Paunescu (Romania) - w. Luminita Gheorghiu
- I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You - d. Marcelo Gomes (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus), Karim Ainouz (Brazil)
- Insolacao - d. Daniela Thomas, Felipe Hirsch (Brazil)
- Io sono l'amore [I Am Love] - d. Luca Guadagnino (Melissa P.) - w. Tilda Swinton
- Judge - Liu Jie (China)
- The Man's Woman and Other Stories - d. Amit Dutta (India)
- Once Upon a Time Proletarian: 12 Tales of a Country - d. Guo Xiaolu (China)
- The One All Alone - d. Frank Scheffer (Netherlands)
- One-Zero - d. Kamla Abou Zekry (Egypt)
- Paraiso - d. Héctor Gálvez (Peru)
- Pepperminta - d. Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland) - w. Sabine Timoteo
- Repo Chick - d. Alex Cox (U.S.)
- Tender Parasites [Zarte Parasiten] - d. Christian Becker, Oliver Schwabe (Germany)
- Toto - d. Peter Schreiner (Austria)
- Tris di donne e abiti nunziali - d. Martina Gedeck (Italy)
- Villalobos - d. Romuald Karmakar (Deutschland 09, Germany)

There were a few more events named, including some stuff from Werner Herzog, Aleksandr Sokurov, Tinto Brass and Phillip Haas. There was also a New Italian Cinema Trends side-bar that I didn't post -- but you can get the titles via Variety. I'll post more when I hear of it.

DVD Release Update, 29 July: Buñuel, Jarmusch, Egoyan, Claudette Colbert

Luis Buñuel's Death in the Garden will make its DVD premiere on 27 October from Tranflux Films; dates have also been set for Atom Egoyan's Adoration, on DVD and Blu-ray, and Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control, only on DVD it seems. Universal also announced a box-set entitled The Claudette Colbert Legacy Collection, with six films new to DVD, including Mitchell Leisen's No Time for Love and Ernst Lubitsch's Bluebeard's Eighth Wife.

- OMG/HaHaHa, 2007, d. Morgan Jon Fox, Water Bearer Films, 29 September
- Adoration, 2008, d. Atom Egoyan, Sony Pictures, also on Blu-ray, 13 October
- Every Little Step, 2008, d. Adam Del Deo, James D. Stern, Sony Pictures, 13 October
- Jack Brown Genius, 1994, d. Tony Hiles, Lionsgate, 13 October, w. Martin Csokas
- Death in the Garden [La mort en ce jardin], 1956, d. Luis Buñuel, Transflux Films, 27 October, w. Simone Signoret, Michel Piccoli
- Five Element Ninjas, 1982, d. Chang Cheh, Tokyo Shock, 27 October
- The Narrows, 2008, d. François Velle, Image Entertainment, also on Blu-ray, 3 November, w. Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevin Zegers
- Say Anything..., 1989, d. Cameron Crowe, 20th Century Fox, 20th Anniversary Edition, also on Blu-ray, 3 November
- Franklyn, 2008, d. Gerald McMorrow, Image Entertainment, also on Blu-ray, 17 November, w. Eva Green, Sam Riley, Ryan Phillippe
- The Limits of Control, 2009, d. Jim Jarmusch, Focus Features, 17 November

The Claudette Colbert Legacy Collection, Universal, 3 November

- Three-Cornered Moon, 1933, d. Elliott Nugent
- Maid of Salem, 1937, d. Frank Lloyd
- I Met Him in Paris, 1937, d. Wesley Ruggles
- Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, 1938, d. Ernst Lubitsch
- No Time for Love, 1943, d. Mitchell Leisen
- The Egg and I, 1947, d. Chester Erskine

More from Toronto: Pippa Lee, Bad Lieutenant, Michael Moore, Coens and Danis Tanovic

Sorry for the delay, but Toronto unveiled another crop of films playing in September the other day. They include a new offering from the Coen brothers, Werner Herzog's not-remake of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, Michael Moore's latest, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Danis Tanovic's English-language debut and the North American premiere of Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

- Dorian Gray - d. Oliver Parker - w. Colin Firth
- The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - d. Rebecca Miller - w. Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Winona Ryder, Mario Bello, Shirley Knight, Keanu Reeves, Blake Lively, Julianne Moore, Monica Bellucci
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - d. Werner Herzog - w. Nicolas Cage, Val Kilmer, Eva Mendes, Jennifer Coolidge, Fairuza Balk, Brad Dourif, Xzibit, Irma P. Hall
- Capitalism: A Love Story - d. Michael Moore
- Harry Brown - d. Daniel Barber - w. Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer
- Perrier's Bounty - d. Ian Fitzgibbon - w. Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy
- A Serious Man - d. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen - w. Adam Arkin
- Triage - d. Danis Tanovic - w. Christopher Lee, Colin Farrell, Paz Vega, Kelly Reilly, Juliet Stevenson, Jamie Sives
- Whip It - d. Drew Barrymore - w. Ellen Page, Barrymore, Alia Shawkat, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig, Marcia Gay Harden, Zoe Bell, Eve, Ari Graynor

Life in the Back Lane: Toronto Style

While Vancouver City Council was considering zoning changes to permit laneway housing, I was walking the back lanes of Toronto with Alex Speigel and Mark Guslits. These two old friends, with backgrounds in architecture and property development, both share my fascination with laneway housing. While most of the locations we visited were in the inner city, and quite different in context from Dunbar or East Vancouver, what we found offers lessons for future back lane development in Vancouver, both in terms of what to do, and what not to do.As a general comment, Toronto allows back lane developments only where it has to; namely on lanes with legal addresses. There is no widespread policy encouraging this form of housing. On the contrary, it is generally discouraged, primarily for engineering reasons. But over the years a number of older lane buildings have been renovated, and new units have been built. And numerous studies have been done promoting this form of housing.

I was particularly interested in the opportunities for laneway townhousing, semi detached and zero lot-line applications in certain areas. In some areas, units are built above cars; in others the car parking is beside the home, or on the street. Now that Vancouver Council has approved the zoning changes, it will be fascinating to see what results. If I learned one thing from the Toronto examples, it is don't forget to design for the garbage cans, and don't be afraid to try out different asthetics for the laneway units. Also, don't forget about giving the new home an address! What are we doing in this regard?

The new units do not have to match the old house. Indeed, along Croft Street, an old historic back lane street, the laneway dwellings have created a mews character with great interest and success.
Oh yes, and while this infill unit is not truly a laneway house, I couldn't resist!

Be Seeing You, With Reservations

Comic-Con San Diego happened a few days ago. It's an event I have heard so much about that it has filled my envy-tanks with enough spleen-fuel to send me to Neptune, especially as it featured what was sure to be the final Lost panel (I doubt they would do another next year just to wrap things up, though I can dream). Among all of the hype for high-profile projects like Iron Man 2: The Ironing, and James Cameron's epoch-shattering masterpiece Avatar (Steven Soderbergh wouldn't lie to us, would he?), was the The Most Anticipated Television Event Of 2009. No, not Community, starring Joel McHale. I am of course talking about the latest show from the mind of the man who brought us the bone-searing thrill-machine known to millions of fans as Lark Rise To Candleford. Yes, the world has gone crazy over The New Adventures of The Prisoner!



As a British sci-fi fan of a certain age, I adore the original Prisoner, and have been nervously watching the development of various remakes and adaptations in much the same way that a houseowner keeps checking the size of the crack in the kitchen wall for signs of imminent subsidence. Kevin Costner was going to be in a film version, back when people liked him, and Mel Gibson was going to be producing a version. Maybe even starring in it. That would be right up his alley, seeing as how he is obsessed with being seen as a tortured martyr (the man's psychology is so open to display you don't need to be Freud to see what's going on in his head). Neither happened, but it's funny that Jim Caviezel is in this remake. While Keanu has captured the market for confident post-Resurrection Messiah, Caviezel seems to be slowly accruing some credits as the pre-death tortured Christ-figure. Mel would approve, I'm sure. He might even get down from his cross long enough to mention this at some point.


As a nerd, I am gripped by the usual nerdly personality disorders: obsession with - and attachment to - trivia, condescending behaviour towards non-nerds, preciousness over the treatment of nerd properties¹. This is a terrible and debilitating disorder to suffer from, and I do try to get over it. As this is merely a short trailer for the mini-series (six episodes), and a lot of information is being held back, it could be a great show, but two things strike me immediately, and it's two things that I knew would happen but dreaded nonetheless.

1) The new Number Six is not defiant enough. Patrick McGoohan personified rebellion, playing a man with the ability to withstand coercion to an extent no human being ever could. As The Prisoner was about resisting the command of (directly) the bureaucrats of the Village and (metaphorically) society itself, he was inspirational. Yes, he was practically a metaphor for a mental state instead of a fully-rounded character, but it was beautiful to see someone triumph over and over again, even though, technically, he spent the entire series failing. Maybe that was the key to his appeal: transforming failure into a kind of victory, because all he needed to win was keep rebelling, even if he never left the Village. It was the kind of story that made you feel better about life, all while making you feel worse about the state of the world. Every episode was a rollercoaster of emotion.


Through it all, McGoohan's Six was cocky, obnoxious, tempestuous, hardcore, and utterly defiant. In short, one of the great characters in modern fiction. From what we can see in this short video, Caviezel's Six spends most of it looking shit-scared. This is not appealing. You can see him becoming more defiant as the trailer progresses, but the plot seems to show an arc for his Six. The original didn't have a namby-pamby arc. He just punched people, had tantrums, and smirked when he won a small victory. You just can't top that kind of swagger.

2) The new Number Six seems to want to help his fellow Villagers. Yes, McGoohan's Six sometimes felt the urge to help others, but of course they are working for Number Two, and betray him. Always. Who knows, maybe this will be the case in the remake, and I keep my fingers crossed that this is the case². A traditional hero will help others, but that implies he is in a position to seek help from them as well. If the story you are telling is one that hints that society is an enemy that wants to strip you of the ability to be whoever you want to be, or do whatever you want to do, and that every person in that society will consider you their enemy, then your character has to be alone. With other people around to save or be saved, it becomes a more formulaic tale of man vs. institution. The reason the original Prisoner still chimes with audiences is that McGoohan's Six is one man against everything, against even the concept of society. Turning it into "Everyman rebels against baddies" removes that metaphorical richness. If this is the way it turns out, it becomes an adaptation of just a précis of the original show.


Of course, this is a first impression, filled with entitlement and whininess. The show could be terrific, and I'll definitely be watching it with as open a mind as possible. My love for Sir Ian McKellan is so total that I will enjoy his presence enough to mitigate a lot of flaws. It's also fun seeing Brit actresses Hayley Atwell and Ruth Wilson appearing in something so expensive and American³ instead of the usual costume-drama nonsense, not to mention the presence of the excellent Lennie James. The Rovers look suitably dramatic while being the same as the originals, though the big bouncy balls of old were effective because of other elements, such as the eerie sound effects and peculiar behaviour of the Villagers whenever the Rovers appeared. Whatever. It's a terrific visual, and it's nice that they kept it.

If I knew nothing about the original series, I'd probably love the trailer. However, I know too much, and even though I'll give the new series a fair shake, I can't imagine that the story they tell using this framework will be anywhere near as interesting as the original. I'll respect the showrunners' choices, but already I can see they're promoting the show as something - a traditional Man Against His Superiors fable - that the original transcended. I enjoy those stories well enough, and they have their own metaphorical power, but let's hope they have found a way to make this more daring, otherwise it will have a tough time replacing the memory of the original, a show that genuinely made you think about the world you are living in, without giving easy answers.

One more thing. They got the "Be Seeing You" thing wrong.


That's more like it.

¹ Oh how I whined when Peter David made She-Hulk boring after Dan Slott had done such good work with the character. I deleted the post about that, you'll be glad to know.

² I'm quite happy to see a Christ figure in this tale: less so a Moses metaphor.

³ That said, apparently it is actually produced by Granada and ITV, and only distributed by AMC, hence the predominantly British cast.

The Decade List: Albums/Singles (2004)

As I've threatened to change a few things up with The Decade List, I've begun by making some stylistic changes with the Music section. There are a few changes to the "Assorted Jams," which I'll mention below. So, 2004? In doing some research, I discovered that, unlike in the film world, 2004 was a pretty lame year for music. While I love everything I've listed below, they didn't seem like enough. Maybe it was that my darling PJ Harvey released what I consider to be her weakest album, Uh Huh Her (or at least the one I listen to the least). Despite that, Ms. Harvey had a busy year, writing (or co-writing) five songs off Marianne Faithfull's wonderful Before the Poison (which also features tracks from Nick Cave and Damon Albarn) and lending her voice to three tracks on Mark Lanegan's excellent Bubblegum. In all honesty, I started listening to most of the bands whose albums are listed below after 2004 (Grizzly Bear, Sufjan, Animal Collective, Blonde Redhead), but without them, I'd have a pretty shabby list. The albums are ranked in loose order of preference; there are 18 to be exact as I needed a round number (sorry Magnetic Fields).

Grizzly Bear - Horn of Plenty
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Marianne Faithfull - Before the Poison
Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum
Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Feist - Let It Die
Blonde Redhead - Misery Is a Butterfly
Kanye West - The College Dropout
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
Tom Waits - Real Gone
Bethany Curve - Flaxen
Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
Lanterna - Highways
Junior Boys - Last Exit
Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog
Arcade Fire - Funeral

Assorted Jams from the Year 2004

For a change of pace, I decided to shift things a bit. By mere chance, I came up with 75 songs, many of which by duplicate artists, and instead of suffering through the task of ranking them all, I singled out the 15 best and, like the albums, placed them in descending order based on vague preference. Numbers were omitted for reasons of uncertainty. I'm sure if I organized them next week, they'd change in some form. 13 of the 15 below are all-time stunners, while 2 of them (namely, "Float On" and "Rich Girl") were the hot tracks of their respective seasons (summer for Modest Mouse, winter for Gwen and Eve) and will always take me lovingly back to those fine days (even if they were only fine in retrospect). And, really, isn't "Rich Girl" such a baffling oddity? Ms. Stefani appears to still be auditioning for the role of Tank Girl in the video, where Eve, returning the favor after "Let Me Blow Ya Mind," joins her on the gayest pirate ship I've ever seen (which thankfully has a special golden harem room for Gwen's Japanese girl accessories). And what about the song itself? A reworking of a tune from Fiddler on the Roof, produced by Dr. Dre? I don't see how you can resist.

For the more rousing tunes ("Leaf House," "Hit the City," "Make It Rain," "Jesus Walks," "The Mystery of Love" and "Future") I would much rather you hear them for the first time in their highest quality (with headphones, preferably, though blaring them in your car would work as well), as I don't think one can get the full experience from the various streaming links I provided. The consecutive 60 are not in any special order. I'm moving the film music to another section for now.

The Top 15

Animal Collective - "Leaf House" [from Sung Tongs]
Grizzly Bear - "Don't Ask" [from Horn of Plenty]
Mark Lanegan Band featuring PJ Harvey - "Hit the City" [from Bubblegum]
Sufjan Stevens - "To Be Alone with You" [from Seven Swans]
Tom Waits - "Make It Rain" [from Real Gone]
Feist - "Let It Die" [from Let It Die]
Kanye West - "Jesus Walks" [from The College Dropout]
José González - "Hand on Your Heart" [from Stay in the Shade EP] (yes, it's a Kylie cover)
Blonde Redhead - "Misery Is a Butterfly" [from Misery Is a Butterfly]
Marianne Faithfull - "The Mystery of Love" [from Before the Poison]
Kylie Minogue - "I Believe in You" [from the I Believe in You single]
The Soft Pink Truth - "Confession (Nervous Gender)" [from Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth?"]
Gwen Stefani featuring Eve - "Rich Girl" [from Love. Angel. Music. Baby.]
Cut Copy - "Future" [from Bright Like Neon Love]
Modest Mouse - "Float On" [from Good News for People Who Love Bad News]

Les autres

PJ Harvey - "Shame" [from Uh Huh Her]
Françoise Hardy "Sur quel volcan?" [from Tant de belles choses]
Lanterna - "Canyons" [from Highways]
Auburn Lull - "Deterior" [from Cast from the Platform]
Bethany Curve - "The Automatic" [from Flaxen]
Jens Lekman - "If You Ever Need a Stranger (to Sing at Your Wedding)" [from When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog]
DeVotchKa - "You Love Me" [from How It Ends]
The Magnetic Fields - "I Don't Believe You" [from i]
Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)" [from Funeral]
Sonic Youth - "Unmade Bed" [from Sonic Nurse]

Junior Boys - "Bellona" [from Last Exit] (Couldn't find this one, sorry)
Elf Power - "The Cracks" [from Walking with the Beggar Boys]
Marianne Faithfull - "Desperanto" [from Before the Poison] (Unfortunately, I couldn't find this streaming either)
PJ Harvey - "The Darker Days of Me & Him" [from Uh Huh Her]
Sufjan Stevens - "The Dress Looks Nice on You" [from Seven Swans]
Franz Ferdinand - "Michael" [from Franz Ferdinand]
Ciara featuring Ludacris - "Oh" [from Goodies]
Björk featuring Kelis - "Oceania" [from the Oceania single]
Blonde Redhead - "Doll Is Mine" [from Misery Is a Butterfly] (I'd prefer you watch the entire 15 minutes of Betrand Bonello's short Cindy, the Doll Is Mine with Asia Argento as Cindy Sherman, instead of cutting out the segment where the song is used)
Animal Collective - "Kids on Holiday" [from Sung Tongs]

French Kicks - "One More Time" [from The Trial of the Century]
Rilo Kiley - "I Never" [from More Adventurous]
Cut Copy - "That Was Just a Dream" [from Bright Like Neon Love]
Grizzly Bear - "Deep Sea Diver" [from Horn of Plenty]
PJ Harvey - "You Come Through" [from Uh Huh Her]
George Michael - "Freeek!" [from Patience] (thanks, Mike!)
DeVotchKa - "How It Ends" [from How It Ends]
Moonbabies - "You Know How It Is" [from The Orange Billboard] (you can listen to it streaming here, but I can't directly link to it)
Sufjan Stevens - "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands" [from Seven Swans]
Autolux - "Here Comes Everybody" [from Future Perfect]

Pinback - "Soaked" [from Summer in Abaddon]
Mark Lanegan Band - "Methamphetamine Blues" [from Bubblegum]
Annie - "Heartbeat" [from Anniemal]
Sonic Youth - "I Love You Golden Blue" [from Sonic Nurse]
90 Day Men - "Too Late or Too Dead" [from Panda Park]
Usher - "Confessions, Part II" [from Confessions]
Grizzly Bear - "La Duchess Anne" [from Horn of Plenty]
Crime Mob featuring Miss Aisha - "Stilletos (Pumps)" [from Crime Mob] (um, yes, we rockin' stilletos, ho!)
Efterklang - "Swarming" [from Tripper]
Destiny's Child featuring T.I. and Lil Wayne - "Soldier" [from Destiny Fulfilled]

The Walkmen - "The Rat" [from Bows + Arrows]
Sia - "Breathe Me" [from Colour the Small One] (for the obvious reason, right?)
Stereolab - "Margerine Melodie" [from Margerine Eclipse]
Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out" [from Franz Ferdinand]
Ambulance LTD - "Heavy Lifting" [from LP]
Feist - "Inside and Out" [from Let It Die]
Ciara featuring Missy Elliott - "1, 2 Step" [from Goodies]
Elliott Smith - "Twilight" [from From a Basement on a Hill]
Björk - "Triumph of a Heart" [from Medúlla]
Trick Daddy featuring Ludacris and Cee-Lo - "Sugar" [from Thug Matrimony - Married to the Streets]

PJ Harvey - "Uh Huh Her" (this was never released the album it was named after, nor any of its singles, but you can find a good studio version of it on 'iTunes Originals - PJ Harvey')
Feist - "Mushaboom" [from Let It Die]
The Magnetic Fields - "I Thought You Were My Boyfriend" [from i]
Destiny's Child - "Girl" [from Destiny Fulfilled] (ignore the lame Sex & the City video, and think of it as an after-school special sung... and it's fantastic!)
Neko Case - "If You Knew" [from The Tigers Have Spoken]
Phoenix - "Holdin' On Together" [from Alphabetical]
Interpol - "Evil" [from Antics]
Iron and Wine - "Naked As We Came" [from Our Endless Numbered Days]
Ashanti - "Only U" [from Concrete Rose]
of Montreal - "Disconnect the Dots" [from Satanic Panic in the Attic]

When is Friendship Day, Friendship Day Date 2009, Friendship Day in 2009

When is Friendship Day?

Celebrate Friendship Day 2009 on August 2, Sunday

Human beings are social creatures and have always valued the importance of friends in their lives. To celebrate this noble feeling it was deemed fit to have a day dedicated to friends and friendship. Accordingly, first Sunday of August was declared as a holiday in US in honor of friends by a Proclamation made by US Congress in 1935. Since then, World Friendship Day is being celebrated every year on the first Sunday in the month of August.

This beautiful idea of celebrating Friendship Day was joyfully accepted by several other countries across the world. And today, many countries including India, celebrate the first Sunday of August as Friendship Day every year. Celebrating Friendship Day in a traditional manner, people meet their friends and exchange cards and flowers to honor their friends. Lot many social and cultural organization too celebrate the occasion and mark Friendship Day by hosting programs and get together.

It may be noted that some associations celebrate Friendship Day in an entirely different time of the year and with different customs. For instance,

* National Friendship Day is on the first Sunday in August.
* Women's Friendship Day is on the third Sunday in August
* International Friendship Month is February
* Old Friends, New Friends Week is the third week of May


However, what is remarkably same is the idea behind the celebration of the day. Everywhere, people express love for their friends and cherish their presence in life.

Source - http://www.friendshipday.org

Tags: friendship day greetings, friendship day, friendship day messages, friendship day 2009, raksha bandhan 2009, friendshipday, friendship day e cards, friendship day sms