Import/Export, You, the Living in the US; More Studio Canal Blu-rays in the UK; Plus Acquisition Update

Palisades Tartan has announced the DVDs of Roy Andersson's You, the Living and Ulrich Seidl's Import/Export for 12 and 26 January respectively. HBO re-announced the first season of the first season of The Life and Times of Tim, perhaps in preparation for a second season (though I haven't heard anything of the like, so who knows...). We can all utter a sigh of relief that IFC announced Joe Swanberg's Alexander the Last through their MPI deal; had it appeared on the Criterion label, I'd be whining for years to come. And finally, Unearthed Films, now back from the dead, will release John Albo's Flexing with Monty, apparently quite an oddity that's premiering on DVD after fourteen years of production; its star Trevor Goddard died six years ago, but I don't know that his death was the hold-up. As usual, the releases are in descending order of release.

DVD

- Flexing with Monty, 2010, d. John Albo, Unearthed Films/Breaking Glass Films, 5 January
- Big Fan, 2009, d. Robert D. Siegel, First Independent, 12 January
- Love + Hate, 2005, d. Dominic Savage, Cinema Guild, 12 January
- You, the Living [Du levande], 2007, d. Roy Andersson, Palisades Tartan, 12 January
- The Butch Factor, 2009, d. Christopher Hines, Wolfe, 19 January
- Import/Export, 2007, d. Ulrich Seidl, Palisades Tartan, 26 January
- Whip It, 2009, d. Drew Barrymore, Fox, also on Blu-ray, 26 January
- As It Is in Heaven [Så som i himmelen], 2004, d. Kay Pollak, Kino, 2 February
- No Boundaries, 2009, d. Violet Mendoza, Jake Willing, Breaking Glass Pictures, 2 February
- The Vanished Empire, 2008, d. Karen Shakhnazarov, Kino, 2 February
- The Life and Times of Tim, 2008, d. Steve Dildarian, HBO, 9 February
- Alexander the Last, 2009, d. Joe Swanberg, IFC, 23 February
- Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, 2009, d. John Krasinski, IFC, 23 February
- Colour from the Dark, 2008, d. Ivan Zuccon, Vanguard, 23 February
- Dead Snow [Død snø], 2009, d. Tommy Wirkola, IFC, also on Blu-ray, 23 February
- An Englishman in New York, 2009, d. Richard Laxton, Breaking Glass Films, 23 February
- Paris, 2008, d. Cédric Klapisch, IFC, 23 February
- Swedish Auto, 2006, d. Derek Sieg, IFC, 23 February
- Three Blind Mice, 2008, d. Matthew Newton, IFC, 23 February
- The Vicious Kind, 2009, d. Lee Toland Krieger, Image, 23 February
- Old Enough, 1984, d. Marisa Silver, Scorpion Releasing, 27 April

Date Changes

I wonder if Ichi the Killer will ever come out on Blu-ray; it's been moved more than Billy Jack.

The House on Sorority Row, 12 January
No Impact Man: The Documentary, 19 January
Ichi the Killer Blu-ray, 23 February

Blu-ray

Paramount is releasing the first two Godfather films (and laughably not the third) on Blu-ray separately on 2 February. In foreign Blu-ray news, Studio Canal has announced another batch of releases in the UK: Joseph Losey's The Go-Between (previously announced with the last group, still shockingly MIA on even DVD in the US); Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers; Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless [À bout de souffle] and Pierrot le fou; Just Jaeckin's Emmanuelle; and Christophe Gans' Brotherhood of the Wolf [Le pacte des loups]. Though Pierrot is already on Blu in the US from Criterion, I guess we'll find out around 15 February whether the discs are region locked or not.

- Atonement, 2007, d. Joe Wright, Focus Features, 26 January
- Pride & Prejudice, 2005, d. Joe Wright, Focus Features, 26 January
- The Godfather - The Coppola Restoration, 1972, d. Francis Ford Coppola, Paramoint, 2 February
- The Godfather, Part 2 - The Coppola Restoration, 1974, d. Francis Ford Coppola, Paramoint, 2 February

Coming Soon from IFC

After their success with the director's Summer Hours [L'heure d'été], IFC Films has already nabbed the latest project from Olivier Assayas, Carlos the Jackal. Carlos focuses on Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, played by Édgar Ramírez (The Bourne Ultimatum, Che), and will premiere as a television mini-series, airing on The Sundance Channel next spring. IFC will be releasing an abridged version of the mini for a fall 2010 release. In another IFC pre-sale, the studio has picked up Julio Medem's Room in Rome [Habitación en Roma], which will likely make its premiere at next year's Berlinale. Room in Rome is the director's first English-language film as well as a remake of the Chilean film En la cama by Matías Bize, though the remake substitutes the original's heterosexual lovers with a hot lesbian duo in Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenko. Room in Rome also stars Enrico Lo Verso and Medem regular Najwa Nimri.

Other IFC Films in the pipeline include Ruba Nadda's Cairo Time with Patricia Clarkson; Bahman Ghobadi's No One Knows About the Persian Cats; Claude Chabrol's Bellamy; the Red Riding Trilogy; Josiane Belasko's A French Gigolo [Cliente] with Nathalie Baye and Eric Caravaca (which actually opened over the weekend); Marco Bechis' Birdwatchers; Hong Sang-soo's Night and Day; Nanda Anand's Return to Rajapur; Marco Bellocchio's Vincere; François Ozon's Ricky; Bruno Podalydès' Park Benches [Bancs publics (Versaille rive droite)]; Bruno Dumont's Hadewijch; Marina de Van's Don't Look Back [Ne te retourne pas]; Ryosuke Hashiguchi's All Around Us; Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher's La horde; Alexis Dos Santos' Unmade Beds; Safy Nebbou's Mark of an Angel [L'empriente de l'ange]; Nicholas Winding Refn's Valhalla Rising; and more.

More Acquisitions

- I Am Love [Io sono l'amore], d. Luca Guadagnino, Magnolia [w. Tilda Swinton]
- The Exploding Girl, d. Bradley Rust Gray, Oscilloscope
- The Good Heart, d. Dagur Kári, Magnolia [w. Brian Cox, Paul Dano]
- Mother and Child, d. Rodrigo García, Sony Pictures Classics [w. Samuel L. Jackson, Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, David Morse, Kerry Washington, Amy Brenneman, Marc Blucas, Tatyana Ali, Jimmy Smits]
- The Misfortunates [De helaashied der dingen], d. Felix Van Groeningen, NeoClassics Films
- The Joneses, d. Derrick Borte, Roadside Attractions [w. Amber Heard, David Duchovony, Demi Moore, Gary Cole, Lauren Hutton]
- L'amour caché, d. Alessandro Capone, Cinema Epoch [w. Isabelle Huppert, Greta Scacchi, Mélanie Laurent, Olivier Gourmet]
- Accidents Happen, d. Andrew Lancaster, Image [w. Geena Davis]
- The Wind Journeys [Los viajes del viento], d. Ciro Guerra, Film Movement, available in February for members of Film Movement's monthly program

The Decade List: The Squid and the Whale (2005)

The Squid and the Whale – dir. Noah Baumbach

Though I’ve often heard Wes Anderson fans name Noah Baumbach as one of the reasons why The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou failed to live up to his previous efforts, Baumbach’s solo endeavor The Squid and the Whale is one of the finer examples of the Sundance lot of American cinema in recent years. Unlike the films of Todd Solondz, the searing, trickle-down cruelty of the middle-class family unit comes in a much subtler package here. It certainly helps that Baumbach’s script is extremely funny on its own and that its humor doesn’t rely solely on venomous attacks on its characters.

Keeping the humor on snappy dialogue, like when Bernard (Jeff Daniels) asks son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) if he understood that the story his student, played wickedly by Anna Paquin, read aloud in class was “about her cunt” or when Walt tries to impress his sort-of girlfriend Sophie (Halley Feiffer) by describing The Metamorphosis as “Kafkaesque,” allows the less-inclined viewer to overlook the despair and hostility of the Berkman family. Bernard and Joan (Laura Linney) make for hideous parents, so wrapped up in their own professional and sexual aspirations which both serve as a way of one-upping each other. Their own selfishness blinds them from the ways these actions affect their children: Walt, a plagiarist who has morphed his father’s admiration for beautiful women into his own form of misogyny against his girlfriend and especially his mother, and Frank (Owen Kline), whose hatred for his father manifests in drinking by himself and exhibiting maladaptive sexual behavior through compulsively masturbating in school.

Baumbach’s depictions of the New England intellectual set has suffered some misfires in the latter Margot at the Wedding and even his much-beloved Kicking & Screaming, but with The Squid and the Whale, everything congeals perfectly. While the film does suffer mildly from lacking a pinpointed focus, a common plight among other American independent films which typically fail as a result, The Squid and the Whale benefits from avoiding the acerbity that’s too common in films about unlikeable people.

With: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, Anna Paquin, William Baldwin, Halley Feiffer, Ken Leung
Screenplay: Noah Baumbach
Cinematography: Robert D. Yeoman
Music: Britta Phillips, Dean Wareham
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Premiere: January 2005 (Sundance Film Festival)

Awards: Directing Award, Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (Sundance Film Festival)

Other Decade Round-Ups: UK Times Online, Pitchfork

Organizing and ranking the work of the '00s is probably the main focus of a lot of publications right now, and so far I've only stumbled on two of them (one thanks to Adrian Curry). The UK Times Online made their 100 Best Films of the Noughties, as per UK release, with some surprising and frankly unfortunate choices. Any list that includes Paul Haggis' Crash is automatically tossed in the bin for me... even if Michael Haneke's Caché does top the list. Their list is predictably UK-biased, though the only British-helmed films whose placements I can get down with are the two Bourne films. You can read the entire list here, but below you'll find their top 20:

1. Caché, 2005, d. Michael Haneke
2. The Bourne Supremacy, 2004 / The Bourne Ultimatum, 2007, d. Paul Greengrass
3. No Country for Old Men, 2007, d. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
4. Grizzly Man, 2005, d. Werner Herzog
5. Team America: World Police, 2004, d. Trey Parker
6. Slumdog Millionaire, 2008, d. Danny Boyle
7. The Last King of Scotland, 2006, d. Kevin Macdonald
8. Casino Royale, 2006, d. Martin Campbell
9. The Queen, 2006, d. Stephen Frears
10. Hunger, 2008, d. Steve McQueen
11. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, 2006, d. Larry Charles
12. The Lives of Others [Das Leben der Anderen], 2006, d. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
13. This Is England, 2007, d. Shane Meadows
14. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [4 luni, 3 săptămâni şi 2 zile], 2007, d. Cristian Mungiu
15. Downfall [Der Untergang], 2004, d. Oliver Hirschbiegel
16. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004, d. Michel Gondry
17. Brokeback Mountain, 2005, d. Ang Lee
18. Let the Right One In [Låt den rätte komma in], 2008, d. Tomas Alfredson
19. United 93, 2006, d. Paul Greengrass
20. Donnie Darko, 2001, d. Richard Kelly


Pitchfork really jumped the gun, posting the 200 best albums of the 2000s in October, topping their list with Radiohead's Kid A (snooze). It's a mostly solid list, though I never bought into the hype surrounding bands like Arcade Fire, The White Stripes or Panda Bear (being a big Animal Collective fan, I tried). Usually they're sticklers for the actual first release of an album but included Sigur Rós' Ágætis Byrjun, which came out in '99 in Iceland. You can find #21-50 here, #51-100 here, #101-150 here, #151-200 here. The annotated Top 20 is here, but the list is below:

1. Radiohead - Kid A, 2000
2. Arcade Fire - Funeral, 2004
3. Daft Punk - Discovery, 2001
4. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002
5. Jay-Z - The Blueprint, 2001
6. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica, 2000
7. The Strokes - Is This It, 2001
8. Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun, 2000/1999
9. Panda Bear - Person Pitch, 2007
10. The Avalanches - Since I Left You, 2000
11. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele, 2000
12. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells, 2001
13. OutKast - Stankonia, 2000
14. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion, 2009
15. The Knife - Silent Shout, 2006
16. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois, 2005
17. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver, 2007
18. Kanye West - Late Registration, 2005
19. Spoon - Kill the Moonlight, 2002
20. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights, 2002

I Really Need A Dress For Partay

KFC is having another Christmas party and I'm suppose to attend because I'm the supposedly responsible "EVENT COORDINATOR" (which by the way, I haven't got a clue what my duties are), therefore a sensible and yet elegant dress is yet to be found (or bought).

Alright, -__- I'm just trying to find an excuse to go shopping since I still think that my wardrobe is empty with prom dresses (**snigger** as if!! ppfftt) and I really do want to be make myself pretty anyway.

Oh yeah, remind me to get rid of my flabs and cellulite and elephant thighs and flabby arms and my ever drying up skin.

1. Ebay - Applique Ribbon Lined Bead Japan Beige Dress, £14 (inc p&p)

2. ASOS - Lace-Up Beaded Kaftan Dress, £22 (inc p&p)

3. ASOS - Rag Hem Asymmetric Dress, £18 (inc p&p)

4. Ebay - Sequins Ruffle Charm Cocktail Dress S-M Red, £15 (inc p&p)

5. Dorothy Perkins - Rise pink embellished waist dress, £49 (inc p&p)

6. Ebay - V Bow Halter Stretch Cocktail Dress, Purple, £18 (inc p&p)

7. Traffic People Frill Sleeve Silk Wrap Dress, £22 (inc p&p)

There are so many of them and I'm totally stuck. As you can see, I didn't set too high a budget for this dress cuz I'm broke like that :(

I'm in love with No.1 and No.6. How bout you?

The Decade List: Albums/Singles (2008)

The lesson I've learned about myself in going back and reassessing the best music of last year is that a year is about the length of time it takes for me to catch up. I posted a half-assed list in December of last year, naming Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree, still a great album, the best. While Seventh Tree certainly improved upon the duo's previous dance floor oriented albums, it was not the best of the year. With an additional eleven months to play catch up, I finally got around to picking up Deerhunter's two albums and gave both Fleet Foxes and Hercules and Love Affair the chance to grow on me (while Lykke Li began to grate).

This doesn't make the eventual 2009 Music list, of which I already have quite a few favorites, look too promising... but we'll see. While some might argue 2008 was Beyoncé's year (and, yeah, it kind of was despite releasing the horrible "If I Were a Boy" as the first single off I Am... Sasha Fierce, though I always give kudos to the proper use of the conditional verb tense). While "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" cemented her occasionally wobbly position in the ranks of pop greats (the following singles, even the ludicrous "Diva," are all quite good), 2008 in retrospect made me appreciate Bradford Cox, lead singer of Deerhunter and the man behind Atlas Sound, providing three of the year's best albums.

It's quite possible that the include of Foals' Antidotes on the best albums of the year list is where skepticism comes in. Like nearly every band that consists of young straight-ish dudes with expensive haircuts, I'm never able to separate myself from enjoying the music to really look at it objectively and critically. Maybe it's the Daydream Nation guitar work on "Big Big Love (Fig. 2)" or the sadness that's matched in Yannis Philippakis' vocals. I've always been a sucker for melancholy dance punk. If you remove "dance" from the equation, Vivian Girls' self-titled works in the same way. An honorable mention to Lindstrøm's Where You Go I Go Too, which missed the cut only out of my forgetfulness in including one of the top 5. The 20 albums (I placed the two Deerhunter ones together) are listed in vague preferential order.

Deerhunter - Microcastle / Weird Era Cont.
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
No Age - Nouns
Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
Beach House - Devotion
Grace Jones - Hurricane
Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Portishead - Third
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Foals - Antidotes
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing

Assorted James for the Year 2008

I really tried to find a different song to place at the top of the singles list, but I couldn't. I also tried not to include MGMT on the list period, but despite the fact that I never find the desire to listen to them any more (or really after last summer), "Electric Feel" was a blinding flash in that pan, so it stayed. My iffy attitude toward Lady Gaga, respectable on several levels and lame on just as many, didn't prevent her from showing up in the additional 100 tracks, but I typically consider a night on the town where I'm not forced to hear her a successful one.

As for the great videos of the year (I'm debating coming up with a Decade List for music videos, but I may be even more out of the loop on that subject than simply music... plus Pitchfork's Music Video Decade list covered a lot of the greats), check out Sigur Rós' Ryan McGinley-inspired "Gobbledigook," that particular Beyoncé song that pays tribute to Bob Fosse, Alison Goldfrapp as Goldie Locks in "A&E," the two Flight of the Conchords videos which are naturally taken from their TV show, Eagles of Death Metal's "Wannabe in LA," No Age's "Eraser," all of the Hercules and Love Affair ones, Grace Jones' "Corporate Cannibal" (really, eat your heart out, Lady Gaga), Air France's "Collapsing at Your Doorstep" and Crystal Castles' "Crimewave" if only for the odd use of clips from Bruce La Bruce's Otto; or Up with Dead People. The Top 35 are in order of preference, the remaining 100 are not.

The Top 35

Beyoncé - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" [I Am... Sasha Fierce]
Deerhunter - "Agoraphobia" [Microcastle]
M83 - "Kim & Jessie" [Saturdays = Youth]
Crystal Castles - "Crimewave" [Crystal Castles]
Atlas Sound - "Recent Bedroom" [Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel]
Fleet Foxes - "Blue Ridge Mountains" [Fleet Foxes]
Fuck Buttons - "Sweet Love for Planet Earth" [Street Horrrsing]
Portishead - "Hunter" [Third]
Grace Jones - "Well Well Well" [Hurricane]
Antony & the Johnsons - "Another World" [Another World EP]
Deerhunter - "Saved by Old Times" [Microcastle]
Vivian Girls - "Never See Me Again" [Vivian Girls]
Foals - "Big Big Love (Fig. 2)" [Antidotes]
Hercules and Love Affair - "Time Will" [Hercules and Love Affair]
No Age - "Teen Creeps" [Nouns]
Sébastien Tellier - "Pomme" [Sexuality]
M83 - "You, Appearing" [Saturdays = Youth]
Aeroplane featuring Kathy Diamond - "Whispers" [Whispers single]
The Magnetic Fields - "The Nun's Litany" [Distortion]
Lykke Li - "Little Bit" [Youth Novels]
Sigur Rós - "Ára bátur" [Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust]
Goldfrapp - "A&E" [Seventh Tree]
Gang Gang Dance - "House Jam" [Saint Dymphna]
Beach House - "Wedding Bell" [Devotion]
TV on the Radio - "Halfway Home" [Dear Science]
Ladyhawke - "Back of the Van" [Ladyhawke]
Brian Eno & David Byrne - "Strange Overtones" [Everything That Happens Will Happen Today]
Jenny Lewis - "Pretty Bird" [Acid Tongue]
MGMT - "Electric Feel" [Oracular Spectacular]
Cat Power - "Ramblin' (Wo)man" [Jukebox]
Santigold (formerly Santogold) - "L.E.S. Artistes" [Santogold]
Cut Copy - "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found" [In Ghost Colours]
The Black Angels - "You on the Run" [Directions to See a Ghost]
Tindersticks - "Come Feel the Sun" [The Hungry Saw]
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Seafaring Song" [Sunday at Devil Dirt]

The Other 100

Gang Gang Dance - "Vacuum" [Saint Dymphna]
The Black Ghosts - "Some Way Through This" [The Black Ghosts]
Santigold (formerly Santogold) - "Creator" [Santogold]
Foals - "Red Socks Pugie" [Antidotes]
Deerhunter - "Operation" [Weird Era Cont.]
Flight of the Conchords - "Business Time" [Flight of the Conchords]
Hercules and Love Affair - "Athene" [Hercules and Love Affair]
The Bug featuring Warrior Queen - "Poison Dart" [London Zoo]
Goldfrapp - "Eat Yourself" [Seventh Tree]
Cut Copy - "Lights & Music" [In Ghost Colours]

Kaki King - "Life Being What It Is" [Dreaming of Revenge]
Air France - "Collapsing at Your Doorstep" [No Way Down]
Fleet Foxes - "White Winter Hymnal" [Fleet Foxes]
Janet Jackson - "Feedback" [Discipline]
TV on the Radio - "Golden Age" [Dear Science]
Jamie Lidell - "All I Wanna Do" [Jim]
Adriana Calcanhotto - "Seu Pensamento" [Maré]
The Magnetic Fields - "Please Stop Dancing" [Distortion] (sorry for the vid)
Crystal Castles - "Vanished" [Crystal Castles]
Lykke Li - "I'm Good, I'm Gone" [Youth Novels]

Beyoncé - "Halo" [I Am... Sasha Fierce]
Invisible Conga People - "Cable Dazed" [Cable Dazed / Weird Pains EP]
Department of Eagles - "Phantom Other" [In Ear Park]
Eagles of Death Metal - "Wannabe in LA" [Heart On]
Hercules and Love Affair - "Blind" [Hercules and Love Affair]
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" [Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!]
Lil Wayne - "A Milli" [The Carter III]
Sébastien Tellier - "Look" [Sexuality]
Hot Chip - "Ready for the Floor" [Made in the Dark]
Atlas Sound - "River Card" [Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel]

No Age - "Eraser" [Nouns]
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - "Come On Over (Turn Me On)" [Sunday at Devil Dirt]
Grace Jones - "I'm Crying (Mother's Tears)" [Hurricane]
Crystal Castles - "Magic Spells" [Crystal Castles]
Spiritualized - "Soul on Fire" [Songs in A&E]
Poni Hoax featuring Olga Kouklaki - "The Soundtrack of Your Fears" [Images of Sigrid]
Neil Halstead - "Oh! Mighty Engine" [Oh! Mighty Engine]
Vivian Girls - "Tell the World" [Vivian Girls]
Flight of the Conchords - "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)" [Flight of the Conchords]
Erykah Badu - "Me" [New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)]

Antony & the Johnsons - "Shake That Devil" [Another World EP]
Estelle featuring Kanye West - "American Boy" [Shine]
Fleet Foxes - "He Doesn't Know Why" [Fleet Foxes]
Amadou & Mariam - "Sabali" [Welcome to Mali]
Kanye West - "Love Lockdown" [808s & Heartbreak]
Atlas Sound - "Quarantined" [Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel]
Solange - "Sandcastle Disco" [Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams]
Passion Pit - "I've Got Your Number" [Chunk of Change EP]
Shearwater - "The Snow Leopard" [Rook]
The Black Ghosts - "It's Your Touch" [The Black Ghosts]

Hot Chip - "One Pure Thought" [Made in the Dark]
Brendan Canning - "Churches Under the Stairs" [Something for All of Us...]
French Kicks - "Said So What" [Swimming]
Hercules and Love Affair - "You Belong" [Hercules and Love Affair]
Foals - "Balloons" [Antidotes]
Mariah Carey - "Touch My Body" [E=MC²]
Cut Copy - "Hearts on Fire" [In Ghost Colours]
Sigur Rós - "Íllgresi" [Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust]
Lykke Li - "Melodies & Desires" [Youth Novels]
Animal Collective - "Street Flash" [Water Curses EP]

of Montreal - "Gallery Piece" [Skeletal Lamping]
Lady Gaga - "Poker Face" [The Fame]
R.E.M. - "Supernatural Superserious" [Accelerate]
Friendly Fires featuring Au Revoir Simone - "Paris (Aeroplane Remix)" [Paris EP] (again, sorry for the video)
Portishead - "The Rip" [Third]
Adem - "Bedside Table" [Takes] (This Bedhead cover is the only one I care for on Adem's cover album)
The Dodos - "Fools" [Visiter]
Poni Hoax - "Antibodies" [Images of Sigrid]
Cat Power - "Metal Heart" (Jukebox Version) [Jukebox]
Terry Lynn - "System" [Kingstonlogic 2.0] (Beware of the video; it's really unsettling... but the song is awesome)

Fleet Foxes - "Your Protector" [Fleet Foxes]
Beach House - "Gila" [Devotion]
The Verve - "Love Is Noise" [Forth]
Ladyhawke - "Paris Is Burning" [Ladyhawke]
Ray LaMontagne - "Meg White" [Gossip in the Grain]
DeVotchKa - "The Clockwise Witness" [A Mad & Faithful Telling]
Cold War Kids - "Mexican Dogs" [Loyalty to Loyalty]
The B-52's - "Pump" [Funplex]
Robin Thicke - "Magic" [Something Else]
The Virgins - "Rich Girls" [The Virgins]

The Walkmen - "In the New Year" [You & Me]
Jenny Lewis - "Acid Tongue" [Acid Tongue]
Chairlift - "Planet Health" [Does It Inspire You]
Women - "Black Rice" [Women]
MGMT - "Weekend Wars" [Oracular Spectacular]
Crystal Castles - "Alice Practice" [Crystal Castles]
Beyoncé - "Ego" [I Am... Sasha Fierce]
Beck - "Gamma Ray" [Modern Guilt]
Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "Being Bad Feels Really Good" [You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into]
French Kicks - "Carried Away" [Swimming]

Vivian Girls - "I Believe in Nothing" [Vivian Girls]
The Pussycat Dolls - "When I Grow Up" [Doll Domination]
The Radio Dept. - "Closing Scene" [Freddie and the Trojan Horse EP]
Poni Hoax - "Wanda's Loving Boy" [Des jeunes gens mödernes Compilation]
Emmanuelle Seigner featuring Brett Anderson - "Les mots simples" [Les mots simples Single]
Sigur Rós - "Gobbledigook" [Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust]
Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk" [Vampire Weekend]
Cat Power - "New York" [Jukebox]
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - "Stop" [Cardinology]
Antipop vs. Asia Argento - "Vampy" [Antipop vs Asia Argento, Archigram & Friends] (It's actually kinda terrible/kinda wonderful)

And a very special mention to one of the worst songs of 2008, Madonna's "4 Minutes" featuring Justin Timberlake, produced by Timbaland. The song, which has Madonna uttering the offensively stupid lyric "Sometimes I think what I need is a you intervention" and Justin repeating "Madonna" as if he were on an episode of Wayne's World, and the video, which features Madge and JT (slowly) running and (poorly) dancing away from The Nothing from The Neverending Story, are both dreadful... but it's that trainwreck I can't look away or cover my ears from. Agh.

I'm Definitely Weird

Whack a camera out and I'm ready to pose with all sorts of weird facial expressions. Totally not your daily ordinary poses. And what's worse still, The already ugly exterior of my body becomes worse with my super sacarstic twisted facial.

Oh yeah, I do love my wacky self. **prepared to received rotten eggs and cabbage thrown by you guys wtf**

Oooppssiieee, another boring and meaningless post. Disappointed??

Ayam Percik

I haven't eat this for almost 2 and a half years, almost forget how they taste and deep down, I do know that they taste delicious. So, I attempt to make one my own and see how they go...

Recipe found from Asian Online Recipes

Ingredients :
Chicken wings and drumsticks (approximately 8 pieces)
25g Tamarind paste (I didn't use paste, instead I'd used tamarind pieces iteslf)
50ml water
150ml coconut milk

Spices
Half an onion
2 cloves garlic
2cm ginger
Half stalk lemon grass
3 teaspoon chilli paste

Seasoning
Some salt and sugar
Some pepper and ground black pepper


Method:

1. Mix the tamarind paste with the 100ml water and squeeze to obtain tamarind juice. Set aside.

2. Ground and combine the spice ingredients. Then add the tamarind juice and thick coconut milk.

3. Put the chicken pieces in a large mixing bowl.


4. Pour in the combined spices with coconut milk and tamarind juice before adding in the seasoning.

5. Mix well until the chicken is coated with the marinade.

6. Keep in the refrigerator for several hours or preferable overnight.


7. Remove and grill the marinated chicken pieces over a charcoal pit or bake in the oven until meat is cooked (25 minutes) and slightly charred.

And trust me, although they don't really taste like the real thing like those in the Ramadan Pasar Malam (Ramadan night market), you still would like it cuz its so tasty like that.

Christmas is approaching, time to set up the christmas tree like last year. Ooo, can't wait ^__^