In 2009, Missy Elliott will release Block Party, her first album of new material since 2005. (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)

Yes, there are plenty of reasons to feel down about the coming year. Anyone who’s looked at their financial portfolio lately has no doubt lost some of the spring in their step. But all is not lost – the arts and entertainment world can offer the “audacity of hope” just as well as the current U.S. president-elect. Here are a few cultural treats we think will help you get through the next 12 months.

Jan. 20: Obama inauguration

After eight years in the wilderness, Democrat-loving celebs are lining up for invites to Barack Obama’s inauguration. It’ll be a star-studded affair, no doubt glitzier than the Oscars. Already booked for the big ceremony: Aretha Franklin, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma. Scheduled to play at inauguration-related parties: Elvis Costello, Jay-Z, Rihanna. Expecting an invitation to Washington for services rendered: Oprah, Bruce Springsteen, Will.I.am. Probably not going to be invited: John Rich, the country singer who wrote and recorded Raisin’ McCain.

Feb. 10: Missy Elliott, Block Party

Recently spotted trying to lend some street cred to a Pussycat Dolls video, Missy Elliott unleashes her first album of all-new material since 2005’s The Cookbook. As usual, the hip-hop innovator has assembled an all-star team of producers to help out, including Danja, Pharrell, T-Pain, Souldiggaz and long-time collaborator Timbaland.

Feb. 17: Morrissey, Years of Refusal

He’s come to wish you an unhappy New Year. The messiah of mope returns with another set of sublime self-pity. Take this lyrical sample from the tune I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris: “In the absence of your love/And in the absence of human touch/I have decided I’m throwing my arms around Paris/Because only stone and steel accept my love.” Other potentially tasty tracks include Something Is Squeezing My Skull and When Last I Spoke to Carol.

Neil Young is set to release a collection of unreleased tracks from his early years in 2009. (Jason DeCrow/Associated Press)

Sometime in February: Neil Young, The Archives Vol. 1, 1963-72

Is it finally being released? Looks like it. Our Neil has been working on this massive archival project for more than a decade. It’s the Holy Grail for his fans, a multi-disc package (on Blu-Ray) containing previously unreleased tracks from the grunge pioneer’s early years. A bonus for lovers of ’60s garage rock: recordings by Young’s early Winnipeg band, the Squires.

Feb. 22: Jerry Lewis accepts the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 81^st Academy Awards ceremony

Hugh Jackman isn’t the most inspired choice for Oscar host, but chances are good that Jerry Lewis’s acceptance speech for this humanitarian award will provide some unscripted fireworks. Now 82, the comedy legend has suffered from foot-in-mouth disease for quite a while – and there’s no reason to believe that he’ll check his ego in front of Academy members and a worldwide TV audience.

March 3: U2, No Line on the Horizon

Rock’s biggest corporate machine returns with their first studio album since 2004. Several tracks recorded with Rick Rubin in 2006 were scrapped; then the band reunited with long-time producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Bono has this to say: “It’s not like anything we’ve ever done before, and we don’t think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either.” Well, it’s definitely time for a sonic shakeup – let’s hope they deliver something radically different.

March 3: Robert Rotenberg, Old City Hall

Robert Rotenberg is a successful Toronto defence lawyer. He’s also just written a debut mystery novel that’s generating big buzz. Rotenburg uses his courtroom experience to weave a tale about a radio host who confesses to killing his wife, and then inexplicably clams up.

March 17: MSTRKRFT, Fist of God

Jesse F. Keeler (ex-Death from Above 1979) and Al-P offered a surfeit of irresistible hooks and hyper-caffeinated beats on their 2006 debut, The Looks. If their new album is only half as good, it’ll be amazing. Keeler is promising a sound akin to “darker, underground disco and house, with elements of American rock music.” Expect cameos from John Legend, Ghostface Killah and Lil’ Mo.

March 31: Wayson Choy, Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying

In 1999, Choy wrote Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood, a memoir about growing up in Vancouver in the 1940s and ’50s. Ten years later, the Giller-nominated novelist returns to non-fiction with Not Yet, which documents his shift in perspective after near-death experiences in 2001 (a combined asthma-heart attack) and 2005 (a second heart attack).

A journalist (Robert Downey Jr., right) befriends a homeless musician (Jamie Foxx) in The Soloist. (Dreamworks)

April 24: The Soloist

Robert Downey Jr. just had a career year, appearing as a droll super-hero in Iron Man and poking fun at Method acting in Tropic Thunder. Expect his solid run to continue with Joe Wright’s The Soloist, in which he plays a journalist who befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician (played by Jamie Foxx). The film is based on a true story, and while its release was delayed from this fall, Oscar talk is still strong.

May 15: Untitled Bruno movie

Borat was his breakout hit in 2006. Sacha Baron Cohen is back in ’09, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting Americans. This time, he’s playing Bruno, the Austrian fashionista whose mission in life is to make straight people question their sexual orientation. Sadly, what was widely reported as the working title has been revealed as a hoax perpetrated by the website Defamer. It was genius: Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt. Maybe Cohen should use it anyway.

May 22 to Oct. 31: Colm Feore and Yanna McIntosh in Macbeth, Stratford Shakespearean Festival

Theatre fans will salivate at the prospect of seeing two of our best actors take on Shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy. Feore is better known, but no doubt McIntosh will also shine as his rather ambitous wife. Des McAnuff directs.

June 12 to Oct. 12: Festival Karsh, Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa

Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) was a portrait photographer who spent most of his life in Ottawa, taking legendary shots of everyone from Winston Churchill to Andy Warhol. He also did sittings with debutantes, soldiers and ordinary citizens. This exhibit will feature classic original prints and several artifacts from his career. As well, a “My Karsh” Flickr group enables Canadians who posed for him to send in their photos and memories. This is a collaboration between the Science and Technology Museum and the Portait Gallery of Canada (a program of Library and Archives Canada).

Oct. 3 to Jan. 3, 2010: Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, the Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Edward Steichen (1879-1973) was the chief photographer at Vogue and Vanity Fair in the 1920s and 30s, where he essentially created the template for the fashion shoot. Often referred to as “the de facto inventor of glamour,” Steichen took iconic portraits of Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and Gary Cooper, among others. Showcasing more than 200 photos, the AGO exhibit will show us what celebrity glam looked like long before Brad and Angelina.

Scheduled for pre-Halloween release: Suck

Canadian writer/director Rob Stefaniuk’s follow-up to Phil the Alien is a vampire rock ’n’roll tale about a band (“The Winners”) that makes it to the top using unconventional – and undead – means. Somehow, Stefaniuk has assembled a twisted dream cast: Malcolm McDowell, Iggy Pop, Moby (in a small role as lead singer for rival band Secretaries of Steak), Carole Pope, Henry Rollins, Alice Cooper, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson and Jessica Paré. Oh, and Kid in the Hall Dave Foley as an unscrupulous manager. Can’t wait.

Greig Dymond writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.