Author: Mark

Art Exhibit: Scattered, Gathered
Art Exhibit: Stages of Ascent
InfoConnect 2014
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Proud 2 be Kuwaiti 2014
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Touki Bouki
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Faces
Music: The MIXTAPE Hip Hop Event
Music: A Night In at Bayt Lothan
Shakshooka Nomadic Farmers Market
Qout Market
Xcite: All good things happen on Friday
Open House at Ali Al Salem Air Base

Update: There is supposedly an air show at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base on Saturday but I can’t find any information on this online

Update2: Just added information on the Ali Al Salem Air Base event to the list above.

A reader sent me these pictures of a burnt Ferrari 360 he found on the 40th. Doesn’t look like it was involved in an accident. So sad.

I wonder if its the same car as this one listed on Q8car [Link]

Thanks Khalid

For those of you who are UFC fans you’ll be glad to know that the UFC is planning to come back to Abu Dhabi sometime this year. No exact date has been announced yet but my guess is sometime end of the year. The last UFC fight that was held in the region was back in 2010. [Article]

Since we’re on the subject, in case you missed my old post there’s a Kuwaiti MMA manager that manages a bunch of UFC fighters including Michael Bisping, Matt Mitrione, Uriah Hall, Ross Pearson and Conor McGergor among others. Check out my old post on him [Here]

Update: It’s just been announced, UFC is going back to Abu Dhabi on April 11 and will be headlined by Roy Nelson vs. Antonio Nogueira

[YouTube]

Mr.Fari is a Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican musician whom I’ve featured on the blog before with his music video “WebCam Girl“. He’s now being given an amazing chance to win a months stay at a hotel recording studio in Ireland (who knew such a thing existed) where he would be able to professionally record all his work in the same studio where artists like Muse and Michael Jackson have previously recorded.

Out of over 100 artists in the GCC, Mr.Fari was chosen to be amongst the five finalist to represent Kuwait in The GAP Recording Room competition where he faces other artists from Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE. The video above is one of the songs he’s entered into the competition and to help him win you just need to visit the competition website and share his profile. So help him win by sharing his profile at this [Link]

The P2BK 2014 event launches this coming Thursday January 30th at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds [Map] and will last up untill February 25th. This year the set up is going to be similar to last years with an outdoor old souk that was built specifically to host this event. There will be a ton of Kuwaiti businesses participating including already established ones as well as new ones plus you have the Remal sand sculpting festival taking place alongside it as well. P2BK will be open daily from 10AM to 10PM and for more information you can check out their Instagram account [Here]

On a side note, companies seem to be neglecting their websites and are starting to rely solely on Instragram. I tried to google information on P2BK and all I ended up with was my blog since their website had no information on this years event. And, none of the information was made available in English. Events like this should be advertised to the expat community as well to make sure everyone else is included to share the experience.

There’s a small store tucked away in a back street of old Salmiya that I’ve been driving by for years but didn’t go into until last night when curiosity got the better of me. Turned out the store specializes in film making gear and they had a ton of items like dollys, stabilizers, camera sliders, tripods, lights and a bunch of other stuff like Rode and Zoom brand mics, Blackmagic cameras and various tools and accessories. Their prices are also pretty much similar to Amazon. For example, the Blackmagic cameras prices compared to Amazon are as follows:

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
Their price: KD300 (with local warranty)
Amazon price: KD282 (without tax or shipping)

Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera
Their price: KD600 (with local warranty)
Amazon price: KD566 (without tax or shipping)

The store is called ‘Media System for Video Equipments’ which is not very catchy at all and they’re located in the area opposite Marina Mall [Map]. They’re open from 9:30AM to 1:30PM and then again from 4:30PM to 9:30PM. Their phone number is 25713384.

[YouTube]

The footage above was shot while the village was still being constructed but it still gives you an idea of how large the Remal sand sculpting festival will be. If you want to check out a timelapse on how one of these sculptures was made, check out this video also from Remal. [Link]

The Remal International Festival opens on January 30th, for more information, click [Here]

The new point to point cameras that are installed on Highway 40 on the road to Saudi Arabia and the chalets (pictured below) are going to be activated on February 1st. The cameras are located in a number of different locations along the long stretch of highway and work by calculating your average speed from one camera to the other. If your average speed is higher than the speed limit you will get issued a ticket and there’s no way to escape these cameras.

@BeautifulDestinations is an instagram account in which they post beautiful shots taken by instagrammers from around the world. With over a million followers they’re very popular which is why they just launched a Kickstarter campaign to print a hardcover book of the top 100 liked photos from their account in 2013. From the list of photographers who’s work was chosen, eight photographers are based locally including:

@ajfotoworld
@albanay
@alhashemiphotos
@bu_khaled
@fahadrb
@mashael_39
@s_alroudhan
@salehalrashaid

If you haven’t checked out the accounts above before you should, theres a ton of talent there. Also if you want to support the Kickstarter campaign and help get the book printed, visit the Beautiful Destinations Kickstarter page [Here]

The Remal International Festival will be opening on January 30th at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds. 73 of the world’s best sand artists came to Kuwait and worked together to reimagine the stories of 1001 Nights and according to the organizers, the sand park will be the world’s largest. The festival will be running from this Thursday all the way till the end of April and you can check out my previous post to get an idea on how grand this festival will be [Link]

The 32nd InfoConnect exhibition starts tomorrow and will be running till February 2nd at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds. You can usually get some great deals on phones and internet subscriptions at the exhibit and theres already a thread in the Community listing some of the offers.

For more details including the exhibition timings click [Here]

Note: Their website says January 26th to February 1st but their flyer says January 27th to February 2nd.

Had the salmon dish above at the newly opened Café Coco at the Avenues. Although it was slightly overcooked it was still pretty good and it came with lots of veggies. It’s priced at KD7.5 but the quantity was larger than the salmon dish I previously posted about at THE One. Would definitely go back and have it again.

The Contemporary Art Platform has a couple of interesting exhibits taking place right now but the one I got to check out recently and found fascinating is “Scattered, Gathered”. Part of the “Scattered, Gathered” is the works of Syrian artist Issam Kourbaj who I was lucky enough to meet when I was visiting CAP. I thought his exhibit was really interesting because of the story behind it and the the result of it. Issam had been working on an architectural project in the city of Cambridge for a couple of years and as the project was about to move forward with construction it suddenly got canceled. That put Issam in a depression and he retreated to his apartment where he spent the next 10 months venting out his anger and frustration on twelve volumes of the 1890 Britannica encyclopedia. He superimposed his visual diaries onto 10,232 pages of the now they’re being displayed for the very first time at CAP.

The exhibition is running until February 8th and its worth checking out. For more information on the exhibit click [Here]

A couple of days back I passed by the Kuwait National Museum for a little bit of exploration. Last week some friends of mine were given a tour of the two buildings that were still vacant and in shambles since the 1990 invasion and I really wanted to go check it out for myself. I’ve always been curious to see whats inside so I headed there on Thursday to take a look.

The museum is made up of four main buildings with two being occupied and two vacant. One of the vacant ones had under construction hoardings all around but the other building didn’t and the door was open so I just walked in. I took some photos which you can check out above, the black and white ones are from the first building I walked to while the colored ones are from the second building. There was nothing really to see since it looks like they’re finally renovating the building but at least I got to satisfy my curiosity.

If anyone knows where I can get some photos of the museum taken right after the invasion let me know. Also if anyone can get me access to the abandoned Al-Salam Palace then please email me.

Art Exhibit: Scattered, Gathered – Artist Books
Art Exhibit: Stages of Ascent
Art Exhibit: “Muhawwil” by Monira Al Qadiri
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Talk to Her
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Offside
Guided Tour: Liberation Tower
K’S PATH Shelter Open Day in Wafra
Shakshooka Nomadic Farmers Market
The Kuwait Motor Show 2014
Workshop: Graffiti in the Garden