Author: Mark

A new trailer for Oceans 13 is out and it looks like its going to be the best of the series yet. Can’t wait till it gets released. [Video]

Cinemagic is having a weekly screening event called “Short & Sweet”. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, and will run every Wednesday between 7:00 – 9:00PM. The screenings bring together a collection of short films from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Each week they will screen a different selection of films of varying genre, nationality, and style.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by increasing the public’s interest in and appreciation for the art of filmmaking.

This week, they will screen “Promises” a 2001 Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary film that looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

The film follows the journey of Israeli-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg as he meets with seven Palestinian and Israeli children between the ages of nine and thirteen, seeing the Middle East conflict through their eyes. Rather than focus on specific political events, the film gives voice to these children, who, although they live only 20 minutes apart, live in completely separate worlds.

Attendance is always free of charge, but seating is limited, so make sure you arrive early. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

David Hasselhoff in space, with a lightsabre and some evil looking droids. What more do you want from a film? [YouTube]

The Dry Valleys of Antarctica get almost no snowfall, and except for a few steep rocks they are the only continental part of Antarctica devoid of ice. The terrain looks like something not of this Earth; the valley floor occasionally contains a perennially frozen lake with ice several meters thick. Under the ice, in the extremely salty water live mysterious simple organisms, a subject of on-going research.

Some really amazing pictures. [Pictures]

The Washington Post took a world-famous musician who played some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made ($3.5 million) and they put him in a subway station to play to people passing by. What do you think happened? Nothing. No crowd gathered, no one clapped when a song was done, no one cared and he only made $32 from tips.

“At a music hall, I’ll get upset if someone coughs or if someone’s cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.” This is from a man whose talents can command $1,000 a minute.

Its a long article but you can skim through it. [Link]

My friend is going to Madrid soon and he was checking out hotels when he found this one. Every floor is designed by a different designer and is a completely different style and mood then the other. My favorite is is the Zaha Hadid floor, looks like something off an alien spaceship. [Link]

I was just flipping through my archive of pictures when I found this. Its a picture of my original iPod with Nibaqs old iPod FM transmitter. That over sized black box with the pull out antenna is what we used to use to connect our iPods to the car stereo. There were no iTrips or any of those tiny sexy looking white transmitters back then.

From all the cool strange touristic places in Kuwait like the Zoo, Entertainment City, Ice Skating Rink, Green Island etc.. my favorite is definitely The Scientific Center. Its such a beautiful and relaxing place. I passed by there today, it was only my second (or third) time so the large shark aquariums still mesmerizes me when I see it. I sat on one of the benches watching the sharks and fish swim and awhile later four scuba divers appeared and started cleaning the tank. It was fun to watch and the aquarium is really gigantic. If you haven’t been there yet you need to. The entrance fee is KD3 but its not only for the aquarium, there is another section you pass through first which has like bats, lizards, snakes, crocodiles etc.. When you visit the place you won’t believe you are in Kuwait.

Website: www.tsck.org.kw

update: by request here is a picture of one of the scuba divers in the tank [Picture]

And I thought “the movie” The Pursuit of Happyness was sad.. [YouTube]

via Desperately Wandering

Shortbus
A pretty strange movie dealing with different people and their problems. I don’t understand how this movie is not x-rated.
I Liked it.

The Pursuit of Happyness
This movie had so much negativity. The whole movie is just one sad story. I think its my favorite Will Smith movie, but damn this movie is sad.
I Liked it.

You, Me and Dupree
Boring, annoying and so very 90s style comedy. Wasn’t expecting it to win an oscar but I was at least expecting it not to put me to sleep.
I didn’t like it.

300
I didn’t think there were enough fighting scenes and I also wish the fighting scenes were longer. The movie was visually stunning and there are a lot of memorable moments and quotes.
I liked it.

The Last King of Scotland
I wasn’t expecting to like this movie but it took me by surprise. The story is engaging and it never got boring. Forest Whitaker is such an amazing actor.
I liked it.

The Queen
I found this movie really slow, uneventful, unentertaining and a waste of time.
I didn’t like it.

I was checking out some pictures on Flickr of Kuwait when I spotted this one. It was taken by Ra-1.

[Flickr]

A funny commercial for Berlitz. [YouTube]

I got an Xbox 360 last week and a few minutes ago I just finished playing Pro Evolution Soccer with some guy in Ecuador. It was my first time playing on Xbox Live and it was pretty cool talking and playing with someone who was all the way across the world. I thought it wasn’t possible to play online because of lag but I am on a 512KB Qualitynet connection and I didn’t have any problems.

Official pictures of the new redesigned Lexus LX are out and no surprise here, its UGLY. It looks pretty close to the Land Cruiser spy shots that were posted online previously. [Link]

via Mr. Bo9agr

Found this old Abenderado commercial while flipping through YouTube. Anyone who watched any TV in Kuwait pre-1990 will surely remember this. If anyone can find me the old Hungry Bunny or Pizza Italia commercials I would be very grateful!

[YouTube]