Category: 50s to 90s

First the Spice Girls and now this. According to People magazine NKOTB are going to make a comeback 15 years after they split up. I guess Take That is next. [Link]

Could someone please bring back my three favorite franchises to Kuwait. A&W originally opened up in the 80’s and then shut down only to open up again in the 90’s and to be shut down once more. Arby’s opened up in the late 80’s and then shutdown once the owner got the Burger King Franchise. Wendy’s opened up in the early 90’s to be shutdown for some unknown reason.

With Kuwait being the 8th fattest country in the world you would think that every imaginable franchise would fight for the opportunity to open here. How come my three favorite franchises no longer exist in Kuwait?

I just found out about this incident (yes 20 years late) but I still found it very disturbing. In 1988 an American warship stationed in the Gulf shot down an Iranian airliner carrying 290 civilians killing everyone on board. The Americans thought it was an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter. Whats even more fucked up is the Americans never admitted wrongdoing, accepted responsibility, nor apologized for the incident! I am not a big fan of Iran but this is sickening. [Link]

I was flipping through a book on the history of Kuwait called “The voice of the Oud” when I found a photo of a kid who looked exactly like me. The book is full of amazing old photos of Kuwait and here I was in one of the pictures. I checked the date of the photo and it was 1983 and taken in Mubarakieh outside the carpet souk where I used to tag a long with my dad every Friday morning.

I scanned the photo and emailed it to my mum just to be sure that the picture was of me when i was a kid and she called me to confirm that it was. I think its pretty cool especially since the book has a ton of cool shots of old Kuwait. The girl in the picture was my neighbor who is no longer in Kuwait and I am also no longer chubby although I am still very white.

I am not a big fan of classic cars or old cars in general but there are five I would love to have in my garage one day.

1- Lancia Delta Integrale

2- BMW M3 E30

3- VW Golf GTI MKII

4- Ford Escort Cosworth

5- Datsun Skyline GTR (1971)

I used to like the old Kuwait Airport since I grew up with it but like everything else in Kuwait its being modernized and not in a good way. The new airport is generic looking and doesn’t have the character of the original airport which was designed by one of the most significant architects of the 20th century, Kenzo Tange.

I was at the airport on Friday and noticed they’ve taken out the old retro looking arrival sign and replaced it with this colorful ugly LED panel. I used to really like the retro one and I wonder where it is at the moment, did they just trash it in the junk yard? Anyway if you want to check out old pictures of the Airport when it first opened like the first one in this post click [Here]

If you want to see pictures of other great architecture projects from the 70’s and 80’s check [Here]

I passed by Casio to get my new cheap retro watch and although they had literally over a hundred models, only a handful had the retro look. I ended up going with the Casio DBC-32 which is packed with features including a calculator, data storage for up to 25 names with numbers and my favorite feature, Auto Light. Basically every time I lift up my watch to see what time it is the watch lights up. I wanted to go with the simpler cheaper watches which I posted about previously but they looked really small on my wrist. My two current watches are pretty big so I needed a Casio that was as big and the calculator version was just perfect. The watch did exceed my KD5 budget since it cost KD6.100. In a weeks time I will post a review about the watch although I can already foresee some issues including the fact that the watch isn’t waterproof, its water resistant which sucks. You would think by now they would have figured out how to waterproof watches. [Link]

I hope this website accepts international credit cards because I am so ordering this right after I finish this post. It even has a working front red sensor and it talks! [Link]

Thanks Nibaq

I am trying to find the original video for this version of Sabo7a on YouTube but all I found was this version with a woman singing, this version by Miami Group (don’t even think its the same song) and this newer redone version. Anyone know where I can find the original?

update: Here is the video thanks to Moayad [YouTube]

I’ve been nagging my partner at work to bring in his Atari Lynx and today he finally did. It’s HUGE. The last time I had played with one was back in 1991 and since then haven’t seen it in person again. If you stack 20 iphones side by side and on top of each other the pile might come out as big at the Lynx.

Someone is selling a brand new boxed Lion-O figure on eBay. Currently the bid is at $127 but there is another one with a buy it now price of $750! [Link]

My sister emailed me my old class photo taken in the early 80’s while I was in Sunshine School here in Kuwait (its now called BSK). Its a pretty cool retro looking picture with lots of nice colors, check out the larger version [Here]

[YouTube]

[YouTube]

While watching my partner at work try to balance himself while standing on a soccer ball, it reminded me of this toy I had back in the 80’s. It was a disc with a rubber ball stuck in the middle and the aim was to stand on it and jump around.

I spent a good chunk of time trying to find a picture of it but I couldn’t. I remember it being called Disk-O-Jump or something of that sort but I couldn’t find any pictures or traces of it. Then I remembered the Pogo Stick and figured I try searching for Pogo Ball and to my surprise I found it. I really don’t remember it being called a Pogo Ball though… [Link]

[YouTube]

And while I am at it.. here is Flona [YouTube]