Category: Information

Local movie maker Abdulrahman Alaskar emailed me saying he just found out his short movie titled TOKAI just got banned by the Ministry of Information from being screened at the Kuwait International Film Retreat that’s being held tomorrow. They haven’t given him any reason but if you search YouTube for “tokai kuwait” you can find and watch the movie (it’s in two parts). Once you watch the movie you can kind of develop your own theory on what their reasons for banning it might be. I would have embedded the videos or links in this post but I got worried if I did that then the MOI might ban my blog as well. Here is the synopsis for the movie:

TOKAI (street cleaner) is a short documentary that offers a glimpse into the lives of thousands of street cleaners who sweep the streets of oil rich Kuwait. In a country of abundance and wealth, these men earn menial salaries, as low as $50 a month and eventually regress into the forgotten inhabitants of the Middle East.

It’s a sensitive topic that’s for sure but do you think it merits a ban? I hope it all turns out to be just a misunderstanding.

Update: The Kuwait Film Retreat will still screen all banned films at the Hilton Hotel in Mangaf on Friday during the day. The Kuwait Film Retreat supports Kuwaiti filmmakers and will keep supporting them no matter what obstacles arise.

As I mentioned last August, Shake Shack will be opening in place of Le Pain Quotidien at The Avenues. Since then I’ve been waiting and waiting for PQ to close down and I just found out they’ve now gone ahead and closed. This means they should start construction on Shake Shack right away and hopefully open up very soon. For those of you who live in Dubai, Shake Shack is opening up at Mall of Emirates this Thursday.

I think we’re going to be super lucky here because I highly doubt we’re going to have to wait in line for their burgers in the same way you don’t have to wait in line at Magnolia Bakery in Dubai. Below are pictures of the lines at both Shake Shack and Magnolia Bakery in New York. I waited 40 minutes in line at Shake Shack just to place an order!

What I still don’t know though is who will supply Shake Shack in the Middle East with the beef. In the US the beef is supplied by the famous Pat LaFrieda but I previously emailed them asking if their beef was Halal and they said it wasn’t. Hopefully by now they’ve worked some sort of deal with LaFrieda regarding this but will have to wait and see.

Local weather guru Mishaal Al Roomi has the following weather warning:

The weather is turniing unstable with increasing clouds. By Sunday, the winds will be very high ranging from 25 to 45 km/h with gusts up to 60 km/h. I don’t suggest rather I advise strictly no off shore activities starting Saturday afternoon and especially starting Sunday. We all know what happened as a result of the last Sandstorm; we had three casualties and couple are still missing. To avoid such dissapointment and grief; please be updated with the weather. Q8Weather will be live with you at all times during this “sarayat” or “unstable” season.

Everyone is advised to keep updated with the forecast. We all have internet around us nowdays and I will be updating Q8Weather several times a day to meet your convenience and more importantly your safety.

If you have any inquiries please do not hesitate to contact me; [email protected] or [email protected]

Mishaal also has a message regarding the earthquake rumors which you can read on his website [Here]

April might be the final month for Cinemagic’s rooftop movies since they usually stop playing movies once the weather gets really hot. Since the evenings now are still cool you should really take advantage of this.

Saturday, April 2nd at 7:30pm
MICMACS
Director: Jean – Pierre Jeunet
Country: France
Release: 2010
Genre: Comedy | Crime
Running time: 105 minutes
Language: French | English Subtitle
Awards: Best Director, , Best Cinematography, Best edit
Rated: R

Saturday, April 9th at 7:30pm
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE
Director: Chan Wook Park
Country: South Korea
Release: 2002
Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller
Running time: 129 minutes
Language: Korean | English Subtitle
Awards: Best Actor, Best Film, Best Director
Rated: R

Thursday, April 14th at 7:30pm
THE WIZARD OF OZ
Director: Victor Fleming
Country: USA
Release: 1939
Genre: Adventure | Fantasy | Musical | Family
Running time: 101 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Awards: 2 Oscars, 5 other wins and 8 nominations
Rated: PG

Saturday, April 16th at 7:30pm
AWAY WE GO
Director: Sam Mendes
Country: USA
Release: 2009
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Running time: 98 minutes
Language: English | English Subtitle
Awards: Nominated Best Actors, Best Film
Rated: 15+

Thursday, April 21st at 7:30pm
JAR CITY
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Country: Iceland
Release: 2006
Genre: Thriller
Running time: 93 minutes
Language: Icelandic | English Subtitle
Awards: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Cinematography
Rated: 15+

Saturday, April 23rd at 7:30pm
WATER
Director: Deepa Mehta
Country: India
Release: 2005
Genre: Drama
Running time: 117 minutes
Language: Hindi | English Subtitle
Awards: Best Film, Director, Cinematography, Script
Rated: PG

Thursday, April 28th at 7:30pm
THE HEADLESS WOMAN
Director: Lucrecia Martel
Country: Argentina
Release: 2009
Genre: Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Running time: 87 minutes
Language: Spanish | English Subtitle
Awards: Cannes, in competition, Best film, director, actress
Rated: 15+

Saturday, April 30th at 7:30pm
THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST
Director: Daniel Alfredsson
Country: Sweden
Release: 2010
Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller
Running time: 147 minutes
Language: Swedish | English Subtitle
Rated: R

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 film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. There is a KD1 charge for the venue fees which includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

I hadn’t heard of Pei Wei Asian Diner but it’s a Chinese fast food place and according to Wikipedia it’s owned by PF Chang’s which makes sense why it’s opening up in Kuwait and why it’s also Alshaya that’s bringing it. No idea yet when and where it will open just that they’ve got the franchise and it’s coming to Kuwait.

I’m not a fan of jazz but I know many people are so here is some info on the Gulf Jazz Festival that’s going to be held next month.

April 27th, 2011
There will be a BBQ dinner and concert with two artists that night, the first is the Polish jazz artist Jarek Smietana Trio as well at American jazz artist Karen Edwards.

April 28th, 2011
There will be a BBQ dinner and concert with Swedish artist Monica Borrfors performing with her band.

Both events will be held at the Al Hashemi II Grand Ballroom at the Radisson Blu Hotel.

For more information visit www.gulfjazzfest.com

I found out today that Hermès will be opening up their first store in Kuwait this September. The store is going to be huge and will be located at the Al Hamra Tower. I guess you should get your wish list ready come this fall…

This is a very cool event that’s happening tomorrow, Saturday the 26th of March at Pro Kart. It’s actually a bunch of events which I will try my best to explain clearly.

Karting Speed Max Challenge 4 Hours
The first event is a 4 hour karting race. 40 drivers will compete in scoring the best time with 5 drivers racing every heat and the winner continuing on to the final race. The race starts at 4PM and ends at 8PM. The race is open to the public and it’s free of charge!

Dolphin Karting Cup
The second event is an event for juniors aged 5 to 8 year-olds. This race event starts at 3PM and is also free of charge.

Motocross Challenge
The final event is a motocross challenge which will be held at the motocross track adjacent to the karting one. This event will start at 1PM and will be divided into a seniors and juniors race. Participating in this event is also free but unlike the karting events you would need to bring your own dirt bike here.

For more information on these events and a map to the location plus contact numbers you can visit the Pro Kart website [Here]

*****NOTICE*****
Due to the dust storm the event was postponed till next week.

Yesterday there was an article in Arab Times about how the Ministry of Interior will start taking fingerprints of all incoming and outgoing passengers. Well it seems this is going to happen very soon since the fingerprint devices have already been installed at the airport. I took the picture above last night when I arrived to Kuwait, not sure why they don’t use the scanning device that was installed back in 2008 (pictured below) but never put into operation. [Article]

According to 360Dewan, unlike I had previously posted, Sylvester Stallone won’t be coming to the opening of Planet Hollywood. Seems he’s worried about the situation in the region. That sucks big time since I was really hoping to get his autograph. Anyway you can check out their review of Planet Hollywood [Here]

I posted about Digumz a few weeks back on the blog. It’s a new business started by a blogger called Qaiss which allows you to rent video games for a fixed monthly fee. Well Qaiss decided to participate at the P2BK event and has posted on his blog a very insightful behind the scenes look into his experience so far. I love his transparency and I’m looking forward for his next post once the event is completed to see if his experience changed for the better or not. [Link]

Ibrahim Al-hulail, the Kuwaiti student studying in Japan who created the two videos “Watani Habibi” and “7ad ouma bard” is doing alright and is safe. Ibrahim lives in the Southern part of Japan which has not been effected much by the earthquake and tsunami.

If you’re in Kuwait, 28 years old or less and in love with creativity and communications then this competition is for you. All you need to do is design a poster based on the subject of Democracy and two winners will get an airline ticket and a delegate pass to the Cannes Lions 2011 festival. Entry is free of charge and the deadline is March 31st. For more information follow this [Link]

I know it sounds bad but this is actually great news. If you remember back in 2007 I posted about how Kuwait was ranked the 8th fattest country in the world and actually ranked 1st if you only counted the industrialized nations. Well according to the latest statistics by the World Health Organization, Kuwait now ranks back down in 13th place. That actually means Kuwait’s lost weight!

World’s Fattest Countries
1- Nauru
2- American Samoa
3- Tokelau
4- Tonga
5- Kiribati
6- French Polynesia
7- Saudi Arabia
8- Panama
9- United States of America
10- United Arab Emirates
11- Egypt
12- Bahrain
13- Kuwait

I believe this has to do with the increased awareness on obesity and the fact that people today are more informed on what causes it. Restaurants are also adding more healthy items on their menu and more and more people are on diets recently. Hopefully Kuwait will keep dropping down the list. Speaking of the list, cick here to download the full list [Link]

Taken from WHO

Thanks lowlael2ml

I just found out about this new activity from a forum user. Flight Experience is a company that allows you to experience flying in the cockpit of a Boeing 737. The cockpit is very realistic and provides you with a 180° view of the outside world. You can choose to fly in out of 24,000 airports and you can even fly around famous landmarks like London Bridge or the Sydney Opera House. The sessions vary in length and are either 30mins, 45mins, 60mins or 90mins and each session is led by a trained flight simulator instructor (most of whom are actual pilots).

The sessions start from KD39 and they are currently in the soft launch phase and are preparing for their full opening sometime by the end of the month. You can also get a video of your flight plus a picture of you in the cockpit (at an extra cost). The picture on top of this post is of the actual flight simulator cockpit.

Flight Experience is located on the last floor of 360 right on top of TGIF. Here is a link to their website [Link]

Thanks Burhan