This is a short 23 minute documentary on Kuwait that dates back to 1974. While watching it I felt there was something different about it, the soundtrack along with the framing of some of the shots made this documentary feel a bit artsy. Then near the end of the film at the 18:30 mark, it started to get a bit trippy, like a mixture of Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey. So once the film was over I waited for the credits to roll to see who it was directed by and turns out it was directed by a guy called John Feeney who was nominated for an Academy Award.. twice! So totally worth watching, if you don’t have the time then just forward to 18:30 of the film. [YouTube]
Mubarak Almubarak is a Kuwaiti director who I’ve actually posted about before since he’s also a special effects artist and a pretty good one. His previous short film I posted was called “My Life” which I’ve gone ahead and embedded again below. I loved that short film because the crumbling and destroyed Kuwait City landscape reminded me of a scene from the movie “I Am Legend”.
Well Mubarak is back with another short this time featuring our favorite Japanese super robot, Grendizer. In the short film which I’ve shared above, you’ll see a destroyed Kuwaiti neighborhood as well as a bunch of short robot battle scenes that takes place in the middle of Kuwait City.
According to Mubarak he’s going to start working on a bunch of new fun personal projects and fan films and he’s starting off with this one. I love it, makes me wish it was a much longer film. His production house by the way is called [NGU Productions]
I could swear I had seen and posted the video above before but turns out the structure of the film as well as some of the footage and dialogue is shared with another video I had posted a few years ago. The video above on the other hand was uploaded by the archive website Periscope Film last week and is actually pretty good quality for a film from the 60s.
If you’re into old stuff like this then make sure you browse through the “50s to 90s” category on my blog [Here]
No idea how they managed to get up there without running into security on the ground floor who would have most likely stopped them (its a business tower so there are never any kids there). The scene before they get to the roof they show an elevator ride going past floor 46, but those elevators don’t get up all the way to the top. My office is on the 46th floor and to get to Alghanim offices which are on the 70th floor, I need to take two different elevators down to the ground floor and then 2 more different elevators on the other side past security back up to the 70th. Not only did they manage to bypass all the security and figure out the elevator maze, but they eventually got to the roof and then dangerously started sliding around. Disturbing.
The Kuwait subreddit on Reddit are trying to put together a list of local content creators so I figured I’d help them out. Below is the list I’ve put together of local content creators on YouTube. If you know of any others, please let me know about them so I can add them to the list.
Last week the garden and fountain area of the Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre opened to the public and similar to the popular fountain at Dubai Mall, the fountain at the cultural centre also animates with performances set to light and music.
I wasn’t able to find out which company was responsible for the fountain installation but my guess is its WET Design, the same firm behind the Dubai Mall and Bellagio fountains since they have an office in Dubai. **UPDATE BELOW** Check out the video above of the fountain performing to Adele’s Skyfall track. [YouTube]
Thanks Waleed
Update: Turns out the musical fountain was designed by Watercube Design and not WET Design. They’ve got a much better video of the fountain in action which you can watch below.
Also regarding the schedule of the fountain shows I was told the following but haven’t been able to verify it yet:
Basically every hour from 2pm until 6pm then after 6pm there is a performance every 30 min (until 10:30 if i’m not wrong). They only turn it on if there are people so if the place is empty they skip it.
If you don’t know what the mannequin challenge is, it’s basically a new craze that went viral a couple of weeks back where people freeze in a scene. A ton of celebrities have made their own videos including, Hillary Clinton with Bon Jovi, LeBron James with Michelle Obama, Ronaldo, Sesame Street and so many more. I’ve been kinda waiting for a Kuwait version to pop up and it did yesterday. It was shot at a Nuqat workshop and if it wasn’t for the people in the background it would have been pretty flawless. Check it out above.
Currently sitting on my comfy couch eating my gummy bears while watching people do burpees. Over 400 athletes from 35 countries are taking part in this event right now at Marina Crescent. [YouTube]
Update: Video updated to the Day 2 live stream. Update2: Event is now over.
According to my lawyer I can’t mention the name of the supermarket. I also had to mute out the audio in the video since the guy recording mentions the name so I replaced the audio with music that sounds like something out of a Nintendo game.
On a side note is it bad that I am more upset with the fact that I can no longer find Haribo gummy bears, Dove Men+Care Antiperspirant or Sensodyne Extra Fresh Toothpaste at the branch I frequent more than I care about this rat?
Also just got the following response from the supermarket:
Hello Mark,
****** is aware of what is being circulated and is investigating it, as ****** takes pest control very seriously and deals with the best and most reliable pest control companies in Kuwait, making sure all hygiene standard are exceeded. Our Operations team, in coordination with our Pest company, has done a full and detailed check of the store and no issues were found till date. (Noting that Prior to the video being circulated in a day, the store had gone through the normal scheduled deep clean exercise with no issues found)
If you missed the opening event of the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre yesterday, you can now watch it on YouTube. It’s 2 hours long and features dancing, comedy and music including a performance by Andrea Bocelli.
Sadly it’s not in HD and the aspect ratio of the video is squished hence why Bocelli looks really skinny in the picture above (come on KTV, get your act together). If you want to skip to the Andrea Bocelli part, his performance starts at the 1 hour 43 minute mark. [YouTube]
The Secret Garden on Al-Baghdad St. was in need of desperate TLC and a call of support was circulated by @MimiKuwait to galvanize the community to turn out for a day of service to prep and plant a community garden to serve as a positive community space in the area.
The community was back at work this past Saturday rebuilding The Secret Garden after being destroyed last week.
I met Essa 10 years ago after posting about his small cookie business back then, Choowy Goowy. Ever since we’ve been really good friends and he’s always an interesting person to talk about food. A week ago he started uploading videos on YouTube with his opinion on various things related to the restaurant and food business in Kuwait, and I watched his latest one which I liked so I decided I’d share it on the blog.
The videos are in Arabic but what I found interesting in the one I’ve linked to is that he talks about targeting the right segment and basically explains why there is a lack of originality in the restaurant scene in Kuwait. His theory is that if you’re opening a restaurant and you decide you want to open something that doesn’t exist already in Kuwait, most likely the reason that something doesn’t exist already is because it doesn’t have a market for it to survive. So people who are opening restaurants look at the market to see what is doing well, what has a large customer base and open something to cater to that audience. Do you open a restaurant for the serious foodie who will drop by your restaurant once every now and then? Or, do you build a business around a customer who will come to your restaurant frequently? Based on the fact that Buffalo Shrimps has become a Kuwaiti staple, it’s pretty clear which direction restaurant owners are taking.
To check out his YouTube channel and subscribe to it, click [Here]
Due to the fact the video is filmed on somebodies couch and the drone uses the old police insignia, it’s fair to assume this is someones personal project and not a new police surveillance tool. [YouTube]
