2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I spent most of this week rewatching old Denzel Washington films. I don’t think I have a #1 favorite actor, but if I did he’d most likely be in one of the top 3 spots. I managed to watch, Man on Fire, American Gangster, Flight, and both The Equalizer 2 and 3. All really great films.

The new series The Penguin comes out tomorrow on MAX and I’m REALLY looking forward to it.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Bad Genius (7.4)
Classified (N/A)
Diamonds Are Forever (classic) (6.5)
Reagan (6.5)
Transformers One (7.8)
Weekend in Taipei (N/A)

Other Movies Showing:
AfrAId (6.3)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (7.3)
Blink Twice (6.9)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (5.7)
Hounds of War (6.1)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
It Ends with Us (7.2)
Lee (6.5)
Ozi: Voice of the Forest (4.4)
Speak No Evil (6.6)
Subservience (4.6)
The Cleanup Crew (4.3)
Trap (7.2)
Unit 234 (6.9)
Wake Up (6.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

This powerful exhibition and one of the largest in the region, will feature the artworks of more than 100 global artists who have generously donated their art to support the Intisar Foundation mental health drama therapy programs in Palestine and to stand as a unified call for Peace in the Arab world.

Opening Tuesday, September 24 at 7:00PM.
Location: Contemporary Art Platform (Location)

The Arts & Crafts shop that used to be located off Canada Dry street have moved to a new location. Their new shop is located in the Design District in Shuwaikh, the same complex that has the restaurants Cure and Ovo (Google Maps).

The store is much smaller than their previous location but they’re still a good place to visit if you’re looking for specific art supplies from any of the following brands:

Art Rangers
Canson
Daler-Rowney
Gelli
Lyra
Maimeri
Mogart
Rotring
Sennelier
Speedball

They used to have an online store but seems to be down. Also not sure what their relationship with Mogahwi is since they have a joint store in Shuwaikh as well (Google Maps).

Their Instagram isn’t updated frequently but if you want to check it out it’s @artsandcrafts_kw

Marks & Spencer recently opened their new location in The Avenues. It’s located in Phase II in place of where Baroue used to be located. The new store also has their food range and an M&S Cafe.

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I just found Nando’s on Talabat. Not sure when they started since they don’t seem to have mentioned it on their instagram account but that’s pretty cool.

I have a Nando’s near me in Salmiya so I usually just pop over, but now I can just order to my place when I’m feeling lazy.

Below are the official prices for the new iPhones in Kuwait. These are the prices all authorized Apple resellers in Kuwait will be following:

iPhone 16

iPhone 16 128GB KD299.9
iPhone 16 256GB KD329.9
iPhone 16 512GB KD399.9

iPhone 16 Plus

iPhone 16 Plus 128GB KD329.9
iPhone 16 Plus 256GB KD364.9
iPhone 16 Plus 512GB KD439.9

iPhone 16 Pro

iPhone 16 Pro 128GB KD374.9
iPhone 16 Pro 256GB KD409.9
iPhone 16 Pro 512GB KD480.9
iPhone 16 Pro 1TB KD554.9

iPhone 16 Pro Max

iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB KD444.9
iPhone 16 Pro Max 512GB KD519.9
iPhone 16 Pro Max 1TB KD589.9

Some of the prices are slightly higher than last year, for example when you compare the 15 Pro with the 16 Pro, this year its KD2 higher:
iPhone 15 Pro 128GB: KD372.9
iPhone 16 Pro 128GB: KD374.9

If you purchase the iPhone 16 Pro 128GB online from the US Apple Store and shipped it to Kuwait, even with taxes and shipping it would still be cheaper, costing around KD345. This is because the US has the lowest iPhone prices. Compared to the rest of the world though, Kuwait’s prices are somewhere in the middle.

Here’s a price comparison for the same phone in different parts of the world, in case you’re planning to pick one up on your next trip:

iPhone 16 Pro 128GB

Australia: KD367
Canada: KD326
Denmark: KD432
France: KD415
Germany: KD404
Hong Kong: KD337
India: KD436
Italy: KD419
Kuwait: KD375
Netherlands: KD415
Spain: KD412
Switzerland: KD378
Thailand: KD362
UAE: KD358
USA: KD305
UK: KD400

If you’re interested in purchasing it locally, pre-orders in Kuwait will be starting tomorrow (Friday) at official Apple resellers.

This week I started tapering off House of Cards since I’ve kinda gotten over it. Instead I’ve started watching Mad Men since it’s another great series my wife hadn’t watched before. It kinda makes me miss the days I used to work in an advertising agency, it’s such a good show and stills holds up really well since it’s based in the 60s anyway.

I also just watch the trailer for the new Hugh Grant horror, Heretic. It’s by studio A24 who are behind a lot of great films so going by that and this trailer, I feel this is going to be a really good movie. It’s been a really long time since I’ve cared for any horror, maybe not since Blair Witch Project or SAW.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Lee (6.5)
Speak No Evil (6.6)
Subservience (4.6)
The Cleanup Crew (4.3)
Unit 234 (6.9)

Other Movies Showing:
AfrAId (6.3)
Alien: Romulus (7.5)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (7.3)
Blink Twice (6.9)
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Gracie and Pedro: Pets to the Rescue (6.3)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (5.7)
Hounds of War (6.1)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
It Ends with Us (7.2)
Ozi: Voice of the Forest (4.4)
The World Is Not Enough (classic) (6.4)
Trap (7.2)
Wake Up (6.0)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Apple recently announced the new iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, and I was just informed by @gaitkuwait that the new phones will be officially launched in Kuwait on Friday, September 20th.

Pre-orders will open on September 13th at 3 PM.

I have the iPhone 15 Pro, and the difference between it and the new 16 Pro seems fairly minor. However, the higher resolution sensor on the wide-angle lens is enticing since I use that lens frequently for my blog. Plus, the new 16 Pro also has the 5x lens, which last year’s model lacked unless you had the larger Max version.

Tomorrow, IKEA will be launching their new concept in Kuwait called ‘IKEA for Business’. I got a sneak peek of the store, and I left impressed.

The new store felt like a movie set because they built various shops with shop fronts inside a large warehouse-like building. The idea is that they wanted customers to see in person how you could fit out an entire shop or office with just IKEA furniture and accessories.

When I first walked into the IKEA store, I stepped into the offices of a recycling company called RRR—complete with cubicles, private offices, a waiting room, and everything you’d expect from a real office. The next area had a more casual office vibe, which turned out to belong to a make-believe marketing agency called Mirage. It was more colorful and less serious looking, completely different to the previous corporate looking offices.

After leaving the office area, I found myself on a street lined with a nail salon, flower shop, and café. None of them were real, of course, but they looked and felt convincing, complete with working faucets and functional equipment. To the left of the nail salon were stairs that led me up to a women’s hair salon. I walked through it and emerged out the other side onto a rooftop restaurant.

Exploring the store was surprisingly fun, like a KidZania for adults since they had hotel rooms, a kids nursery, a company board room, and various offices all for customers to interact with and explore.

The coolest thing wasn’t even what was on display—it was that IKEA now functions like a design studio with a contractor. Previously, they’d help design a room or bathroom, but they wouldn’t handle finding a painter or taking care of plumbing for example. With IKEA for Business, that’s changed. They now can manage everything from design to execution, so you don’t have to deal with anyone else. Super convenient.

If you want to check out the new IKEA store, it’s located in Shuwaikh where their first original store used to be, right next to the new Spark gym (Google Maps). Opening hours will be 10 to 10 and they open to the public from tomorrow.

This is just a follow up to my post from a few weeks ago about the Ricoh GRIII. If you missed that post, basically I got the GRIII camera to use as a travel cam since I’ve been finding my Fuji X100V a bit cumbersome when traveling.

I took the Ricoh with me to Athens a couple of weeks ago and during the week trip I took 121 photos with my iPhone, and 304 photos with my Ricoh. That is crazy.

The fact I took more photos with the GRIII than my iPhone goes to show how great a travel camera is it. I carried the iPhone in one pocket in my shorts and the GRIII in the other and I always found it easier to pull out the GRIII snap a photo and put it back. It slips in and out of my pocket easier than the iPhone because my iPhone has the silicone cover. But also the iPhone is bigger so harder to pull out of my pocket while the GRIII is smaller so easier. Also it’s a lot easier to pull the camera out and press the power button to turn it on and start taking photos than it is to pull out the iPhone, tap to turn the screen on and then tap again to open the camera and then reposition my hand on the phone to take a photo.

I love the GRIII so much, if I wasn’t a camera hoarder I would sell my Fuji because I can’t think of a situation now where I would pick it over the GRIII.

Oh and another thing, I usually run my iPhone photos or Fuji photos through RNI afterwards to apply a filter, I wasn’t applying any filters to the Rioch photos, they all looked great as is straight out of the camera. I also enjoyed shooting with the 28mm lens over the 35mm lens of the Fuji. Especially when traveling, I feel a wider lens works better.

I do have one big complaint about the Ricoh though and one I’m surprised they haven’t solved yet with a firmware update. You can’t shoot photos in the 16:9 ratio! They only give you the option of 3:2 and 1:1. I appreciate 1:1 since that’s a square and what I use for my Instagram posts, but 16:9 is crucial for me since that’s the ratio of Instagram stories and how I share my photos.

Other than that the camera is perfect, I can’t recommend it enough. I got mine from BHPhoto for around $1,000. They’re usually out of stock but you can just buy it and once they restock they ship right away and straight to Kuwait. Link

Last night Kuwaiti athlete Faisal Sorour (@f9olsroor8) won the Gold medal for Kuwait in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Faisal came first in the Men’s Shot Put – F63 event by scoring 15.31m. This is Faisal’s second medal at the Paralympic Games, he previously secured a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games.

The F63 category is for athletes with a moderate impairment in one leg or the absence of legs above the knee.

Kuwait’s medal tally is now two after the bronze medal secured by Faisal Al-Rajehi last week in the men’s 5000m race. You can follow the Kuwait Paralympic Committee @kuwaitparalympic

According to a contact of mine, Alshaya are bringing Primark, the popular multinational fashion retailer to Kuwait and the Middle East GCC.

Primark is known for offering affordable, fast fashion and a wide range of clothing, accessories, and home goods. The brand is particularly popular for its trendy styles at low prices, appealing to budget-conscious shoppers.

I don’t have any idea on when they’re planning to open their first location, but I’d imagine they would need at the very least a year. I’ll update this post if I discover more.

<strong>Update: It’s now official.

Kuwaiti musicians Ghazi Al-Mulaifi and Amin Abdal have both been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Latin Jazz Album category. Ghazi and Amin played a key part on the album Virtual Birdland by Arturo O’Farrill & The Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.

That album was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album at the 64th Grammy Awards which took place back in 2022, but Amin and Ghazi only recently found out that they were also nominated because of their role. Ghazi was a composer and performing artist on the album as Boom Diwan, while Amin was the recording engineer for the band.

This makes them the first Kuwaitis to be nominated for a Grammy, and the first from the Arabian Gulf.

Boom Diwan is a band that blends Kuwaiti bahar music with jazz and you can follow them @boom.diwan. You can also follow Ghazi and Amin at @ghazimusic and @xxmrfarixx.

This week passed by so quickly that I didn’t end up watching anything I had said I would last weekend. Instead, I continued to binge watch ‘House of Cards’, and also managed to watch the latest episode of ‘Industry’ and ‘Slow Horses’ which is back again. The latest episode of ‘Industry’ was pretty wild, I’m loving this season so far.

Let me know in the comments what you recently watched or planning to watch.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (7.3)
Gracie and Pedro: Pets to the Rescue (6.3)
Haunted Heart (5.4)
Out Come the Wolves (4.5)
The Thicket (N/A)
The World Is Not Enough (classic) (6.4)
Wake Up (6.0)

Other Movies Showing:
AfrAId (6.3)
Alien: Romulus (7.5)
Blink Twice (6.9)
Deadpool & Wolverine (8.3)
Despicable Me 4 (6.4)
Harold and the Purple Crayon (5.7)
Hounds of War (6.1)
Inside Out 2 (7.9)
It Ends with Us (7.2)
Ozi: Voice of the Forest (4.4)
The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure (5.0)
Trap (7.2)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

A few days ago they introduced a new feature to the Sahel app where you can transfer the car registration from one persons name to another using just the app. Below is a step by step video on how to do that.

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