2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Even though the popular Italian restaurant Vigonovo closed down back in September, Chef Marco hasn’t really stopped cooking. He’s been holding various pop-ups around town and he’s got one coming up this weekend. I went to the last one that was held in one of the old Behbehani houses in the city and had a great time, this time it’s being held on a rooftop under the stars.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, book a table before they sell out. For more details, click [Here]

Over the weekend I dropped by the Ferrari dealership to check out their cars and prices. If you’re curious to know how much their different models cost, check them out below:

Ferrari California T
KD74,000

Ferrari 488 GTB
KD93,000

Ferrari 488 Spider
KD97,000

Ferrari GTC4Lusso
KD100,000

Ferrari 812 Superfast
KD103,000

ReQueue is a local app that allows you to add yourself to a restaurants waiting list. I found out about it a couple of days ago so I haven’t been able to try it out yet, but going through the list of restaurants in the app, I don’t think you need to wait for most of them. The only reason I got the app is because Table Otto is on it, and they do get crazy busy on Saturday for brunches.

The app seems fairly simple to use and even lets you know if a place has a waiting list or if you can just walk in and get a table. It’s available for both [iOS] and [Android] devices.

If you’ve used ReQueue before, let me know how it worked out for you.

Qout Market is taking place this coming Saturday at Al Shaheed Park again, except they’ve moved back to Phase I this month. Check out the full list of events for this weekend below:

Thursday
Movie Night: Jalsaghar, The Music Room
Exhibition: Portraits
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Drive

Friday
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering

Saturday
Qout Market
Yoga with the 3
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Columbus

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Insidious: The Last Key (7.2)
Molly’s Game (7.6)
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Secret of King Midas (6.3)
The Disaster Artist (8.0) ♦ ★
The Humanity Bureau (3.7)

Other Movies Showing:
Bleeding Steel (6.3)
Coco (9.1)
Crooked House (6.4) ♦
Ferdinand (6.8)
Hostiles (7.2)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ★
Pitch Perfect 3 (6.2) ♦
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (8.3) ★
The Greatest Showman (7.9)
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)
Wonder (7.2)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

The last time I reviewed earphones on my blog was back in 2016 when I purchased the Sennheiser IE80 earphones. I still have them, I still love them, and I still constantly use them when I travel. But, since getting an iPhone X and losing the headphone jack, I decided to explore my wireless options. I mean I don’t mind using the dongle to connect my earphones to my phone, but I was just curious to try and go wireless.

I don’t like the way the Apple AirPods look so I didn’t even consider getting them, so after a bit of research, I narrowed down my options to the Beats X and the Beats PowerBeats 3. I really didn’t want to be cliche and go with a pair of Beats, but both pairs contained Apple’s W1 chip to make connecting across all my Apple products easier, and honestly, the X looked pretty minimal and slick. But, I decided I’d go with the PowerBeats 3 because they were better for working out and had a much longer battery life (11 hours). Just before getting them, I decided to check out the reviews on Amazon and damn, they were terrible. Loads of people were complaining about the reliability and how they would suddenly stop working, so I decided I was just not gonna bother with wireless and stick to my IE80s.

Then, a friend of mine decided to get a pair of beautiful Bang & Olufsen wireless earphones, the BeoPlay H5. I was with her when she purchased them and so was kinda tempted to buy a pair for myself, but at KD85, they were just more than I wanted to spend, especially since I really loved my IE80s. Luckily for me though, after using them for a couple of days, she decided she didn’t like them. The earphone cable kept getting tangled up in her hair and so she decided to stick to her AirPods and offered to sell me the H5’s for half the price. So I got them.

Now that I’ve been using them for around 10 days, I’m not sure how I feel about them mostly because I’ve got two main issues with them:

Battery Life
B&O say the H5’s last for up to 5 hours and that’s just too little for me. If I’m traveling to Beirut, that’s a flight that’s just over two hours long. Add two more hours of use on top of that at the airport, and if I’m listening at full blast (which I always do) the batteries are going to be dead by the fourth hour. And this is a short flight, forget about using these on longer flights. You can’t even charge the earphones with a standard USB plug which means if you want to charge the earphones on the go, you would need to carry around the included charging stand which has a pretty long cable attached to it.

Volume Level
The second issue and what is probably annoying me more than the short battery life is the volume level, it’s just not that high. I tend to listen to my music at pretty loud levels and the H5 are not loud enough. Whenever a good part of a track kicks in I keep reaching for the volume to try and increase it only to realize it’s already on max. The H5 feels like it needs to be at least 25% louder.. all the time.

But, on the bright side, the sound quality of the earphones is pretty good, they’re not bassy but they’re also not too bright which I was worried they would be. They’re also super stylish, I’ve got the “Moss Green” version and I just love the way they look. These are definitely the nicest pair of wireless earphones you can get.

But, I’m not sure if these are enough reasons for me to keep the earphones since they definitely won’t be replacing my IE80s. Right now I’m sitting at Arabica listening to my music with the H5’s, and I appreciate that they’re wireless since I’m moving around freely without having to keep disconnecting my headphones from the computer or getting the wire tangled up with the other items on the table. But I’m also constantly hitting the volume up button trying to make them louder, and I’ve already been here for 3 hours so not sure how much longer they’re going to play before shutting down. They sure do look good though…

If you’re interested in a pair, you can find them at the B&O dealer in Symphony mall or on Amazon for slightly cheaper [Link]

Two years ago, the non-profit organization Bayt Lothan sadly closed down. The community center had become an important part of the local culture scene, hosting a variety of workshops and events, but the owners of the building decided they wanted to move on to other things.

Now the historic building that used to house Shaikh Sabah Al Salim, the former Amir of Kuwait, is getting demolished.

The odd thing is, when I passed by this morning, there were no trucks or workers. It kinda looked like a bulldozer had driven in through the main structure, turned around and then driven back out. The building was also not surrounded by any sort of fence so anyone can right now just walk in and walk around, even though the building is partially demolished and could collapse at any second. Pretty dodgy, kinda like they decided to this now quickly due to the amount of publicity the building was starting to get again on word that it was finally getting demolished.

So sad. For pictures of the location before it closed down, click [Here]

Update: I was just informed that it won’t be turned into a food complex. They might build a boutique hotel or something along those lines, they’re still undecided, but it definitely won’t be a food complex. Also a fence will be put up shortly.

“Birds Endless Migration” is a documentary series that will show the birds’ migration journey through Kuwait. The series will be aired this year and was filmed by Kuwait Environmental Lens, a project to document, monitor and protect the wildlife environment in Kuwait. Can’t wait to watch this, the footage in the trailer looks great. [Vimeo]

A couple of weeks back I posted about how Shaab Park was shutting down for good and that I had memories and photos of the park from back in the 80s. Well I ended up finding one picture, I’m guessing taken around 1985 since I look like I’m 7 or so I guess? (I’m in white). The park back then was literally just a park, it wasn’t fenced up or anything, it was just a large green area with a handful of rides and play areas.

The building in the background was the Abdullah Al-Salem School which was demolished back in 2014 to make way for they new Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Centre that’s opening up next month.

For a higher resolution of the photo, click [Here]

Below are some of the events taking place this weekend. Have a happy new year everyone:

Thursday
FireFlies – Shadow Theater
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Assassin

Friday
FireFlies – Shadow Theater

Saturday
Fattet Baba Brunch
Yoga with the 3
FireFlies – Shadow Theater

Sunday
Rhapsody; Ring in 2018!
Celebrate the New Year at Mayar!

Monday
Picnic in the Garden

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Bleeding Steel (6.3)
Hostiles (7.2)
Jackals (4.7)
Pitch Perfect 3 (6.2) ♦
The Greatest Showman (7.9)

Other Movies Showing:
Coco (9.1)
Crooked House (6.4) ♦
Ferdinand (6.8)
Ghost House (4.7)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ★
Justice League (8.1)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (8.3) ★
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)
Wonder (7.2)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

The administrative court recently issued a verdict by powers of which the cabinet is to issue a decision banning the usage of water guns in National and Liberation Days’ celebrations. The verdict was made in response to a case filed by lawyer Mona Al-Arbash demanding the ban for public interest, on grounds that thousands of water gallons are wasted every year during national celebrations, costing the country – which is already poor on natural water resources – a lot of money. Use of water guns and water cannons during national celebrations have become very popular in recent years after the government banned the use of spray foam for environmental reasons. [Source]

I’ve really hated what the celebrations have turned into over the past years, and I’m sure a lot of other people as well. So glad we’re finally done with this.

Image via Getty

If like me you missed the opening of the 23rd GulfCup, here’s a pretty cool video of the fireworks that took place. [Vimeo]

If you were a fan of the movie Nightcrawler, then you’ll most likely love this Netflix series. Shot in the Dark is a documentary television series that follows three stringing companies in LA competing to get the best news footage to sell to news stations.

Shot in the Dark takes you along on the ride, showing you what it takes to get to the scene first, and what they need to do to differentiate their shots from the competition. I love documentaries and I think in another life, I could easily imagine myself being a stringer so I really connected with the show. It’s pretty intense, the competition is tough and I loved watching every minute of it. If you’ve got Netflix, check it out.

On the other hand, I just finished watching Jean-Claude Van Johnson. It’s a show starring Jean-Claude Van Damme in which he basically spoofs himself. In the series, he plays himself, but although everyone knows him as an actor and martial artist, in reality, that was just a cover for his real job which is a private contractor. The show starts off funny but kinda fades towards the end of the series. Still worth checking out though. Jean-Claude Van Johnson is available on Amazon Video and you can watch the trailer above.