2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Lots of events this weekend including two coffee festivals. Check out the full list of events taking place below:

Thursday
Filipos Brekkie
The Human Capital Forum
Cofe District Festival
The Kuwait Motor Show
Global Game Jam 2018
Sadu Reimagined
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Red Turtle

Friday
Charity Drive
Filipos Brekkie
The Kuwait Motor Show
Global Game Jam 2018
Sadu Reimagined
The Warehouse Series 0.2
Eighty Six Pop-up

Saturday
Filipos Brekkie
The Kuwait Motor Show
Global Game Jam 2018
Sadu Reimagined
Guided Tour: Landmarks of Old Kuwait City
Here Exhibit
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Things to Come

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.

Screenshot from The Death of Stalin

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

New This Week:
All the Money in the World (7.1)
Dead Awake (4.6)
Guardians of the Tomb (7.2)
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (7.2)
The Death of Stalin (7.6) ♦
The Florida Project (7.8)

Other Movies Showing:
12 Strong (7.5)
Bunyan and Babe (5.0)
Coco (9.1)
Downsizing (5.8) ♦
Ferdinand (6.8)
Insidious: The Last Key (7.2)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ★
The Bachelors (6.4)
The Commuter (6.8)
The Greatest Showman (7.9)
The Pirates of Somalia (6.9)
The Post (7.5)
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 Human Capital Forum starts today at JACC and comprises of talks and panels from speakers in different fields, with a common vision to highlight the importance of investing in creativity for social impact. Their outdoor setup (pictured above) looks super nice so pass by and check it out if you can. It’s free to attend but you need to register to get a pass.

For more information, click [Here]

A bunch of people and friends have been forwarding me the screenshot above taken from the account @kuwait_projects. Kuwait Projects post is a bit misleading since he makes it seem like an official Apple store is opening in Avenues Phase 4. That isn’t the case. The store in the picture above is just a regular authorized Apple store, not an official one.

Avenues Phase 4
The fourth phase of Avenues is on target to open up next month on February 25th. They’ve invited some of the media to take a tour of the new phase at the end of this month so we should get new photos of a nearly complete mall pretty soon.

Al Kout Mall
The new Al Kout Mall is expected to open up in March with an exact target date of March 15th. Al Kout Mall is replacing Al Manshar Mall which was torn down back in 2013.

Assima Mall
Finally, even though Assima Mall construction site caught fire back in June, they’re still planning to open by Q3 2019. I think the fire delayed the project by just a few months since 2019 was always their target date.

I thought Kuwait had canceled plans to build a nuclear power plant but a Russian company just applied for a building permit so they could construct one.

The Russian state corporation Rosatom has applied for building permit for construction of the nuclear power plant in Kuwait, announced the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak. Currently, the main talks on the implementation of the project are under way. [Source]

I have mixed feelings about this, I’m pro-nuclear power but in our case, solar kinda makes more sense since its sunny all year round and it’s safer. Nuclear is a lot more practical though:

– Kuwait consumes around 13,000MW of electricity

– The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the USA is the largest solar station in the world and it produces 392MW

– The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan is the largest in the world and produces 7,965 MW

So one nuclear power plant could supply more than 60% of Kuwait’s power needs while the largest solar station would supply just 3%.

Looks like Apple Pay is now starting to work in some places in Kuwait. Some of the new Knet machines that support wireless Knet payment now also work with Apple Pay. I haven’t been able to try this myself, but a friend of mine was able to paying using Apple Pay at Solo Pizza. You need to have a credit card already added to your phone from a country that has Apple Pay like the US for example.

There is no real advantage to using Apple Pay in Kuwait, if anything its actually more expensive when you factor in the cost to transfer money from Kuwait bank account to your US one. But for now, I guess there is a bit of a cool factor to using Apple Pay.

Update: Just tried my Apple Pay at Liquid and it worked!

Over the weekend I went to the movies to watch Jumanji, a good movie by the way, just censored the hell out of in Kuwait. Seriously this has to be the most censored movie I’ve ever watched in Kuwait, and I have no idea how that’s possible since it’s a PG-rated film.

So, originally we were planning to watch it at Grand Cinemas in Hamra Mall, but surprisingly, they didn’t have any theater that would accommodate a wheelchair. I don’t mean the theater playing Jumanji, I mean neither of their theaters playing any movie had wheelchair access.

So I gave Cinescape a call and they told me they had wheelchair access at ALL their theaters except for two, Laila and Central Place. The operator also told me that if the person was permanently in a wheelchair, then they could get a lifetime pass to watch movies for free at their theaters.

I think that’s pretty thoughtful of Cinescape and pretty odd of Grand Cinemas considering their Hamra theater is fairly new. The only feedback I would give Cinescape is to mark the wheelchair areas on the seating map since I had to call the operator and find out where they were. For example, the map above is how it currently looks like while the map below is what I think they should do (notice row J).

Anyway just wanted to thank Cinescape with this post for being so considerate.

RAW originally opened up back in 2016 in the industrial area of Shuwaikh but recently closed that location down. It was one of my favorite sushi places, but a lot of people had an issue with the location since at night the area around was super dark and creepy. So they closed that space down and moved to the city where they just officially reopened this past weekend across the street from Hamra Tower [Map]

Along with the new location, they revamped their menu by adding a lot of interesting and delicious new dishes that go beyond what you’d find at your typical Japanese restaurant. You can check out the full menu [Here].

I’ve been there three times so far (two tastings and a dinner), and really love the food. You really can’t go wrong by choosing any of the 20+ items on the menu.

RAW is currently only open for dinner, so you should call and reserve ahead of time just in case they’re busy. For more information check out their instagram @eatrawkwt

Note: Make sure you try the Koji Glazed Thigh (pictured above), the Tofu Croquettes, Sablefish and the Yuzu Yogurt dessert.

A reader recently spent over a month in prison for driving his mum’s car without having a driving license (he nearly got deported too). He wrote about his experience on his blog, and you can check out his post [Here]

The part I found interesting is how prisoners get free cigarette packs. I wonder if that decision was made to prevent or cut down on drug use and violence. It’s interesting because I’ve never heard of a prison doing that before. The cost on the government to supply cigarettes to all the inmates for free must be ginormous.

Update: The writer has now edited his post based on the advice of his lawyer and removed certain parts including the part about free cigarettes.

I honestly have no clue who Russ is, but a friend told me he’s pretty popular so figured this was newsworthy. Based on some tweets he posted a while ago, Russ was supposed to come and perform in Kuwait but then found out the promoter was planning on selling the tickets for a ridiculous price, so he backed out.

The prices for the tickets were going to be as follows:

VIP – KD250
Gold – KD200
Silver – KD150
Bronze – KD100
Normal – KD50

The prices seem similar to Sting but looking at the seating chart of this event, it didn’t look like it was going to be held at a proper theater. In fact, I think it was going to be held in a large tent or hall with no elevated seating which means anything behind silver would have been terrible seating. According to Russ, he’s still willing to come to Kuwait, but only if the promoter decides to reduce the ticket prices. We’ll see how this plays out.

A packed weekend with a lot of things going on. I’ll probably be hitting up the car show at 360 Mall as well as the Kuwait Aviation Show. Check out all the events taking place this weekend below:

Thursday
PostCraft Exhibition Tour 2018
Kuwait Aviation Show
Photography Gallery
The Kuwait Motor Show
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Everybody Wants Some!!

Friday
Kuwait Aviation Show
Photography Gallery
The Kuwait Motor Show
Kuwait Spartan Race
Book Club Meeting: Kuwait Bibliophiles
Oriental Musical Night at Argan Square

Saturday
Kuwait Aviation Show
Photography Gallery
The Kuwait Motor Show
Saturday Brunch at Barba
Guided Tour: Arab Organization Headquarters
Tea & Oud
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Escape from Alcatraz

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.

Screenshot from The Post

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

New This Week:
12 Strong (7.5)
Bunyan and Babe (5.0)
Downsizing (5.8) ♦
The Bachelors (6.4)
The Pirates of Somalia (6.9)
The Post (7.5)

Other Movies Showing:
Bleeding Steel (6.3)
Coco (9.1)
Darkest Hour (7.3)
Ferdinand (6.8)
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (6.8) ♦
Goodbye Christopher Robin (7.2)
Hostiles (7.2)
Howard Lovecraft & the Undersea Kingdom (5.6)
Insidious: The Last Key (7.2)
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (6.9) ★
Molly’s Game (7.6)
The Commuter (6.8)
The Greatest Showman (7.9)
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.

Nuqat have decided not to hold their annual creative conference this year, instead, they’re holding another event titled “The Human Capital Forum”.

This forum will comprise of talks and panels from speakers in different fields, with a common vision to highlight the importance of investing in creativity for social impact.

The event is being held at JACC and I saw renderings of the setup and I think their outdoor area is gonna look super cool surrounded by the JACC main buildings. The event is free to attend but you need to register. There are over 25 speakers so you’re bound to find a person or subject you’d be interested in hearing.

For more information on the event, click [Here]

A friend of mine recently moved back to Kuwait and brought his dog with him. He asked me the other day if I knew of any pet-friendly places and I had no idea. My dog is currently living with my ex-wife in Canada now and so I’ve been completely out of the loop with where to take a dog out. I used to take him to Al Shaheed Park back when it was just a regular large park (not what it is today), but with the new Al Shaheed Park pets aren’t allowed. The Scientific Center walkway is generally pet-friendly just because its a common sight seeing people walking their dogs there but other than that, I have no idea where someone can take their pets.

My friend heard Richards Coffee and Wild Cafe were both pet-friendly, but if you know of anywhere else let me know.