2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

This is a pretty cool track and video by Altersal, the lead singer of my favorite local band Galaxy Juice. It’s his first single from his solo debut album “Wifi Dreams” which comes out early next year. [YouTube]

Last week I passed by the vintage radios shop Moqtanayaty and ended up picking up a 1960’s Dynatron Mazurka record player for myself. I didn’t have any music records, nor did the store so I needed to buy some and didn’t want to resort to ordering them online since they would have taken at least two weeks to arrive. Instead, I decided I’d over to the antique shops basement in Salmiya to check and see if they had any for sale there.

The first shop I went into had a large pile of records piled up in the corner of the shop. So I sat down on the floor and started going through them one by one. Anything that was remotely interesting I put on the side. By the time I was done I had found around 14 potential records which I ended up reducing down to 10. The 10 records I decided to go with were actually pretty great and included the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, Frank Sinatra, Cat Stevens, Marvin Gaye, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole, Fats Domino and more. The buying process though wasn’t so easy. The shop was originally closed (it’s always closed whenever I visit) but the basement janitor has the key. So I had him open up the shop for me and after I chose the records I wanted, he had to take pictures of each one and send them to the owner. Originally I was quoted KD30 for the 10 records but managed to haggle the price down to KD25 which is pretty reasonable considering the stuff I got.

There are a couple of other shops that had records for sale as well but I wasn’t in the mood to go through their piles so there could be more treasures waiting to be found. So if you’re looking for records, I’d head over to the basement as soon as possible before anybody else does (including me). For directions and more information on the basement, check out my previous post [Here]

Update: Kuwait now has a local online record store! vinyldestination.com

Over the weekend the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) announced that they signed Nasser Alruwayeh, the first Kuwaiti ever to join the WWE. I haven’t watched WWE since back when it used to be called WWF, but I still think this is a pretty cool signing.

Nasser is a crossfiter who took part in the invitation-only tryout in Dubai last April. He managed to impress the WWE coaches and training personnel which is why they decided to sign him along with Shadia Bseiso, the first Arab woman to sign with the WWE.

For more information on the signing you can check out the WWE website [Here]

Yesterday local musician Ghaneema released a music video for her track “You Got Me” from her EP “Bad Habits”.

It’s her first music video ever and you can check it out above or on [YouTube]

If you’re looking for things to do this weekend, here are some of the things that are taking place:

Thursday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
Japanese Speech Contest
Air, Land & Sea – Augmented Reality Experience
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: A Ghost Story

Friday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
Red Bull Car Park Drift Finals
Touch Rugby Tournament
Gifts & Food Fair
AMG Family Seasonal Concert
Book Launch: Modern Architecture Kuwait Volume 2

Saturday
Puss in Boots – The Pantomime
A Better Shot Workshop
Architectural Photowalk & Sketching
Yoga with the 3
Annual Tour: Camel Races
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: The Killing Fields
Jazz & Jam: The Zaid Nasser Jazz Quartet & The Afterthought

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:
Beyond Skyline (5.9)
Brad’s Status (6.7)
Jungle (6.7)
Just Getting Started (5.8)
Marrowbone (6.7)
Polaroid (N/A)

Other Movies Showing:
Acts Of Vengeance (5.6)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Daddy’s Home 2 (6.2)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Justice League (8.1)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
S.M.A.R.T. Chase (4.8)
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.

A few pictures have been uploaded online by the company fabricating some of the wildlife that will be placed inside the Natural History Museum at the soon to open Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre, and they look really really good.

The other day I said you could see what looks like a shark hanging on display while driving by on the Gulf Road, turns out its a primitive whale (a Basilosaurus, pictured above).

The Quetzalcoatlus pictured above even got featured in the November issue of National Geographic! [Link]

To check out some more photos, click [Here]

Thanks lovelykuwait

Yesterday some drone photos of the Kuwait Motor Town race circuit were floating around on WhatsApp. Not sure why I didn’t think of going there and taking a drone photo of the circuit myself since Google Maps really hasn’t updated the view since construction started. These drone photos, on the other hand, show that a lot of progress has been made and that the hardest part of the construction, the paving of the track asphalt is basically done. You can also see the dragstrips in the photos as well as the grand stands under construction.

The first phase of the Kuwait Motor Town Race Circuit is targetted to open by the end of March, I’m hoping that’s still on track. I’m so excited!

If I was stuck on an island and could choose to have one dessert with me, it would probably be an eclair (or a Kinder Bueno). It’s one of my favorite desserts and I recently found a place in Kuwait that had a good variety of eclairs to choose from as well as millefeuilles. The place is called Millesaveurs and until a few moments ago I thought it was a French franchise. But, while trying to get some information for this post I realized its actually local creation. I haven’t tried anything other than their pastries so can’t recommend the food, but what I can say though is that their eclairs are pretty good and you should try them out if you’re an eclair fan. Their packaging is also pretty premium looking and presentable so it would make a great gift when invited to dinners.

If you’re interested, Millesaveurs is located in the basement of Crystal Towers but they’re also available on Carriage. Their instagram account is @millesaveurskwt

Later today some parts of highway 50 and the 5th ring road will be closing down due to the GCC Summit. There are expectations that the closures will result in traffic chaos, but as of 9AM, there seems to be less traffic than usual. This will probably change once the roads close down at noon, but not a bad start to the day.

Update: A reader made me realize that at 12PM Google updated the map of Kuwait to highlight the closed roads. Impressive.

Madison & Heig which I posted about back in September have finally opened up their doors. Madison & Heig is a locally created bistro and bakery with the main menu created by @chefbasmah, and the desserts by @faysbaking, both of whom are super talented chefs. They’re currently in their soft launch phase so they’re only open from 5PM to 11PM.

For photos and the exact address, you can check out the Madison & Heig instagram account [Here]

Refit is a local app that allows you to connect with various freelance fitness trainers in Kuwait. Say you want to learn how to box or how to play basketball, or maybe you just want to get fit, then you’d use this app to find a suitable trainer.

To find a trainer all you need to do is open the app, find the sport you’re interested in and then go through the list of the available trainers and book an appointment. You could also use the app to purchase supplements of healthy snacks.

Right now the app doesn’t have that many trainers to choose from but the more popular it gets the more trainers would sign up to it. The app is available on iOS and if you’re interested, you can download it from [Here]

The Cinemagics rooftop screenings are now back again after a long hiatus. During the time off they upgraded a few things including the cinema screen which is now larger than their older inflatable screen. The new screen is also permanently fixed and so will improve the overall image quality of the projected films. They also removed the bulky inflatable couches and replaced them with more compact and comfortable bean bags. This also means their roof can now fit up to 100 people comfortably.

The screenings will be taking place every Thursday and Saturday and are free. I’ve posted the first two movies up on the events page and you can check them out [Here]

Originally expected to be completed by the end of this year, the completion time for the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre in Shaab has now been pushed back a tiny bit towards the end of January, early February.

The exhibits are already being fitted and I’ve been seeing trucks the past few weeks unloading more and more stuff. If you look carefully while driving by on the Gulf Road you can even spot dinosaurs and I think even a large Shark hanging on display.

The Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre is currently one of the largest cultural and science projects in the world and once complete will house four museums, Natural History, Science, Islamic and Space.

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

New This Week:
Acts Of Vengeance (5.6)
Daddy’s Home 2 (6.2)
Paddington 2 (8.3)
S.M.A.R.T. Chase (4.8)
The Mountain Between Us (6.3)

Other Movies Showing:
Bounty Hunters (5.3)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Justice League (8.1)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Thor: Ragnarok (8.2)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)
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.