2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Zain’s latest Ramadan ad made it to the top of Reddit’s front page yesterday and the video has already garnered nearly 2 million views in just two days. The reddit post also has over 4,000 comments with majority of them being positive except for the ones on the guy that kicks the pigeon 44 seconds into the commercial. If you haven’t watched the commercial yet you can check it out below.

For those of you who don’t know what Reddit is:

Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Reddit’s registered community members can submit content such as text posts or direct links. As of 2017, Reddit had 542 million monthly visitors, ranking #4 most visited web-site in US and #9 in the world. [source]

Update: I just noticed that this Zain reddit post is marked as an ad which means it might have been promoted to the front page instead of getting there naturally. Oh well..

Since Ramadan is starting this weekends list of events is pretty small. Check out whats going on this weekend below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Blue Nights curated by Mark Dean, New York
Level 44 Exhibition
Graish Shuwaikh
The Divan Movie Night: Naked Lunch
Movies at the Park: Lawrence of Arabia

Friday
Hatha Yoga in the Park
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering

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:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (3.3)
Gifted (7.8)
The Bleeder (6.8) ♦

Other Movies Showing:
Alien: Covenant (7.0) ♦ ★
Everything, Everything (6.2)
Fast & Furious 8 (7.5)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (8.2) ♦ ★
Here Alone (5.2) ♦
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (7.2)
Monolith (4.7)
The Boss Baby (6.5)
Smurfs: The Lost Village (5.8)
The Circle (7.5) ♦

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)

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 Civil Aviation authority has banned illegal parking at the Kuwait Airport. Previously the long term parking lot would be filled with cars parked on top of curbs and in no parking areas, but this will no longer be allowed. Parking attendants will no longer let you in if the parking is full and if you do park illegally, you will now be fined KD150. Like most new decisions in Kuwait, I doubt this will last long.

Equinox is a popular luxury gym chain in the US and according to a reader, they’re going to open in Kuwait (and most likely the region). Alshaya are bringing the brand which will most likely compete with the likes of Inspire, The Burrow and Elite Fitness.

No information on when or where they’re planning to open as of now.

Thanks Andrew

Customs officers at the Al-Ebdelli border entry point found a homing pigeon used as a drug mule to smuggle 178 amphetamine pills which were wrapped and tied round its body.

The officers spotted the bird which was coming from Iraq and pursued it till they caught it perching on a building rooftop, with a belt around its body that was stuffed with the pills. [Source]

If I saw a bird flying across the border I wouldn’t have thought anything of it.

Last time I posted about Wataniya Airways, I mentioned they were supposed to start flying early this year but that didn’t happen. Now my contact at Wataniya Airways has reached out to me to let me know that they might start flying from next month, if not by August at the very latest.

Wataniya Airways have applied to travel to 16 destinations and are just waiting approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The airline will have three different classes this time around; Wataniya Business, Wataniya Premium and Wataniya Seat. Wataniya Premium is their premium economy while Wataniya Seat is their regular economy class. Their first aircraft is ready and there are some videos and pictures of it already floating around on twitter. You can check them out [Here].

Once they start flying again, they’ll be flying out of Sheikh Saad Airport Terminal exactly like they used to. For now, you can follow them on their instagram account which went live last week @wataniyaairways

The alarm has been sounded again in Kuwait after figures for 2017 show that around 60 per cent of Kuwaiti marriages have ended in divorce.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice indicate there were 2,001 marriages in January and February, down from 2,425 in the same period last year. The figures also show there were 1,193 cases of divorce in the first two months of 2017, up from 1,180 last year. [Source]

That would put Kuwait with Luxembourg in 6th place on the World’s Most Divorced Nations list:

1- Belgium (71%)
2- Portugal (68%)
3- Hungary (67%)
4- Czech Republic (66%)
5- Spain (61%)
6- Kuwait and Luxembourg (60%)
7- Estonia (58%)
8- Cuba (56%)
9- France (55%)
10- Lithuania (53%)

Broad City is one of the funniest shows on TV right now and I completely forgot how funny it was until I started watching it again this past weekend with a friend who had never watched the show before. It easily fits in my top 10 funniest shows ever with the likes of Arrested Development, The Office and Parks and Recreation. Actually, Amy Poehler from Parks and Rec is one of the producers on the show.

Broad City follows two women throughout their daily lives in New York City, making the smallest and mundane events hysterical and disturbing to watch all at the same time. [IMDB]

Three seasons of the show are already out, they’re short quick 20 minute episodes so very easy to watch. Season 4 will be airing this coming August which is why I started binge watching the show all over again. I stream Broad City from Hulu but it’s also available on iTunes (Amazon Video has only season 3). So if you haven’t watched it, watch it.

Over the weekend I was told that preliminary approval from the Ministry to bring Adele to Kuwait was given. If everything works out she’ll be performing at the Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre which has recently hosted other big name musicians like Yanni and Googoosh. Although, bringing Adele would be on a completely different level.

I wasn’t given any dates on when this might happen, but based on her schedule, it would be safe to assume that if it will happen, it would be sometime in the second half of this year.

No idea why this weekend is so packed but it is, probably because it’s the last weekend before Ramadan starts. This weekend is filled with musical events and more, so check out the full list below:

Thursday
Ramadan Food Exhibition
Exhibition: Blue Nights curated by Mark Dean, New York
Musical: Peter Pan – The Never Ending Story
The Beatles Sing-Along Concert
Fête de la Musique

Friday
Hatha Yoga in the Park
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering
Ramadan Food Exhibition
Musical: Peter Pan – The Never Ending Story
The Beatles Sing-Along Concert
Coded Hackathon
Architectural Photography Exhibition
Musical: Beauty and the Beast
CHKN 1 Year Anniversary Birthday Party
Concert: Sal Houdini
Music Festival: Fabrice Moreaux & Turk, Taymour, and South & Eden

Saturday
Yoga with the 3
Brunch at the Park
Musical: Peter Pan – The Never Ending Story
Coded Hackathon
Architectural Photography Exhibition
CHKN 1 Year Anniversary Birthday Party
JamJam – A Play on Rhythm
Concert: Treasure of Talents
K-TAP Dance Show

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:
Alien: Covenant (7.0) ♦ ★
Everything, Everything (6.2)
Here Alone (5.2) ♦

Other Movies Showing:
A Family Man (7.0) ♦
Fast & Furious 8 (7.5)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (8.2) ♦ ★
Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (5.9)
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (7.2)
Monolith (4.7)
Smurfs: The Lost Village (5.8)
The Boss Baby (6.5)
The Circle (7.5) ♦

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

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)

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

Whats your favorite fish and chips place in Kuwait? I’m drawing a blank just trying to think of a place other than Shrimpy that even has fish and chips on the menu.

Last weekend, Staged in Kuwait put on a Beauty and the Beast musical and supposedly it was their best show yet. So they’ve decided to bring it back for one more show this coming Friday. If you missed out then this is your chance to watch it.

The photo and video above is from last weekends performance and if you’re interested in finding out more about event then click [Here]

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure), a contraction of the words costume play, is a performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture and a broader use of the term “cosplay” applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage.

The video above by UrbanQ8 is of all the cosplay from last months ComFest event that took place here in Kuwait. From all the previous videos and photos of similar events I’ve seen, it looks like the local cosplay scene is growing pretty rapidly and I’d say we’ve got a pretty legit scene at the moment. It’s also not male dominant as you’d imagine it being, it’s probably close to a 50/50 split. [YouTube]