2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Thursday
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Ahmadi Inhabitants Gathering
World Theatre Day Celebration
Rooftop Cinemagic Movie: Fargo

Friday
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Ahmadi Inhabitants Gathering
Infiniti Red Bull Racing Formula One Show Run

Saturday
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Last Blast Carnival
Rooftop Cinemagic Movie: Russian Ark
GREAT British Automotive Showcase
Spring Strings Concert
Earth Hour

The biggest thing happening this weekend is the Red Bull Formula 1 car that will be racing down the Gulf Road. But, the Ahmadi event should also be a very interesting to those who are interested in Kuwait’s history.

Looks like a Mercedes C63 to me so that has to suck. [Link]

26 maart Kiele kiele Koeweit (1974) from Vandaag Voorheen on Vimeo.

I found the video above on Vimeo and it looked interesting since it was from 1974 and had something to do about Kuwait. But, I couldn’t understand anything since it was in Dutch so I sent the video to a friend of mine in Holland and asked him what it was about. This is what he emailed me back:

Haha… this is a funny carnival song from early 1974 about the oil-crisis of 1973. It’s because of this song the Dutch found out about the existence of Kuwait. The 4 guys were famous in the 70s because of their political cabaret show on television; Farce Majeure.

In 1973 Kuwait boycotted the US and Holland for their support of Israel in the 1973 War (Ramadan War). Because of the fear of running out of oil, Prime Minister Den Uyl took the decision to introduce the ‘oil-bon’. A maximum supply of oil for each person every month. Another measure was that cars were not allowed to drive on Sundays. Only doctors, firemen, police and others who could prove that it was absolutely necessary to use their car on Sunday were exempt. But those exceptions were only a few and basically it was a nice time in my youth, being able to roller skate and cycle on the empty highways.

The song is a simple carnival song. Kuwait, Kuwait, tickle, tickle, Kuwait, tickle, tickle Kuwait and so on.. Just funny, no offensive lyrics whatsoever. In the clip you see the official agent (honorair consul) of Kuwait in The Netherlands at that era, Mahmoud Rabbani. A nice person who earned a lot of respect from the Dutch people because of his approach. When he receives the 45″ single in the clip, he thanks the members of the group and add to this the memorable words;

‘Critisism is a good, as long as it’s brought with a sense of humor.’

Yeah, times have changed… 🙁

At first Kuwait was angry about the song and threatened with more diplomatic sanctions. They blamed the performers of the song for adding even more fuel to the fire. But, as you noticed, Mahmoud Rabbani acted wisely and became popular in Holland. Unfortunately not that much in Kuwait… but that’s another story.

A very interesting story, one I hadn’t heard about before.

Thanks Marcel

A while back I contacted KDD and asked them if I could visit their factory so I could post about how my favorite ice creams were made. After a few emails back and forth I finally got to pass by earlier this week for a private tour. I was given some basic rules with regards to photography. I wasn’t allowed to shoot video or take wide shots of the factory floor and all the shots I did take would have to be approved by them. I thought these were fair requests and as long as I could still tell the story of how the ice creams were made I didn’t mind them.

The KDD factory is located in Subhan and is really huge. Before going on the tour I was required to wear a lab coat, a hair net, wash my hands and remove any jewelry. We then had a long walk to the ice cream making section of the factory and when we finally got there it turned out it was my lucky day. The first ice cream machine was busy making my favorite ice cream ever, KDD Silver. Because the post is long and full of pictures you have to click on the link below to check it all. Also if you want to go on a tour yourself there is contact info at the end of the post.

An interesting feature from 1992 on the propaganda that helped gain American public support for the Gulf War. It’s around 30 minutes long but worth watching. [YouTube]

The locally created The 99 comics has been banned in Saudi Arabia for religious reasons and the creator Dr Naif Al Mutawa is also being sued locally.

However, Al Mutawa, the CEO of Teshkeel Media Group has vehemently defended his work, saying that it had won universal praise, including from the Emir of Kuwait and President Barack Obama.

“Those who are attacking men are claiming that I am using the 99 Holy Names of God for my characters,” he said. “However, I never thought they would go as far as accusing me of blasphemy and atheism. I am surprised that this is happening in Kuwait, a country of law that respects the Constitution and freedoms,” he said.
Al Mutawa said that his work was under an Islamic company and funded by an Islamic bank.

“We have succeeded in presenting a positive image about the Islamic culture at international events. We had a role in dissipating the negative images of terrorism and killing that people had of Arabs. The series is being shown in 70 countries across the world,” he said. [Article]

The 99 is a comic book featuring a team of superheroes based on Islamic culture and religion that became a worldwide sensation. Dr Naif was featured on the front page of CNN previously as well as being mentioned by Barrak Obama in one of his speeches.

Al-Babtain are currently the car dealers for Infiniti, Nissan and Renault among others and I managed to get my hands on some old photos of the dealership. There are three photos, one if their first showroom in Kuwait, the other photo is of their first spare parts shop and the final one is of the interior of their showroom in 1980.

If you have any old photos of Kuwait [Let me know]

Thanks Abdulrahman

I found a store the other day that sold a variety of different sized kites. Since the weather is still bearable I thought some of you might be interested in flying them on the weekends. The store had a variety of kites ranging from small cheap ones that cost just KD5 to more proper and expensive ones that start at KD26 and go all the way up to KD170. I took a few photos of the kites they had for sale which you can check out below.

The store is called Wind Rider and it’s located on the Mezzanine floor of Al Muthana Complex in the back near the praying area. They’re open from 10AM to 1PM and 5PM to 9:30PM except on Fridays when they’re open only in the evenings. Their phone number is 2474788 or 6707010.

As part of GREAT British Week, British chef Gary Rhodes will be coming to Veranda restaurant at the Avenues. There are two different events that will be taking place:

Gary Rhodes Afternoon Tea
Venue: Veranda Restaurant
Date: 26 March 2014
Time: 14:00
Price: KD12

Gary Rhodes VIP Dinner
Venue: Veranda Restaurant
Date: 27 March 2014
Time: 19:00
Price: KD22

If you’re interested you need to call Veranda to book tickets on 22283141

Thanks jhonybravo

Because of the Arab Summit, some roads are going to be closed or diverted tomorrow and Wednesday (March 25 and 26). Kuwait Times created a map of the different roads closed and you can check it out by clicking [Here]

Thanks Abeer

I know it’s wrong but damn I wish I had the skill to do that with my car. [YouTube]

It’s the only mall I can get lost in and now it’s going to get even bigger since they just approved expanding it by adding a new fashion avenue. I previously heard that when phase 4 of the Avenues gets completed, it would end up being larger than Dubai Mall. I doubt that’s true. [Link]

Rainy Morning at Anjefa from Moayad Hassan on Vimeo.

Moayad Hassan is back with another beautiful short film, this one was shot a few days ago on a rainy morning at Anjefa beach in Kuwait. [Vimeo]

Mohammed Taher is a Kuwaiti music director, producer, writer and the guy behind the music label Brave Wave. I posted about him last year after the popular gaming blog Joystiq posted about his then upcoming album, World 1-2 which featured 21 video game composers. Recently though he was invited to give a talk at Bit Summit, an indie game festival held annually in Kyoto, Japan. My brother managed to score an interview with him and just posted a feature story on him in the gaming section [Here]

This is probably the last new section I’m adding to the blog right now, it’s a gaming section that will be run by my brother. He was running his own blog called Sixteenbit Dreams and I thought his posts were all very interesting so I moved him into my blog. He’s contributed on 248AM before with gaming posts but now he’s going to have his own dedicated section. So check it out either by clicking on Gaming in the navigation strip at the top or by clicking [Here]