2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Good Game is a small boardgames and card games store that belongs to a friend of mine. I posted about them last year just when they were about to open and since then they’ve been pretty busy building a small gaming community which I thought would be interesting to talk about on the blog.

The store carries games like Warhammer 40,000, Magic: The Gathering, Game of Thrones, Settlers of Catan and Lord of the Rings the Living Card Game amongst others. Through out the week they setup various get-togethers were fans of various games can come in and play against other gamers. I passed by last week twice, the first time they were practicing X-Wing Miniatures while the second time they were just setting up for a Warhammer 40K game.

I asked my friend how newcomers could take part in this and he told me you just simply need to show up. Once you pass by them they will get you connected to whatever game you are interested in trying out.

So if you want to be part of this they have a calendar up on their website with the upcoming activities. Mondays are role playing nights, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are different board game nights and every Thursday they do Magic the Gathering drafts. Saturday is open night. Check them out [Here]

Yesterday I found out about the Souk Al-Mubarakiya Festival and tonight I decided to pass by and check it out. They’ve beautifully decorated one of the main streets with lights and lined up tables on both sides from the beginning till the end with different sellers at each table. Both the lights and the atmosphere were really festive but the tables covered with white cloth made the whole thing feel like a career fair. My guess is since every three days new sellers take over the spaces, they decided to use generic tables to keep things simple.

I didn’t find anything interesting being sold but it’s still worth visiting the festival just to check it out and it’s in Souk Al-Mubarakiya so you could just walk around there once you’re done. Worst case you’ll end up just having a Nutella crepe, but then again that alone would make the visit worth it. The festival started on February 2nd and will run daily every evening from 5:30PM until February 13th.

[YouTube]

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Kuwait Open is taking place in just over a week from February 12th to February 16th. Last year I complained on the lack of publicity for this event and if it wasn’t for a reader who emailed me awhile ago I wouldn’t have found out about it this year as well. Last year I actually only found out about the tournament when the video above of the trick shot started making its rounds across the internet after the tournament was over.

This years tournament is supposed to be the biggest ever for Kuwait with a total of 243 players from 33 national associations taking part [Source]. It is the biggest entry ever received for the Kuwait Open which was first staged in February 2006. Yet for some odd reason there isn’t any publicity or at least I haven’t seen or heard anything about it. I couldn’t even find out where the games will be playing, what the schedules are and where we could get tickets from. So if anyone has this information please share it.

Thanks Francis

Last week I passed by the Sheraton Hotel and had lunch at their Bukhara Indian Restaurant. It was my first time at Bukhara and really had high expectations. I always love going to Sheraton since it reminds me of my childhood but I really wasn’t impressed with Bukhara. The location and service was great but the food was fairly lackluster for the price.

My usual favorite Indian restaurant is Saravanaa Bhavan but it’s vegetarian so I’m looking for recommendations on a non-vegetarian Indian restaurant. One I might not have heard of before, preferably a hole in the wall. If you know of a good one let me know.

E-Gate is a practical new app which allows you to check on your Civil ID status, your traffic violations, if you have a travel ban or not and other things like passport and residency validity.

There are three features I liked about the app, the first being that it will remember your Civil ID so you don’t have to keep entering it every time. The other thing I liked is the ability to add more than one Civil ID to the app and finally I liked that the app does push notifications. In the short time I used the app I didn’t get any notifications but in theory you should get notified anytime there is any new status update for example you get a travel ban or a traffic violation.

The only negative aspect is the fact the app costs $1.99 and isn’t free. But that’s a small price to pay for the convenience this app provides. It’s available for both iOS and Android. Search for E-Gate Kuwait to find it or if you’re an iOS user here is the direct [Link]

Update: Do not download this app. The app no longer works unless you agree to send adverts to your friends.

I have a remote control I use to control my media server which I’m very used to since I’ve been using it for a number of years now. It’s not an expensive remote, it costs around KD7 on Amazon with an IR receiver but if you include shipping as well it comes out to around KD12. Recently it just stopped working for no reason and I really didn’t feel like ordering another one online. Other than the fact it would have taken around two weeks to get to Kuwait I just didn’t want to pay KD12 for a remote which shouldn’t have stopped working in the first place. So I headed to Hawalli looking for a place that would fix it and after asking around I was pointed to a building and told to go down to the basement.

It had to be the dodgiest basement of a complex I had ever been to. There was no lighting, most of the shops were closed and the only light available in the basement were from the few stores that were open. One of my favorite things about Kuwait is how all the stores that sell the same thing are always open next to each other. So you have all the video game stores in Rihab, all the car dealers in Al Rai and here you had a basement filled with small stores that just fixed electronics.

From all the stores open one stood out because they specialized in selling just remote controls which I found fascinating. I ended up going into one of the repair stores and after opening up my remote the repair guy told me two chips on the remote needed replacing. Originally he asked for KD4 but I was able to haggle my way down to KD2. Took him around 5 minutes to fix it while I watched.

So if you ever need a remote or any small electronics repaired this is probably the basement to visit. The basement is located in Hawalli past the Fire Station in a complex called Al Hajiri. Here it is on [Google Maps]

Below is this months schedule for Cinemagics rooftop movie nights. If you’ve never been to them before, they’re held twice a week, every Thursday and Saturday on top of the building that has Xcite in old Salmiya. I’ll also be listing the movies individually in the Events section to make it easier to track on a weekly basis. Here are this months movies:

Saturday, February 1st 2014 at 7:30PM
FACES
The second in our Cassavetes series, where we’ll be showing a film every month by acclaimed legendary independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, who is known as the father of independent American cinema. Faces confronts modern alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema. Nominated for 2 Academy awards for its performances, as well as being a strong influence on Woody Allen and Robert Altman, Faces is a film that explores the dynamics of relationships, divorce, emotional and spiritual fulfillment as it depicts the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle aged couple.

Thursday, February 6th 2014 at 7:30PM
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
Winner of over 42 international awards, and nominated for 6 Academy Awards, Good Night and Good Luck takes place during the early 1950’s under the threat of Communism most famously exploited by Senator Joseph McCarthy. CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred W. Friendly decide to take a stand and expose McCarthy for the fear monger he was, playing a huge role in bringing down one of the most controversial figures in American history.

Saturday, February 8th 2014 at 7:30PM
VICKI CRISTINA BARCELONA
Considered one of the best films of 2008 by numerous critics and winner of multiple awards mostly focussing on the incredible screenplay by Woody Allen and the extraordinary performances (with emphasis on Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz). Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Thursday, February 13th 2014 at 7:30PM
SURPRISE MOVIE OF THE MONTH
Every month we’ll be playing a surprise film, where you won’t know what you’re watching until just a minute before the film begins. One thing is for sure, every month the surprise film will be either my favourite film of the list, or the most unique in one way or the other. This month’s film was won and was nominated for over 30 awards worldwide including the Oscars, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards, and the Baftas. A unique, hilarious, bizarre, and poetic little film.

Saturday, February 15th 2014 at 7:30PM
DRY SUMMER (Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project)
Every month, we’ll be playing a film from the World Cinema Project. Established by Martin Scorsese in 2007, the World Cinema Project expands the horizons of moviegoers everywhere. The mission of the WCP is to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions generally ill equipped to preserve their own cinema history. This month’s film is Dry Summer. Metin Erksan’s wallop of a melodrama follows the machinations of an unrepentantly selfish tobacco farmer who builds a dam to prevent water from flowing downhill to his neighbors’ crops. The film went not to win the Golden Bear (Best Film) at the Berlin Film Festival.

Thursday, February 20th 2014 at 7:30PM
UPSTREAM COLOR
One of the most unique films of all time, adored by critics from all corners, a film that had audiences and critics discussing it to no end after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Shane Carruth, the man behind Primer which we screened last year, Directed, Produced, Wrote, Scored, Shot, Edited, and Starred in this utterly mad film. I won’t even try to explain the plot as it cannot be explained in words, but I assure you you have never seen anything like this before and you will likely be thinking about this film for weeks after watching it.

Saturday, February 22nd 2014 at 7:30PM
THE ACT OF KILLING
One of the rawest and most intriguing films of the year, winning over 32 awards,and nominated for Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars, The Act of Killing is a terrifying but unmissable film. A documentary that challenges former Indonesian death squad leaders to reenact their real-life mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.

Thursday, February 28th 2014 at 7:30PM
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, along with 65 other worldwide awards, Beasts of the Southern Wild covers the tragedy of a Louisiana bayou cut off from the world by a levee as seen through the eyes of 6-year-old Hushpuppy. Her life is about to change as she is faced with both her hot tempered father and the melting ice-caps that flood her community, unleashing the ancient aurochs that may represent something larger for the child.

Cinemagic is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the rooftop of Xcite and LG [Map]. There is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

“Layali Febrayer” started from January 31st and will go on until February 14th. It’s considered one of the largest events that takes place and this year there will be more than 14 shows featuring more than 250 artists from around the world. There are too many events and timings to list but luckily they’ve uploaded a PDF of the schedule and locations which you can view [Here]

All the events and shows are taking place on the Green Island and the different locations and zones in the PDF refer to this [Map]
For more information you can visit the Layali February website [Here]

Thanks Mufaddal

Note to self:
1- Capture pigeons
2- Setup instagram account called @pigeonsq8
3- Sell pigeons

[YouTube]

Who said you can’t rock climb in Kuwait? [YouTube]

The new QX series cameras from Sony are part of their new range of mobile phone cameras.Sony realized that camera phones in general are pretty limited with the majority for example lacking any kind of optical zoom. Phone cameras also have really tiny sensors so the photos aren’t very sharp or detailed neither do they do so well in dimly lit situations. Thats why Sony came up with the idea to create a new line of cameras that would clip onto your current phone giving it a big boost. I picked up both the Sony QX10 and the slightly larger QX100 from the Sony dealer for this review.

Both the QX10 and QX100 follow the same principle, they both don’t have any screens and other than the power, shoot and zoom buttons, both cameras don’t have any other controls. The Sony QX10 is the smaller and cheaper of the two, it has a sensor delivering 18MP and it has a 10x optical zoom. The QX100 on the other hand has a large size sensor that delivers 20MP as well as an added bonus of having a bright F/1.8 lens. On the downside, the QX100 has only 3.6x optical zoom, it’s double the size of the QX10 and it’s also a lot more expensive.

Lets get something out of the way. Both these cameras perform much better than your mobile phone cameras. Between the two cameras the QX100 was obviously and clearly the better of the two because of the larger sensor and better lens optics. Because of the fact both these cameras easily out perform camera phones I decided this post wouldn’t focus on the quality of the photos but instead I’m going to focus on the practicality of the cameras.

Because these two cameras lack a screen you need to connect them to your phone. That’s a fairly easy process, you turn on the cameras and then you connect your phone to the cameras wifi. You then need to download the Sony app “PlayMemories” which will allow you to control the camera and take photos. Every time you want to use the camera, you launch the PlayMemories app and turn the camera on and wait for the two to connect. This is where I start having issues.

When it comes to capturing a quick moment both cameras fail miserably. If the camera isn’t already on and connected to your phone then you’ll most likely miss your shot because turning it on and then connecting it to your phone is a process that can easily take over 10 seconds. By then whatever moment you were trying to capture is long gone.

My biggest issue is that fact the cameras really aren’t that compact.Between the two the QX10 fits into my pocket but it’s still thick enough to create a bulge, a similar bulge to one I would have if I had a slim full featured point and shoot camera in my pocket. Actually the Sony DSC-TX30 is even slimmer so I would have less of a bulge with that. The QX100 on the other hand won’t even fit into my jeans pocket.

Now both these cameras do have one very cool feature that no regular point and shoot can compete with. The QX series cameras don’t have to be attached to your phone to work. If you’re at a concert you can hold the camera in your hand way above your head and while checking and taking photos from your phone at your eye level like a periscope. You can also set up the camera on a table in front of you and then use the phones screen to setup your selfie. You could even setup the camera in one room while taking photos from another and the reason you can do all this because the cameras work over WiFi. This I think is the coolest thing about these two cameras.

Which brings me to a question, who would prefer these two cameras over Sony’s other cameras? I honestly don’t know, I guess it’s for people who would take advantage of the fact you don’t have to have the camera connected to your phone. Price wise, both cost nearly the same price as Amazon with the QX10 costing KD69.9 and the the QX100 KD147.9 at the Sony dealer. If I was to choose between the two I would go with the QX10, its cheaper, its smaller and it has the added benefit of a 10X optical zoom.

A reader emailed me asking me if there was a place that was showing the Super Bowl and since I don’t know of any I figured I ask my readers. Where can one watch the Super Bowl in Kuwait

The picture above was taken by @pip41 on instagram and shows how green Kubbar island is right now because of the all the rain recently. Real greenery not plastic.

A lot of you may not know this but there’s a pretty active “For Sale” section in the blogs Community. There’s always a bunch of random stuff being sold like right now there’s someone selling his Xbox One, someone else is selling their Dreamcast and there is even one person selling tea purchased from Teavana. Check it out over [Here]

Art Exhibit: Scattered, Gathered
Art Exhibit: Stages of Ascent
InfoConnect 2014
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Proud 2 be Kuwaiti 2014
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Touki Bouki
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Faces
Music: The MIXTAPE Hip Hop Event
Music: A Night In at Bayt Lothan
Shakshooka Nomadic Farmers Market
Qout Market
Xcite: All good things happen on Friday
Open House at Ali Al Salem Air Base

Update: There is supposedly an air show at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base on Saturday but I can’t find any information on this online

Update2: Just added information on the Ali Al Salem Air Base event to the list above.