2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

K’S PATH were called in to a school in Salmiya yesterday to capture two baboons that were on the loose. The two baboons had climbed into the school from the streets forcing the children to stay inside until they were caught.

That’s just so random…

Rift is a short film produced by a GUST student and his friends (Good Mango Productions). The short film (less than 3 minutes long) is about a young man who witnesses a murder. It’s not the first time I’ve posted their work but this is their best one yet. [YouTube]

This happened a couple of hours ago, a car crashed into a bakery at Al-Rumaithiya Coop. Check out the video below. Both photo and video are from @alihassan80

I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up getting beaten up. You can’t pull off crap like this and get away with it. [YouTube]

Thanks Diego

Update: Early this morning the guy uploaded the video below revealing the victims of his pranks were actually his friends. I fell for it I got to give him that. Not a bad job at all, can’t wait to see what else he has coming up.

[YouTube]

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. A couple of the movies from this month were supposed to show last month but got canceled so they’re showing again this month. Check out all the movies and their timings below:

Thursday, January 9th 2014 at 7:30PM
REPO MAN
Considered one of the more unique Science Fiction films, and a standout essential film of the 80’s, as well as being ranked #7 on the top 50 cult films of all time, Repo Man follows a Punk Rocker who after getting fired from his job as a clerk, becomes a repo man and is jolted into a new lifestyle that he quickly begins to enjoy. All that is flipped on its head when he meets a girl who tells him of a 64 Malibu that contains four dead aliens and that there’s $20,000 for the man that can repossess it.

Saturday, January 11th 2014 at 7:30PM
CACHE
Winner of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, Cache comes from the mind of visionary filmmaker Michael Hanneke (whose Amour won him universal acclaim at the 2012 Academy Awards). This film, starring Juliet Binoche follows a married couple who are terrorized by a series of surveillance videotapes left on their front porch.

Thursday, January 16th 2014 at 7:30PM
SURPRISE FILM 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, January 18th 2014 at 7:30PM
PIETA
Winner of the Golden Lion (Best Film) at the Venice Film Festival, Kang-do is a heartless man who has no living family members and whose job is to threaten debtors to repay his clients, the loan sharks who demand a 10x return on a one month loan. To recover the interest, the debtors would sign an insurance for handicap, and Kang-do would injure the debtors brutally to file the claim. One day he receives a visit from a strange, middle-aged woman claiming she is his long-lost mother. Over the following weeks, the woman stubbornly follows him and he continues to do his job. But he is slowly moved and changed by the motherly love expressed from this woman.

Thursday, January 23rd 2014 at 7:30PM
TALK TO HER
Winner of over 27 awards worldwide, mostly for Best Film or Best Foreign Film, Talk to her is considered by many fans of the legendary Pedro Almodovar to be his best film. Two men meet by chance at a private clinic, each looking after a woman in a coma. Marco’s girlfriend Lydia was a bullfighter who was mauled, and Benigno looks after a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters flow in all directions, past, present, and future, taking them to an unsuspected destiny.

Saturday, January 25th 2014 at 7:30PM
OFFSIDE
Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, and carrying a 97% score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Offside follows a group of girls who try to sneak into a football stadium to watch a World Cup qualifying match. Female fans are not allowed to enter football stadiums in Iran on the grounds that there will be a high risk of violence or verbal abuse against them. The film was shot in Iran during a real live match, but its screening was banned there.

Thursday, January 30th 2014 at 7:30PM
TOUKI BOUKI (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 Touki Bouki. With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a vivid, fractured portrait of Senegal in the early 1970s. With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a vivid, fractured portrait of Senegal in the early 1970s. In this French New Wave–influenced fantasy-drama, two young lovers long to leave Dakar for the glamour and comforts of France, but their escape plan is beset by complications both concrete and mystical. Characterized by dazzling imagery and music, the alternately manic and meditative Touki bouki is widely considered one of the most important African films ever made.

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]

[YouTube]

GulfRun 9 is coming up later this month and the team behind it decided to release the teaser video above. GulfRun is an annual motorsport event that started back in 2005 as a weekend getaway for a group of friends passionate about automobile racing and since then has been taking place on a yearly basis. GulfRun is currently the longest running event at the Bahrain International Circuit. For more information on GulfRun visit their website [Here]

Starting today, the blogs forum is now called “Community”. With this name change comes a host of other changes all with the aim to make the community more user friendly as well as more pleasing to the eye.

You can access the community by clicking the link in the navigation strip up on top or by typing community.mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com in your browser.

There are still more changes and additions coming to the blog which I’ll be rolling out one by one in the coming weeks.

Just found out from Frankom that you can now book your driving test online via the MOI website. It’s great how the government is moving more stuff online but not sure why they’re still sticking with the 90s style geocities website look. [Link]

Just a quick notice to the forum users. I just disabled the forum since I will be downloading the database and shifting it to the new upgraded forum. The forum should be down for 24 hours or less. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Qout Market is an outdoor market that takes place on the first Saturday of every month until April. The next market will be tomorrow (January 4th) and feature stands selling crafts, street food, fresh flowers, jarred items, artisanal products, baked goods, local produce and much more. It’s located on the rooftop of Arraya parking lot and open from 10AM to 7PM. [Map]

Keep your eye out for Pasticceria Di Pietro’s cannoli stand since they will be there as well. For more information on Qout Market here is a link to their [Facebook Page]

The decision to change the speed limits on the highways has now been reversed after an outcry from the public and politicians. The speed cuts were met with a lot of opposition with the main issues being the fact you can’t reduce speed limits overnight without informing the public and secondly speed cuts won’t reduce traffic or accidents. [Source]

The Ministry of Interior has revised the speed limit on various roads and they’ve already started replacing some of the streets signs to reflect the new limits. Here are the current speed limits, keep in mind not all of them have been changed:

Speed limit on expressways and outer roads that link expressways and main roads with the country’s borders are as follows:
– Maximum speed for cars: 120 km/h
– Minimum speed for cars: 80 km/h

Speed limit on expressways between 6th Ring Road and 2nd Ring Road:
– Maximum speed for cars: 100 km/h
– Minimum speed for cars: 50 km/h

Speed limit on expressways between 2nd Ring Road and 1st Ring Road:
– Maximum speed for cars: 80 km/h
– Minimum speed for cars: 40 km/h

Speed limit on 5th Ring Road starting from King Abdulaziz Al-Saud road in the east to Andalus crossroad with Ardiya in the west:
– Maximum speed for cars: 100 km/h
– Minimum speed for cars: 50 km/h

Speed limit on 1st Ring Road:
– Maximum speed for cars: 100 km/h
– Minimum speed for cars: 50 km/h

Speed limit for 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ring Roads:
– Maximum speed for cars: 80 km/h
– Minimum speed for cars: 45 km/h

Speed limit on main roads in inside areas:
– Maximum speed for cars: 60 km/h

Speed limit inside residential areas:
– Maximum speed for cars: 45 km/h

For more information on this click [Here]

Update: This is no longer happening. Check [Here]

Shakshooka market is taking place today (Thursday) in Baider, exit 267 from 3PM to 5PM. If you’re at the chalet area or farms then pass by but don’t forget to bring cash and a carrying bag if you will be buying stuff.

Photo above by @faisalthef

In less than 3 weeks time, the Kuwait national American football team will be playing a friendly game against Switzerland. Not many people are aware of the fact that Kuwait has an American football team but we do, two teams in fact, the under 19s and over 19s (seniors).

I passed by one of their practice sessions last week and was pretty impressed with what I saw. The teams hold their practices at the Kuwait University Stadium in Shuwaikh and when I got there I got to watch different groups take part in various exercises. The teams practice Sunday to Wednesday from 7PM to 10PM and Saturdays from 1PM to 3PM so they’re very dedicated and really want to make this work.

Although the game this month against Switzerland is a friendly, it’s still an important game because the next one after that is in April against South Korea which will be for the World Cup Qualifications. So if you’re an American Football fan or if you’re looking for something to do, this January 18th pass by and cheer for the Kuwaiti team. For more details on the timing and location, check out this [Link]

According to the Arab Times, any expat arrested tonight for drinking alcohol or being drunk will be immediately deported. So be cautious and have your wasta on speed dial.

On a more serious note though, don’t drink and drive tonight. Here are some cab number in case you need them:

London Limo – 60005466
Kuds Taxi – 22413414
Salwa Taxi – 25658203
Al-Rissalah Taxi – 25730398
Al-Areej Taxi – 1808022
More numbers [Here]

Happy New Year.