2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The Formula 1 weekend in Abu Dhabi is their biggest weekend of the year so it’s just crammed with things to do including concerts. This year they brought in Jay-Z, Muse and my personal favorites Depeche Mode to come and perform over 3 nights at the huge Du Arena located behind Ferrari World. I shared most of my favorite photos already on Instagram (@mark248am) but I also shot some video which I’ve shared below.

[YouTube]

Jay-Z
The first concert I attended was Jay-Z. We were at a party on a super yacht with David Hasselhoff and Maradona watching the Formula 1 practices (the yacht was parked in Yas Marina and overlooked the track) and I really didn’t want to leave. I’m not a huge fan of Jay-Z and I’ve barely heard a handful of his songs but in the end I left the yacht party and headed to the concert. Me and a friend got there around 20 minutes late but we still managed to squeeze ourselves pretty close up front since we had access to the golden circle. Strangest thing ever, I spotted Horacio Pagani in the crowd but no one knew who he was. Only reason I was able to easily recognize him was because he was on the yacht party earlier with us.

[YouTube]

Muse
I honestly hadn’t heard any of Muse’s songs until a week before the concert. They’re not really the style of music I listen to and the only reason I went to the concert was to kill time before going to O1NE by Skybar (that’s another post). But, they did put on a good show although it was just an hour long. According to a friend who is into Muse their set should have included more songs but for some reason they ended it early.

[YouTube]

Depeche Mode
Now this was actually a concert I really wanted to go to. I’ve been a huge Depeche Mode fan ever since Smashing Pumpkins did a cover for “Never Let Me Down Again” back in 1994 (which I still think sounds better than the original). While I had arrived late for the other two concerts, with Depeche Mode me and my friend headed to the arena right after the Formula 1 race had finished so we ended up there over an hour and half early. We ended up camping in front of the stage until the concert started but the wait paid off since we ended up standing second row in front of the stage. Dave Gahan the main vocalist has to be one of the most entertaining musicians I have ever seen on stage since he spent two hours spinning in circles and grinding up against other band members. Extremely entertaining to watch and from all three concerts had the most amount of participation from the audience. Everyone knew the lyrics to all the songs by heart and it was just a blast. I’ve got one video above but two more on my YouTube account which you could watch, Never Let Me Down Again and Personal Jesus.

The website The Richest has put together a list of “10 Countries With The Highest Cost Of Food” and Kuwait is featured on that list prominently at #5. It’s the only Arab country on the list and The Richest used lettuce and eggs as an example of expensive food. I actually found that odd since even though imported products (like Coco Puffs or scallops) can be expensive, I never considered local eggs and lettuce expensive at all. Check out the top 10 list [Here]

Gia is a new small restaurant that opened up near my place in Salmiya. I passed by today for lunch and I’ll now probably be passing by there more often. I had the white fish with quinoa salad and it was both healthy and good. The fish wasn’t very exciting flavor wise but the quinoa on the other hand I was tempted to order again because it was that good. Glad there’s another healthy option available near me now. Here is a picture I took of their [Menu]

They’re open from noon onwards and they’re located in Salmiya. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

Since the weather has gotten really good DMboarding are now renting paddleboards for those interested in taking up the activity. The prices start at around KD29 for a week and includes free delivery. Not sure if they rent out for a day or weekend since their Instagram account shows only weekly and monthly rental prices. It’s more fun if you decide to rent them with friends since you could then go group paddleboarding which is a lot more fun than just you alone. For more details click [Here]

Before I arrived to Abu Dhabi I was given a bunch of activities to choose from and one of the available options was a tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Ever since I watched the video of the 3D mapped projections on the mosque two years ago I’ve been fascinated by the mosque. I hadn’t seen or heard of the mosque before that video and after watching it I thought that place looked really beautiful.

I was put up at the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi which was located practically across the street from the mosque and as I drove by on my way to the hotel I realized the place was as big as I imagined it would be. On the second day of my visit I was taken on a private tour of the mosque and I loved it. While still outside the mosque the first thing you’ll realize is that you can see the courtyard inside since the sides of the mosque are open and overlook a pool of water giving the place a very open feel. Once you walk through the main entrance the first area you get to see is the large courtyard. The sky was a nice blue and the mosque was crystal white so I was able to get some beautiful shots of the courtyard before we were led to the other end where we had to take off our shoes before being taken inside the mosque. Once inside I just couldn’t focus anymore, there was so much to see all around with one of the largest chandeliers in the world hanging above my head to the worlds largest carpet below my feet. The walls and ceilings were all intricately designed and I was just wandering around with my jaw dropped while the guide was explaining everything. It’s such a beautiful place and like nothing else I had ever seen before.

If you’re in Abu Dhabi and want a tour of the mosque they do offer public tours a number of times a day. You can find out more about that on the mosques website along with more information [Here]

Since I knew before hand I was going to visit the mosque I ended up borrowing the super wide angle Sigma 12-24mm lens from AAB World. If it wasn’t for this lens I wouldn’t have been able to capture the mosque in the way I did in the photographs above. Especially once I was inside the mosque since a normal lens wouldn’t have been able to fit so much detail and architecture all into one shot. I was planning to have a stand alone review for this lens but while I was getting all the photos ready for this post I realized sharing these photos would be the best review I could give it. It’s definitely not a day to day lens but on occasions like this I wouldn’t want to be stuck without this lens.

Since the weather is beautiful right now Cinemagic is starting their weekly rooftop movies again. 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. This month in addition some great movies they’re also hosting a Palestinian Film Festival over a period of two days. The list of all the movies and their timings are below:

Thursday November 7th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance
Shot by the visionary director behind Baraka and Samsara, Koyaanisqatsi is a haunting look at our world. It is a visual concert of images tot eh incredible score by Phillip Glass. Like Samsara and Baraka before it, the film is a plotless experimental art piece that has a definite scenario and underlying themes covering nature, movement, man, and the world we’ve built. A moving and powerful experience that will leave you speechless by the end.

Saturday November 9th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Band of Outsiders (Bande à Part)
Named one of the best 100 films of all time by both Time and Empire Magazine, and referred to as “Godard’s most delicately charming film” by renowned film critic Pauline Kael, as well as being the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s production company “A Band Apart”, Band of Outsiders follows two young men with a love for old Hollywood B-movies who meet a young woman living with wealthy benefactors, who happen to keep a pile of 10,000 francs locked in their room. Living out their dream to become the gangsters they see in the movies, the men convince her to help them commit a robbery.

Thursday November 14th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Badlands
Cinematic master Terrence Malick’s first film is a lyrical and sometimes beautiful look at disturbing events. Based on the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1958, in which a fifteen-year-old girl and her twenty-five-year-old boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands, Badlands was the film to launch the career of the multiple award winning filmmaker and is still called by many critics to be his best film.

Saturday November 16th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Encounters at the End of the World
On over 15 top ten lists of 2008, and winner of Best Documentary at multiple film festivals, veteran documentarian and madman Werner Herzog takes his camera to the McMurdo Station in Antartica, looking to capture the continent’s beauty an investigate the characters living there.

Thursday November 21st, 2013 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 is the winner of over 61 awards worldwide, carrying groundbreaking performances and the work of a visionary director on top form. Unmissable.

Saturday November 23rd, 2013 at 7:30PM
The Devil’s Backbone
From visionary filmmaker Guilermo Del Toro, who brought us the incredible Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone is a unique horror film that is both elegant and heartbreaking whilst also being creepy and nightmarish. After Carlos, a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War, arrives at an ominous boy’s orphanage he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that he must uncover.

Thursday November 28th, 2013 from 6PM to 10PM
Independent Palestinian Film Festival Day 1
Ajami
Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film Category, Ajami is a poignant portrait of Palestinian Muslims and Christians living in an impoverished district of Jaffa

Budrus
A worldwide crowd-pleaser, this documentary is a testament to the potency of peaceful resistance & the human spirit. Budrus will dispose of any preconceptions one may have of the conflict.

Saturday November 30th, 2013 from 6PM to 10PM
Independent Palestinian Film Festival Day 2
Amreeka
A strong single mother and her son leave the West Bank to search for greener pastures in America. They are naively unaware however that they have left post-Intifada Palestine only to enter another hostile territory, post-9/11 America.

Promises
Of all the countless films revolving around the Israel-Palestine conflict, none are more compelling than this Academy Award nominated documentary. The resin being that Palestinian children, who of all others are affected the most by the war, are rarely provided the luxury of expressing their thoughts and emotions in front of a world audience.

Cinemagic Kuwait, 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 roof on top of Xcite and LG and there is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

I’m currently on the way back to Kuwait from Abu Dhabi after spending an exciting and thrilling long weekend here. We were in total around 14 writers who were brought in from different parts of the world to experience Abu Dhabi during the Formula 1 weekend and I’ve got quite a bit to write about. In summary, wow that was fun.

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[YouTube]

This weekend a group of volunteers got together and fixed up the underground pedestrian tunnel that connects Jabriya to Rumaithiya. The tunnel was in disarray with graffiti everywhere and dim lights that made the tunnel creepy in the dark. Great community effort and you can heck out some photos on @rumaithiyame

A friend sent me the picture above of new average speed cameras that are being installed on the King Fahad highway. The cameras are being installed on the highway down south near the chalet areas in two spots, one near where the Fahaheel Expressway meets the King Fahad highway and the other further down near Hardees. I think that’s actually a pretty smart setup since there are currently no speed cameras on that stretch of highway and I’ve seen cars regularly over take me going over 160KM/h.

The way the average speed cameras work is when you pass the first camera it records your license plate number and then when you pass the second camera it calculates the time it took you to get there from the first one. Based on how quickly you got from one camera to another it will calculate your average speed and if it’s over the speed limit you get fined.

Thanks Musaed

It’s currently 3AM right now and I’m at the airport waiting to board a flight to Abu Dhabi. A couple of weeks back I got an email from the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority inviting me to visit Abu Dhabi for their Formula 1 weekend and enjoy all the activities they had lined up. They sent me my weekends schedule and it includes kayaking in the mangroves, sand surfing, tour of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Jay Z concert, the Muse concert, Ferrari World, Waterworld and best of all, I get to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend from the paddock club suite followed by the Depeche Mode concert! I’ve never been to Abu Dhabi so this is probably the best way to experience it. I’ll be posting pictures on my Instagram to add me if you aren’t already following me @mark248am

The Shakshooka pop-up farmers market is taking place tonight from 5 to 6:30PM, this time outside Little Ruby’s in Kuwait City. Tonight’s market will be Halloween themed and the vendors will be dressed in spooky costumes and would like it if the customers come with their children dressed up as well. There will be a best Halloween costume and the winner will get a KD10 voucher to spend at the future markets. If you don’t know where Little Ruby’s is, here it is on [Google Maps]

Note: Bring cash and a carrying bag if you will be buying stuff

Photo above by @faisalthef

Steve Wozniak who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs is going to be in Kuwait next month for a entrepreneurship seminar. If you’re interested or wanted to find out more details click [Here]

Note: On a side note, someone needs to hook me up with a backstage pass so I can take a selfie with him or maybe even have him autograph my vintage Apple banners. Pretty please.

Calling all photographers, if you’re interested in taking part in a group activity then this is for you. Star trails photography involves long exposure shots of either the sky or landscapes where the movement of the stars in the sky form light trails in your shots (similar to the shot above). Not only will you end up with some interesting shots but its also a great way to meet new people.

Here is a list of gear you need to bring:
1. A DSLR
2. A tripod
3. Bring extra batteries or at least fully charge yours
4. A high capacity memory card
5. Shutter release
6. Food
7. Flashlights
8. Mat or chair to sit on

The meet up point will be the exterior 360 Mall parking lot [Map] this Friday November 1st at 4PM. For more informations and to sign up check this [Link]

Photo above taken by Saleh AlRashaid

Local blogger Frankom shot the picture above this morning on his way to work. Not sure what kind of school would lack basic child safety regulations… [Link]