2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

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Update: Photo by Daniel Cheong

Kilshay is a local app that collects flyers and catalogs from different companies on a daily basis. It then groups them all up under different categories and allows you to access them from your iPhone or iPad. I’ve had it for a week now and I think it’s pretty fast and quick to use with the only downside being some of the small text in the catalogs are pixelated. Other than that this app is much more practical than collecting all the flyers that get left outside your apartments door. The app is free and you can download it from the App Store. Here’s also a link to their [Website]

According to a friend of mine a fire started in Chili’s in Avenues Phase 1 resulting in the closure of the cinema and the Xcite store. I don’t have any more details or photos yet but will update this post when I do.

Update: According to another contact, it wasn’t a fire. One of the AC compressors for Chili’s broke down causing smoke which ended up reaching Xcite and the movie theaters.

Update2: Below is a video shot by @faiha_city

Kuwaiti rapper Big D just released a new music video called “No More Sorrow”. It was recorded in Kuwait, shot in South Africa and edited in the UK. [YouTube]

“Hollywood & Vines” is the first film directed via Twitter and shot entirely on Vine. For four days, people around the world worked with the director to share in the creation of a single story about travel, adventure and finding your place in the world. This is the result of that global experiment, featuring 100 Viners from everywhere from Kansas to Kuwait.

Kuwait was represented by the super talented Pinot. [Vimeo]

Fajer the lawyer signed up to the gym in Al Hamra Tower and she’s been going running there in the mornings.

The running track is located on top of the mall and when she showed me photos I was kinda jealous it’s only for women. The photos actually make Kuwait look like Dubai (in a good way).

According to Desert Girl, they’re going to be replacing all the real grass on the Gulf Road with fake ones. I mean I wouldn’t mind fake grass in Salmiya since it’s better than the sandy pit they have there right now (Check picture below) but I was always fond of the Gulf Road greenery. Check out her post for a bit more info [Here]

Sahel – الساحل from Moayad Hassan on Vimeo.

Shot during the first hours of the morning by the beach at Mangaf and Fahaheel in Kuwait. It shows the lives of the few all-nighters and early-morningers and what they are up to, which is interestingly varied as can bee seen.

Video shot by Moayad Hassan and you can check out more of his stuff [Here]

According to the second World Happiness Report launched by the United Nations, Kuwait came 32nd in the world behind our GCC neighbors UAE (14), Oman (23) and Qatar (27). Kuwait actually dropped a spot compared to last year but on the bright side at least we came ahead of Saudi Arabia (33) this time around. Bahrain was the least happiest between the GCC countries coming in at 79 while Lebanon came in 97th, India in 111th and Egypt in 130th.

You can download the full report from [Here]

Sports Direct, UK’s largest and #1 number one sports retailer is opening right across the street from Avenues. Looks like it’s going to be huge.

Update: Sports Direct also have a branch in Hawali – Tunis street and they had their grand opening yesterday. They’re owned by Al Homaizi Group, the same people who also own GoSport.

Elysium was one of the movies I was looking forward to watching this summer and it turned out to be a disappointment. Not sure how it scored a 7/10 on IMDB, maybe I just don’t like Matt Damon. The trailer made the movie look really interesting and the story line of two different worlds where people live, a space station for the rich while regular folks lived on a decaying planet earth sounded epic but we just didn’t get to see enough of these two worlds in my opinion.

With movies like this I like to see and explore the worlds, I know a lot of people didn’t like Waterworld, The Postman or even the recent Oblivion but what I liked about those movies was they felt epic because of the amount of exploration we as viewers got to experience. I would have loved to have seen more of the space station in Elysium, how it worked, where they got their food from, maybe a history of how it was built etc.. and same with earth, it’s dying and it’s over populated, what are they doing about water, food, are there still any animals, did we over fish, did we poison all the waters? etc… It’s these kind of questions that I wanted answers to and I never got.

It’s a fast paced movie so you won’t get bored watching it, just don’t expect it to be very deep.

The chart above was put together by Saudi journalist Ahmed Al Omran showing the percentage of foreign workers in different GCC countries. Kuwait falls in 3rd place after UAE and Qatar and that’s really not bad. If anything Kuwait should open up more to expats since based on the chart above you can see that the countries with the highest amount of expats are the most developed while the countries with the least are further behind. [source]

I previously posted that Linda who hosts the morning show on 99.7 had left Kuwait permanently but I got word from a friend who works at 99.7 that Linda will be coming back soon. Not sure if this is good or bad news for people who listen to the morning show, I know no one liked her when she was on but I also know that people prefer her over the new replacements. For now I’m filing this under gossip & rumors.

I just wanted to post a quick update on the cleanup I asked help on last week. First thanks a lot to everyone who emailed me volunteering to help. Based on an idea from one of my readers I contacted a cleaning company last week who volunteered their services and I will be passing by with them to cleanup the store. My biggest concern is finding the store open since the old man doesn’t have fixed working hours and I’ve previously tried passing by only to find the store closed for no reason. My second concern is not stressing him out with the cleanup which is why I want to keep the cleanup crew very small. I’ll keep everyone posted on this and post again once we get the job done.

Ever since Vincent Chase got a silver Quattroporte on the TV series Entourage I’ve been obsessed with the car which is why when the Maserati dealership asked me if I was interested in reviewing the new Quattroporte I was like duck yes!

The review car I picked up was silver just like the one on the show except I had the all new sixth-generation Quattroporte (2013 model). The new Quattroporte looks different on both the outside and inside in addition to having a more powerful engine. The car I picked up was the top of the line model with a V8 530hp engine so I was pretty thrilled once I hit the highway.

I’ve driven a lot of fast cars but I’ve never driven one so quiet. The car is scary quiet and I use the word scary here because you could be driving insanely fast without even realizing. I’m not going to mention what speed I found myself at when I casually looked down at the speedometer while driving on an empty stretch, but lets just say after that incident I turned on the cars speed warning to alert me once I hit 120km/h.

It’s such a smooth and quiet ride that it’s easy to forget you’re really driving a sports car. The interior is super pimped out (tastefully of course) with leather everywhere including all over the dashboard and real suede covering the roof. The car I drove had the optional 15-speaker, 1280-watt Bowers & Wilkins sound system which I could stream my music to over bluetooth. The car has a large touch screen interface with navigation, climate control, music and the car settings all easily accessible. There are loads of compartments to store your stuff in with the two most useful located around the gear shift. In the rear you also have your own set of controls in case you’re being driven around with a driver but still want to be able to control various aspects of comfort.

The car looks fast and slick from the outside even though it’s a 4-door. The rear is probably my least favorite part of the car since I preferred the triangular shaped lights of the previous generation which looked more distinct. I took the car to my favorite spot to take photos but when I pulled out my camera it turned out I had left my memory stick at home. It was the second day with the car and I don’t think I could have kept it for another day so I ended up taking all my photos with my iPhone.

I thought I looked pretty ballin’ driving around in the Quattroporte with the music blasting high and my friends with me in the car. It’s not just an old persons car which is why it was most likely it was chosen as Vincent’s car on Entourage. Price-wise, the V8 version I drove starts at around KD39,000 with the V6 version costing a bit less. If you’re interested in test driving the car yourself you can pass by the Maserati dealer in Al-Rai (Al-Zayani) and check it out there.

Here is a link to the Quattroporte on the Maserati website [Link]