2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
Rawan Alsaffar, a Landscape Architect published a paper recently that had an interesting story which I hadn’t come across before, the first flood from back in 1934. The flood caused a lot of physical and political damage which was felt for years to come and although tt’s a bit of a long read, the paper does cover more than just the flood. Here is the link.
A scan of a postcard from 1972 showing the beautiful Commercial Bank of Kuwait building from back then. For more old postcards, click here.
I was just made to take down the post on Al Shaheed Park Phase 3. I do have a strict policy of not removing posts but didn’t have a choice in this matter, sorry about that.
While writing this post up I realized I haven’t really watched a lot of TV this week, not unless you count TikTok as TV. Other than catching up on shows like Foundation and Physical the only new show I watched this week was Yellowstone. Binge watching it and I’m liking it so far. I kinda was hoping it would be background TV but it does need a bit of focusing.
What have you been watching?
Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:
New This Weekend:
Puppy Love (6.3)
Retribution (5.5)
The Hero of Centopia (6.2)
The Dive (5.6)
The Equalizer 3 (6.9)
Other Movies Showing:
Blue Beetle (6.8)
Cats Museum (4.4)
Elemental (6.8)
Gran Turismo (7.0)
Haunting of the Queen Mary (4.9)
Meg 2: The Trench (6.0)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (8.2)
Oppenheimer (8.7)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Adventures of Jurassic Pet (3.7)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (6.5)
The Secret Kingdom (5.0)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.4)
The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Bringing Up Baby (7.8)
Space Jam (6.5)
The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.
The building that used to house Elevation Burger and M’EAT on the Seef Strip just got demolished. No idea why, or whats going to take its place but I really like that strip and the area in general so its pretty disappointing it was demolished.
But, as I was discussing with someone on twitter, since the Ice Skating Rink and Entertainment City got demolished I no longer care as much about landmarks getting demolished. It’s become so normalized I’m just like that sucks 🤷🏼♂️ and a minute later I’m back to flipping through TikTok aimlessly.
I used to joke with a friend about that location being jinxed since everything that opened there always fails. But, Elevation had some great days there especially when they had their events.
Since Kuwait Airways upgraded their planes and moved to T4, I’ve stopped flying other airlines and I guess so did a lot of other people because starting October 29th, KLM are dropping their Amsterdam to Kuwait route because it’s no longer profitable.
I used to use KLM to fly to Amsterdam but wasn’t a big fan since it was an overnight flight which meant I needed to sleep on the plane but I remember they used to be one of the cheapest options available especially when heading to the US.
The last flight to Kuwait leaves Amsterdam on October 28th, after that your only way to fly to Amsterdam directly is with Kuwait Airways. Source
The Ministry of Interior announced yesterday that starting September 1st, traffic fines will be issued digitally. This applies to fines given by the cops, for example if you park illegally. Instead of writing the ticket on a piece of paper and then having someone manually enter it into the system, the cops will now be able to issue the ticket digitally and you should get the fine instantaneously.
Problem is, to pay the fines you have to use the Sahel app which as of now is only in Arabic. I can read Arabic (slowly) and it took me some time yesterday to find the section for checking and paying fines so no idea how non-Arabic speakers are going to manage. I guess through a friend.
I spent the last week in Paris and I know this sounds cliche, but it’s one of my favorite cities. There is a lot to see and do and its always changing so it never gets old. Here is a quick guide of some of my favorite spots:
Eat
For the best croissant without waiting an hour in line, head to the 2018 winner, La Maison d’Isabelle. If you want a quick and easy bite, Dumbo for smashed burgers or JANET by Homer for the best pastrami sandwich and hotdog ever. If you’re in République, MR. T has a great lunch menu while Candelaria is a taco place with a hidden speakeasy in the back. Mokonuts is my favorite restaurant in Paris run by a husband and wife. Kodawari Ramen is a great ramen spot that looks like a Japanese fish market with fake props and sounds. Cheval d’Or for Chinese food with a twist and finally, Glace Bachir for ice cream.
Drink
Araku, Noir and Partisan for proper coffee. Keep (Café Kitsuné as backup in case you aren’t close to the other three options.
See
For art, Fondation Cartier, Fondation Louis Vuitton and Palais de Tokyo. Sandqvist is my favorite backpack brand and they have a large store in Paris. Do Shinzo for sneakers, Yvon Lambert for art & design books and Deyrolle for the coolest taxidermies. Visit WHITEbIRD and Mad Lords for jewelry and Modes and Tom Greyhound for fashion. Finally, don’t leave Paris without using a vintage Fotoautomat booth.
Sleep
I love staying at The Hoxton in Paris. If you have a car there is a multistory parking lot across the street while the Metro station is just a 2 minute walk. The area isn’t busy with tourists and the hotel is also always poppin since the restaurants and bar are popular.
A while back I came across a very cool photo of the late Amir Sheikh Sabah taken on a boat sometime back in the 80s. What caught my attention was the camera he was holding in his hands. Sheikh Sabah was known to love simplicity and steered away from extravagance so I was very curious to know what kind of camera he was using at that time. I asked a friend of mine (@diam89) whose also camera obsessed to help me find the camera and after a bit of investigating she did!
Turns out the camera in his hand was a Canon AF35ML compact point-and-shoot. A pretty simple but very capable camera that was released in 1981 and cost around 100KD back then. It had a very bright fixed 40mm f/1.9 lens and the camera was completely automatic making it very easy to use.
I ended up finding a very clean one on eBay for around 35KD and bought it so I could use it. I’m now currently shooting some black and white film with the camera with plans to develop it at @vo.thedarkroom once I’m done.
If you’re looking to get into film photography and are looking for a camera to get, this is a good option with a nice little story behind it. You can find a bunch on eBay with starting prices of around 15KD.
Yesterday the Associated Press uploaded the short video above of a group of Kuwaiti divers who are on a mission to clean up Kuwait’s seabed and improve its marine environment. According to Walid Al-Fadhel who is the team’s leader, they were able to salvage 172 boats and yachts.
The video was only uploaded in 360p resolution for some reason so it’s not great quality, but it’s good enough to tell their story.
This beautiful chalet is located in Al Khiran and was designed by the architecture firm TAEP/AAP. It’s been completed for awhile now but this weekend it popped up on my news feed and I just loved the design and all the various cozy-looking interior nooks.
The design of the house was inspired by the importance of shade in our desert climate so an oversized roof was designed over two internal units to provide protection from the sun and wind. The roof is also perforated so it could bring daylight into the interior spaces as well as offer views of the sky.
Another cool feature I liked is how open the house is while still being very private. A lot of homes usually have windows facing the main road and neighbors but then stay closed the whole time. The tent house was designed from the get-go to maintain privacy from the main road and neighbors while maximizing openness and transparency to the private beach and garden terraces.
If you want to see more of this house and other cool looking ones designed by the same firm, check out their website.
So last week I asked for recommendations of shows to watch on my 6 hour flight to Paris. I ended up watching two things, Cocaine Bear and binge watching Poker Face. Cocaine Bear was one of the best movies I’ve watched in a long time, it was hilarious, really silly, had lots of famous actors and was a lot of fun to watch. It’s extremely underrated! Highly recommended.
Poker Face is a Peacock original show and I started watching the first episode just to see if I liked it or not and surprisingly it was great. Not sure how many episodes I ended up watching back to back, maybe 4 before I finally arrived to Paris. I’m heading back to Kuwait today and I’m hoping to continue binge watching it on the way back.
Now Barbie. I watched it a few days ago here in Paris, obviously the uncensored version although now that I watched it I have no clue what was censored and why it was banned to begin with. I focused so hard throughout the film trying to figure out what was so controversial and I have no idea honestly, like zero clue. There wasn’t even a kiss in the whole movie, no gay characters or lesbians, there was nothing! Maybe one scene with a rainbow in the sky in the background but no flags, trans or even bad language. WHY WAS THIS BANNED? I am so confused!
Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:
New This Weekend:
Blue Beetle (6.8)
Haunting of the Queen Mary (4.9)
I’ll Be Watching (3.9)
Retribution (5.7)
Other Movies Showing:
Cats Museum (4.4)
Elemental (6.8)
Gran Turismo (7.0)
Haunted Mansion (6.3)
Meg 2: The Trench (6.0)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (8.2)
Oppenheimer (8.7)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Adventures of Jurassic Pet (3.7)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (6.5)
The Secret Kingdom (5.0)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.4)
The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Inside Man (6.6)
Flubber (5.3)
Training Day (7.7)
The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.
If you’ve ever been to the Kuwait Towers you probably noticed the dirty windows and wondered why they weren’t being cleaned. Well turns out they were being cleaned but the glass itself had discolored and oxidized over the years making them look dirtier than they actually were.
The Kuwait Towers are located right by the sea so they’re exposed to the salty sea air that has corrosive effects on a variety of the materials used in the towers including concrete, metal and glass. Back in June I posted about how the blue discs covering the towers were getting restored, well last week I found out that the glass is now also getting restored.
A company called RITEC was contracted for the restoration which involves a 5 stage process. The first stages relate to the actual restoration of the glass where various chemicals and abrasives are used to remove the oxidation from the glass. Once the oxidation is removed, the glass is polished and revived to its original state making it look brand new. The final stages involve protecting the glass with a nonstick clear shield that not only will prevent the salt from adhering to the glass again, but also dust. In fact, the windows will require 70% less cleaning and will no longer need any soap or chemicals to get cleaned, just water.
This restoration process is currently ongoing as of this post and they’ve already nearly completed restoring the glass at the observation deck and are in process of restoring the glass around the restaurants.
The next time you visit the towers you should see a night and day difference. You’ll finally be able to see out of the windows clearly as well as take nicer shots of the city skyline.
Amorino, the popular French gelato chain is set to open in Kuwait this coming weekend at The Avenues. Thursday and Friday will be by invitation only, but on Saturday it will be open to everyone.
I’m actually excited about this since I like their ice cream a lot. They’re located in Phase III of The Avenues, in the back next to the escalators and where the English Tea Lounge used to be.
Their instagram account is also now live and they’ve started a countdown for their opening @amorinokuwait
I was planning to rent Wes Anderson’s most recent movie Asteroid City but then it got released on Peacock for free so didn’t have to pay for it. Thank god for that because it was such a boring film, it had to be the worst Wes Anderson film I’ve ever watched. Would not recommend. I also randomly ended up watching the chick flick Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret a few days ago and that was so much more entertaining than Asteroid City.
Other than those two movies I’m still binge watching Schitt’s Creek. I’m traveling tomorrow to Paris and since its a nearly 6 hour flight I’ve been downloading shows to watch on the plane. So far I’ve got the following shows I haven’t watched lined up:
Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
Poker Face
Twisted Metal
Yellowstone
I still need to add more shows so if you have anything thats good and doesn’t start slow please let me know. I’ve run out of stuff to watch.
Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:
New This Weekend:
Shrapnel (6.7)
Sound of Freedom (7.8)
The Adventures of Jurassic Pet (3.7)
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (6.5)
Other Movies Showing:
Cats Museum (4.4)
Elemental (6.8)
Gran Turismo (7.0)
Haunted Mansion (6.3)
Hidden Strike (5.8)
Meg 2: The Trench (6.0)
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (8.2)
Oppenheimer (8.7)
Run Rabbit Run (5.0)
The Secret Kingdom (5.0)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.4)
Til Death Do Us Part (5.8)
The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Inside Man (6.6)
Flubber (5.3)
Training Day (7.7)
The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.