2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The past few days since I’ve been in Lebanon I’ve been watching a lot of movies at the cinema. Here is a quick summary of what I thought of them:

Unknown – Not bad, you think you know whats going to happen but then you get a nice surprise. I like Liam Neeson although the past 3 movies I watched he’s played a similar styled character which is becoming as annoying as Johnny Depp.

Battle: Los Angeles – This might have been a good movie if no one spoke in it. The cheesy cliche dialogue just ruined it for me and nearly put me to sleep a few times. The movie is like Transformers but without the Autobots, just the evil Decepticons.

The Adjustment Bureau – Watch The 13th Floor or Dark City instead.

I’m currently in Lebanon so I can’t pass by but this looks like an interesting (and trippy) art exhibition to check out.

Stories of Eve is a collection of Eve and her sisters daily adventures and narratives whereby we follow the girls through their lives daily routines, squabbles and mundane pleasures.

Artist: Ghadah Alkandari
Location: Tilal Gallery
Date: March 20th to March 29th 2011
Time: 10AM to 2PM and 5:30AM to 9:30PM

For more information including a map to the gallery check this [Link]

There is an interesting article on 5 things that Donald Duck invented and Kuwait was mentioned in one of the stories:

In 1964, a freighter capsized off the coast of Kuwait. This caused a bit of a problem, as the ship’s hold had been filled with 5,000 sheep, who were now drowned and decomposing in close proximity to Kuwait’s drinking water. And really, no one wants to drink dead sheep water (well, except maybe the Scots). So Danish inventor Karl Kroyer designed a ship-raising technique that involved filling the vessel with small, buoyant balls injected through a tube. The combined buoyancy of which would float the ship to the surface. It took 27 million balls, but it worked. The Al Kuwait rose from the depths, with the furious ghosts of 5,000 dead sheep and all.

So, what does this have to do with Donald Duck? Well, Kroyer wanted to patent his idea and so he applied for it at a Dutch office but they stopped him accusing him of stealing his idea from Donald Duck. Turns out in one of the Donald Duck stories they lifted a sunken ship by pumping millions of ping pong balls into it, an idea similar to Kroyer’s. Anyway you can read the full article and check out the original comic by following this [Link]

I thought is was interesting that the first ship ever raised from the sea bed was here in the coastal waters of Kuwait.

Thanks lloyd_911

It seems a sewage pipe burst at The Avenues yesterday flooding the Veromoda and Fashion Code stores. I wasn’t there but I could imagine the area must have smelled terrible. 965Malls has pictures and videos of this incident which you can check [Here]

I posted about Digumz a few weeks back on the blog. It’s a new business started by a blogger called Qaiss which allows you to rent video games for a fixed monthly fee. Well Qaiss decided to participate at the P2BK event and has posted on his blog a very insightful behind the scenes look into his experience so far. I love his transparency and I’m looking forward for his next post once the event is completed to see if his experience changed for the better or not. [Link]

[YouTube]

As most of you probably already heard, Wataniya Airways is shutting down their operations. I know a lot of you are fans of the airline and will be sad to see it go but I’ve got an even greater attachment to it. I was a part of the team that helped launch the airline and I’ve been working on the brand ever since. The first thing we did was launch the airline with a teaser campaign followed by the revealer and the TV commercial (above). That was back in December 2008 and you can find out the story behind the commercial and check out some behind the scene shots over [Here]

[YouTube]

The following year we released the second commercial (above) which I thought turned out very cool as well. It was just a really great experience working with the brand and they truly wanted to offer the people of Kuwait the best airline experience. Their terminal kicked ass, it was a lot cooler than the main airport terminal, it was cozy, the seating area was very tastefully done, they had free wifi everywhere, it was peaceful, no long cues and just very pleasurable. Their planes were also cool and the fact I could use my phone to check email, make a call or chat with my friends on the Blackberry was also amazing.

But, all good things must come to an end I guess. To me Wataniya Airways will end up being a great Kuwaiti brand that I will always remember just like Hungry Bunny and Pizza Italia.

There is gonna be a music event at GUST this Saturday made up of a mixture of pop music, classical, rock, blues and more with all proceeds going to Operation Hope and PAWS. The tickets are for KD5 and you can contact Ms. Helen Newton on [email protected] or text her at 97320877, for more information and reservations. Tickets can be purchased ahead of the event or at the door.

Date: Saturday 19th March 2011
Time: 3PM to 5PM
Location: GUST University (West Mishref)

One of the bands playing will be the Mojolaters whom I’ve posted about before on the blog. You can check out their website [Here]

Ibrahim Al-hulail, the Kuwaiti student studying in Japan who created the two videos “Watani Habibi” and “7ad ouma bard” is doing alright and is safe. Ibrahim lives in the Southern part of Japan which has not been effected much by the earthquake and tsunami.

Someone from Al Hamra Tower sent me the picture above plus a few more showing the tower above the clouds. Looks pretty cool and reminds me of the famous Emirates Tower photo.

Here is a pdf with a few more pictures [Link]

My friend (who’s involved with Fat Burger) told me earlier today they’re opening a new branch soon in Kuwait City at Burj Jassem. I for one hated driving all the way to Mangaf Mahboula just to have a burger so the fact they’re opening next to my work place is cool. Sadly I’m still on a diet and can only have burgers once a week.

According to the description under the image above, this was the first concrete and bricks building in Kuwait and it was built by Alkurafi & Almatrook opposite the customs in Al Seif Street. I wonder if it’s still standing today. [Link]

Update: Mithos from the blog Habatq8 sent me a scan from what looks like an old Kuwait almanac. On the page there is a list of “Prominent Merchants” (see above) and topping that list is Alkurafi & Almatrook who were listed as “Grocer and a dealer in piece goods”. Here is a link to the full scan [Image]

I passed by the Gulf Road gas station to fill up when I spotted a bunch of young Kuwaiti guys and girls wearing fluorescent orange vests. One of the girls approached me and told me they were giving out this supplement pictured above called Mororiyat as part of traffic week. The supplement has a few articles on things you shouldn’t do and general driving tips. Not a bad initiative although I doubt a simple supplement would deter speeders from speeding. Plus most importantly, I didn’t find any article telling guys not to slow down in the middle of the Gulf Road to try and meet girls.

Remember the large mural (above) which I posted about awhile back? Well Cajie a reader of the blog took photos of the mural and stitched all the photos together to form one very wide image. You can check out the large image of the mural [Here]

Q8Geeks posted a video they took at the Kuwait Rally 2011. I didn’t think they would be allowed to get this close to the cars and now I am jealous I didn’t go and take pictures myself. [Link]

Not sure how serious the scooter problem was at The Avenues but they’re now banning them. Personally I would rather they focus all their effort on the no smoking policy.