2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Extremely funny commercial for TomTom navigation devices. It’s for their new Star Wars navigation voices product. [YouTube]

I got an email from a tipster (which was confirmed by another source of mine) telling me that Alshaya have acquired two new food chains to bring into Kuwait. The first chain is called Potbelly Sandwich Works which sells submarine sandwiches similar in style to Subway except supposedly better. The second chain is called Texas Roadhouse which specializes in steaks and has a western theme. I hadn’t heard of these two places until a few moments ago but I guess most of you will be glad the two chains are not burger joints. On the other hand I am still trying to find out some kind of information regarding the status of Shake Shack.

I was also told by another source that Pinkberry will not be opening in the Casamaroc location at Avenues like I had previously mentioned since the owner has refused to sell the place. But, they will still be opening a second branch of Pinkberry in that area.

One of my favorite shows before getting canceled was the HBO series Lucky Louie. It was an extremely funny adult targeted comedy that was dirty, vulgar, and just extremely hilarious. I loved it. Sadly the show got canceled for some odd reason but Louie is now back on a different network called FX with his own show again. This time the show is just called Louie and it’s even funnier than Lucky Louie. There are a lot of comedian guest stars on the show including in one episode Ricky Gervais who plays his doctor friend. He’s even got Seinfeld style stand up at the start of the show plus at different points through out the episodes. It’s very cool and it’s now one of my favorite shows easily. You can get a glimpse of the style of Louie by watching the Ricky Gervais scene in HD on YouTube by clicking [Here]

The trendy shop number 4 which is located in the Shuwaikh industrial area recently launched an online shop (I think it’s recent at least) and it’s not too bad. The site is simple and fast and they have a sale now. I just wish they had a larger Lifestyle section with more stuff. Currently they just have the Wallpaper* City Guides. Here is the [Link]

via mashmoom

Cinescape uploaded pictures of old movie theaters here in Kuwait to their Facebook group with the oldest theater dating back to 1954. I hope they upload pictures of Cinema Salmiya and the drive through cinema as well. [Link]

Thanks Mohammed

Spotted this at the airport.

Update: For people who don’t get it, it’s supposed to be spelt as wrap which is pronounced as rap because the w is silent. They spelled it wrape which is pronounced as rape.

I heard about this reality show this morning on BBC and thought it was extremely creative. Young Imam is a popular reality TV show in Malaysia where the winner of the show wins a car, a scholarship to study in Saudi Arabia, some cash, a pilgrimage to Mecca and gets to be an Imam of a mosque. It’s such a smart idea and it seems to be working really well in attracting younger people back into religion. I found a good article about the show on the Wall Street Journal which is where I got the video above from. You can check out the article by clicking [Here]

Some funny and random pictures of people with their pets. I thought the one above was very cool but mostly because of the guy since he reminded me of Will Ferrel. [Link]

Cute hamster by Cadbury. [YouTube]

I found out Gucci recently closed down their store at Villa Moda. What I heard is that Gucci is now back with Sheikh Majed who is relaunching them at 360 Mall. Sheikh Majed founded Villa Moda back in 1992 which became so successful that it was taken over by Dubai around 2 years ago. Sheikh Majed was then outed from Villa Moda or he left not sure but in any case it seems he’s now taken hold of the Gucci brand.

I also heard Prada will be leaving Villa Moda and heading with Chalhoub Group who currently have Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton and Nina Ricci.

I’ve already posted about the Zinio magazine app on the iPad before (pictured above) and about how great it is and if there was only one app I could have on the iPad that would be it. Sadly though, not all my favorite magazines are available to subscribe to on Zinio… or at least not available yet. So what’s the solution?

You’re going to have to download magazines illegally.

Magazine subscriptions are cheap with the majority costing around $10 a year and I’ve already subscribed to over a dozen but the ones that aren’t available in Zinio I just download pirated copies of the magazines for free.

To do that you need two things, a PDF reader on the iPad and links to sites that post those magazines for you to download.

PDF Reader
I use GoodReader (pictured above) on the iPad to read my PDF magazines. The reason I went with GoodReader over other PDF readers is because it’s cheap, it handles large files extremely well and also because it has a ton of features. Some of the cool features are the ability to upload files into GoodReader directly from your web browser on the computer over wifi, the ability to drag and drop files into GoodReader from iTunes and the ability to download files from the Internet directly into GoodReader via an internal browser. Not only that but you could take a bunch of files, zip them up, upload them into GoodReader and then unzip them within the app. The only downside to GoodReader is the extremely ugly app icon.

Magazine Sites
There a ton of sites but the ones I use the most are the following: World Mags, Get Magazine and Magazines Download. Now just an FYI before you click the links, those sites also have PDF’s of certain magazines that are banned in Kuwait so close your eyes when you see them.

That’s all there is to it. Most of the magazines available in Zinio are also available at those sites as well but, since subscription fees are very cheap on Zinio I would highly recommend you subscribe to them instead.

I just found out Pinkberry will be opening two new locations. They’re opening a second smaller location in Avenues in place were CasaMaroc is, near Pottery Barn Kids. This should help reduce the long lines at their main location opposite Dean & Deluca. The second location is going to make Nat happy since it’s near our house. They’re opening a new location in Marina Mall, in place of the recently closed down Waterlemon branch. That should turn out to be a pretty big location.

Personally, I’m still waiting till they introduce biscuit cones.

Ok so he got the Uruguay vs Germany game wrong but even psychic goats make mistakes (blame it on the humidity). For the final game he’s predicting Spain will win over Netherlands. [YouTube]

I was recommended by a couple of readers to try out the burger at the English Tea Lounge at Avenues phase II. It’s an ostrich burger and supposedly very good so I passed by today for lunch around 3pm to try it out. The place was empty with not a single person there so we had our pick of where to sit. We got the menu and I quickly flipped to the page with the burger on it. My sister was going to have a salad but Nat just wanted to drink tea.

Then Nat noticed the fine print at the bottom of every page which said that the minimum order per person had to be KD6. I told her that’s probably when its packed but not when it’s empty. I called the waitress over and asked her if this KD6 minimum charge was enforced? She said yes. I was like wait, so if me and my sister want to order lunch but Nat just tea we can’t do that? She said no it’s minimum KD6 per person. WTF? The place was empty with no one there!? It’s a TEA lounge! I told her fine and got up and left.

What a very disappointing experience. Didn’t even know restaurants with minimum charges still existed in Kuwait yet alone having it enforced in an empty place.

Our local psychic goat here in Kuwait has predicted Uruguay to win over Germany at the World Cup. [YouTube]