2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Last year I posted about a casting call for the first locally produced musical short film and I just got an email telling me that the project has been completed and the film will be premiering this weekend. Here is the email I got:

Attention all film lovers!

Shashati.TV, in association with Cinemagic Kuwait, are proud to present “The Shashati Show” – Kuwait’s biggest Audio-Visual variety performance!

Hosted by ShowTime’s very own comedy superstar, Wonho Chung, the evening will include the Kuwait premier of the highly anticipated, all-singing, all-dancing musical short film “Wonderful World”.

The show will also include a selection of the latest and greatest shorts from across the region, including Emirates Film Competition Winner “The Beggar and Moustafa’s Brain”, as well as Jordanian Filmmaker Fadi Haddad’s critically acclaimed film “Once upon a Piano”. The show will also feature a selection of the most recent prize-winning Kuwaiti short films presented by the filmmakers themselves.

But that’s not all! Screening for the very first time to a public audience in Kuwait will be ikbis.com’s hilarious “Doublage” comedy skits, as well as some innovative Kuwaiti audio-visual comedy clips & sketches!

Join us for a fun-filled evening full of laughs, tears, and above all films!

The event will take place at 7:30 p.m., on Thursday, June 11th at Cinemagic’s Rooftop Venue in Old Salmiya. Tickets will be available at the location for the price of 2 K.D – but advance booking is advised, as seating is limited. Send an e-mail to [email protected], or call 97996100 to reserve your ticket today!

I know this topic might sound strange but bear with me since I did find something interesting about balsamic vinegar that made it post worthy.

I became a fan of balsamic vinegar last year when I tried one that was aged 30 years at an Italian restaurant in Munich. So today while at Dean & Deluca I thought I would “splurge” 8 or 12 dinars on some decent balsamic vinegar. While checking out the bottles a salesman came over and told me about a 100 year old aged Acetaia Leonardi balsamic vinegar. I thought that was very interesting so he showed me the bottle and told me they produced only 200 of those bottles and 4 (actually 3 since one got sold already) bottles were available in Kuwait. Now I figured the bottle would be expensive but not THIS expensive. Turns out the bottle was “slightly” out of my budget costing KD190! The salesman told me they could order a bottle that was 300 years old at a cost of get this… KD2,500!

Although I wouldn’t pay KD2,500 or KD190 for balsamic vinegar (or any other consumable product (ok maybe for a burger)) I do appreciate having the choice and that’s what I like about Dean & Deluca and the over priced imported stuff at Sultan Center. I would rather have the choice and choose not to than not have the choice at all.

Here is a link to an interesting review of Acetaia Leonardi balsamic vinegars. [Link]

I just found out David Carradine passed away. He was the main actor in one of my favorite tv shows ever “Kung Fu“. [Link]

Update: Here is the intro to Kung Fu

[YouTube]

There is a rumor that’s been going around on a hack which supposedly only works with Zain sim cards which allows you to make free calls. I haven’t been able to find out what to do so I wanted to ask here if anyone knew the trick. This is what I’ve been able to gather about it online:

Frankom’s blog had a post where he said that you needed an iPhone for the trick to work. I have an iPhone but I haven’t found any information on what I need to do.

360Dewan had a link to a video (below) that looks like it was shot in Kuwait where the person in the video wraps aluminum foil around the sim card and then heats its up? That looked like total bullshit to me and no way on earth it would work if anything you would most probably damage your sim card trying that.

[YouTube]

Finally a user called HearBeat posted a link in my forum to a video (below) which looks like it could work but haven’t tried it out myself. Basically the video talks about the sim card and how every cell on the chip means something. The theory is one of the cells controls the clock so if you cover up that cell you would be able to talk for as long as you want and the telecom provider wouldn’t know how long you spoke for. HeartBeat also mentions this would only work on sim cards issued before 2002.

In any case Zain might have already fixed this bug (or they will after this post) but if anyone has any more info please post it below.

Thanks Rashed

Early last month I posted about a bear that was for sale here in Kuwait. People started calling Animal Friends who launched an extensive investigation aimed at locating the bear and helping the government to seize the animal.

The investigation discovered the bear living in a small cage in Kebd, exposed to the sun, chained by the neck, living on a diet of rice, and only offered water twice per day. After reviewing the evidence presented by K’S PATH, the MOI Police force, along with representatives from the Kuwait Environment Protection Agency and the Kuwait Zoo began the process of confiscating the bear and several other illegal animals being housed at the same location. The bear is now being housed in the Kuwait Zoo, and K’S PATH is attempting to find a suitable sanctuary in the natural range of the Eurasian Brown Bear. [Source]

I think that’s really great news and the group effort that went into this rescue was amazing. Thanks a lot to the MOI Police force, Kuwait Environment Protection Agency, Kuwait Zoo and of course Animal Friends. Animal Friends are a non-profit organization that run on donations so please help them out by clicking [Here]

The Reuters news video above is of an event that took place a few days ago here in Kuwait. Three world records were broken: worlds largest bucket of fried chicken, worlds largest box of donuts in and longest line of burgers in the world. [YouTube]

I just tried the Pepsi RAW and it didn’t taste that bad although I wouldn’t have it again. Pepsi RAW is like regular Pepsi except its made with all natural ingredients and free from artificial flavoring, colorings, preservatives and sweeteners. I found it at Sultan Center for 490fils and it tastes much better than RedBull Cola.

Found this at Sultan Center, its a copy of the Nintendo Wii called except its called swii. It costs around KD9 ($30) and comes with a wireless controller which looks like the wii controller except with a plastic tennis racket at the end. I think the device also plays only one game which is a tennis game with Super Nintendo like graphics. They had a working model on display so I tried the tennis game and it pretty much sucked as you can imagine.

For some reason I’ve had this opening theme song stuck in my head all day. [YouTube]

Update: Fixed the title

Update2: Here is the Salamatak song [YouTube]

Ever since I saw the Lacie iamakey USB flash drive on Engadget I knew I had to have it so once they were available on Amazon I ordered the 4GB version. I just got the USB key awhile ago from Aramex and its as good as I expected it to be. The advantage of having the flash drive shaped like a key is obvious, I will carry it around with my keys. Its not bulky so it doesn’t bulge in my pocket and there is very little chance it will break off from my key chain like my previous drive did. Price wise the 4GB costs around KD7.5 while the 8GB costs around KD12.5.

LaCie 4 GB iamakey USB Flash Drive
LaCie 8 GB iamakey USB Flash Drive

Yourlogomakesmebarf.com is a website that collects crappy logos. The one above is currently my favorite. [Link]

Was picking up a computer from Carrefour when I spotted this cheap laptop which seemed like a steal. The specs are: Intel Celeron 2.2Ghz, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 14″ screen, wifi, webcam and a DVD writer. The laptop comes with no operating system and they’re selling it for KD129.500.

I don’t post politics but this is too funny not to. Is Majlis Dissolved? is website to keep track of the government. [Link]

The American University of Kuwait will be holding a Graphic Design showcase on June 9th from 7pm to 9pm and on June 10th from 10am to 4pm.

Someone mixed Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” music to the video above and I think it worked out pretty good, maybe better than the dancing prisoners. [YouTube]