2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I really hate how trees are not given enough importance in Kuwait. Everywhere else in the world the planting and growing of trees is encouraged but here in Kuwait we cut them down, dig them out or landscape the hell out of them until they look “cute”. Yesterday a friend of mine living in Salwa told me about how the authorities came into Salwa and started destroying trees planted on government property. I thought that was very sad until I saw some pictures a forum user posted and now I’m furious!

I’ve seen the same thing happen near my place in Salmiya. There was a parking lot that had planted trees on the pavement around the lot and the authorities came and cut the trees and left. The square sand boxes where the trees used to be are still there just without the trees. Whats so bad about planting trees on government property? Why can’t the trees be left alone?

Thanks Ramez for the pictures!

Verity Cridland who I posted about before here has been uploading some more old photos of Kuwait from the early 60’s. One of the pictures that grabbed my attention was the one above of a car flipped over which I found interesting since it could very well be the oldest picture of a car accident in Kuwait. Here is a link to the picture [Link]

Thanks Verity!

My brother dropped his MacBook on the floor and broke the screen.

So i was working on a project in the computer lab and listening to music from my macbook with my headphones, i got up to get something, and the headphone cable was wrapped around my leg, and the macbook fell to the ground, hitting the top part of the screen and the bottom part of the keyboard against the ground, it didn’t fall that far, and i kind of cushioned it by putting a leg out, it was too far to reach to catch. But it was enough to fuck up the screen. So now I’m screenless.

Surprisingly a new screen costs only $80 on eBay!

I am going to divide this post into two, in the first half I will talk about Cinemagic’s weekly movie screenings and in the second about Oldboy.

Last time I posted about Cinemagic was a year ago and a lot of you might not know about them. They are a local organization that focuses on helping and establishing local film makers in the region. They have courses, trainings, connections, everything that’s film related. One of the things they also try and do is increase the public’s interest in the beauty and art of the moving image and one of the ways they go about doing this is holding movie screenings every week. They hold these screenings in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. Anyone can go and watch a screening for free and they even provide snacks and refreshments.

Now the best part about all of this is the type of movies they play. They don’t play any of the mainstream stuff which Cinescape plays, instead they share a lot of small indie and foreign movies. This week they will be screening one of my favorite foreign movies called Oldboy which I reviewed here back in 2005. It’s a Korean movie about a guy who got locked up in a studio apartment for 15 years by some unknown assailants. Then one day, he gets released and decides to seek revenge and find out who locked him up and why. Its a violent movie which never gets boring and has a really messed up ending.

So if you’re interested, they’re screening this movie on Thursday March 19 at 7PM. I find out about their movies via a weekly newsletter and I have no idea how you could sign up to it but they do have a website which I believe is updated weekly and you can visit it by clicking [Here]

Update: Here is a link to their facebook group. [Link]

The other day I posted about a new place called SmokeHouse, well their website just came online today and you can check out their full menu there. I don’t think I’ve ever tried smoked food so I am interested in trying it out. This is from their About Us section:

The ‘Smoke House’ is Kuwait’s first restaurant specializing in American southern style BBQ. We offer a premium selection of hickory Smoked and Barbequed meats all served with our signature ‘Smokehouse’ sauces. We use our own secret rubs and marinades and then slow cook our meats to bring you the best tasting smoked BBQ around. We also provide authentic southern style sides and delicious desserts. Whether you dine in, have your food delivered or request our catering services we guarantee you’ll be back for more.

The site sadly doesn’t include pictures of the place but it does have a map with directions. Will try them out this weekend and then post a review of their burger. [Link]

I was checking out Nemo’s blog when I found her post on a cafe located in Omneya complex in Salmiya called Book Cafe.

This is the description taken from the Book Cafe facebook page:

A quiet place
Provides you with Taekwondo, physical and mental relaxation
To think deeply, to read a book, to discuss a draft
My place is the beginning to achieve a place for you in the world
Start here

Judging by the pictures the place looks cool (color matches my blog) and the idea seems interesting but not too sure about the location. Nat also brought up a good point that usually when you want to read a book its more comfortable to read it while sitting on a sofa not a dinning room table. So bean bags or cozy sofas might be more suitable…

You can check out more pictures on Nemo’s blog [Here]
Here is the link to the Book Cafe’s facebook page [Link]

Picture taken by Nemo

There are two chrome cars from the UAE in Kuwait and judging by the picture [Here] they look like they are proper chrome and not just foiled? Not sure, can you get this kind of shiny chrome with foil? [YouTube]

Today Aramex dropped off my Yashica camera which I posted about two weeks ago. The camera turned out to be in even better condition than I expected. I am going to load up some film and take some pictures which I will post here once I get them developed.

A reader sent me pictures of two Samsonite Swarovski Edition bags which a Samsonite representative dropped off to him. The smaller bag is going for KD3,500 while the larger one is priced at KD7,000. You can check out the pictures he sent me by clicking on continue below.

Thanks Karim!

I got home after work and took Geo my dog for his walk when I noticed three kids abusing a small white puppy. So I asked them who the dog was for and a kid answered that it was his and that he wanted to sell it. I asked him how much and he told me KD5. So I called Nat and told her that we were going to rescue a dog and that she should call Animal Friends League to see if they could pick it up.

We got some towels, food and water for the puppy which turned out to be really hungry and waited for a call back from Animal Friends so we could see what to do next. As a backup I told Nat to give PAWs a call but as usual no one from PAWs picked up. Animal Friends called us back and told us no one could pick up the dog tonight but we could drop it off at the International Veterinarian Hospital which we ended up doing.

It was a pretty cute and playful dog. Nat decided to call him Grumpy like the Smurf since it had a grumpy look on its face, probably from all the abuse it got from the kids.

Animal Friends League is a non-profit organization that rescues animals and strives to improve the quality of their lives in Kuwait. So please if you would like to help them out either with a donation or other means visit the following link to find out how. [Link]

I found out about this yesterday and couldn’t wait to try it over lunch. A McGangBang is a chicken burger shoved inside a double cheeseburger and believe it or not, it turned out to be delicious. It wasn’t very messy and although I was expecting the chicken burger to slide out of the sandwich, it didn’t. This is highly recommended.

via Kottke

IMPORTANT: You can’t actually order the McGangBang from McDonalds because it’s NOT on their menu. You need to order a double cheeseburger and a chicken burger separately and then combine the two yourself. If you are really hungry you could order a double Quarter Pounder and shove a McChicken inside it but I haven’t tried that.

This commercial is a couple of years old but I somehow missed it. There are two more parts [Here] and [Here] although I don’t think they’re as funny as the one above. [YouTube]

Thanks Katia!

Has anyone heard of a burger place in Kuwait called Smokehouse? Its on exit 211 in Mahboula, block 1. Supposedly they have really good burgers. I also heard a new burger place opened up in the Avenues in place of where GBK used to be.

Update: Someone from the Smokehouse commented the following…

At The Smokehouse we specialize in Southern BBQ. We serve a variety of smoked and barbequed meats, southern style sides and a selection of desserts. And Mark we do have three different burgers on our menu. We are located in Mahboula block 1, off exit 211of the Fahaheel expressway. Our website www.smokehousekw.com should be up within a day or 2, it has a menu as well as directions and map of our location. If you need help finding The Smokehouse call us at 97340070 or 97340080.

Abdullah from the blog P0ach.com sent me these pictures to share with everyone. There are 10 pictures in total and they all have their descriptions underneath. This is the first time I display the pictures this way so if anyone has any problem viewing them or if the sites template looks strange please tell me so I can look into it. Click on continue below to see the pictures.

Thanks Abdullah!

I was out of the country when the military parade took place recently in Kuwait but a reader of my blog who was at the event took some pictures which I’ve uploaded online. To check out the pictures click [Here]

Thanks Salem!