EDO used to be my favorite Japanese restaurant in Kuwait back when they were open in Shaab (pictured above). The space was cozy, the food was great and there really wasn’t much competition back then. But, when they closed their Shaab location and moved to the Sahara Country Club I stopped going because it was just too far and I really didn’t like the space anymore, it was just too open and it lost all it’s coziness.
But, last month EDO closed down their Sahara location and the rumor I’ve heard is that they will be moving to Al-Khaled Complex in Salmiya. That’s where GIA is located right now and where the Italian restaurant Vigonovo used to be. I passed by Al-Khaled Complex last week and looks like there is a lot of renovation going on so hopefully this rumor is true.
If it is true then I think Al-Khaled Complex is a much better location for EDO. Until they reopen, if you miss EDO they’re still delivering on Talabat.
For those of you reading my blog while living in the U.S. and missing Kuwait, you can now order KDD milk from Amazon.com and have it delivered to your doorstep. The three flavors available are banana, chocolate and strawberry and you can purchase them as a 6-pack or large box of 18 packs. They’re not cheap though, a 180ml x 18 pack is being sold for KD9 while if you were in Kuwait you could pick up the larger 250ml x 24 pack for KD3.6. But if you’re in the U.S. then you don’t really have a lot of options.
KDD ice cream and juices are disappointingly not available on Amazon. I know if I lived abroad I’d miss KDD ice cream the most but I guess exporting it to the U.S. would be a lot more complicated than shipping milk.
Last Tuesday I was invited to the premiere of Doctor Sleep by my favorite movie theater, Vox Kuwait at the Avenues Phase 4, and as usual for their premieres, the event was a pleasure for film geeks (full of thematic decor and even two little twin girl actresses which were adorable in their attempts to scare guests). After walking on a red carpet designed after the famous carpet from The Shining, we took our seats and the lights went down.
Regarding the elephant that’s always in the room, censorship, this film has been cut in a few places, but not in a way that makes it unwatchable. It doesn’t affect the plot and you’re aware of what’s going on, but some cuts do come at some moments where you’re really drawn into the film. But all the cuts were momentary, nothing like whole scenes removed. Anyway, onto the review.
You’ve got to have quite a pair to think you can pull of a sequel to The Shining. Not only is it a horror masterpiece, but it is perhaps one of the most obsessed over films in history (watch the documentary Room 237 for proof). Up until now, director Mike Flanagan has been a solid horror filmmaker with a fresh voice and a couple of strong entries under his belt, but he hasn’t attempted anything quite so ambitious as Doctor Sleep. Does it pay off? Well yes… and no.
To be fair, it’s near impossible to create a satisfying sequel to The Shining especially since Kubrick veered way off the Stephen King novel it was based on, creating instead an intimate horror film with a singular vision which benefits most from its ambiguity and its lack of a need for a sequel. So when adapting Doctor Sleep (King’s sequel to his Shining), Flanagan decided to take a route where he bridges the gap between King and Kubrick. The result feels like two interesting films in their own right mashed up messily. The script suffers a lot from it and it’s the script itself which is the weakest link in this film.
The storytelling and filmmaking, however, is where the film shines (ahem). Flanagan does an excellent job of building tension, creating mood, and allowing scenes to be paced calmly and correctly. He doesn’t rush you into “scares”, but rather allows you to get invested into the characters. This is most evident in the first 40 minutes or so where very little plot is divulged, and we are just getting to know our three main characters. These were some of my favorite scenes in the film because Flanagan directs them maturely and really allows us to connect to Danny Torrance’s struggle with his demons. I very much appreciated that the film did not rely on The Shining nostalgia or fan service to create excitement. In fact, the only time we are really given that kind of nostalgia is in the last 30 minutes of a 2.5 hour film, so by then you’ve already emotionally invested into this new story entirely.
Aside from the filmmaking, the performances stand out as well. Ewan McGregor is perfect in the title role, and Kyliegh Curran gives an Excellent child performance that is exciting and convincing. But really it’s Rebecca Ferguson as the antagonist who steals the film. I was worried from the trailers as her storyline looked cheesy, but she is somehow convincing and gives a very interesting performance of a character that is at once cold blooded but somehow understandable. I like her work in the Mission Impossible films, but now I’m a full on fan.
In the end, I felt Doctor Sleep was an entertaining film with some really strong sequences (the Astral Projection moment was visionary, and the Baseball boy sequence was extremely disturbing and effective), but it’s nods to the Shining only reveal how much stronger that film is. To me, this is a pretty weak Kubrick tribute, but a very strong Stephen King film adaptation. It’s different than most films coming out in cinemas these days, and some of it’s inventive filmmaking makes up for its flaws. I still recommend a watch to horror and film fans as it has an original voice and style to it that is a breath of fresh air amongst the hundred of cynical cash grabs posing as cinema today.
Last night I got on Carriage and got a pop-up message saying I needed to choose a new Carriage Black plan. There was previously just one option, KD3.5 a month for unlimited deliveries which honestly a too good to be true price and I’ve saved a ton of money because of it. But recently Deliveroo stopped their free delivery promo so Carriage has now updated their Carriage Black pricing structure as well.
The new pricing isn’t bad at all since I order from Carriage daily. I’ll probably go with the KD7.5 a month plan since I rarely order from the grocery section and if I do it’s nothing good, usually chocolates which I should stop ordering anyway. But I will miss the old days when Deliveroo was free and unlimited deliveries on Carriage was just KD3.5 a month.
Back in 1977, Andy Warhol came to Kuwait under the invitation of the National Council of Arts, Culture, and Letters and his work was exhibited at the Dhaiat Abdullah Al Salem Gallery. I’ve posted about his visit a number of times before and you can read more about it in my previous post here.
Earlier in the month, I was made aware that a signed copy of his catalog from his exhibit in Kuwait was up for auction in Germany. The first thing I wanted to do was share it with people but since I wanted to bid on it myself I decided not to. The auction house had estimated that the signed catalog would sell for €250 – €360 so I figured I’d play it safe and put a bid of €1005.
The auction took place this past Friday and because the site was in German and I’ve never really taken part in a live auction similar to this, I didn’t know how it would work exactly. To summarize, I was at the race track taking part in the KMT Open Track event on Friday when the auction went live and someone ended up topping my bid and winning the item for €1200.
It sucks because I really wanted it, but I’m guessing whoever bid on it really wanted it to and most likely had a deeper pocket so I’m kinda glad I missed the auction. I’ve been in bidding wars before and things can get out of hand very quickly. In any case, now that auction is over I’m sharing pictures of the signed catalog. Even without the signature, the catalog would have been an interesting purchase. The description for the item on the auction site was in German but here is the rough translation:
Andy Warhol. Catalog for the exhibition in the MAYOR Gallery London and the Dhaiat Abdulla al Salem Gallery in Kuwait 1977. 7 pages each in English and Arabic with staple stitching. 35.5 x 23 cm. Illustrated original cardboard cover and signed on the back by Andy Warhol (a little bit at the edge of the bend, front cover with small paper abrasion in the edge, back cover a little rubbed).
Very rare catalog for the exhibition in London and Kuwait. – Paper slightly creased.
Here is the link to the item on the auction website and below are links to the high res images in case they get deleted from the auction website.
Middle Eastern Eatery or M’EAT for short is opening a second location, right across from Little Ruby’s and PICK in the city. Their current location on the Seef Strip opened up back in 2017 but it was a pretty small space and not really walking distance from much. This new location looks to be bigger and right in the heart of the city.
M’EAT is a build your own bowl place created by the guys behind PICK. If you missed my previous post on them then click here.
A couple of weeks back I posted snippets from an old book on my instagram account and a lot of people wanted to know what book it was and where they could get it from. So I decided not only to post about the book but also scan it all and make it available to download.
The book is a children’s book called Hamad the Diver and was published back in 1967. The story is about an Arab pearl diver living in Kuwait called Hamad. The story doesn’t mention specifically if Hamad was Kuwaiti or not but we do find out he is poor as many Kuwaitis were back then and that he was married with children. The second story taking place in the meantime is about a rich Iraqi girl called Fatima living in Basra whose father is trying to get her married. I don’t want to spoil the story too much but eventually, Hamad and Fatima end up getting married.
If you want to check out the book then you can download it from this link.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time then you might remember my posts on the garbage situation behind my house in Salmiya. It’s been a problem thats been ongoing for over a decade now and I’ve posted about it a number of times on the blog before. Usually what happens is I post pictures of the garbage dump behind my house, baladiya find out about it and send trucks to clean up, a week later problem is back again.
For YEARS I’ve posted about how there aren’t enough garbage bins and since then more buildings have popped up which means more garbage but instead of the bins increasing over the year they’ve decreased.
A while back I gave up and decided to no longer post about the garbage because I was starting to sound like a broken record and honestly, I’m just too tired and exhausted to fight. I’ve really become a pretty chill person and very little really bothers me nowadays. But things are also just getting worse and worse and today I just couldn’t take it anymore. Before I left to work I decided to take and tweet the picture above and then left the house. A few hours later while in a meeting I found out my tweet went viral and since then I’ve been getting a ton of support but also some stupid comments I really don’t want to have to deal with.
To summarize my Salmiya garbage issue, basically, the garbage overflows every single day because there aren’t enough garbage bins to cater to the residents and shops. Tomorrow someone will come and clean up the mess because of my tweet but nobody really is solving this problem and so it keeps happening over and over again. I keep saying we need more bins and I’ve been saying that for over a decade now but nobody cares.
As I’m writing this post my brother who lives next door sent me the picture above. The baladiya are here now picking up the garbage. I’m really grateful for sure, and I’m not trying to sound pessimistic here but, unless they add more bins, this overflowing garbage issue is going to keep happening.
Update: So they cleaned up one corner last night but the other side where there were 6 bins and I posted saying that 6 weren’t enough and we needed more, well, today they came and took 3 of the bins leaving just 3. I feel like they might be trolling me.
