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Since the weather is beautiful right now Cinemagic is starting their weekly rooftop movies again. If you’ve never been to them before, they’re held twice a week, every Thursday and Saturday on top of the building that has Xcite in old Salmiya. This month in addition some great movies they’re also hosting a Palestinian Film Festival over a period of two days. The list of all the movies and their timings are below:

Thursday November 7th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance
Shot by the visionary director behind Baraka and Samsara, Koyaanisqatsi is a haunting look at our world. It is a visual concert of images tot eh incredible score by Phillip Glass. Like Samsara and Baraka before it, the film is a plotless experimental art piece that has a definite scenario and underlying themes covering nature, movement, man, and the world we’ve built. A moving and powerful experience that will leave you speechless by the end.

Saturday November 9th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Band of Outsiders (Bande à Part)
Named one of the best 100 films of all time by both Time and Empire Magazine, and referred to as “Godard’s most delicately charming film” by renowned film critic Pauline Kael, as well as being the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s production company “A Band Apart”, Band of Outsiders follows two young men with a love for old Hollywood B-movies who meet a young woman living with wealthy benefactors, who happen to keep a pile of 10,000 francs locked in their room. Living out their dream to become the gangsters they see in the movies, the men convince her to help them commit a robbery.

Thursday November 14th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Badlands
Cinematic master Terrence Malick’s first film is a lyrical and sometimes beautiful look at disturbing events. Based on the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1958, in which a fifteen-year-old girl and her twenty-five-year-old boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands, Badlands was the film to launch the career of the multiple award winning filmmaker and is still called by many critics to be his best film.

Saturday November 16th, 2013 at 7:30PM
Encounters at the End of the World
On over 15 top ten lists of 2008, and winner of Best Documentary at multiple film festivals, veteran documentarian and madman Werner Herzog takes his camera to the McMurdo Station in Antartica, looking to capture the continent’s beauty an investigate the characters living there.

Thursday November 21st, 2013 at 7:30PM
Surprise Film of the Month
Every month we’ll be playing a surprise film, where you won’t know what you’re watching until just a minute before the film begins. One thing is for sure, every month the surprise film will be either my favourite film of the list, or the most unique in one way or the other. This month’s film is the winner of over 61 awards worldwide, carrying groundbreaking performances and the work of a visionary director on top form. Unmissable.

Saturday November 23rd, 2013 at 7:30PM
The Devil’s Backbone
From visionary filmmaker Guilermo Del Toro, who brought us the incredible Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone is a unique horror film that is both elegant and heartbreaking whilst also being creepy and nightmarish. After Carlos, a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War, arrives at an ominous boy’s orphanage he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that he must uncover.

Thursday November 28th, 2013 from 6PM to 10PM
Independent Palestinian Film Festival Day 1
Ajami
Nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film Category, Ajami is a poignant portrait of Palestinian Muslims and Christians living in an impoverished district of Jaffa

Budrus
A worldwide crowd-pleaser, this documentary is a testament to the potency of peaceful resistance & the human spirit. Budrus will dispose of any preconceptions one may have of the conflict.

Saturday November 30th, 2013 from 6PM to 10PM
Independent Palestinian Film Festival Day 2
Amreeka
A strong single mother and her son leave the West Bank to search for greener pastures in America. They are naively unaware however that they have left post-Intifada Palestine only to enter another hostile territory, post-9/11 America.

Promises
Of all the countless films revolving around the Israel-Palestine conflict, none are more compelling than this Academy Award nominated documentary. The resin being that Palestinian children, who of all others are affected the most by the war, are rarely provided the luxury of expressing their thoughts and emotions in front of a world audience.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Xcite and LG and there is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

When I travel I don’t usually take my DSLR but instead either take my compact Panasonic GX1 or no camera at all and just use my iPhone which honestly is more than enough 95% of the time. But, since I was going to be in Europe over Eid for 20 days I figured I might as well take my Nikon D800 and make good use of it while I was there. Problem is I have 3 lenses, a 24mm, 50mm and a 80-200mm. I didn’t have one lens that was versatile enough to carry around. Since I had a great experience with the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 previously, I decided to email my contact at AAB World (the Sigma dealers) and see what other full frame lenses they had which I could borrow and review for the blog and I was given the following options:

Sigma Lens 50MM F1.4
Sigma Lens 70-200MM F2.8
Sigma Lens 70MM 2.8 MACRO
Sigma Lens 85MM F1.4
Sigma Lens 8MM F3.5
Sigma Lens 12-24MM F4.5-5.6 MACRO
Sigma Lens 24-70MM 2.8

I decided to go with the 24-70mm since it was basically a combination of my 24mm and 50mm lens in addition to going further up to 70mm. It was also a bright lens at f/2.8 which meant I’d be able to use it in low light situations or blur out the background in portrait shots.

When I picked up the lens my biggest worry was that it would be large in size. The reason I am a fan of my 24mm and 50mm lenses is because they’re really compact and light which helps keep the weight down and also allows me to shove my camera into any one of my small messenger bags. A big lens would mean I needed to carry a larger bag which I didn’t want to. Luckily the Sigma 24-70mm turned out to be compact albeit a bit heavy since it’s a very solid lens with a full metal body and large glass. I really used to not like Sigma lenses since I always associated them with being poor build and of low quality but this is the second time I take out one of their new lenses and I’m really falling in love with them.

Using the lens was very practical and the zoom range with the fixed f/2.8 aperture didn’t make me miss my lighter prime lenses. The lens was fast to focus and near silent when doing so and I was able to use it for landscape shots as well as portrait ones because of the zoom range. My only wish because I’m greedy like that is if it was able to zoom even more like up to 120mm. But of course I want that while keeping the lens the same size and still keep the f/2.8 aperture which wouldn’t be possible.

The lens is available for both Canon and Nikon and AAB World are selling it for KD265 which is around KD30 higher than Amazon. For the size and the lens aperture You can check out their website for store locations [Here].

I had lunch earlier today at Katsuya, the new Japanese fusion restaurant that was brought to Kuwait from Los Angeles by Alshaya. The restaurant isn’t open yet but I was lucky enough to get invited for a sneak peek so I headed there with a few friends of mine to try it out.

What originally got me interested in Katsuya is the partnership with product and interior designer Philippe Starck. I’m a huge fan of his work and was actually hoping he would be coming to Kuwait for the opening but that’s sadly not happening. Katsuya is currently only open in California and Florida and their first international branch is opening up here in Kuwait followed shortly by Dubai. According to the Vice President of Katsuya who I had the pleasure of meeting, Philippe Starck had to reinvent the interior design for the Middle East. Their US locations use feminine beauty in the design, mostly the eyes and lips so for the Middle East they wanted something more appropriate and fitting with the local culture so Philippe Starck went back to the drawing board and reworked the brand with the future in mind. The result is a fusion of Japanese samurais and art resulting in a design full of colors and movement.

We sat down and ordered their cocktails first. I originally ordered the Strawberry Fields but after trying my friends drink called Burning Mandarin I decided to swap mine for that. It’s a bit spicy but worked really well with the starters. For our dishes we let the waitress make most of the choices for us while me and my friends chose a few dishes we were interested in trying. The result? We ended up with a ton of food, so much that I actually made them email me the list since I wasn’t able to track everything. This is what we had:

– Sautéed Shishito Peppers
– Edamame Humus
– Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño
– Spicy Albacore Sashimi with Crispy Onion
– Crispy Rice with Spicy Tuna
– Stuffed Eggplant
– Creamy Rock Shrimp
– Wagyu Filet with Foie Gras
– Miso-Marinated Black Cod
– Japanese Mushroom BOP
– Sashimi Sampler
– Special Katsuya Roll
– Kiwi Scallops
– Double Chocolate Lava Cake
– Mochi
– Espresso Brownie Bar

I found the food style very similar to Zuma and Australasia which is great since there isn’t anything similar to that here in Kuwait. From the items I tried the ones I would highly recommend are:

– Edamame Humus
– Stuffed Eggplant
– Miso-Marinated Black Cod
– Japanese Mushroom BOP

If there is one dish you NEED to try its the Stuffed Eggplant. I know I know it doesn’t sound like much and I honestly HATE eggplant, I can’t stand it but this is so different. The eggplant is stuffed with tuna and almonds covered in a sweet miso glaze. It’s actually not a top seller in the States but my guess is it’s going to be a big hit here.

The dishes aren’t that expensive. We didn’t pay for our meal but I do have a PDF of the menu which you can download at the end of this post and really most of the dishes are priced pretty fairly. The black cod dish is around KD14 but it was also the largest piece of black cod I had ever been served. I actually asked the waitress if this was their regular serving size or a large portion just for us, that’s how big it was. The Edamame Humus (genius idea btw) is KD2.950, the Stuffed Eggplant KD3.950 and the Mushroom BOP which is a fairly large portion is priced at KD5.450.

If you’re interested in trying the place out, Katsuya is officially opening this coming Wednesday from 12 noon at Avenues Phase III near Cheesecake Factory. You can download and check out their menu below and make sure you try the Stuffed Eggplant, that’s the dish that’s going to make me keep going back.

Katsuya Dinner Menu
Katsuya Drinks and Desserts Menu

[YouTube]

With the Kuwait League match between Al Nasr and Al Arabi deep into extra time, and the home side Al Nasr 1-0 up and nearing victory, the referee Saad Al Fadhi had the temerity to award a stonewall penalty to the visitors. What happened next would lead to the man in black doling out a less legitimate form of justice.

After being surrounded by irate Al Nasr attackers, upset at seeing a win potentially slip from their grasp, the referee let fly with his fists – flooring the Al Nasr No11 Abdulaziz Farraj with a left-hander, kicking him shortly after he had picked himself back up, then dismissing him from the pitch with a prompt red card.

More was to come. After his assistants stepped in to control the melee, Al Fadhi went on a red card rampage, doling out another on the pitch. With matters concluded, he completed the job by wandering over to the bench to wave a red card in the general direction of the assorted sheikhs and substitutes gathered there.

With order apparently restored, Al Arabi buried the penalty and levelled the match – only for Al Nasr’s understandably piqued No9 Zabn Al Enazi to hoof the ball directly at the referee from the re-start. Cue another red, another touchline melee and both teams trooping disconsolately from the pitch.

I found this hilarious. [Source]

Gravity was finally released in Kuwait on the 17th of October, but for some odd reason it wasn’t released in IMAX (instead they chose to show some Metallica documentary in IMAX, how are they even still relevant?). Gravity can be seen in the majority of theaters in Kuwait and I highly recommend to watch it in 3D since I haven’t seen any movie make use of 3D as well as Gravity has.

Gravity has a beautifully simple premise. Two astronauts have to fight for survival after a catastrophe strikes their space shuttle mission. Alfonso Cuarón directs this brilliant movie and does a spectacular job at creating one of the most realistic space movies and possibly the best space movie ever made.

Now the problem with watching Gravity in Kuwait (besides it not being in IMAX) is the fact that two scenes were censored. One scene was briefly cut due to dialogue (which wasn’t important to the narrative) and the other scene that was cut was at the very end, the last scene to be exact. The movie was already done and the story resolved by the time that scene came about but it was still an annoyance. Would I still have watched the movie knowing about these two details? Yes. Definitely.

If you enjoy a good movie experience then you should definitely not miss this even though there are two scenes cut. Watching this movie at home wouldn’t do it any justice.

Posted by Patrick

Note: The comments below might contain spoilers so don’t read them if you haven’t watched the movie

Princi is a beautiful bakery and restaurant located in the Soho area of London. A large section of the place is dedicated to the bakery which displays freshly baked goods and you buy what you want and eat it in a large cafeteria-like dining area where everyone sits down on the same long tables. On the other hand, they also have the pizzeria with its own private dining area and à la carte menu. Since we got there early we decided to sit in the dining area which usually has a long waiting list. We ordered the heritage tomato salad with buffalo mozzarella to start with, 3 different pizzas and the wild mushroom linguini. We then followed lunch with dessert from the bakery which included tiramisu and a pear and chocolate cake.

Everything was delicious even though the pizzas were a bit on the heavy side. My favorite item was the pear and chocolate cake which I thought would be a strange combo at first only to be surprised by how moist and yummy it was. Pizzas cost around 10 pounds each which like everything else in London is not cheap.

Princi is located on 135, Wardour Street. Get there really early if you don’t want to wait. [Link]

I honestly have no clue what this is, but I can’t help but feel very intrigued. It sounds beautiful. [Vimeo]

Update: Turns out Samsara is a concert taking place next month at GUST. The below is from the Samsara Facebook page:

Please join us this November for Nawaf Gheraibah’s Samsara; A night of live music under the stars, featuring a talented orchestra of musicians and vocalists; Wednesday 13th November, 8PM @ GUST University Amphitheatre, Mishref.

The show is free of charge & invitations will be available for pick up ten days prior to the concert.

In 2011, there was a meeting held between the Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH) and en.v, a Kuwaiti social responsibility organization. The purpose of that meeting was to discuss how, with limited sponsorship and very limited government support, the two organizations could work together to provide real, tangible, and lasting protection for some of the last remaining coastal habitat areas in Kuwait Bay. The result, after much discussion, was the joint venture Al Yaal, whose mission would be to conduct hands-on conservation in three coastal habitats, document those efforts, and educate the population of Kuwait about the needs of our fragile environment. From the beginning, we didn’t know if the program would work. There was no way to predict whether or not our work would be enough to improve the environment we set out to protect, nor whether or not we would be able to engage the community to conserve coastal areas they had never seen before and had no vested interest in. The program was destined from the beginning to be a small, grass-roots effort to protect something we all knew would vanish if no one fought for it. The results would be surprising in more ways than one.

K’S PATH has been around now for about ten years, providing animal sheltering, education, lobbying, habitat protection, consultancy, and more. People who interact with us for the first time are often surprised that an organization like ours exists, not just because we help animals, but even more so because we are so professional in the way we work. Their surprise is understandable, because in general, we don’t make a lot of noise. We are able to do all of the things we do, and do them well, because we invest most of our time and effort into our programs and have very little left over for publicity. We brought this same focus and dedication to the Al Yaal program. There are many organizations that clean beaches in Kuwait, and they all deserve commendation for doing so. What most of them have in common is that they clean beaches humans use for recreation. With our animal and environment-centric focus, we wanted to protect areas that are important coastal habitat, so we started doing some research to see what areas were the most at risk of pollution and encroachment. Through a process of interviews and observation, we selected three beach areas notable for their plant life, their bird life, their animal life, their lack of development, lack of human visitation, and heavy pollution. Two sites were chosen in Sulaibikhat area, and one in the Doha area.

K’S PATH has always operated with a simple philosophy: planning and hard work equals results. Planning for this program included hiring program manager Angelique Bhattacharjie-Jeremiah, purchasing equipment, organizing volunteers, getting ministry permits, and coordinating between the different organizations involved. By April of 2011, planning was complete and the hard work began. Cleaning a beach with the idea of habitat preservation in mind is a meticulous job. Heavy equipment and teams of laborers play no part in removing waste from a sensitive habitat. Each item of waste has to be carefully removed by hand without destroying or even damaging plants or animal dens. The pace is slow, the temperature grueling, and success comes at a snails pace. Despite dozens of bags of garbage collected, it’s difficult to notice any improvement after the first few cleanups. Still, the volunteers kept coming.

The Al Yaal concept doesn’t rely upon a single body or group of volunteers. Instead, a different social group, school, or society is involved in each clean up, thereby maximizing the number of people who participate in this important project. After all, participation is an incredibly effective form of education, and engaging so many different people from so many different walks of life helped tremendously in breaking up the tedium of our efforts. K’S PATH staff and dedicated program volunteers in particular deserve a very hearty thank you for their consistent hard work (they were present at nearly every clean up for two years), but even after the first dozen clean ups, nothing much seemed to change. Sans instant gratification, we just kept working. And working. And working. All told, we came back 45 times and cleaned up over 5 tons of waste at Doha beach alone. The task was arduous, but rewarding.

Hey everyone, just like Mark promised I am going to talk to you a little bit more about q8books, and just like a lot of you already know most of the books (and shelves) came from the old q8books. My fabulous team made a short video on how the new q8books came together:

[YouTube]

If you want the longer version that Mark thinks is boring click [Here]

The bookstore is non-profit, all the interior was done by an awesome team who worked on it for nearly 3 months, we have around 15,000 books made of but not limited to the following genres: science, music, art, hobbies, history & politics, biographies, families, self help & motivation, cooking, travel, foreign languages, business, reference, romance, women’s fiction, thrillers, mystery, suspense, children, young adult, classics, sci-fi.

Location: We are outside Bayt Lothan right next to Marina Mall on the Gulf road [Google Maps]

Timings: 5PM to 9:30PM on weekdays and 10AM to 9PM on weekends

How the bookstore works
The average price of a book is 1-2KD but it goes down to free and up to 5KD. 50% of the price of the book is a deposit the other 50% is a reading charge. When you bring the book back you get the deposit 50% back as STORE CREDIT (not cash).

You can also donate English books to us, or swap them for store credit.

We have been blessed that Bayt Lothan has supported our cause of promoting reading in Kuwait and have given us a very charming place free of charge, and because of that we are able to have policies like;

1) If your in a writing club or reading club, you can meet free of charge at our bookstore,
2) If you’re a local writer feel free to have your books at the store free of charge
3) We have art pieces donated by a lot of supportive local artists, and we are just happy that we are able to really be a community project.

For more info please follow is on instagram and twitter @q8bookstore or call us on 97182730 or email us at [email protected]

Post by Fajer Ahmed

The Huntley Film Archives have uploaded another video of Kuwait from their film archive, this time dating back to around 1970. Video starts of slow a bit but becomes more interesting after the 3 minute mark. [YouTube]

In case you missed my previous posts on films on Kuwait from the Huntley Film Archives, below are the links:
Close Up On Kuwait – 1962 (a must watch)
Kuwait adverts from the 1980’s

Back in 2011, someone decided it would be smart to reduce the size of the middle sidewalk in old Salmiya by creating a dirt pit around all the trees. I guess the idea was that they would plant these pits with greenery which I was against since I knew no one would maintain it. I received some criticism regarding my views because I wasn’t being optimistic.

Well the picture above is how the median looks like over 2 years later. This is why I was suggesting the other day they plant fake grass in old Salmiya instead of destroying the beautiful Gulf Road with fake grass.

A reader emailed me a couple of days back telling me about the Onam Festival which would taking place at the Caesars Dakshin Restaurant over a period of two days. I was told I needed to pass by during those two days and order the Onasadya. The Onasadya is a traditional vegetarian dish in Kerala, India and since today is Onam Day, a festival celebrated by the people of Kerala, Caesars Dakshin is serving the traditional dish today and tomorrow.

I’m going to start by saying I have no idea what I just had for lunch, but it was delicious and more importantly a lot of fun to experience.

The dish is served on a large banana leaf and consists of around 20 different sides. When they first served the leaf it kinda looked empty and I didn’t know what to really do but then different waiters started coming by and filling my plate up with various colorful curries. They also filled up my dish with rice, gravy and also gave me a milk and butter drink. All the other diners were using their hands to eat and traditionally that’s how you’re supposed to do it but I decided to use a spoon since I needed to use my camera and phone throughout the experience. I watched how other diners were eating and mixing the different curries and I just tried to emulate them. Once I was done and asked for the bill they served me two kinds of desserts in cups. They were both different kinds of rice pudding desserts and they were delicious. All this for just KD3, it’s crazy…

Throughout the whole meal I was taking photos and sending it to my friends since everything was so colorful, flavorful and so random and unexpected. It didn’t feel like I was in Kuwait and I love it when that happens.

As I mentioned, the Onam Festival is taking place today and tomorrow only. The restaurant is in Jleeb Al Shuyoukh but isn’t difficult to find since it’s located on a main road right on top of Xcite. This isn’t a hole in the wall place, it’s a proper and pretty large restaurant. Below are the details:

Date: September 16 and 17
Time: 12PM to 3PM and 7PM to 11PM
Price: KD3
Location: Caesars Dakshin Restaurant

Here is the location on [Google Maps]

Don’t miss this!

[Source]

At least the color matches with her backup dancers.

Thanks Ahmed via

Kuwait is one of the top 10 biggest improving cities according to the latest Liveability report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The rank is calculated based on 30 factors spread out across five categories: stability, infrastructure, education, healthcare, and culture and environment. Check out the article [Here]

Thanks Bassem

Caribbean Hut is a small tiny restaurant located in Abu Halifa and owned and run by a Puerto Rican chef who’s helped out by his father. I found out about Caribbean Hut by chance when I accidentally landed on trip advisors top restaurants in Kuwait list and I noticed Caribbean Hut was ranked first. A restaurant I hadn’t heard of ranked first in Kuwait? I knew I had to go check it out for myself.

First things first just so you don’t get mislead by the beautiful food shots. Caribbean Hut isn’t a big fancy restaurant in a nice mall. It’s a small place located in a dodgy part of Abu Halifa, the restaurants surroundings aren’t pretty and the restaurant itself doesn’t have a good looking interior either. They didn’t even have cute Caribbean music playing and the whole place was lit up by cold energy saving lightbulbs. So don’t go there with expectations of fine dining even though the food is very well presented. That’s really the only negative thing I have to say about the place because everything else about it was pretty great.

I got there at 3PM just as they were opening. The chef was there alone since his father works a full time job and only comes by to help once he’s done. I hadn’t had Caribbean food before so I had the chef help us choose our dishes and in the end we decided to go with the following:

— Appetizers —

Chicken Empanadillas
Puerto Rican styled patties deep-fried and prepared with chicken
KD0.500

Beef Empanadillas
Puerto Rican styled patties deep-fried and prepared with beef
KD0.500

Tostones (Plantain Chips)
Deep fried plantains
KD0.750

— Main Course —

Beef Carne
Mashed fried plantains filled with fried beef, seasoned with Caribbean spices, served with white rice
KD1.750

Shrimp Camarrones
Mashed fried plantains filled with sauteed shrimp, seasoned with Caribbean spices, served with white rice
KD3.500

Trinidadian Chicken Curry
Trini style chicken curry served with white rice
KD1.750

— Dessert —

Leche Flan
Made with condensed milk, sweetend milk and caramel
KD0.500

Tembleque
Made with coconut milk, sugar, and cinnamon
KD0.750

From the two Empanadillas I preferred the minced beef and would order that again. Even though they were deep fried they didn’t taste or look oily, if anything they actually looked and tasted like they were oven baked. The Tostones were very interesting and would have even been better if they had salsa on the side to dip them into. They actually do have salsa on their menu but it wasn’t available to order when we were there.

Once we were done with the starters the chef brought over our main courses. We started with the Trinidadian Chicken Curry which was in the menu under the section called “Our Neighbors” alongside the Cuban Stewed Beef and Jamaican Pulled Chicken. The Trinidadian curry tastes fairly different from the traditional Thai or Indian curry and although it was good, after trying the other two dishes I probably wouldn’t order this one again. The Beef Carne and the Shrimp Camarrones were both incredible dishes with lots of new flavors I hadn’t experienced before. The presentation looked great and I wouldn’t be able to choose between the two the next time I pass by. I’d probably order them both again.

Finally when we were done we had our desserts. From the two I preferred Leche Flan which is similar to Creme Caramel and like Creme Caramel, it’s not very exciting. While having the desserts I chatted with the chef who’s the owner as well. I thought they had opened a few months back but turns out in a few days it’s going to be their one year anniversary. It’s pretty surprising how a great place like that has been open for so long and isn’t well known yet.

If you’re looking for something new and different to try then I would definitely recommend Caribbean Hut. The food was great, the owner was really friendly, it’s a small family business and most importantly, it’s not another burger joint. Other than the location there really isn’t anything to complain about. Price wise it’s a steal. We had two starters, three main courses, two desserts and four soft drinks and the total came out to be KD9.550 and that’s mostly because of the shrimp dish which was double the price of anything else on the menu. If you want to find out more about the place or the exact location you can check out their website where they even have their full menu available [Link]