Search: “sti”

Below is this months schedule for Cinemagics rooftop movie nights. 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. I’ll also be listing the movies individually in the Events section to make it easier to track on a weekly basis. Here are this months movies:

Saturday, February 1st 2014 at 7:30PM
FACES
The second in our Cassavetes series, where we’ll be showing a film every month by acclaimed legendary independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, who is known as the father of independent American cinema. Faces confronts modern alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema. Nominated for 2 Academy awards for its performances, as well as being a strong influence on Woody Allen and Robert Altman, Faces is a film that explores the dynamics of relationships, divorce, emotional and spiritual fulfillment as it depicts the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle aged couple.

Thursday, February 6th 2014 at 7:30PM
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
Winner of over 42 international awards, and nominated for 6 Academy Awards, Good Night and Good Luck takes place during the early 1950’s under the threat of Communism most famously exploited by Senator Joseph McCarthy. CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred W. Friendly decide to take a stand and expose McCarthy for the fear monger he was, playing a huge role in bringing down one of the most controversial figures in American history.

Saturday, February 8th 2014 at 7:30PM
VICKI CRISTINA BARCELONA
Considered one of the best films of 2008 by numerous critics and winner of multiple awards mostly focussing on the incredible screenplay by Woody Allen and the extraordinary performances (with emphasis on Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz). Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Thursday, February 13th 2014 at 7:30PM
SURPRISE MOVIE 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 was won and was nominated for over 30 awards worldwide including the Oscars, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards, and the Baftas. A unique, hilarious, bizarre, and poetic little film.

Saturday, February 15th 2014 at 7:30PM
DRY SUMMER (Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project)
Every month, we’ll be playing a film from the World Cinema Project. Established by Martin Scorsese in 2007, the World Cinema Project expands the horizons of moviegoers everywhere. The mission of the WCP is to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions generally ill equipped to preserve their own cinema history. This month’s film is Dry Summer. Metin Erksan’s wallop of a melodrama follows the machinations of an unrepentantly selfish tobacco farmer who builds a dam to prevent water from flowing downhill to his neighbors’ crops. The film went not to win the Golden Bear (Best Film) at the Berlin Film Festival.

Thursday, February 20th 2014 at 7:30PM
UPSTREAM COLOR
One of the most unique films of all time, adored by critics from all corners, a film that had audiences and critics discussing it to no end after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Shane Carruth, the man behind Primer which we screened last year, Directed, Produced, Wrote, Scored, Shot, Edited, and Starred in this utterly mad film. I won’t even try to explain the plot as it cannot be explained in words, but I assure you you have never seen anything like this before and you will likely be thinking about this film for weeks after watching it.

Saturday, February 22nd 2014 at 7:30PM
THE ACT OF KILLING
One of the rawest and most intriguing films of the year, winning over 32 awards,and nominated for Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars, The Act of Killing is a terrifying but unmissable film. A documentary that challenges former Indonesian death squad leaders to reenact their real-life mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.

Thursday, February 28th 2014 at 7:30PM
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, along with 65 other worldwide awards, Beasts of the Southern Wild covers the tragedy of a Louisiana bayou cut off from the world by a levee as seen through the eyes of 6-year-old Hushpuppy. Her life is about to change as she is faced with both her hot tempered father and the melting ice-caps that flood her community, unleashing the ancient aurochs that may represent something larger for the child.

Cinemagic 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 rooftop of Xcite and LG [Map]. There is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

The new QX series cameras from Sony are part of their new range of mobile phone cameras.Sony realized that camera phones in general are pretty limited with the majority for example lacking any kind of optical zoom. Phone cameras also have really tiny sensors so the photos aren’t very sharp or detailed neither do they do so well in dimly lit situations. Thats why Sony came up with the idea to create a new line of cameras that would clip onto your current phone giving it a big boost. I picked up both the Sony QX10 and the slightly larger QX100 from the Sony dealer for this review.

Both the QX10 and QX100 follow the same principle, they both don’t have any screens and other than the power, shoot and zoom buttons, both cameras don’t have any other controls. The Sony QX10 is the smaller and cheaper of the two, it has a sensor delivering 18MP and it has a 10x optical zoom. The QX100 on the other hand has a large size sensor that delivers 20MP as well as an added bonus of having a bright F/1.8 lens. On the downside, the QX100 has only 3.6x optical zoom, it’s double the size of the QX10 and it’s also a lot more expensive.

Lets get something out of the way. Both these cameras perform much better than your mobile phone cameras. Between the two cameras the QX100 was obviously and clearly the better of the two because of the larger sensor and better lens optics. Because of the fact both these cameras easily out perform camera phones I decided this post wouldn’t focus on the quality of the photos but instead I’m going to focus on the practicality of the cameras.

Because these two cameras lack a screen you need to connect them to your phone. That’s a fairly easy process, you turn on the cameras and then you connect your phone to the cameras wifi. You then need to download the Sony app “PlayMemories” which will allow you to control the camera and take photos. Every time you want to use the camera, you launch the PlayMemories app and turn the camera on and wait for the two to connect. This is where I start having issues.

When it comes to capturing a quick moment both cameras fail miserably. If the camera isn’t already on and connected to your phone then you’ll most likely miss your shot because turning it on and then connecting it to your phone is a process that can easily take over 10 seconds. By then whatever moment you were trying to capture is long gone.

My biggest issue is that fact the cameras really aren’t that compact.Between the two the QX10 fits into my pocket but it’s still thick enough to create a bulge, a similar bulge to one I would have if I had a slim full featured point and shoot camera in my pocket. Actually the Sony DSC-TX30 is even slimmer so I would have less of a bulge with that. The QX100 on the other hand won’t even fit into my jeans pocket.

Now both these cameras do have one very cool feature that no regular point and shoot can compete with. The QX series cameras don’t have to be attached to your phone to work. If you’re at a concert you can hold the camera in your hand way above your head and while checking and taking photos from your phone at your eye level like a periscope. You can also set up the camera on a table in front of you and then use the phones screen to setup your selfie. You could even setup the camera in one room while taking photos from another and the reason you can do all this because the cameras work over WiFi. This I think is the coolest thing about these two cameras.

Which brings me to a question, who would prefer these two cameras over Sony’s other cameras? I honestly don’t know, I guess it’s for people who would take advantage of the fact you don’t have to have the camera connected to your phone. Price wise, both cost nearly the same price as Amazon with the QX10 costing KD69.9 and the the QX100 KD147.9 at the Sony dealer. If I was to choose between the two I would go with the QX10, its cheaper, its smaller and it has the added benefit of a 10X optical zoom.

The picture above was taken by @pip41 on instagram and shows how green Kubbar island is right now because of the all the rain recently. Real greenery not plastic.

Art Exhibit: Scattered, Gathered
Art Exhibit: Stages of Ascent
InfoConnect 2014
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Proud 2 be Kuwaiti 2014
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Touki Bouki
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Faces
Music: The MIXTAPE Hip Hop Event
Music: A Night In at Bayt Lothan
Shakshooka Nomadic Farmers Market
Qout Market
Xcite: All good things happen on Friday
Open House at Ali Al Salem Air Base

Update: There is supposedly an air show at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base on Saturday but I can’t find any information on this online

Update2: Just added information on the Ali Al Salem Air Base event to the list above.

The P2BK 2014 event launches this coming Thursday January 30th at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds [Map] and will last up untill February 25th. This year the set up is going to be similar to last years with an outdoor old souk that was built specifically to host this event. There will be a ton of Kuwaiti businesses participating including already established ones as well as new ones plus you have the Remal sand sculpting festival taking place alongside it as well. P2BK will be open daily from 10AM to 10PM and for more information you can check out their Instagram account [Here]

On a side note, companies seem to be neglecting their websites and are starting to rely solely on Instragram. I tried to google information on P2BK and all I ended up with was my blog since their website had no information on this years event. And, none of the information was made available in English. Events like this should be advertised to the expat community as well to make sure everyone else is included to share the experience.

[YouTube]

The footage above was shot while the village was still being constructed but it still gives you an idea of how large the Remal sand sculpting festival will be. If you want to check out a timelapse on how one of these sculptures was made, check out this video also from Remal. [Link]

The Remal International Festival opens on January 30th, for more information, click [Here]

The 32nd InfoConnect exhibition starts tomorrow and will be running till February 2nd at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds. You can usually get some great deals on phones and internet subscriptions at the exhibit and theres already a thread in the Community listing some of the offers.

For more details including the exhibition timings click [Here]

Note: Their website says January 26th to February 1st but their flyer says January 27th to February 2nd.

Had the salmon dish above at the newly opened Café Coco at the Avenues. Although it was slightly overcooked it was still pretty good and it came with lots of veggies. It’s priced at KD7.5 but the quantity was larger than the salmon dish I previously posted about at THE One. Would definitely go back and have it again.

The Contemporary Art Platform has a couple of interesting exhibits taking place right now but the one I got to check out recently and found fascinating is “Scattered, Gathered”. Part of the “Scattered, Gathered” is the works of Syrian artist Issam Kourbaj who I was lucky enough to meet when I was visiting CAP. I thought his exhibit was really interesting because of the story behind it and the the result of it. Issam had been working on an architectural project in the city of Cambridge for a couple of years and as the project was about to move forward with construction it suddenly got canceled. That put Issam in a depression and he retreated to his apartment where he spent the next 10 months venting out his anger and frustration on twelve volumes of the 1890 Britannica encyclopedia. He superimposed his visual diaries onto 10,232 pages of the now they’re being displayed for the very first time at CAP.

The exhibition is running until February 8th and its worth checking out. For more information on the exhibit click [Here]

A couple of days back I passed by the Kuwait National Museum for a little bit of exploration. Last week some friends of mine were given a tour of the two buildings that were still vacant and in shambles since the 1990 invasion and I really wanted to go check it out for myself. I’ve always been curious to see whats inside so I headed there on Thursday to take a look.

The museum is made up of four main buildings with two being occupied and two vacant. One of the vacant ones had under construction hoardings all around but the other building didn’t and the door was open so I just walked in. I took some photos which you can check out above, the black and white ones are from the first building I walked to while the colored ones are from the second building. There was nothing really to see since it looks like they’re finally renovating the building but at least I got to satisfy my curiosity.

If anyone knows where I can get some photos of the museum taken right after the invasion let me know. Also if anyone can get me access to the abandoned Al-Salam Palace then please email me.

@mark248am as of 1st January the UFC has decided leave OSN and we are very disappointed at their decision.

— OSN (@osn) January 21, 2014

This absolutely sucks. I used to love recording live UFC event and then waking up early morning to watch them. It’s the only reason I still had my OSN subscription. Instead, OSN are now getting Bellator which no one wants to watch while the UFC has moved to Abu Dhabi Sports.

Four new restaurants have opened up next to each other on Blajat Street, JJ’s Burgers, Sandawicha, Meywa and Abou Jassem. Have’t tried any of them but I do like the wooden looking (dont’ think its real wood) exterior facade of the restaurants. Makes the whole thing look a lot more interesting.

It frustrates me when I hear stories of cops impounding cars because of a small stickers on the rear window but then I see scenes like the one above where a cop completely ignored a much more dangerous situation. The ATV above obviously isn’t street legal hence the lack of a license plate or any indicator lights but if that wasn’t enough the rider was texting on his phone when the cop just drove past him like nothing was wrong.

This story has been making rounds all over the internet the past few days but the actual discovery was made back in 2008. A shark species thought to be extinct was found dead at the Souk Sharq Fish Market. More interestingly though, flipping through the photos in the article, I had no idea shark fishing was so prevalent in the region. [Link]

[YouTube]

Shark of Kuwait has setup a YouTube channel and has started uploading all his videos. If you don’t know who Shark of Kuwait check this old post of mine. To check out his YouTube channel click [Here]