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Yesterday morning a cargo ship heading into Shuwaikh port veered off path and nearly collided with the KPC building. The cargo ship had to be pulled back out into sea by tugboats and an investigation is currently taking place into the cause of this incident.
The pictures in this post were taken by KPC employees and it kinda looks like their might have been an oil leak as well. [Source]
[YouTube]
There are two really great films I want to see this month at Cinemagic, the first is Samsara and the second is Gomorrah. I’ve been wanting to watch these two movies for sometime now but never got the time. Grave of Fireflies was supposed to show last month but the BluRay got delayed in customs and the movie Once was shown instead which I watched and thought was pretty good considering it was a musical (I hate musicals). Grave of Fireflies is now going to be shown this month instead. Check out the full film schedule below…
Thursday April 4th, 2013 at 7:30PM
SAMSARA
From the award winning director of Baraka, Samsara takes you on an incredible journey, filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.
Saturday April 6th, 2013 at 7:30PM
GRAVE OF FIREFLIES
Called “one of the greatest and most powerful war films ever made” by acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert, and universally considered one of the best animated films ever made, Grave of Fireflies is a tragic film covering a young boy and his little sister’s struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.
Thursday April 11th, 2013 at 7:30PM
GOMORRAH
Winner of the Grand Prix Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Gomorrah intertwines 5 separate stories of people whose lives are touched by organised crime. A harrowing look into Italy’s modern-day crime families.
Saturday April 13th, 2013 at 7:30PM
HAROLD AND MAUDE
Chosen by the AFI as one of the top ten classic American comedies of all time, and considered a huge influence on the work of Wes Anderson and Jared Hess. Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral.
Thursday April 18th, 2013 at 7:30PM
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
Holding 96% on rottentomatoes.com, the multi-award winning story of how an eccentric French shop keeper and amateur film maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world’s most infamous graffiti artists at work.
Saturday April 20th, 2013 at 7:30PM
FOLLOWING
Before dominating the world with The Dark Knight and Inception, and before his groundbreaking independent mind-bender Memento, Christopher Nolan made a small film about a young writer who follows strangers for material until he meets a thief who takes him under his wing. A rare debut from a fascinating filmmaker.
Thursday April 25th to Saturday April 28th, 2013
THE KUWAIT INTERNATIONAL FILM RETREAT
Join us for a film festival of Kuwaiti, Regional, and International short and feature length films that we will be screening on these dates, alongside workshops, red carpet photo ops, and other film related activities. Don’t miss this one of a kind film event, and keep checking back on the official website for more details: www.kuwaitfilmretreat.com
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 Alghanim Electronics and LG and there is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]
“The Kuwait Green Wall” project, which aims to plant 315,000 trees on a stretch of 420 kilometers on the borders of the country in a call to implement effective solutions to the rising environmental and climate issues.
I would rather they plant 315,000 trees in Salmiya where I can at least see them instead of all the way in the middle of no where but that’s just me. Sorry I’m just pissed off because the middle sidewalk in old Salmiya has still not been planted. [YouTube]
Warning: Documentary may cause drowsiness
Update: Maybe they should first launch a campaign to stop cutting trees in Kuwait?
Photo by @BasilAlsalem
Over the weekend I had a spontaneous trip to Prague and had like 30 minutes to book an airline ticket and hotel and I have to say I lucked out with my hotel. I ended up staying at MOODs Hotel which is a pretty trendy boutique hotel located around 15 minutes walking distance from the old Prague town and markets.
I had booked a superior room for 3 nights but on arrival I found out I had been upgraded to a deluxe room. Most likely it’s because I had booked less than 24 hours before arrival and so my first night stay was costing more than the other two nights combined. When I first got to the hotel I was really impressed with the way the lobby looked. They had some interesting textured walls, modern furniture and a trippy light show going on with their logo. The hotel receptionist were also young and sitting behind shiny iMacs so the hotel felt very stylish right from the get go.
My room was pretty spacious with lots of closet space, dark hardwood floors, a very cool looking bathroom as well as an LED mood light system running behind my bed which I could control the color and intensity of. I also had access to free fast wifi, a pretty good breakfast buffet and best of all they hooked me up with a great driver to take me to and from the ski slopes.
If you’re planning a trip to Prague then I’d recommend this place. If I ever go back I would stay there again without a doubt. They even have duplex suite for not that much more per night. Here is a link to their [Website]
The Shams Power Company opened their Shams 1 concentrated solar power station this week in Abu Dhabi. The station generates 100 MW and can power 20,000 homes while reducing CO2 emissions by 175,000 tons per year. [Source]
Kuwait is currently in the process of building a solar power station as well and is expected to be completed by the end of this year (2013).
The project took about two years and $600 million to build. [Source]
Now this is what I find interesting. Their solar power station is costing $600 million to build while ours is costing just $16 million. So our power station is either going to be super tiny or they got ripped off pretty badly.
On a similar subject, here is a link to vintage photos of the Shuwaikh Power Station taken back in the 1950s. [Link]
K’S PATH is holding their first fundraising event of the year in a fantastic setting inspired by Alice in Wonderland. You’ll spend the afternoon drinking tea accompanied by music and a host channeling the eccentric Mad Hatter. Seats are limited; email [email protected] to know how to purchase tickets. The event will be hosted at The Kuwait Riding Center.
Date: Friday, 29th March 2013
Time: 11AM to 1PM
Location: The Kuwait Riding Center
Ticket: KD15
Update: Event has sadly been canceled.
Under the change, Kuwaitis will be given priority for medical checkups at public hospitals and clinics during the morning, with foreigners only able to access doctors in the afternoon, unless it is an emergency.
Staff also will be segregated according to their nationality, with Kuwaitis working in the morning and expat doctors in the afternoon. [Source]
Even though this doesn’t apply to emergency treatment it still doesn’t make it less racist.
Wanna know how an alcohol permit used to look like in Kuwait? Check this one out by clicking [Here]
Update: On a related note and from the archives.. Oil, Oil Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink
It’s pretty common to hear about expats being discriminated in Kuwait so it was interesting to read a post by yousefq8 who writes about how as a Kuwaiti he was being discriminated the whole time while apartment searching. It seems most of the places he was checking didn’t want to rent out to Kuwaitis and so he resorted to lying and talking in English to make things easier for himself. I have no idea why they would discriminate against a Kuwaiti, maybe expats don’t feel they can live comfortably when there is a Kuwaiti living next door? Not sure but you can read his post [Here]
This weekend there’s going to be a kids challenge fair taking place at Marina Mall in an attempt to break official Guinness World Records “In-A-Minute”. My guess is there will be various stalls with different activities which anyone can take part in trying to break a record in under a minute. The more interesting aspect for me is the fact the shortest woman in the world (pictured above) and the man with the largest feet will be at Marina Mall to take photos with.
Guiness World Records “In-A-Minute”
Location: Marina Mall
Date: March 14, 15 and 16
Update: I passed by Marina Mall and turns out the shortest woman was only there for the first day and won’t be showing up anymore. Sucks.
Calling all photographers, if you’re interested in taking part in a group activity then this is a good one. Star trails photography involves long exposure shots of either the sky or landscapes where the movement of the stars in the sky form light trails in your shots (similar to the shot above). Not only will you end up with some interesting shots but its also a great way to meet new people.
Here is a list of gear you need to bring:
1. A DSLR
2. A tripod
3. Bring extra batteries or at least fully charge yours
4. A high capacity memory card
5. Shutter release
6. Food
7. Flashlights
8. Mat or chair to sit on
The meetup point will be the Mishref CO-OP parking lot on March 15th at 6PM. For more details check this [Link]
Photo above taken by Saleh AlRashaid
Thanks Kim
In February of this year, K’S PATH received a call about a Hamadryas baboon on the loose in the Friday market. Baboons of this kind tend to compete fiercely for resources, and can be particularly dangerous around food. They are also potential vectors for an astounding number of diseases that affect humans, including rabies, herpes, hepatitis b, HIV, and tuberculosis, to name but a few. A baboon on the loose in a public place, struggling to survive in stressful, unnatural conditions, therefore represents a serious risk to human health. Two of the K’S PATH animal control units therefore quickly responded to the call.
On arriving at the market, we were directed to the Shrimpy’s restaurant, where she had last been sighted. A thorough search of the building, including the roof, led nowhere. Several hours of searching the area around the market and talking to people revealed little except word of an occasional sighting. Eventually we were obliged to go back to our other duties and see what developed.
Later, we received a frantic call from one of the people we had spoken to earlier that day: the baboon was inside Lu & Lu Hypermarket, and people were panicking. This time K’S PATH mobilized all of our units and several volunteers, under the assumption we would have to use a dart gun to catch a baboon inside a crowded supermarket; a very dangerous prospect. By the time we arrive at the scene however, workers had chased the baboon back outside. Now we were faced with the prospect of finding and catching a primate in the dark, in a huge open area. Fortunately, we are experts in animal capture, so we went with our training. With such a recent sighting, we were able to more or less track the animals’ movements through eyewitness accounts. This led to a small cluster of buildings near the main entrance to the manufactured-goods area of the market. Here the trail went cold.
We split up with flashlights and headlamps to see what we could find. The first search revealed nothing. We were just about ready to give up. I was on top of the middle building creeping around looking for what I hoped wasn’t an angry primate, when the beam of my flashlight caught the slightest smudge in the dust inside of an air conditioning unit. A closer look revealed the slight impression of three little baboon prints.
I’m currently in Lebanon for the weekend and earlier today I went paragliding. Now that I’ve tried it I think everyone should when they visit Lebanon the next time since it’s a pretty cool experience. It wasn’t something I had planned to do, I was snowboarding with a friend and during a break we started talking and I found out he paraglides. So I told him I wanted to try it and he called his friend up and we booked an appointment for 2PM. Once we were done snowboarding we headed to the take off location which was high up in the mountain above the area Jounieh. The view was obviously spectacular and the weather was fantastic.
It was me and another girl who were planning to paraglide. It’s a tandem flight meaning you fly while strapped to an expert. You start off high up in the mountain and end up down right next to the sea (where I am pointing in the picture above). There was only one expert so the girl went first and I waited for them to land and get back up. The spot we were taking off from is a popular location and right after they left, 3 military men (I think they were French) arrived and also took off in sequence.
To take off the wind speed and direction need to be right and when it was my turn we didn’t have to wait long to go. I was strapped to the paraglider and when he told me run I had to run. Then suddenly just like that we were up in the air. It was an incredible feeling and surprisingly not very scary. The only parts that were freaky for me was when I was Instagramming the picture above live while up in the sky since I was worried I would drop my phone while doing so. The second scary part was when he gave me the controls to fly for a bit. It’s pretty simple to work but still the idea that I was flying the thing was freaky. The whole flight took around 20 minutes.
So yeah if you’re in Lebanon the next time you should definitely give this a try. The whole experience cost me just $120. To book an appointment call Caroline on +9613559992 or visit their website for more details [Here]
The Kuwait International Film Retreat have just opened up their registration. If you have a short film that you produced in the past two years you have until April 10 to submit it.
The 2nd Edition of the Kuwait International Film Retreat will be a 3-day mini-film festival bringing together filmmakers and enthusiasts from around Kuwait and the Region to take part in short and feature film screenings, workshops, social gatherings, the red carpet, and an awards ceremony showcasing the best short films in competition.
Last year the Film Retreat earned a lot of respect and praise when they decided to play the movie Tokai at the event even though the Ministry of Information had banned them from doing so.
So if you’re a filmmaker this is a great event to be part of and a great way to get noticed. For more information visit the Kuwait International Film Retreat website [Here]
