After closing for renovations for what seemed like an eternity, Barba reopened again a couple of weeks back and I think the place looks amazing, maybe even the nicest looking in Kuwait just because the space is unique being that it’s located inside a warehouse. Before Barba closed for renovation and expansion, the place hosted some very cool events so I’m hoping with the winter season just getting started they’ll be hosting some cool events again soon.
If you’re looking for a casual place to have a good pizza or burger then check them out, the Solo Pizza guy is one of the partners so you know the pizza is going to be great. Here is their location on Google Maps and you can follow them on Instagram @barba.casa
The Nuqat creative conference starts in a few days and as part of the conference, there are a bunch of workshops taking place. I have one workshop entry valued at $365 to give away.
The Nuqat workshops you can choose from as part of this giveaway are the following:
1. Elastic Societies with Dr Raffi Tchakerian (24th to 28th 6pm to 9pm)
2. Photojournalism with George Azar (24th to 28th 2pm to 6pm)
3. Placemaking with Rony Jalkh (24th to 28th 2pm to 6pm)
4. Public Planet Partnerships with Tarek and Leena Al Olaimy (24th to 28th 6pm to 9pm)
You can get more information on the workshops above by clicking here.
If you’d like to win an entry to the workshop all you need to do is enter the giveaway below. Easy as that.
I have only one entry to giveaway so please check the timings and make sure you’ll be able to attend the workshop. I’ve listed the timings of the workshop above and they’re 3 hours a day over 5 days.
Nuqat is one of my favourite conferences that takes place in Kuwait and this year will mark their 10 year anniversary which they will celebrate over 10 days with activities including talks, workshops, exhibitions, and entertainment. Over the 10 years Nuqat has evolved and developed to become one of the largest creative conferences in the region and most of their activities are free to atend. Actually, all of their activities from talks to musical events are free to attend with only the workshops that require a registration fee.
This year’s Nuqat conference is titled “State of the Elastic Mind: New Mindset for Old Barriers” and will be taking place from November 20 to 29 at various venues around Kuwait. All the talks will be held from the 21st to 23rd at the Amricani Cultural Centre with the workshops, exhibitions and various music events being held in different places all over Kuwait.
There is A LOT going on and I spent the good part of the morning uploading all the workshops and cultural events to the events page and you can check those out here.
If you’re interested in attending a talk then you could check all the different talks talking place here.
Nuqat 2015
You don’t have to attend every single talk and I tend to pop in and out during the day just to watch a specific talk I’m interested in. It’s an informative and educational conference while also being a great event to network and socialize in. If you haven’t been to Nuqat before then I highly recommend you do.
To register for Nuqat (it’s free) just click here.
Kuwait’s first official Rimowa store opened a couple of weeks ago at the Avenues and I was curious to check out their prices. I bought a Rimowa bag from the Dubai store a couple of months back and so was curious to know the price difference between the two stores. Surprisingly, Kuwait is cheaper!
The Kuwait store is 5% cheaper than the Dubai store and the reason for that is the new 5% taxes you pay on items in Dubai. So a Rimowa Original Cabin size bag in silver aluminum costs KD325 in Dubai after-tax, but KD310 in Kuwait. Not that much of a difference but still a saving. So if you were trying to figure out if you should buy a Rimowa bag locally or abroad, you now know.
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.
The Improv Comedy Show by Staged in Kuwait is back again this weekend. If you’ve never been to one of their shows before then you should and there are still some tickets available if you haven’t already booked. Check out the full list of this weekends events below:
I’ve been meaning to order tires for my Lotus online for some time now since the local Michelin dealer didn’t carry tire sizes that fit my car. But I had heard two things:
1) The Michelin dealer wouldn’t order tires for you if they didn’t carry them
2) If you order tires online they’ll get stuck in customs and it would be very difficult to clear them
I didn’t follow up on the rumors right away since my tires were still in fairly good condition back then. But the new season at Kuwait Motor Town started already and now after 8 track days and 17,000KM mileage on the same set of tires, I knew it would be time to change them soon so I needed to find a solution.
This post is to clear the two rumors above which turned out to be false.
The Michelin Dealer
First thing I did was pass by the Michelin dealer on Canada Dry street to see if they would be willing to order the following tires for me:
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 – 215/45 R17 x2
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 – 285/30 R18 x2
They told me they could and I had two options, either ship them by sea freight which could take anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks, or by air which would take up to 2 weeks. They took my email and sent me a proposal that came to the following:
Total for 4 tires if shipped by air: KD540
Total for 4 tires if shipped by sea: KD374
Ordering Tires Online
I decided to check and see how much my tires would cost if I ordered them online myself and shipped them straight to Kuwait. I found my tires on Camskill.co.uk for a great price and they would be willing to ship them directly to Kuwait using FedEx. The total with shipping came out to just KD336 so I placed an order and within 5 days I had the tires. They cleared customs with no issue except for the fact I had to pay FedEx KD28 for the customs fees and clearance cost. The total in the end came out to KD364. So KD10 cheaper than the dealers sea freight cost but arrived in just a few days instead of a few weeks.
So if you need specific tires that aren’t available locally I would head to the local dealer first and see if they would order them for you or alternatively, you could order them online if you were in a hurry like me or just didn’t want to bother with Shuwaikh.
Last year I posted about how much I hated the housekeeper’s category on the Q8 4Sale website since people were listing their housekeepers for sale. After my post, the 4Sale website started removing those posts and set new rules for the category but I still wished they had closed it down instead. Well it took a thorough BBC investigation and reporting for that to happen.
Over the weekend, BBC published its investigative video below exposing the trade by interviewing a number of people who were selling their housekeepers including a police officer and a woman who was selling her 16-year-old housekeeper!
Posing as a couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale.
The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women’s passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone.
The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category. Source
After the video and article went viral, Kuwait announced that it was cracking down on slave traders and I checked the 4sale website and it looks like they finally completely removed the housekeeper’s category. Hopefully, this will cause the government to consider reforming the kafala (sponsorship) system which in it’s current state is flawed and being abused. Check out the BBC articles on this subject below:
Some fun things happening this weekend including a different musical event taking place every night this weekend. Check out the full list of events below:
If you’re itching to buy an interesting book about Kuwait, this is one that came out in 2008 but copies of are still available online. The book deals with the construction of the Kuwait National Assembly building that was designed by Jørn Utzon who was also behind the design of the Sydney Opera House.
Completed in 1982, the Kuwait National Assembly remains one of the outstanding modern buildings completed in the Middle East by a European architect. A tour de force of precast concrete construction, Jørn Utzon’s design also represents the culmination of themes that had preoccupied him throughout his work, notably ways of combining ideas derived from traditional cultures with the ‘additive’ principles of cellular growth found in nature. This beautifully produced book, the latest addition to Edition Bløndal’s acclaimed ‘Utzon Logbook’ series, was developed in close collaboration with Utzon and presents an exceptionally comprehensive account of the Kuwait project through photographs, original drawings and the recollections of key contributors – Utzon’s staff, consulting engineers and contractor, and an extended interview with Utzon himself.
If you check out the publisher’s website they have two videos taken during construction which I had never seen before. You can check those out here.
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.
If you still shoot with 35mm film then you know how difficult it is to find a place that can still develop film and how expensive it is. Previously I’ve recommended Ashkanani in Salmiya as an option but because of the cost of chemicals, they tend to wait until there are multiple film rolls and then batch develop them all together. This means the process could take a week or a month, you never know but they’re also expensive charging KD10+ per roll.
But, a few days ago I was at Souk Al Watiya behind Sheraton Hotel in the city and spotted a small store that still had a 35mm film development machine. The place charges KD2.5 to develop a roll and then 100fils per photo print. This means a roll of 36 shots would cost you around KD6. Not only is it cheaper than Ashkanani but they’ll also develop them quicker for you since they have no problem developing a single roll of film at a time.
If you’re looking for a place to develop film then this is a good alternative to Ashkanani. The store doesn’t have a name but it’s on the ground floor of Souk Al Watiya near one of the exits. Here is the location of the complex on Google Maps.
The other day while picking up food from MEAT in Al-Seif I noticed the colorful graffiti-filled stairs next door was closed off. Turns out the stairs is being renovated and this is the text they had on the hoarding describing the project (yes I typed it out):
Al-Seif Staircase #s25k is a project sponsored by the Kuwait Amiri Diwan and donated by Tamdeen Group. It emerges as an initiative by Parallel Design Studio to restore the area that has witnessed significant contribution to cumulative Kuwait history given its heritage and ingenuity so that it contributes once and again to the consolidation and renewal of dialogue between generations.
Al-Seif Staircase #s25k design intent evolves beyond a morphological statement, to which serving the passing by dwellers from level to another. It seeks to highlight the main concept of urban design, which is to draw attention to this particular area as a semantic symbol of the rehabilitation and renovation efforts of the private sector in collaboration with the Kuwaiti Government and to strengthen the advanced social and urban status thus far accomplished by the State of Kuwait while retaining the legacy of the all original past. The main design approach in a geopolitical understanding is to call out for a renovating dialogue, to enhance a social situation where the evidence of the public realm is very highly assertive, this creates a means of instruments enclosing yet democratize a privilege of social proximity and content of vitality.
In a morphological manner of the stair design, it weave a series of faceted geometrical characters that cascades between levels as an evidence of order and balance for an intrinsic aesthetical appearance, on the other hand a nostalgia and a recall to the sense of place where a remaining of materials is set as a viable option by the architect to be re-used and recycled in the content of the staircase design. Moving from linear progression to a faceted discipline is evidence of a transitional transformation of a too platonic geometry to a threshold of clarity of various immersive elements cascades through levels. The seating on the sides of the stair act as a discipline of appreciation and serenity to the old demographic ages and those who want to spend quality time. Above and beyond the definition of a stair, storytelling to encroach appreciation and a triumphal perception to the new design.
I honestly didn’t understand anything from their description above, but going by the rendering, it looks like the stairs are getting a redesign and there will be seating integrated into the steps. I hope they’ll still allow graffiti on the walls once the project is done since it’s what made that stairs fun and special to begin with.
