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Samsara Rehearsals

Originally set to take place on the 13th, Samsara is now taking place this coming Monday the 18th instead. Tickets are still available and can be reserved at this [Link]

This is what you need to know about the event:

In an introspective attempt to bring the world together with music, we at Camco Global Events are producing the biggest music event in Kuwait with musical composer Nawaf Gheraibah, a local Kuwaiti musician whose music is an expression of his rich multicultural influences. He preformed his composition thesis ‘Bija’ meaning ‘seed’ in Sanskrit; at the prestigious Bayt Lothan in May 2012, where the show was enthusiastically received with standing ovations by the audience and rave reviews by the press and media. After the success of ‘Bija’; Gheraibah has focused his energy on creating the sequel to his initial project.

In his new album named “Samsara”, Sanskrit for ‘rebirth’, reflecting the rebirth of the music of the past in the present. Gheraibah attempts to fuse a variety of tribal and ancestral instruments, poetries, and theories, with more modern day musical concepts. The music is a reflection of modern fusion music, which is conceived through the combination of cultures, customs, and languages; creating a resonance of new age sound.

In this case, a rebirth of Kuwait’s musical past, which is reflected in the album, as Gheraibah experiments with fusing traditional work songs from Kuwait’s golden era of pearl diving and trade with a more modern day tunes. The music carries a variety of ethnic influences such as Indian, Thai, Moroccan, African, Middle Eastern and European, blending them into an artistic interpretation of sound and song. The songs are in a variety of languages: Arabic, French, Swahili, Portuguese, Hindi, and English, and will be sung by a variety of singers.

Approximately thirty instrumentalists and singers will be performing on stage during the concert; a majority of which are Kuwaiti students from the Higher Institute of Musical Arts, Kuwait. In addition, a variety of musical students and professionals from other countries, such as Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, India, Jordan, Korea, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Sudan will be preforming as well.

Date: Monday, November 18th 2013
Time: 7:00PM
Location: GUST University Amphitheatre, Mishref [Map]

For more information visit their Facebook Page

Update: Due to the storm the event has been postponed till November 23rd.

Cinemagic will be playing the two movies below this weekend:

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.

For more information click [Here]

This is my last post on Abu Dhabi but I actually posted it on Blog Baladi since it’s related to Lebanon as well. Those of you who visit Lebanon in the summer and party at Skybar probably know that they close down in the winter because of the weather. Well Skybar are now launching O1NE in Beirut next month and it’s basically Skybar but indoors.

While I was in Abu Dhabi last weekend I found out they had opened up there so I ended up passing by to check it out. What I really wanted to see was the interior since a friend of mine who works for Skybar had previously told me they designed the interior with the concept to project visuals across the full 360 degrees of the interior. The outcome looks pretty great and if you’re curious to see how O1NE in Beirut will end up looking like check out my post [Here]

The local real estate website Re.com.kw have launched an iPhone app that allows you to view and search through their directory using your iPhone. I played with it for a bit and found it practical to use but also spotted some limitations compared to using the actual website from your desktop browser. For one thing the app doesn’t show you multiple pictures of a location and secondly the search function is more limited. In any case the app is for free and you can download it from the Apple Store either by searching for re.com.kw or by clicking this [Link]

I don’t really have that much information on this other than a friend of mine accidentally revealing to me in a conversation that a friend of theirs is getting Chipotle to Kuwait. I couldn’t dig out any more information so take this news with a grain of salt. Chipotle if you aren’t aware is a chain of restaurants specializing in burritos and tacos. I’ve personally never tried it before but everyone who has says they’re ridiculously good. If I find out anything more I’ll let you know.

If you’re in London this month you’re in for a treat since Out of Kuwait is an exhibit based in London that brings together the works of thirteen emerging Kuwaiti artists who have examined and reinterpreted the theme of landscape. The Kuwaiti artists are:

Adel Ashkanani
Ahmad Alshammeri
Amani Althuwaini
Aseel Al Yaqoub
AbdulAziz Alhumaidhi
Mohammed Sharaf
Mona Al-Qanai
Mohammed Alkouh
Muneera Alsharhan
Nima Algooneh
Roa Alshaheen
Thuraya Lynn
Zahra Al-Muhdi

Out of Kuwait is the culmination of a two-year project between the British Council, the Royal College of Art (RCA), the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) in Kuwait and Kuwait’s Contemporary Art Platform (CAP).

Private Viewing: Wednesday 13th November, 2013
Exhibition Discussion: Thursday 14th November, 2013 (2 to 5PM)
Exhibition Dates: 14 – 28 November 2013 (closed Mondays)
Exhibition Time: 10AM to 6PM
Location: Edge of Arabia, 40 Elcho Street, London, SW11 4AU
Admission is free. [email protected]

Here is a link to the event’s Facebook Page

I don’t remember exactly when I heard this story for the very first time and there are different variations but the one I remember went something like this:

Supposedly a man who wasn’t dressed well walked into the Rolls Royce dealer and was checking out the cars. The man asked the salesman how much the car cost and the salesman replied you wouldn’t be able to afford it. The man upset left the dealership and came back another day, purchased the Rolls Royce, had it painted orange and turned it into a taxi cab.

I always thought it was just a myth but I got the photograph above today on Whatsapp and turns out the story did happen although not like the one I had heard. The story apparently is that the local dealerships were at a car show in Geneva and the Rolls Royce dealer teased the Buick dealer telling him that he was practically selling taxis. The Buick dealer got bothered and bought the Rolls Royce and turned it into a taxi to piss him off.

Update: Added more photographs

So I’ve been working on a new theme for the blog which I’m going to launch in the next coming months but just a few months ago I was like you know what? I could probably introduce some of the new changes to the current theme and it will take me less than an hour of work. So I did just that.

The slightly modified changes are:

– a light grey backdrop with a soft shadow behind the white page to give it a raised feel
– a wider space for my posts which means I can now have larger pictures and videos
– new sharing icons at the bottom of the post for facebook, twitter and google
– clearer section tabs under the main header

So the main reason I was in Abu Dhabi last weekend was for the Formula 1 Grand Prix which I had never experienced before. In Abu Dhabi the track is located on Yas Island surrounded by a whole bunch of entertainment facilities like a marina, a hotel, Ferrari World, Waterworld, O1NE by Skybar, Du Arena and more. The evening of the F1 practice sessions I was in the car heading to one of the super yachts when I heard the sound of the F1 cars live for the very first time. At that moment it was the most beautiful sound in the world that gave me goosebumps and sent an adrenaline rush through my body. It was incredible loud and powerful and I couldn’t wait for race day.

I think we had one of the best seats in the house for the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 event. Our seats weren’t really seats but more like a lounge with 5-star catering and a balcony with a seating area overlooking the start line and located right over the Ferrari pit lane. We were in the Paddock Club. If that wasn’t cool enough we had a few celebrities in our lounge including football legend Maradona, Knight Rider and Baywatch star David Hasselhoff and the founder of Pagani Motors, Horacio Pagani. With the Paddock Club access we also got access to the pit lane which meant we could check out the teams prepping the cars for the race.

Watching the race at the track was a pretty strange experience since I spent most of the time watching it on the large screens that were located across from us because you couldn’t see the whole track while sitting in one location. So even though I was physically at the race I was still watching it as if I was sitting at home except I was sitting next to Maradona and Hasselhoff.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and as I told our hosts, I’m now probably spoiled and don’t think I could ever watch a Formula 1 event live again unless I get to experience it the same way I did on this trip.

British bank HSBC looked at economic opportunities and quality of life for expats in 34 countries and no surprise, Kuwait didn’t do so well. But what I’m finding difficult to grasp is how did Saudi Arabia come ahead? On the bright side, even though we came behind Saudi Arabia we did come ahead of the UK.

Here is an article on this study [Link]
Here is the link to the HSBC study [Link]

Thanks John

Reza Abedini, is an Iranian designer and a professor of graphic design and visual culture at Tehran University. Abedini is one of the most famous graphics designer in Iran because of his modern Persian typography.

Date: Monday November 11th, 2013
Time: 6PM
Location: Dar Al Funoon [Map]

Here’s a link to the [Invite]

Three Kuwaiti drug addicts and their massive dog were in their car heading out of their capital when a police patrol waved them to stop after suspecting their behavior.

The three quickly put the narcotics in a plastic bag and hid it under the dog before asking it to lie on the bag and stay there.

When the cops told them to get out to search the car, one of them warned the police not to come near the dog on the grounds it is savage and could be easily irritated.

“But the police insisted on searching the car…they were surprised to find that the dog is very calm and obedient…when they led the dog out of the car, they found the bag which contained hashish and other drugs,” Alanba daily said. [Source]

I thought this was funny to share.

Kuwait is one of the few countries in the world where alcohol is not available. The topic is also confusing with people having different assumptions on what is legal and what isn’t. We all know it is illegal to sell alcohol but is it illegal to buy? Are we allowed to have alcohol for personal consumption? Is it illegal to make?

Article 206 of Kuwait Penal Law no.16 promulgated in 1960 states:

206(a) – Any person who brings, imports or manufactures alcoholic or intoxicating beverages for the purpose of trading shall be panelized for a period not exceeding 10 years.

The article doesn’t mention anything about purchasing alcohol but what about if you bring or manufacture alcohol for personal use? The article clearly states that you are only punished if it is “for the purpose of trading”. Lets read Article 206(b)

206(b) – However, if the intention of bringing, importing or manufacturing is not trading or promotion, the person shall be penalized with a fine not exceeding KD100 and should he repeat this act the penalty shall be for a period not more than six months and/or a fine of not more than KD100.

So I guess the first time you get alcohol into Kuwait for personal use you are fined only but the next time you can go to jail and/or fined. The same applies for manufacturing alcohol for personal consumption.

206(d) – Any person who takes alcoholic or intoxicating beverages to a public place or to a place where he may be seen by others be it a public place or a private club, and any person who brings the alcoholic or intoxicating beverage to the said place for another person to consume shall be penalized for a period not exceeding 6 months and/or fined not more than KD50.

Any person who is found drunk will be punished the same.

So the law abstains from mentioning much about personal consumption of alcohol so therefore it is not a crime to drink inside your private space (house/apartment) just as long as you don’t step outside if you are drunk.

Please be careful and stay legal people.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

The Formula 1 weekend in Abu Dhabi is their biggest weekend of the year so it’s just crammed with things to do including concerts. This year they brought in Jay-Z, Muse and my personal favorites Depeche Mode to come and perform over 3 nights at the huge Du Arena located behind Ferrari World. I shared most of my favorite photos already on Instagram (@mark248am) but I also shot some video which I’ve shared below.

[YouTube]

Jay-Z
The first concert I attended was Jay-Z. We were at a party on a super yacht with David Hasselhoff and Maradona watching the Formula 1 practices (the yacht was parked in Yas Marina and overlooked the track) and I really didn’t want to leave. I’m not a huge fan of Jay-Z and I’ve barely heard a handful of his songs but in the end I left the yacht party and headed to the concert. Me and a friend got there around 20 minutes late but we still managed to squeeze ourselves pretty close up front since we had access to the golden circle. Strangest thing ever, I spotted Horacio Pagani in the crowd but no one knew who he was. Only reason I was able to easily recognize him was because he was on the yacht party earlier with us.

[YouTube]

Muse
I honestly hadn’t heard any of Muse’s songs until a week before the concert. They’re not really the style of music I listen to and the only reason I went to the concert was to kill time before going to O1NE by Skybar (that’s another post). But, they did put on a good show although it was just an hour long. According to a friend who is into Muse their set should have included more songs but for some reason they ended it early.

[YouTube]

Depeche Mode
Now this was actually a concert I really wanted to go to. I’ve been a huge Depeche Mode fan ever since Smashing Pumpkins did a cover for “Never Let Me Down Again” back in 1994 (which I still think sounds better than the original). While I had arrived late for the other two concerts, with Depeche Mode me and my friend headed to the arena right after the Formula 1 race had finished so we ended up there over an hour and half early. We ended up camping in front of the stage until the concert started but the wait paid off since we ended up standing second row in front of the stage. Dave Gahan the main vocalist has to be one of the most entertaining musicians I have ever seen on stage since he spent two hours spinning in circles and grinding up against other band members. Extremely entertaining to watch and from all three concerts had the most amount of participation from the audience. Everyone knew the lyrics to all the songs by heart and it was just a blast. I’ve got one video above but two more on my YouTube account which you could watch, Never Let Me Down Again and Personal Jesus.

The website The Richest has put together a list of “10 Countries With The Highest Cost Of Food” and Kuwait is featured on that list prominently at #5. It’s the only Arab country on the list and The Richest used lettuce and eggs as an example of expensive food. I actually found that odd since even though imported products (like Coco Puffs or scallops) can be expensive, I never considered local eggs and lettuce expensive at all. Check out the top 10 list [Here]