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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.

Back in May I posted that Q8Books, the used books store was closing down. Well since then a lot of things have happened. Q8Books did in fact close down but all the books were purchased by Fajer the lawyer and she’s moved the bookstore into a much larger location in Salmiya. She’s bringing back Q8Books and it’s going to be better than ever. The new location is at Bayt Lothan and it’s around four times the size of the older location.

The bookshop is nearly done and Fajer is planning to relaunch it sometime next week. Once it’s officially open I’ll have her post about it with more details including information on how you can donate books and on the bookstore’s outreach project to support a library in Gambia. For now you can follow them on Instagram to see what they’re up to @q8bookstore

[YouTube]

Firas Assaad is an expat born and living Kuwait and works as a software developer in a small company in the city. Firas had always wanted to make games and so for the past 2 years he’s worked on a side project called Octopus City Blues.

I found out about Octopus City Blues last night when I got an email from a reader telling me about a Kickstarter project based from Kuwait. Firas went on Kickstarter to secure funding to help pay the other team members for their time and was hoping to get just $7,000 but with 6 days left he’s already gotten pledges of nearly $17,000. The game looks super cool and trippy plus it’s 2D which I love. You can watch the trailer on top to see the style of the game and below are some links with more information on Firas and the project:

Octopus City Blues on Kickstarter
Octopus City Blues Interview: Grab that Tentacle!
Octopus City Blues website

Thanks Hish

There will be music, face painting, a puppet show and other activities.

Date: Saturday, September 21st 2013
Time: 5:30PM to 9:00PM
Location: Contemporary Art Platform (CAP)

The Peacock which was unarguably the best Chinese restaurant in Kuwait is reopening its doors this coming Saturday. The Peacock was located in Radisson Blu Hotel which recently reopened after going through a complete overhaul. To reserve you need to call them on 25673000.

FYI: For Saturday they’re already fully booked and currently have just one more table left for 8

I am a big fan of street art and one of my favorite past times is to explore old Kuwaiti buildings looking for graffiti, taking photos and maybe collecting old bullets from the gulf war. But is it a crime to walk into old deserted buildings that the owner has neglected? Is it vandalism to tag those walls? Do the owners even know they are the owners?

I have to be honest, this topic is not something widely discussed in law school or at the office and I have never heard of a private law that discusses these matters, all I know of is the Kuwaiti Penal Law (yeah yeah yeah, the one with Rupees) include the rules for vandalism and trespassing. So let us look at the laws together:

1) Street Art or Vandalism?

First thing first, if you’re planning to tag a building you need to keep the following in mind. The building must not be a prayer place, a public office, a governmental building or a school building. The building should be abandoned with no one living in it or no one intending to fix it up to live in it (For example the amazing parking lot in old Salmiya and most of Failika island). I am also assuming your art is not just two circles with a pointy long oval in the middle.

If you want your canvas to be a new apartment complex or a mexican restaurant or a bookstore, then do what the amazing Monstariam does; get written consent from the owners first. Otherwise if the building has half a floor knocked off, no ceiling and 300 bullets have gone through it, then enjoy it. Just don’t be offensive please.

2) Exploring or Trespassing?

Article 254 and 255 both talk about entering buildings/trespassing owned by other people, but they also claim that the buildings should be in a possession of another person or inhabited by a person or is being prepared from someone to live in; and so the places that Mark (and I) have visited or intend to visit do not fall under those two articles.

PS: Does anyone have any creative ideas I could use with my collected bullets, please don’t tell me necklace.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

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.

Kuwait Little Theater is starting off the 2013-2014 season with a short, informal evening of Cabaret. If you’re interested in attending send an email to [email protected] to reserve your free seat for this fun hour and a half of talent. Be sure to include your name, phone number, and number of tickets you’d like to reserve.

Curtain goes up Thursday, September 26th at 7:30PM.

For more information visit their [Facebook Page]

Update: Event is sold out.

It’s already available at Rihab Complex but their current asking prices are hovering around KD40 to KD50. Insane.

via @thebarbecuechef

Buzfairy posted a link earlier today to around 3,700 reports on Kuwait in wikileaks. I took a look at them awhile ago and kinda hoped there was a way to search through them all and turns out there is. I searched for my blog and it turns out it was mentioned once in a cable on the Kuwait Oil Spill. If you want to search through all the wikileaks visit the following link and make sure you choose Kuwait as the country of origin. [Link]

Kilshay is a local app that collects flyers and catalogs from different companies on a daily basis. It then groups them all up under different categories and allows you to access them from your iPhone or iPad. I’ve had it for a week now and I think it’s pretty fast and quick to use with the only downside being some of the small text in the catalogs are pixelated. Other than that this app is much more practical than collecting all the flyers that get left outside your apartments door. The app is free and you can download it from the App Store. Here’s also a link to their [Website]

According to a friend of mine a fire started in Chili’s in Avenues Phase 1 resulting in the closure of the cinema and the Xcite store. I don’t have any more details or photos yet but will update this post when I do.

Update: According to another contact, it wasn’t a fire. One of the AC compressors for Chili’s broke down causing smoke which ended up reaching Xcite and the movie theaters.

Update2: Below is a video shot by @faiha_city

“Hollywood & Vines” is the first film directed via Twitter and shot entirely on Vine. For four days, people around the world worked with the director to share in the creation of a single story about travel, adventure and finding your place in the world. This is the result of that global experiment, featuring 100 Viners from everywhere from Kansas to Kuwait.

Kuwait was represented by the super talented Pinot. [Vimeo]

According to Desert Girl, they’re going to be replacing all the real grass on the Gulf Road with fake ones. I mean I wouldn’t mind fake grass in Salmiya since it’s better than the sandy pit they have there right now (Check picture below) but I was always fond of the Gulf Road greenery. Check out her post for a bit more info [Here]

Sahel – الساحل from Moayad Hassan on Vimeo.

Shot during the first hours of the morning by the beach at Mangaf and Fahaheel in Kuwait. It shows the lives of the few all-nighters and early-morningers and what they are up to, which is interestingly varied as can bee seen.

Video shot by Moayad Hassan and you can check out more of his stuff [Here]

According to the second World Happiness Report launched by the United Nations, Kuwait came 32nd in the world behind our GCC neighbors UAE (14), Oman (23) and Qatar (27). Kuwait actually dropped a spot compared to last year but on the bright side at least we came ahead of Saudi Arabia (33) this time around. Bahrain was the least happiest between the GCC countries coming in at 79 while Lebanon came in 97th, India in 111th and Egypt in 130th.

You can download the full report from [Here]