If you’ve ever wondered why some of your packages look like my brothers box below, now you know why. [YouTube]
Update: Aramex have responded to the video, you can read their response [Here]
I don’t watch a lot of Arabic shows but I can’t get enough of the show Swar Shuaib. Shuaib has to be the funniest Arab talk show host anywhere, he’s so good I actually subscribed to his YouTube channel so I don’t miss an episode. His last few episodes had me glued to the screen thinking no way, no way he just asked them that question. Although Shuaib plays the role of a Conan or a Jimmy Fallon, unlike them he does ask all the right questions, ones that most of the time viewers are thinking about. I’m actually surprised any guests actually end up on the show since he does put them in some tough spots.
The first episode I ever watched was when he interviewed the flamboyant Mohammed Diego from the YouTube channel Fashion House of Diego. Shuaib didn’t play around, he asked him about his wardrobe choices, the way he poses and basically questioning his sexual orientation. In Shuaib’s latest episode he interviews the popular instagram fashionista Fatima Almomen (video on top, starts at the 9:50 mark). The first thing he does during the interview is pull out a scale from under his desk and asks her to weigh herself. If that wasn’t awkward enough he then later starts asking her if she had any plastic surgery done. When she denies she has he pulls out old photos of her to compare. When she continues denying she had anything done, he then invited a plastic surgeon to come on stage and examine her. I was dying, it was such a good episode. Surprisingly, even though there were a ton of awkward moments and questions, both Diego and Fatima handle themselves really well which I thought was pretty cool of them.
Swar Shuaib is in Arabic only and if you’re interested in watching more episodes then check out the YouTube channel [Here]
“تفضل” which roughly translates to “come in” is a short documentary on Rihab Complex that was released a couple of months back but I only got to watch it a couple of days ago. For those of you who’ve never been to Rihab Complex, it’s an old shopping complex in Hawalli filled with video game stores. The documentary gives a bit of a rundown on the on the complex as well as interviews some of the shop owners to get their story as well as explanations on why some games are expensive, while EU games are cheaper than US and other things. Sadly the video is in Arabic so if you can’t understand Arabic you’re not gonna get much out of it. [YouTube]
I’ve personally been going to Rihab since the late 90s (when the best gaming console ever the Dreamcast was released). But before Rihab, during my SNES and Game Gear days I used to get all my games from the shops in old Salmiya. There used to be a bunch of great shops in the building right next to mine, I don’t remember their names but I do remember there were three of them, two on the main street and one inside the complex. One of the ones outside used to have a 3DO in the display playing either the Night Trap demo or the original Need for Speed on loop while the store inside the center had a Neogeo on display playing mostly Samurai Showdown. You also had two computer shops upstairs, one called Computer World where I got my original copy of Windows 95 from and the other shop right next door where I used to buy my pirated games from. You’d buy a game and then have to wait for the guy to make copies of it and some games like Duke 3D for example used 13 floppy disks so you had to either go and come back or wait there patiently until he finished copying them. Then you had Burj Al Abyad (White Tower) further down the road which was the gaming center of Kuwait back then with most of the shops also housing arcade machines.
This post is really making me regret selling all my old gaming consoles. All I kept from the bunch are my Game & Watches.
If you really want to step back in time, back in the 80s there used to be a computer shop in Salhiya, I think it was on M1 or M2, it was right across the Korean restaurant that used to be there. I also got my Coleco in the mid 80s from a video game shop in Kuwait City that was located in the hexagon shaped blue glass tower. Kuwait was so different back then.
There are several steps which might develop Kuwait and make new national income for the country, and one of the ideas it to make Kuwait a touristic city where people visit to try high standard quality and ingredients. Creating the world’s food capital within 2030 in Kuwait is the main goal. And this video is the first step toward the main goal.
I have mixed feelings with this idea, on one hand Kuwait does have some really great local food concepts but I don’t think we have enough of them. The majority of the local food concepts basically lack any creativity and are just clones of one another. Plus, the lack of alcohol will definitely be an issue for elite chefs as well as the food tourists coming here. And what about the elephant in the room? Dubai like it or not is more of a GCC food capital than Kuwait is right now. Just thinking about Dubai is making me crave the warm chocolate mousse at La Serre. Yum. [YouTube]
Infamous Kuwaiti rapper Big D retired earlier this year with a pretty odd resignation letter. The main reason he left music was because he started believing music was a sin and that the rap industry as a whole were advocates of the Devil. I guess he no longer believes that because he’s back out of retirement with a new video. Sadly it’s a pretty boring video, he really should go back and get the guy who produced my favorite video of his that had the trashy looking girls drinking fake wine. At least that was entertaining to watch even if you didn’t like his music.
Kuwait looking at its best. [YouTube]
When I first viewed the video above I didn’t think much of it since I’ve seen better shot videos of Kuwait. BUT, then I found out that if you click and hold down the mouse button on the video while it’s playing you could move around in 360. You could look up, down or turn around completely while the video is playing. That’s pretty cool. [YouTube]
The question ‘What Do You see?’ in reference to the current state of affairs in Kuwait, is a question that I usually get in meetings and tend to dodge to avoid entering into a complaining session about the country in the middle of the work day.
Then, several months ago I was on a red-eye flight back to Kuwait and I began to think what if I am to answer the question. I started writing what came to mind. By touchdown I found myself to have jotted down a collection of contradicting thoughts that have taken the form of a written essay, albeit a loosely-constructed, colloquial essay.
That was in November of 2014. In the weeks that followed I shared that set of contradicting thoughts on LinkedIn, and other social networks, and saw an interesting discussion take place. Since then, two of my colleagues have been working on transforming those thoughts into a visual essay. The result was this well crafted video.
Thank you Mohamed Amin, who shot and edited this video, and Rula Liddawi, who produced and narrated it, for translating my written notes into visual ones.
– Fawaz Al Sirri
Fawaz is the Managing Partner at Bensirri, a local public relations firm. I’ve worked with him a few times and I actually like the guy a lot. I remember the first time I met Fawaz was a few years ago during a meeting in which a digital agency was proposing paying bloggers to write about a brand. Fawaz told the guy that it was unethical to do that and I remember thinking in my head finally, someone else who finds that wrong! It’s why I now always refer Bensirri when anyone asks me if I know of a good PR firm. [YouTube]
Honestly I’m just sharing this timelapse because I love the first 10 seconds of it with the Kuwait Towers. The rest of the video is fairly boring. [Vimeo]
Someone sent me the video above of a car that crashed into a Starbucks. According to the person shooting the video this happened at Starbucks Jabriya. Since I didn’t have anything better to do at 1:30AM I decided to pass by and check it out. I passed by three Starbucks in Jabriya and all three seemed to be in one piece. So unless there is a fourth Starbucks in Jabriya which I don’t know about I have no idea where this incident took place. [YouTube]
This happened two weeks ago but I just found out about it now. The employees response after the fall was pretty poor, “get water” instead of “call an ambulance”. Supposedly the girl didn’t break anything, she was just badly bruised. [YouTube]
via sala6a
According to the 40 minute film below, the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Center that is currently under construction will be the largest museum in the world once completed. The museum will be located next to Shaab Park on the Gulf Road and include:
– A Natural History Museum
– A Science Museum
– A Museum of Islamic History
– A Space Museum
– A Fine Arts Center
– A 350 seat Theatre
[YouTube]
I knew the project was huge but I didn’t think it would end up being the largest museum in the world. I still find that hard to believe. Check out the film above and for more information on the project including 3D renderings click [Here]
Thanks Arad