Good Morning my friends

This is just to let you know I’m still alive, too many things are happening at the same time in my life right now and I’m not sure I want to talk about them yet.

I miss you guys

I drank three cans like 7 hours ago … it should kick in right about now but I’m just too sleepy.

I’m so busy I actually went out and bought me a sleeping bag just in case I needed to crash in the office. Last week I got so many projects it was almost scary. I thought my mom prayed really hard for me. I asked her if she mentioned me recently in her prayers in a specific new way or something? She was like “you and your brothers and sisters are always in my prayers”.

Anyway … Merry Chrsitmas my christian brothers.
Have a good one.

A local ad agency got recently nominated for some london based ad awards, The agency gave the festival the credits information. They basically, placed everybody’s name in there EXCEPT the person who ACTUALLY sat his/her ass down and finished the project ON THEIR OWN. They agency went as far as including the name of the associate creative director who wasn’t even in the country at the time of doing the nominated project.

Names are not mentioned to save the innocent

واللي على راسه بطحه خل يحسس عليها هنيه

Somebody please shoot me

I realize there’s another version of this ad where the hands belong to men but I’m sure you noticed as much as I did how gulf bank been using this version more than the other. They realize they have a reputation of having the hottest chicks around and the want to emphasize on it? They apply segregation rules where males can’t touch the hands of females?

… and while we’re at it, Why I can’t see one hand of ‘those’ that says “KUWAITI” … I want to see a darker skin, I want to see the tip of an A’bayah … I don’t see “nationalization” in that ad … I see “Lebanization”

P.S: Fuck you gulf bank, your ads are so big they don’t fit in my scanner and, no, you’re not worth wasting my time scanning two parts and attaching them together in photoshop.

OK, Everyday when I go to the office I have to pass by this building (Rakaan Tower) that was built in front of Al Muthana Complex. Those guys who run the building never cease to put a smile on my face everyday.

You see how tall and huge this tower is, big no? I wonder how much money was spent to build such a thing. I also wonder how much they paid for this cloth banner to advertise their vacant spaces.

I didn’t fucking believe it when I saw that banner there. I mean oh my god, dude you paid all that money to build the tower then you got all stingy when it came to advertising the building?

OK, So they eventually removed it after, like, 5 days or so of putting it. Well, No advertising is better than bad advertising … I mean c’mon the tall ass building is there in all its glory and those who are looking will ask you eventually, it’s not like you won’t have any people renting the place.

After some time without proper advertising, some smart guy (I suppose he’s smart) decides to give the break to the baker and let the qualified people handle this. Comes this real estate management company with a nicely designed, nicely branded banner of their own. They placed in far end of the building, it was far, yes, but it was visible but mr.smart won’t let it go … so they change the position to … have a look

This is just plain stupid and THEY FUCKIN KNOW IT, I bet somebody high up there was like “Let’s put it there so it will be closer to the intersection and people can read it.” … nobody thought about the palm trees I guess, or they did but they don’t want to remove them because they paid money to the landscape designer and the architect who proposed placing the trees there and now they are stuck with them. I’m just assuming stuff really, but I’m quite sure it’s not very far from the truth of this situation. Isn’t this exactly what happenned with that huge ass screen of Kuwait Stock Market? There was a paml tree in front of it, they didn’t think much about it, they removed it. Simple, no?

The whole thing reminds me of this story my father used to tell me about those farmers who had a bull who stuck his head in this bucket to drink some water from it and they can’t get his head out of the bucket. They need both the bull and the bucket to be okay but after multiple desperate attempts they decided to behead the bull, so they did. They again to get the head out, it won’t come out so they break the bucket to get the head out. The moral of the story is, don’t leave bulls hanging around in Al Muthana Intersection, because that will cause some accidents and traffic jams.

Indians have Rahash too, it looks pretty much like Iraqi rahash except it comes compressed in small bites. The taste is nothing to be compared with Iraqi Rahash though.

Ok I need to add few new names to my list of freelancers to work with, If you have a friend who does any of the following or something you think I might be able to use … drop me a line, show me some work samples and we will take it from there.

Calligraphers
Video Editors
Photographers
Copy Writers
PHP/ MySQL Hackers
Models (really)

… and ironically I also need … *drumroll*

Graphic Designers (sometimes)

Priority to those who reside in kuwait but if you think you’re the hot shit and you are willing to relocate to kuwait or do work over the net then I’m also interested in you.

Thanks

What does it mean when a supposedly dead root of a 6th teeth starts to react to the temperature of the food or the drinks? Yes, it slightly hurts.

I did a root-kill, WTF?

Isn’t this the same so-called artist who didn’t want to do an exhibition just because Kuwait National Council for Culture censored some of his artworks? Isn’t this the same so-called artist who been giving lectures I don’t know where? (kuwait university?) I can’t believe they’re actually doing this.

Did Fuad Al Hashim and company get bored of Abu Ghutadah and Abu Nabeel and left the brainless hand puppet (thallaab) alone?I wonder if he will actually sign any cartoons based on a submitted idea of a read with his name.

[Link]: Misc news on Mohammad Thallab from Al-Watan newspaper.

Note: For the non-arabic speaking crowd, this ad is a call for submissions of any idea for the daily cartoon strip “Yomiaat Abu Ghutadah wo Abu Nabeel”.

OK, I click with a lot of indian things. The people, the culture, the music, the girls, the art and most importantly … the food. I blame our home manager for that, she familiarized us with the indian kitchen so much that we forgot about the thin line between it and the indian-influnced kuwaiti kitchen.

Sargam is one of my favorite resturants in the Mirqaab area. It’s not your average indian resturant, nooo. If Sargam’s owner knew shit about positioning, Sargam would be Indian food for the working indian people. You can’t find keema or any other dish that has any chicken or meat in it because Sargam is a vegetarian resturant, however, their dishes (that I have no idea what they’re called) are always delicious and they will leave your nose running in seconds.

That’s what you would get if you go to sargam for lunch/ dinner, a big steel dish with three tins filled with differnt kinds of food. Some salad tossed on the side and one piece of a dessert item, not to mention the free water. You also get some bread or rice. All of that only for 650 fils. One of the coolest things about sargam is once you’re done with a tin, they would refill it, for free. However, extra bread will cost you something like 50 fils.

It’s very very normal for somebody to just enter the resturant and sit on the same table you’re having your lunch on. Hell, I remember once the manager was doing his books on the same table. OK I got the pictures to prove it.

I just love their shut-the-fuck-up-and-eat attitude.

P.S: Sargam is not a place you want to have your breakfast at.

I might/ might not add to this later.

ROCKED!

Sorry if I disturbed you in any way. I feel better now.

… so I didn’t go to the nubian thing but you know what I did? I met Al (friggin) Franken and I even have the pictures to prove it. YES, Al Franken is in the country. I talked with him a bit but it wasn’t about america’s foreign politics or any of that, I was explaining to him what tata botata means.

any body went to the nubian thing? worth it? should I go tomorrow?

There’s a musical performance tinight at Dasmah Theatre in (duh) Dasmah Area. Very rhythem-driven I hear.
I will come, loaded with CnH2n+1OH in my blood. This should be interesting.

Now if only I know where the hell is that, somebody call me give me directions.

Ok guys, I been looking on the web for an expandable hard-disk-based mp3 player for my car. It would be awesome if I can use the old PowerPC 540c in this thing instead of collecting more dust. I want some kind of LCD display, no need to see the colorful covers, artist name and song title will do. I want it cheap, I want it good and oh yes … I want someone to help me build it.

I’m gonna kill the first to suggest buying an iPod.

/me looks at K … pleeeease.

Note: K is the man and he knows how to do this. He’s the man.

Did you know that the senior writer of Business 2.0 magazine is called ‘Om Malik’?

I just discovered that my Art Director at the last agency I worked for has a blog, in which he posts samples of his art and shots of his studio.

His artworks are full of colors and life. I just love the way he does his paintings, he start with lines to make up spaces intersecting each other and then fill them, but Eric’s artworks are no coloring books project. He use color very carefully to convey the feeling of space and you will always feel the depth when you look at his artworks.

Ladies and gents, I present to you the man who if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have taken the small first step into making t-shirts, Eric Tabuena

Can you feel the 3D-ness? :p

I just found out that somebody wrote a post on me at the amazing “k u w a I t , A n o n y m o u s” site. Funny how many tata haters out there but my tata lovers will outnumber them any day of the fucking week.

OK guys you got a cart blanche from me, go and let it out. Abuse that post and show the world how much you hate/ love me.

I know some people are dying to do this, if they haven’t done it already.

peace

Finding undies in the streets of jahra is quite common when I’m jogging in the almost deserted streets but to find undies in kuwait city near a construction site, makes me think twice.

I don’t know why whenever I see one of those I try to make the story behind it. Who came here to have a late night fling outdoors and had so much fun they forgot their undies? Who was innocently walking here when an excessively horny construction worker was around?

I can’t believe I had such long discussion on religion with the same guy who will supposedly hook me up with some ecstasy.

So I found this little branch in my chocolate bar and … I chocked on it and I nearly died … yeah yeah … which caused some emotional damage for my family … yeah yeah … and now the chocolate sucks and my stomach hurts … yeah yeah … and I have migraine.

Is that enough?

So I was invited to this party in the hilton last weekend, OK, so I wasn’t invited … I bought tickets … shoot me. The point is, I was at this indian party last weekend. They were celebrating some “Goan Night” and they had this amazing rock band from Goa.

They played some very dance-able rock songs and some surf rock anthems but what blew me away was pink floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” … no no fuck all that … the point of this post is, Why would an indian band playing for indian people in kuwait play Hava Nagila? They don’t realize it’s jewish song?

Listen to this very short recording of the song as played last thursday at the hilton.

Also, guess who was there?

Some unknown authority is buying media space extravagantly in kuwait city, apparently it’s being used to convince kuwaiti blogger, bu maryoom, to come back to blogging and the art he mastered, Tu’hul’tum.

Meanwhile MTC is worried about finding any space to advertise their new service “Diz lee message, Turoo7 El jannah” in cooperation with Sheikh Mishari Al E’ Fasi.

Update: Bu Maryoom is Back, not fully though.

They just released the arabic edition of Forbes magazine, just looking at this ad I got few notes on the cover.

They couldn’t find a font better than Tahoma to write the word “Al Arabiya”, it’s even STRECHED and it looks ugly and cheap. Couldn’t they get a normal typeface and use it instead of this windows default made-for-screen font.

Maha Al Ghnaaim is bracing their first cover, they can’t go wrong after that. Doesn’t she just rock?
God I love that woman.

Will write a more extensive review once I get my hands on a copy.

Update: Apparently, the arabic edition of forbes magazine been out for some time now.

I was browsing the newspaper yesterday and I noticed something about NBK’s Ad. No it’s not about the stupid red swoosh, and no, it’s not about the headline. The model in this ad looked familiar, very familiar.

OH YEAAAH, He’s the Art Director of JWT TMI Kuwait (or at least one of them) and now he’s the model? hmmm. He got the looks for it, no doubt. Actually a designer/ photographer friend of mine used him a year ago as a model too and I was the stylist, really. :p

Hey Zeyaad (or is it Eyaad, not sure) didn’t you say a year ago when we were talking about the MTC campaigns you worked on and the models involved and how my friend suggested you pose for them, didn’t you say something like “Me? be the model of the same ad I’m designing? no way” and as far as I remember you were joking about how this could reflect bad on the agency and how you were sarcastically saying something like “Hi MTC, My name is Flaan and I will be your Art Director and I will be the model in your ads too. Do you want anything else? tea? coffee?” Yeah that was funny but you should have sticked to your views.

Well, I guess Zeyaad (or Eyaad goddamit) isn’t the one to blame here, I think it’s the agency that allowed such thing and the stupid client who approved it … but hey, It’s NBK … what do you expect?

Note: Using the agency staff as models is quite common in agencies world wide but it would be limited to body parts (hands, legs, head) or any pose that doesn’t show the face. Well, it’s relative really but not every advertising agency employees Angelina Jolie as secretary.

Photo by Mark from Miskan.

OK, Chicken Nuggets won’t get this one.

I just hope some people will get it and appreciate the fact I actually had to chase the guy, STOP HIM, and ask for his permission to take a shot of his hilarious car plate. Of course he was suspicious and stuff and he asked me “WHY?” … so I made up a story on the spot. “My friend Ahmad Sa’eed Salmaan always signs his initials on everything and I think it would be a nice if I can show him your car plate.” Of course after a lot of begging he let me do it and he took a shot of my mug too “just in case”, poor guy.

Beat that Amunki! :p

Update: I re-touched the image a little bit.