A little something I recorded in less than an hour, while making a mixtape for the one and only DJ Maha. If you’re a follower of her show (every friday 9-11 PM on 99.7) I’m sure you heard me on the radio saying “Hello”, “yep” and “Oh Yeah” and last but not least “Bye”. Yeah that was one hell of an interview, no really, I was just there sitting enjoying the excellent music.
This is going to be one hell of a long post, so maybe you want to go refill that cup of cheap coffee you been sipping. Keep on mind there’s no order for things here, I will write things as they come to me.
So my sister gave birth to her first baby, a beautiful baby girl. I’m already an uncle, so nothing’s new, except I’m a ‘khaal’ now. :p
I had a very stupid accident with my new car. very stupid, if only I waited. Anyway, I’m fine but the car was just … uh. That was, like, few weeks ago. I received my car yesterday from the dealership’s garage and nobody could even tell If I had an accident.
I’ve been getting bored of the way I stylize my facial hair. So I decided to shave the goatee and I chickened out when it came to the ’stache. I was thinking “Dude, You’re gonna see your father tomorrow” and although dad was one of the early supporters of the ‘fro, I’m not really sure where he stands on the whole mustache issue So I kept it. I looked like Ron jeremy for few days.
Yesterday, I just thought “Fuck it” and I went ahead and started shaving it. I didn’t want to spoil the surprise element, So I turned my back to the mirror. I finish shaving, I turn to the mirror and I go “Woah!” … maybe “shit”. My roomie instantly approved the new look but he said my hair gotta be down like that (It was wet, I just got out of the shower). I’m not really keen on his taste. So I waited eagerly till next day. At the office, everybody was like “daaamn”. They all told me I like younger. I guess the goatee was the reason why a lot of chicks though I was thirty something.
I still don’t have a connection at home, that’s why I can’t post much lately.
Been listening to some good music lately. You guys gotta check out Diplo’s mixtape with M.I.A titled “Piracy Funds Terrorism” I know it’s soo last year but I just managed to give it a listen and I’m glad I did. Man Man is also good if you like noisy, school-band-like, frank-zappa-ash kind of music. Shacti is fucking amazing too.
I missed two bloggers meetings in a row. April’s because I was in duabi for a conference (more on that later, promise) and May’s because simply I forgot. However I made it to this month’s. The regulars, this is becoming almost like meeting the familiar faces of your friends. I’m always ready for a surprise though.
The communication zone been busy lately, from the beach spike to the KREA awards but I guess those two deserves posts on their own.
My t-shirts are getting some kind of recognition, people been posting about them ever since I put that picture in the last post.
Ok, so somebody stopped me from writing this post and it didn’t end up as long as I thought it’s gonna be. peace.
OK, so It’s unusually quite at work and I’m not working on anything really.I guess it’s time I give you the long awaited update on what’s been happening in tatabotatasville.
One main thing is, ladies and gents, I got a job and I would like to think of it as THE job. I’ve been working as an Art Director at a local agency since the 4th of January. I decided to stop blogging temporarily to focus all of my attention on my job. I mean how many times I’m gonna sit here and click to see if there’s any new comments here and there, I’m sure you know what I mean. I just didn’t have the time to do that. No more chatting on msn (sorry my msn pals, I will make it up one day).
I’m sure you guys are wondering why don’t you blog when you go home after work when you’re all chilled and comfortable wearing your ‘emkasar’ and sitting cross-legged on your old chair at the comfort of your home. Well, Ladies in gents, …. yes here it comes …. I MOVED OUT OF JAHRA! (finally)
It’s my third month in there and I gotta tell you guys and girls, I LUUUUURVE IT. I’m only 10 minutes away from work. I don’t have to hear the noise of my little brothers having a fist fight anymore. I don’t have to drive somewhere at midnight to get a sandwich from my big brother’s favorite restaurant … just because he wants me to. No more ‘when are you gonna get married, son’ talk. No more weird looks on my way out of Jahra.
Now don’t get me wrong, It’s not like I abandoned my roots and family. I still visit them every weekend and sleep there whenever I can. It’s not liked they used to see me everyday back in my freelancing days. I had days where It’s just practical to sleep in the office, because I stayed working really late and I have to be here again in the morning (in 5 hours basically) so I might as well unfold my sleeping bag and snuggle inside it.
Hmmm … What else? Yeah so I don’t have a phone line in my new residence and I kinda like the idea of being disonccedted. (erm … yeah right) No really … I didn’t really miss my roommate’s TV when she broke it. I like how quite it can get sometimes. How suddenly you have the time to do so MANY things and hey, I still got my computers If I was in the mood for a DVD.
My roommate is in london since two weeks now and honestly, I think I like it better this way. I mean we’re friends and everything but I think I’m a loner. I’ve been contemplating a house warming dinner ever since I moved in my lovely place and maybe invite some of my bloggers and bloggeritas but I think Kuwait’s summer will do more than just ‘warming’ the place. :p
OK, somebody just tapped on the shoulder to remind that I ACTUALLY have something to do.
See you guys and feel free to ask any questions, I may/ may not try to answer them.
So it was raining yesterday, right?
I was just out of marina mall after picking two books that I totally fell in love (Wall and Piece, Manga) with and after I paid in a mix of kuwaiti dinars, emarati dirhams and even virgin gift vouchers (wink at jazz central and the stallion).
So I was just getting out of Slamya heading home. Right after the traffic light near the scientific center. The Car in front of me stopped suddenly and I had nothing left but push the brakes pedal as hard as I can, which resulted in the car sliding on the slippery road and, yes, crashing into the car in front of me.
Remember when I was complaining about my car a long while ago? well, Fortunately I was using that very same car. Right after I saw what happened to the front of the car. I gotta admit I kinda felt happy and I thought “Well, that’s it … You’re dead now. That’s all I needed.”.
So this morning I went to al babtain (local nissan dealer) and I got me a white sedan Tiida. Suitable for my needs and my budget. After that I went to Salmya police station to clean the mess of yesterday. Thanks god the other person was cool enough to understand it was nobody’s fault and we agreed to fix our own cars on our own.
There’s a lot of updating I need to do for you guys, a lot of things happened recently.
Stay Tuned.
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.
I tried starting the engine of my car today but it didn’t work, tried again and again but no luck. So I just asked my big brother to drop me on the bus station, my office is close to Al-Murgaab main bus station and I’m no stranger to buses.
I had a heavy breakfast this morning and I felt like throwing it all up at the bus. It was shaking and vibrating in crazy way but It wasn’t that bad. I was able to smoothly read a chapter or two of David Sedaris’ “Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim”.
I really missed reading books in the bus, maybe I should use buses excusively again.
Photo by the amazing BloBoz
I should tell you about what I did in my weekend. It’s not like I have weekends this interesting every week. I want to ramble about this but I will just stick to the point.
I went to a jazz concert organized by the american embassy on thanks giving as a sign of gratitude for the kuwaiti people and what they’ve done to help their american brothers overcome a disaster like hurricane katrina. The New Orleans All-Star Brass Band kicked major ass. They were loud and that’s how I liked it. Amazing what a bass drum and a snare can do to you. Their vocalist, the short guy, was signing pretty much like Louis Armstrong. He did a good job if imitating armstrong was one of his intentions.
What’s a jazz concert without Jazz Central, right? He was there as well as the main fusla and her partner in crime Amunki. I also heard some other blogger were there. Anybody?
Did you see the guy who was wearing ghetra and e’gaal and was obviously having so much fun?
OMG Guess who I ran into after the concert was done, our old friend Mona AL-Gena’e. I actually saw her before the concert but I didn’t want to risk losing the seats I was saving for my friends. I had a really interesting chat with her and I think my number of friends has incresed by one. 
She really really wanted to hit me, I can tell. Oh don’t you deny it mona, I saw the way you were pointing your finger almost poking me with it while saying “… a person like you … “. I’m not gonna go in details, I know you guys are just dying to know more but sorry I will disappoint you this time. 
On friday, I went to the book fair at mishref … blah!
This children book from germany will give you the answers when your kids pop that hard question. Very graphic and kinda not safe for work. That family kinda looks hippy, especially their car.
check this story out …
So this guy finds my portfolio website while he was googling for something. He adds me up on msn. We chat, he’s an indian designer working for an american company in kuwait. We meet, we talk … nice guy and everything. He asks me if I got any “cool music” something he can use in some interactive presentation he is making for the company. I give him with the most pure intentions a bunch of my “coolest” CDs (originals I must add … back then didn’t have a CD recorder).
He kinda told me that the whole company is relocating to dubai and he will be moving too. No problem, we will miss you man … stay in touch and all that crap.
I got busy and I kinda lost contact with him, basically I didn’t call. So after finishing whatever project I was working on back then and getting some free time. I decided to call on my indian friend and see what he’s up to. The phone was ringing but he wouldn’t pick up. I tried after a couple of days, the same.
I was thinking “oh he’s just too busy with some big ass presentation or something”. I don’t know what made me go and check out his website only to find that he mentioned that he already relocated to dubai. You can only imagine the anger, the rage, the complete dissatisfaction with what I just learned. I wasn’t really angry about him not saying goodbye or meeting up one more time before he finally leaves … fuck that, apparently this guy doesn’t care about our so called friendship. I fucking wanted my CDs back. I tried emailing him, smsing him. No luck.
Time passed by and I just forgot about the whole thing. Now out of the blue he’s sending me this email
From : ****** ******* < ********@hotmail.com>
Sent : Wednesday, September 21, 2005 6:52 AM
To : tata_botata@hotmail.com
Subject : RE: hello
Hey Tata (salaams),
Apologise for not beening
in touch for months ... say years now.
Been in India and US since last 2 years
and now finally settled
in Dubai, and now you can also chat
with me online.
How about you??
Where are you these days
and what are you doing??
Same track hunh...?
Keep in touch.
I still visit your site: *****.***
whenever I remember you.
Yallaa, gotta go.
Do mail me a line or 2.
Thanks,
********
From: "Tata Botata"
To: ***********@hotmail.com
Subject: hello
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 11:38:43 +0000
>hi ********,
>
>It's been along time
>
>where are you?
>
>
>
>
>
>tata
>
Did you notice that? He’s replying to a two years old email I sent to him. After some thinking I remembered I visited his website a few weeks ago to see what he’s up to. Maybe he saw something in his stats, hits from kuwait, and figured out it was me.
Right now I’m puzzled and I have no idea how to react.
What would YOU do?
OK, I need to write something here.
Lots of things happened recently. I feel like rambling, here we go again.
First of all, thanks everybody for the beautiful suggestions for the advertising-related blog Q and I about to start. We picked a name that was inspired by one of the suggestions. We don’t really have a winner here. The final name, the inspirational suggestion shall remain a secret till further notice. Thanks everybody. Also, It would be extremely nice if some people could remove the sticks up their asses, This will save them and us the pain we are going thru everyday.
Recently, God or whoever is in charge here is playing a game with me and it’s really freaking me out . Whenever I check the time, it always has to be something like 4:44, 3:33, 5:55, or even worse 11:11. This happens to me almost ALL the time and I can do nothing but wonder, WTF?
I made a deal with Mukan Café to sell my t-shirts there. You totally need to pass by that spot at some point in your life. Not only for my t-shirts but for the amazing, cozy and cool atmosphere of the place and the nice people who frequent the place.
Here are the directions: ( and no, I’m not gonna draw a map for obvious reasons :p )
You are on the fourth ring road, salmiya behind you. You’re just passing over the bridge over fahaheel highway. Stay on the right lane until you see a “sub road”, it’s parallel to the fourth ring road. You drive till you reach the theatre where this big poster of “kuwaiti fee al faloojah” will be on your right side. You take a right after the theatre. you go ’seedah’ for a lil bit then take the first right, then a left. Drive for, like, 100 meters and it shall be on your right side. You can see the bamboo fence or if you come at night you will see the red neon sign (how classic) “Mukan”.
Don’t be afraid when you step in a small room suspecting you trespassed somebody’s house. Say hi, order your drink from john and somebody will guide you. It’s fun, unless you’re an antisocial.
Talking about social stuff, I’m sorry my fellow bloggers for not commenting or for my lack of chatting with you my msn buddies, or yahoo buddies for that matter. I’ve been juggling lots of random small projects and few big ones recently and the last thing I wanted to give a fuck about was blogging. I hope you understand. Also, I apologize for each an every person who ‘tagged’ me, I’m sorry.
Did I mention I’m really happy going back to my freelancer’s lifestyle?
Did I mention I might move to dubai? more on that later.
Shit, fuck that … I’m not gonna continue this … I have a meeting in two hours, better get my shit ready. See guys later.
So I came in late, but who’s counting? I brought donuts for every body which was highly appreciated by some of the guys who were obviously starving. I sat on my desk knowing I will not actually do anything today. I spent some time on the net. I ate my last lunch.
Then there was the most awful thing, cleaning my desk. My co-workers were unusually concentrating on their screens and avoiding any eye contact. I wasn’t feeling sad or anything, It was just weird.
I wrote everybody a thanks letter for the good time I spent with them and I left my contact info. Shook hands with everybody and I left.
OK, I got a confession to make. I did something, It’s bad, it’s very bad.
Before you jump on me and make conclusions and judge me, let me explain. I swear to god I didn’t know, I was tricked into it. My friend (the devil) made me do it. He was like “Let’s go to entertainment city”, and I was like “entertainment city? what the hell are you on?” but he explained “Well, marina mall is getting boring and you know it’s thursday … lots of chicks will be there”. I couldn’t argue with that, We agreed to meet there.
I reached the tickets booth and I handed the guy 3.5 KDs (the usual ticket price) but he said “No it’s 5 KDs today” I didn’t even ask why, I gave him the money and I got the ticket. On my way to the entrance I noticed a familiar mug on the ticket, “Oh Shit!”.
I managed to stay away from the concert as long as I could, I got busy with games and food but I was near the stage when the presenter announced the big star of the night “Aliiii Al Deeeek” I couldn’t help but shout “kooo kooo koooooo koooooo”.
On a side note, I got tired with the whole dali moustache thing. I’m back to the same good ol’ goatee.
Yesterday, I was trying to waste sometime before the screening of shewrite’s dad documentary which kicked major ass (wait for the review). I was at Sultan Center (sharq) doing some shopping, I picked the may and june issues of Icon. The may Issue got a really nice feature on Jasper Goodall, One of my favorite Illustrators.
This is not a design-related post, or wait, maybe it is.
I was looking around, which I don’t usually do in Sultan, and I found a very interesting product arrangments. The yeast shelf is placed exactly in front of the grape, apple and peach juice bottles shelf. Coincedence? I think NOT.
I’m supposed to post this, like, 3 weeks ago. Anyway, here we go again. Take a deep breath and read.
Last week I wrote this: Today I left work late, I finished a whole campaign (conception and design). The creative director said something really nice, ‘I will only share with you the glory, other than that it’s your baby’.
There’s only one coffee shop/ restaurant close to where I work. On my first visit I think I saw a blogger who kept giving me looks and shit (yes that guy who got his picture on his profile, I think it was him) and to my surprise there was an anonymous reader of my blog who surprised me later on that night by telling me that s/he saw me and I was wearing that green t-shirt and so and so.
It seems like this spot is a very ‘gez’ hot spot, today while I was stuffing my face with that smoked turkey sandwich there were two ‘monaqbat’ but they weirded the hell out of me. When I entered the place there were two chicks in black however their faces were visible, however, by the time I got my order and I settled on my table I noticed the chicks were replaced by a couple of face-covered ninjas.
Now I’m eating and reading the paper and I lookup and I see one chick with a covered face but the other is not. I was like ‘huh?’ I went back to my paper and ate the rest of the sandwich when I was done I looked up again and I saw that the two chicks exchanged places and the face-covered chick uncovered her face and vice versa. All the while I was like ‘WTF?’ ‘What’s happening here?’ ya know … I mean what are covering exactly? I just saw your face, which isn’t that good BTW … but when you put the niqab I might get fooled by how sexy your eyes might have looked. (so that’s how it works here, hmmm).
Of course they made me feel like a piece of meat starring at me all the time and giving these wicked smiles when their faces were uncovered … fucking tricky (not like they can avoid starring at me, it just comes with the tata). I knew I had the chance to get them both if I wanted, I just didn’t want to degrade myself to their level.
The right button on my PC’s mouse is not working and I’m supposed to be used to the one button mouse (being a mac user and all) but you have no idea how much it sucks to use one button in windows.
I was invited to a bedouin wedding recently. It rocked (with all the 6eeran and the samree band), there were also some improvisational tribal crazy-ass bedouin dance where a 20 something men make a circle and start saying stuff like ‘hayoh hayoh hayoh’ in a very weird way and there are some random people screaming short screams similar to war screams more like monkeys. There would be two guys inside the circle carrying swords and doing some moves, they were pulling some awkward facial expressions. I myself did some sword dancing too (outside the circle) it was fun.
What’s with people coming up to you and start fixing your ghetra without your permission? I was like ‘just tell me there’s something and I will fix it’, It’s rude and no you’re not doing me a favor you’re just making me look more stupid, thanks. It’s just like another guy fixing your tie without asking for your permission. Gay? Well, there were men everywhere, only men but it’s also bedouin, so … yeah dude that’s in jahra so … oh whatever.
Of course there was few gun shootings here and there, which I still can’t understand. I mean people are happy and enjoying the company and this asshole is shooting this gun he can hardly control and scaring the shit out of them. One more thing I can’t understand how many assholes stand around him, ‘look at me look at me, I’m a bad ass I’m not afraid of all this shooting. look at me I might get shot right now but I don’t care because I’m this stupid’.
A while ago I got this ‘blogger invite’ to be a member of this new blog called ‘A whole lot of gerger’. I tried to access the blog but I think it was deleted or something. I wonder who’s behind this blog and why do they want me to ‘gerger’ with them.
YES there was a celebrity blogger, and he even signed my moleskine. He wrote ‘The Best Bloggers’ Whatever that meant, I didn’t ask for something specific and he seemed out of ideas. I didn’t feel like asking him to write something else, I was kinda embarrassed for asking him to sign in the first place.
I was shocked that this guy is a blogger, I mean he’s soooo not blogger if you know what I mean. I got a lot of questions asking what kind of ‘celebrity’ he is. Well I can tell you that, He’s famous in the arab world and he’s known in europe in certain circles. I can’t give more hints than that, he was concerned about his Identity and he wasn’t willing to share it with people he never met. I respect that and so should YOU.
On a funnier note, I almost drove over this guy the other day and thanks god, he noticed the car. I dunno where he were looking but he stepped back to the pavement. Now the funny part, I somehow recognized his face, he looked so familiar. The following conversation took place:
me: 7amdelah 3ala el salamah
him: allah yesalmek
me: ta3aaal … a3rfek entah
him: … (huh?)
we shake hands
me: Are you a blogger?
him: No (very assuringly)
me: mashee … ya36eek el 3afyah
Did you notice? 
Few reasons why my new job kicks major ass:
1- Fairouz is pumping almost all the time.
2- There’s a big ass library full of vintage graphic deign books, shit from the seventies and eighties. This is like a dream come true. ( gotta read them all) I will try to take pics of the covers and some inside pages sometime soon (within a year from now)
3- No restaurants around (except for that coffee-shop). One more reason why I should make my own ‘healthy’ food at home and bring it with me.
4- I get to do all the fun/ creative jobs. Story-boarding, copy writing, Illustration and conceptualizing for ad campaigns in addition to all the regular duties of a graphic designer.
Thanks to everybody who commented on that ‘art post’, that was fun, we all should do this sometime soon. Next time you should respond to the replies I made to your question. I will just take silence as an agreement with the points I made. Also, the beautiful people who dedicated a whole post for me, big thanks for the free publicity and hey *psst* (when Gigi signs her comments with questioningly, it only means one thing … she’s waiting for answers).
I was working on some juice packaging project with a fellow designer, he’s lebanese, I asked him what are the fruits we’re supposed to make options according to. he said ‘laymoon (lemon), ananaas (pineapple) and teffa7 (apple)’ so I started working on them. By the time I was almost done with them he goes ‘laaa’ … ‘laymoon hellow, moosh 7amed (sweet lemon, not sour). I was like ‘huh?’, he explained, ‘bord2aal … orange’. I said ‘you told me lemon’ (with a blank face) then he was like ‘oh yeah we call it lemon too but we differentiate it by saying ’sweet’. I wasn’t really mad, actually I laughed my ass off on the whole thing.
Nice guy, he just need to stop listening to 3asee el 7ellani.
The meeting was cool, the usual, we sat and talked and had fun. I noticed something, once we leave (usually all together at the same time) we meet down the parking and start another meeting and start discussing stuff again.
The other day, on my way to work, I got a flat tire. It wasn’t ‘flat’, it was totally torn. Thanks god there were some mechanic nearby. So after changing the tire, I continued my trip to the office. I was about to take this roundabout when this guy with a big ass car drives in front of me, I had to stop, the guy behind me crashed into my car. It wasn’t major ‘crash’ but I didn’t know that till I got off my car and checked it out. I asked him to stop, he did. I was like ‘7amdellah 3ala el salmah, 3asa ma shar …. feekum shay?’ … and he said ‘no’ … so I was looking at my car, and checking it out and he was like ‘zain eshtabi al7een?’
Can you imagine? He actually said that.
End of the story, I had to let him go … there was no point in wasting our time and there wasn’t really any serious damage. Also there was no point of teaching manners to someone who had dried sa3abeel (saliva) on his mouth and a project of a growing beard.
Two days ago, I got the most weird SMS.
” ‘7u6bat 3aysha esha3ah “
I was lik ‘huh?’ but I thought it’s a wrong number case.
I coudn’t resist and I replied with
7elfay, min sijjich?
Of course they didn’t reply. :p
can you believe I’m using Mac OS 9.2 at work?
I finally upgraded to tiger, don’t ask me how it went cuz I have no idea. While installing the thing, I got a message saying there’s scratches and finger prints on the CD, which might not be safe to install from. Threre were an option to ignore this message and continue, which I did (I don’t have access to any other copies). I reached, like, 50% of the installation process and I got a message saying I will have to restart and try installing again, which i did. Tried it again, got the same message.
So I gave up and decided to put the whole upgrade on hold till I get a better copy or maybe an original one. I quit the installer and I got asked which disc should i use to boot next time the computer starts working. There were the DVD I was installing from and the HD which somehow got renamed to Mac 10.4 or something like that. I choosed the HD and … data … you got tiger.
It’s kinda glitchy but it’s working. I will have to do a proper upgrade, one day.
Oh my god, you reached this line? Get a life, Write a post, watch some porn and save the world.
Yep, the sixth. Now there’s this big hole between my teeth, It looks like someone just shot me with a fucking shotgun. I can’t imagine how I will get used this ‘hole’, will it ever heal?
This is tata blogging from his new job. yes people I freelance no more, and I should change that description on the right to something more descriptive like zaydoun’s.
Life is being too sweet, too geneous for me these days I started to think I will die soon. I mean new job, new girl and a new car. (well almost :p)
I got one of those ramplings posts as a draft I will try to make it as rich as they always been. I’m sorry I won’t be able to post more often and this goes for responding to comments too, However, I will try my best.
I can’t believe I just applied some lipstick.
I will tell you how it went, so my little brother and sister come in my room holding this disposal camera and they’re like ‘we want to take some CRAZY pictures’ and I was like ‘what? huh? … RIGHT ON!’ so we did a couple of supposedly ‘crazy’ pictures (some involved pretensious oud/guitar smashing) and I suggested maybe my sister should dress up like a man (in dishdashah and ’shamgh) and I maybe can put some make up and look like a girl.
I looked really … Uh … with the whole facial hair clashing with the red lips. I can safely tell you that this won’t be a trend anytime soon.
Subject: Participate in a book about food
Hello, my name is Jody. I am writing because I am working on my senior thesis project for college and was wondering if you would like to participate. I am creating a book about everyday eating habits. To do this, I will have people from around the world keep a food journal of everything they eat for four days. In addition, they will
photograph all of their food. I read in your profile that you are interested in photography so I thought you might like to do this.
If you have a digital camera or can borrow one and would like to participate, please email me as soon as you can and I will send you more information. My email is jodyfruit@yahoo.com.
Thank you!
Jody
Too bad I don’t have a digital camera but I’m sure some of you guys can help her. Show her photos of our machboos deyay, margoogah and all the delicious things we eat everyday.
It’s been a while since the last ‘ramblings’ post, and I feel like rambling so let’s go.
I realize I have some white hair in my ’stache, beard and sometimes head. “Elkubur shain” but check this out … I just discovered I have a relatively very long white hair on my chest. what the hell does that mean? and what will happen if I plucked it out.
You guys should pick up this week’s issue of the arabic Newsweek magazine. They have this really nice feature on the 43 most influential people in the middle east. It’s not really numbered but nancy ajram tops the list. Three Kuwaitis only made it to the list, Abdullah Rowashed, Waleed AL Awadi the filmmaker, and shaikha Amthal alsabbah.
Mabrook for my kuwaiti sisters winning half the battle. Actually that’s not even the half, is it?
Oh yeah, I met the girl from the last post (the chemistry girl) again today, thanks to some ‘asking around’ I knew she would be in this place. I came with friends and I couldn’t really find her in the crowd. She came up to me and said ‘hi, do you remember me?’ I said ’sure’ and we continued chit-chatting. I sat behind her (the row behind her you perv) after she introduced me to her mom *wink wink nudge nudge* and her friend.
Her mom is a really nice lady, heard good things about her and for some reason she seem to be famous. Also she hang out in the same places where I hang out (dar al athaar), isn’t that nice? Also, her mom said the most interesting thing, she said ‘flanah (her daughter) was really happy to meet you’ or something like that. Apparently the girl talked with her mom about me, Major ‘Hmmmm’.
So the day before I was dying to get her number and now after she mentioned something about the design of my card I act really cool and I decide to hold my horses and not ask for her number, Which I kinda regretted later.
I know this girl will leave the country next year to study, I’m not sure I want to get emotionally attached to someone I might not be able to see in a year or so.
Also the clothes she was wearing made her look way younger than she looked at the party, I felt like a pedophile for a second. Maybe she was wearing this because her mom was around.
I think that ‘chemistry’ was nothing but that vodka, however and after a very encouraging talk with a friend of mine, I might take the next step and ask her out.
Talking ’bout vodka, where is it when you need it?
Are you guys sure you don’t want the chickens and the cock? (aham sahy el cock)
I think I’m developing a big ego. I was thinking of making a tata botata fan club. (exactly, WTF?) I blame you all for this. Check this story out … So I email this obscure, unfamiliar [to me] cafe here in kuwait asking for directions, and they were like ‘afaaa, how come a funky person like don’t know where our cafe is, ask you blogger buddies’.
So apparently all of kuwait saw me at that rally, not ‘all’ only the people I want to meet. Anybody up for meeting a beardo?
Also, Some anonymous readers are adding me and they are like ‘dude you got fans all across the country’ and ‘how do you make your hair do that thing?’. Don’t you just love them?
Fan Club … I mean c’mon I’m that famous now, I deserve one, right? mo? mo? mo? Yeah I thought so.
Ok, I’m still working on the T-Shirts. I made a little focus group, thanks for the people who were in and reported back to me and another BIG ASS THANKS to those who didn’t and hey don’t even think of trying to make it up and do it now … sorry, I changed the passwords.
Also, for those who were in the focus group, I hope you didn’t share the images with anybody else. Please these ideas are between you and me, Ok? Mmmwah I love you all.
I think I know which Tees to start with now. Stay tuned to this page for more info on the tees.
I already mentioned how the white stripes’ “ball and biscuit” rock my world especially with the killer solos. So I’m in my room rocking to it and doing air guitars and stuff, when I reached this point where I have to jump (you would know what I mean if you’re into rock and rocking) and what do I see in front of me? my bed. So I was like *me bouncing* … 6aaa’7. I couldn’t help but break out in a major laughter. Piece of crap. I slept on that broken bed and the next day I felt like I was ran over by a truck.
Just removed the bed from the room, more space, However I will sleep on the floor until further notice.
Ok I don’t want to sound very sensitive to music and stuff (although I AM) but I was listening to um kalthoum’s “Entah 3omry” and I felt a tear down my cheek as I was singing along with her. I’m not sure this song has any nostalgic meanings to me. However, I called this old dear friend of mine after that and asked to meet him. I haven’t seen the fucker in ages.
Do you know that I’m 100% sure I will (one day, one day) I will release an album? AND it will rock your world.
It’s been really really long time since I saw a good movie, or a shitty movie for that matter. Oh BTW I will be in the production crew of some movie which will be produced totally here in kuwait, can’t reveal more information but I will suggest blogging to the director.
Did I ever mention how much I hate using the word ‘movie’? It sounds very degrading compared to ‘film’ but since some ‘films’ are not shot on film anymore. I think I will use both.
Talking of movies that are not shot on traditional film rolls, Isn’t ‘Sin City’ going to be the coolest thing ever? Trantino is there for crying out loud. Can’t wait for it to hit our theaters so I can ignore it and wait till they release it on DVD.
If you feel like eating kunafah, baqlawah and bothah 3arabyah all at once at 2 AM. Please resist, it’s not good … not good at all. ‘a friend of mine’ tried that and ‘he’ told me that it’s not good at all. What the hell I was thinking?
Oh my god … you actually reached this line, get a life. It’s people like you who make kuwait the place it is. Do something useful, burn one of these fake plastic trees.
So there was this girl in this little party (not that party), and I was chatting with her and there was some kind of chemistry. The ratio of men to women was like 3:1, so eventually I found her chatting with other guys too.
By the end of the party I said my goodbyes and I gave her my card. I made the mistake of not asking for her number. Now it’s been more than five days and she didn’t call yet. I want to consult you about something, would it be too creepy if I asked around in a discrete way and got her number and called her? Or should I just wait and see? If she didn’t call, does that mean she’s not interested or she’s just too shy to make the first move?
On the other hand, there’s this chick in another party (yes that party) and she was like ‘I like your hair’ and ‘I gotta see sometime soon, ok?’ with the most foxy look. Does that mean anything at all?
THIS POST WAS DELAYED DUE SOME LAZINESS
Been working on the story boards for some commercial. It was fun, I should do that more often … Hell, I should draw more often.
My weekend was kinda weird, I was partying with guys ONLY. I don’t want to hear any comments on that. No, really it was totally innocent, kout bo setah over some russian shit … hold on, none of that was russian, it was swedish and finnsih and don’t even try that finnish, fucking burned my nose. Last time I felt like this was when I tryed to burb some coke gases from my nose (accidentally).
One of the guys seemed to be a ‘thekra’ sucker. He was giving these orgasmic ‘allaaaah’s, ‘ya salaaam’s while he was listening to her singing on KTV (hala february concerts). Suddenly that guy dropped the cards and what used to be a kout bo setah ring became a dance floor. I was just clapping and sipping my drink but when the booze got the best of me. I got down and did some serious ass shaking.
It was good, had fun. Still, No hangover whatsoever.
May this weekend kick more ass than last one.
Amen
P.S: This thing comes in a bad bad time as a client/ blogger/ friend of mine is 100% sure that I’m gay. (Not that I have anything against gay people, THEY ROCK!)
I will tell you what I remember, without too much details. So I’m in this big ass tent – like -the ones they use for Bedouin weddings- it’s not full but there’s a corner where a big number of people were sitting sipping tea and talking.
I was told by someone that this is my niece’s ‘6uhoor’ and the white stripes will be playing here. Now I’m supposed to be like ‘WTF?’ but that’s a dream so I totally bought. The funny thing was the bad urge to send SMS to everybody I know saying ‘Jahra doesn’t suck anymore, The white stripes are playing here and you are invited’.
I woke up with a big big smile on my face.
P.S: Did I ever tell you that I became an uncle since like two months ago?
Yesterday I met shadyq80 for coffee and quick brainstorming session on something we will be working on. We were supposed to meet at Costa Coffee in front of Kuwait stock market but it was closed and under the heavy rains of yesterday I decided to go the closest coffee shop, Second Cup.
As I stepped in the coffee shop, this huge guy starts a loud conversation with me.
Guy: Isn’t it nice when it rains?
Tata: Yes, Very nice. But it’s not nice when you are outside.
Guy: I love it
Tata: … … (looking around)
That’s when I noticed this chick that sat in the corner with her mohajabah friend. She was giving me ‘that’ look. Bedroom eyes, petite body, quite way of talking and a killer smile. She was giving me all the ‘looks’ needed to know that she was into me.
I was trying to focus with shady on the project but he noticed how distracted I was and he asked me
Shady: Dude, what’s wrong?
Tata: Dude … 6 O’clock
Shday: (turns 6 O’clock) … Nothing
Tata: How come? She’s there with her friend.
Shady: Oh that girl, dude, that’s more like 6:30.
Tata: … …
Shady: (Major Laughter)
I thought ‘oh, she just recognized me from the newspaper or something’. She was giving me those sneaky looks every once in a while, and I was there sitting like a total ass. I don’t know how to handle such situations, I can’t talk the talk nor walk the walk. Nibaq joined us later on and he was in the mood to pick at me, which was contagious because shady started picking at me too.
The thought of her being a reader of my blog crossed my mind, and here I am writing this post. If you were the beautiful girl with the brown, highlighted hair and the purple sweater (was it purple?) and you were with your mohajabh friend (white hijab) at second cup yesterday between 8:30 – 10:00 PM. Just know that I’m the guy with the crazy hair who was wearing a long sleeved brown t-shirt and carrying lots of stuff and pretending to be writing something in his notebook while you were distracting him with your beautiful eyes.
I would love to meet you for a cup of coffee or something.
Music: Norah Jones – I’ve got to see you again
Dude, In the parliament, I didn’t know I was sitting next to a legend. So I was sitting there next to Busynow when this old lady came and asked to sit between us. We moved and emptied a seat between us for her. I didn’t know who she is but I really admired what she did, she don’t want to to be any kind of ’separation’ between men and women who are fighting for this cause.
I knew later that this woman is Lulwa Al Gitami, the first activist for women rights in kuwait. When Al-Khrafi kicked us out she sat there challenging all the fucking impolite security men (is it army?). God bless her, I think I saw her stand over that little fence in front of the parliament . YOU GO GIRL!
The funniest rumor , Tabtabai is the one who clapped the second time.
Shit. It was really intense down the street, maybe because I was the only one doing the shouting. It felt like a party without the booze which was really cool. The uncool thing is, I think I’m finally having a hangover.
For those who have seen me there and didn’t say ‘Hi’ …
SHAME ON YOU
Within the first few minutes of hitting the party, I get the prize for the best ‘hair-do’. I gave it to a little girl who was disappointed that she didn’t win the youngest kid prize. Then I start dancing but I’m kinda afraid to step in the crowded dance floor, I just don’t feel I’m ‘in’ yet.
The DJ wasn’t familiar with the concept of ‘beat-matching’ nor ‘fading-in/fading-out’. What the hell is that mixer for? Asshole. but he did something kinda original these days, he actually played ROCK and people really liked it. It was mostly instrumentals but who cares.
Weird thing I noticed about myself, I drink like hell and eventually get drunk (to a certain extent) yet I always can drive home smoothly but that’s not the weird thing, it’s the fact that I never knew what a hang-over feels like, never experienced one. I’m always the star of the party, I kick serious ass when it comes to fusla-improvisational-dancing. I get tired by the end of the night but still I don’t feel a hangover the next day. I WANT MY HANGOVER, GODAMMIT!
Few things I discovered:
Nobody have booties like the Indians, they also really know how to shake it.
Actually that’s it.
Wednesday – The Bloggers Meeting:
On the phone, I step in the coffee shop (second cup) I do a quick scan and I Identify one blogger yet I don’t make any move (because I’m not really sure). I order my cup of coffee and I go and sit in one of these circular seats in second cup upon nibaq’s recommendation.
Bloggers start coming in one after another, the place gets crowded and LOUD. I didn’t even expect this much people would come for the meeting. Some people registered last minute and I didn’t even know they are coming, It was nice really.
List of the people who came:
Nibaq: The geeky guy in the green t-shirt who was talking about video games on Atari and commodore 64, Also known as the godfather of Kuwaiti bloggers.
Sam: The American guy (not bitzer) … nice photos in his blog.
Beatnik: The hyper, crazy and beautiful girl who came with two guests and kept on fighting with me to get the pen.
Forzaq8: the guy who was so shy to ask me if I was the bloggers meeting dude or not, he viewed my profile with my picture to get my attention. So I was like ‘dude, this is me … are you here for the meeting?’.
Shadyq8: the guy who had the pen when Beatnik and I were looking for it.
Busynow: The quite dude who came with one guest.
Q: The guy who used to live near the psycho who killed his daughter.
Goliath: Controversy Wearing a ghetrah and e’gaal.
Tata Botata: The weird guy who was taking notes.
Thursday: The Hook up Day:
It began when I went to pick up Muslim Artist to go for lunch at Wasabi. She Introduced me to this nice, good-looking chick from her work. We didn’t talk much but I sense some good vibes and MA told me that she’s shy and stuff. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that desert girl was going to wasabi to with her buddy NAZ. Although she was kinda sick she managed to crack us up few times.
I wasn’t feeling good after the lunch so I’m not sure I will try any Japanese food anytime soon. ‘Muslim Artist’ told me we are going to meet this guy that I shall refer to his as ‘D’.
He’s one hell of a guy, he teaches at the cinemagic thing at bayt lothan. We went to ‘Coffee Beans Tea Leafs’ and I had a ‘Black Forest’ Upon M.A.’s recommendation. We chilled at the coffee shop for a while chatting about … yes, Films and Filmmaking.
His roommate ‘C’ Came with us and he was kinda quite, Ok, TOO QUITE. When he talks it’s like he’s talking to himself, so there was a lot of ‘huh?’, ‘what?’ and ‘come again?’ .
Nice people.
So we got kinda bored after talking too much about movies and stuff and MA kept asking me ‘what are we gonna do now?’, ‘Take us to someplace where we could have some fun’. I did coupla phone calls and I got the same tired line ‘Dude, Three’s nothing to do here in kuwait’.
Some people suggested i take them to a sheesha place but non of us is a smoker. Other people suggested Dubai (but that was a joke). So I took them to a place where I know they will have ’some’ fun, Virgin Megastore. After that I dropped the guys and MA home.
I was already dead tired but I thought ‘hey what the hell? go check what your jahrawi friends are up to’ and so I did. They were playing cards (kout bu setah) and watching a movie. I totally didn’t like it there, so I left the camp.
I reached home and I was getting ready to go to bed, I thought maybe I can check my email before going to bed. I had one of those really long chatting sessions with a new blogger friend, It was fun.
Friday - The Friday Market:
So I promised the guys and MA to take them to the friday market. I called MA up and she was like ‘I’m not sure if I’m gonna make it so you guys just go and have fun. maybe I will go next week’.
We went to friday market, and I went all nostalgic because it’s been a while since the last time I was there. The official friday market is kinda boring, the real shit is the ’souk el musta’ mal’ (Used Stuff Market). The first thing we saw was where they sell all these used clothes, I really wanted to check them all out but we didn’t have the time. We moved on to the part where they sell the electronics and some other random stuff.
Here’s a list of stuff I bought from Friday market:
After friday market I wanted to take them to souk el mbarkyah, Because ‘D’ wanted to buy dates. So I asked him ‘want to go to a place where you can try as much dates as you want before actually buying?’ so he was like ‘Dude, Yeah.’
M.A Called us and told us that we are meeting at desert girl’s for pizza and a movie, so we cancelled our dates thing and we went there. Just before that were chilling at D&C’s Place, listening to music and playing cards. They taught me ‘Crazy Eights’ and ‘Bullshit’.
The movie wasn’t that good but hey I’m here for the pizza. I also met some of desert girl’s friends and NAZ’ friends. It was nice evening, really.
You know the feeling you get after watching a kung-fu flick? When you feel like kicking some ass? Ok, I have a similar feeling after watching ‘Shall we Dance?’ not really kicking someone’s ass but actually dancing, ballroom dancing to be more specific. I think I already know the answer but let me give it a shot, Do you know of any dance schools here in Kuwait? I think I heard of people teaching dancing and stuff privately but they only accept women (as far as I know).
Earlier today and upon the recommendation of one monkified girl I went to see baraka. Click on that link if you need to know about the film because I’m not going to say any thing about it. However I will write about the things bothered me the most while the film was playing, Like how they stupidly censored the film by actually blocking the projector while it was playing, so we were left to the soundtrack and a black screen. I didn’t really get it the first time, I thought it’s some kind of a technical problem but when it happened again (longer) I kinda knew what was happening and my blood was boiling like hell. I was this close of saying something stupid or maybe throwing a shoe at that fat guy in front of the projector. I might write them some hate mail or something like that.
Another thing was the very smart ass who sat next to me (almost next to me, the corridor was between us) he was the only one who had a problem shutting his mouth while the film was playing. There was a scene showing some skulls and he was like ‘جماجم’ … another scene featuring holy Mecca and people around it and he was like ‘Øج’. I don’t have to mention the fingers cracking and loud rude yawns and the totally useless and unnecessary comments. I seriously considered shaking his hands and thanking him for his precious information he’s sharing with us.
You guys gotta listen to Suzanne Vega’s “Caramelâ€, There’s something ‘fairouz-ian’ about this song that makes me listen to it all day on repeat. It’s on right now and it was on when I jumped the pavement. Also it was on while we fixed the car.
Yes, I had a car accident few days ago … I was sms-ing “somebody†while I was driving at 120 km/h. That’s when I heard that strange sound, when I looked up I saw a very unusual sight … The butter: I got off the pavement but I notice the weird way the car was moving. I parked the car on the right and I got off the car to see what happened, Three tires were totally torn and the rings were damaged too. Ok, that’s it … I don’t feel like talking about this anymore.
So I was looking for the other fabric I bought with that one, and guess where I found it? I found it with mom and she was trying to mimic the cut of one of my t-shirts. Totally on her own, I didn’t even ask her to do anything (she’s into tailoring). Awww … Isn’t that just sweet? Isn’t that why moms rock in the first place? She made me two t-shirts (when I thought I can only make one with this much fabric) … although she didn’t like them I totally loved them, they have this ‘indie’ look to them and they are begging for my magic (designey) touch on them … they gotta wait though. I already started tracing a sketch I did a while ago on a t-shirt by actually stitching on the t-shirt. It will take time to be done (if it’s ever going to be done) It’s very tiring and boring but it really rocks.
It’s raining now, and it was raining when I left our camp 15 minutes ago … Goddamn beautiful. I just love it when it rains, especially at night … Sexxxxxxy In a cute way.
The soundtrack for a ride under the rain is as important as the water drops, The pretenders’ ‘One more time†worked out really well … actually she said something about walking down the rain, yeah. Glorious was the word to describe her voice in that track, Fucking glorious, especially when she goes ‘pleeeeeease’.
Ok, so I went today to the screening of Emir Kusturica’s Arizona Dream. The movie was fucking amazing, the soundtrack kicked major ass and for crying out loud Johnny depp was there as well as the wonder boy Vincent gallo and a slew of talented actors. Now we got that outta the way, When the film started I was the only person who came to watch the fucking movie .. imagine … THE ONLY ONE, well, beside the club manager and the control room guy.
One problem bugged the hell out of me was the sound, the bass was too high that I couldn’t make out what the actor was saying. I even stood up and went to the control room but there was nobody (fuck!) so I came back to my seat to avoid missing anything.
That’s when I noticed a girl in the row behind me. I turned to see her face as it kinda felt familiar, she was checking something on her phone. It was dark but the lighting of the phone was enough for me to see the details of her face, goddamn … she could be … yeah … she could be. I ignored her till the end of the movie that’s when I was totally sure it was her (the one I know) but she didn’t seem to notice me, So I waited outside and I leaned on a wall and I was waiting for her to pass by and I gave her ‘the look’ so she was chatting with her uncle who came with her or something and she was like really distracted but when we had an eye contact she was like ‘damn, what’s wrong with you dude? Why the hell are you …. .. huh … wait a minute … hey’. That’s when we both smiled and walked towards each other … we had a lil chat, we talked some more to chatch stuff up.
So it was really nice, new movie, amazing soundtrack, meeting old friends. Also I should mention that there was no censorship.
By the way Tomorrow they will screen Underground
And on Thursday they will screen Black Cat, White Cat
All screenings at 7 pm, at the ‘geblyah school’.
Hope to see you there, really it’s EMPTY in there.
C’mon it will be fun.
Today after I dropped my friend home and on my way back home I saw the moon. I was on the 7th ring road (dark and empty) and the moon looked so beautiful, Full and round. I don’t really care if today was 13th or the 14th of the hejri month, honestly, I don’t feel like fasting one more day … till next Ramadan at least.
…
Ok, I wrote that yesterday at 3 am or so, then I left Word open and I drank 3 cans of Red Bull (full of sugar for those who care to know) to get ready for the photo shoot. Before drinking them I was like “damn, I really can’t do it. I had a really long day and I think I have to cancel the whole thing†but after drinking them I was doing air guitars to Danger Mouse’s Remix of Jay Z’ “99 Problemsâ€.
My two photographer friends and I went to few locations in jahra. First we went to sha3byaat (AKA Taymaa) and we were lucky that it was really early and nobody was out there. Then we went to the ‘dead forest’ I told you about earlier. The sun wasn’t really good so we stopped shooting and decided to do this again some other day, especially that we didn’t get the chance to shoot anything in ‘sha3byaat’.I think now I have more time to check out more locations out and maybe even discover new ones.
…
The other day I saw this chick while I was in this Chinese restaurant. She came with her mom and her big sister. She looked like one of those chicks from Suicide Girls (no piercing, no similar make-up and as far as I saw no tattoos) but my point is she had the potential to be one of them. Why the hell am I saying this? I have no idea … I just saw a picture of Brody Dalle in a magazine which was hot hot hot. Maybe that’s why, I guess.
…
Now I have this unbearable pain in my jaw (I guess it’s my teeth), I’m off to the dentist.
