At first glance, I thought the Avenues was holding a sale on stacks of wood frames (come on, the possibility does exist). But it turns out this is supposed to be an exhibition displaying Architecture college students work. Just so you know. In case you are misled and attempt to buy the exhibition stands to make, I dunno, a square.
Aesthetically speaking, yawn. Functionally speaking, what function, yo? Most posters were displayed at knee-level, I’m not sure about you guys, but my eyes are on my head. The posters that were on eye-level (or, to be more specific, head-level) were printed so small you still had to stand really close to properly see them anyway. And architectural models were all crammed up inside the frames. (Out of embarrassment?)
I guess the work displayed must have been pretty shitty if they were trying to hide it so hard (I couldn’t tell, my knees are considerably eye-less), or maybe the work was even dangerous, which would explain the need to cage everything.
This is taken from their facebook group, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39350148926 (with the editing done by my lovely assistant, that’s me, because I can’t afford an assistant at the moment). Past exhibitions have had their hits and misses, but I’m not sure they were even aiming this time. It’s like someone worked really hard to build a mountain bike for fish, and then decided to take the mountain bike apart and turn it into a pie.
I’m off to get a periscope, stay tuned for an update about the actual work that was displayed (maybe).
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“Story” Blogs?
What is with all the blogs with nothing but trashy, lazily written…. plays? (And I use the term “plays” very liberally here). An example of what I mean:
Saroo: Waaaaiii Daloool yabeela shopping afenyooz! :O
Dalool: Uff 7ada Saroo, emshay khanroo7 
Saroo: Heyaaa wanasaaa, all my 300 pairs of shoes are SO LAST WEEK. 
Dalool: Ee, ge6ee3a! Yabeelech LOWEE BEETON yedeed! ;D
Saroo: Waaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii !!!!!!
Et cetera.
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The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra were playing tonight and the night before at the Radisson Blu Hotel. I tried to take videos with my phone camera. Blurry and terrible sound quality, but trust me, the real thing was phenomenal. These two clips are from yesterday. There were about 45 musicians up on the stage, I’m sorry all you get to see is the back of some dude’s head. The second video you get to hear one of the piano soloists playing, Phillippe Giusiano.
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Ellie Goulding
“We’re under the sheets and you’re killin’ me,
“In our house made of paper, your words all over me.”
Under The Sheets, beautiful electro-pop track released this month, the singer’s first debut single (youtube link below).
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Tags: ellie, goulding, indie, pop
Kuwait has no identity, Kuwait’s culture is confused, Kuwait is falling into the abyss, bla bla bla, the same crap regurgitated over and over by people who think they are the first to make some kind of ground-breaking, earth-shattering discovery that will forever change the face of history for generations to come. Sorry, Christopher Columbus, you missed Pocahontas sitting over there.
So, supposedly, we’ve lost our “traditional culture.” So, supposedly, there is no unifying architectural identity. So, err, quite definitely, we don’t live in ovens, pardon me, I mean mud brick houses anymore. So… so what?
What is an architectural identity supposed to look like, then? What the hell does culture even mean in this country? Is it camels, and tents, and fishing? Because it sure doesn’t look like it. From where I’m sitting, it looks more like Designer labels, Blackberrys, and German cars.
The times they are a changin’.
I get it that as architects we’re supposed to be “free-thinkers;” all of us rolling stones, with our extreme ideas, and our unorthodox methods. You crazy architects, you. But when you try to criticize something as arbitrary as what is essentially an entire culture, you’re going to end up tripping over yourself trying not to sound like a contradicting jackass. Because, and listen carefully: a culture does not spring out of the ground. It is the result of an incredible number of factors. So many, in fact, that you’re going to need more than two hands to count them on; that is to say, it’s a lot.
For example, in Kuwait: other than the million other reasons, a sizeable part of what shapes Kuwaiti society is status. Religion. Family name. Occupation. And ever since Kuwaitis started swimming in oil, and showering in petrol: wealth. And what better way to confirm our status than to flaunt said wealth. Short of running around waving our money in the air, the most obvious way to do that is wear it on our clothes, cars, and homes. You know; “bling bling, dolla dolla bill ya’ll.” Sooo… Can we assume that I’ve just successfully summed up and explained the entire Kuwaiti way of life in a single paragraph? Well, no, that would be too presumptuous. Weren’t you paying attention?
Okay, you’re getting annoyed now. So what’s my point? Well, other than trying to fit “dolla dolla bill ya’ll” into a (somewhat) serious article (and at least 3 references to Bob Dylan if you’ve been reading carefully), my point is… well it’s not to criticize our culture or architecture, if that’s what you think. In that case, you’ve missed the point. I’m 22 years old and my biggest achievement to date is cutting a piece of wood in half with an electric saw while not maiming myself; who am I to pass my judgement on an entire generation of culture? Societies change. They grow, they evolve, or they completely revolutionize themselves.
So next time you’re assessing something, be it architecture, culture, traditions, or the latest Steven Segal movie, don’t ask yourself whether it’s “wrong” or “right.” Those two terms are so relative they barely exist in a discipline which is extremely relative in itself. Ask yourself: Why? Save your righteous, opinionated beliefs for when you’re old, senile, and too stubborn to acknowledge any opinion other than yours. Until that happens, use every opportunity you have to ask why. And once you’ve found out why, how “wrong” or “right” it is won’t matter anymore.
Filed under: kuwait | 2 Comments
Tags: architecture, culture, identity, kuwait, society, tradition
Incompetence
Kuwait University needs to hire competent people who know how to do their jobs. Spare me the old hens who sit around clucking, drinking tea, and eating kanafa. And then complaining about spending a whole hour at their desks because there are too many customers. Hello? That’s, like, your job? You know, where you come in at 8, work, and then leave at 1. Maybe there wouldn’t be so many people in line if you could do your job efficiently and weren’t taking breaks every 6 minutes to get more samboosa. Just a suggestion.
If you are bored enough to laze around gossiping about who’s kids got what grades at which school, then you AREN’T WORKING HARD ENOUGH. I have a solution: if you are that bored, and want to kill some time, how about… oh, I don’t know, do your work? Yea, that’s what I thought, too. But what, your job is dull, you say? Hmm. I think I would understand if, let’s say, you were over-qualified for the work you were doing, and there was no challenge in it, but the fact that you have to hold a conference with your coworkers every time you get stuck on the simplest tasks makes me doubt that is the case. You know what? I think you’re just a dumb fuck, and your boring desk job is the best you can do. So how about you actually do it properly.
Filed under: kuwait, rants | 3 Comments
Tags: incompetent, jobs, kuwait, stupid people, university, work
Episode #4
For years Robogirl dreamed of world annihilation. No amount of time, money, or power was spared in finding a way to attain that dream. Thousands upon thousands of armaments were assembled, the most powerful of magics were sought out of every corner of the world, the greatest and most formidable monsters of myth and legend were captured and tamed, and hordes of the mightiest soldiers were trained rigorously in the deadliest forms of combat. However, it was not to be. Plan after plan was either foiled by pesky superheros or thwarted by dim-witted henchmen. Robogirl persevered but with each failed attempt her frustration grew, and her patience withered. Ultimately, the frustrations of her defeats had escalated into a furious rage, the likes of which had never been experienced by mortal man. It rivalled the ferocity of a hundred hurricanes and the wrath of a thousand tornadoes. Its very force made the roots of the biggest redwoods tremble and the surfaces of the largest oceans quake. It was a rage that could not be calmed, conciliated, nor contained, the same way a volcano could not be stopped before its eruption. Then, when it seemed that all hell was about to break loose, it was Robogirl’s sleepy-time, so she had a chocolate milk and when to bed.
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Music
Music is the universal language. A word may convey thousands of meanings, but a single note can articulate the most vivid emotions: from joy, pleasure, and excitement, to grief, sorrow, and despair. It heals, it inspires, it provokes, and it motivates. A familiar song can arouse memories of a smell, a taste, a place, or an entire period of your life. To try to encapsulate what music really is into a single paragraph is to neglect everything meaningful about it. We all relate to music personally. And speaking personally, I regard music as a refuge. It is an escape to a place where I can realize my imagination and completely live in that world. To someone else, it may hold an entirely different meaning, but it holds meaning nonetheless.
Everybody is capable of appreciating music, and everybody is capable of creating their own, there is no such thing as “wrong” or “right” in the art of sound. There is no “wrong” or “right” in art as a whole.
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Tags: art, australia, cartel, creativity, imagination, indie, meaningful, music, pop, rock, shins, wasted
This is one of those really great insightful comics that are intelligent, funny, and well-drawn to boot. This isn’t a 3-panel gag-strip; it reads more like a story with huge blocks of text, but this adds to the appeal of the comic rather than detracts from it. Like most webcomics it doesn’t really follow a “story” per se… not in the same way as graphic novels do. It’s more like small, separate story lines, following several recurring characters (a Sphinx, and a girl with pink hair) or occasionally just random characters. Sometimes it’s a Seinfeld-esque commentary on real-life issues, sometimes it is bizarre, funny and weird, and sometimes it is honest and eye-opening.
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Tags: bizarre, comic, comics, deep, funny, hilarious, insightful, life, meaningful, real, strange, subnormality, webcomic, webcomics, weird, world
Episode #3
After much heavy contemplation, Robogirl came to the conclusion that robots don’t really need nails so much. Laser vision and telepathic ability pretty much rendered them moot. On the other hand, she still craved a Quarter Pounder. So, armed with nun-chucks and a cute chipmunk, she raided a nearby McDonald’s and proceeded to kill everything in sight. Once the place was destroyed she figured she didn’t want a Quarter Pounder that much so she went home and ordered in pizza.
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