24 August 2008

Arabic Musicians

Guys & girls; i'm looking for people with a good understanding of Arabic music. This means anything from Khaleeji music, Egyptian, etc. I don't mean people who know the latest hits, artist names etc, but I mean people who understand composition of the music, it's features, mixing, production etc. If this means you, drop me a message with your contact details and i'll get in touch with you. I promise you'll find it interesting.

(fill out the contact box in the About section, top of the screen)

23 August 2008

Fun @ the Olympics

The most fun thing about the Olympics isn't the actual sports and watching who got the gold medals and so on. Nope, it's trying to read the participants names:


I wonder where she's from?

20 August 2008

Think you got inflation issues?

Let's face it; we do have a problem in Bahrain with rising food prices. We do have a problem with rising land and property priced. We have a problem with a lot of things rising in prices, making life for your ordinary average person a little more difficult.

So what's causing it? Increased demand for food supply world-wide? Increased gas prices? An overheating economy? Dollar linked currency?

Well, whatever it is, it sure as hell doesn't compare to what's going on in Zimbabwe, so you can sit there and thank the lord that the cost of your bread has only gone up by like, 50 fils or whatever:

Zimbabwe inflation hits 11,200,000 percent

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's inflation rate has soared in the past three months and is now at 11.2 million percent, the highest in the world, according to the country's Central Statistical Office.

Official figures dated Monday show inflation has surged from the rate of 2.2 million percent recorded in May, despite the government's price controls.

The country's finance minister confirmed the new figure in an interview but said the rising inflation rate was not confined to Zimbabwe alone.

"While our case has been aggravated by the illegal sanctions imposed by the Western powers, rising food prices are a world phenomenon because of the use of bio-fuel," said Samuel Mumbengegwi. "But we will continue to fight inflation by making sure that prices charged are realistic."

In February, the price of a loaf of bread in the country was less than 200,000 Zimbabwe dollars. On Monday, that same loaf of bread cost 1.6 trillion Zimbabwe dollars.

Analysts have said the Zimbabwean government's official inflation rate figures are conservative. Last week, one of Zimbabwe's leading banks, Kingdom Bank, said the country's inflation rate was now more than 20 million percent.

Source: CNN

That's pretty screwy. But hey, at least they can say everyone's a millionaire, no?

17 August 2008

One World, One Dream..

And so China hosts the 2008 Olympics, and creates what is supposedly a utopia for it's visitors... But in reality...


Hmm.. Reminds me of a few situations closer to home...

16 August 2008

Tropic Thunder - Movie Review


I wasn't sure what to expect going into this movie; it seemed like your average comedy, with a funny-man cast (Ben Stiller, Jack Black), as well as your average funny plot (bunch of movie stars filming a war movie in Vietnam, and somehow ending up in a real war situation).

I generally like Stiller, who rose to fame with his always-unfortunate, stomache-churningly funny characters in movies such as 'Something About Mary' and Meet the Parents'. Over the last few years, however, he's managed to star in more misses than hits, and I was worried whether this movie is going to show him in full glory, or just disappoint with another mediocre performance.


As the movie goes on, you start to realize that this is much more than your average comedy; the movie is a direct head-on attack at Hollywood, the movie industry, and the joke it's managed to become over the last decade or so. Thunder takes very witty shots at everything from over-paid, pampered actors, to needy agents, stupid movies, by-product advertising and much more, quite literally dissecting the entire industry and giving us a great laugh through it all.

The movie actually has a great cast, mostly playing unexpected roles, such as Robert Downey Jr as a black man (yup, you heard right, and a damn great performance at that), Tom Cruise as a fat, bald, arrogant movie mogul (in what is probably his most radical role ever), as well as a long list of other surprising cameos along the way.


Ben Stiller actually directed the movie, and has done an amazing job on this. There are quite a number of satirical, fast and/or crude jokes here that not everyone will get, but there's plenty of dumb laughs to keep everyone entertained in between. It's always great to catch a smart, hilarious movie, which is refreshing to watch in comparison to the rubbish that's been coming out over the past few months (years).

Great stuff, 9/10.

(7/10 if you're slow at catching all the inside jokes)