John from Cincinnati
One of the things we love the most about time with our son and his wife is that they open our horizons. I am waking up these mornings around 3:30, can’t get back to sleep. But my son helps me towards the end of the day, to stay up one more hour, by hooking me on John from Cincinnati, a new series on HBO.
The series is bizarre. I have only seen four episodes; and now I am going to have to wait until Sunday nights for the next one to view.
It centers around a California surfing family, the Yosts. The eldest was a surf champion until his knee gave out, his son wowed the surfing world until he got lost in a haze of dope and booze, and the youngest Yost, Shawn, is just beginning to show his supurb stuff.
But that isn’t all. There is the main character, John, who seems to be a transpositon of John the Baptist into modern times and lacking all kinds of clues as to how we humans behave. He doesn’t excrete, he doesn’t sleep, and he doesn’t understand sex. One of the funniest scenes is a surf-savvy supporting character named Kai explaining how sex is accomplished. It sounds pretty absurd as she explains it.
It’s about the surfing culture. It’s about family interactions. It’s about a small town and how they deal with conflict. And about how they support one another in tough times. It’s HBO, so it can be crude, it can be violent, and it can be very adult. It’s also thought provoking and intriguing.
Very strange things have begun to happen in this small town. Grandpa Yost ended up levitating as he washed off after surfing. Shawn had a fatal surfing accident, from which he recovers. John from Cincinnati can pull whatever money he needs out of his pocket. Butchie has been without drugs the two days John has been staying with him, and is amazed that he isn’t going through withdrawal.
Five segments in, we still don’t really know what we are seeing. We are beginning to understand how the community works, the interfamily struggles. I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
New Mansions in Mangaf (3)
Last – the Grand Finale:
How many people live in a house like this? Is it divided into apartments? When we were looking for a villa, we were shown many houses like this, houses so BIG for two people and a cat that I was afraid we would rattle around in them like marbles. Some houses had four or five living rooms. More than one had a swimming pool on the main floor as you walked into the house. Most had kitchens outside the house, connected by a walkway, and only a tiny microwave/small fridge/coffee maker kind of kitchen inside the house. I am guessing these houses are similar.
This has to be an apartment, or several branches of the same family will all have separate suites, with some rooms in common. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
New Mansions in Mangaf (1)
A whole new neighborhood is going up in Mangaf, where once there was nothing but empty land. The streets are strewn with building materials, and sand, and cluttered with construction, but it won’t be long before this neighborhood is up and running.
I love that the designers put an old fashioned wind tower on the top of this house:
Squint your eyes, and you can see the potential here:
This is one of the smaller new houses going up – and even so, it could probably hold ten people without crowding:
Another nicely sized single family home:
7 Million Muslims
In today’s Kuwait Times is an Independance Day message from the American Ambassador, Richard LeBaron, in which he states:
Numbering some seven million, there are more Muslims in America than in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE combined. In our more than 1,200 mosques that stand peacefully alongside churches and synagogues, you will find congregations as diverse as America itself. . .
I had no idea. I know in the Seattle area there are many mosques, many Moslems; Seattle is a city built on the energy and hope of new immigrants. But I had no idea we had seven million Moslems in the USA.
If you want to read the full text of the message you will have to buy the paper – it’s not on the website.
Saturday Off Again
I thought it was a done deal. I am still learning how things are done in Kuwait! this is a tiny article in today’s Kuwait Times:
Saturday off decision deferred
KUWAIT: Official sources disclosed that the Cabinet decided to postpone implementing a decision officiating Saturday as the day off instead of Thursday because the final decision needed further studies, reported Al-Qabas.
They said that the previous decision which stipulated Saturday being a day off starting from the beginning of September was postponed due to parliamentary pressure on the Cabinet in dropping the decision.
Several organizations have reorganized their schedules to accomodate the “new” workweek and will be re-scheduling. I bet the schools are going wild. This postponement sounds indefinite – meaning like it’s off again permanently.
Katherine Phillips In Her Own Words
Here is the International Schools Review page where Katherine Phillips tells of her being notified by SMS that the travel ban was lifted and how she left immediately, not knowing how long the lifted ban would last:
Skunk also says it was front page on the Arab Times today.
Kuwait Minarets
I love mosques. I love the very simple old old ones, made with clay, that look like they are slowly melting back into the ground, and I love the new modern ones that look like spaceships about to lift off, and I love all those in-between. I have so many photos of mosques, mosques minarets and mosques at sunset, in moonlight . . .
So here is my question for you: Do any Kuwait mosques use LIVE muezzin to call out the Call to Prayer?
Here are some Kuwaiti mosques I have photographed recently.
This one is near the Sadu House, in an area being renovated:
And here is what it looked like before renovation:
I LOVE this one – it’s old, but it has STARS on the side of the minaret, going toward the top, cut out, probably to allow light to filter in where there are, I assume, steps or maybe a ladder.
This mosque is between fourth and fifth ring, where you used to turn to get to the old IKEA:
Resolution: Detained Teacher
This is what is now appearing as “new statement” on the Bayan Bilingual School public announcement board on their website at the BBS website:
Due to the efforts of BBS management and the broader BBS community, in conjunction with expert Kuwaiti legal counsel, the situation regarding our Deputy Middle School Principal has been resolved.
We would like to thank every member of the Kuwait community and parents of the BBS students who have supported BBS throughout this process, and special thanks to the Kuwait Human Rights Society for their extraordinary support and empathy during this situation.
Thanks to blog commenter “Sailor” for keeping us up to date on this resolution. 🙂
Update on Chinese Seafood
From AOL Health Watch originally taken from an article by Andrew Martin at the New York Times. You can read that article, and several similar articles, there.
The problems with Chinese seafood are evident in a database of products that the FDA stops at the border. In May, for instance, the FDA. turned away 165 shipments from China, 49 of which were seafood.
Monkfish was rejected for being filthy. Frozen catfish nuggets were turned away because they contained veterinary drugs. Tilapia fillets were contaminated with salmonella.
The problems were even worse in April, when 257 shipments from China were rejected, including 68 of seafood. Frozen eel contained pesticides, frozen channel catfish had salmonella and frozen yellowfin steaks were filthy, the records show.
The word “filthy” resonates with me. I am going to stick with Kuwaiti fish!
More Souk Mubarakiyya Art
There’s just something about this market that feeds the photographer’s soul! I love the public art . . .
Whoda thunk that the butcher would be wearing glasses? I love the quirkiness of this art.
The flag the man is carrying says “Kuwait” (for my non-Kuwaiti readers).I think this one has to do with the liberation of Kuwait, but I am not sure . . . anyone? I remember from reading Jihan Rahab’s book on the Invasion of Kuwait that the market was totally trashed and at least partially burned, and a lot of damage was done out of sheer malice.
I have this thing about ships!
Just look how CLEAN this place is. Every time I go into any of the markets, I think of France. These markets in Kuwait are cleaner!
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