wheres the underground? in musical terms,…. su…

wheres the underground?

in musical terms,….

such a large part of life and society here is kept underground, i’m wondering if there is a musical underground here.

granted there are no venues to be underground in,…..

but still

————————————————————————————————

this is going to be one of those randomness posts so bear with me


the great steak and potatoe company:

i just discovered these guys! holy crap their fries are good!!
no really they’re really damn motherfucking good!!!
sharq mall and salem mubarak street next to subways.

GO!!!

or you’ll forever burn in the low fat fryer that is hell,….



french fries / chips/ jibs :

i asked the dude at the shawarma shop for fries,…..
he goes huh?
i realise that ok he may not understand french fries, so my mistake.
i ask for chips.
which is actually quite a bizarre word for them to understand over fries considering the proliferation of american culture, cos chips is really more of a british word for fries.
he still goes huh?
i ask for chips again but this time pronounce it jibs.
he goes ok large or small,….
i kept picturing myself at the supermarket trying to decide on large or small bag of gibblets…..groosed out at the thought of a LARGE bag of chicken guts i decided on a small.

fries and the greater meaning of life:

fries,….more than religion, yoga, a common enemy, or the global pursuit of happiness,….fries are the perfect analogous thingy to life as we know it.
moods change depending on whether or not you get the fries just like you like em.
too hot, crispy, well done, over done, salty,……
or too little salt, cold, underdone, soggy, squishy,…..
some like em long an thin, others fat an short
with the skins a la wedges, or fully circumsized like the majority of fast food joints
dipped in ketchup, mayo, mustard, or naked
covered in cheese, chilli, or some ungodly concoction designed by the chef to get rid of soon to expire stuff,…..
yes ’special sauce’ always makes me suspect.
i prefer mine naked,…. sometimes with a tad of cheese.
too much gives you zits and cellulite,….
not enough and you want more,….
but you’ll always want more until you’ve had too much,….
especially if theyre as good as great steaks ones


true equality for women in the muslim world:

chatting with a bunch of guys the other day, i asked them about the women running in the elections here.
you know how sometimes people say something and you go hmmm,… we’re from different worlds but we’re not all the different really?
this wasnt one of those times…..
in a nutshell, they reckon that a woman will never be able to run anything properly other than a household…..
and yes since i know the majority of people reading this are women and kuwaiti, those are your husbands, brothers and fathers talking when there arent any women around.
since theyre traders i decided to speak their language……
what about global investment house, al noor ( i think) and markaz ( pretty sure),…theyre founded and run by women, and two of them are the most important institutions running ?
they basically put it down to the people those women knew, which i believe is bollocks.
but someone once said never argue with fools cos people from a distance cant tell who is who.

i’ve been visiting companies the past few weeks, and the people i’ve been the most impressed with are the arab women who have answered my questions about their respective companies. the guys were either clueless PR people who wouldnt admit to being PR people and were busy pretending they knew everything, or theyre daddies got them a job there and they really didnt know anything nor did they express a desire to know anything abouttheir own companies.

women ought to run this country,…. things would be much smoother, and there’d be less posturing about who swung the bigger dick.

dunno about handbags tho

(ducks to avoid the flying handbags cos of the last comment )

finance is somewhere i think women have an edge over guys,….
cos after the math is learned, all you really need is the stomach to move when others are scared running.
men being social hunters are more likely to follow the pack and do likewise.

when you can buy his ass many times over, then you’ll get your equality.

sad but true,… so get to work

i think theres more but this is getting long and i’m late for an appointment

ps i dont mind PR people if they look for someone that can answer my questions

japans playing at 4pm today :D i’m dragging my as…

japans playing at 4pm today

i’m dragging my ass down to souk sharq to watch it on their big screens, which actually arent that big,…… i seen bigger screens in my friends diwaniya,… but then again hes a bit wonky in the head so,….

they better have em up and running >: l

but with this weather and the time i wouldnt be surprised if they decided to be lazy thinking no ones gonna turn up.

this week, i have mostly been choosing a geeetarrrr

i found a wicked yamaha one, but its in a sucky red colour.

actually the reds quite nice,….. but i’m not really a red kinda guy,……

so anyway, dude at yamaha said they can order stuff and they dont charge shipping cos it comes with the rest of the stuff they order. said it might take a couple weeks.

so black or gunmetal grey guitar it is for me

just gotta decide between two models now,……

sigh*,…. if only my personal life were frought with such decisions hehehe.

Hair Care and other girlie stuff question for you …

Hair Care and other girlie stuff question for you women.

a couple of months ago, a family friend and her sister set up their hair salon business.
one of them married (and later divorced) a local, so shes fluent in arabic, and the sister is an experienced hair-fixer-person, whatever you call a female barber

both are japanese women in their 50’s.

unfortunately neither of them has any real business experience, and thats making the business suffer.

as a friend its hard for us to tell them what they should and shouldnt be doing. we’ve made suggestions casually but thats the extent of what we can do. its hard watching something go down the drain.

anyway, my mums been down there and got her hair done, and she came back saying that the hair cutter lady was very professional, incredibly gentle, and there was almost no strands of hair on her clothes or anywhere as normally happens. basically she gave them a really good review.

thing is no matter how good the shearer is, if the business model doesnt make sense, it simply wont work, talent or no talent.

so here comes the purpose of this post……

their business model of a regular salon needs to change, due to space constraints and the fact that only one of them is skilled. so my question to any ladies reading this is this:

do you guys go to a salon to chat as well? i mean i know you do but is it a big requirement to go somewhere with alot of people?

if no, then what would you think of a personalised service,…. for example if you were their only customer, and if you knew that all their attention would be on you would you prefer this to a crowded but more social setting?

maybe something akin to a dentists office where youre the only one in the room, only less painfull and without that horrid shrill drill sound

if thats something you like the sound of, apart from your hair, what services would you want to have? facials, nails, sheera, some other hocus-pocus that any self respecting male shouldnt know about?

would you call that a spa?

i dont think so, but perhaps similar services to a spa could be arranged i suppose.

so it’ll be like your own personal spa.

but then women here dont really go to spas alone do they? its kind of a social thing isnt it?

and finally the bottom line:

say this whole thing lasted about 3 hours or however long you normally spend at your current salon,…. how much of a premium would you be willing to pay for a personalised service?

or would a membership type deal be more attractive?



i’d really appreciate it if you guys could give me your opinions on these ideas, they really need to restructure their business and develop an edge where they stand out from the rest of the hair salon crowd.

and as a matter of disclosure , no i dont own any shares in the company and neither am i getting paid for this, altho i bloody well should be


cheers ladies !

whoohooo!!! that zarqawi bitch is is dead !!! din…

whoohooo!!! that zarqawi bitch is is dead !!!

ding dong the bitch is dead,
that zarqawi bitch,
bin ladens bitch,
ding dong the bitchhhhh iiiiiiiiissss deaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad !!!



ok so i dont recall how the song went exactly but i’m sure you get my drift

regardless of which side of the fence you sit on regarding this war, there is no denying that debates on just or unjust have for a long time been completely null and void.

being 13 when the invasion happened, and having friends and their families killed, tortured, take hostage, used as human shields etc, i have just as much right to bear a grudge.

living thru 7 months of occupation, ducking and dogdeing road blocks, switching safe houses, and being in hiding for that long because of my nationality, youd think that i’d have a healthy amount of animosity towards the iraqi people.

but heres the thing,… i dont.

i love iraqis, and i’ll even go so far as to say that i like em more than any other arabs i’ve met. them and palestinians, altho what they did during the invasion was definately despicable.

i’m getting off track again,….

the potential in iraq is simply mind boggleing.

ask anyone that has worked there with the locals.

dont bother asking the locals in the neighbouring countries because due to their shared histories youre always going to get slightly skewed opinions unless you manage to find someone who is capable of analysing the situation objectively. and tobe honest you cant blame them for their, in most cases, justified opinions.

the over abundance and combination of both a highly educated peoples and massive oil reserves will turn iraq into the center of the arab world given half a chance. and that scares a hell of alot of people next door.

it might take a while, and its definately not going to be easy,… but it will happen.

but as i mentioned earlier, whats happened has happened, and its pointless crying over spilt milk.

diwaniya rhetoric fixes nothing.

to quote jurassic five:

“are you a part of the problem or are you a part of the solution?
whats your contribution to life?”

i supported the war.

and i’m helping in the reconstruction.

no one can afford the luxury of saying that they didnt support the war so why should they help cleaning up americas mess.

whether you like it or not, iraq has had a positive effect on the arab world.

the elections gave arabs their first true voice. (real/sham blah blah just/unjust – null and void)

the domino effect spread to lebanon, bahrain and even here.

5 years ago you’d never have seen people displaying their pissed offedness



to quote zach de la rocha:

“anger is a gift”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATAN :D !!! 6-6-06 slap someon…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATAN !!!

6-6-06

slap someone and say the devil made you do it,…..
then twitch violently while chanting a britney spears tune,…. anyone will do

actually the year with the 2 in the 2006 kinda voids any sinister connotations.

still wouldnt it be scary if digital watches decided to go on the fritz and displayed 6:66,…..

lol maybe the KSE will close with all the numbers adding up to 666, money being the root of all evil

what i find funny is that every generation seems to think that the end times are upon us. every ten years or so people say things are fucked up, and we’re all gonna die.

granted things are fucked up, but its still no where near the apocalyptical proportions prophecized.

having said that,…

one of the supposed signs are about this bunch of people that “eat” everything.

now if you try to form an analogy in present day, you convert eat to consume, and whats the first thing that comes to mind?

oil at $75 a barrel!
:O
gold hitting $700 and ounce!
:O
copper,steel, coffee, silver, OJ, sugar and anything else that can be sold trading at 25 year highs!!!
:O

lets face it,…. agent smiths interpretation of the human race a la the matrix isnt really that far off. we’re consuming everything at rates unsustainable even if we did find a brand new planet to exploit just down the road.

i mentioned this to a former religious fundamentalist friend of mine who has since moderated, but still hes very well read on islam.(as one of the damned i always find it interesting to learn about various religions:P). anyway, he laughed off my analogy and said no the quran is meant to be literal as opposed to nostradamus’s mind fucks.

i still think i’m right tho,…

anyway, if that doesnt scare you,…….

almost all of the end of times prophecy’s i’ve read, from all three major religions, and then some, contain some variation on the whole ” and the dead shall arise” theme.

hahaha, yeah right (insert rolling eyes).

then i read this:

DOHA • A trial involving 33 Qatari nationals accused of using ID cards of their dead relatives to apply for the lucrative initial public offering (IPO) of the Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) opened in a criminal court here on Wednesday

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REPENTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!

THE DEAD HAVE ARISEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AND THEY’RE BUYING STOCK,…..

ARRRGHHHHHH,…REPENT,.. REPENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!




ummm,…. maybe after i place an order,…. i’ve never known a zombie to be wrong on a stock tip




HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATAN !!!

for someone whos birthday only comes around once every hundred years, your birthday party’s goodie bags better pack some good shit

has anyone mail ordered anything other than DVD’s,…

has anyone mail ordered anything other than DVD’s, books and smallish stuff?

i’m contemplating ordering some pro audiohardware similar to the KORG padKontrol i posted about earlier.

thing is,…..

i would really rather not go postal ( pun intended ) if it were to be damaged cos i’m expecting the shipping to be atleast half the value of the damn thing itself.

its a heavy bastard.

so let me know if youve ordered PC’s, laptops, monitors, or anything else fragile, moderately heavy and expensive ( musical instruments even?).

i’d really like to hear if you got them in one piece and which courier service you guys used.

i’ll be ordering from the US or UK in case that makes a difference to your replies and suggestions, if any come

cheers