Bad Movie Nights

Staying abroad is an excellent opportunity for cultural exchange – not just with the local people, but also with other foreigners. So that’s how I learnt to make Italian pasta or to appreciate how much you can talk about food .

A venerable tradition

A couple of week ago, I was finally able to return the favour to my Italian friends by introducing them to the tradition of “Bad Movie Nights”.  I had started this (not particularly Swiss) tradition sometime after high school, together with three friends. One of them is an expert on anything medieval – the fact that he spent his spare time fabricating chain mails and actually came to school wearing one of them did nothing to diminish his reputation -  and watching movies with a pseudo-medieval fantasy setting together with him was not just educational but also highly entertaining, as he tended to take any historical inaccuracy pretty personal. The habit of getting together at least once a year to watch a terribly bad (usually fantasy or science fiction) movie was somehow sustained through the next decade.

Germans behaving badly

As movies shown here tend to be in Russian, Federica, Giulio and I decided that we had to arrange our own cinema. And after I had stumbled over a cheap copy of “10’000 B.C.” by Roland Emmerich I suggested a “Bad Movie Night”. It was a full success and I am quite sure that the ridiculously rendered giant turkey chasing the hero through the 500m Jungle strip between the Arctic and a Stargate-style Egypt (don’t ask) had absolutely nothing to do with that.

I thus suggested a movie by another German director: Uwe Boll – infamous for turning bad video games into even worse movies that never make any money while still managing to hire some at least B-list actors. And he challenges his critics to boxing matches (don’t ask – check the Wikipedia article).

Anyway, we got hold of a copy of “In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.” Hilarity ensued. I could of course try to explain what was so terribly bad and funny about that movie, but there are people on the net who are far better qualified, so I leave it to the masters Sobczynski and Will Helm with his “scene by scene comment”. Seriously, if you have a bad mood, just watch the movie – or read the reviews. I haven’t had that much fun for while.

Snow!

And for something completely unrelated: Yesterday evening it started snowing! Hurray! (Of course it starts snowing the very moment I bought the lights for my bike… But at least I can use my super-warm coat now)

Holidays, Part I: Strolling around in Dubai

From Abu Dhabi to Dubai

As mentioned in the post below, we spent the first weekend in Abu Dhabi in an amazingly expensive hotel – but at least this time it was worth the money. We strolled around the city, Bobby bought a new camera, we visited the “heritage village” (where you can see how Emiratis used to live about 100 years ago) and some malls (where you can see how Emiratis live now).

Then, we took a bus to Dubai:

Dubai's Underground is mainly above ground - and will open "bukrah, in sha'allah"

Burg Dubai - will also open "bukrah, in ..."

Back in Dubai, we strolled around in the Bastakiya area, where there is an art exhibition about the sand and the people of the Emirates:

Strolling around in Bastakiya

Courtyard in Bastakiya

Hurray! A local! In touristic Bastakiya!

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Sand, sand, sand... Just like after a sandstorm

We also did some window shopping in the gold souq:

A shop in the gold souq. And a Chinese in traditional picture pose.

Wild Wadi Waterpark

And then, just for a change, we headed for the Wild Wadi Waterpark:

With one of the highest water slides - the Jumeirah Sceirah

and there's a perfect view of one of the most expensive hotel and restaurants in the world

Heh!

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Umm… did I mention that we managed to put our only day of outside water fun on the day Dubai experienced another sandstorm? >:(

Burj Dubai in a sandstorm. And yes, we were almost blown away while waiting for our turn on the Jumeirah Sceirah...

In a way, the Wild Wadi Waterpark turned out to be the perfect metaphor for Dubai: Surprisingly cold (even without air-con), traffic (well, dingy) jams everywhere and it doesn’t really require a lot of physical exercise: Your dingy gets transported in the right direction either by conveyor belts or else by friendly South East Asians…

Sheikh Zayed Mosque

The UAE’s biggest Mosque is a elegant white building in Abu Dhabi – Sheikh Zayed Mosque:

Sheikh Zayed Mosque

It is also the only mosque in the whole of the United Arab Emirates which non-Muslims are allowed to enter. Only appropriately dressed, of course. So that’s how a couple of Swiss Ladies look like in an abaya – and imagine my joy when I discovered that just for once, appropriate dress codes are enforced also with the male tourist population:

Swiss ladies in Emirati dresses

Tourist in Kandura

Maybe they should've invested less in Swarovski cristals and more in the designer?

Unfortunately, Sheikh Zayed Mosque is only the third largest mosque in the world…

Kind of disappointing for Guinness Book loving UAE, but second place goes to Morocco and first place, of course, to Saudi Arabia (Mecca). This deplorable state of affairs is compensated by the interior decoration, which includes the biggest carpet and the biggest chandelier in the world. With its neon green and red baubles, the latter is also the only aesthetic atrocity committed in this otherwise impeccably elegant building.

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But apart from this glitch, I find the mosque quite impressive. So I leave you with some more pictures:

The courtyard

Leaving the shoes at the entrance

Around the courtyard

The courtyard is made out of marble that remains cool by nature

The room for ablutions before prayer

Marble from many different countries was used - and assembled in China...

A man praying in front of the 99 names of God

Inside the mosque

A camel, a camel! My kingdom for a camel!

Richard III: An Arab Tragedy

Richard III: An Arab Tragedy

At the beginning of the week, I’ve visited Abu Dhabi’s Cultural Foundation to see an Arab interpretation of Richard III. Definitely worth the trip. In Kuwaiti director Sulayman al-Bassam‘s Arab take on the Shakespearean play, Richard III wants to be Caliph instead of the Caliph, so to speak. Instead of with the famous “winter of our discontent” the play started with Queen Margret as the only remaining member of a defeated tribe – wailing, cursing her fate and demanding revenge.

Richard, the Emir of Gloucester, goes ahead and seduces Lady Anne, clad in a chaste abaya, while making sure that his elder brother is killed in the middle of performing the ablution for the prayer. Richard is assisted in his machinations by a Buckingham dressed in a western suit, to whom he has promised some oil fields as a reward. Not that they will do him any good: In the end he is forced to confess on television that he works for the CIA-Mossad before being executed.

Richard III and Buckingham in the background

But before that happens, he regularly summarizes the rather complicated plot in e-mails to R(ichmond) – the local American Ambassador. This way, even the inattentive part of the audience is able to follow who has been the latest victim of the bloody plot. For those who need even more explanations: There is also a reporter from the state-owned television reading the prompts given by Buckingham – grinning into the camera as if his life depended on it.

The new Sheikh dies a natural death (a rare event in this play) soon afterwards – his wife, Elizabeth, seeks protection at the Embassy from where she can only helplessly watch the abduction of her son during the coronation ceremony broadcasted on TV.

Richard suddenly turns into a devout muslim, denying any aspirations to power in an Islamic show on TV. Only after 99% of all respondents of an internet poll petition him to become the new ruler (the remaining 1% not having access to internet) does he finally accept.

Queen Margaret

He gets rid of Lord Hastings by starting a war on terror and executing the former ally who objects to his coronation. But his regency is cut short by a “democratic” uprising. The play ends with the American Ambassador Richmond handing the interim governance to Elizabeth as a “precursor to free elections”, while Queen Margret laughs madly and group of Islamic terrorist/freedom fighters launch the first rockets, shouting “Allahu akbar!”

Richard riding to battle

And even though Richard, the Emir of Gloucester, doesn’t in fact call for camel, but like in the original for a horse (it is called al-umma, by the way), there is plenty of local flavour in the play. Starting from the language, a mixture between standard Arabic and Gulf dialect, interspersed with quotations from the Qur’an, to the accompanying music and the costumes. And thanks to the surtitles on the screens on both sides, I was able to follow the play even with my limited knowledge of Arabic.

The (Shakespearean) actor’s art

And on a lighter note: An illustration of more traditional Shakespearean acting by Rowan Atkinson (and no, I won’t call him Mr Bean – he’s much better in his other roles, like Blackadder!):

P.S.: Weather: No rain today, but hasn’t been as pleasantly cool for ages. Rain announced just in time for the weekend (Friday).

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