This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote: You only go around once, but if you play your cards right, once is enough Frank Sinatra …
Festival time (contd) The Sikka Art and DesignFestival (Al Shindagha, to 1 Feb) is one you can largely take on trust – you’ll probably have to, because it can be very difficult to find out what’s happening and when; Instagram is your best bet, but it’s erratic. Still, the fair is free and always buzzy …
Quoz Arts Festival (Alserkal Avenue, this weekend) is also buzzy but isn’t free. Indeed last year’s door charge of AED 63 has risen to AED 100 (the year before it was zero, ISTR) and there is no longer a two-day discount. You do get lots of music, lots of happenings in the lanes, and lots of arty stuff – including the rather magical Numen/For Use installation of TAPE in Concrete.
Alongside the official programme, some of the Avenue’s regular venues are putting on shows of their own (with separate, and therefore additional, ticketing). They include Cinema Akil with Reel Palestine screenings starting this weekend, and the Junction is running three fringe-ish shows (Hold on to your Butts, The Acting Class and Fly, You Fools!) – perhaps as a precursor to the fully-fledged fringe festival it plans to bring to Al Quoz later this year.
Meanwhile Al Hosn Festival, Ras al Khaimah Art Festival and Emirates LitFest all continue into a second weekend …
10-minute showdown Just how many short play festivals does one town need? The answer may become clearer during April and May, when Short+Sweet Dubai goes head to head with the Junction’s brand new X Fest DXB. We have the background on X Fest: read on …
… Last chance for X Fest DXB And registrations close on Sunday (25 Jan) for the Junction’s alternative festival of 10-minute plays. We’re told that there are very few spots available, but here’s the link to register if you’re an actor, director, theatre group or backstage crew …
More than a little learning Wikipedia turns 25 this month, with more than 65 million articles in over 300 languages—written, edited, and fact-checked by nearly 250,000 unpaid human volunteers worldwide. Since 2003, Wikipedia has been operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit reliant primarily on donations which average just $11 – and fewer than 2% of its readers donate. It’s worth keeping …
Cost of living here Numbeo has just published its 2026 cost-of-living rankings for 479 cities around the world. These are widely regarded as the best such index; with New York indexed at 100 (No.7 on the list – Zurich is top at 118.5), Dubai comes in at No.213 with 61.8 and Abu Dhabi is No.252 at 54.1. Who knew Abu Dhabi was so much cheaper? RAK was about the same, No.249 at 54.4. and Sharjah came in No.270 at 50.7, so it’s half the price of living in New York. More here …
Booming UrArtU Gallery is a new addition to Alserkal Avenue, relocating from Jumeirah Beach Road to “a multi-purpose flower space and gallery”. Yep, flowers. As the PR blurb has it, “the project challenges traditional approaches to floristry, repositioning flowers from decorative elements into spatial experience … flowers are treated as architectural gestures”. One such is in the centre of the space, a monumental aluminium orchid 6m high and weighing 250kg. Well worth a visit, surely …
Washable computers Researchers at MIT have developed a fibre computer that is stretchable and machine-washable with 6hrs of battery life, weighing less than 5g (about as much as a sheet of A4 paper) …
Homing in “Currently, XX% of Dubai’s real estate transactions are initiated and completed online,” says a press release. “By 2027, it’s expected that XX% of all real estate transactions in Dubai will be digitally enabled.” Pretty cool of them to use Roman numerals, even if you’d have expected some increase (maybe by XXV%?) between now and next year
Useful app of the week One for AI nerds – Dione is a platform (Windows, MacOS, Linux) to help you easily discover, install, and manage open-source AI apps. It has a clean interface and a growing library of tools to make running local AI apps simple (ish) and accessible. Check it out here …
Something for the weekend Spherical snake is an addictive update on the original Nokia game – rules as before (avoid the tail!) except that it’s played on a ball. Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 Marchetti’s Constant records the fact that throughout human history, from cave dwellers to 21st century city dwellers, people always tend to commute for about 1.3 hours per day — 35 or so minutes out, 35 minutes home – no matter where they live, or how rich they are. So faster travel leads to longer distances, not more free time …
Earworm of the week Art School Girlfriend : The Peaks
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