This week’s editorial musings from magpie’s nest
The quote The world is a museum of other people’s passion projects John Collison
Jazz Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi, UNESCO-designated City of Music, is hosting the All-Star International Jazz Day concert on 30 April (featuring Herbie Hancock, as usual, plus a galaxy of as-yet unnamed stars). Around this is a busy Jazz Month schedule during April and May, with lots of ‘Arabic jazz’ – we’re looking forward to the Bait Al Oud Jazz Band – plus the likes of Fola Daad from Germany, the very cool Motel Kaijū quartet from Milan, top trumpet player Riley Mulherkar, and a load more. Looks a very strong programme; we’ll have listings in the Agenda, but some details are here …
Curator opp Art Jameel has a Curatorial Open Call for exhibition proposals to be developed for Jeddah’s Hayy Jameel in May 2026. Proposals should relate to the Red Sea but otherwise look wide open; there’s a curatorial fee of SAR 37,500 with travel and accommodation covered by Art Jameel (which will also look after fees, travel and accommodation for artists). Details here …
Kids’ books competitions The Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (23 Apr – 4 May, Expo Centre Sharjah) is running three prize competitions for Arab-language authors, publishers, and illustrators. Total prize money is AED 110,000, deadline is 31 March, info is here …
Vanity plate report The recent licence plate auction in Dubai raised just shy of AED 84m for the Fathers’ Endowment charity. A big chunk of it went on ‘DD5′, which sold for AED 35m …
The common man is a simple creature H72 Productions is auditioning for a June run of Gogol’s The Government Inspector. Lots of parts available; audition on afternoon of 22 or 23 March with a two-min monologue, sign up here …
Project for the week Let’s rename the Americano as the Gulp of Mexico …
Arts Française We missed the opening a few days ago, but running during Ramadan at the Sorbonne is an impressively broad-ranging survey of art by (mainly French-speaking) women in the UAE – a total of 24 artists from the Francophone collectives Féminin Pluriel (from Dubai) and AD’Art (Abu Dhabi) plus three invited guests. It’s an interesting show, not least in its variety … Lumières de Femmes runs to 29 March in the SUAD Atrium. Info here …
Tag plus The Kabaddi World Cup is being held outside Asia for the first time, and the BBC is streaming it live. Quick primer here …
Hong Kong film Cinema Akil’s Hong Kong Film Gala mini-festival is back, with eight HK films showing 22-28 March. The opener is an Iftar style reception featuring a menu of Ugly Noodles followed by An Abandoned Team (2024), directed by Thomas Lee and Daniel Ho – unexpected bond between grumpy old man and stray dog – and a post-film Q&A with Lee. A season pass is a bargain AED 150. Full info here …
Sad for him The decline in the share price of Tesla – down 50% since its post-election peak – has left the Musky one an estimated $148bn poorer (he’ll now have just the $333bn to get by on). Sales are sharply down in mainland Europe, flatlining in the UK and elsewhere …
Something for the weekend Quickflip is a really quick daily word puzzle – flip the tiles to reveal letters. Two words are possible but only one is correct. Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 Abu Dhabi has just signed up for 10,000-drone light shows, says the press release, but we didn’t know UAE certification for a commercial drone pilot can be obtained in just three days with training; experienced pilots make around AED 10,000 per month (which doesn’t sound much to us …)
Earworm of the week Nina Versyp : HAZY
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