This week’s editorial musings from magpie’s nest
The quote: I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here Arthur C Clarke
Eid note 1 It’s Eid ad Adha, and we can all celebrate by driving into Dubai: on-street and surface parking will be free. (Don’t go to any malls though: multi-level parking facilities will continue to charge the usual rates) …
Eid note 2 There will be some fireworks at the weekend – Riverland Dubai has 9pm displays on 5 and 6 June, though you’ll pay for them (AED 15 online, AED 20 at the gate). Abu Dhabi’s are free: Yas Bay Waterfront on 6, 7 and 8 June, Corniche on 6 June (all at 9pm). Al Ain has a 6 June show at the Al Ain Municipality Building at 8pm (we heard there may be another show at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium, too, we but couldn’t confirm that). Sharjah has gone for generally residential locales on 6 June – 8pm at Masaar, Nasma Residences and Aljada’s Madar (there will be entertainment and pop-up fooderies there too) …
Happy places The Institute for the Quality of Life has released its 2025 Happy City Index. A total of 200 cities were ranked by 82 indicators of happiness, but none of the UAE’s were included because “reliable, measurable, and comparable data” was unavailable. FYI the top three were Copenhagen, Zurich, and Singapore. Obviously ‘boringness’ was not among the 82 indicators …
Electronic arts Dubai is to host ISEA 2026, the 2026 International Symposium on Electronic Arts – an annual gathering that is one of the world’s foremost get-togethers for artists, designers, technologists, academics, curators, and museum professionals to consider the future of digital art. The symposium, organised by Dubai Culture and Zayed University, is set for 10-17 April next year; it’s the mix as before (workshops, panels, networking events, “creative showcases”) but we’d hope for a bit of Dubai’s imaginative magic. It’s a pretty specialist event, to be sure – max around 500 participants – but there will surely be an opportunity to appeal to a wider audience.
And there’s a sort-of Open Call for artists with something relevant to say: “there will be opportunities for alternative forms of presentation. We encourage early-career and emerging artists to submit their works” …
Book ahead A bunch of (mainly US) comedians are doing Etihad-Arena gigs in Abu Dhabi around the end of the month; we’ve picked out Pete Davison and Dave Chappelle as highlights. For contrast elsewhere in Abu Dhabi, check out Metro Diaries at The Arts Center. In Dubai around the same time we’ve diarised Banah and Jazziyat, plus the Junction’s Government Inspector …
Art now Shows opening soon that have caught our eye include Nima Nabavi at Third Line, Ayyam Gallery’s summer group show under the title Wavering Hope, and an interesting-looking Mohammad Alfaraj solo stint at the Jameel. And if you haven’t yet seen the Hassan Sharif show at Gallery Isabelle (or even if you have) get along there before it closes on Saturday …
Something for the weekend Maths nerd heaven: π Pattern is a pi-themed fruit machine. Spin and hit stop when you think you have a points-scoring pattern (we got 720 for six 9s in a row). Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 Australia is wider than the Moon (around 4,000km east to west vs diameter of about 3,475km).
Earworm of the week Wolf Alice : Bloom Baby Bloom
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