Desert delight
It doesn’t get more tranquil than Qasr AlSarab, a new luxury resort in the heart of the Liwa Desert. A 90-minute drive from Abu Dhabi airport, Qasr Al-Sarab offers private villas, family suites, an Anantara spa and fine dining restaurants. www.anantara.com
Maha Gargash is an Emirati TV producer and writer. Here, she tells J Magazine about her first novel, The Sand Fish.
“As an Emirati, I’ve always wanted to do a story about our history, and that is how The Sand Fish came about. Set in the UAE in the 1950s – mainly in Dubai and the Musandam region of Oman – it follows the life of 17-year-old Noora, who has been brought up in an isolated family in the mountains. When Noora’s mother passes away, her father goes into a long daze. Her brother sells Noora to an older pearl merchant and, as his third wife, she struggles to secure her place in a household where each woman vies for attention.
“It’s a work of fiction, but the places are real, as are the problems and historical settings. There’s no message in the book – it’s really just for entertainment and storytelling. But I would like to whet the appetite of the younger generation here to find out more about how life was back then, to understand how their parents and grandparents lived in those days. So little has been written about it. People have moved to the cities, the houses in the mountains have been abandoned and the villages by the sea no longer exist. There are now hotels in their places.
“I used to make documentaries about the mountain people, so I had a lot of knowledge about their history. But I was making these about 15 years ago, when things were beginning to change. If you go there now, you’re not going to find anything. The change has been so rapid.” www.harpercollins.com
Blogging Beirut
Maya Zankoul is a Lebanese blogging sensation. She launched her site Amalgam a year ago and, already, it has spawned an exhibition, a book, and a Facebook fan page with 1,500 followers.
In her first post, in February 2009, Maya wrote that her blog was a tool to “use as a tranquiliser against the barbarity of daily life”. Since then, she’s been very tranquil, having drawn around 200 cartoons, almost all in reaction to the things that annoy her about everyday life in the Lebanese capital.
“A lot of things bother me,” Maya confesses. “I’m Lebanese but lived in Saudi Arabia until five years ago, so I have an outsider’s point of view. I’m still discovering my own society. A lot of things irritate me like environmental and social problems.”
A quick flick through Maya’s book, Amalgam, on sale now at Beirut’s Virgin Megastore, reveals that the 23-year-old graphic designer is left exasperated by shopping, taxi drivers, technology, advertising, maids, private beaches, exercise, fashion, and, as seen above, foolhardy pedestrians. www.mayazankoul.wordpress.com
Goalkeepers beware: the latest football from Adidas is the roundest ball in the World Cup’s history and travels five percent faster than its slothful predecessors. Jabulani, meaning “to celebrate” in Zulu, will make its debut in South Africa this summer. It’s by no means the first ball the German company has produced for the event – below are some classic models from World Cups past.
Love on a Bike is the remarkable Amman project of Rima Malallah. The hats, scarves, earrings, necklaces and mobile phone holders are all designed and made by the owner in-house. As are the tables, wardrobes, journals, postcards, prints, paintings and anything else the Jordanian artist creates.
It’s part-studio, part-gallery, part-shop and there’s nowhere else like it. Rima works upstairs and sells her creations downstairs, although “sometimes things spill over and everything becomes a huge mess”.
Was Rima confident Love on a Bike would be a hit? “I don’t think my brain works that way,” she muses. “The first time I thought to myself ‘What am I doing?’ was the night before the opening. Before that, it never crossed my mind. I’ve wanted to be an artist since the age of four. I’ve made peace with the fact I’ll never be rich. The support has been amazing – it’s keeping me in business.”
Help restore balance to the universe in Luxor Adventures, an addictive puzzle game in which you’ll race through time to keep history intact and meet Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Amelia Earhart along the way. It’s a simple but fiendishly tricky PC game, full of hieroglyphs, pharaohs and mystical orbs. www.mumbojumbo.com
Photo-unrealistic
Each year millions of people visit Harem Imam Reza in Mashhad, where photography is prohibited. The ban has generated an industry in photo studios, where you can be pictured in front of a painting of the holy site projected onto a white screen – all perfectly legal. Hawkers selling bread and incense add a little dose of much-needed realism.
Aero dynamic If you’ve driven on Sheikh Zayed Road, you’ll know the last thing Dubai needs is the fastest production car ever built blazing down the highway. But that’s exactly what the emirate got when Shelby SuperCars launched the Ultimate Aero at the Dubai Motor Show. The American supercar can hit a scarcely believable 439km/h, accelerates from 0-100km/h in 2.78 seconds and will cost around a cool KD200,000. Just remember to stop at the lights… www.shelbysupercars.com
Zena El-Khalil is a Beirut-based artist and writer. Here, she tells J Magazine about her blog and her new book, Beirut, I Love You.
“I moved to Beirut in 1994. The civil war had just ended and I was ready to start university. I had visited Lebanon many times with my family and was drawn to the complexities, ironies and passions of the land. I’m still not sure if moving to Beirut was a conscious decision. Perhaps fate took hold of my hand and bought me a plane ticket to go there.
I started a blog in 2006 because I wanted to bring attention to the situation in Lebanon. I was worried the international media would be slow or biased in their coverage of the war. Soon the international audience picked up on it and thousands of people, as well as the international press, referred to my blog as a source of information. It wasn’t only information: it was a personal account of love, pain and loss.
I started the blog on the first night of shelling and stopped writing the night ceasefire was called. The book is a memoir of life in Beirut from the perspective of a young woman, an artist, with the backdrop of war. The book is 218 pages of what I love – and hate – about Beirut.” www.ziggydoodle.com
Persian automobile design doesn’t begin and end with the Samand. A year ago, J Magazine met the Iranian creator of a car powered by a horse, and now here’s a drum-shaped electric vehicle from another Tehran pioneer. A graduate of the Iranian University of Science & Technology, Mohammad Ghezel explained to us how two passengers sit in the middle of the eRinGo while a motor powers its three wheels. “I’m looking for an opportunity to study transportation design abroad,” says the 28-year-old. Let’s hope he gets the chance – we can’t wait to test drive this baby on Arabian Gulf Road. www.coroflot.com/mgela
It’s that time of year when the titans of football gaming battle for supremacy. Both Electronic Arts’ FIFA 10 and Konami’s POS 2010 boast the best graphics and gameplay ever seen in a soccer game. But which is better? Well, POS is more of an arcade game – you don’t need to be a master tactician to play it. FIFA feels like a simulation, highly realistic and hard to master. For us, FIFA edges it.
Pet Patrol
If you’ve gone out for the day and can’t relax because you’re worrying about your dogs and cats picking fights with each other, Rovio is the perfect pet robot for you. It’s not only a pretty face – it’s a Wi-fi enabled mobile webcam you can whiz around your home from any location. Sadly, Rovio doesn’t have the strength to fend off human intruders, but he can check up on your pets and give you peace of mind. firebox.com
November was an exciting month for Abu Dhabi. The final race of the F1 Grand Prix season took place at the Yas Marina Circuit and the following day the stunning Yas Hotel welcomed its first guests.
The hotel couldn’t be closer to the action – a bridge connecting two parts of the building crosses the track. It packs 498 rooms under its distinctive LED panelled shell, and the Japanese and seafood eateries are already reinvigorating Abu Dhabi’s restaurant scene. www.theyashotel.com
Desert delight
Maha Gargash is an Emirati TV producer and writer. Here, she tells J Magazine about her first novel, The Sand Fish.
“It’s a work of fiction, but the places are real, as are the problems and historical settings. There’s no message in the book – it’s really just for entertainment and storytelling. But I would like to whet the appetite of the younger generation here to find out more about how life was back then, to understand how their parents and grandparents lived in those days. So little has been written about it. People have moved to the cities, the houses in the mountains have been abandoned and the villages by the sea no longer exist. There are now hotels in their places.
Maya Zankoul is a Lebanese blogging sensation. She launched her site Amalgam a year ago and, already, it has spawned an exhibition, a book, and a Facebook fan page with 1,500 followers.
“A lot of things bother me,” Maya confesses. “I’m Lebanese but lived in Saudi Arabia until five years ago, so I have an outsider’s point of view. I’m still discovering my own society. A lot of things irritate me like environmental and social problems.” 
Goalkeepers beware: the latest football from Adidas is the roundest ball in the World Cup’s history and travels five percent faster than its slothful predecessors. Jabulani, meaning “to celebrate” in Zulu, will make its debut in South Africa this summer. It’s by no means the first ball the German company has produced for the event – below are some classic models from World Cups past. 
Love on a Bike is the remarkable Amman project of Rima Malallah. The hats, scarves, earrings, necklaces and mobile phone holders are all designed and made by the owner in-house. As are the tables, wardrobes, journals, postcards, prints, paintings and anything else the Jordanian artist creates.
Help restore balance to the universe in Luxor Adventures, an addictive puzzle game in which you’ll race through time to keep history intact and meet Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin and Amelia Earhart along the way. It’s a simple but fiendishly tricky PC game, full of hieroglyphs, pharaohs and mystical orbs. 
Each year millions of people visit Harem Imam Reza in Mashhad, where photography is prohibited. The ban has generated an industry in photo studios, where you can be pictured in front of a painting of the holy site projected onto a white screen – all perfectly legal. Hawkers selling bread and incense add a little dose of much-needed realism.
If you’ve driven on Sheikh Zayed Road, you’ll know the last thing Dubai needs is the fastest production car ever built blazing down the highway. But that’s exactly what the emirate got when Shelby SuperCars launched the Ultimate Aero at the Dubai Motor Show. The American supercar can hit a scarcely believable 439km/h, accelerates from 0-100km/h in 2.78 seconds and will cost around a cool KD200,000. Just remember to stop at the lights… 
Zena El-Khalil is a Beirut-based artist and writer. Here, she tells J Magazine about her blog and her new book, Beirut, I Love You. 
I started a blog in 2006 because I wanted to bring attention to the situation in Lebanon. I was worried the international media would be slow or biased in their coverage of the war. Soon the international audience picked up on it and thousands of people, as well as the international press, referred to my blog as a source of information. It wasn’t only information: it was a personal account of love, pain and loss.
Persian automobile design doesn’t begin and end with the Samand. A year ago, J Magazine met the Iranian creator of a car powered by a horse, and now here’s a drum-shaped electric vehicle from another Tehran pioneer. A graduate of the Iranian University of Science & Technology, Mohammad Ghezel explained to us how two passengers sit in the middle of the eRinGo while a motor powers its three wheels. “I’m looking for an opportunity to study transportation design abroad,” says the 28-year-old. Let’s hope he gets the chance – we can’t wait to test drive this baby on Arabian Gulf Road. 
If you’ve gone out for the day and can’t relax because you’re worrying about your dogs and cats picking fights with each other, Rovio is the perfect pet robot for you. It’s not only a pretty face – it’s a Wi-fi enabled mobile webcam you can whiz around your home from any location. Sadly, Rovio doesn’t have the strength to fend off human intruders, but he can check up on your pets and give you peace of mind. firebox.com
November was an exciting month for Abu Dhabi. The final race of the F1 Grand Prix season took place at the Yas Marina Circuit and the following day the stunning Yas Hotel welcomed its first guests.