Another busy week at Time Out towers.

It has been a week that has seen us make a stage debut with the Krystal cabaret, eat our way through a couple of Michelin stars and ponder on the best way to cook a potato.

Listen to the Time Out Podcast with Dubai Eye’s Jeff Price and Suzanne Radford to find out our pick of the week’s events.

Press play to hear part 1.

 

 Time Out Podcast - Part I [11:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (114)

 

 Time Out Podcast - Part II [9:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (83)

We’ve also picked out ten things to do this week.

1) Celebrate the Shopping festival: We all know about the bargains (how could we not with all the ‘Up to 80% off’ posters around town) but there is plenty more to enjoy at DSF. This week’s highlights are Toy Fantasia (traditional toy fair) at Wafi Mall and Art Avenue (an opportunity to watch and take part in a series of art and craft exercises) at Al Seef Street on the Bur Dubai side of the creek. Not to mention more of the weekend Firework Festival. Look to the skies above the Creek between 8 and 9pm to see 300 fireworks per minute popping and cracking.

2) Massive clubbing weekend: Some of the biggest names in dance music grace decks in the city this weekend. Seb Fontaine, John Digweed, Panjabi MC and Ferry Corsten are all doing their thing for beat-hungry dancers in Dubai.

3) Have dinner and a show: The Krystal Dinner Show brings cabaret-style entertainment to the Mina Seyahi. Expect the unexpected with acts such as the one-man duet, mind-readers and acrobats.

4) Take an afternoon tee: The Dubai Desert Classic is underway and until Sunday February 3 the world’s best golfers will be slugging it out to walk away with the $416,660 first prize. Go along to the Majilis Course at the Emirates Golf Club to see some of the world’s biggest sporting icons.

5) Do it all again: Saturday is Groundhog Day. So, in true movie style, repeat what you did on Friday. Go to the same places, eat the same food, speak to the same people.

6) Taste of Dubai: The festival for foodies begins on Wednesday night. If you feel the need to take your tastebuds on holiday then let them run wild at the Media City show for a few hours. Watch this blog for more news from the exhibition as it happens.

7) Watch a musical comedy: The world’s only one man Armenian comic pianist is hoping to entertain crowds in Dubai this week. An artist with such a strange billing really does deserve to be seen and heard.

8) Get the Oscar buzz: The Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men is leading the Oscar charge at the moment with eight nominations. See it in Dubai this weekend.

9) Remember a legend: Jacques Brel is one of France’s greatest ever singer songwriters. He is remembered by professional soundalike Cedric Vandenschrik at the Madinat this weekend.

10) Save the world: Tuesday is UAE Environment day. Do your bit to save the planet.

Listen to Jeff Price and Suzanne Radford weekdays from 9am on 103.8FM in Dubai.

If you had asked cinema audiences 20 years ago what the ultimate movie baddie looked like they would probably say it would be a cross between James Cameron’s Alien and The Predator.

Both had become instant sci-fi classics. And both were fierce warriors capable of taking out entire platoons of highly-trained human soldiers.

It was only a matter of time before movie fantasists wanted to see them go head-to-head.

17 years later they got their wish. Unfortunately the film, Aliens versus Predator, was a disappointment.

In fact it stunk. Like a big pile of extra-terrestrial droppings.

It was so bad that the chances of ever seeing the much anticipated Alien/Predator cross-breed seemed to have disappeared.

Until Aliens Versus Predator 2: Requiem was released. It is, obviously, worse than its predecessor.

But it does have the single redeeming feature of mating an alien with a predator.

It looks just as cool as you could have hoped.

But now you’ve seen it you don’t have to go to see the film. (If you really want to see it move, just scroll this page up and down a bit while screaming at your monitor. You’ll get the main idea of the film that way).

Rather than being the ultimate bad guy it is reduced, thanks to unspeakable and comic book (in a bad way) direction, to being an impressive special effect with no real impact beyond the visual.

So it seems all the more strange that we are left with the Coen brothers to provide the ultimate movie bad guy.

Travel back 20 years again, to a time when an Alien fighting a Predator got us so excited, and the Coen brothers were basking in the critical acclaim of Raising Arizona.

It was quirky, irreverent, stylish and followed up with (quirky, irreverent and stylish) comedies like The Big Lebowski and O Brother. Where Art Thou?  

So what makes us think they have come up with a genuine movie terror?

One look at the trailer for No Country For Old Men is what.

They even ask the question themselves: “Who is this guy supposed to be, the ultimate bad ass?”

Compared to a disappointing Predalien, yes, he probably is.

On most nights a flabby Frenchman in a leotard walking around a stage on his hands would be considered something out of the ordinary.

But at the Krystal Dinner Show it is barely enough to raise an eyebrow. Continue reading … ‘Krystal Dinner Cabaret comes to Dubai’

Taste of Dubai is the closest thing you will find to a theme park for your mouth.

There won’t be a rollercoaster in sight. Or a hot dog stand.

But there will be plenty of attractions designed to tempt your taste buds. And queues for the best bits.

Get your tickets here and skip straight to the attractions that most interest you with Time Out’s Taste Of Dubai restaurant review guide. Continue reading … ‘Taste of Dubai preview: Part 1′

We’ve been burger crazy at Time Out this week.

In our efforts to find the best burgers in Dubai we’ve chomped our way through fistful after fistful of ground beef, bread, pickle and sauce.

And a deserving winner was announced. Continue reading … ‘Burgers, burgers, burgers!’