Former M cover stars and UAE hip-hop duo Desert Heat kick off their Middle East tour in Dubai on Wednesday, at The Warehouse at Le Meridien. Support is from the freestyle MC, DJ Outlaw and Oman's biggest hip-hop act, SG. Tickets are Dh100 (girls get in free) and available at www.boxofficeme.com and Virgin Megastores. The group will also play the free world music concert at Festival City on Friday, as part of Dubai Sound City. They will be on stage about 8pm. For full tour details, see www.desertheatarabia.com
With the Middle East International Film Festival a fading memory and the Dubai version more than a month off, film enthusiasts would be in for a dry spell were it not for Mahmovies!, the brainchild of the filmmaker Mahmoud Kaabour. The Dubai-based director of the well-received documentary, Being Osama, has curated for the past year a screening series based on one element of the cinema. Last time around he put together a programme of films which focused on music - not soundtracks. This November's outing at Dubai's Jam Jar gallery is dubbed "Black And White Glory", an homage to the silver scale. "There's been a tendency in this country to consider only the director or the screenwriter when it comes to film," Kaabour says. "The cinematography is just as important. I think you can sculpt meaning and emotions with black and white in a way that you can't with colour. Of course, you can do really special things with colour, too, but colour gives everything equal importance... I think it's really important to point out that all of the films in this series were shot in black and white by choice. Colour was already in wide use when they were made."
The Monday-night series kicks off on Monday at 7.30 pm with I Am Cuba, Russian director Mikhael Kalazatov's ode to the overthrow of the Batista regime. Not widely seen until Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas dug it out of storage and struck a new print in the Nineties, the film features near-acrobatic camerawork that most famously includes one seemingly endless tracking shot that passes through an office building window, across an office and out another window before sweeping down to a street scene below. And that was way before CGI.
Next, on November 9, is Last Year At Marienbad, the legendary collaboration between Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet, in which the camera, frame, time and consciousness become putty in the hands of these avant-gardists. On November 16, Chris Marker's La Jetée, a tale of time travel and sensuality comprised almost entirely of stills (the inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys), opens a programme featuring the documentary Visions Of Light: The Art Of Cinematography. On November 23, there's Salesman, the cinema-verite masterpiece of the Maysle brothers, shot entirely with available light. The series wraps up on November 30 with Lars von Trier's Europa (Zentropa), a sometimes phantasmagoric mixture of colour and black-and-white photography within the same frame.
Jeffrey Sipe
Dubai's biggest music festival, Sound City begins this Thursday at the Irish Village, boasting an impressive line-up of dozens of bands and DJs performing over three days, starting with Doves and The Human League and ending with Nitin Sawhney, Echo And The Bunnymen and the brilliant Super Furry Animals, left, one of M's favourite festival bands. Tickets are Dh249 per day, or Dh699 for a three-day pass and are almost sold out, but we have one weekend pass to give away. To enter, e-mail your name and contact number with subject name "Sound City" to magazine@thenational.ae. Entry is restricted to those over the age of 21 and you must be able to pick up your pass in person at the festival box office.
Halloween is here, and M wants to know what the "In" costume is this year: who will be scaring us silly? Well, perhaps it's no surprise that this year is all about Michael Jackson. Thriller costumes had sold out last week at Posters in Abu Dhabi's Al Wahda Mall. Salesperson Richelle Taclob says customers were substituting Jacko for Jack Sparrow of Pirates Of The Caribbean (Dh437.50), or angels and fairies (Dh230). M thinks an angel costume on us would frighten anyone, but smaller versions are also popular, and cuter, on children (Dh89.50). At Mr Ben's Costume Closet in Dubai, the fancy dress season is in full swing. The store's manager Catherine Korb says business is twice what it was last year, when we were all feeling the fallout of the credit crisis. They have for sale a myriad of costumes for both adults and children. Adults can also rent outfits (no damning evidence left in the wardrobe).
The hot favourite, Jackson's Billie Jean costume (Dh800), has sold out but is still available to rent; Dh350 gets you a glitter shirt and jacket, bow tie, white glitter sock and, of course, the ubiquitous white glitter glove. After something permanent? Buying a Jack Sparrow will cost you Dh375. However, if you want something cheekier, an Austin Powers outfit is very well behaved at Dh350. For children, characters from their favourite shows and superheroes (Dh200) remain firm favourites. It also seems we can't resist dressing our little girls as fairies: a Tinkerbell costume (Dh150) is consistently the most popular. Whatever you wear for All Hallows' Eve, M hopes you have a fabulous time and don't scream too loudly should you bump into us.
Elizabeth Pearson
Posters, Level 1, Al Wahda Mall, Abu Dhabi, 02 4437089; Mr Ben's Costume Closet, Ground Floor, Al Ghazal Shopping Centre, Dubai, 04 345 3577
Breast Cancer Awareness month is almost over, but it's not too too late to help raise some money by buying this cute little notepad kit from S*uce, one of our favourite shops.
The covers were designed by boutique regulars Rana Salam, Nadine Kanso and Anjali Agarwal and are adorned with Swarovski crystals by sparkle queen Michelle Roberts of Jake & Gigi. The three notebooks come in a clear pouch with a pink pen, and all proceeds go to the local charity Friends of Cancer Patients.
Dh50, S*uce, Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi, 02 681 8650 (among other locations)
If you've always fancied looking like Tom Selleck or Inspector Clouseau, now is the time to make it happen. Tomorrow marks the start of Movember - the annual moustache-growing charity event to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues. Around the world, an army of Mo Bros - including a team from The National (code name: The Stubble Makers) - will be aiming to beat last year's total of £30million (Dh179 million) to help charities working to fight prostate and testicular cancer. This is how it works: register online at the Movember website, selecting the country and charity of your choice. After starting the month clean-shaven, you post photos of your progress on your own Mo Space so friends, family and supporters anywhere in the world can monitor your blossoming, manly upper lip. Donations can be made directly through the website to any Mo Bro or team. For details, see www.movember.com