Pitbull
Global Warming
RCA Records
**
Armed with unyielding devotion to his tried-and-tested blueprint of Spanglish dance-rap, Pitbull heats up the planet with his commercial seventh studio album, Global Warming.
Pitbull has always known the bankable power of a well-placed A-list feature. He has found great success in reaching out to as many fan bases as he possibly can with myriad collaborations and continues to do so on his latest release. Collaboration highlights include Hope We Meet Again featuring Chris Brown (reminiscent of their previous hit International Love) and the über catchy Party Ain't Over featuring Usher.
However, Pitbull doesn't always strike gold with this approach. Some of the guest features on this album seem cut-and-pasted, only existing for the sheer sake of it. The snooze-worthy Tchu Tchu Tcha, featuring Enrique Iglesias sounds like every other song in existence that features Iglesias. The guest appearance from JLo on Drinks for You (Ladies Anthem) is equally disappointing, serving no real purpose other than to remind us of her subpar vocal abilities.
While Pitbull is experimental when it comes to his beats, feature guests and musical samples, he doesn’t display such versatility when it comes to lyrical content. The self-proclaimed Mr Worldwide incessantly name-drops the numerous countries he has visited (“Reporting live from the tallest building in Tokyo”), talks about the ludicrous amount of money he makes, emphasises the importance of having fun and living in the moment and boasts about his (alleged) knack for womanising.
The songs on Global Warming have some appeal when they are listened to individually (and in the right setting), but become bland and recurring when digested as a whole. Pitbull is an artist who comfortably makes single-driven albums and happily takes advantage of the current popularity of dance music – and no one can blame him for continuing to ride the wave for as long as he can. He hints that his choice to follow the route of formulaic hit-making is less of an unfortunate incapacity and more of a strategically thought-out game plan.
“I’m laughing to the bank,” he scoffs on the album’s title track after declaring that he is “sick” of the pressures of the rap world. Perhaps Pitbull isn’t the imprudent party promoter that he comes off as, but rather a shrewd businessman who knows exactly what he needs to do to attain success.
Red Joan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
The specs
Engine: 2x201bhp AC Permanent-magnetic electric
Transmission: n/a
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 659Nm
Price estimate: Dh200,000
On sale: Q3 2022
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The chef's advice
Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.
“They feel like they can’t buy one cucumber,” he says. “But I can walk into a shop – I feed two people at home – and I’ll walk into a shop and I buy one cucumber, I’ll buy one onion.”
Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.
The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
1,000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List
James Mustich, Workman
RESULT
Esperance de Tunis 1 Guadalajara 1
(Esperance won 6-5 on penalties)
Esperance: Belaili 38’
Guadalajara: Sandoval 5’
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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