Reykjavik Grapevine, issue 4, 2011

Full schedule inside

www.grapevine.is

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND IN THE ISSUE Issue 4 • 2011 • April 8 - May 5 2011 LOVE

Are Icelanders true romantics?

FASHION

RFF 2011 in retrospect

TRANSPORT

How can Rvk's bus system suck less?

+ COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE! MUSIC

What a mess!

What a mess!

TRAVEL

GOLDEN CIRCLE remains golden

Drugs, Alienation, Loneliness and Murder

The small size of Iceland's population ensures that practically all Icelandic writing represents the nation as a whole, regardless of the author's intentions (statistically, only around 0,0046% of all words uttered in the world are in Icelandic). Icelandic literature thus tends to mainly represent Iceland to Icelanders, shaping their collective self-image. The 2008 crash had a profound effect on the people of Iceland. But how did this manifest in said inward conversation? Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl explores the crisis in Icelandic literature. Page 12

The Reykjavík Grapevine Hafnarstræti 15, 101 Reykjavík www.grapevine.is grapevine@grapevine.is Published by Fröken ehf. www.froken.is Member of the Icelandic Travel Industry Association www.saf.is Printed by Landsprent ehf. in 25.000 copies.

Editor: Haukur S Magnússon / haukur@grapevine.is Journalist: Anna Andersen / anna@grapevine.is Editorial: +354 540 3600 / editor@grapevine.is A dvertising: +354 540 3605 / ads@grapevine.is Publisher : Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson / hilmar@grapevine.is +354 540 3601 / publisher@grapevine.is Contributing Writers: Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl Bob Cluness Hildur Lilliendahl Magnús Sveinn Helgason Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl Paul Fontaine Egill Helgason Ragnar Egilsson Marc Vincenz Valur Gunnarsson Morgan Levy Madeilene T. Anna Margrét Björnsson Editorial Interns: Sindri Eldon / sindri@grapevine.is Steve Ganey / steve@grapevine.is Vanessa Schipani / vanessa@grapevine.is On-line News Editor Paul Fontaine / paul@grapevine.is A rt Director : Hörður Kristbjörnsson / hoddi@grapevine.is Design: Páll Hilmarsson / pallih@kaninka.net Photographer : Hörður Sveinsson / hordursveinsson.com Sales Director : Aðalsteinn Jörundsson / adalsteinn@grapevine.is Guðmundur Rúnar Svansson / grs@grapevine.is Helgi Þór Harðarson / helgi@grapevine.is Distribution: distribution@grapevine.is Proofreader: Jim Rice Press releases: listings@grapevine.is Submissions inquiries: editor@grapevine.is Subscription inquiries: +354 540 3605 / subscribe@grapevine.is General inquiries: grapevine@grapevine.is Founders: Hilmar Steinn Grétarsson, Hörður Kristbjörnsson, Jón Trausti Sigurðarson, Oddur Óskar Kjartansson, Valur Gunnarsson

The Reykjavík Grapevine is published 18 times a year by Fröken ltd. Monthly from November through April, and fortnightly from May til October. Nothing in this magazine may be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. The Reykjavík Grapevine is distributed around Reykjavík, Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, Seyðisfjörður, Borgarnes, Kef lavík, Ísafjörður and at key locations along road #1, and all major tourist attractions and tourist information centres in the country.

You may not like it, but at least it's not sponsored.

(No articles in the Reykjavík Grapevine are pay-for articles. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own, not the advertisers’).

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

ARE YOU A DESIGNER? WANT TO CREATE A REYKJAVIK GRAPEVINE COVER? STAY TUNED TO WWW.GRAPEVINE.IS NEXT WEEK FOR YOUR CHANCE TO EXPRESS YOURSELF IN A RATHER CONSPICUOUS MANNER.

2 Editorial | Haukur S. Magnússon Haukur’s 38th Editorial

READ MY PRIVATE EMAIL, WON’T YOU? Hi, readers!

Here is a letter I received from a friend of mine the other day: Hi Haukur, Couldn't help but notice the little hubbub about the Grapevine satirical piece about celebrity.

I was curious, after talking to some locals— am I right in noticing that the Icelandic right to protect one's reputation above all else is still rated higher than free speech? How does this fit with the whole WIKILEAKS scenario? From what I hear, Iceland is very far from free speech at the moment, as, say, writing about a banker bankrupting a nation would be insulting to his reputation. I've heard DV, for example, got into a strange jam over Eiður Smári.

Best regards, [redacted]

Here is my reply to that letter: Hey there, yeah, it was all over the place yesterday. I thought that was amusing. I wasn't exactly excited though, such hubbub is maybe OK for stirring up interest but it gets tiresome and I am usually void of hope wading through it. Or, I don't know.

I suppose it's good that people are talking about and assessing what we're doing or trying to do.

I’m not going to publicly respond though. That would only drag the issue along and I’ve seen enough such cases here over the past decades to not be interested at all. But I should email the offended celebrity, it wasn’t our intention to hurt her feelings (wonder if she’s read Mad Magazine ever), even though her complaints are mostly ludicrous.

You are correct in your assumption about our slander scene. It's pretty big. All the útrásarvíkingar are going around suing journalists and threatening to sue journalists. The newspaper DV—which has really been the only source of hope for those interested ‘investigative journalism’—was recently slapped with a restraining order for printing and discussing 'classified' Landsbanki emails that reveal how banksters and insiders vacuumed its funds while engaging in obviously criminal activities. Banksters’ complaints are usually entertained. No one is willing to answer for themselves under anything less than their own hand-made terms, and even then they are reluctant.

And somehow our community continues to let this happen, even though rage and resistance also seems brewing (if not festering). It results in a very tense atmosphere that is not very fun to partake in.

Oh, and, Icesave.

On the other end we have the Pressan/Bleikt. is style of stories and journalism. It is naive and escapist drivel that seems to be meant to

divert attention away from real issues and problems and it could even be successful if they weren't so plain awful at their jobs (maybe something like 'entertaining escapist drivel' exists, but it's not to be found there).

(One wonders: would young radicals of the sixties (and further into the past) have been effective (assuming they were effective) had they had access so much disposable and highly entertaining dreck available at every instance of every minute for their masturbatory pleasures?

Facebook? Geez, I sound like an old curmudgeon.

“Those kids with their fancy ‘entertainment’ and ‘electronic music’, who do the think they are!?” [angrily shakes cane at world]) What I find funny about the WikiLeaks/IMMI press we've been receiving is that it's so far from being warranted or merited that it doesn't really border on the absurd—it long since toppled entirely over the line. Like, totally absurd. All you can do is laugh. Hahaha. I also fail to understand how making Iceland a free press haven (which surely is the government sponsored initiative's goal) fits in with the same government's plan to create an entity called 'Fjölmiðlastofa' ("The Media Agency") which is meant to monitor and police Iceland publishing and broadcasting.

And also the way our supreme courts work, and our courts. Any Jónas Kristjánsson rant on the matter is a great truth and should be taken seriously (I really like Jónas Kristjánsson lately.

Maybe that’s why I’m sounding like an old curmudgeon).

The DV/Eiður Smári case is in that vein. He reportedly had some shady business dealings in his past that DV reported on (from what I understand—I didn’t really read the story as Eiður Smári doesn’t interest me and there are plenty of shady business dealings to read about). He sued them and won, and the public generally sided with the footballer as far as I could tell, saying he had his right to a private life and these were unfair and mean spirited attacks.

Anyway. Nice hearing from you. Hope to see you back in Iceland SOON. Love, Haukur SM

So that’s an exchange I had last week. I was thinking about that then. Fun times. Don’t know if it’s relevant, or if I even still agree with myself, but felt for some reason that I should share it. If you disagree, send me a letter. I am always disagreeing with myself, so I won’t be offended.

This week, I am thinking about different things. Like the Reykjavík Music Mess and Aldrei fór ég suður music festivals that are coming up. They are very exciting! Music is lovely and exciting! And some art I saw this weekend. My family. Icesave (whoo! Icesave! What will we talk about when it’s gone?). My cats, and the bus system. Oh, and all the cool people that will visit Iceland this summer—boosting our tourism income ISK! Go read Eiríkur Örn’s feature. It is most enlightening.

Then, have a great April. I love you all dearly.

TRACK COMPILATION OF THE ISSUE

Download at grapevine.is

TRACK COMPILATION OF THE ISSUE REYKJAVÍK MUSIC MESS: YR. FANCY GRAPEVINE SAMPLER! Download at www.grapevine.is By now, y’all are probably EXPLODING with excitement about the upcoming Reykjavík Music Mess bash that’ll be happening in JUST ONE WEEK! Yes! A week from now, you will be happily hopping along to some great performances by some very choice musicians, forgetting all your horrible life-pain for a moment of singing along.

You will laugh, you will cry, you will get drunk, vomit, pass out, wake up, laugh some more, spend all your money, score an overdraft, drink some more, stand in line for the bathroom, lose your phone, slap some hi-fives, regrettably forget your childhood BFF’s birthday and inadvertently offend some guy you had no idea cherished the times you shared at Iceland Airwaves 2006 and can’t get over the fact that you’ve got better stuff to do with your time than remembering his sorry ass. In short, it will be a goddamn blast.

Does this sound like all too much hype? It probably does, huh. But there’s just no way we can express our excited-ness about this ‘music mess’ thing. It has it all. Thirty high quality musical acts, and five of them VISITORS FROM ABROAD who we almost never get to see. And goddamn Deerhunter.

(Also, it will provide the perfect opportunity to get all hyped up for the upcoming ALDREI FÓR ÉG SUÐUR awesomeness in Ísafjörður, which happens the weekend after. Who would have thunk April (the cruellest month!) would prove such a big provider of musical joy?).

Anyway, to help y’all get SUPER GADDAMN PUMPED for the ‘mess, the good people behind it have compiled a fancy compilation for your downloading and listening pleasures. Check it out—it has the following artists and tracks: Mugison—Haglél // Hellvar—Ding an Sich // Lower Dens—I Get Nervous // Nolo—Skelin mín // Prinspóló—Niðrá strönd // Nive Nielsen & Deer Children—Room // Samaris—Hljóma þú // Miri—Drekar // AMFJ—Retoría // Tomutonttu—Luominen jäi kesken // FOSSILS—Deadringer // Reykjavík!—INTERNET // Swords of Chaos—Ill-gotten Gains // Lazyblood— Volcanos and Babies // Sudden Weather Change— Sharp // Sudden Ghostigital—Good Morning

Comic | Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir

Full schedule inside

www.grapevine.is

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LIFE, TRAVEL & ENTERTAINMENT IN ICELAND IN THE ISSUE Issue 4 • 2011 • April 8 - May 5 2011 LOVE

Are Icelanders true romantics?

FASHION

RFF 2011 in retrospect

TRANSPORT

How can Rvk's bus system suck less?

+ COMPLETE CITY LISTINGS - INSIDE! MUSIC

What a mess!

What a mess!

TRAVEL

GOLDEN CIRCLE remains golden

Drugs, Alienation, Loneliness and Murder

Photography: Marinó Thorlacius marinot.com The small size of Iceland's population ensures that practically all Icelandic writing represents the nation as a whole, regardless of the author's intentions (statistically, only around 0,0046% of all words uttered in the world are in Icelandic). Icelandic literature thus tends to mainly represent Iceland to Icelanders, shaping their collective self-image. The 2008 crash had a profound effect on the people of Iceland. But how did this manifest in said inward conversation? Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl explores the crisis in Icelandic literature. Page 12

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We’ve got a new prize for all your MOST AWESOME LETTERS. And it’s a scorcher! For this issue, whoever sends THE MOST AWESOME LETTER will receive a cool new Reykjavík Grapevine T-shirt, featuring the majestic G that adorns our cover. So you should make sure to keep writing us fun and/or interesting letters.

This new Grapevine tee surely is the shiznit (whatever that means)! It was designed by our very own art director man, Hörður Kristbjörnsson, and it’s good for posing in front of a mirror, impressing folks with your impeccable taste or picking up men or women of all ages (no minors). DON’T PANIC if your letter wasn’t picked AWESOME LETTER. You can still get a tee for a low, low price over our website, www.grapevine.is

Now, if you're in the market for free goodies next month, write us some sort of letter.

Give us your worst: letters@grapevine.is

Say your piece, voice your opinion, send your letters to: letters@grapevine.is

4 Letters

MOST AWESOME LETTER: HiI was just on vacation in Iceland but had zero time to shop.

Where can I find women's leggings like the one's I saw in Iceland?

Some were shiny, some were a mix of shiny and matte horizontal think stripes, some had zippers. These leggings are thicker than tights and thinner than jeans.

I saw them worn with cotton tops with that fell to mid thigh and a jacket...kind of like an ad I saw for 66 degrees north...leggings a kind of longish cotton dress/top and a short jacket.

Affordable price please and perhaps a contact website.

Rejkhanes Hotel Dear Editor We were inspired by an item by you which was included in a feature in The Guardian travel section last November, which advised its readers where to go to see the aurora borealis. We suspect we are considerably older than your usual reader demographic, but undaunted, we arranged a holiday in the hope of seeing the sky dancing above the hot water pool at this hotel, as described by you. We weren’t entirely successful in this regard, the weather was against us, but we knew the odds and the glimmer we did see was a taster.

However, the charm and kindness of Jon and Maria Haider, proprietors at the hotel were remarkable. We have visited Iceland before, in the summer, but this time the dramatic winter landscape which we could see during a long drive with our hosts, was just wonderful. That, combined with the generosity of the Icelandic people, makes your homeland a fascinating and rewarding destination.

Sincerely, May and Brian Showell Dear May and Brian,

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48

thank you for your kind words and kind letter. It is too bad you didn’t get too see the crazy lazer show during your trip to the hotel at Reykjanes, but it’s great to hear you had a rewarding trip nonetheless. Reykjanes in the Westfjords surely is a hidden pearl of sorts, but maybe it should just stay that way.

It’s also nice to hear from some non-angry Brits for a change (not that we hear from angry Brits all the time. We mostly hear from this angry Frenchman called Malcolm). From what we hear in our ‘Icesave debate’ monstrosity lifesucking deathhole, y’all are totally pissed off and you want to enslave our children in coalmines and drain all our blood and stuff.

Maybe you are interested in doing that—maybe you were just doing some field research on your trip—who knows? But you’re polite and nice about it, which is what counts. So thanks!

This is in reply to Tony about the Icelandic postal system.

I feel your pain. I am a foreigner living here and indeed the postal system sucks! I ordered something off of Ebay over a year ago

Is there a column in your paper that features photos of seasonal fashion and where to buy?

Do you ever do an annual feature article about shopping like top 50 shops and categories like funky, sporty, yoga, fitness, fashion, shoes, fashion boots, snow boots,natural, Icelandic, urban, sun, snow, jeans, kids,teens, 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's etc Thanks, Sha Sha Dear Sha Sha, thank you for your letter. It is likely misplaced.

You do realise you are asking fashion advise and still have not received it. 'Course, that was when the volcano decided to throw her weight around last Spring. I checked numerous times with the postal system and no-one could tell me anything. Postage to the USA seems to go up on a daily basis (or so it feels that way). Package shipping cost is a nightmare! I cannot mail even the smallest package to the US for under 20 USD! I think that their import tax fees are outrageous! I usually end up paying almost 40% of the cost of the item for import tax. I received a Kindle (Ebook reader) in January and had it shipped here to me, expecting about a 40% import tax. Surprise!! The Kindle cost me 21.000 ISK. Import tax was 18.874 ISK. Almost a 90% import tax on this! Who the hell decides how much to tax something? Does it depend on the weather, wind speed, premenstral cramping or mood of the import police that day or what?

How much of it goes into their own pocket?

Recently my mother sent me a gift (in February 2011). The Icelandic import tax system decided to tax me on this, even though it was a gift. What is that all about? It cost me 1050 ISK to pick up my package. I thought gifts were not taxed...I would have argued this with the "import tax police" but I don't think it would have done.

Nothing is going to ship here to me anymore. I will not give them any more of my money. weebo2114 Dear weebo2114 (?), thank you for your letter. It is nice that someone feels like commiserating with our good friend Tony. Otherwise, yeah, we still agree. That whole system is ridiculous. In fact, we spent the past couple weeks trying to devise fresh new ways of getting back at the postal authorities and toll clerks and what have you. We came up with some good ones. Stuff involving rats and cream cheese, cigarettes and rubber hose, a slice from Pizza King and the soundtrack album to ‘Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey’.

Then we remembered that we need to suck all your money to help pay for all the flatscreen TVs and Range Rovers we collectively purchased while we were entrenched in our fancy economic bubble and we thought twice. The good people of the post office are merely trying to prevent us from having to sell our children off to be coal miners in medieval England (iron-

from what is probably the single worst dressed editorial staff on the entire northern hemisphere. People here wear Snuggies and Crocs for fancy events—if they feel like dressing up!

Usually it’s the good ol’ burlap sack.

We are flattered that you’d ask and all, but we really don’t feel we can help you. Have a shirt for your troubles!

Perhaps some of our readers can pitch in?

Readers, if you’ve any idea how dear ol’ Sha Sha can get some stylish leggings, do write us at letters@grapevine.is. There might be a prize in it for you!

ically enough, that’s where the ‘babes’ from ‘Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey’ came from!). So we put our plans aside and instead built a huge totem to honour the good people of the post office and our tolling authorities and all the rest of them.

Please, weebo2114, don’t stop ordering stuff from abroad. We need your money to maintain our habit.

Dear Grapevine, Thanks for always being there and telling us "outlander" what is happening in the big wide world of Icelandic news - but whats this - you seem to have ignored the most important news for most foreign Residents and expat's living here - The fucking Bus. they have Just taken away a hour of service every night that mean's that if you are one of the poor pol's or thais that are left here - you can no longer take the night shift or evening shift. its get a car or get a diffrent Job. Sure everyone knows the bus are bad here, my 7 min drive to work takes at least 20 mins (plus 5 to get to the stop + 5 to be there early in case the driver feels like driving early home) = 30 mins. But come on Grapevine I think dramatic cutback of the bus service is bigger news than Art You Can Smell. This cutback does not just afect imigrant but all of the poor and even regular Icelander who will now find that you cant take the last bus to Town on friday night and arrive at the perfect time to party downtown - my bus used to drop me downtown at 12.30.

I dont mean to knock you Guys but please run a artical about this.

Garry Taylor Dear Garry, thank you for your nice letter, and for being a reader. Even if we might disagree with you on the importance of ‘art you can smell’ (did you fucking smell that shit?), we really appreciate your patronage of our pages and your thoughts.

How much? Well. Turn to page six. We made an article for you about the fucking bus! Go read it. And write us more letters. This whole magazine is made out of our fantastic combination of readers and writers (often interchangeable, too). Thanks again!

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2

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

6

So, the greater Reykjavík area bus system is pretty horrible, huh?

We get lots of complaints about it in any case? What's missing?

How can it be better? Write us a letter and tell us all about it.

Society | Public transport

Making More With Less How the city hopes to improve the bus system

Stand at any given busy intersection in Reykjavík, and one of the first things that you’ll notice is the car traffic.

Reykjavík is, for better or worse, a car town. In fact, over 50% of available city land is devoted to the car in the form of roads and parking lots. But the city faces a geographical challenge: a peninsula with mountains to the east, there is only so much land that can be used.

More prudent city planners, recognising the potential for problems arising from a focus on car traffic, might turn their attention towards mass transit.

Reykjavík isn't.

“Our Icelandic reality” Part of understanding why Reykjavík is a car town involves prevailing attitudes, often political in nature, about cars versus buses. Former Mayor Vilhjálmur Þ. Vilhjálmsson, a conservative, summarised the right's philosophy on the matter when he spoke to the Grapevine in 2005: “Icelanders have decided themselves to use personal vehicles, and this is something that we have to accept. The weather here is always changing from rain, to cold, to wind and

snow, all very quickly. People just don’t want to walk 500 to 700 metres to a bus stop and wait 10 or 15 minutes in bad weather for a bus to come. This is our Icelandic reality. We don’t see people driving fewer cars.”

City council has changed hands between the right and the left several times since then, and yet even under leftist city councils—often the most vocal advocates of developing mass transit—not only has bus service not improved; it has been cut back. Stops are fewer, hours are shorter, but fares have increased. In the past ten years, in fact, the standard adult fare has increased by about 130%.

How does one account for this? The Grapevine spoke to city councilperson Einar Örn Benediktsson, who is also the city's liaison to Strætó hf., the company that runs the buses for the capital and suburban area.

“An interesting dilemma” “This is an interesting dilemma,” he said. “The passenger pays approximately 20% of the fare. The municipalities, which own Strætó, subsidise the

remainder. When speaking to Bíllaus Lífstíll [a group that advocates Icelanders driving less, if at all], they suggested a much higher fare for better service to really be able to offer an alternative to the car. The question is, when limited financial resources are available, how much are you willing to pay for a better system?”

This has certainly been the bone of contention for many of the city's bus users—they recognise that the money has to come from somewhere, and the choices, as always, involve a mix of drawing revenue directly from the public in the form of fares, or indirectly, through taxes.

But bus service has other, residual effects on the city's residents. A city neighbourhood organisation known as Íbúasamtök þriðja hverfis has, since at least 2007, fought with the city over what they see as an inordinate amount of car traffic—too few stop signs, stoplights and speed bumps have created what are known as “traffic islands”— portions of residential neighbourhoods separated from each other by busy roads. Residents in the Hlíðar neigh-

bourhood, who are represented by the organisation, have said that these traffic islands have made life loud and polluted, and have prevented their children from being able to cross the street to play with their friends. These problems are due to an excess of car traffic—increased bus service typically means reduced car traffic, which could help alleviate these problems for Hlíðar residents, who still deal with these issues years later.

Changes can’t come soon enough Of course a conservative, pro-car agenda cannot bear all the blame for the lack of a vibrant mass transit system in Reykjavík; the design of the city itself, much of the downtown area's street patterns from hundreds of years ago, still remain. And this is something the city recognises as well.

“The spread of the city has not helped public transport,” Einar Örn says. “Hopefully this might change now in the next few months, as a new directive for public transport will be announced. The biggest change in it

is that the public transport system of the Reykjavík area will be regarded as part of the whole country's transport system. This will [emerge] in the form of funds from the state. This will have [parts of the routes] funded, which will free capital to use to better the existing system, make it more tightly-knit into the suburbs—something it does in a limited capacity today.”

Great state funding, and further integration into the suburban area, could effectively reduce the amount of traffic coming into and out of the city. The city also recently announced it would be closing Austurstræti (between Lækjargata and Pósthússtræti, at least) to car traffic, with plans in the wings to make more streets pedestrian-only. Whether or not these changes will pay off for the city—and whether they will be enough to satisfy Reykjavík's commuters—remains to be seen, but for those who rely on Reykjavík's bus system, the changes can't come soon enough.

Paul Fontaine H0rður Sveinsson

Society | Trash

Taking Out The Trash Reykjavík residents learn a new chore The concept of a ‘trash day’ will soon take on a whole new meaning for the hitherto spoiled residents of Reykjavík.

Thus far, taking out the trash in Reykjavík has simply entailed emptying the indoor trash bins into the outdoor bin.

And as such, many people have no idea when their trash is even picked up.

But imagine this! Starting May 1, in what would seem like a completely ordinary chore to anybody in the United States, Reykjavík dwellers will face the laborious task of rolling their outdoor bin to at least fifteen metres of the curb for pick up. Yes, you read correctly.

They don’t even have to go all the way to the curb.

Equipped with measuring tape, employees of the city have been busy these past few months visiting all 49.721 houses/apartments in Reykjavík to record the distance from their garbage bins to the street. If the distance exceeded fifteen metres, the city has

mailed a letter to the household informing them that they must now take out their trash or, if they are seriously that lazy, pay an extra 4.800 ISK per bin per year.

Although the city is first and foremost thinking about saving money and not improving the quality of life for garbage collectors, the new regulation would definitely have made Þórólfur Valgeir Þorleifsson’s job quite a bit easier on the legs. In 2007, then Mayor of Reykjavík Vilhjálmur Þ. Vilhjálmsson honoured Þórólfur for his fifty years of service as a garbage collector in Reykjavík. At that time, it was reported that the average garbage collector walked 10.000 kilometres per year on the job.

That’s tantamount to walking nearly an entire marathon every day (38 kilometres or 24 miles), five days a week. That means Þórólfur walked about 1.186 marathons and he probably deserves some praise for that fact alone.

In any case, it remains to be seen whether all hell breaks loose in May or whether Icelanders can peacefully roll their bins to the street like the 300 and some million people living in the United States manage to do. Already though it seems that those who must now add ‘trash day’ to their calendar are getting ready to erupt with jealousy toward their neighbours who can simply carry on with life unburdened by this chore.

Let’s just hope the aftermath of the city’s decision to stop picking up discarded Christmas trees last year isn’t any indication of what’s in store, because if it is, we can expect to see overflowing garbage bins all about the city.

Although spoiled trash would be almost too poetic in this case.

Anna AndersEn H0rður Sveinsson

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The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

Whaddaya think? Should we stop running stuff about the economic collapse? Should we focus more on other stuff? Like sports or something? Do let us know if you do, Grapevine is your magazine after all.

8 Economics | Bubbly!

Pop Goes The Bubble! ...and the weasels run off with the money

In 2007, just as the housing bubble was about to burst, Newsweek senior editor Daniel Gross published a book called ‘Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great For The Economy’. In it, he sought to correct what he considered to be a dangerous misunderstanding by proving that asset bubbles were not at all dangerous.

They were in fact just the opposite. As the title suggests, he believed bubbles were “great”.

According to Daniel, capitalism needs bubbles to survive and function— it is through bubbles, he argued, that capitalism rapidly transforms economies during periods of “major technological or commercial innovation”.

Bubbles are simply an expression of the Schumpeterian “creative destruction” that propels growth in a capitalist economy.

Of course, the global financial bubble popped soon after, and the taxpayers were left to bail out all the clever innovators.

THE CORPORATE VIKINGS Following the spectacular collapse of the Icelandic financial miracle, which turned out to be one giant bubble, it is doubtful if many Icelanders would agree with Daniel’s characterisation of bubbles as “great”. However, most Icelanders would agree that the bubble was created by innovation—innovative accounting, that is. As it turns out, Daniel Gross overlooks the fact that among the types of “innovation” that flourish during bubbles are creative accounting and fraud. As John Kenneth Galbraith noted in his study of the roaring ‘20s and the 1929 stock market crash, bubbles provide ideal conditions for fraud and embezzlement. Charles Kindleberger in his classic history of financial crises, ‘Manias, Panics and Crashes’, goes one step further and argues that embezzlement, bubbles and swindles are inseparable.

In his account, John Kenneth Galbraith focuses on the “get rich quick” atmosphere that dominates during bubbles: people are willing to look the other way, so long as the good times keep rolling and the numbers on the stock ticker head ever upward. The expectation of ever-higher stock prices can also stimulate fraud in a different way. Arthur Levitt, former head of the American Securities and Exchanges Commission, has argued that accounting fraud during the internet bubble of the 1990s was caused by the emphasis on short-term gains in stock prices by a

Words Magnús Sveinn Helgason Photo Julia Staples

“It is impossible to explain what appears to have been widespread Enron scale accounting fraud, systematic market manipulation, insider trading, self dealing and other financial malfeasance that characterised the Icelandic market, without reference to this willingness to silence critics” market dominated by day traders. Arthur, as well as Galbraith, Kindleberger and other scholars of financial bubbles, recognise that bubbles breed fraud.

When everyone seems to be getting rich quickly, unscrupulous businessmen [and –women. For brevity’s sake we will stick to ‘businessmen’ throughout] resort to cooking the books in order to meet the market’s expectations— and in the uncritical atmosphere of easy riches, investors fail to look more closely, ignoring doubts and even red flags, fearing they might miss out on the next big thing.

THE SILENCING OF CRITICS However, the Icelandic example shows us that there are other ways in which bubbles breed fraud. History has shown that every bubble is accompanied by its own ‘New Era’ philosophy, a belief that traditional rules no longer apply. These philosophies or religions usually come complete with their lists of proof that provide those who want to believe in constantly rising markets with evidence and justification for their faith.

In Iceland, this “New Era” philosophy was best articulated by free market fundamentalists, including Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson and his disciples, who argued Iceland could become the richest country in the world by slashing taxes and regulations and by becoming a “global financial centre”.

This new era philosophy then merged with a chauvinistic nationalism, ideas about the inherent superiority of Icelanders and Icelandic businessmen, allowing bubble promoters to blast critics for not “getting it”, for lacking faith in both Iceland and the free market.

It is impossible to explain what appears to have been widespread Enron scale accounting fraud, systematic market manipulation, insider trading, self dealing and other financial malfeasance that characterised the Icelandic market, without reference to this willingness to silence critics. When all is said and done, it was the celebration of investment bankers and oligarchs by politicians, the fawning profiles of financiers and corporate raiders in the daily press along and the utterly uncritical celebration of “the market” as infallible, which was the real problem and the root cause of the bubble, and much of the wreckage it left in its wake.

A good example of how this works is the case of FL Group. In 2004, a former DeCode executive named Hannes Smárason gained control of the airline Icelandair with the help of Baugur and

Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson. Icelandair was at that time one of the most solid companies in Iceland, and one of few airlines in the world that was consistently profitable. Hannes set about to transform the company, changing its name to FL Group to reflect his ambitious global plans. These plans turned out to be a classic corporate raid, as Hannes sold all hard assets out of the company, leaving only cash and equity in other companies, which was then leveraged in order to turn FL Group into an “investment company”. Of course the main investments were in the financial sector—primarily in Glitnir (which was turned into a personal ATM for Jón Ásgeir and associates at a later stage in the game). The markets celebrated and the stock price of FL Group rose more than 50% in six months.

But while the business strategy of Hannes Smárason found favour with the stock market, several members of the board of directors, as well as the CEO of the company, realised that something was wrong. Within the span of six months in 2005, the majority of the board and the CEO of the company resigned without any official explanation. Hannes brushed these resignations off as the stock market gave him a vote of confidence and the price of FL Group stock continued to rise. The media saw no reason to make a fuss, and at the end of 2006 Hannes was voted “businessman of the year” by the most widely read business weekly, Fréttablaðið’s The Market (it might bear noting that Fréttablaðið is owned by the aforementioned Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson). By then, FL Group’s stock value had more than doubled since Hannes assumed the reins.

Needless to say, FL Group was among the first firms to declare bankruptcy in 2008, its shareholders losing all their paper gains. Several questions remain unanswered about large transfers from FL Group to offshore banking accounts, and Hannes Smárason has been sued by the resolution committee of bankrupt bank Glitnir for his role, and the role of FL Group, in the looting the bank.

There had been plenty of red flags— red flags that are not only visible with the benefit of hindsight, but should have been noticed by anyone paying attention at the time. Had the country not been caught up in bubble fever it is highly unlikely that Hannes Smárason would have been treated as some business genius, and more likely that someone would have noticed that there was

reason to ask questions.

And who knows what red flags might have been noticed had the media and the public been more alert, and had they been more critical of the business elites? One can only wonder whether scoundrels like Hannes might have been stopped earlier had investors, the media and the general public not been blinded by their faith in the “Icelandic economic miracle”.

Concluding remarks As we shift through the wreckage caused by the great debt bubble of the past years, the question arises of how best to avoid another bubble and inevitable crash. Understandably, commentators have focused on strengthening financial regulation, closing offshore tax havens and regulatory loopholes.

Reversing the trend toward increasing deregulation is important and necessary, but it is unclear if this would be enough if we fail to reassess our view of “the market” and its ability to correctly judge risk and apportion capital to worthy businesses. One would have thought that the hyping of financiers and internet wunderkinds and biotech researchers turned tycoons in the dotcom bubble would have forced some kind of soul-searching and a more critical attitude to the wisdom of the stock market. Instead, we plunged headfirst into a new bubble. If we want to avoid yet another one, we must adopt a more critical attitude to the market.

Renewing regulation of financial markets is also bound to run into opposition when the memory of the crash fades, unless we can abandon the misconception that the market is somehow infallible, always right, and that corporations and business tycoons are the best guardians of the public interest.

This is not to say that we should assume that all financial markets are just glorified casinos, and investment bankers all crooks who are out to defraud society. Rather, I argue that we need to keep in mind that the market is not some infallible judge of the inherent value of all things, and that when it comes to “price discovery” it can on occasion err quite spectacularly, and that we need to be aware that businessmen and large financial corporations only look out for their own interest, and that there is no reason to assume that these interests correspond to the interests of society at large. And that businessmen, like other people, are a diverse lot, and that some of them might be misrepresenting themselves.

News | Iceland in the International Eye: March

Tiptoe Through The Tulips Icesave: It’s like a slow waltz with the devil. By the time you read this, you may have already cast your vote; but the dance is still not over. Not by a long shot.

A faint crack of light has appeared at the end of the Kaupþing tunnel. Last month the two brothers Tchenguiz— famed property moguls and former allies of Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson’s Baugur empire—were arrested under suspicion of fraud by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO). They were released shortly thereafter without charges, but tragically managed to miss their annual yacht party in Cannes. In a surge of Tchenguiz-articles this last month, the Daily Mail said of the two brothers: “With a £4bn fortune to play with, they lived the playboy lifestyle, with beautiful women on their arms, and champagne flowing,” and featured a delightful photo of Vincent Tchenguiz cuddling supermodel Caprice. Severely distressed by their arrest, the two brothers quickly initiated proceedings to obtain a court ruling against Kaupþing, which as noted in the Financial Times, “will allow them to pursue claims of more than £1bn against the Icelandic bank in the UK.” A couple of weeks after the brothers’ arrest, the Luxembourg police raided Kaupþing’s former premises in Luxembourg at the request of British and Icelandic officials. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, over 70 investigators from Iceland, the UK and Luxembourg were involved in the raid.

Landsbanki and its former owners are also under increased scrutiny. The Telegraph recently pointed out that “… the failed Icelandic bank, illegally transferred millions of pounds of British savers’ money to related party institutions in the hours before it collapsed.” And, the great majority of these funds were transferred to institutions owned or controlled

by Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson and his father. One loan of £45m to Björgólfur Thor’s company, Straumur, was even made after Landsbanki had closed down, on October 6.

Can anyone in the world explain why Björgólfur Thor sits cosy in the UK—still one of the wealthiest men in the world with assets over $1bn—while the Icelandic taxpayer goes to the polls to decide whether his nation should be footing the Icesave bill? In an interview with The Telegraph, Björgólfur Thor’s spokesman said, “[he] was never a director at Landsbanki and therefore had no part in any decision about transfer of funds.”

Yeah, pull another.

Last month, The Guardian ran with an article entitled ‘How Icelandic bank’s clients filled Tory coffers’, showing that over £900,000 was handed over to Britain’s Conservative Party in recent years.

“Those who donate more than £50,000 in a single year can get access to…meetings with the Tory party leader.” Kaupþing luminaries included, Vincent, Robert, and sister Lisa Tchenguiz, who, along with Lisa’s estranged husband Vivan Imerman, collectively donated close to £500.000.

The Guardian also noted that prior to Kaupþing’s failure, the total value of loans to Tchenguiz companies exceeded 40% of the banks actual equity base. In light of the recent SFO investigation, the Conservative party is “seriously” reconsidering some of its donations.

In the last week of March, Baldur Héðinsson, an Icelandic intern at Planet Money (a US-based podcast run by NPR covering the global economic crisis) posted an online survey inviting individuals from all over the world vote whether he should vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the Icesave referendum. The survey ran for one week (March 24-March 31) and a resounding 75% (3,485 people) voted against Icelanders paying for Icesave. Baldur, it seems, has solved his voting dilemma.

Frosti Sigurjónsson said in an interview with The Guardian, just a few days ago: “The risk of accepting the current Icesave agreement [which involves an exposure to currency market movements and bankruptcy recoveries] is much greater than taking this matter to court, which is our civil right.”

I wonder if Björgólfur Thor will be voting ‘yes,’ or do you think he is more of a believer in civil rights?

marc vincenz

Harpa Welcomes You

Opens in May Harpa – a new Concert and Conference Hall located in the heart of Reykjavík.

ÍSLENSKA / SIA.IS / ICE 54018 03/11

With its stunning view of the ocean and Reykjavík‘s favourite mountain, Esja, Harpa will be filled with life and all kinds of events.

Harpa is an ideal place to visit to enjoy music and dining with friends, a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

Plenty of guided tours and musical programmes on offer this spring for tourists. Visit our website for further details.

Box office is now open www.harpa.is

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

Icelandic Travel Market - www.itm.is

There is lots of room in Iceland. It is a pretty sparsely populated country by all accounts. We really should be more hospitable, accept more refugees and asylum-seekers, etc. If you disagree, then explain why in our letters section.

10 Immigration | Asylum-seekers

Why Can't She Stay?

An interview with Nepalese asylum-seeker Priyanka Thapa

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By now many of our readers are familiar with the case of Priyanka Thapa. A young Nepalese woman who came to Iceland as an au pair for a family with two half-Nepalese children, she began studying and working in Iceland, and planned to make a future here, when her family informed her that she had been slated for an arranged marriage.

Priyanka refused and applied for asylum in Iceland. Although her initial application was rejected, sparking a tremendous groundswell of popular support (a Facebook page calling upon the government to let her stay has reached over 30.000 members), the Grapevine was informed at the start of this interview that the Directorate of Immigration has agreed to review her case again. We caught up with Priyanka and her host parents, Anna Lára Steingrímsdóttir and Þórólfur Gunnarsson, to learn more about the situation.

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What brought you to Iceland in the first place?

Priyanka: I was looking for something that I could do that would be able to help out my family, and I heard about an Icelandic family who needed an au pair.

Two of the children are half-Nepalese, so they could learn about Nepal, while it would help me by me being able to go some place new and meet new people.

The Directorate of Immigration says that you would have the freedom, in Nepal, to say "no" to this marriage, and therefore you're not in any particular danger. This decision was supposedly based on a letter your brother wrote; that the language he used suggested you were requested—not commanded—to return to Nepal. How do you respond to that? Þórólfur: Nepalese is a different language from what we're used to. When you take a translation straight, word for word, from Hindi to English, you actually end up confusing people who read it with our thoughts and ideas. To base [The Directorate of Immigration's

decision] on one word [“væntanlega”, implying an expectation] that was put in there, it's just—from all of these letters, from all the material that's in there, we found it really odd that they actually picked that word, that can mean quite a lot of different things.

P: It was not a request. It was like, I have to [marry this person]. There was no “Maybe you should do that” or something. There were no other options. Þ: I think Útlendingastofnun [The Directorate of Immigration] should have taken the entire context of the letter into account, instead of focusing on just this one word.

Can you explain what, exactly, awaits you if you were to be sent back to Nepal?

P: A man, whom I have never even seen, I have to go and marry him, just because he's going to help my family.

That's a deal between them. When I came here, there was no talk of this at all. If I were to go back there, my family would not allow me to say no.

I understand you're now seeking citizenship. Do you see yourself spending the rest of your life in Iceland?

P: After I came here, I started dreaming, and started seeing my future in a different way. I never thought I would study and further my education, but after coming here, I have made a goal of what I want to do with my life. I want to study something based on chemistry, pharmaceutical studies.

What do you think of the outpouring of support you've been getting from the general public?

P: When I first heard the news [of being denied asylum], I was always crying, but after seeing the support of the people, I think I'm not going back. It's so amazing how Icelandic people have supported me, and welcomed me with open arms. But also, they don't judge people based on where they come from; they judge you based on what you are and what you are heading towards. In Nepal, people judge you based on what your caste is, what your background is, how much money you have. There is

no equality between background and caste; everything is discrimination. If my husband dies, or leaves me, I have no right to be with another man, but he can be with another woman.

You may have heard that there are some very wealthy individuals who have also applied for citizenship— they say they will invest millions of dollars in Iceland if it is given to them. What do you think of the idea of "buying" citizenship? Is this fair to poorer people, who also want to be Icelandic citizens?

P: When someone asks for citizenship, I think the first thing [the government] should ask is, “Who needs it most? Who is really a needy person?” We have been honest in everything, from the start. And I think, honesty wins in the end, because honesty is the best policy.

And how about you, the host parents—what are your thoughts on this?

Anna Lára: When we got to know her, we really grew to like her a lot. So when we heard about the situation, and what was going to happen, we of course couldn't accept that. We couldn't see her future like that. She's a very clever girl, hard-working and ambitious. If she wasn't like that, we wouldn't be here now. It's been our fight, and we're really optimistic, especially after the newest news. Þ: The newest news was a decision was made about three hours ago, based on some new documents we sent to UTL. Basically, we're going to send in the same application, only with some new documents, and they are going to re-evaluate her application. After what we've gone through, I think it's absolutely crucial in this situation to have some lawyers assist with the initial application. The people at [the law offices] Réttur have been doing a seriously good job. Hopefully we'll get that answer quickly, but it can take up to 90 days. Based on the support we've been getting, this is just unbelievable. We are very optimistic.

Paul Fontaine hörður sveinsson

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The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

12 Jón Örn Loðmfjörð Poet, programmer, prankster and jack-of-all-trades Jón Örn Loðmfjörð (b.

1983) was a very active protester in the aftermath of the collapse, helping organise the militant student group Öskra amongst other things. He has published various books of poetry and could also be called a multimedia/web artist. His 2010 book of poetry, ‘Gengismunur’ (“Arbitrage”) was an ambitious project that re-worked the recently published Special Investigative Committee’s report on the economic collapse.

Óttar Martin Norðfjörð Another protester, the prolific Óttar Martin Norðfjörð (b. 1980) has published books of poetry, satire, highbrow literature and highly successful Dan Brown-style mysteries that have been published in various languages. His 2009 novel ‘Paradísarborgin’ (“Paradise City”) is often read as a poignant allegory about the economic collapse and the environment that brought it on.

Steinar Bragi Writer-slash-poet Steinar Bragi (b. 1975). He has been active in the field since his first book of poetry, 'Svarthol' ("Black Hole") was published in 1998, and is slowly attaining a revered status in the Icelandic literature world. His 2008 novel 'Konur' ("Women") was a critical and commercial breakthrough for him and is often read as a critique on Iceland's pre-crash mentalities. He actively protested during the 'pots and pans revolution'.

Literature In The Land Of The Inherently Cute - the search for literary crisis Words Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl Photography Hörður Sveinsson

(Practically) all political writing engages in representation and a form of adjudication— i.e. “picking a side”. Classic social realist writing of capitalist societies not only represents the exploited classes, but furthermore represents them against their mortal enemy, the bourgeoisie classes; nationalist literature not only represents a certain land and a certain people, but it represents the land and people as different (unique) from other lands and other peoples; feminist writing represents women against male domination (and/ or “men”); postcolonial literature represents “natives” or “immigrants” vs. “colonials”, “locals” or “nationals”; pacifist writing represents those willing to “be friendly” against those who feel aggression is the only viable course of action; post-modern capitalist literature represents “the individual” vs. the alienating, dystopic horrors of society (and ritually asks: do I deserve to be selfish?).

And, at least theoretically, if not in practice, vice versa (i.e. Ayn Rand represents the “energetic” bourgeoisie against the “lazy” classes who allow themselves to be exploited).

(Practically) all Icelandic writing represents Iceland, regardless of the author’s intentions. The mere size of the population (320 thousand) creates a situation where anything said aloud becomes first and foremost “Icelandic” and what is actually said takes second place to that fact, which in and of itself is peculiar enough to demand most of your attention—because statistically speaking only around 0,0046% of all words spoken (or written) in the world are spoken (or written) in Icelandic. An Icelandic opinion is thus a rarity like Bigfoot or The Abominable Snowman—so rare in fact that most people who’ve come into contact with it aren’t entirely sure if they did at all, and think that perhaps what they saw was just a really big cow or a really small Danish person. When best-selling crime novelist Arnaldur Indriðason is sold to German readers, the book cover will generally sport a picture of an old Icelandic farm and perhaps a horse, despite the fact that his books are about the criminal horrors of big city living (in as much as Reykjavík—pop. 120.000—can be considered a “big city”); that is to say: drugs, alienation, loneliness and murder.

This form of representation is not limited to books written for a foreign market—the Icelandic condition is one of constant awareness of the (ridiculous) size of the country as well as the speaking population and the limits that this imposes. Thus Icelandic literature tends first and foremost to represent Iceland to Icelanders, and this reaches back to (Nobel laureate!—woohoo!) Halldór Kiljan Laxness teaching Icelandic farmers basic hygiene (and thus claiming they were filthy) and propagating the literary myth that goes all the way back to the Sagas, that Icelanders were first and foremost a stubborn independent people not willing to be subjugated.

Although Laxness did not necessarily glorify these traits, as is done in the Sagas (and in some modern literature), he nevertheless maintained that they were present, which still today means that Icelanders cannot by definition be “complacent”, “tame” and easily led—despite any evidence to the contrary, such as the national ecstasy over the “success” of “our” “financial vikings” (known as the “outvasion”—Iceland invades the entire world, “outvades” the world); or the vilification of protesters before and after the immediate uproar surrounding the actual financial crash; or the easily manufactured consent for lax civil liberties to uproot “undesirable” organisations (such as Hell’s Angels) or allow inclusive privately-owned genetic databanks with everybody’s medical information; or the current national lunacy, which claims that reducing spending on health, culture and education can be done while simultaneously jumping for joy that “we finally have a left-wing government”.

Icelanders have their own personal agenda; they are individualists who refuse their common identity. Or so goes the myth.

Someone like me might in turn argue (bitterly, foaming at the mouth) that Icelanders are in fact a bunch of easily manipulated sheep.

Bowing to the mighty Medici Up until the crisis many of the financial institutions in Iceland played Medici-like patrons to artists—and used the artists’ image to promote their loans, overdrafts, savings and pension-plans in national ad-campaigns and carefully orchestrated media events, complete with oversized cheques, handshakes and photo-ops. Everybody (more or less) played along. There were sponsored squats for artists and a rubbing of shoulders with European jet-set elites—including the president’s wife, Dorrit Moussaieff and the Baroness Francesca von Habsburg—a considerable portion of the young art scene in Reykjavík had in this way direct access to some of the most powerful people in the European art scene. And the financial institutions—mainly Landsbanki Íslands—would throw petty alms at the starving artists, who proved more than willing to prostitute

themselves (including me and my friends) for what was in all honesty a mere pittance.

A colossal symbol of this situation is a series of commercials done for Landsbanki Íslands, where a large group of people are playing football—variously inside the bank or outside in a field. The ads read like a veritable “who’s who” of Icelandic arts, literature, culture and music. Everybody was involved in this scene. Even self-proclaimed revolutionary organisations, such as Nýhil (which I had a large part in founding and running), were for sale—on the premises that a) everybody else was doing it b) it’s good to get money to run this proverbially bankrupt industry and c) it’s not as if they control what we say, just ‘cause they give us money.

These premises were illusions, it turned out.

Some people did in fact refuse to participate (although not many), the little money we got did not help (we got overly zealous and almost literally went bankrupt; and it deprived us of much credibility) and whether or not they “controlled” what we said … at least they were never openly criticised. They may not have bought our silence, but they did buy our friendship—or at least a sort of kindness.

Before the collapse only a constantly fading grey line separated what painter Tolli Morthens once called “two of humanity’s greatest interests”: The arts and the financial market.

After the collapse this situation has hardly been mentioned, let alone discussed to any serious degree—the artists in question variously denying involvement (even doing so overtly to foreign media), pointing to others as “having been worse” or trying to kill any mention of it by saying it only aimed at provoking bitterness and “blame-games”.

As for the Icelandic literary scene, routinely when anything controversial is about to be discussed collectively, memories are invoked of “the great rift” of the early eighties, when the local Writer’s Union split over some argument which nobody really remembers anymore—and thus everyone becomes convinced that, as the song goes, silence is golden (and everything else is not).

Not there anymore: The Ground Beneath Our Feet Immediately after the “hrun” (collapse)— followed by the “kreppa” (crisis) and the “kitchen utensil revolution” (named for the banging of pots and pans during the protests)—questions of an aesthetic nature started forcing themselves on unsuspecting artist circles. What does this mean for literature? For music? For the visual arts? What will be the response? For a few years before the collapse artists had been becoming increasingly political, although it was mostly in the realm of the environmental issues rather than economics or social justice—and it had less to do with their art and more to do with parallel activities (like playing concerts for nature, as opposed to writing songs against aluminium plants).

Critic Valur Gunnarsson probably echoed a common sentiment when he said that people would start paying more attention to “serious” art and (at least partially) turn their gaze away from inconsequential popular culture. Though not necessarily implicit in Valur’s words, I often found that this sentiment included a disdain for the experimental, avant-garde or plain “weirdo” arts— that which at times in history has been described as “degenerated” art, devoid of the socially improving agendas of either “beauty” or “message”. Before the collapse there might have been a sort of pointlessness, or self-obsession, habitual to the art scene, where artists ritually explored the possibilities and limits of art itself—repeatedly asking the same (important?) question: “Is this art?” And after the collapse you could feel an increase in the disdain for artist happenings such as cleaning an apartment or standing on a street corner for a week—a hatred for the pointlessness in art, which for some is the whole point with doing arts, the true Zen-like magic of art; that which separates it from the goal-orientation of everything else in the world. Why were these people getting paid, people asked, to fool around like idiots, often from the empty pockets of taxpayers— while the government was closing hospital wards and firing “actual” workers? And, like in any society of (relative) less-than-plenty, the artists themselves had to ask themselves these same questions: why were they getting paid, when people needed hospital beds?

Valur also predicted that the “outvasion” of Icelandic artists would come to a halt, like the “outvasion” of Icelandic businessmen; and that consequent generations would be more angry than their “cute” predecessors— “cute” being a derogatory term for musicians Björk, Sigur Rós, Amiina, múm and the like.

This has not necessarily proven to be the case, although it’s hard to notice in the short run, but it seems young Icelandic musicians are still touring the world—and while there might not be a new Björk on the scene, that has hardly anything to do with the crisis. As for literature, Iceland is going to be the guest

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl is the author of three novels and five books of poems. His collection of essays in English, ‘Quiet, You Booby!’, is forthcoming from Nihil Interit/poEsia.

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When best-selling crime novelist Arnaldur Indriðason is sold to German readers, the book cover will generally sport a picture of an old Icelandic farm and perhaps a horse, despite the fact that his books are about the criminal horrors of big city living (in as much as Reykjavík—pop. 120.000—can be considered a “big city”); that is to say: drugs, alienation, loneliness and murder.

of honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, which means that international interest in Icelandic books is probably greater than ever before.

Groupies cum Revolutionaries Interestingly enough, just as artists played groupies to the “outvasion”, they also had a grand presence in the “kitchen utensil revolution”—being both numerous among protesters and in the forefront of organising and rabble-rousing. Most self-respecting artists made sure they were seen on Austurvöllursquare, beating pots and pans—participating with various degrees of irony, from going “all in” and seemingly taking a sincere interest in an important cause, to somehow completely missing the point and taking a break from the tear-gas and mayhem with the masses to attend an exclusive champagne-party with the Baroness von Habsburg at a nearby theatre (which many did): celebrating the stillstanding aristocracy while cursing the fallen aristocracy, and seemingly not experiencing it as a contradiction.

Living abroad I only attended one of these protests—on a quiet Sunday in early December when it seemed the revolutionary fire was going out. That day a group of younger boys climbed up on the balcony of parliament, where it had become tradition to hang protest banners, but this time the hooligans were in fact not protesters but a little-known rock band using the momentum to advertise their MySpace-page. At another instance I heard of an Icelandic rapper, famous for his “revolutionary stance”, having his picture taken outside a siege at the Central Bank—before leaving to attend to more important business. There were a number of similar events, where artists tried to “use” the protests to up their public image, in a somewhat less than sincere manner.

The media having failed, in the opinion of most of the protesters (and the people at large, I assume), an online webzine called Nei. (No.—including the period), run by poet, novelist, philosopher and filmmaker Haukur Már Helgason (who coincidentally is my best friend), became the hub for both immediate (reliable) information about events as they unfolded as well as in-depth commentary and first-person accounts after-the-fact.

The main organiser of the protests on Austurvöllur, starting with only a handful of people shortly after the collapse, was old-timer Hörður Torfason—a troubadour and gay-rights campaigner who was most influential in the seventies and early eighties. Of the 47 speeches held at Austurvöllur from October 11, 2008, to January 31, 2009—22 were held by artists or people immediately connected to the arts, including writer Einar Már Guðmundsson and poet Gerður Kristný. At one point, famed writer Hallgrímur Helgason was seen banging his hands on the hood of the Prime Minister’s car “distorted with rage” claimed the media. After the “kitchen utensil revolution” at least two of the artists involved with the protests got elected to parliament, as members of the newly founded Borgarahreyfing (Citizen’s Movement—soon after, they split and the parliamentary faction was renamed Hreyfingin, The Movement)—poet Birgitta Jónsdóttir and novelist and filmmaker Þráinn Bertelsson. Besides the "bona fide" artists, a creative spirit was plentiful on Austurvöllur during the protests—noticeable in anything from slogans, signs, flags, dolls, clothing and the "instruments" themselves: anything that made a racket was suddenly useful.

What is 'Crisis'? What is 'Book'?

Defining what literature counts as “crisisliterature” is not an easy task. To a certain extent (practically) all literature written

during (or right after) the crisis is “crisisliterature”—and even a great deal of the literature written during the economic boom, before the crisis. Many books included the crisis, the collapse and/or the protests by simply adapting the storyline to the times. If the story happened in 2008-2009, there was no way of skipping it, although most of the books that included the crisis were not about it at all—they neither reflected it to any degree nor did they comment on it. Then there

is about a former assistant to a financial viking who is reckoning his past—but instead of dealing with the years as an assistant to a financial viking, it jumps over it and mostly focuses on the protagonist’s childhood. A fourth, ‘Paradísarborgin’ (“The Paradise City”) by Óttar Martin Norðfjörð is a Saramagoan account, if a tad more sci-fi-ish and less style-orientated than the Portuguese Nobel laureate, about a fungus growing under Reykjavík which entices the minds of the

An Icelandic opinion is thus a rarity like Big foot or The Abominable Snowman—so rare in fact that most people who’ve come into contact with it aren’t entirely sure if they did at all, and think that perhaps what they saw was just a really big cow or a really small Danish person. are books which don’t mention the crisis at all, but somehow seem to allude to it constantly—this of course goes mostly for poetry books, which are more easily interpretable in all directions, and if you look for it you can probably find in them whatever you wish to find. Finally there was plenty of immediate work being published both online and on protest-signs at the time of the crisis—small bits, ranging from video cut-ups of speeches to remixing classics of modernist and premodernist Icelandic verse, fitting it to the political situation. Much of this was nonauthored and none of it had a consistency justifying a specific treatment, other than of the whole thing as a social phenomenon—it wasn’t necessarily many poems, but one really big poem.

Excluding the non-fiction written about the crisis—like Einar Már Guðmundsson’s ‘The White Book’—the prose fiction that deals with the crisis does so, in a certain sense, peripherally. The novels are all essentially about something else—they stand right in front of the crisis and they turn their gaze away. ‘Bankster’ by Guðmundur Óskarsson, winner of the Icelandic Literature Prize 2010, is for instance first and foremost a story about being unemployed and falling into self-deprecation, self-pity and thus losing control of one’s life. The protagonist is an employee in a bank that comes crashing down, and subsequently he loses his job. For the rest of the book he lounges about in a Raskolnikovian introversion, without the guilt—and while lounging about his life falls apart around him, his wife leaving him and so forth. At the same time the massive protests are going on, literally outside his house, but he hardly notices—and the one time he gets mixed up in them he flees the chaos back into his introvert world of spiritual exile.

Kári Tulinius’ ‘Píslarvottar án hæfileika’ (“Martyrs without talents”) is about a group of young would-be revolutionaries, pre-crisis, who wish to start a terrorist cell. These are young people, with young problems— love, ideals etc.—trying to find a footing in life. The first section ends in September, 2008, days before the collapse, when two of them go as volunteers to Palestine on a humanitarian aid mission. The second section starts in November, when the volunteers are back. Instead of throwing themselves into the revolutionary spirits of Austurvöllur, they (like the protagonist of ‘Bankster’) are thrown off track by a personal tragedy: namely the accidental (yet violent) death of one of the main characters in Palestine.

A third novel, ‘Vormenn Íslands’ (“Iceland’s Men of Spring”) by Mikael Torfason,

people, like a shamanic drug. It does in some sense deal directly with the crisis but it does so with a metaphor which is perhaps too vague and too general in its presentation, and too conspicuous in its (solicited) interpretation—and the author did at some point stress that it in fact wasn’t about the crisis.

‘Allir litir regnbogans’ (“All the Colours of the Rainbow”) by Vignir Árnason is a strangely puerile self-published novel about an anarchist movement, which runs quickly through the kitchen utensil revolution into total (melodramatic) civil war between cops and revolutionaries. An interesting account, if rather callow, which never surpasses the expression of its teeth-grinding angst to provide anything resembling an idea.

Thus these authors, whose novels deal most directly with the crisis of all of the novels published in Iceland since the collapse1, avoid dealing with the actual events of Austurvöllur or the crisis itself, but circle it, or rather confront it and, having seen a glimpse of it, take a violent turn towards the personal and away from the general, the masses, the overtly political.

This may of course be interpreted in a symbolic sense, as literature’s utter defeat before the “actualities of life”. In private correspondence, poet and novelist Haukur Már Helgason confided in me that after editing Nei. he felt a much greater need to engage in text that directly affected the world—and perhaps this lack of ‘crisis’ in the ‘crisis-literature’ is mainly a symptom of another ‘crisis’, namely the lack of agency in contemporary literature which for too long may have been busy picking at its own bellybutton and now knows not what to do.

Cue the Pre-Cog Bizarrely the novel most tenaciously associated with the collapse was written before 1 For obvious reasons I’m leaving out my own novel, ‘Gæska’ (“Kindness”, 2009). But suffice to say, it also leaves off moments after the economic collapse (which, having been written before the actual collapse, looks quite a bit different from real life) and resumes “a while later this same endless summer”—meaning that it too contains a gap where the actual “action” took place, and does not deal directly (unsymbolically) with the events of Austurvöllur or the crisis itself. I’m leaving out at least two other novels, simply because I’ve yet not read them, ‘Martröð Millanna’ (“The Nightmare of the Millionaires”) by Óskar Hrafn Þorvaldsson and ‘Önnur líf’ (“Other Lives”) by Ævar Örn Jósepsson, both primarily crime fiction, but apparently taking place in the business world and the rebel world, respectively.

it happened and published shortly after the banks fell. ‘Konur’ (“Women”) by Steinar Bragi is symbolically foreboding—it tells of a young woman, Eva, returning to Iceland from living in the USA and her inhabiting a borrowed apartment of a wealthy friend. The apartment—showy, expensive and in bad 'nouveau riche' taste—turns out to be (almost) alive, an entity of it’s own, and it starts sadistically manipulating Eva’s life, pushing further and further until the end, when she literally gets sucked into the walls.

One of the major noticeable symbols of the “plentiful years” in Reykjavík was the building of houses (in great part by Polish workers). Entire neighbourhoods were built without anyone to live in them; the rich tore down their mansions to build better mansions; higher income apartment buildings for the elderly were built, only to stand empty while the contractors built a lower income apartment building next to it, one that the elderly could “afford” to live in; a woman could not have a dog in her apartment building, because she needed a signed approval from the inhabitants of the 20 other apartments in the house, all of which were empty. Loans for building were granted without fail and plots were distributed with much ease.

It should therefore be easily understood how ‘Konur’ might be construed as a crisis-novel, where the newly-built house of nouveau riche plenty, owned by a “financial viking”, turns on the inhabitant, starts torturing her before literally (and symbolically) devouring her. It is in all ways a novel written about the times pre-crisis and it successfully demonstrates the seeds of the city’s, and the country’s, self-destruction, through a kind of symbolic pre-cognition.

Collective Poetry There’s boatloads of poetry about the crisis. The immediate answer to the crisis was poetic, with countless and nameless online personalities sharing remixed versions of modernist classics (with metre and rhyme)— so you could literally sing the kitchen utensil revolution in real time, if you wanted to. Hallgrímur Helgason wrote a rap and performed on TV (printed in The Reykjavík Grapevine), several people made YouTube videos with cartoons or cut-up news footage—making poems from the bits and pieces surrounding them. Actor Hjalti Rögnvaldsson read political poetry at the protest events on Austurvöllur. During the kitchen utensil revolution the whole of Iceland somehow became (at least for some) a poetic dimension. Even that which wasn’t poetry, was still somehow poetry.

In the months and seasons following the collapse this energy seems to have dissipated as it has not been extensively seen in the poetry books published, where the poets seem to have reverted back to the “contemplative” and away from the “immediate”.

Most of the poems that deal with the crisis do so in a rather mundane manner (though by no means all of them) and many of the books supposedly about the crisis seem to be not at all about the crisis—but as if either the author or the publisher had decided the crisis was an easy sell. Crisis-stuff was in vogue, so everything was “somehow” and “symbolically” about the crisis.

Selected Poetry There were two notable exceptions to this trend. ‘Gengismunur’ (“Arbitrage”) by Jón Örn Loðmfjörð and ‘Ljóðveldið Ísland’ (“The Poetic Republic of Iceland”) by Sindri Freysson; both very ambitious projects. The former is a computerized textual mash-up of a nine-volume, 2.000 pages report written by a parliamentary investigative committee on the events leading up the collapse of

Continues on page 24

MUSIC CONCERTS & NIGHTLIFE IN APRIL & MAY Prescribing with love music for your live experience How to use the listings Venues are listed alphabetically by day.

For complete listings and detailed information on venues visit www.grapevine.is

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B5 22:00 Vignir Snær & Jogvan 01:00 DJ Símon Bakkus 23:00 Benson is fantastic Bar 11 22:00 DJ Biggi Maus Café Haiti 22:00 Jussanam Da Silva Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Café Rosenberg 22:00 Aðalsteinn Svanur Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dillon 22:00 Otto Katz Orchestra, Sagtmóðigur, Trust The lies Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 17:00 Raggi 24:00 Maggi & Eiríkur Esja 22:00 DJ Hlynur Mastermix Faktóry 22:00 Hjálmar, DJ Ákni Hressó 22:00 Fabulous Band, DJ Elli The Icelandic Opera 20:00 'Perluportið' premiere Prikið 22:00 DJ Árni Kocoon Salurinn 20:30 A performance of songs by the Árnason Brothers in honour of Jón Múlli turning 90, 3500 ISK Sódóma 22:00 DJ Óli Dóri Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Kristján Vegamót 22:00 DJ Jónas

9

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B5 22:00 DJ Leifur Bakkus 23:00 DJ KGB Bar 11 22:00 DJ Ómar X-ið Boston 22:00 DJ Kári Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Café Rosenberg 22:00 Árstíðir Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dillon 22:00 The Jimi Hendrix Project Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 21:00 Live Music 24:00 Þór Óskar & Addi Esja 22:00 DJ Hlynur Mastermix Faktóry 24:00 DJ Biggi Maus Hallgrímskirkja 12:00 Hallgrímskirkja Friends of the Arts Society - Björn Steinar Sólbergsson organist plays Bach & Vierne Hressó 22:00 Bandið, DJ Elli Prikið 22:00 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr Salurinn 17:00 Tíbrá: Bryndís Halla & Edda, 3500 ISK Sódóma 22:00 The 59's, The Cash Kid, El Camino followed by DJ Smutty Smiff & Gísli, 1000 ISK Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Áki Vegamót 22:00 DJ Benni B Ruff

10

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Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music

English Pub 20:00 Football pub quiz 22:00 Gunni Prikið 22:00 Hangover Movie Night: Run Lola Run. Free Popcorn

11

|MON

Bakkus 21:00 Bakkus Movie Night Café Rosenberg 22:00 Barsvar Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Biggi Prikið 22:00 DJ Hús, Red wine & cheese for two at 1000 ISK

12

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Café Rosenberg 22:00 Spottarnir Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Eiríkur Hafnarborg 12:00 Lunch Time Concert with Sigríður Aðalsteinsdóttir Prikið 22:00 Game Night Trúnó 20:00 Russian Night, special prices on Russian drinks

13

|WED

Bakkus 20:30 Pop Quiz, 500 ISK 22:00 Lomas Night Café Oliver 22:00 Pub Quiz Café Rosenberg 22:00 Blue Monday Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Human Jukebox with Raggi Kaffibarinn 22:00 Extreme Chill Kaffitár Café 20:00 Tango Milango Nordic House 15:15 Frédérique Friess sings compositions by Schumann, Schubert and others Prikið 22:00 DJ Óli Hjörtur Tjarnarbíó 22:00 Daníel Ágúst album release show, 2900 ISK Trúnó 12:00 Gay Parents Meet 20:00 Queer Beer Night, special prices on beer

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B5 22:00 Vignir Snær & Jogvan Bakkus 22:00 Einar Sonic Bar 11 22:00 Kreppa Night - DJ Biggi Maus

Barbara 22:00 Men Only Night Boston 20:00 Silja glömmi Café Oliver 22:00 Ingo Veðurguð Café Rosenberg 22:00 Brother Grass & Illgresi Den Danske Kro 20:00 Beer Bingo 22:00 Live Music Dillon 22:00 Skakkamanage Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Raggi Esja 22:00 Loungy Thursday Háskólabíó 19:30 The music of Mozart & Brahms Hressó 22:00 J.J.s Band Prikið 22:00 DJ Krúsi Salurinn 20:30 Karlakór Kópavogs choir sings folk songs, 2700 ISK Sláturhúsið 20:00 Miri concert. 1000 ISK Thorvaldsen 20:00 Salsa Night Vegamót 22:00 DJ Jónas

15

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B5 22:00 Vignir Snær & Jogvan with DJ Jóhann Bakkus 22:00 Gus Gus "Arabian Horse" album release listening party 23:00 Radio Bongo with President Bongo & Friends Bar 11 22:00 DJ Matti Boston 22:00 DJ KGB Café Haiti 22:00 Jussanam Da Silva Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Café Rosenberg 22:00 KK-Band Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dillon 22:00 The Dandelion Seeds & Moy Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 17:00 Raggi 21:00 Addi & Ingunn 24:00 Addi & Biggi Esja 22:00 DJ Bogi Faktóry 22:00 Pétur Ben, Sykur DJ set Hressó 22:00 Fabulous Band & DJ Elli Kaffibarinn 22:00 DJ Alfons X The Nordic House 20:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Prinspóló 21:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Nive Nielsen 21:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Sóley 22:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Stafrænn Hákon

22 23 Apr

April

Go North (Not South) For The Aldrei Fór Ég Suður Music Festival!

April 22 - 23 Ísafjörður, Iceland Free Conceived in 2003 by Iceland's own Mugison with his father while they were drinking in London, the Aldrei Fór Ég Suður music festival will enjoy its eighth year in Ísafjörður this April. The festival’s name, which directly means “I Never Went South,” comes from a song by Bubbi Morthens, a former migrant worker of the area, and alludes to the swelling urbanisation of Icelandic society. The point of the festival is to bring some of the biggest names from the Icelandic music scene to the rural town of Ísafjörður to shadow the local, down-to-earth talent. Expect to hear Icelandic musical leaders like Ensími, FM Belfast, Nýdönsk and Grafík next to Ísafjörður's finest. VS Prikið 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxe Sódóma 22:00 DJ Óli Dóri 22:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Miri DJ set 22:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Samaris 23:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Nolo 24:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Fossils 01:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Einar Örn + SWC 01:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Æla 02:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Miri DJ set Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Kristján Trúnó 22:00 Lesbian Pub Quiz Vegamót 22:00 Gorilla Funk

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B5 22:00 DJ Jónas Bakkus 21:30 Japanese Supershift concert 24:00 DJ Hunk of a Man Bar 11 22:00 DJ Óli Dóri Boston 22:00 DJ Natalie Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Café Rosenberg 22:00 Blues Festival Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 21:00 Gunni 24:00 Alexander Esja 22:00 DJ Bogi Faktóry 22:00 Illgresi & Brother Grass, DJ KGB Hressó 22:00 Penta + DJ Elli Kaffibarinn 22:00 Daddy Weekend - Gísli Galdur, DJ Benni B Ruff NASA 21:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Miri 22:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Borko 22:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Sin Fang 23:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Lower Dens 24:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Kimono 01:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Reykjavík!+Lazyblood 01:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Quadruplos 02:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: FM Belfast DJ set The Nordic House 20:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: AMFJ 21:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Hellvar 21:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Tomutonttu 22:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Fossils 23:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Orphic Oxtra Prikið 22:00 DJ Addi Intro Salurinn 17:00 Tíbrá: Sigríður Ósk, Bryndís Halla, & Anna Guðný, 3500 ISK Sódóma 22:00 DJ Ómar X-ið

Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Áki Trúnó 20:00 HOMOjito madness - Mojitos for 990 ISK Vegamót 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxe

|Sun

17

Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 20:00 Football pub quiz 22:00 Gunni NASA 20:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Swords Of Chaos 21:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Kippi Kaninus 22:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Sudden Weather Change 22:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Skakkamanage 23:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Deerhunter The Nordic House 20:15 Reykjavík Music Mess: Hljómsveitin Ég 21:00 Reykjavík Music Mess: Mugison 21:45 Reykjavík Music Mess: Lára Rúnars 22:30 Reykjavík Music Mess: Agent Fresco Prikið 22:00 Hangover Movie Night: Do The Right Thing. Free popcorn.

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Bakkus 21:00 Bakkus Movie Night Café Rosenberg 22:00 Barsvar Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Addi Prikið 22:00 DJ Hús, Red wine & cheese for two at 1000 ISK

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|TUE

Bakkus 21:00 Foosball Tournament Café Rosenberg 22:00 Bird Cage concert series Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Eiríkur Hilton Reykjavík Nordica 20:00 Blues Festival 2011 - Björgvin Halldórsson, Páll Rósinkranz og Blúsmafían, 3990 ISK Prikið 22:00 Game Night

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|wed

Café Oliver 22:00 Pub Quiz Café Rosenberg 22:00 Hreindís Ylfa Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music

Dillon 22:00 Spacevestite Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Human Jukebox with Raggi Hilton Reykjavík Nordica 20:00 Blues Festival: Marquise Knox, 3990 ISK Hressó 22:00 Silfur & DJ Fúsi Kaffitár Café 20:00 Tango Milango NASA Stephan Bodzin, Mr. Cuellar, Stefan J, Oculus, Balrock. 2500 ISK Prikið 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxe Trúnó 12:00 Gay Parents Meet 20:00 French Night, French films, music, and wine

|THU

21

B5 22:00 Vignir Snær & Jogvan Bakkus 22:00 Two Step Horror Bar 11 22:00 Kreppa Night - DJ Biggi Maus Barbara 21:00 Men Only Night Boston 22:00 DJ Andrea Café Oliver 22:00 Ingo Veðurguð Café Rosenberg 22:00 Flugfreyjukórinn & Maggi Kjartans Den Danske Kro 20:00 Beer Bingo 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Maggi & Eiríkur Esja 22:00 Loungy Thursday Hallgrímskirkja 17:00 Hallgrímskirkja Friends of the Arts Society: childrens choir performs songs with a jazz band.

23:00 Hymns by Hallgrimur Pétursson performed. 2000 ISK Hilton Reykjavík Nordica 20:00 Blues Festival: Vasti Jackson & the Blue Ice Band, 4490 ISK Hressó 22:00 J.J.s Band & DJ Elli Prikið 22:00 DJ Matti Thorvaldsen 20:00 Salsa Night Vegamót 22:00 Gorilla Funk

22

|FRI

B5 22:00 Vignir Snær & Jogvan with DJ Leifur Bar 11 22:00 DJ Ómar X-ið Café Haiti 22:00 Jussanam Da Silva Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 17:00 Raggi 21:00 Siddi 24:00 Maggi & Eiríkur Esja 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxe Faktóry 24:00 DJ Biggi Maus Hallgrímskirkja 13:00 Hallgrímur Pétursson's Passion Hymns performed 23:00 Chamber Choir Schola Sanctorum perform Gesualdo's 'Tenebrae Responsoria,' 2500 ISK Hressó 22:00 Fabulous Band & DJ Elli Prikið 22:00 DJ Gísli Galdur Sódóma 22:00 DJ Óli Dóri Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Kristján Vegamót 22:00 DJ Hannes

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|SAt

B5 22:00 DJ Símon Bakkus 23:00 DJ KGB Bar 11 22:00 DJ Biggi Maus Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dillon 22:00 Undercover Dubliner 22:00 Live Music

Icelandic

summer school skoli.eu LANGUAGE AND CULTURE intensive courses in Icelandic speak – read – write – listen fieldwork – cooking

small classes experienced teachers morning classes – evening classes new classes every month Program for tourists Study Icelandic and explore Reykjavík at the same time!

Courses for one day to 6 weeks

www.skoli.eu information@skoli.eu tel: 551-7700 – gsm: 821-7163

MUSIC CONCERTS & NIGHTLIFE IN APRIL & MAY 29

22 Apr

Come All Ye Faithful, But Other People Can Totally Come If They Want To Hallgrímskirkja Friends Of The Arts April 22 Hallgrímskirkja Not all artists are assholes. Some, in fact, can be quite friendly. While the Hallgrímskirkja Friends Of The Arts Society may not befriend artists, they are, as their name suggests, great fans of art, so an appreciation of artists would be implied; indeed, it would kind of be necessary, considering what it is the Friends Of The Arts do. They promote art exhibitions and concerts in Reykjavík’s iconic Hallgrímskirkja church, that pointy edifice that looms over the centre of town like some crazed monolithic seal.

This month, the Friends Of The Arts have organised some kick-ass classical music for us, including a free organ concert, some chamber music although most notable is a celebration of Iceland’s most notorious composer of hymns (and the man who gave Hallgrímskirkja its name), Hallgrímur Pétursson. His hymnody, the ‘Passion Hymns,’ will be read in its 50-psalm entirety on Good Friday, and there will also be a performance of select hymns on Maundy Thursday.

For anyone interested in Icelandic religious culture, as well as just Icelandic culture in general, the Friends Of The Arts are well worth investigating in.

April 22 13:00 -19:00. Hallgrímur Péturssons’s Passion Hymns Complete readings of the 17th century poetic texts by Icelandic priest and poet, Hallgrímur Pétursson. Co-ordination: Baldur Sigurðsson.

Free 23:00 Hymns by Hallgrimur Pétursson performed by Kristín Erna Blöndal soprano, Gunnar Gunnarsson organ and Matthías Hemstock percussion.

Admission 2000 ISK (at the entrance).

More information: listvinafelag.is SE

Magic Thursdays For concert information see music listings on this spread or visit us at www.sinfonia.is

English Pub 21:00 Siddi 24:00 Raggi Faktóry 22:00 Plastic Gods Hressó 24:00 Dalton Prikið 22:00 DJ Addi Intro Sódóma 22:00 DJ Ómar X-ið Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Áki Trúnó 20:00 Strawberry Daiquiri Night Vegamót 22:00 DJ Jónas

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Tickets » 545 2500 » www.sinfonia.is » Concerts take place in Háskólabíó.

25 Reykjavik Museum of Photography

30th Anniversary 2011 Exhibitions all year round ADMISSION FREE

Opening hours: 12–19 mon–fri, 13–17 weekends www.photomuseum.is

|Mon

Bakkus 21:00 Bakkus Movie Night Café Rosenberg 22:00 Barsvar Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Biggi Prikið 22:00 DJ Hús, Red wine & cheese for two at 1000 ISK

26 GRÓFARHÚS 6th floor Tryggvagata 15, 101 Reykjavik

|SUN

Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 21:00 Live Music 24:00 Maggi & Eiríkur Faktóry 24:00 Bloodgroup Kaffibarinn 22:00 Class Act DJs Prikið 22:00 Hangover Movie Night: Mystery Film. Free popcorn

|tUE

Café Rosenberg 22:00 Sans Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music

English Pub 22:00 Eiríkur Prikið 22:00 Game Night

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Bakkus 20:30 Pop Quiz Café Oliver 22:00 Pub Quiz Café Rosenberg 22:00 Myrra Rós Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Human Jukebox with Raggi Kaffitár Café 20:00 Tango Milango Prikið 22:00 DJ Óli Hjörtur Trúnó 12:00 Gay Parents Meet

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|tHU

B5 22:00 Vignir Snær, Jogvan + guests Bakkus 21:00 Movie Premiere: 'Kria' 22:00 Einar Sonic Bar 11 22:00 Kreppa Night, DJ Ómar X-ið Barbara 20:00 Men Only Night Café Oliver 22:00 Ingo Veðurguð Café Rosenberg 22:00 Sniglabandið Den Danske Kro 20:00 Beer Bingo 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Raggi Esja 22:00 Loungy Thursday Hressó 22:00 Böddi & Davíð Thorvaldsen 20:00 Salsa Night Trúnó 21:00 DJ Vala Waldorf Vegamót 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxe

|FRI

B5 22:00 Vignir Snær & Jogvan with DJ Jónas Bar 11 22:00 DJ Matti Boston 22:00 Gísli Galdur Café Haiti 22:00 Jussanam Da Silva Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Café Rosenberg 22:00 Sniglabandið Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 17:00 Raggi 21:00 Biggi & Guðmann 24:00 Þór Óskar & Addi Esja 22:00 DJ Hlynur Mastermix Faktóry 22:00 Megas & Senuþjófarnir, DJ Flóra & Júlía Hressó 22:00 Fabulous Band & DJ Fúsi Prikið 22:00 DJ Danni Deluxe Salurinn 20:00 Kristján Kristjánsson concert to benefit Vímulausrar, 3000 ISK Sódóma 22:00 DJ Biggi Maus Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Kristján Trúnó 14:00 Gay Parents Meet Vegamót 22:00 DJ Jónas

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|SAt

B5 22:00 DJ Jóhann Valur Bakkus 23:00 DJ Kari Bar 11 22:00 DJ Matti Café Oliver 21:30 DJ Anna Rakel & Ýr 24:00 DJ Maggi & Brynjar Már Café Rosenberg 22:00 Elín Ey Den Danske Kro 19:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 21:00 Addi & Ingunn 24:00 Alexander Esja 22:00 DJ Hlynur Mastermix Faktóry 22:00 Baggalútur & DJ Danni Deluxe Hressó 22:00 Penta & DJ Fúsi Kaffibarinn 22:00 DJ KGB NASA 23:00 TODMOBIL, 1500 ISK Prikið 22:00 DJ Benni B Ruff Salurinn 'Nína' Turns 20, with Stebbi & Eyfi.

3000 ISK Sódóma 22:00 DJ Óli Dóri Thorvaldsen 22:00 DJ Áki Vegamót 22:00 Gorilla Funk

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Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Gunni

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Bakkus 21:00 Bakkus Movie Night Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live music Dubliner 22:00 Live music English Pub 22:00 Live music

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B5 22:00 Jogvan & Magni Bakkus 21:00 Gimaldinn & Friends Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live music

16 Apr

Dubliner 22:00 Live music English Pub 22:00 Live music

21 Apr

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|WED

Bakkus 20:30 Art Without Borders, collaboration concert Café Oliver 22:00 Pub Quiz Den Danske Kro 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Human Jukebox with Raggi Kaffitár Café 20:00 Tango Milango

5 Reykjavík Gets Steamy with Blues Music Hilton Reykjavík Nordica Hotel 8990 ISK for festival pass, 3.990-4.490 ISK per show

The frigid North Atlantic city of Reykjavík could not be any different than the birthplace of blues music in the swampy, steamy state of Mississippi. Despite the odds, the genre has made it all the way up here and is in full force with the annual Reykjavík Blues Festival. Musicians will come from Europe, Iceland and North America and include Vasti Jackson and the Blue Ice band, Bo Halldórsson, Páll Rósinkranz & The Blues Mafia all stars band, Ferlegheit, Klassart, Devil's Train, Marquise Knox, and Stone Stones. Even some real live Mississippi blues musicians will be there.

So if you're looking for something different to do around Easter break and you like smoking cigars and looking cool, then you should probably check out the Reykjavík Blues Festival. VS

Art | Start-up

Give A Hand For The Klapp Collective

Young filmmakers pull it together

A new grassroots start-up is giving the Icelandic film stars of tomorrow a place to shine.

True, the post-crash Icelandic film scene has suffered from slashed budgets and fewer films are being funded.

However, a few badass filmmakers—Arnar Sigurðsson, Ragnhildur Sigurðardóttir and Heimir Freyr Hlöðversson—have founded a guerrilla response to the post-crash Icelandic film scene, a new film collective they call Klapp.

Klapp is “going back to what matters,” says Arnar. Built on a co-op model, with roughly 25 members and growing, they’re nurturing the next Icelandic film stars of tomorrow.

Last month, when they put out a call for applicants they were met with an overwhelming response and sent out the chosen ten teams of young

filmmakers to hone their chops on the streets of Reykjavík as part of the Klapp Guerrilla Filmmaking Campaign.

Next, they’ll help these filmmakers with post-production and get ready to debut these creative, drama, dance and documentary shorts this summer.

Klapp offers technical and creative workshops, production support and equipment to young filmmakers who would otherwise work alone in their apartments with friends. “We want to function openly and democratically with the maximum involvement of our members,” says Arnar, sounding a bit like a politician.

He groans, explaining that it has always been hard to maintain a national film industry in Iceland, even in the best of years—especially with the recession, scarcity of loose capital and slashed

|THU

Bar 11 22:00 Kreppa Night - DJ Matti Café Oliver 22:00 Ingo Veðurguð Den Danske Kro 20:00 Beer Bingo 22:00 Live Music Dubliner 22:00 Live Music English Pub 22:00 Maggi & Eiríkur Esja 22:00 Loungy Thursday Hressó 22:00 J.J.s Band Thorvaldsen 20:00 Salsa Night

6

|FRI

ONGOING

Restaurant Reykjavík 20:00 Let's Talk Iceland: Comedy Show.

2200 ISK. Everyday Iðnó Cellophane Comedy show 20:00 Thursdays

public funding.

“The necessity for cinema to be in a real dialogue with society is more pressing than ever, so creative means must be found if this art form wants to be counted as of culture.”

Founded last summer in Reykjavík, it all came about after organising a script-writing workshop—which snowballed into a series of other events.

Familiar with the art of filmmaking, the Klapp kids started sharing their collection of film equipment among themselves to dodge rental feels.

That turned into the guerrilla filmmaking campaign in the fall (funded by the Reykjavík municipality).

Klapp hosts semi-public events like script writing workshops on Monday nights, acting and directing workshops on Wednesday nights and “geek weekends”, where sound, camera and light techies gather with equipment on everybody else’s days off.

The events are not advertised, but if you’re interested in attending, email them at: klapp@klapp.is.

You just may get your star moment, or at least some applause.

- Nadja Sayej

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7 Kisan Laugavegur 7 This store is incredibly cool. It’s stocked with really unique and quirky clothes, outerwear, accessories and handbags, plus they have an adorable section of kids clothes, kitschy vintage toys and books and even interior design items. Wicked place; definitely worth a visit. CF

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Dillon Rock Bar

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Hafnarstræti 9 Delicious and relatively cheap considering how massive and filling their sandwiches are. The Luxury Sub, with salty pork, veggies, sauce and pineapple is a brilliant combination of flavours for late-night munchies. It’s just as satisfying and filling during more civilized hours as well. And the service is fast if you’re in a rush. CF

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Tíu Dropar

If you’re sick of all the arty cafés, filled with Sigur Rós wannabes and their Macs, browsing Facebook– go to Tíu Dropar. It’s a back-to-basics Icelandic café that hasn’t changed their interior since the 60s. Really proves the saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Plus, the coffee’s great. SKK

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Located on the second-floor of a quirky little building on Skólavörðustígur, Babalú is an inviting, quaint and cosy café serving up a selection of tea, coffee and hot chocolate along with delicious baked goods and light meals. Food and drink aside, Babalú boasts colourfully decorated and supercomfortable surroundings and a genuinely friendly and likeable staff. CF

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Located just below Barbara, Trúnó is the most recent addition to Reykjavík's straightfriendly gay scene and swings between cosy café by day and lively bar by night. Generally relaxed atmosphere but given to hosting special events and spinning the drinks wheel. AK

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Coffee made with passion, cakes made with love, toasts made with a toaster...

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Find us on Facebook “Filadelfia‘s International Fellowship” Contact: 535-4700 or helgi@filadelfia.is

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Services every Sunday at 14.00 Prayer meetings Wednesdays at 20.00 Hátún 2, 105 Reykjavik

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Hemmi & Valdi

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Dillon lives up to its full name and is not known to mess around with House or Electronica. Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath is what you'll often hear, along with more local and recent spin-offs as well as the odd live show. But if you have other requests, they are accepted and considered by resident DJ, Amma Rokksins, Iceland's grandmother of rock, still spinning her stuff on Saturday nights. AK

The “colonial store” Hemmi and Valdi was probably 2008’s most surprising crowd pleaser. The cosy hangout advanced from being a toasty retreat, where you could get cheap beer and have a quiet chat, into being a chock-full concert venue and an allnight party place. And believe me, the new atmosphere is brilliant. SKK

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For a map of outside downtown Reykjavík visit www.grapevine.is or the Icelandic phonebook website www.ja.is

Kaffismiðja Íslands

Old fashioned charm is the style of Kaffismiðja, in everything from the decor to the coffee grinders. Off the beaten track, this popular coffee shop is a great spot to sit and read or have a chat with friends. The owners Ingbjörg and Sonja take great pride in the beans they use and the coffee is top notch.

You can buy fresh grounds too, in case you just cant get enough. EF

Iðunnareplið

Templarasund 3, 101 Reykjavík www.idunnareplid.is

If you have an iPhone, check out the cool Locatify app in the AppStore. It´s got a FREE guided audio tour of the downtown area, courtesy of your pals at Grapevine.

14

Kolaportið

Tryggvagata 19 Reykjavík’s massive flea market is a wonderful place to get lost for a few hours, rummaging through stall upon stall of potential treasures. There are heaps of used clothing, knitwear and other yard-sale type goods from decades of yore, and a large food section with fish, meats and baked goods. Check out the vintage post cards and prints at the table near the army surplus. CF

New parents, your prayers have been answered. Iðunnareplið is the café that caters to your every need. Not only is their tea and coffee, at 250 ISK, among the cheapest in town, their light bistro menu is also quite reasonable. And of course, all of their food is made with subtle spices for all you nursing moms out there. Iðunnareplið also boasts a healthy kid’s menu, and mashed fruits and veggies for infants, prepared right there. You can even get T AU BR SÆ diapers or warm up a bottle. Complete with a playroom, a changing and nursing room, and even an alley away from the street to keep your strollers, this place aims to provide new parents with some much-needed “me time.” -SG

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Á Næstu Grösum

Á Næstu Grösum is an all vegetarian restaurant right in the city centre that features a friendly atmosphere and fair prices. There is always at least one vegan soup on offer and the daily special portions are big and always satisfying. There is even some organic wine on offer.

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This small restaurant offers up a concise menu of delicious Arabic cuisine, from shawarma to kebabs and falafels. The staff is really friendly and accommodating of requests to kick up the spiciness or tone it down if the customer so desires. Habibi seriously hits the spot after hours of partying (or any other time of day) so it’s convenient that the place is open until 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday. CF

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The Handknitting Association of Iceland’s official store, Handprjónasambandið, sells wool products of uncompromising quality.

The store features pullover sweaters, cardigans, mittens, touques and other wool accessories. They're also equipped to answer all sorts of wool-related questions.

Kringlan Shopping Center

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C is for Cookie

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You know, Hressó is basically the only place I go for coffee. Why? Their coffee is decent to excellent, but their forte is surely their wonderful patio, where you can enjoy the spring breeze in the sun, wrap yourself in a blanket beneath an electric heater in January and at all times: smoke. They boast of quite the prolific menu, but I’d reconsider the playlists to tell you the truth, too much of Nickelback really hurts. SKK

The Danish Bar is located on Ingólfsstræti, just off Laugavegur where Q Bar once stood.

The bar serves up Danish favourites, such as open-face smørrebrød sandwiches, Danish Tuborg beer and Akvavit schnapps.

How to ask for a large beer in Danish: “Hej, jeg vil gerne have en stor øl, tak”.

This cosy new café owned by Polish couple Agnieszka and Stanislaw is the latest addition to the Reykjavik café scene and already looks set to become a favourite with the locals. Ideal for an early lunch or spending a lazy afternoon deciding which of Agnieszka's delicious home baked cakes you want to try next. I´d go with the cheescake, it's pretty fabulous. EF

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Café d'Haiti

Geirsgötu 7b / Verbúð 2 The first time I entered this exotic little joint, meaning to buy myself a take-away espresso, I ended up with two kilos of freshly roasted coffee beans due to some language complications and way too much politeness. Since then I have enjoyed probably way-too-many wonderful cups of Haitian coffee, but they’re always as nice, so the two kilos were definitely worth it. SKK

20 Jan – 10 April

Without Destination

20 Jan – 10 April

Erró – Assemblage

10 March - 10 April

D20 – Helgi Már Kristinsson

3 May 2010 – 31 Dec 2011

Kjarval – Key works

5 February - 25 April

50 Years of Icelandic Art at the Venice Biennale

5 February - 25 April

Venice Here and Everywhere

Ásmundarsafn

Erró – Collage

Kjarvalsstaðir

Hafnarhús

18 Sept 2010 – 28 Aug 2011

ART

1 May 2010 – 17 Apr 2011

“I choose blossoming women …” – Woman as Symbols in the Art of Ásmundur Sveinsson

GALLERIES & MUSEUMS IN APRIL & MAY

20 May 2010 – 17 Apr 2011

Sleep Light – Ráðhildur Ingadóttir

Cocktail pleasures and Visual stimulation

23 April – 8 May

Iceland Academy of the Arts – Graduation Exhibition 2011

Erró – Assemblage

How to use the listings: Venues are listed alphabetically by day. For complete listings and detailed information on venues visit www.grapevine.is

Reykjavik Art Museum

OPENINGS Gerðuberg April 9 , 14:00 A Play For Children. 1500 ISK April 29, 12:15 & May 1, 13:15 Lunchtime Classics The works of Mozart & Beethoven performed Hafnarborg April 17, 15:00 Artist Talk with Þórri Hringsson April 23 Graduation Exhibition Graduation projects by the students of the Iceland Academy of the Arts Runs until May 8 The Living Art Museum April 16 Koddu. The Icelandic Case Collaboration exhibit of various media documenting art before, during and after the economic crisis Runs until May 15 The National Theater April 26, 21:00 Soirées. 1200 ISK Sláturhúsið April 16 Exhibition by Ingunn Þráinsdóttir Runs until April 28 The Living Art Museum Screenings of the film 'Artifacial Intelligence' Runs until April 10 Tjarnabíó April 10 20:00 Darí Darí Dance Company, 1900 ISK 21:00 Steinunn & Brian, 1900 ISK Tickets for both shows at 3000 ISK

Erró – Collage

Iceland Academy of the Arts – Graduation Exhibition

Ásmundur Sveinsson Without Destination Þorgerður Ólafsdóttir

Helgi Már Kristinsson - D20

Kjarval - Key Works 50 Years of Icelandic Art at the Venice Biennale - Ragnar Kjartansson

Hafnarhús Tryggvagata 17 Open daily 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Thursdays 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Kjarvalsstaðir Flókagata Open daily 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Ásmundarsafn Sigtún Open Saturday and Sunday 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

www.artmuseum.is

artmuseum@reykjavik.is

T +354 590 1200 F +354 590 1201

UNO – cucina italiana is an Italian restaurant located in central Reykjavík. Experience a fusion of Italian and Icelandic flavours served in a casual and vibrant environment.

Must try dishes Mink whale carpaccio Mink whale carpaccio with fennel, cabbage, parmesan cheese and lemon oil.

Grilled salmon with Icelandic barley, grilled vegetables, radishes, dill, toasted almonds and sage butter.

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With Limoncello gel and oat crumble.

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White chocolate skyr panna cotta

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Grilled minke whale with „Brennivín“ glaze, rosemary potatoes and grilled vegetables.

11.30 – 24.00 Fridays and Saturdays

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Grilled minke whale

11.30 – 23.30 Sundays to Thursdays and

nar stræ

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Vel tu

Ingólfstorg

See you soon ... A presto

ga ta

Haf

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Grilled salmon

Our kitchen is open

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Linguini with tiger prawns, Icelandic lobster, rucola and cherry tomatoes in shellfish sauce.

Aða lstr

Lobster tail and tiger prawn Linguini

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UNO | Hafnarstræti 1-3 | 101 Reykjavík | Tel. 561 1313 | uno.is

ONGOING

ASÍ Art Museum Elín Bjarnason Exhibition of Elín Bjarnason's life's work Runs until May 14 The Culture House Medieval Manuscripts - Eddas and Sagas Some of Iceland's medieval manuscripts on display Open guided tour in English on Mondays & Fridays at 15:00.

On permanent view ICELAND :: FILM A look at the past 100 years in Icelandic filmmaking Child of Hope - Youth and Jón Sigurðsson Exploring the life of Icelandic national hero, Jón Sigurðsson, made especially accessible to children, families, and school groups Flora Islandica The publication Flora Islandica by Eggert Pétursson, with 271 real-size drawings of flowers in Icelandic nature The Library Room Displaying books of Icelandic cultural history dating from the 16th century to today. Works include oldest published versions of the Sagas, Eddic Poems, and more.

On permanent view.

Gallerí Ágúst FABRICATION Exhibition by Ragnhildur Johanns & Harpa Dögg Kjartansdottir Runs until May 7 Gerðarsafn Press Photo Exhibition Exhibition of newspaper and magazine photos Runs until April 10 Gerðuberg 'Þorrablót' by Aðalheiður S. Eysteinsdóttir Runs until June 19 Hafnarborg Permanent Moment Sigtryggur Baldvinsson & Þorri Hringsson display paintings of nature and landscapes Runs until May 1 Birgir Andrésson & Friends Runs until May 1 Hönnunarsafn In The Gray Area Exhibition of works by Shoplifter Runs until May 29

A Censored Exhibit Opens Afresh Koddu. The Icelandic Case The Living Art Museum April 16 to May 15 Free Last November, a trio of Icelandic artists were going to put on an exhibition about Iceland’s economic crash. Only before the doors opened at Listasafn Árnesinga in Hveragerði, the gallery director put her foot down and the exhibit never saw the light. However, Ásmundur Ásmundsson, Tinna Grétarsdóttir, and Hannes Lárusson are now going to open that mega racy exhibit at the Living Art Museum.

It will address the surge of neoliberal values during Iceland’s boom years and the effect that it had on the contemporary art scene, as well as the resulting crisis, and the role it has played in the continued development of the art scene. It sounds fascinating indeed! And if you are as curious as we are about what could possibly have been worthy of censorship in a twenty first century democratic country, no less, the exhibit opens April 15 and runs until May 15. See you there. AA

A selection of furniture designed by Gunnar Magnússon Runs until May 29 Kling & Bang Sequences 2011 He And She-Me And Them exhibition

by Hannes Lárusson Runs until May 1 National Gallery of Iceland Sound Fields Runs until May 22 Áfangar/Strides Permanent exhibition of Icelandic modern painting at the turn of the 20th century The National Museum The Photographer Bárður Sigurðsson Carved Chests & Coffers Runs until August 31 Make Do & Mend Repaired objects from the collections of the National Museum Runs until June 30 The Nordic House Manna A "different" exhibition about food Runs until May 12 Nútimalist Galeria Photography Exhibition by Valdís Thor Reykjavík Art Museum Ásmundarsafn "I choose blossoming women..."

Woman as Symbol in the Art of Ásmundur Sveinsson Runs until April 17 Thoughts In Forms Informative recreation of Ásmundur Jónsson's art studio Runs until April 17 Sleep Light Lighting installation by Ráðhildur Ingadóttir Runs until April 17 Hafnarhús Wihout Destination Various artists contemplate tourism in Iceland Runs until April 10 Erró: Collage Runs until August 28 Erró - Assemblage an extension of Erró - Collage Runs until April 10 Chain Reaction Exhibition by Helgi Már Kristinsson Runs until April 10 Kjarvalsstaðir New Acquisitions 2005-2010 Exhibition of some of the 800 new art acquisitions collected during the past five years Runs until April 25 50 Years Of Icelandic Art At The Venice Biennale Runs until April 25 Kjarval - Key Works Runs until April 25

ART

IN APRIL & MAY

Venice Works Workshop in conjunction with the exhibition 50 Years of Icelandic Art at the Venice Biennale Runs until April 25 Reykjavík Maritime Museum Carvings Exhibition of intricate carvings by Ásmundur Guðmundsson Runs until May 15 Reykjavík Museum of Photography Interiors Photographs of deserted farmsteads by Orri Runs until May 8

QUALITY TIME IN THE HEART OF THE CITY One of Reykjavik’s finest, the chic 1919 Restaurant features top international and neo-Nordic cuisine.

The trendy 1919 Lounge provides a variety of cocktails and the perfect atmosphere for you to relax in and enjoy timeless luxury.

Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Sigurjón Ólafsson's Pillars & 'Icelander' Runs until August 28 Skaftfell Every Other Day In A Different Place Main Gallery Runs until May 1 Icelandic Academy and the Deiter Roth Academy exhibition Runs until May 2 Spark Design Space Smash & Grab by Scintilla Runs until May 28

1919

R E STAU R A N T AND LOUNGE

Art | Venue finder ART67 Laugavegur 67 | F6 Mon - Fri 12 - 18 / Sat 12 - 16 Artótek Tryggvagata 15 | D2 Mon 10–21, Tue–Thu 10–19, Fri 11–19, Sat and Sun 13–17 www.sim.is/Index/Islenska/ Artotek ASÍ Art Museum Freyugata 41 | G4 Tue–Sun 13–17 Árbæjarsafn Kistuhylur 4 The Culture House Hverfisgata 15 | E4 Open daily 11–17 www.thjodmenning.is Dwarf Gallery Grundarstígur 21 | H6 Opening Hours: Fri and Sat 18–20 www.this.is/birta/dwarfgallery/ dwarfgallery1.html The Einar Jónsson Eiriksgata | G4 Tue–Sun 14–17 www.skulptur.is Gallery Ágúst Baldursgata 12 | F4 Wed–Sat 12–17 www.galleriagust.is Gallery Fold Rauðarástígur 14-16 | G7 Mon–Fri 10–18 / Sat 11–16 / Sun 14–16 www.myndlist.is Gallery Kaolin Ingólfsstræti 8 | E3 Gallery Kling & Bang Hverfisgata 42 | E5 Thurs–Sun from 14–18 this.is/klingogbang/

Radisson Blu 1919 Hotel, Pósthússtræti 2, 101 Reykjavík, Tel: 599 1000

Gerðuberg Cultural Centre Gerðuberg 3-5 Mon–Thu 11–17 / Wed 11–21 / Thu–Fri 11–17 / Sat–Sun 13–16 www.gerduberg.is Hitt Húsið – Gallery Tukt Pósthússtræti 3-5 | E3 www.hitthusid.is i8 Gallery Tryggvagata 16 | D2 Tue–Fri 11–17 / Sat 13–17 and by appointment. www.i8.is Living Art Museum Skúlagata 28 | F6 Wed, Fri–Sun 13–17 / Thu 13–22. www.nylo.is Hafnarborg Strandgötu 34, Hafnarfjörður Mokka Kaffi Skólavörðustíg 3A | F4 The National Gallery of Iceland Fríkirkjuvegur 7 | F3 Tue–Sun 11–17 www.listasafn.is The National Museum Suðurgata 41 | G1 Open daily 10–17 natmus.is The Nordic House Sturlugata 5 | H1 Tue–Sun 12–17 www.nordice.is/ Nútimalist Galleria Skólavörðustígur 3a | F4

Reykjavík Art Gallery Skúlagata 28 | F6 Tuesday through Sunday 14–18 Reykjavík Art Museum Open daily 10–16 www.listasafnreykjavikur.is Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum Sigtún Hafnarhús Tryggvagata 17 | D2 Kjarvalsstaðir Flókagata | I7 Reykjavík Maritime Museum Grandagarður 8 | C3 Reykjavík Museum of Photography Tryggvagata 16 | D2 Weekdays 12–19 / Sat–Sun 13–17 - www.ljosmyndasafnreykjavikur.is Sigurjón Ólafsson Museum Laugarnestangi 70 SÍM, The Association of Icelandic Artists Mon-Fri 10-16 Hafnarstræti 16 | D3 Skaftfell Austurvegur 42 710 Seyðisfjörður www.skaftfell.is Slaturhúsið Culture Centre Kaupvangi 7 700 Egilsstaðir www.slaturhusid.is Spark, Design Space Klapparstíg 33 | E4 www.sparkdesignspace.com

Restaurant Reykjavík Vesturgata 2 | D2 Reykjavík 871+/-2 Aðalstræti 17 | D2 Open daily 10–17

The Man Without A Face The Living Art Museum Runs until April 10 Free As part of the Sequences Art Festival, The Living Art Museum is showing 'Artifacial Intelligence,' a unique film about humanity, art, and the search for identity. The film is set in Iceland in a dystopian future, where global warming has caused massive destructive flooding. As humanity struggles to survive, the last attempt to preserve art has led to the creation of Gernot Faber, a human who wears a mask that controls his thoughts and emotions. We follow Gernot as he attempts to find the Blue Lagoon, which he believes is the only escape from the mask and will

transform him into a normal human being.

Along the way, Gernot must battle external forces, as well as his own internal demons.

As he struggles to remove the artificial face he wears for the world and to find out who he truly is, which is a challenge that we must all face at some point in our lives, Gernot's adventure is the ultimate journey of selfdiscovery. SG

“We tried this place purely on the back of its excellent review on Tripadvisor and weren’t disappointed. “

Quality coffee roasted on the premises

CAFE HAITI by the Old Harbour Geirsgata 7b, 101 Reykjavík tel: 661 5621 / 588 8484 Opening hours: 8.00 – 23.00

REVIEWS

Thai Me Up! Thai Me Down!

Thai Take-away explored

One of the best restaurants in Iceland

Order now!

Tel.: 511 5090 E-mail: einarben@einarben.is Website: www.einarben.is

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Pósthússtræti 11 101 Reykjavík Tel: 578 2008 www.silfur.is

Noodle soup with chicken IKR 930 Noodle soup with beef IKR 930

Home of the best noodle soup!

Skólavörðustígur 21A

“Holy Basil, Ban Man!” Time for another one of my own miniature weekend film festivals. No, not a weekend of Pedro Almodóvar films, nor their naughty Thai remakes (imagine that). I am sure this pun of a title has been used ad nauseam (I fret to search the interwebs), and so I apologise for my (mis)use. With my date and I still juggling a newborn, we spend another weekend indoors with an assortment of Thai new wave cinema accompanied with some tasty Thai takeaway.

I have a love affair with Thai cuisine, with its versatility to please different palettes, harmony of f lavours, and presentation and arrangement of colour. Appropriately nestled alongside of one of Reykjavík’s most colourful rows of buildings, Ban Thai resides like a carefully cultivated orchid, where it has blossomed into a landmark over its twenty years serving the most delectable of authentic Thai dishes.

Despite the economy, Ban Thai has had the same menu and prices since the day that they opened. This alone has kept me a regular patron. But, word on the street was that Ban Thai has a new menu. We surfed over to their website, which has also remained unchanged for twenty years, only to discover the same museum of animated gifs leftover

Ban Thai Laugavegur 130

from the Geocities era. Too occupied to walk over to Hlemmur for a new menu, we just ordered some proven standards.

Everything at Ban Thai is fresh and made to order, so arriving twenty minutes after placing our order should give me some time to look over the new menu. Holy Basil, Ban-Man! The menu matured from a simple page into a book, complete with beneficial health facts and nutritional values for every dish. There are chapters of new dishes.

This is going to keep me busy for quite awhile...drool.

Overwhelmed with new smells and now trounced by my hasty decision, I headed home with my old pal’s squid and shrimp. Their company was pleasantly delightful, despite being takeaway. Opening the box revealed a colour palette ranging from blazing alizarin crimson to bright viridian green. I had ordered Pad kraphao, a traditional dish of tender squid stir fried with Thai holy basil, spring onions, chillies, and garlic. As expected, fresh squid, al dente vegetables, basil

forward with a mild capsaicin finish.

A phenomenal dish for a modest 1.690 ISK. We could not wait to sample some of the new dishes, and just yesterday headed back for another round. We placed our order, and sat down to continue reading the menu. To our surprise, we were served. I looked down at the sleeping baby in my arms, glanced over at my date, and decided to enjoy our first meal out with baby. The soothing environment was calming for both us and a newborn baby. While she slept, our feelings of being tied down to takeaway were lifted. We indulged!

Grapevine food review key 0 Not fit for human consumption Edible Indifferent Good Pretty damn good Exceptional

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For your mind, body and soul 3 X Tasty Soups Noodle Station This soup is exactly the way you like it every time. That’s because it’s exactly the same Thai soup every time. They have it down. You simply choose vegetarian, chicken or beef, and voila, a large portion of spicy Thai soup for less than 1.000 ISK. You can eat in or order out.

Skólavörðustígur 21a.

Kryddlegin Hjörtu Every day, Kryddlegin Hjörtur brews up four deliciously hearty, healthy soups. Sample one or sample all. For less than 2.000 ISK you get a single go at the buffet, which also includes fresh salad and some homebaked organic spelt bread to go with it. Not to mention, it also comes with an ocean view. Skúlagata 17 Sjávarkjallarinn The Seafood Cellar Restaurant, as it’s called in English, is a posh, dimly lit establishment serving up really good Asian Icelandic fusion.

But swanky as it is, a soup, albeit a small fancy soup, is still pretty reasonably priced, and Condé Nast Traveler would second that.

Aðalstræti 2.

3 X Quirky Must Eats

"This working man’s Thai is served in befitting behemoth proportions" Night two of my weekend film festival: an older film from one of my favourite filmmakers, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ‘Syndromes And A Century’. The film evolves in two parts, with the same events repeated in each part against opposing backdrops. This seemed quite appropriate for the second evening of my miniature Thai film festival. And like the film, the cuisine of Núðluhúsið offers a contrasted backdrop to the previous evening of stunning colours and aroma.

Núðluhúsið is a bit of guilty indulgence of mine, and a secret Sunday evening haunt amongst a small circle of my friends. You see, we learned a secret a while back: Núðluhúsið cures hangovers. After a weekend of debauchery, we would collect there to piece together the previous night(s), well hidden from those we might have spent the previous night with, auspiciously perched above Laugavegur. Then, with just a few bites of the Pad Thai, the most wicked of benders is all but a fractured memory.

But it has been many moons since the days of being wild, and the greasy noodles of Núðluhúsið beckoned despite my teetotalled state.

Núðluhúsið is serendipitously located up a f light of spiral stairs above the Bónus supermarket on Laugavegur, and like Bónus, Núðluhúsið shares the hallmarks of value. For the cost of a beer or two, 1.300 ISK is the most one would pay for any dish on the menu.

Although set up like a cafeteria with

Núðluhúsið Laugavegur 59

tableside service and hairnets, this formula has some advantages. With many dishes pre-made, one can shop for groceries, and then pop upstairs for hot takeaway with almost no wait.

This workingman’s Thai is served in befitting behemoth proportions, making for the perfect quick downtown lunch with always plenty left over. And last but not least, no hairs. Caveats: homogeneity. Each dish is a mute palette. In the case of my Pad Thai, a dark sienna mixed with van dyke brown accented with greasy orange specular highlights. I could not really discern anything in the dish, probably because it was made in such a large batch that the colours ran together over time. If you could look beyond that, or imagine you are staring at an Anselm Kiefer painting, then you and your wallet will be satisfied. Yet, despite the drab colours, there is something special camouf laged in each dish. Núðluhúsið is consistent, and will remain top on my list for hangover cures or budget noodles.

Íslenski Barinn With a name like “The Icelandic Bar”, it sounds like a tourist trap, but truth be told, Icelanders frequent this bar too. It has lots of table space and breathing room, which makes it a great place to quickly down the must-eat hákarl (fermented shark), which is chased with brennivín. Pósthússtræti 9 Mamma Steina There’s nothing like your mamma’s home cooking. And while Steina may not be your mamma, she sure can cook up a good svið (sheep’s head). It’s chopped in half and served on a plate, staring right back at you. When in Rome, right? Skólavörðustígur 23.

Fish and Chips This bistro offers nine types of fish, a few types of hand cut potato chips, and ten types of skyronnaise sauce to go with it. That’s right, Icelandic skyr-based sauce in flavours ranging from orange and black pepper to ginger and wasabi. Tryggvagata 8.

3 X Cosy Coffee Houses Tíu Dropar This super cosy basement coffee shop feels like your quaint Icelandic grandmother’s place.

They offer bottomless coffee, so you can keep having ten more drops, as the Icelanders say.

They also have Icelandic pancakes. Enough said. Laugavegur 27 C is For Cookie Opened by a Polish couple last summer, this relatively new coffee house was quick to gain a reputation for huge cups of coffee (Americans, do take note) and affordable prices. You could probably sit in this relaxing atmosphere for hours chatting or working away on your laptop. Týsgata 8.

Kaffismiðja Íslands Despite the really impressive Rolls Royce of coffee machines—the La Marzocco espresso machine and two Mazzer grinders—this place is really down to earth and it’s generally packed with people reading the newspaper and chatting before going off to work.

Kárastígur 1.

AA

By the sea and a delicios lobster

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The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

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24

Eiríkur Örn runs a blog over at www.norddahl.org.

Plenty of English language material there to read and ponder.

Continued from page 13

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the banking system (resulting in a 65 page long poem); the latter is its own investigative report, of sorts, published before the actual report—a long poem (over 200 pages) divided into chapters for each year from the founding of the republic (1944) until the supposed bankruptcy of the republic (2009—a few months after the collapse, when the government finally fell).

“The Poetic Republic” is as highly “creative” as “Arbitrage” is not. While “Arbitrage” deals with and represents the banality (and hilarity) of the language surrounding the crisis, the politics and the market—as well as dealing a blow to more traditional poetry, “The Poetic Republic” is a flamboyant retelling of Icelandic 20th century history in a traditional post-modern ironic tone. Its vision or historical perspective is hardly new, nor does it have to be. Its vision is probably correct (from a liberal, (moderate) leftist standpoint), however common it may be.

“The Poetic Republic” doesn’t dwell on any single event for more than a few lines, and thus it starts casually but increases in weight and speed until you feel you’re drowning in knowledge, memories, history and feeling; while “Arbitrage” reads like a malfunctioning economic robot—like a Burroughs adding machine for the 21st century— and hardly needs to be read at all, being first and foremost a conceptual work. One would probably benefit more from looking at it like one looks at a painting, rather than reading it from A to Z like a (traditional) poem.

These two poetry books deal with the crisis in an almost unthinkably dissimilar manner; and yet they somehow belong to each other, could be published in tête-bêche format as brother and sister, hand in hand, shoulder to shrugging shoulder; not having a solution, but somehow trying hard enough to get us an inch closer to “something”, whatever it is.

A Total Uncontrollable Shitstorm of Metaphorising A literary reaction worth mentioning is the constant metaphorising in public debate surrounding the crisis. Common phrases included “the financial thunderstorm”—the word for thunderstorm being used is “gjörningaveður”, a weather of great “happenings” (same noun as used for performance art happenings); the national ship (a common euphemism for the economy of a fishing nation) was shipwrecked; the leaders of the country were the crew of a ship; the old government (which refused to resign) were arsonists in charge of putting out their own fire; the crisis was rough seas or a game of war (“hildarleikur”); the nation needed to “arm itself” (“vígbúast”); Iceland was “in flames”; a great “catastrophy” had hit the international financial market—there were earthquakes, tidal waves and the markets were frozen; the infrastructure had collapsed (like a building); the people were sheep; the currency was in “free fall” (and subsequently either getting “stronger” or “weaker”); the wheels of the economic life (called “the job life” in Icelandic) needed to be kept in motion; the plentiful years had been a raucous orgy and the aftermath was the hangover, and somebody had to clean up after the party; unemployment was an infectious disease and so forth and so on2.

According to a media study conducted by Álfhildur E. Þorsteinsdóttir, in the week following the crash the most common categories of metaphor were “ocean and sailing”, “militaristic”, “fire and catastrophy” and “weather”—in this order. No one needs to be surprised that on a volcanic rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean people would resort to metaphors of fishing, fire or weather—but military? In a country whose traditional role in NATO is not having its own military but nodding yes to the American agenda (they had a base in Iceland until 2006). Iceland has neither had conscription nor a professional 2 Many of these examples are taken from Álfhildur E. Þorsteinsdóttir’s excellent analysis, Krepputal. Myndlíkingar í dagblöðum á krepputímum (“Crisis-talk. Metaphors in Newspapers in Times of Crisis”). http://skemman.is/handle/1946/3625

army, excluding the dozen or so “peace keepers”—who are more like our former foreign minister’s tin soldier collection than anything else. Militaristic metaphors were furthermore the second most common category after ocean and sailing metaphors.

This is the popular poem—poem of the people, for the people—the world democratically poesied; sometimes in extremely mundane and predictable manners and at other times divine, fresh like spring and/or mighty.

It’s always there and we hardly ever notice it.

But when an event occurs which sends the minds of a certain community seeking in the same direction, like the economic collapse in Iceland, all of a sudden the visibility of this collective metaphorical agenda increases manyfold and we’re presented with a massive lingual project that cannot be fully understood or interpreted outside the poetic dimension.

Fighting over the Paradigm I think it is safe to say that the literary response to the crisis in Iceland has been both swift and markedly honest, even if it seems that the authors and poets don’t have any particular answers to give. There is no new moral centre, no serious deconstructive (or reconstructive) tendency, no reckoning with capitalism nor exacting analysis within the ‘belles lettres’ published as a reaction to the collapse. You could even imagine many of the authors mentioned here objecting to being construed as “reacting to the collapse”, as indeed in some respect they hardly deal with it at all (while simultaneously standing knee-deep in it).

The non-fiction about the crisis has mostly been fighting over the paradigm, constructing present-day history and bickering about the interpretation of events, the focus of discussion—ranging from confessions of aged, right wing, cold-war newspaper editor Styrmir Gunnarsson, to megalomaniac (and disturbingly disassociated, in an ‘American Psycho’ kind of way) accounts of financial viking Ármann Þorvaldsson during the economic boom, and the clear-cut anti-capitalist and metaphorically raptured essays of Einar Már Guðmundsson.

A Healthy Distrust One of the immediate responses of the Icelandic critics—not to call it a “critical response”, as it was mostly presented in the form of commentary rather than an attempt at succinct analysis—was to question, belittle and even ridicule the attempts to portray or comment upon the crisis in fiction or poetry.

This was of course not an across-the-board response—there were many exceptions amongst the critics, especially in more formulated essays, reviews and articles, which were by and large less irritable and more generous than were stray comments. But this one was, in my opinion, most obviously felt as a response to the phenomenon in total, as opposed to more generous critical responses to individual books or projects.

The argument mostly went that it was “too early” to write about the crisis; that the authors and poets were lacking the necessary “historical distance” to provide understanding (an argument surprisingly not present in the treatment of non-fiction books about the crisis). This attitude may be criticised for confusing the writing of history with the writing of fictional accounts, which are not subject to rules of “providing understanding” nor even historical accuracy, and as propagating an elitist attitude towards literature—i.e. that instead of literature being a massive democratic project to try and approach (as opposed to provide) any understanding of our societies and “the human condition”, an understanding inherently impossible in any perfect or even near perfect sense, the author is (supposed to be) a demigodly figure who steps down from Olympus to tell us what is what, in no uncertain terms (and yet perfect bull’s eye metaphors). If I may be so bold: This is of course nothing short of the 20th century fascist idea of the genius classes—the leaders of society.

But this is also evidence of an attitude

of displeasure and dissatisfaction which has in general increased after the crisis —a (healthy) distrust of the amazingly populous army of self-proclaimed prophets and analysts who have bombarded the public scene (newspapers, radio and TV as well as the blogosphere, where they naturally enjoy a free reign) with their ideas and thoughts, sometimes perhaps provoking more confusion than anything else—and often one suspects that confusion (misinformation) is in fact the point, with great political and economic potential at stake. And this distrust does of course not limit itself to the non-fiction army of fiscal messiahs found online, but reaches the poets and authors as well.

It is nonetheless my opinion that this distrust would’ve been put to better use against the non-fiction books, most of which attempted to maintain (or re-attain) the status quo; to explain Iceland post-crisis in pre-crisis terms and thereby reinstating the old paradigm. Whereas I’ve found the belles lettres to be inspiring, thought-provoking and, though less assertive and less selfconfident, better at providing new (and limber) views and senses of what happened in Iceland in the first decade of the millennium.

Most of the non-fiction felt as if it were there to provide a dead-end explanation—a final stop for thought—while the novels felt like serious attempts at seeing something—no matter if they turned away, which also constitutes seeing something (not to mention saying something)—serious attempts to not constrict understanding or meaning with exceedingly easy explanations; and the poetry did what poetry does best, and approached the weird, stupid, cerebral and divine about the crisis—all at the same time.

A Call for Immediacy One of the myths or clichés about Icelanders goes that they are all kind of trawlersailors—“the sort of people” who like to work like crazy and then lounge about sucking on beers and scratching their asses, that they are somehow simultaneously hard-working and lazy, and that they are willing to do a half-assed job if it means they get to go home early. Their natural habitat is thus the trawler-boat, where you fish for a month and rest for a week or two, your pockets lined with money.

Despite the exceedingly limited truth found in these mythological self-explanations, the Icelandic “outvasion” was in fact deeply characterised by amateurism, lack of experience and a sense that “it was all gonna work itself out”—it was performed in the optimist spirit of the seasonal worker, the one who’s resourceful enough, strong enough, resilient enough, quick enough and daring enough not to need years of experience or time to mull things over. This may factor into the aforementioned critics’ response to the quick and sudden representation of the crisis, collapse and kitchen utensil revolution in Icelandic literature—seeing it as arriving in the same spirit, being performed in less than perfect tune, with a similar attitude of “anything’s possible”, and thereby foreboding a similar (aesthetic) collapse. But a thriving literary society needs not only mulled-over concise accounts of metaphorical precision (if it needs those at all), but a sense of immediacy, a sense of belonging to, and partaking in, society as it is happening—lest it want to be relegated to the dimension of historytelling, fairytale-ism.

Notwithstanding the fact that it would be horrible to keep repeating the same books about the crisis (which is not unlikely, as literature has a tendency to reproduce in it’s own image), and notwithstanding the relative excellence of the work produced thus far, it would be a great tragedy, in my mind, if this attempt to portray the crisis, collapse and kitchen utensil revolution in poetry and fiction were to end here, if it were to be buried now with an inscription of a job well done—as the job, the collective experiment, is still very much in its infancy.

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The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

26

DID YOU KNOW: Some of Iceland's most awesome bands ever have started their careers by winning Músiktilraunir. Bands like Mínus, Maus, XXX Rottweiler, Sororicide AND MANY MANY MORE! You should start a band and compete.

Music | Live review

Bob And Sindri Go Músíktilraunir!

The Winners

Samaris

Primavera

Every year, Músíktilraunir (“Music Experiments”) are held to locate and reward the most innovative undiscovered bands in Iceland. To fully document this exciting and unique display of youthful talent and exuberance, the Grapevine sent two of its most refined and highbrow cultural commentators to the scene to observe and report, with fairly predictable results.

PRIMAVERA Sindri: I kinda like how simple it was.

The lyrics need some work, though.

I mean, how many fucking songs are there with the chorus ‘falling down’?

It’s embarrassing.

Bob: My personal opinion is, I’m not such a big fan of the singer, but the guitarists, total pros, one thrashed on his strings, the other tuned up, I think they’re both fine, obviously they’re very well tuned.

MY FINAL WARNING B: Right. The guitarist from the Final Warning is wearing a kilt. One million points… did you just say Gibson Explorer?

S: Yeah! Yeah, the other guitarist has a Gibson Explorer. Two million points.

[My Final Warning play their first song.

Bob laughs uncontrollably throughout the entirety of it] B: [Still laughing] well, that was My Final Warning. I’ve got to say… wow.

S: No. No, no, no, no…

SÚR B: …and that was Súr!

S: …or was it Placebo?

B: The singer’s got kind of that whiny, nasal voice, and he’s Brian Molko!

S: And there’s only two chords throughout the entire song.

B: I thought the guitar sounded a bit like mid-eighties Big Country.

S: …I’ve no idea what any of those words mean, but I’m inclined to agree.

SAMARIS B: And that was Samaris! Or basically Pascal Pinon, just crunching electronica.

S: That was lame. If these people place anywhere in the top three, I will kill somebody. The sad thing is, they probably will.

B: See, the issue I have with this, is not just the clarinet, but the fact is, this is almost like a side project. Why are they in Músíktilraunir? The band they’ve been in have already had international press coverage. They’re quite well known. Why are they doing a contest for unknown artists?

S: I don’t mind the idea of an electronic band winning, I’m not a complete bigot, I’m just saying, this is bad electronica.

This is not interesting electronica in any way or shape or form. This is hack music.

B: Oh, no. Just no. We hope these guys don’t win. Very bland electronica, with clarinet.

S: The clarinet doesn’t make it any less bland, unfortunately, ‘cause I’ve heard interesting clarinet, and that was not it.

ASKUR YGGDRASILS S: Fairly good folk-metal, except for the fucking drummer, he’s like the weak link in the band, he’s not doing anything exciting at all.

B: It was very technical, but I just can’t take my eyes off that singer! He looks like he’s walked in from ‘Devil’s Rejects’. There’s no way he’s under 25.

S: Yeah, I’m partially scared to say anything bad about this band, the singer looks though he’d just as soon eat me as look at me… but seriously, the drummer needs to get his act together if these guys are gonna realise their full potential.

B: But these guys have got potential, big potential.

S: Oh, yeah. It needs to be tighter.

There’s a reason you expect total technical proficiency from bands like this; it only works if it’s perfect. It needs to

be fucking perfect, and they just aren’t.

MURRK S: I believe I mentioned earlier that there’s an interesting way of playing clarinet; I think this is it.

B: They’ve actually stoked their entire reputation on this one instrument. I will say, it’s kind of weird, but it went to that kind of ‘folkanised Balkan’ but then they go head-first into bands like Orphic Oxtra…

S: The singer has a great voice, as well.

It’s such a nice contrast from how everything else is so King Crimson-y, and his voice is so pop.

B: The main thing that differentiates this from all the other ‘Balkan’ bands in Iceland is definitely the drums and the bass. There’s a power in it, much bigger power… it’s not whimsical.

FOR THE SUN IS RED B: Sindri, you look in pain.

S: My mother always told me that if I have nothing nice to say, I shouldn’t say anything at all.

B: Yep. My mum said many things, too.

THE WICKED STRANGERS S: What the fuck is going on?

B: I’m not sure.

S: First of all, it has to be said: what a fucking terrible name.

B: But, give it to them: he’s probably the only one so far who’s actually sweated in his fifteen-minute time frame.

S: That is true B: It’s just unfocussed.

S: Yeah, it’s like they can’t agree on the kind of music they want to make, but they know they want to fucking kick ass, for which there is something to be said, I guess.

JOE AND THE DRAGON B: [Cackling hysterically] What the fuck was that?

S: That was synth-pop at its fucking best. This is like the one band so far whose album I would buy and listen to,

I think. Catchy.

B: Yeah! Biggest cheer of the night so far. If these guys do not win—and write for Eurovision next year—then, there is no god.

S: Yeah… the thing is, I don’t think any of those poncy judges share your concept of…

POSTARTICA S: So… post-rock much?

B: You think so too? I like the singer, though. She sang well.

S: Yeah! It’s like Deftones with a girl singing.

B: It’s like a post-rock, post-hardcore sound. Very melodic, very heavy.

S: Really fucking massive guitar sound!

I really like that!

B: Very heavy bass, as well, and he’s playing like 500 notes per bar.

S: The guitarist is good, as well. At first I only noticed the bassist, but… I don’t know, rhythm guitar never gets the props it deserves. People never notice good rhythm guitarists, and I think this is one.

B: I actually really liked it, in the end.

S: Faultless. Not necessarily a winner, but… nothing wrong with it, either.

VIRTUAL TIMES B: That band has broken me; I don’t want to be here anymore.

S: White-boy soul, is what you said?

B: Ah, no, the worst early-eighties white-boy jazz-funk that just… [buries head in hands].

S: It’s like Toto, but without all their grit and verve.

THE RESULTS B: Thank god it’s over. Best band is Murrk, in my opinion.

S: What about second and third place?

B: Second would be Askur Yggdrasils and third place, Postartica. Joe And The Dragon gets my special ‘lifetime achievement award’.

S: I really like Postartica, but there’s nothing that jumps out at me and says

that they’re necessarily winners. I don’t really like the kind of music Murrk play, but if I’m gonna be completely impartial, I like them best.

B: I saw last year on television, and there was no band that stood out, maybe I think it’s the same this year.

Where’s the band that goes “Oh my God, where the hell have these guys been?”

S: Exactly. That tends to happen, and usually when that happens in Músíktilraunir, a band that’s very good technically, wins, so Murrk would be the obvious winners in this case. I would like to put Joe And The Dragon in third place, Murrk in second and Postartica in first.

That’s my revised placings. [the MC comes onstage and tells us that the judges have decided, and all their decisions were unanimous] S: If they all agree on a band, it’s gonna be fucking Murrk, obviously. I don’t think they deserve it musically, but they deserve it technically.

[The Wicked Strangers win third place, while the second place goes to Súr] Both: What!?!

B: I don’t know what to think about that.

S: I think that’s bollocks.

B: That means I’m gonna have to review these guys at Faktorý at fucking Airwaves. Ugh, Jesus… guys, we don’t get paid enough for this. That’s not right…

S: That’s… just… stupid. They’re not bad, but they don’t deserve a top-three place! The only way the judges can redeem themselves at this point is if Postartica win, but it’s gonna be Murrk.

[The winner is announced to be Samaris] S: What!?!

B: What? Who won it?

S: What!?!

B: Oh, no! Pascal Pinon’s side project?

S: We’re fucking leaving.

B: Yeah, we’re just going outside. Fuck this.

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The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

Egill Helgason is a man of many talents, in case you were wondering.

Besides running a political talk show on Icelandic State TV, he also runs a literary programme there. And he blogs a lot for website Eyjan.is. Busy man!

28 Literature | Egill Helgason

CRIME, CRISES AND NORDIC DEPRESSION Arnaldur, Guðbergur, Laxness and the Icelandic literary scene The local literary scene is now in the throes of the Nordic crime novel. Admittedly the ancient Icelandic sagas tell tales of murder, blood and revenge, but it was long thought that it was impossible to write crime fiction set in such a small, peaceful society.

Those who tried were ridiculed. Enter Arnaldur Indriðason, ex-journalist and film critic, son of a rather well-known novelist, who started writing crime stories in the early nineties. He almost instantly became a bestselling author, and almost every Christmas he tops the bestselling lists in Iceland.

A SHEEP HEAD EATING POLICEMAN Though unique in Iceland at the time, Arnaldur was not an insular figure. He had basically been reading crime fiction all his life. There is nothing new about his formula. The strongest influence comes from Sweden, where a tradition of realistic crime fiction with a social dimension runs from the taut police novels of Mai Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö through the works of Henning Mankell. Arnaldur’s policeman protagonist Erlendur likes eating sheep’s heads, but he is still in many ways similar to Mankell’s policeman, Wallander.

Icelandic crime fiction—now a very strong genre—is definitely a part of the Nordic crime wave, which has hit the bookstores of the world in recent years.

Arnaldur is by far the biggest name, he has sold millions of copies abroad, but there are strong pretenders such as Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Árni Þórarinsson. Interesting murders almost never happen in Iceland, we mostly have drunks killing other drunks, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

The backdrop of the stories more than compensates for this—a gloomy place, with mountains all around, miserable weather, Nordic depression and disgusting eating habits.

THE LARGE PRESENCE OF LAXNESS Even if Arnaldur is the biggest name in terms of sales, the great man of Icelandic fiction remains Halldór Laxness, the country’s sole Nobel Prize winner.

Laxness was born in 1902, and he was awarded his Nobel Prize in 1955. He is a continuous presence, last year two plays based on his novels were staged in the National Theatre. He is constantly being quoted in order to prove some point or the other. Thus he is not only a writer, but part of the national

Words Egill Helgason Illustration Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir psyche—a spiritual guide and all-round wise man. “But Laxness said,” is something you’ll often hear in conversation in Iceland.

Halldór Laxness was a socialist for much of his life, and many Icelanders became socialists through reading his books and those of his contemporary Þórbergur Þórðarson, rather than by reading Marx or Lenin. This is literary socialism, which tends to be sentimental and very nationalistic. Halldór’s characters keep popping up in the strangest circumstances. Suddenly the farmer Bjartur of Summerhouse, from the novel ‘Independent People’ (‘Sjálfstætt fólk’), has become somewhat of a figurehead in the fight against joining the EU—it has been conveniently forgotten that in his battle to stay a free man on his small farm in the mountains, Bjartur managed to get most of his family killed.

NONSENSICAL INTERPRETATIONS Another oft-quoted popular hero from Halldór’s books is the rascal Jón Hreggviðsson, who, as the story goes, might have killed a man, and then might not have killed a man. He was drunk, so he really doesn’t know. The novel is called ‘Iceland’s Bell’ (‘Íslandsklukkan’) and it is written on the eve of Icelandic independence. One of the themes of the novels is that Denmark’s affluence was built on exploiting Iceland. In one of the book’s scenes, a Danish merchant shows an Icelander the towers of Copenhagen, saying that this was all founded on Icelandic wealth.

This is of course total nonsense.

There were only a handful of ships sailing to Iceland every year during that period, trading with a broken, dirt-poor nation of no more than 50 thousand people.

But in the eyes of some, this has also become a symbol of how Iceland is treated by the world, getting a knowing nod and even a small sigh during last winter’s theatre performance of ‘Iceland’s Bell’. The idea is that there are forces in the world, for example the EU and the IMF, who are conniving to swallow Iceland and its resources.

Of course Halldór Laxness is in no

way to blame for this, he died in 1998 at the ripe old age of 95—and he famously changed his mind many times on both politics and religion. Laxness was a realist who based his books on research and real persons who could be recognised again in his books, even if he mixes these elements together in a brilliant way. He is the towering figure in Icelandic literature, maybe second only to Snorri Sturluson, the author of the Edda, Egil's Saga and Heimskringla (tales of the Norwegian kings). Snorri was incidentally beheaded by his enemies in 1241, after becoming involved in complicated plots during a period of Icelandic civil war referred to as the Sturlunga Age. This famously ended in Iceland being under the rule of Norway and then Denmark for 700 years.

GUÐBERGUR, THE OUTSIDER Laxness was long thought to induce a minority complex in younger writers.

But this was not true for one of them, Guðbergur Bergsson. The day Laxness died Guðbergur famously appeared on TV, and when asked if he had been influenced by the great man answered: "No, he did not influence me, not one iota." Guðbergur, born in 1932, has always been an outsider in a way. He is admired and feared for his sharp wit, and he can be brutally honest. Sometimes he seems to be impossibly ascetic. He states that he doesn’t have any interest in fame or his career. One of his friends, the antiquarian bookseller

Bragi Kristjónsson (please visit his shop on Hverfisgata!), describes him thus: "He wakes up at eight in the morning, writes, then goes out to buy his fish, writes some more, and then boils his fish for dinner. For the rest, he doesn’t care much."

Maybe this is a part of a myth that has been spun around Guðbergur. But he is almost the exact opposite of Halldór Laxness, who liked big cars and cigars. Guðbergur is almost microscopic in his writing, patiently peeling away clichés, lies and lazy ideas. Some of his books have been considered scandalous; in some of them he has made the Icelandic nation, its newfound riches and blatant consumerism, look quite ridiculous. His most famous character is Tómas Jónsson, an eccentric old miser who gradually turns into the apartment he rents out.

At 78, Guðbergur is the greatest living writer in Iceland. Abroad he is not very well known, maybe he doesn’t always translate well (Halldór Laxness really doesn’t translate well either), but, for example, Milan Kundera has quoted him as a major European writer. He is 78, looks many years younger, has the smile of an angel, but one never really knows what to expect of him. He is very much his own man.

LOOKING BACK IN A TIME OF CRISIS Literature is of course very important in Iceland. It is linked to the heritage

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of the sagas and the survival of the nation—and the language—during centuries of hardship. The number of books published every year is staggering for such a small society. They are not all very good—that would be impossible.

The interest in literature actually grew after the collapse of the economy in 2008—this somehow signified a return to older values after the death of the idea of Iceland as a financial paradise.

Some might have thought that the economic crash—by far the most dramatic event in our recent history— would translate into literature. This has not been the case, however, not yet.

Works of fiction written about the collapse have mostly been failures, while the best books of the last years look into the past: Jón Kalmann Stefánsson writes about the hardship of fishermen on open boats in the Westfjords, Bergsveinn Birgisson writes a pastoral story about the love of a sheep farmer, Einar Kárason writes about events in the Sturlunga Age and the poet Gerður Kristný uses themes from the Edda.

Meanwhile, the Nordic crime novel rages on. We not only have many hopeful writers working in the genre, but a lot of crime fiction also gets translated to Icelandic from the other Nordic languages. There is some hope that this will end one day.

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

30 Travel | Golden Circle

The Golden Circle Is Thus Called For A Reason Getting the most out of your time on the Golden Circle

“

Everywhere I looked was something else I wanted to photograph. There were high cliffs, open plains divided by streams, rushing waterfalls.

Had I made a wrong turn and driven to Middle Earth?

Words Steve Ganey Photography Vanessa Schipani

With a couple friends coming for a very short visit to Iceland, I was faced with that classic travel dilemma: how to get the most out of a trip with limited time and limited money. There was one obvious choice. We rented a car and hit up the sights on the Golden Circle. With just one day, it was always clear that we weren’t going to get the full experience, but just hit up the touristy sights. But there’s a reason why Þingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gulfoss are so popular. They’re amazing. No matter how much time you get to spend in the Golden Circle, you can’t be disappointed.

The Golden Circle is conveniently located only a quick car ride from Reykjavík, so getting there was a snap. All we really needed were the clothes on our backs and a well-charged camera. This was a day for photos.

THE ÞINGVELLIR EXPRESS In less than an hour, we were driving through Þingvellir, awe-struck by the beauty. Call me cliché, but it really was like driving through a painting. We found an information centre, grabbed a map, and went to the site of the first Alþingi. Everywhere I looked was something else I wanted to photograph. There were high cliffs, open plains divided by streams, rushing waterfalls. Had I made a wrong turn and driven to Middle Earth?

After we pulled ourselves away from the beauty of the old Alþingi, we continued to drive around the majestic lake Þingvallavatn. I couldn’t help but turn at every detour and stop at every turnoff point to take more photos. We saw a few other tourists here and there, but for the most part it was just us and the landscape.

After four hours of taking in the sheer splen-

dour of Þingvellir, we headed to Geysir. We passed a few petrol stations along the way in search of some cheap food. After finding only some sketchylooking sandwiches kept on a semi-chilled shelf, we came upon a small diner called Bláskógar, where we got some reasonably priced burgers and a mountain of fries that we all shared.

THE CAULDRON OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE The drive from Þingvellir to Geysir took an hour, and we could smell the sulphur as we got close. It was delightfully odd going from the stoic slumber of a frozen Þingvellir to the churning, bubbling, warm life of Geysir. We walked along the clearly marked trails past pools of boiling water and random plumes of steam venting straight out of the ground. We came to Strokkur, which at first glance was simply a slightly churning pool. Within a few minutes and without any warning, a surge of water and steam burst straight up about 30 metres. I was too surprised to even think about taking a photo.

Not to worry though. Strokkur erupts every five minutes or so, so we just waited for the next one.

And sure enough, like clockwork, it shot up right on time and we all snapped some great shots.

We stood and watched Geysir, the largest geyser, for any signs of life. But unlike its hyperactive neighbour Strokkur, Geysir is unpredictable and has even stopped for years at a time. With the instant satisfaction we got from Strokkur, we decided to let the sleeping giant lie, and headed out.

If you’ve seen one geyser, you’ve seen them all.

cards, one of the most incredible waterfalls in the world, Gullfoss. Oh, how the anticipation built as we passed signs and drew nearer. How could it ever live up to the hype? Well… it did. I can probably count on one hand the number of times in my life that my jaw dropped involuntarily, and this was one of them. We walked down a short trail from the parking lot and then suddenly came to a cliff, where we all stood starry-eyed looking out on the magnificent Gullfoss. Strangely, I found myself only taking a few photos. It was like I had to take a few obligatory shots, but I knew that the photos wouldn’t really do it justice.

On the way back, I spotted a sign for Kerið. It was something I had only read a small blurb about in my guidebook, and had never seen a picture, but it was supposedly a pretty cool volcanic crater, so we stopped and checked it out. I was surprised that it wasn’t more hyped when I saw it. I was amazed at the crater’s symmetry, and the frozen blue pool at the heart of the pit was so charming.

As far as giant holes in the ground go, this one is worth a shout-out.

So in eight hours, I managed to wring every bit of water out of what seemed to be a pretty dry towel. We had so little time, and yet managed to have a memorable and satisfying trip. Of course one day isn’t ideal, but if that’s all you got, take it and make it your own. The Golden Circle has so much to offer, even the tip of the iceberg is enough.

OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION Our next stop was the main event: the crown jewel of the Golden Circle, the subject of countless post-

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The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

The tour described is called ‘Express Activity Tour With Snowmobiling’ and was graciously provided by Mountaineers of Iceland, www.mountaineers.is. The tour takes 7-8 hours (depending on season) and costs 24.500 ISK. Book online or phone +354 580 9900

31 Travel | Snowmobiling

Bad Weather, Fun Times

Words Morgan Levy Photography Morgan Levy

INSANELY CHEERFUL AUSTRALIANS! It was clear from the get-go that the Australians were going to drive me insane. By 8am their cheeriness had grown wings and burst through the roof of the van. I was still in a pre-caffeine state and thus easily agitated. When they began singing in chorus before our first destination, I nearly told Siggi to pull over so I could hitchhike back to Reykjavík. The musical medley lasted the daylong and spanned the gamut from ‘The Wheels On The Bus’ to ‘My Girl’. Out of sheer boredom at some point I started mentally rating their choice in song.

The sun was still noticeably absent when the

s destinations.

Australians started clucking about fumes in the back seat. They were ignored initially, but soon the smell was undeniable. I turned around intending to give them the stink eye, but smoke was indeed seeping in. Nordic gods had heard my prayers! The van was breaking down. We were going back to Reykjavík. Unfazed, Siggi got out, fixed the minor problem, and we were on our way.

Awkwardly sliding down the icy path in Þingvellir wasn’t on my agenda for the day. Rather I elected to sit and chat with Siggi learning that he too, is a photographer and has guided tours for four years.

After fielding my inquiries he herded everyone into the van and drove to Geysir. The novelty of sulphurscented erupting water had worn off for me. So I watched as the others recorded videos of water exploding out of the ground.

surprise. However, my confidence grew and admittedly I started to enjoy myself. I was admiring the dismal surroundings when my snowmobile abruptly soared out of line. I reverted to a childhood memory of bicycle brakes and gripped the handlebars tighter. I went only further and faster off course. Men shouted in Icelandic. Prompted by their cries and a realisation that I wasn’t slowing down I threw my hands up and hoped for the best. Shortly thereafter a young man, who I imagined was quite handsome behind his snow goggles, rescued me.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Two people tipped over and I felt fortunate that I did not. The ride on the glacier, the centrepiece and highlight of the day, was cancelled due to bad weather and lack of snow. If that wasn’t enough of a buzzkill, hail started falling again, this time sharply stinging my cheeks. Icy water pooled in the seat of my snowmobile. My ass and other nether regions (not to mention my hands and feet) had never experienced a chill so frigid. Trailing the lights of the snowmobile in front of me I had only one thought: “This is the most masochistic thing I’ve ever done.” Upon returning to civilisation (the tourist centre at Gullfoss) I high-tailed it to the women’s bathroom to shamelessly defrost my derriere under the hot air of the hand dryer.

Daylight was fading so we drove back to town.

Upon arriving the Australians thanked Siggi profoundly for what they said was: “the most incredible day ever.” Siggi nodded and climbed back into the van. We were just two. He turned around and in a moment of mutual understanding we laughed. He apologised for the bad weather and then he drove me home.

SNOWMOBILE TIME Around noon it was snowmobiling time. The prospect of seeing the sun had gone from slim to none and the road slowly morphed to trenches of snow.

Despite Siggi’s proficient driving skills, the Scandinavian mother braced herself by nervously gripping the window ledge. I closed my eyes and drifted in and out of sleep while Siggi noted the unseasonably warm weather.

We pulled up to metal shed-like structures.

Walls of fog replaced the expansive and breathtaking views I’d anticipated. Rain, hail and snow fell. We were ushered into the sheds and outfitted in snowsuits, helmets and two layers of gloves. It would have been smart to pay closer attention during the snowmobile demonstration, but instead I photographed. My uneasiness on the one thousand pound piece of machinery should have come as no

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“

The sun was still noticeably absent when the Australians started clucking about fumes in the back seat. They were ignored initially, but soon the smell was undeniable. I turned around intending to give them the stink eye, but smoke was indeed seeping in.

By and large I’m adverse to tourist activities. And as someone from a more southern part of the northern hemisphere, I find waking up to complete darkness tough. I thought about this on a dark, dreary winter morning, as I drove down to BSÍ to partake in a snowmobiling tour that I had for some strange reason volunteered to partake in.

Yet as the taillights of my ride faded the hilarity of my situation became more apparent. Holding fast to my sense of humour, I declared in an inner monologue that this was destined to be a great day.

I shook hands with Siggi, my guide for the day, and off we went.

Making obvious and benign jokes is a vital part of being a good tour-guide. Siggi’s dryness only made his sub-par jokes more laughable in my head. However, the Australian twenty-somethings bouncing around the back of the van seemed unable to discern when the joke was over. The couple from Barcelona and the Scandinavian motherdaughter pair didn’t have enough English to keep up.

... plus: annoying Australians!

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

Missed RFF 2011? No worries! Head on over to www.liveproject.is/ rff to experience it all [via photos and video clips]!

32 Fashion | "The Iceland Airwaves of..."

Jukebox Babe

What stood out at Reykjavík Fashion Festival 2011

Enjoy

dining out

A beautiful book that covers the ambiance, food and location of 32 restaurants in Reykjavík Seafood, steakhouses, vegetarian, innovative cuisine and more . . .

www.salka.is

My first impressions of the second Reykjavík Fashion Festival were of a well-run and well-organised event.

Gone were last year’s queuing and outdoor toilet fiascos. Instead, guests piled in an organised fashion into the very spacious and very fitting setting of the Reykjavík Art Museum. With ample room for a bar and a perfect catwalk podium, this year's RFF seemed professional at any standard.

However, rumours certainly flew high during the festival. Mostly they regarded purported discontent within the ranks of young local designers. For instance, there was the fact that business mogul Jón Ólafsson—of Iceland Water fame—had purchased the event, and in the process forcing designers to exclusively use models from his own agency, Elite. Secondly there was the fact that all partaking designers had to pay a substantial participation fee (substantial at least with regard to the limited budgets of young and struggling designers), thus possibly alienating certain designers. Despite this undercurrent of criticism (just or unjust as it may be), this second festival certainly placed Reykjavík permanently on the international fashion map proving that there is a blossoming scene in Reykjavík for bright new talent.

A disappointing first night The first night of the festival, Friday April 1, I took my ten year old daughter along for an honest second opinion.

The opening day’s shows included designers such as newcomer Vera, who featured unconvincing tulle capes, E-label, with their classic collection of black leggings and dresses and streetwear/snowboarding label Nikita.

Designer Eygló was pleasing as ever, with her fabulously cut feminine silk sheaths, and Royal Extreme’s designer Una Kristjánsdóttir followed up last year‘s collection beautifully wowing the

audience with a rich and luscious colour palette and beautiful attention to detail.

Sonja Bent produced a pastel-hued knitwear collection that reminded me of Marc Jacobs-style concoctions from a few years back, with the overall feeling being a little too sugary. Sruli Recht presented some interesting coats in his collection, but Forynja failed to impress me with too close of a kinship to Nü-Rave and too much bizarre detailing. My little assistant whispered half way through the Friday shows that she wasn’t overly impressed with the clothes and that the shoes were ugly.

I had to agree on some level, thinking that more attention to detail and better styling would have lent the shows a more professional air.

From Goth to Disco Saturday’s creations were infused with a heavier dose of the WOW factor than Friday night’s offerings, with a refreshing rock and roll injection. Rey were pretty in black, Andersen and Lauth conjured up a very British feel with beautiful silk and chiffon fabrics, embroidery, Wellington boots and cashmere cardies accompanied by a Joy Division-esque soundtrack.

Impeccable and classy Kalda made me smile with their overthe-top goth show. Models wore long black sheaths with bondage elements, black Chelsea boots with black knee high socks and heavy graphic eye makeup, walking like zombies to an eerie soundtrack consisting of monks chanting over a death metal guitar riff.

A beautifully austere, simple, and very wearable collection.

Newcomer Ýr gave us a heady mix of heavy metal versus disco inspired outfits, fabulous eighties style cropped silk jackets with dominant shoulder pads, skinny velvet trousers, sexy cat-

suits and dresses that brought a kind of Studio 54 feel to the catwalk.

Glitter trainers and snow machines My all-time favourite show of the night was the flirtatious and immensely fun collection by designer Hildur Yeoman.

Last year she staged a successful show that focused on accessories, but this year’s collection was far more clothingorientated. Fabulously sassy models sashayed down the runway to ’The Runaways’ ‘Cherry Bomb’ and Alan Vega's ‘Jukebox Babe’ wearing skin-tight bicycle shorts, chiffon bikinis, fabulous embroidered capes that spread like the wings of some glam-rock butterfly and glitter sprayed high heeled trainers. Big hair and punky make-up completed a look that was part Joan Jett and part Juliette Lewis. Hildur Yeoman certainly managed to inject the fun back into fashion.

The final show on Saturday was that of Iceland's young wunderkind Mundi, a kind of Vibskov-esqe design-school character that has made knitted patterned jumpsuits popular for Reykjavík’s male hipster contingent. I am not a fan, but his show was pretty damn cool in every sense of the word. A snow machine dusted models wearing heavy ski boots and round pink goggles with huge fake snowflakes. A quirky take on snowboard/skiwear with lots of tech-y knits combined with white ‘Piz Buin’ lips. Sportswear meets Mad Max, or a Jeunet flick.

In retrospect, RFF 2011 was a wellorganised festival that confirmed Iceland on the international fashion scene and will probably score lots of writeups from the hoards of excited journalists attending.

Anna Margrét björnsson Alísa Kalyanova

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Hallgrimskirkja

Hallgrimskirkja's Friends of the Arts Society 29th season

Saturday April 9, 12 noon Organ music at noon.

Björn Steinar Sólbergsson organist at Hallgrimskirkja plays music for lent by Bach and Vierne. Admission free.

Thursday April 21, 5 pm Maundy Thursday 100 children from various choirs in Reykjavik and surroundings perform new songs from all around the world, accompanied by a jazzband.

Conductor Tómas Guðni Eggertsson.

Admission free.

Thursday April 21, 11 pm Concert-soprano/organ/percussion Hymns by Hallgrimur Pétursson with music by Icelandic composers performed by Kirstín Erna Blöndal soprano, Gunnar Gunnarsson organ and Matthías Hemstock percussion. Admission 2000 ISK Good Friday April 22, 1-7 pm Hallgrímur Péturssons’s Passion Hymns Complete readings of the 17th century poetic texts by Icelandic priest and poet, Hallgrímur Pétursson. Music performed between the readings. Co-ordination: Baldur Sigurðsson. Admission free.

Good Friday April 22, 8 pm Passion Concert SCHOLA CANTORUM sings Gesualdo The prizewinning chamber choir of Hallgrims-kirkja performs Tenebrae Responsoria by the italian renaissance master C. Gesualdo.

Conductor Hörður Áskelsson, Music Director at Hallgrimskirkja.

Admission 2500 ISK

DaChin Chinese Restaurant Traditional Chinese Hot Pot: All You Can Eat - 3800 isk Traditional Chinese family food: Handmade dumplings and noodles, spring rolls Open Mondays through Saturdays 11.30 - 23.00 18.30 to 23.00 on sundays Call for reservations: 511-1866 / 863-8683 We also accept groups of all sizes

DaChin Chinese Restaurant - Vesturgata 6-8 www.hallgrimskirkja.is www.listvinafelag.is

The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2011

FREE BRADLEY! FREE EARL! !

34 Opinion | Valur Gunnarsson

Are Icelanders True Romantics? Really?

Walking through Reykjavík late on a Saturday night and observing the natives attempt to go through the preliminary stages of copulation, one could be forgiven for assuming that Icelanders might not be the most romantic of people. But in another sense, precisely this behaviour is in fact an indication of the very romantic nature of the people living here.

If you look through the foreign press in the past few years, any mention of Iceland is likely to have something to do with economic collapse, volcanoes or whale hunting. Give or take the economic collapse, this is how people have always viewed Iceland. The country was, in a sense, first discovered by the outside world sometime in the 19th Century. It went from being a fishing station or even the gates of hell to being a magical land

full of wild natural beauty and ancient culture, a view helped by the Sagas, the scenery and an exotic sounding name.

The romantics in Scandinavia, Germany and, to a lesser extent Britain and France, started idealising it. This is how the outside world has always preferred to see Iceland.

keted abroad with a picture of a romantic looking farmstead on the cover. And many Icelandic films made in the past two decades have juxtaposed the wild and strange countryside with the no less wild Reykjavík nightlife. These often include a major foreign character and seem to be aimed mostly at foreign markets.

“There’s definitely no logic...”

Icelanders, especially of late, have largely been more than happy to play the part.

This has brought dividends. Björk rose to international prominence in 1993 with the single and video to ‘Human Behaviour’, where she was portrayed as a pixie, a true nature child. The chorus of “There’s definitely no logic to human behaviour,” might even sound like a renunciation of the sciences, although it’s probably closer to romantic Weltschmertz.

Icelandic novels, even when about crime in the capital city, are often mar-

Vikings and accountants The dream to make Iceland the banking centre of the world, a sensible Switzerland or Luxemburg of the north, seemed to be a step away from all of this, the triumph, if you will, of hardnosed rationalism over romanticism. The results were exactly the opposite. The bankers behaved a lot more like the Vikings of old than as dull mainland accountants. Their boats may have sunk with the loot, but this all added to the image of Icelanders as wild men governed by their emotions and basic desires, rather than a

fully civilized European nation. We may no longer be noble savages, but we remain savages nonetheless. Whale hunting is another case in point. It makes no economic sense whatsoever; there is a lot more money to be made from whale watching. Nevertheless, it appeals to a romantic vision of Icelanders as a strong, independent people who do what they like, no matter what polite society or fiscal common sense might say. When you add the Eyjafjallajökull eruption and its consequences, you again get the sense of Icelanders as a strange people living in an even stranger land.

But is the image true?

Largely, yes. People here are excited by mystery. As soon as you try to explain things with a coherent system, be it science or even organised religion, they lose interest. Anyone offering rational explanations tends to be written off as hope-

lessly dull. We pay lip service to reason, but we don’t really like or even completely understand it.

This comes to light in Iceland’s political discourse. We have little time for boring bureaucrats, but prefer larger than life personalities such as Davíð Oddsson.

These may claim to be acting in the interests of reason, but really they offer us romantic schemes of transforming the country completely in a couple of years, wild dreams that appeal more to nationalism than common sense.

Iceland was largely invented by the romantics, both local and foreign, in the 19th Century. Their vision is the one we have stuck to ever since. Perhaps it is time for a little Enlightenment? Icelanders might not be the most romantic of lovers, but they are true romantics when it comes to the economy. Maybe we should try it the other way round.

Media | Hildur Lilliendahl

CAR CLAIMS TO HAVE CAUGHT FIRE [If you read Icelandic] You really should compare Icelandic and foreign reportage of Libyan Iman al-Obeidi, the woman who walked into a hotel in Tripoli Saturday March 26 and told a number of foreign reporters, gathered for breakfast, how she had been molested, violated and raped repeatedly by Gadhafi's troops. The comparison is an interesting reflection on the use of language, and the state of mind of those who publicly use it.

Hadeel al-Shalchi, a reporter from AP, witnessed the woman's outburst and—according to his version of the story, published on AP's website—the woman was “distraught” as she “stormed into” the hotel to “tell foreign reporters that government troops raped her”.

However, according to Vísir.is and Stöð 2 news (who seem to base their story exclusively on AP's report—in any case they quote it and link to it), the woman “burst into the hotel” in “a strange condition” [Icelandic: í annarlegu ástandi, implying influence of drugs and/or alcohol] and “claimed” she had been raped.

She wasn't telling people about being raped; she was accusing someone of committing a crime.

Hadeel al-Shalchi writes: “They defecated and urinated on me and tied me up,” she said, her face streaming with tears. “They violated my honour, look at what the Gadhafi militiamen did to me.”

“The woman, who appeared in her 30s, wore a black robe and orange scarf

around her neck and identified herself.

She had scratches on her face and she pulled up her black robe to reveal a bloodied thigh.”

This must have seemed too sympathetic to Icelandic reporters, who say that she “tore off her clothes” and demanded that pictures be taken of her body. Is it just me or does this sound more like a description of some attention-starved, panty-flashing Paris Hilton type starlet, willing to do just about anything for media exposure? There is absolutely no mention of the woman’s apparent sorrow or any talk of the violence she described so vividly to the press and was described in Vísir’s source story.

It goes on. AP explains in the very beginning of the story how al-Obeidi was immediately tackled by hotel staff and government minders. How some random Libyans at the scene, strangers to Iman, obviously wanted to silence her.

Vísir fails to mention this but does remark towards the end of their story that the woman was soon “taken away” by security and therefore the press didn't get a chance to interview her further. In AP's version the story goes: "Before she was dragged out of the hotel, al-Obeidi managed to tell journalists that she was detained by a number of troops..." Can anyone honestly say that these two accounts of the same story are told with the same passion or empathy?

Note the different interpretation here. Vísir says: A spokesman for Libyan authorities said the woman was mentally ill and drunk.

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Furthermore that the government intended to look into her background.

Whereas AP says: At a hastily arranged press conference after the incident, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said investigators had told him the woman was drunk and possibly mentally challenged. "We have to find her family and see if she was really abused or not," he said.

Language is a powerful tool. The responsibility of the press becomes very clear in cases of sexual and gendered violence. There does not seem to be a shred of sympathy in Vísir's story and furthermore, they seem to want to undermine Iman al-Obeidi's credibility for some absurd reason.

Ok, hell. I'll just come out and say it: Doesn't it reflect their true views on the importance of sex crimes in general?

Isn't a story like this written by a man who relates to other unidentified men who might be accused of rape, but can't relate to an identified woman who might have been raped?

If you open a news report by saying that the subject of the report was in a strange condition, implying she is under some sort of influence, the rest is history.

You must know that those who read your report will never find that subject sympathetic or believable.

These differences may seem subtle, but they are very important. It's the little things that provide the very foundation for our sexist culture. A culture that endures violence against women. There is a clear difference in telling someone you

have been raped and claiming you have been raped. Assuming that reported rapes didn't really happen seems to be a policy among men in the Icelandic media. There is a consensus there: Until it's been proven, we'll assume the woman is lying.

I would sympathise and even agree with the policy if the same were true for robberies or assaults or any other crime for that matter. This is not the case.

When a crime is committed, the story is: A crime has been committed. But in cases of rape the story goes: A woman claims a crime has been committed.

And don't tell me it's about protect-

Medieval Manuscripts – eddas and sagas the ancient vellums on display

the culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið National Centre for Cultural Heritage Hverfisgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre) Tel: 545 1400 · www.thjodmenning.is

ing the possibly innocent man accused of rape—he is hardly ever identified and usually not even mentioned. The story only goes: A woman reported a rape.

And just as they seem to say with such ease: A house was burgled/ a man was beaten/ a car caught fire, they should be able to say: A woman was raped. And if that's too much to ask, how about asking them to change other reports to match those of rapes by saying: A car claims to have caught fire (and we feel compelled to add that the car was seen in the vicinity of a bottle of vodka and a short skirt)?

cHild OF HOpe – Youth and Jón sigurðsson

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Your essential guide to life, travel and entertainment in Iceland

STUFFED WITH STUFF

PAGE 12

An Icelandic opinion is thus a rarity like Bigfoot or The Abominable Snowman— so rare in fact that most people who’ve come into contact with it aren’t entirely sure if they did at all, and think that perhaps what they saw was just a really big cow or a really small Danish person.

Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl gives a rundown of Icelandic crisis literature and Icelandisms in his excellent feature piece

PAGE 28

“But Laxness said,” is something you’ll often hear in conversation in Iceland.

Icelanders relationship with their literature further expored

RMM SUPPLEMENT

Sure, if the planet doesn’t melt like in that movie.

Kimi Records’ Baldvin Esra estimates the odds that there will be a 2012 edition of Reykjavík Music Mess

Page 10

When someone asks for citizenship, I think the first thing [the government] should ask is, “Who needs it most? Who is really a needy person?” We have been honest in everything, from the start. And I think, honesty wins in the end, because honesty is the best policy.

If only asylum-seeker Priyanka Thapa were running our government

PAGE 06

Starting May 1, in what would seem like a completely ordinary chore to anybody in the United States, Reykjavík dwellers will face the laborious task of rolling their outdoor bin to at least fifteen metres of the curb for pick up.

It’s time to take out the trash!

RMM SUPPLEMENT

She said they don't know who Deerhunter is in Iceland. Well, we don't know where Iceland is either.

Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox is SASSY! And confusing

ISSUE 4

YOUR FREE COPY

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Samaris Nive

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Fang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kimonoDens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Reykjavík . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Quadrupl !+Lazyblo . . fm

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01:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Quadruplos 02:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .fm belfast dj sett 03:15

20:15 Prinspóló 20:30 21:00 Samaris 21:15 21:45 Nive Nielsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . miri dj sett 22:00 22:30 Sóley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nolo 22:45 23:15 Stafrænn Hákon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fossils 23:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swords of Chaos 00:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Einar Örn + SWC 01:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Æla 01:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . miri dj sett 02:30

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. . . . . . . .

Tomutonttu . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

Quadruplos

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dj sett . . . . . . . . . Miri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Borko . .

Oxtra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sin Fang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kimonoDens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reykjavík!+Lazybloo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Quadruplos . . . . d . . . .

Nordic House

Fossils

fm belfast

Friday

Nordic House

Sódóma

Saturday

Nasa

20:15 AMFJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Quadruplos dj sett 20:30 Hellvar 21:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Miri 21:15 Tomutonttu 21:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Borko 22:00 22:30 Fossils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sin Fang 22:45 Orphic Oxtra 23:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lower Dens 23:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .kimono 00:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Reykjavík!+Lazyblood 01:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

01:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Quadruplos 02:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .fm belfast dj sett 03:15

20:15 Prinspóló 20:30 21:00 Samaris 21:15 21:45 Nive Nielsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . miri dj sett 22:00 22:30 Sóley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nolo 22:45 23:15 Stafrænn Hákon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fossils 23:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swords of Chaos 00:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Einar Örn + SWC 01:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Æla 01:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . miri dj sett 02:30

Orphic

dj sett

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

Agent

. . . .

Lára

. . . .

The Nordic House

Nasa

Saturday April 16th

AMFJ

Sin Fang

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Borko

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Miri

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

FM Belfast dj set

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hellvar

Tomutonttu FOSSILS

Orphic Oxtra

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lower Dens kimono Reykjavík!+Lazyblood Quadruplos

Satu rday Nasa

House

20:15 Saturday Nasa AMFJ 20:30 . . . .

21:00 . . . .

Hellvar . . . . . . . . . .

21:15 . . . . . . . . . . . .

21:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Tomutonttu 22:00 Quadruplos . .

22:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . dj sett .Miri Fossils . . . . . . . . . .

22:45 . . . . . . . . . . . .

23:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Orphic . . . . . . . . . .

23:30 Borko Oxtra . . . . . . . . . . . . .

00:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sin 01:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fang . . . . . . . . . . . .

01:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

02:30 . . . .

Lower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

03:15 . . . . kimonoDens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reykjavík!+Lazybloo . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . .

on

. . . .

20:15 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:45 22:00 22:30 22:45

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nord ic Ho use

House

20:15 Prinspóló 20:30 Friday Sódóma 21:00 Samaris 21:15 21:45 Nive 22:00 Nielsen . . . .

22:30 . . . .

Sóley . . . . . . . . . . .

22:45 . . . . . . . . . . . .

23:15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stafrænn 23:30 miri . . . . . dj sett . . . .

00:15 Hákon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nolo 01:00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

01:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fossils 02:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Einar of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Örn Chaos . . . . . Æla . . . . + SWC . . . . . miri dj sett

od sett

. . . . . . . . .

Hellva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Qu . . .

Tom adrup utontt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . los dj u . . . . . . . . . sett . . .

Fossi . . . . . . . . . .

Miri . . . . ls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bo Orph . . . . . . . . . . rko . . . . ic Ox . . . . . . . tra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sin Fa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lowe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r . . . . . . . . . . . . kimon Dens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Reyk o . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . javík! . . . . . . . . +Laz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ybloo . . . .

Quad . . . . d . . . . rup

fm be

. . . .

Fossils . tu

er

Reykjavík music Music Mess shows festival in held at NASA downtownis an independent for Reykjavík, April . the first and the Nordic Bands time Greenland on house . with from Iceland,16th and It the Mess . will perform 17th is USA, on this Finland of Reykjavík and first edition RECORDS .

Music of Mess is organized Kimi Records

by KIMI record is co-runs label . It an Icelandic releases the records independent all Here store kinds of you have / gallery music move Havarí . and the and the spread festivals then from full fold it again . the paper .schedule .

ReEnjoy!

Fold it once

miri dj sett Nolo

Deerhunter

Fossils Swords Einar of Æla Örn Chaos miri + SWC dj sett

. . .

Nordic

. . . .

. . . .

Prinspóló

20:15 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:45 22:00 22:30 22:45 23:15 23:30 00:15 01:00 01:45 02:30

Sódó ma

miri dj Nolo

Fossi ls Sword Einar s of Chao Æla Örn + SW s C miri dj se tt

Nordic

. . . .

House

20:15 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:45 22:00 22:30 22:45 23:15 23:30 00:15 01:00 01:45 02:30

. . . .

Nasa

Nordic

. . . .

Nasa

Nive

Sódóma

Friday April 15th

Prinspóló Samaris Nive Nielsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Miri dj se t Sóley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nolo Stafrænn Hákon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . FOSSILS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swords of Chaos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Einar Örn + SWC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Æla Miri dj sett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nord ic Ho use Frida y

Prins póló Sama ris Nive Nie

. . . . lsen . . . . .

Sóley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stafræ . . . . . . . . . . . nn Há . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ko . . n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fold again! . . . .

20:15 Hljómsveitin 20:30 Sunday . . . .

21:00 . . . . Ég .

Mugison . . . . . . . . . .

21:15 . . . . . . . . . . . .

21:45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lára 22:00 Kippi Rúnars . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kaninus 22:30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Agent . . . . . . . . . .

22:45 Sudden Fresco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Skakkamanage Change . .

Kippi . . . . . . . .

Kanin . . . . Rúnars . . . . . . . . . . . . us . . . . .

Agen . . . . . . . . . . .

Sudd . . . . en We t Fre . . . . . . . . sco . . . . . . . . ather . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chan Skak . . . . ge . . . . kama . . . . . . . . nage . . . . .

Deerh unter Lára

Mugis

Hljóm sveitin . . .

Nord ic Ho use Reykjavík Music Mess is an independent music festival in downtown Reykjavík, with shows at NASA and the Nordic house . It is held for the first time on 16th and 17th of April . Bands from Iceland, USA, Finland and Greenland will perform on this first edition of

Sunday

Sóley

Deerhunter

20:15 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:45 22:00 22:30 22:45

Fold!

Here you have the festivals full schedule . Remove the spread from the paper . Fold it once and then fold it again . Enjoy!

the Mess .

20:15 Hljómsveitin Ég . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kippi Kaninus 20:30 Reykjavík Music Mess is organized by KIMI 21:00 Mugison RECORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sudden Weather Change 21:15 21:45 Lára Rúnars Kimi Records is an Icelandic independent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Skakkamanage 22:00 record label . It releases all kinds of music and co-runs the records store / gallery Havarí .

22:30 Agent Fresco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deerhunter 22:45

Nordic House

. . . . . . . .

Stafrænn . . . . . . . . .

Hákon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Here you have the festival schedule in very handy format. Remove the spread from the paper. Fold it once and fold it again. But not for the third time (that would not make sense). Enjoy the schedule and the music!

Skakkamanage Sudden Weather Change Kippi Kaninus

Nasa

Nordic

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Agent Fresco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lára Rúnars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mugison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hljómsveitin Ég

Sunday April 17th

The Nordic House

20:15 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:45 22:00 22:30 22:45 23:15 23:30 00:15 01:00 01:45 02:30

20:15 20:30 21:00 21:15 21:45 22:00 22:30 22:45

Reykjavik Music Mess is an independent music festival in downtown Reykjavik, with shows at Nasa, The Nordic House and Sódóma Reykjavík. It is held for the first time from the 15th to 17th of April. We have invited international acts such as Deerhunter (US), Lower Dens (US), Nive Nielsen & Deer Children (GL), FOSSILS (DK) and Tomutonttu (FI) and local heroes such as Mugison, Sin Fang, Reykjavík!, Agent Fresco and Skakkamanage.

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

Fresco . . . .

. . . .

Rúnars

. . . .

. . . .

. . . .

. . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . Ég Mugison . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . .

. . . .

.

. . . .

.

. . . .

. . . .

.

. . . .

Deerhunter Sudden Weather Skakkamanage Change Kippi

Kaninus

Mess in downtown is an independent held at NASA for and the Reykjavík, April . the first time Nordic Bands Greenland on 16th house .with from It is Iceland, and the Mess . will perform USA, 17th on this Finland of and first Reykjavík edition Music RECORDS . of Mess is organized Kimi

by KIMI Records record is an Icelandic co-runslabel . It releases independent the records all store kinds of music Here / gallery you have move Havarí . and the the and then spread festivals fold it from the full schedule . paper . again .

ReEnjoy!

Fold it once

Reykjavík music Music shows festival

. .

Hljómsveitin

Nordic

Sunday

Nasa

House

Here you have the festivals full schedule . Remove the spread from the paper . Fold it once and then fold it again . Enjoy!

the Mess .

20:15 Hljómsveitin Ég . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kippi Kaninus 20:30 Reykjavík Music Mess is organized by KIMI 21:00 Mugison RECORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sudden Weather Change 21:15 21:45 Lára Rúnars Kimi Records is an Icelandic independent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Skakkamanage 22:00 record label . It releases all kinds of music and co-runs the records store / gallery Havarí .

22:30 Agent Fresco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deerhunter 22:45

Reykjavík Music Mess is an independent music festival in downtown Reykjavík, with shows at NASA and the Nordic house . It is held for the first time on 16th and 17th of April . Bands from Iceland, USA, Finland and Greenland will perform on this first edition of

Sunday

Nordic House

Nasa

READ THIS! FANCY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: To celebrate the Reykjavík Music Mess, your friends at the Grapevine are throwing a special edition of 'GRAPEVINE GOT LEGS'. Yes, show up at 12 Tónar on Skólavörðustígur on RMM Saturday (April 16) at 2PM and join GV legend BOB CLUNESS along with Reykjavík!/Prinspóló drummer-slash-human music encyclopaedia Kriss Rokk for a music themed guided walking tour of 101 Reykjavík! Drinks! Music! Fun! Frenzy! Bob Cluness!

Dare We Be Excited

About Reykjavík Music Mess?

Sure, if the planet doesn't melt

OK so there’s this ‘new’ music festival making the rounds in Reykjavík (you might have noticed—you are reading a special Grapevine supplement about it). We think it’s exciting (this is why we are co-promoting the thing).

The month of April needs more music related stuff in it (sometimes, Aldrei fór ég suður happens in March) and the festival seems of the composition and spirit that other glorious local parties have been known for (the aforementioned AFÉS, early Innipúkinn and Iceland Airwaves, for instance) and has maybe been lacking lately. Reading over the schedule, one can’t help but be impressed and, yes, excited!

However, we have been excited and subsequently brutally let down by promising ‘annual festivals’ in the past (Reykjavík Music Festival, Reykjavík Round Up, anyone?), so we have grown wary and hesitant to let our

guard down to embrace new festivals. How can we trust they are not merely fly-by-night shindigs, as opposed to ongoing creative orgies that last for years upon years, building tradition and legacy? Getting all panicky, we called up one of RMM’s architects, Kimi Records founder and proprietor Baldvin Esra Einarsson, to interrogate him on his intentions.

Reykjavík Music Mess is really built around the Deerhunter concert,” says Baldvin. “We managed to book them, after a long bout of trying, and subsequently thought: Why not make more of this? Let’s book some more bands and create an event!”

What, Airwaves isn’t enough for you?

No [laughs]. The problem for ‘alternative music’—for lack of better term—in Iceland is that it just isn’t enough to have one weekend a year where new and exciting stuff is one display. That isn’t enough to broaden local listeners’ horizons and keep them informed about what’s happening in the music world. Local audiences and artists need more, and we are striving to provide that.

So you’re not in the lucrative ‘indie festival’ business for the money, eh? You’re not getting paid?

Ehrm. Not a lot, anyway. We want to make a good festival, that’s our number one priority. No sane person enters the indie music business in Iceland to make a profit, that’s for sure. Maybe if the thing sells out we’ll get a little extra pocket money, but we’re not counting on it. Our aim is creating a good festival, first and foremost. Exposing people to good and interesting music. That’s always been the aim.

Are you selling a lot of records under the Kimi and Brak imprints? Enough to get by? I love almost all of them, but they’re not exactly crushing Bubbi in the local charts or on the radio...

I suppose we sell on average around a thousand copies of each release on Kimi. Brak releases usually sell out, but the releases are limited to 200 copies. This is enough to make ends meet, usually.”

Are Icelanders buying this music? Do Icelanders like ‘indie music’?

I have no idea. What I quoted you are our average local sales numbers, what’s sold within Iceland. We also sell a lot of albums abroad, as we distribute internationally.

But I do know that in Havarí, for instance, one of our biggest groups of buyers were tourists and foreign visitors.

A surprising number of tourists to Iceland come here because of the music. You could even say they were our main clientele.

So back to RMM. Why? Well. Several reasons. Mainly to create a nice festival, as I’ve said. But also because us at Kimi Records are interested in adding concert promotion to what we do. Our company goal is to bring music to the people on every level. And also bring music to us, get to know people that are making it and working in the field the world over. This is a nice way to do that.

Any more concerts scheduled?

Yes, we’ve booked the legendary Low to play here this June! And there’s more to come. It’s all happening.

Will there be a Reykjavík Music Mess 2012?

Sure, if the planet doesn’t melt like in that movie. It seems like a good concept and a worthy thing to keep going.

This time of year, around spring, seems lacking in activities. People are already excited for spring, but there’s not a lot folks can do to let off steam. So here we are.

Finally, are there any news of Havarí? When will you reopen?

We are currently looking like crazy for a new location.

We will open as soon as possible, I promise. Renting real estate in 101 is no picnic right now. It seems to be capital holders’ sincere will to completely kill downtown Reykjavík.

- Haukur S. Magnússon - Photo by Billi

For A Love Of Moisturiser And David Bowie A conversation with who may or may not be Deerhunter's Bradford Cox

If you don't know much about Deerhunter's music, you probably should. However, this interview might not provide much in the way of information. Bradford Cox of Deerhunter doesn't like dissecting his music. He is far more interested in moisturiser, reversing the roles of interviewer and interviewee, and speaking in a rainbow of different voices, all of which may or may not be him. But a little philosophy of music did get in there. A little surrealism too. If you do want to get to know Deerhunter's music, you should just go see them live at RMM, which they are headlining.

This is going to be their first visit to Iceland and they said if we play nice, they will too.

Someone answers the phone, high-pitched voice, like a little girl: “Hi. Hi. Hi. [giggle].”

Who is this?

Braaaaaaaad Cox. Then can I ask you a few questions, Brad?

Okay [still little girl-like].

So Icelanders may not be familiar with Deerhunter.

They aren't? [Talking to someone in the background]: she said they don't know who Deerhunter is in Iceland. Well, we don't know where Iceland is either.

You don't know where it is on the globe?

Yeah, we've never heard of them either [still high-pitched].

Tell us how you got into music and why you find making music important.

[Voice gets lower] well, I can't really imagine not playing music. It's just a natural, instinctual desire for me.

ON PERFORMING Our readers might want to know about your performances. From watching some of your live shows...

Well I don't really like describing our performances, just because it's like if I asked you to describe how you write, it's sort of like, you know, you just do it. It's everybody else's job to review it, or discuss it, or analyse it. It's just my job to do what I do.

I heard that you’ve come onstage wearing a dress or covered in fake blood.

That was years and years and years ago. And it was just for a laugh. It was sort just like absurdist theatre. I was really into surrealism and absurdism. And bewilderment.

What do you want people to get out of a live show?

I want them to have a really good time and enjoy the music.

My goals aren't that different than any musician's, really.

Have you ever done the crowd surfing thing?

Oh yeah, I jump into the crowd a lot. But I don't think: "Tonight I'm going to jump into the crowd." I just do whatever happens, you know. If people don't know who we are and they treat us like: "Who the fuck are these guys?" we'll probably treat them like: "Who the fuck are you?" We'll have as much fun playing for people as they have watching us. We can't force people to have a good time.

ON COMING TO ICELAND This is your first visit to the country. What do you think you're going to do while here?

I guess whatever it is that tourists do. I wanted to see that church and I wanted to go to that milky, blue bath.

Do you expect the Icelandic audience is going to be any different than audiences in other places you've played?

Well, I don't know, I'd have to see them. From the ones that I've met, Icelandic people seem really nice and courteous and thoughtful. I can only imagine that it would a very nice place to play, a place that has respect for the arts and culture.

Do you listen to Icelandic music at all?

I've been a huge Björk fan since I was a kid, obviously. But that's kind of like saying to an American that you're a fan of Bruce Springsteen.

Yeah, kind of.

I mean, I like múm too. I've listened to quite a few mixes they've made that included traditional Icelandic music and some stranger music from Iceland. I quite liked that.

ON COMPOSING In some of your interviews, you've mentioned a stream-of-consciousness composing style...

Well, it's interesting that you should bring that up, because today I went to the original Cabaret Voltaire here in Zurich, which is the birthplace of Dadaism, the precursor to surrealism. It's a literary and arts movement. When I was growing up I was very attracted to these movements. They related a lot to stream-of-consciousness writing and exploring the unknown regions of the brain.

With stream-of-consciousness composing, how do you pick out what's good from what's bad? Do you edit at all?

I use everything I write, mostly. So no, I don't really edit very much.

ON GETTING OLDER In a Pitchfork interview from 2007 you mentioned that you were tired of people looking at you and not listening to your music. Is that something that you care about anymore?

No I don't really care. I was a lot younger then.

How have things changed with age then?

Oh I don't know, in lots of ways, you just get used to it.

We're just a better group. We're tighter and more mature, more muscular, thicker, harder, stronger, and hairier.

Hair in different places. I mean during this conversation, my voice has changed. It's gradually getting deeper and deeper, I don't know if you've noticed that at all. By the time we end this, I'm going to be elderly. And it will be an article about the life of the late Bradford Cox, whose legacy lives on in this article. Let's talk about Josh for a little while.

ON MOISTURISER Okay, so how is it working with Josh (the bassist) then?

Josh has just been a little distant lately.

Why do you think that is?

Well he is using a different moisturiser.

And you think that could have an impact on someone's personality?

I think moisturiser has everything to do with someone's personality.

What if someone doesn't use moisturiser?

Well if they don't use moisturiser, then they don't have a personality.

And if they use the wrong kind of moisturiser, then they have the wrong personality?

No, if they use the wrong type of moisturiser, they are doing everything right. They're playing David Bowie on the PA really loud and I want to go stand in front of the speakers. I'll just hand the phone to Martin [Deerhunter's manager] until the David Bowie song is over, is that okay?

Yeah, that's fine.

Martin: Sorry about that. If David Bowie comes onto the radio, Brad sort of has to drop everything he's doing and go and listen. It's sort of this bizarre thing that happens.

Okay here he is again.

ON WHO THE HELL KNOWS [Deep voice, definitely not Brad Cox] So, next question.

Shoot.

Is this Brad?

Yeah this is Brad. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's Josh. Or it could be Moses [the drummer]. Thou shalt not wonder.

Okay then... so what do you think of Halcyon Digest compared to your older albums?

I think the new album is pretty good. I think it's a lot more accessible than the old albums. You know, you could hear it on the radio, people like to get doooown to it. I think you know what I mean.

So are you going to tell me who I'm talking to or no?

This is Brad Cox of Atlanta, Georgia [definitely not]. My social security number is 5129837587213.

That's an awful lot of numbers for a social security number.

I have more need for security than most people. I mean, you know, I've got to talk to a lot of people and shake a lot of hands.

ON LIFE OUTSIDE OF MUSIC (AND DAVID BOWIE, AGAIN) What do you guys do when you're not playing music?

We concentrate on other things. Moses has kids and so he concentrates on being a father. Lockett also concentrates on his kids. And Martin concentrates on David Bowie. He also manages David Bowie [not true]. David Bowie takes up a lot of one's time, but we have an agreement, me and David. But then again, David sent this guy to follow us around play his songs on the stereo where ever we are.

You know, just to let us know who's boss [sighs].

So David Bowie's the boss, not Martin?

No, Martin is the boss.

And he tells you what to do?

Yeah, we all basically walked into a Burger King in 1998 and we thought we were getting regular jobs.

Then you ended up becoming musicians that tour the world?

Exactly. I thought I'd just make enough money to buy my girlfriend an Old Navy gift card for Christmas.

So was it kind of like stepping into an alternate universe?

No, it was like stepping into an alternate Burger King. At the end of the day it's all just rags and potatoes.

- Vanessa Schipani - Photo by Matt Tuttle

YOUR FANCY RMM VENUES THE NORDIC HOUSE Though not traditionally a concert venue, The Nordic House has long celebrated culture in all its various forms.

SÓDÓMA REYKJAVÍK With its cramped quarters, excellent sound system and central location, Sódóma is the quintessential Icelandic music venue.

NASA Inarguably the classiest of Reykjavík’s venues, NASA’s slick décor and plush carpets belie the wild partying that goes on at the dance-floor.

YOUR FANCY RMM ARTISTS PRINSPÓLÓ Prinspóló is lovely indie lo-fi from the heart of Iceland. A one-man operation in the studio, it takes to the stage with endearing wit and charm as a full band.

NIVE NIELSEN Greenland-born Nive Nielsen brings simple, countrythemed folk into its own with a hazy, narcotic production that is as endearing as it is intriguing.

SÓLEY Dreamy and ethereal, Sóley’s piano-driven ballads recall Cat Power and Joanna Newsom at their most assured and elusive.

STAFRÆNN HÁKON Ranging from minute, intimate guitar twinkling and minimal pitter-patter drum patterns to massive, apocalyptic noise crescendos, Stafrænn Hákon’s music seems to span the entire bracket of alternative music.

SAMARIS With slow, minimal programming accompanying husky vocals and a sombre clarinet, recent Músíktilraunir winners Samaris might just be the next big thing in Icelandic techno.

NOLO Tough, genre-driven soundscaping experimentation and outstanding pop hooks make Nolo one of Iceland’s most interesting bands since… well, ever.

FOSSILS Raging, intense and malicious rock, Fossils make the kind of music that gets you thinking about switching to a meatonly diet and endorsing cannibalism.

EINAR ÖRN + SWC Einar Örn and Sudden Weather Change mark two disparate generations of Icelandic alternative guitar music, and will combine at the Music Mess to produce gloriously misunderstood results. ÆLA Skewed, off-kilter and maddeningly obscure, Æla’s protopunk veers calamitously from song to song with little time or patience for explanation.

AGENT FRESCO Agent Fresco have been all but crowned the princes of Icelandic stadium rock, with their soaring operatic vocals, snaking chugga-chugga guitar riffs and hard-battered drums.

AMFJ A one-man death march of genocidal sound destruction, AMFJ would never do anything he’s told, so we won’t even bother to predict what he’ll be like at the Music Mess.

BORKO Fruity synth and sample fiddling accompanied by melodious acoustic guitar, Borko’s music has been described as being ‘like tiptoeing through a field of daisies while having a bath of champagne.’

DEERHUNTER An energetic, adventurous pop-rock band from the American heartland, Deerhunter have never been too indie to throw some sloppy rock awesomeness into their music over their ten-year career.

HELLVAR This noise team smashes together emotion-laden synthpop and snarling guitar hooks to make an invigorating soup of sound. ÉG Wholesome folk-rock goodness from one of Iceland’s most underrated satirists, Ég have recently emerged from hiatus to remind people what music was like when it was still music.

KIMONO Kimono has, of late, been redrawing the battle plans for Icelandic indie with their epic post-rock compositions.

KIPPI KANINUS Roomy, atmospheric musical experimentation defines Kippi Kaninus, whose contributions to the Icelandic experimental scene over the years have been invaluable.

LÁRA RÚNARS The energetic pop stylings of Lára Rúnars seldom fail to amuse and delight, with their carefully laden indie instrumentation and catchy singalongs.

LAZYBLOOD + REYKJAVÍK! Premiering their ‘TICKLING DEATH MACHINE’ show that will run at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Belgium this May, rockist noisemongers Reykjavík! and their sister band, electro-rockist noisemongers Lazyblood will be sure to surprise at RMM.

SKAKKAMANAGE This rough, homegrown indie band infuses some fun into the often-drab realities of existence in Iceland, with its tell-it-like-it-is lyrics and DIY production style.

SUDDEN WEATHER CHANGE The introverted teen anthems of Sudden Weather Change find a boisterous outlet in their charismatic live shows.

SWORDS OF CHAOS With beats and riffs carefully designed for maximumefficiency head-banging and moshing, the brutal battery of hardcore punk that is Swords Of Chaos has become something of a local legend.

TOMUTNOTTU Hypnotic ambient from Iceland’s closest cultural relatives, the Finns, Tomutnottu is as utterly incomprehensible and yet irresistibly entertaining as the nation that spawned the one-man act.

LOWER DENS Smoky, laid-back guitar hooks and hollow vocals abound in the music of Baltimore four-piece Lower Dens, and they look to be a band worth watching.

MIRI Young alt-rock heroes from east Iceland, Miri have made a name for themselves in recent years as an innovative, inventive and altogether fascinating live act.

MUGISON Blazing a trail that’s led him from skittish experimentation to atmospheric movie soundtracks to full-blown angstridden cock-rock, Mugison has long been considered one of Iceland’s finest indie heroes.

ORPHIC OXTRA Orphic Extra’s lively, Balkan-style folk pop is nothing short of onstage insanity, with its organized chaos flying all over the place.

QUADRUPLOS Slick dubstep infused with all the verve and vigour of Iceland’s flourishing techno scene, Quadruplos will most assuredly get loud at Music Mess.

SIN FANG The euphoric product of one of the Icelandic indie scene’s favourite sons, Sin Fang continues to enthral with its carefully crafted pop symphonies.

Léttöl

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